title
stringlengths 1
200
⌀ | text
stringlengths 10
100k
| url
stringlengths 32
885
| authors
stringlengths 2
392
| timestamp
stringlengths 19
32
⌀ | tags
stringlengths 6
263
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
On Systemic Racism | In May 2020, the killing of George Floyd sparked global protests over the use of excessive force by police officers. As these protests continued throughout the year, conversations about systemic racism again entered mainstream discourse. Despite an ever-growing body of evidence, critics still contest whether or not systemic racism (also called institutional racism) even exists in the first place. This article discusses systemic racism: its definition, the evidence we have that it exists, and the effects it has on minority lives.
(Note: As a white man, I can never fully comprehend the actual experiences people of color go through daily. The intent behind this article is not to speak for their experiences, but rather to share the scientific evidence we have that systemic racism exists. I approach this as a scientist sharing scientific evidence, not as a white person speaking for the experiences of others.)
First, let us briefly discuss what the term ‘systemic racism’ actually means. An all-too-common response is “systemic racism cannot exist, there are no racist laws.” Unfortunately, this critique fails to acknowledge what the term actually means. “Systemic racism” refers to a form of racism that is built in as a normal practice in society and is embedded in many societal institutions.
While individual racism is easy to see due to its overt nature, systemic racism is far more subtle and often imperceptible on an individual scale. That is, an individual might be affected by systemic racism but we do not see it unless we look at the aggregate. A victim of systemic racism may not have been the victim of an overtly, explicitly racist action, but experienced a negative outcome because of their race.
We know (and have known for decades, since at least the 60s) that systemic racism exists. We know it exists in a variety of institutions. We know that minorities (especially blacks) experience systemic racism in numerous ways, in areas like criminal justice, education, health care, housing, employment, etc. The goal of this article (which itself is a very brief introduction to the topic) is to discuss the evidence of the existence of systemic racism in each of these areas and hopefully inform the larger discussions about its role in society and how we might combat it.
(Note: Much of the evidence and discussion presented here explicitly mentions blacks. This should not be taken to mean other racial minorities do not experience systemic racism, but simply that the evidence predominantly focuses on blacks given their unique racial history in the U.S. and that they usually suffer the most from systemic racism.)
Criminal Justice
Perhaps the most common topic that appears in conversations about systemic racism is that of criminal justice. The criminal justice system in the U.S. regularly and routinely discriminates against blacks, from arrests to convictions to sentencing. It discriminates against youths and adults, men and women. None of these require explicitly racist acts on the part of individual actors in the criminal justice system; much of this is the result of laws and practices that are color-blind on the surface but produce markedly disparate impacts.
Consider the example of crack versus powder cocaine. The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 introduced a sentencing disparity between the two forms of cocaine. A person found with five grams of crack cocaine faced a mandatory minimum sentence of five years. To face the same mandatory minimum, a person found with powder cocaine would need to possess five hundred grams. That is a 100:1 disparity (see here). This disparity had little to no basis in evidence or fact, but instead was the result of panic at the crack epidemic.
The data shows that the cocaine sentencing disparity disproportionately impacted black defendants. “According to U.S. Sentencing Commission figures, no class of drug is as racially skewed as crack in terms of numbers of offenses. According to the commission, 79 percent of 5,669 sentenced crack offenders in 2009 were black, versus 10 percent who were white and 10 percent who were Hispanic. The figures for the 6,020 powder cocaine cases are far less skewed: 17 percent of these offenders were white, 28 percent were black, and 53 percent were Hispanic” (see here). This is due largely to differences in consumption rates between the two forms of cocaine: “[C]rack cocaine is disproportionately consumed by African Americans as compared to Caucasians, and the low cost of crack cocaine makes crack cocaine much more prevalent in inner cities” (see here). The Anti-Drug Abuse Act was indeed color-blind, yet produced harsh racial disparities.
The sentencing disparity is just one example. A Stanford University study of 100 million traffic stops found that black drivers were 20% more likely to be pulled over, even controlling for demographics, gender, and reason for the traffic stop (see here). The ACLU found that blacks were 3.7 more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than whites, even though marijuana use rates are comparable across those groups (see here). Data also shows that drug-free school zone laws, which mandate sentencing enhancements for people caught selling drugs in school zones, disproportionately affects black and Latinx people due to the combination of expansive school zone drawing and high urban density (see here).
A Harvard Law study found that “[a]mong those sentenced to incarceration, black and Latinx people sentenced to incarceration receive longer sentences than their white counterparts, with black people receiving sentences that are an average of 168 days longer and Latinx people receiving sentences that are an average of 148 days longer.” These differences also persist when controlling for criminal history, initial criminal charge, etc (see here). The same study also found that black/Latinx people charged with drug offenses and weapons offenses were more likely to be incarcerated and have longer sentences than white people charged with similar offenses and that black/Latinx people who carried mandatory minimum sentences were more likely to receive longer sentences than similar white people.
A 2018 study found that law enforcement officers in Texas who could charge shoplifters with two different types of crimes (one more serious, one less so) due to a vaguely worded statute were more likely to charge blacks and Hispanics with the more serious crime (see here). A 2019 study by the NIST found that facial-recognition systems were substantially more likely to misidentify the faces of racial minorities. Some ethnic groups, such as Asian-Americans and African-Americans, were up to 100 times more likely to be misidentified than white men (see here; see the Wikipedia article for more examples.)
An exhaustive collection of relevant data-driven examples is well beyond the scope of this article. For criminal justice alone there exists a veritable mountain of evidence in favor of systemic racism. Ignoring these racial disparities does nothing to remedy the issues at hand. Steps that can be taken to remedy these ills include ending the war on drugs, eliminating mandatory minimum sentences, and reducing the use of cash bail.
Education
Normatively, we might expect that the education system would be a refuge from discrimination. Students, regardless of race or ethnic identity, should have access to high-quality educations. Even some 75 years after the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v Board, systemic racism is still prevalent across the education system.
A 2014 APA study shows that black boys as young as 10 are “more likely to be mistaken as older, be perceived as guilty and face police violence if accused of a crime” compared to similar white boys. “Our research found that black boys can be seen as responsible for their actions at an age when white boys still benefit from the assumption that children are essentially innocent,” said author Phillip Atiba Goff, Ph.D. (see here). When black students and white students commit similar infractions, black students are suspended and expelled three times more often than white students (see here). Teachers are also more likely to underrate black students’ math skills compared to white students, even when they have identical scores (see here).
There is also a great deal of evidence that predominantly-black schools tend to be habitually underfunded than majority-white schools. (See these articles in The Atlantic). Public schools in the U.S. rely on local property taxes as a significant source of their funding. School districts with successful businesses and high property values enjoy greater public school resources than those with few businesses and low property values. Historical issues like redlining and economic segregation exacerbate these disparities. As a result, racial minorities in poorer areas tend to receive lower-quality educations.
Health
Health care is as susceptible to systemic racism as anything else. We have known that overt racism poses physiological risks; perception of discrimination and racism are linked to cardiovascular disease, accelerated aging, impede vascular and renal function, and numerous other health issues. The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed many of these racial disparities as well; black Americans have been dying at a rate almost 2.5 times higher than white Americans. While some argue that blacks are genetically or genomically predisposed to disparate health outcomes, the evidence suggests that observed racial disparities are the result of systemic racism.
For example, medical studies routinely underrepresent black people (see here and here) and medical texts often fail to document how certain symptoms appear on darker skin tones (see here and here). Even data-based analyses can miss the mark (see here). An algorithm meant to predict high-needs patients undervalued black needs. That algorithm used health care spending as a proxy for gravity of illness, not accounting for the fact that disparities in access lead to less spending on black patients. We also know that black patients are more likely to trust racially concordant doctors and to seek more preventative care after meeting with such doctors, but that black patients are less able to find racially concordant doctors than white or Asian patients (see here for more discussion on these points.)
There exists a well-documented racial disparity in pain management. One study shows that “white laypeople and medical students and residents hold false beliefs about biological differences between blacks and whites” and that “participants who endorsed these beliefs rated the black (vs. white) patient’s pain as lower and made less accurate treatment recommendations” (see here). Furthermore, a large-scale meta-analysis of 20 years of medical data found that black patients were much less likely than white patients to receive any pain medication (see here). Another study showed that white participants perceive pain on white faces more readily than on black faces and are less likely to suggest pain medications to black patients (see here).
Wealth and Housing
The history of slavery and legal racial discrimination in the U.S. deprived blacks generations of wealth-building opportunities. However, despite the removal of these legal barriers, systemic racism continues to deprive blacks of the same opportunities that white people have. Because wealth and housing are so intrinsically linked in society, we will examine these topics together.
As I referenced above, redlining was a discriminatory practice of literally drawing lines around areas deemed to be ‘poor financial investments,’ which were most commonly black inner-city neighborhoods. Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting showed that in the 80s, Atlanta’s banks would lend to low-income whites but not middle- or upper-income blacks (see here). Even though these overtly racist practices do not exist anymore, cities like Chicago, Detroit, and Atlanta are persistently racially segregated, and in many cases these cities even today still see the same neighborhoods that were redlined decades ago.
Data suggests that homes in minority communities are both over-taxed (see here) and under-valued (see here) relative to similar homes in white communities. Data also suggests that black and Hispanic families derive more of their wealth from homeownership than white families (57%, 67%, and 41%, respectively; see here). Taken together, this means that minority families see more difficulty in accumulating wealth and are more vulnerable to economic downturns related to housing, like the Great Recession. Black communities have been systematically undermined when it comes to wealth-building via housing (see here for more discussion).
The racial wealth gap in the U.S. has persisted for centuries. 2016 Federal Reserve data show the following (see here):
The median wealth for black households 25 years old and up was less than one-tenth of that for similar white households. Black households have fewer savings accounts than white households and are more likely to experience negative income shocks. Even with a college degree, the median wealth for black households is 70% that of white households. Blacks have fewer assets than whites and are less likely to be homeowners, to own their own business, and to have a retirement account; those assets, when blacks do have them, are worth significantly less than white assets. While blacks typically held less debt than whites, they typically held more high-interest debt and thus carried more expensive debt.
These disparities can be traced often explicitly to past racial discrimination. Slavery meant centuries of white families building wealth off the backs of black families. Even when slavery and legal discrimination ended, white families continued to use that stepping stone to build generational wealth while black families were given no tools to bridge the gap.
It is worth noting here that I have tried to focus on wealth inequality rather than income inequality. While income inequality itself is certainly an issue, wealth is a more comprehensive measure and offers a more complete picture of how widespread and pervasive systemic racism is (again, see here for a thorough discussion).
Employment
As a final topic, but by no means the final topic, let us discuss employment. This is another area where the U.S.’s history of slavery and legal racism created racial disparities that persist through systemic racism. Slavery initially concentrated black workers in undervalued occupations; even when slavery ended, black workers were still encouraged to work the same jobs. Black workers remained overrepresented in low-wage jobs even through the mid-1900s (see here).
Racial discrimination persists in employment and wages even after decades of legislative attempts to rectify these problems. For example, data shows that white applicants to fine-dining positions in D.C. were more likely to be interviewed, and twice as likely to be hired, as similarly-skilled black applicants (see here), and that workers of color were paid 56% less than similarly-qualified white workers (see here). In one 2004 study, researchers mailed equivalent resumes to employers in Boston and Chicago using racially identifiable names to signal race (for example, names like Jamal and Lakisha signaled African Americans, while Brad and Emily were associated with whites). White names triggered a callback rate that was 50% higher than that of equally qualified black applicants (see here; see here for more similar studies). Furthermore, almost all employers conduct criminal background checks when hiring new employees. Because of the aforementioned racial disparities in the criminal justice system, black employees are also disproportionately affected by these background checks. “Even fairly minor felony records have large negative effects on employer callbacks” (see here).
Even within the workplace, racial minorities experience discrimination. One Glassdoor study showed that 42% of U.S. workers said they had seen or experienced racism at work (see here). A workplace report also showed that “men of color make up 10% of corporate C-suite roles, while women of color make up just 4%. White men and white women, meanwhile, respectively make up 68% and 18%.”
Conclusion
No piece of evidence presented here should be taken in a vacuum. As tempting as it might be to take each study on its own, the reality is that these systems interact with each other and compound the effects of systemic racism. The issues presented here do not operate as a series of individual, separate factors that simply add together. They are mutually reinforcing systems that are all infected by the same racism borne from a history of slavery and legal discrimination. There is certainly room for debate about the next steps and best plans for combating systemic racism, but its existence cannot be doubted. The empirical evidence is virtually unanimous: systemic racism exists.
Black. Lives. Matter.
Additional links:
This Google doc and this Reddit post (pardon the subreddit) contain numerous links, some of which are included in this post, to additional information regarding evidence of systemic racism. | https://dennisflangley.medium.com/on-systemic-racism-db84706cc694 | ['Dennis Langley'] | 2020-10-22 15:58:42.317000+00:00 | ['Social Justice', 'BlackLivesMatter', 'Systemic Racism', 'Science', 'Data'] |
Calm Presence | Absorbing peace in morning stillness
During contemplations, meditations
Quiet calm presence of only myself,
No abrupt intrusions or interruptions
No disturbance of peaceful solitude.
Examining stirrings of my mind
Deep feelings of my inner spirit
Composites that make me whole,
Contemplations on its significance
Thoughts, feelings comprising me.
Watching new sun rising on the horizon
Taking in its spectral multicolored beauty
Acknowledging beginning of present day,
Meditations taken to quieten my mind
Helping body rest in muted calmness.
Enjoying this morning’s solitude
Joyful peace reverberates in me,
Quiet stillness, personal introspection
In quiet calm presence of only myself. | https://medium.com/illumination-curated/calm-presence-509adb318232 | ['Randy Shingler'] | 2020-12-22 18:15:26.508000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'Peace', 'Meditation', 'Self-awareness', 'Presence'] |
Compare the Best Javascript Chart Libraries | Compare the Best Javascript Chart Libraries
Chart.js, Highcharts, C3, NVD3, Plotly.js, Chartist, Victory
Read the original article on Sicara’s blog here.
In this article, I provide a decision tree to quickly decide which open source javascript charting library is right for your project. You can use any framework like React, Angular, AngularJS, VueJS or just use vanilla javascript. Links to the graph libraries for each framework are provided below.
I purposely exclude D3.js among the chart libraries. D3 is an awesome javascript library, but it has no “ready to ship” charts and graphs. If you want to learn about D3 you can read my article A starting point on using D3 with React. I will however list NVD3 which is a chart library built on top of D3.
Edit: this post has been updated since its first publication. Last update: 09/11/2017
Table of content
The most used javascript chart libraries
I reviewed all the libraries listed in the aforementioned blog post. This post comes on the first page if you google ‘best javascript chart libraries’. I used this tool to get the following graph. It represents the number of downloads per day of each library through npm (the weekends were removed). | https://medium.com/sicara/compare-best-javascript-chart-libraries-2017-89fbe8cb112d | ['Adil Baaj'] | 2019-12-05 11:31:21.134000+00:00 | ['Development', 'Charts', 'Web Development', 'Data Visualization', 'JavaScript'] |
Indent Detector | What’s the worst culprit for bad indentation that you’ve ever seen? For me Xcode springs to mind. Maybe Xcode isn’t inherently bad, but somehow when I open projects authored with it in Vim I see a ridiculous mix of tabs and spaces that makes no sense. I think it downplays the importance of keeping tab settings the same as the rest of your team. It really makes understanding diffs and pull requests on GitHub a messy process.
I recently found Indent Detector (GitHub: luochen1990/indent-detector.vim, License: MIT) by Luo Chen. It attempts to detect mixed indentation and show a warning on bufEnter and bufWrite . It also tries to switch the indentation settings to match the current style.
The time taken to detect indentation is limited, so opening large files shouldn’t lock up Vim. It also keeps quiet when readonly files are opened to avoid showing errors when reading help files.
This may help me deal with messy Objective-C in Vim, or at least avoid making the same mistakes in clean projects. | https://medium.com/usevim/indent-detector-b6b1989a448a | ['Alex R. Young'] | 2017-02-15 16:45:50.020000+00:00 | ['Indentation', 'Scripts', 'Plugins'] |
Part One: Doing too Much Loses Wars — Like Afghanistan | By Mike Nelson and Jennifer Cafarella, NSI Visiting Fellows
Measuring America’s loss in Afghanistan is surprisingly hard for a war we’ve spent twenty years waging. The toll in lives is clear and deeply painful, but the defeat itself is hard to quantify. Is it a failure to prevent al Qaeda from reconstituting? A failure to build a democracy? A failure to modernize Afghan society? All or none of these? In Afghanistan, America waged war without a clear and shared purpose. As a result, it is hard to reach a common view of what we forfeit by withdrawing. Our lack of consensus makes coming to terms with our experience even more difficult. It also risks failure to learn lessons for which we’ve paid an extremely high price and which we’ll need in the years to come.
Americans are right to be outraged at the failures of America’s leadership to achieve success in Afghanistan. More accountability earlier in the war might have enabled a better outcome. As Americans try to move on, we must ensure that such failures do not recur. To do so, we must resist the false but tempting conclusion that success in Afghanistan was impossible. It wasn’t. Winning begins with clear and realistic goals. The Taliban had them, and is likely to succeed. America lacked them, and two nations paid the price.
After September 11th, the war America launched in Afghanistan was undoubtedly justified. The U.S. decision to go to war against the Taliban, who governed Afghanistan and sheltered al Qaeda, was neither rash nor arbitrary. President Bush issued clear demands to avert war: “Close terrorist training camps; hand over leaders of the al Qaeda network; and return all foreign nationals… unjustly detained in [Afghanistan].” The Taliban refused to comply due to a religious promise of fealty to al Qaeda that remains strong today.
The U.S. war in Afghanistan began with a stunning success in 2001. U.S. Task Force Dagger, comprised of Special Forces and CIA elements supported by airpower, partnered with a loose coalition of Afghans known as the Northern Alliance to overthrow the Taliban and begin forming a new government within three months. It was an unparalleled success. Unfortunately, Osama Bin Laden slipped away, thwarting America’s second objective to deliver justice to those responsible for the 9/11 attacks. But the opportunity for victory in regards to America’s primary mission to deny Afghanistan as a safe haven for terrorists would elude the United States far longer than Bin Laden would evade U.S. forces.
The opportunity America squandered in 2002 was perhaps the greatest failure of the war. In a mistake we would repeat elsewhere, the United States had no clear vision for how to shape a new Afghan state. Aid and development projects surged forward and became ends themselves. Metrics such as number of schools opened began to stand in for measures of progress toward specified goals — a telltale sign of absent strategy. The United States would never recover from this period of strategic ambiguity. Later, arguments against withdrawal that focused on protecting Afghan girls fell flat with the public. Americans had gone to war in self-defense. Nearly twenty years later, the war seemed unrecognizable — and was, no matter the righteousness of some U.S. efforts.
The Taliban never lost sight of its political goal: to govern Afghanistan. It continued this effort from exile in Pakistan and in rural villages across Afghanistan where Taliban forces had regrouped and as the U.S., its allies, and the Afghan government dithered over bureaucratic organization in Kabul. The Taliban’s semi-functioning local governance remained brutal, but the unfamiliar and increasingly corrupt regime in Kabul drove alienation among the populace that disadvantaged the government. The Taliban used its influence to launch a vicious insurgency during the 2006 fighting season that reclaimed the war’s momentum by 2008.
America’s halfhearted response to the Taliban’s counter-offensive was the second major step towards defeat. Already distracted by other threats and domestic pressure, President Obama reluctantly authorized a surge of U.S. forces but imposed a time limit that rendered the military pressure essentially useless. The Taliban waited it out. The successful raid against Osama Bin Laden in May 2011 further weakened U.S. resolve as the troop surge wound down. The difficult and costly mess of Afghanistan seemed less vital to many after Bin Laden’s death. Attention wavered.
Nonetheless, the United States continued to wage a largely directionless war for another decade. We continued to try to purge corruption and implement civil and social changes based on Western norms. U.S. efforts to modernize the Afghan military required an Afghan military annual budget that exceeded Afghanistan’s entire GDP, virtually ensuring it would be unsustainable.
Our early failures in Afghanistan set the United States, our allies, and Afghanistan itself on a path toward strategic defeat. While the outcome seems clear in retrospect, the reality as the war unfolded confronted U.S. leaders with uncertain conditions and difficult decisions. Good leadership required more than a better strategy. It required a form of accountability U.S. leaders have begun to avoid: an ongoing conversation between the public and policy makers.
To continue reading, part two of this series can be found here.
Jennifer Cafarella is the inaugural National Security Fellow at the Institute for the Study of War and an NSI Visiting Fellow.
Michael D. Nelson is an Army Special Forces Lieutenant Colonel and currently serves as Professor of Military Science and Chair of the Military Science Department at George Mason University.
Previously, he served as the Deputy Director of the Commander’s Action Group at United States Central Command for General Joseph Votel. In this capacity he served as a direct adviser to the CENTCOM Commander and was responsible for coordinating all strategic communication between the CENTCOM Commander and political and military leaders throughout the Middle East and Central Asia. | https://thescif.org/part-one-doing-too-much-loses-wars-like-afghanistan-aaed6a50423d | ['Mason Nsi'] | 2021-07-06 15:15:24.219000+00:00 | ['War', 'Afghanistan', 'Military', 'Conflict', 'Featured Analysis'] |
This Phone costs under 5$ | So the IKALL K71 costs under 5$ (350inr), But its a basic Feature phone, with a non-color Backlit display, the one you get on the calculators, and packed with a 800mAh battery, which is removable…
The phone itself looks great for the price, but basically someone who is going to buy is going to use it just for calling purpose, as it doesn’t have any fancy features….The Display is 1.4" 129ppi TFT display, which is decent…
The main attraction here is the price, it costs under 5$, which is fascinating, as it costs nearly to the monthly recharge of your cellular network….Let me know what you think of this phone…and stay tuned for more tech news… | https://medium.com/@techberg/this-phone-costs-under-5-1b8e9de76ec | [] | 2020-12-12 13:40:54.204000+00:00 | ['Tech', 'Technews', 'Phone'] |
Chessboard lessons from The Queen’s Gambit. | Photo by Felix Mittermeier on Unsplash
Have you watched it? If not, stop here. *Spoiler alert*
I recently did, and despite my basic knowledge of chess, I enjoyed this series quite a lot. There are a few messages shared in this series that I like.
♛. Regardless of the circumstances that you have been born into, you can always change your reality later on.
♞. Time is a big factor in the success of the character. As the years pass by, the character evolves and learns new chess moves.
♝. “Everybody’s gotta learn, nobody’s born knowing” — Herper Lee. Yes, the character has a genius brain, and even she has to study and practice to get better and better.
♟. Even when the character is incredibly successful at playing chess. The personal life shown in the series is quite sad. (Without mentioning her addiction to drugs and alcohol), which is a reflection of most people’s lives, that like “Beth” we don’t have it all, all the time. We can be incredibly successful in our business and be terrible in our personal life.
♜. Determination is what allows the character to start and keep learning and progressing in the chess career.
♚. If you work hard, there are no impossible dreams.
♝. The character might be a genius but one with self-destructive behavior. Thanks to all the help from different people at different times, she can succeed.
♞. If you lose at first, you can still win at the end. | https://medium.com/@stefib/chessboard-lessons-from-queens-gambit-87881b8b298e | [] | 2020-12-01 16:18:26.830000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Chess', 'The Queens Gambit', 'Netflix', 'Series'] |
Your Child Is Hurting My Child’s Feelings | When my son was in first grade, a mother approached me one school morning. Our two boys, both almost seven at the time, had played together once or twice a week as well as at school for several months, but that had come to an end. I knew why.
Your son doesn’t want to spend time together
“Something has happened,” she said. “Your son doesn’t want to spend time together…and my son is so hurt. Can you talk with your son, and convince him to play? Do you know what happened?”
Yes, I did know what happened. Or at least, from my son’s point of view; he’d caught out the other boy in a silly lie, and my son had zero tolerance for lies… to the point that, when his dad attempted to smuggle in a bag of treats to the movie theater to save them the cost of concession stand goodies, my son refused to go to the movie. “You’re not supposed to do that!” he said. For him, any form of dishonesty was abhorrent. He also told those who gave him gifts that he wasn’t certain if he liked it…but he might in a few weeks… You get the picture!
I could not tell the mother this, so I said something about how, really, it was up to my son. She looked taken aback by that.
Easy assumptions
I did, of course, feel badly that her son’s feelings were hurt, and that he was missing a friendship, but I was also stymied by the easy assumption that these two boys, by dint of being boys-born-in-the-same-calendar-year, should just be friends. As if it was that easy.
I so wanted to point out to her that we were two 35 year old women — did that mean we had to hang out and be friends? We had grown up in the same town, had three sons, had many mutual acquaintances…we should be besties by all counts! (Or we might just bore each other…?)
How do our children finds peers and mates?
People make choices about just who they choose to spend time with. They develop thoughts and feelings about who they most enjoy. They learn this by coming to know their own selves.
In my son’s case, he’d spent a number of hours with this play-mate, and then had put thought into why he was choosing not to spend time with him. (It went beyond the one “lie.” But is not relevant here.) I wanted for him to pay attention to these thoughts and his decision; I wanted for him to understand himself and his needs, and how to find solid friends. To put together a picture of what he looks for in others.
While the search for a mate is many years off, and he may have very different ideas about the finding of “the one” than I have, I could see even all those years ago, and with a young child, that these childhood steps to growing form who we become and how these “things happen” in life. If you don’t have the freedom to choose who you spend time with in primary school, how will you ever determine connections in later life?
In a lifetime, how many truly good friends do we have? A small number of really close people, if we are lucky, and a bigger circle of those we enjoy and get along with…but wouldn’t want to travel or hike with…
If we do not allow our children to come to this knowledge, by their own “trial and error,” how will they know?
It might mean some hurt feelings…but the learning is on all sides, both kids, and parents (if the parents are going to get involved!). We may need to talk through this — from both sides.
On speaking with my son, I realized he had tried to explain to the other boy, but that had proven not easy. I was glad he had tried though.
The path to becoming
Life is complicated, and so are human emotions. To stand back and allow children to reach out, pull back, be hurt, and then find those who do become friends, and see those friendships grow — it is all on the path to becoming.
Learning to say “no” to something, and to someone, is a significant step in growing up. | https://medium.com/a-parent-is-born/your-child-is-hurting-my-childs-feelings-cbde286e3392 | ['Alison Acheson'] | 2020-12-03 14:22:47.096000+00:00 | ['Growing Up', 'Parenting', 'Children', 'Play', 'Mental Health'] |
THE SUN RAYS AND CLOUDS: IT IS THE RAINY DAY IN THE CITY WITH SOME WINDY NIGHTS !! | THE SUN RAYS AND CLOUDS: IT IS THE RAINY DAY IN THE CITY WITH SOME WINDY NIGHTS !!
What a beautiful day it is,while sitting in the verandah and enjoying a hot cup of coffee looking at the rain while I used to do a bit of innovation and research on" whether the rainy season lowers down the temperature in the particular regions where the weather remains warm and humid throughout the year” while on doing a research, I was finding the perfect way to reduce the use of air- conditioners in every home all around the world and to promote eco-tourism by planting green trees all along the lanes where the largest population live. It can be the tea and coffee plantation, coniferous trees, pine forest and many others which helps in cooling down the temperature rather than aiming at plantation of such plants like rice,maize and corns which does not have a lot of potential in promoting eco-tourism all around the world.
These plantation of trees will not only help in lowering down the temperature but can help us in fighting against the climate change that the world has been dealing with nowadays while these will help us to become less dependent on the various technologies which we use in our daily lives like air conditioner, microwave, room heaters and others. Well it is upto us if we want to breathe fresh air and reduce the use of the technology,we all need to take the initiative by planting more& more trees which can help us in lowering down the climate in the largest populated regions of the world!! | https://medium.com/@sakshiguptalearning/the-sun-rays-and-clouds-it-is-the-rainy-day-in-the-city-with-some-windy-nights-9535deb4c024 | ["One'S Basics Skills"] | 2021-09-10 16:52:37.698000+00:00 | ['Ecology', 'India', 'Tourism', 'Sustainable Development', 'Eco Tourism'] |
About Me — Eliza Lita. Writer, journalist, library mouse… | Bio
A library mouse is the Romanian version of bookworm. And it’s probably one of the best phrases to describe me. I love words. Everything I do has to do with words. I am a published poet, soon-to-be qualified journalist, freelance writer and an award winning library mouse, which means I read a lot, and books are one of my favourite things to write about.
I am originally from the south-east of Romania, where I lived until the age of 19 and started my writing career within a local writing society. My home country is also the place where I developed an affinity for cooking and embroidery, which are my most common ways to put off my other, more serious tasks.
I am currently based in the UK, where I consume dangerous amounts of caffeine while working on my journalism gigs. Aside from my work on Medium, I am also an editor for The Meridian Magazine and a contributor for The Indiependent. | https://medium.com/about-me-stories/about-me-eliza-lita-f7fd60b5735f | ['Eliza Lita'] | 2020-12-23 02:02:39.583000+00:00 | ['Introduction', 'About Me', 'Journalism', 'Ｍedium', 'Writing'] |
Image Segmentation using OpenCV | What is Image Segmentation ?
Image Segmentation is the process by which a digital image is partitioned into various subgroups (of pixels) called Image Objects, which can reduce the complexity of the image, and thus analyzing the image becomes simpler.
Usage of Segmentation in real world applications
One of the distinct and famous applications can be seen in Cancer cell detection systems where Image Segmentation proved pivotal in faster detection of disease tissues and cells from the imagery and hence enabling the Doctors in providing timely treatment.
The manufacturing industry now highly relies on image recognition techniques to detect anomalies which usually escape human eyes, hence increasing the efficiency of the products.
Image segmentation Techniques
we have the following techniques for image segmentation.
Threshold Method Edge Based Segmentation Region Based Segmentation Clustering Based Segmentation Watershed Based Method Artificial Neural Network Based Segmentation
Comparison between Different Techniques
Here we have opted for clustering based segmentation.
Clustering Based Segmentation Methods
Clustering algorithms are unsupervised algorithms, unlike Classification algorithms, where the user has no pre-defined set of features, classes, or groups. Clustering algorithms help in fetching the underlying, hidden information from the data like, structures, clusters, and groupings that are usually unknown from a heuristic point of view.
The clustering based techniques segment the image into clusters or disjoint groups of pixels with similar characteristics. By the virtue of basic Data Clustering properties, the data elements get split into clusters such that elements in same cluster are more similar to each other as compared to other clusters. Some of the more efficient clustering algorithms such as k-means, improved k means, fuzzy c-mean (FCM) and improved fuzzy c mean algorithm (IFCM) are being widely used in the clustering based approaches proposed.
K means clustering is a chosen and popular method because of its simplicity and computational efficiency. The Improved K-means algorithm can minimize the number of iterations usually involved in a k-means algorithm.
A cluster refers to a collection of data points aggregated together because of certain similarities. For image segmentation, clusters here are different image colors.
Code Implementation
Import Libraries
Load Input Image and process it on OpenCV
Steps to perform segmentation
convert the image to RGB format
reshape the image to a 2D array of pixels and 3 color values (RGB)
cv2.kmeans() function which takes a 2D array as input hence we have to flatten the image
define stopping criteria for the cluster formation
Converting back to the original image shape and display the segmented image
K-means is one of the simplest unsupervised learning algorithms which can address the clustering problems, in general. The process follows a simple and easy way to classify a given image through a certain number of clusters which are fixed apriori.
The algorithm actually starts at this point where the image space is divided into k pixels, representing k group centroids. Now, each of the objects is then assigned to the group based on its distance from the cluster. When all the pixels are assigned to all the clusters, the centroids now move and are reassigned. These steps repeat until the centroids can no longer shift.
At the convergence of this algorithm, we have areas within the image, segmented into “K” groups where the constituent pixels show some levels of similarity.
Understanding Parameters for K-Means Clustering in OpenCV
Input parameters
samples : It should be of np.float32 data type, and each feature should be put in a single column. nclusters(K) : Number of clusters required at end criteria : It is the iteration termination criteria. When this criteria is satisfied, algorithm iteration stops. Actually, it should be a tuple of 3 parameters. They are `( type, max_iter, epsilon )`:
a. type of termination criteria. It has 3 flags as below:
cv.TERM_CRITERIA_EPS — stop the algorithm iteration if specified accuracy, epsilon, is reached.
— stop the algorithm iteration if specified accuracy, epsilon, is reached. cv.TERM_CRITERIA_MAX_ITER — stop the algorithm after the specified number of iterations, max_iter.
— stop the algorithm after the specified number of iterations, max_iter. cv.TERM_CRITERIA_EPS + cv.TERM_CRITERIA_MAX_ITER — stop the iteration when any of the above condition is met.
b. max_iter — An integer specifying maximum number of iterations.
c. epsilon — Required accuracy
attempts : Flag to specify the number of times the algorithm is executed using different initial labeling. The algorithm returns the labels that yield the best compactness. This compactness is returned as output. flags : This flag is used to specify how initial centers are taken. Normally two flags are used for this : cv.KMEANS_PP_CENTERS and cv.KMEANS_RANDOM_CENTERS.
Output parameters
compactness : It is the sum of squared distance from each point to their corresponding centers. labels : This is the label array (same as ‘code’ in previous article) where each element marked ‘0’, ‘1’….. centers : This is array of centers of clusters.
Here, when we see the image primarily there are three main colors (green for trees, blue for the sea/lake and white to orange for the sky). So we have considered the the number of clusters to be 3
As a result, we gonna use three clusters for this image
labels stores cluster label for each pixel(0/1/2)
centers stores to the center points of the clusters
cv2.KMEANS_RANDOM_CENTERS just indicates OpenCV to randomly assign the values of the clusters initially.
Construct the segmented image
convert all pixels to the color of the centroids
reshape back to the original image dimension
display the image
Disabling some clusters to visualize the segment they represented.
Output:
Cluster 1 represented the Green color as disabling cluster 1 or making it black is evident in the image
Similarly trying with number of clusters to be segmented upon as 8 and visualizing the image
Output:
Count associated with each Cluster
Disabling Cluster 4, assign black color to the pixels representing segment 4
Output:
Similarly disabling Cluster 2
A massive value add of clustering based ML algorithms is that we can measure the quality of the segments that get generated by using several statistical parameters such as: Silhouette Coefficient, rand index (RI) etc.
Conclusion:
Image segmentation is a promising set of skills as it has an important role to play in Medical Imaging and various organizations are striving to build an effective system for proactive diagnosis from medical imagery.
Image processing in general has been implemented in various programming languages — Java, matplotlib, C++ etc . Python libraries like scikit-image, OpenCV, Mahotas, Pillow, matplotlib, SimplelTK etc. are famously used to implement image processing in general and image segmentation in particular.
Image Segmentation implementation using Python is widely sought after skills and much training is available for the same. Using python libraries are a simpler way of implementation and it doesn’t demand any complicated requirements prior to implantation — except of course a basic knowledge in Python programming and pandas.
connect with me | https://nayakpplaban.medium.com/image-segmentation-using-opencv-39013013920a | ['Plaban Nayak'] | 2020-11-19 15:52:18.232000+00:00 | ['Opencv Python'] |
Secret Email System Review: How To Do Email Marketing? | 4.How Is The Secret Email System Different?
Most people teaching this stuff don’t make as much money as Matt Bacak or they have only been around for a few years. The things that Matt is going to share have all been proven super successful. In fact multimillion dollar successful.
There is no theory here. Anyone can blatantly copy this method and I’m going to take full advantage of that.
It will work for people just starting, people that want to quit their job, people that want to retire early, for people that just want to make money and have their own freedom business.
You’ve probably seen this strategy in action several times in one way or another. But I’d venture to guess you haven’t started using it or making it work. I’m guilty of this myself.
A large number of people have tried to use this method, BUT, most get it wrong. Each of them left out one or more key elements that make the strategy so effective. Leave one of these out and at best you’re wasting your time, or worse, you’re wasting money.
5. Is There A Guarantee?
Yes. Matt takes all the risk and gives a 30-Day Money Back Guarantee. He even lets you keep the book.
Get ready for September 28th 2020, this is invaluable and if you are serious about building a business online, you simply NEED to have it!
In fact, I’m not just telling your about this very special opportunity, I’m personally going to get the Secret Email System myself.
6. Recap Of What You’re GettingWith The Secret Email System
Peace of mind to be learning from a true Heavywheight Champion (priceless)
Secret Email System eBook
10,978 New Leads-Daily Masterclass
3x Formula Calculator
Irresistible Offer Video Guide
$2.1 Million Email Swipe File (1000 Emails)
Secret Of Millionaires Book
Secret Email System Checklist
My Secret 357,582 Lead Generation Template
Gigantic Swipe File Book
Total Bonus Value: $997
Update 29. September
Free 45 Minute Breakthrough Session With Matt’s Team
Access To The Private Facebook Group (Priceless)
Click Here To Order The “Secret Email System” + Bonuses
7.Detailed Recap Of The Secret Email System
Secret Email System eBook
This is the eBook where you learn the whole Secret Email System.
2.10,978 New Leads-Daily Masterclass — (197 Value)
How to generate high quality leads each and every day.
3.3x Formula Calculator — ($97 Value)
The profit equation Matt uses that breaks down subscribers, clicks and EPC to help maximize sales.
4.Irresistible Offer Video Guide — ($97 Value)
How to find and pick high converting offers that work (Nothing is going to save a bad offer. If you’re getting it wrong at this stage you’re doomed!)
5.$2.1 Million Email Swipe File (1,000 Emails) — ($497 Value)
Matts own private email swipe files of 1,000 emails that’s responsible for $2.1 million in sales.
6.Secret Of Millionaires Book — ($19 Value)
Nine common characteristics of internet millionaires and how to adopt them for your own success.
7.Secret Email System Checklist — ($47 Value)
Step-by-step checklist that makes sure you implement the system in the right order, so you can get results.
8.Secret 357,582 Lead Generation Template — ($297 Value)
The same exact lead generation template Matt used to generate 357,582 leads! (I’m already curious for that one ;))
9.Gigantic Swipe File Book — ($297 Value)
Words, phrases, sentences, attention grabbing headlines that you can use in your emails and for ideas and promotions that trigger leads to open emails, which lead to sales.
Update 29. September: Matt Just Added 2 More Bonuses To The Stack
10.Free Breakthrough Session With His Team — ($97 Value)
A Free 45 minutes strategy session with his team to help you get clarity and figure out how to best implement the system.
11.Private Facebook Community (Priceless)
Access to a private group of 20,000+ email marketers where you can learn, share and network with some of the top email marketers in the world.
8. Final Thoughts On The Secret Email System
Let’s start with some facts and the question if you should get started with email marketing.
According to a study done by McKinsey & Co. in 2019, email marketing is more effective than social media marketing by a factor of 40. Let me repeat that, by a factor of 40. Think about the amount of money you would like to earn per year. Realize that utilizing email marketing this number can become reality.
There’s a reason why your inbox gets hit with emails from big brands every day. Email marketing works. In fact, it works so good, that it’s your most valuable asset.
If profit from the internet and freedom is what you seek, I believe Matts program is the ultimate blueprint.
I hope you found this Secret Email System review helpful and have now enough information to make the decision if you should buy the product.
P.S. : If you’re running an online business or planning to start one, you should definitely at least check out the eBook. It’s only $5.60 at the moment.
Considering the price, the value given inside the ebook and the bonuses is INSANE! Click the button below to get instant access.
Click Here To Order The “Secret Email System” + Bonuses
9. The Best Bonus
Instead of giving you more courses/products as a bonus, I have decided to go a completely different route, give you a no-shitter instead and a kick out the door. If you feel that’s not good enough, I can tell you’re already heading down the wrong road.
The last thing you need when you purchase the Secret Email System is more stuff. The Secret Email System is a complete system with a lot of first-class bonuses that complement the core training.
If you are beeing honest with yourself, you probably know that more courses lead to procrastination. And this is the last thing you want to happen.
Keep it simple stupid.
Buy the course, focus, go and make stuff happen. Get this one right and it will be the last course you need for a long, very long time.
End of sermon.
10. Updates On The Secret Email System
I will update this section as I go through the system.
10.1 First step taken. Let’s do it! :)
After the purchase of the ebook, you will get emails with the receipt and a link to a website, where you can download the bonus files for either a Windows PC oder Mac. The file itself is a big one, 619 megabyte zip-file.
At the end of the page you will have the chance to join a 3 day virtual email mastermind. You actually have to apply for this one. But, if you get accepted, you have access to Matt for 3 days directly and he will personally make sure that you have your ducks in a row.
That’s what he did with Russel Brunson, the CEO of ClickFunnels, a 9-figure software company.
Try it, you might get lucky.
P.S.: If you have never heard of Russel Brunson, you should probably check out his two best-selling books. Russel is an online marketing prodigy and these books are one of the best ever written on the subject. For the price he’s selling them, it’s a steal:
10.2 The Secret Email System eBook
Whats included in the introduction?
In the introduction Matt explains what you will learn inside the ebook:
Why you don’t want go down the road everyone suggests building an online business.
want go down the road everyone suggests building an online business. The easiest way to start making real money online.
to start making real money online. How the best part of his system is able to produce “ self-funding ” email subsribers that will feed the business.
” email subsribers that will feed the business. A dirty little secret to make even more money.
to make even more money. The missing link to make email marketing “really” work.
to make email marketing “really” work. Why he is more than qualified to teach such a system. (Walks the walk, 8-figures earned through email marketing)
to teach such a system. (Walks the walk, 8-figures earned through email marketing) Why the Secret Email System is the one and only total package solution.
2. The Long, Hard Road (that almost everybody takes)
The road to disaster everybody is telling you to take.
How to properly make use of blogging and social media marketing.
Why blogging and social media marketing are not reliable revenue streams for most people.
3. The Shocking Truth
Creating a product first is idiotic.
Don’t follow your passion, follow the money.
Becoming insanely rich by creating and controling markets through email.
What customers really care about.
Start building your business with maximum leverage.
How to score a sale in the first 6 seconds.
Why the money is in the list.
The true power of email marketing.
4. The Way To Success
The fastest, easiest and most risk-free way to set yourself up for success.
How to pick the right market.
The way to success through reverse engineering.
The strategy behind an irresistible offer.
Top niches for making serious money online.
Shortcut your way by picking the irresistible offer.
Affiliate networks to join.
The science of choosing the right domain-name.
Autoresponder tech stuff.
Getting the best subscriber by utilizing a pre-framing optin-page.
How to create the opt-in pitch.
Using special thank you pages.
How to produce self-funding subscribers (Getting subscribers for free)
5. Top 7 Traffic Sources For List Building
Join forces with joint ventures.
Leverage social media properties.
Retargeting.
Sponsored emails.
Solo Ads.
Co-registration.
Special Articles.
6. Moneymaking Mantra
Find an offer, mail an offer.
The Diderot effect.
People are going to buy from someone, so it might as well be you.
7. How To 10x It
Use the data you have gathered. (I can’t give more details. You will have to buy the ebook)
8. The Last Missing Piece
The secret of the high-performers.
9. But Wait, There’s More
How to get people to open your emails.
Click Here To Order The “Secret Email System” + Bonuses
10. What’s The Purpose Of Your Email Campaign?
Why you need to have a purpose for building a list and creating an email campaign.
Building credibility and trust.
11. How To Organize Your Email Campaign
How to move your subscribers through the buyer journey.
The importance of giving value first.
12. How To Create Credibility With Your Subscribers
How to achieve trust and build credibility.
The importance of overdelivering.
13. How To Create Rapport With Your Subscribers
Why building rapport first is crucial to your success.
How to build rapport.
14. How You Should Write Your Emails
Why you don’t want to use a template.
What to do instead.
15. Writing Headlines For Your Emails
Headlines is where it’s at.
The best types of headlines to use.
16. Writing A Call-To-Action In Your Email
Don’t be afraid to be direct.
Examples of good call to actions.
17. How To Write Content Emails
How to make it more personal.
How to stand out.
How to train the reader.
18. How To Write Free Gift Emails
Keep it simple.
What format to use.
19. How To Write Promotional Emails
Why the relationship with your subscribers matters so much.
How to tie affiliate products to your own credibilty.
How to prequalify readers first.
20. How To Write Feedback Emails
Why feedback emails are so important.
21. How To Write Emails That Generate A Response
How To Make It Personal
22. How To Properly Format Your Emails
How many characters per line to use.
How to break up your emails.
23. Why You Must Write Your Own Emails
What most people are doing wrong.
How to build a relationship with your subscribers.
How to build an effective email campaign.
24. How Often Should You Be Mailing Your List
How to mix different styles of emails.
Factors to consider.
25. How To Track The Success Of Your Campaigns
What metrics really count.
Delivery Rate — How quality impacts delivery rate.
Open Rate — How to react to sudden drops.
Click Through Rate — What to do in case of low CTR.
Unsubscribe Rate — When to take action.
26. The Biggest Email Marketing Myth
Adapt to changing needs and markets.
How to stay on top.
How to split you risk.
27. How To Make Money From Your Subscribers In The Long Run
The two prong system.
Product creation and pricing.
Sales funnels.
What type of content strategy to use.
28. Wrapping Things Up
The email marketing feedback loop.
What you need to do to really succeed in this business.
What to focus on in list building.
Why to think long term.
10.3 Secret Email System Bonuses
10.3.1 Secret Email System Checklist
14 point checklist summarizing the main points of the Secret Email System ebook.
10.3.2 Private Facebook Group
You get access to a private facebook group dedicated to list building where Mat shares information.
10.3.3 Internet Millionaire Mind Book
Invaluable insights into how super successfull people think. A lot of people will overlook just how important mindset is.
10.3.4 Gigantic Email Swipe File
1056 email winners as a template for your inspiration. Very nice.
11. My Honest Opinion
After going through the ebook and the bonuses I have to say, I never got so much out of a $5.60 investment.
If you have a business, even an offline brick and mortar business, invest in yourself and buy the ebook and get the bonuses for FREE. The value given, considering the price, is insane.
If you have a business you need email marketing. If you do email marketing you need to buy this ebook. It’s as easy as that.
THANKS. | https://medium.com/@sumitmathur7665/secret-email-system-review-how-to-do-email-marketing-email-marketing-software-3276950b9ff2 | [] | 2020-12-17 15:10:50.039000+00:00 | ['Email Secrets Review', 'Campaign', 'Email Marketing', 'Email', 'Marketing'] |
The Expense of Eating Healthy | Photo by nrd on Unsplash
In the midst of renovating one house, while trying to pack up another house, on top of work and school our diets have suffered.
Money is tight since it is all being poured into supplies and tools rather than being spent on other things such as our normal groceries. By the time we get home at night, we are too exhausted to cook, and end up eating frozen pizzas or TV dinners.
One of the reasons we bought the property we did was to have a huge garden. Even though we had to work on the house first, I was anxious to get my hands in the dirt and bought a tomato plant and a bell pepper plant. My thought was, even if we got to pick one tomato and one pepper, it would be worth it. I am so glad I did.
Last night I took my son to the grocery store. We were both starving and out of quick meals. We walked in, grabbed a basket and just stood there.
“What do you want for dinner?” I asked my sixteen-year-old son.
“Food.”
Normal response for a growing boy, right? But what hit me the most was the look on his face as he stood staring over at the produce section.
“What kind of food?”
“I know we’re trying to not spend money, but can I get some broccoli?”
My heart hurt.
It’s a mixed-up world we live in right now. When money is tight, the most expensive thing to purchase at the grocery store is healthy food. Trying to stretch your dollars leads you to buy fatty processed food.
We walked over and I let him choose the broccoli crowns he wanted. We then walked over and he grabbed a $.99 cucumber.
“What about a bell pepper? They’re on sale for $.79.”
He gave me the strangest look.
“We have a bell pepper plant at the new house. Why spend almost a dollar when we can wait until tomorrow and just pick one?”
We finished our shopping and went home. We had just walked through the door when my husband (who is staying up at the new house while he works on it) sent me a picture of him holding a bell pepper with a text saying “There’s still four left, don’t worry.”
That got me thinking.
I paid $1.99 for the plant. We have already picked two bell peppers that have not been chemically treated at all. In the store, we would have paid $1.58 for those two bell peppers, and we still have 4 more growing. A packet of pepper seeds is $2.48. You can grow 30 plants out of those seeds, so for less than $.10 a plant, you can get several handfuls of peppers for that one dime!
Same goes for the cucumbers. By this time next year (fingers crossed) we will have our fill of cucumbers without having to pay $.99 for each one.
I have grand plans for next year’s garden. I’m looking forward to watching my family pick vegetables whenever they want without worrying if we had the money to splurge on healthy food.
It’s a step in the right direction for us.
For those of you interested in growing your own food, but think you can’t because of where you live, you can do it anywhere. My tomato plant and pepper plant are in small containers. Because of that, I give them a dose of organic fertilizer every couple of weeks so they get the nutrients they need. You can grow them on a patio or a window sill.
I urge you to give it a try.
There’s something magical about growing your own food. Plus, for those of you who need to stretch every penny, in the end it will save you money. | https://medium.com/swlh/the-expense-of-eating-healthy-1e0f38af0c65 | ['Stefani Vader'] | 2019-10-11 15:22:12.506000+00:00 | ['Homesteading', 'Life Lessons', 'Food', 'Vegetables', 'Gardening'] |
Star Wars Part II: How “multi-epic” storytelling is reshaping franchise distribution | An already-cult armour, yet superbly revisited. Sandy, minimalist imagery embellished with first-class effects and dazzling explosions. A surprising alliance between a taciturn bounty hunter and an endearing orphan (The Child). The buzzing Star Wars series The Mandalorian, launched just over a year ago, already enjoys its very own mythology, both connected to and separate from that of its parent franchise.
Following the release of Season 2 in early November on Disney+, streaming guide Reelgood reported a “watch” market share of 5.7% for the opening weekend; the third-highest figure ever recorded (only Amazon’s The Boys Season 2 and Netflix’s Stranger Things Season 3 performed better). Over and above its audience and cultural success, The Mandalorian is a captivating subject for analysis, perfectly embodying the novel narrative and distribution models gradually being adopted by the world’s biggest media franchises. Let’s explore.
Read below ➔ Star Wars Part II: How “multi-epic” storytelling is reshaping franchise distribution
Read also➔ Star Wars Part I: How “multi-epic” storytelling is saving the galaxy
The platform to power the IP; the IP to power the platform
In Part I, I dissected how The Mandalorian — boosted by the launch of Disney+ — is enabling a vital model shift for the Star Wars franchise (from “multiplatform” to “multi-epic” storytelling). But if the birth of Disney+ might well be the rebirth of Star Wars, the franchise is, in return, significantly powering the platform.
The world’s biggest entertainment company has triggered a mighty virtuous cycle. In the Streaming Wars era (Netflix vs. Amazon Prime Video vs. Disney+ vs. Apple TV+ vs. HBO Max, plus the forthcoming launches of Paramount+ and Discovery+ etc.), coupled with the attention economy (blurring the lines between entertainment sectors; Fortnite as a direct substitute/competitor to SVOD), there is simply nothing like premium, highly-recognizable IPs.
According to Parrot Analytics, The Clone Wars and The Mandalorian are the most coveted original digital titles in the US (May 2020). In 2017, Amazon battled with Netflix to acquire the rights to produce a five-season show set in Middle Earth (Lord of the Rings’ universe). The total deal value, estimated at USD 250 million, nearly matches the budget of Peter Jackson’s three-movie saga. In the same vein, it was recently rumoured that Apple was willing to spend around USD 400 million to acquire the exclusive distribution rights for No Time to Die, the next James Bond movie (the attempt was in vain, though).
Observing the landscape taking shape, the crux of the Streaming Wars seems to be nothing more than the aggregation of premium IP. The Streaming Wars might rather be the IP Wars, in fact. And, in the underlying battleground, Disney+ appears to be more than well-armed. The Mandalorian may be the most expensive show ever, but both its tangible and intangible values are tremendous. Analytics company ANTENNA reported that, during Season 2’s opening weekend, Disney+ recorded 3.1 times more sign-ups than average.
The bottom line is that Netflix is simply not supercharged with IPs, while Disney+ is
So, are watchers loyal to Netflix, HBO Max, or Disney+? Not sure. Or at least, not yet. Are subscribers loyal to the universe and heroes of Stranger Things, Game of Thrones, and Star Wars? Indisputably. Comparatively, people go to theaters to watch a Fast & Furious movie, rather than a Universal movie — most of them are not even aware of the association. This basically explains Disney+’s massive subscriber growth which, in just 12 months, converted 86.8 million subscribers (!). Netflix’s growth rate for the same period is about 75% lower, despite having released more shows and, overall, benefiting from a significantly broader content library. The bottom line is that Netflix is simply not supercharged with IPs ( which its CEO Reed Hastings seems to be willing to remedy, favoring title impact over title count), while Disney+ is .
Last week on Disney Investor Day, analysts —who were waiting for Disney+ to announce its 2021 programming — were not disappointed. The entertainment giant publicized the launch of nearly 20 original digital titles, half of which were dedicated to the Star Wars universe (e.g. Season 3 of The Mandalorian and other series of the same budget profile such as Ahsoka and Kenobi). To feed its streaming plans, Disney indicated that it has earmarked a budget of 8 to 9 billion dollars per year for Disney+. The age of “multi-epic” storytelling is well underway.
If Disney seems to have been the first to exploit a direct-to-consumer (DTC) offering driven by “epic” content – although mostly series– two major phenomena are pushing the model to the fullest extent. The first (macro) is the COVID-19 pandemic and its monumental impact on media consumption habits (acceleration of “cord cutting”) and cinema exhibition. The second (micro) is the recent shocking announcement by AT&T/Warner Bros Pictures that its 17 blockbusters in 2021 will also, alongside theatrical releases, debut on streaming service HBO Max (yes, on the very same day!).
With such an unprecedented move, HBO Max, which so far has struggled to carve out its value proposition in the fierce SVOD market (38 million subscribers only; not even half that of Disney+), is questioning what everyone thought Hollywood was all about. HBO Max subscribers will have the luxury of choosing between going to the cinema or watching new movies from home — at no extra cost, and in 4K. The dazzling line-up is led by Wonder Woman 1984 (released this Christmas), and includes all DC and other anticipated splashy Warner hits (e.g. Matrix 4).
Beyond the countless side issues related to HBO’s profoundly disruptive approach (e.g. long-term fate of cinemas, backlash of talents and profit participants), “multi-epic” is seemingly transforming the paradigm on all fronts.
Breaking up Hollywood to rebuild media distribution
Wonder Woman 1984 ⓒ Warner Bros Studio/DC Comics
Recently, Disney reported an 82% decrease in its quarterly operating income, mainly as a result of COVID-19’s impact on its theme park division. For the entertainment giant, the only bright spot is DTC streaming, with Disney+ leading the way (see above). Recently, Disney announced the reorganization of its broad media, entertainment, and studio arms to put greater emphasis on its DTC business. Accompanied by several layoff announcements, the restructuring of its operating model logically follows the company’s strategy shift.
In a nutshell, Disney is removing content production from distribution to enable a more dedicated set up, where creators would produce and distributors would market. This sought-after flexibility is nothing less than the enabler of “multi-epic” storytelling, as outlined in Part I. Henry Jenkins recommended many years ago: “one must be able to break, dislocate, unhinge it so that one can remember only parts of it, irrespective of their original relationship to the whole.” Studios are now heading down this path. Earlier this year, NBCUniversal also announced the consolidation of its business roles under one executive, and its content ones under another.
Beyond orchestrating an overall narrative and defining content/format fit for every sub-story, studios can’t rely on pre-defined distribution playbooks anymore.
It needs to be acknowledged that not only do both activities require significantly different expertise, but also that complexity within each area is growing exponentially.
Beyond orchestrating an overall narrative and defining content/format fit for every sub-story (Part I), studios can’t rely on pre-defined distribution playbooks anymore. Not long ago, blockbuster were commercially activated in a very standardized way, which included teasing, theatrical pre-/post-launch campaigning (“prints and advertising”), box office revenue share (with licensed theaters), and retail distribution (content and merch). At each stage, established best practices were only refined incrementally alongside consumption behaviors and various small-scale opportunities. Same for TV series.
Entering the “multi-epic” era, the distribution variables are overwhelming:
Is the debut theatrical or digital? Hybrid?
If digital, is the movie/series distributed through an owned-and-operated platform (DTC), or rather licensed (B2B)?
Beyond the content itself, how is the platform carrying it, in turn, distributed?
Is the platform bundled with a linear cable TV network? Or unbundled (pure OTT)?
Is the platform available through major connected TV and vMVPD platforms?
The more building blocks, the more shapes.
For instance, the forthcoming Wonder Woman 1984 will be available not only in movie theaters (B2B) and HBO Max proprietary app (DTC), but also through connected TV platforms such as Apple TV, Amazon Fire, AT&T TV, Chromecast Ultra, Android TV, Xbox, PlayStation, etc. (B2BTC). On top of these, Warner is trying hard to conclude a crucial distribution deal with vMPVD’s Roku, which has a strong penetration rate in US households (46 million accounts).
Despite these efforts, the current market does not (yet) allow the monetization of a $200 million blockbuster without the financial boost of theatrical windows. Thus, Warner is the guinea pig for the rest of the entertainment industry, sacrificing colossal box office revenues to lay the foundation stones for its long-term distribution strategy. And along the way, it’s trying to identify what its revenue model could be.
The complex, uncertain journey of “multi-epic” monetization
If the distribution models in the “multi-epic” era are numerous, so too are the related monetization levers. So far, the following models have been explored:
B2B/theatrical distribution: box office (around 50% retained by theaters — e.g. Warner’s Tenet)
box office (around 50% retained by theaters — e.g. Warner’s Tenet) DTC/B2BTC digital distribution: pay-per-view only, pay-per-view plus subscription-based (e.g. Disney’s Mulan), subscription-based only (e.g. Disney’s Hamilton and forthcoming Soul)
pay-per-view only, pay-per-view plus subscription-based (e.g. Disney’s Mulan), subscription-based only (e.g. Disney’s Hamilton and forthcoming Soul) Hybrid B2B/DTC: box office plus subscription-based (e.g. Wonder Woman 1984 and all 17 of Warner’s 2021 releases)
B2B/theatrical distribution has long proved its worth towards monetizing “epic” content, but this was before the pandemic. Last September, the theatrical-only release of Warner/ Christopher Nolan’s Tenet flopped, generating only USD 57 million in domestic gross, and USD 358 million worldwide (in comparison, Inception garnered 1 billion). So, is the B2B model lastingly or just temporarily broken? Only the post-pandemic world will tell. In the meantime, the direct-to-consumer model brings in tons of challenges, as well as opportunities.
Being super-premium and, thus, highly attractive, the content barely needs marketing from the platform. In this case, the content is, in fact, marketing for the platform.
Since the world’s biggest media groups have already — or are about to — launch their own streaming service anyhow, will help penetrate a highly-competitive market. If Disney had bet on The Mandalorian to drive Disney+’s subscription, it could also count on Mulan and Hamilton, whose launches were initially planned for theaters only. Naturally, both Disney+ and HBO Max removed free trials in order to impose at least one month of paid subscription for watching Wonder Woman 1984 or Hamilton. In the former case, Disney+ added 3 million subscribers in the 4-5 weeks following its release—what I would call a splash effect.
If many might churn back (the so-called “main-eventers” segment), some will stay, or return, too. Released on a regular basis, “epic” content thus acts as a powerful subscription accelerator. Splash after splash, the audience builds, new habits build, and, slowly but surely, the shift in model (recurring DTC subscription revenue) is realized. Financially, it can also be argued that “epic” releases cover a good part of platforms’ planned acquisition and retention costs. Being super-premium and, thus, highly attractive, the content barely needs marketing from the platform. In this case, the content is, in fact, marketing for the platform.
More than radically simplifying franchise marketing initiatives (from “prints and advertising” to push notifications), leveraging “epic” content to build a first-party scalable audience has several other benefits (this list is not exhaustive):
Direct/deep understanding of consumers through data
Augmented viewing experience through personalization (recommendation system) and immersive features (e.g. Amazon Prime Video’s X-Ray)
Enhanced community building through interactive features (e.g. in-stream chat)
Business model flexibility (subscription vs. pay-per-view vs. ad-supported which, with both volume and addressability, can represent a powerful stream)
“Living” content ecosystem enabling special/promotional brand activations (e.g. Christmas edition, special offers)
Brand building for studios which, in the past, were mostly B2B, non-consumer-facing companies
The above benefits balance the numerous challenges linked to DTC monetization. For instance, when audiences are used to “epic” content platform releases, will the splash effect still be sustained? Over time, this is likely to normalise. Indeed, removing theatrical windows might well deprive franchise owners of this event-like atmosphere, especially for movies and series that do not hold a built-in cultural appeal such as The Mandalorian.
The Mandalorian ⓒ Disney/Lucasfilm Ltd.
All things considered, the bad news is the increased strategy and operating complexity (no replication; one content piece = one business case). Conversely, the good news is that, in the case of DTC, a studio like Disney controls the entire value chain and product lifecycle (from IP ownership to audience monetization), which gives unprecedented commercial freedom. Thus, it can be claimed that Hollywood’s business model exploration has only just begun.
The only certainty is the strategic importance for studios to operate their own content hub. While their activation is very much a variable geometry, a DTC platform represents a formidable instrument for optimization at both the distribution and monetization levels. Looking ahead, the question remains how to substantiate subscriber interest in a world where both attention and disposable income are under severe pressure.
A “Home of Star Wars” to achieve “multi-epic” long-term potential
With regard to subscription-based, platform-only distribution, two main models have yet been tested: “binge” release (all episodes released the same day e.g. Netflix’s Stranger Things) vs. weekly release (one episode released on the same day each week e.g. Disney+’s The Mandalorian). Once again, The Mandalorian embodies best practices. Not only does the format double revenue capture from “main eventers” (two months vs one month of subscription), but it also contributes to substantiating the hype over a longer period, as well as shaping firm consumption habits (e.g. Taco Tuesday -> The Mandalorian Friday).
Subtly, this new approach brings new, revolutionary business hypotheses to the table: if it has a stronger/longer impact on the studio’s core business, isn’t an “epic” series better than an “epic” one-off movie? This is precisely where the Mandalorian’s meteoric success calls the entire Hollywood value creation model into question (box office vs. customer lifetime value). Will Hollywood become a subscription business?
Naturally, “multi-epic” incremental content also exposes structural risks, i.e. consistency (how to keep Star Wars’ identity compelling across multiple formats and channels) and fatigue (how to maintain attractiveness when both exposure and access are drastically enhanced). After all, an IP is first and foremost a brand, for which fragmentation can also mean dilution. In his Masterclass, former Disney CEO Bob Iger precisely outlined the importance for franchise-based products to balance core (ensuring consistency) and adjacent (bringing freshness) values within each content piece.
The underlying vision would turn Disney+ into a fully-fledged narrative hub for Star Wars communities, carving out a rich cultural space dedicated to the franchise.
Adding to the storytelling challenge, Star Wars is, as already stated, also dealing with a platform challenge. According to ANTENNA, among The Mandalorian’s new subscribers in Season 2, 29% were in fact “resubscribers” (basically “main eventers”). For Disney+, the biggest issue now lies in durably retaining subscribers by making them adopt the platform as a product in its own right, rather than a gateway to content only.
Going forward, it is fair to envision Disney+ as the overarching “Home of Star Wars”, aggregating multiple services such as shows, movies, shopping experiences (e.g. Amazon Prime), comics (e.g. HBO Max), gamified VR experiences, video games — c.f. advent of cloud gaming — contextual content (e.g. heroes’ family trees), and fan-generated artwork. Despite the numerous legal and operational barriers to building such an ambitious IP powerhouse, the underlying vision would turn Disney+ into a fully-fledged narrative hub for Star Wars communities, shaping up a rich cultural space dedicated to the franchise. With the ability to regularly integrate “epic” content (e.g. The Mandalorian) to activate the whole thing.
In fact, crossovers are already at work within Disney+: Parrot Analytics recently showed that references linked to The Mandalorian’s storyline have propelled interest in The Clone Wars. And, at the same time, these have boosted platform usage.
Regardless of the broad media world reshuffling its distribution and monetization variables, narrative and platform integration are well and truly the key constants for the Star Wars franchise to unleash its full potential.
Franchise distribution over time: | https://medium.com/boxing-day-media/star-wars-2-2-how-multi-epic-storytelling-is-reshaping-franchise-distribution-da94380246d | ['Robin Fasel'] | 2020-12-18 06:52:52.936000+00:00 | ['Star Wars', 'Disney', 'Ip Strategy', 'The Mandalorian', 'Distribution'] |
Learning To Love Your Budget | Photo by Sandy Millar on Unsplash
When I was nine or ten years old, I started keeping track of the change in my piggy bank. First, I counted all of the money and wrote the balance on a slip of paper. I placed the slip of paper in the top of the bank (it was not an actual pig but rather a cylinder-shaped bank). Every time I added money, I adjusted the balance. Every time I used money, I adjusted the balance. That way I knew how much money I had at any given time and could decide how much I wanted to spend or not spend. I would allow myself a certain amount per week to blow if I wanted. But I usually didn’t.
In short, I had taught myself how to balance a checkbook and keep a budget unprompted by anyone. It is an understatement to say that I heart budgets.
However, I personally know many adults who do not heart budgets. In fact they fear budgets, they loathe budgets, they avoid budgets like the plague. They have nightmares about spreadsheets and never being able to buy anything they want again.
If you are one of those people, please bear with me. I think I can help you flip the mental switch on your ideas about budgets.
If you, on the other hand, are like me and have always used a budget, also keep reading. I am going to share some of my tried and true ideas for budgeting that you may find useful.
What Is A Budget?
A budget is nothing more than a plan for allocating money. That’s it. Typically, people keep a budget so that they do not overspend on non-essentials and have plenty of money to pay for necessities like the rent, electricity, and food.
Why Do People Resist Using A Budget?
I think most people who avoid budgeting do so for the following reasons:
They associate budgets with restrictions. They do not like spreadsheets and assume that is the only way to keep a budget. They are afraid of what they might learn about their spending habits. They are afraid of what they might learn about their income. They think it will take too much time and effort.
Why I Love A Good Budget
I make better decisions when I know exactly how much money I have. It gives me the freedom to spend freely without fear of running out of money for necessities. A good budget is flexible and can adjust to fluctuations in expenses and income. Knowledge is power. Plus, I do like spreadsheets — Sorry, but it’s true.
Basic Tips For Making Any Type of Budget Work
I will get into various examples of how to “do” budgeting in a moment. But first, I want to cover some tips that will help you budget successfully no matter which method you use.
Focus on freedom, not restrictions. Your mindset is key to being able to live within the budget you set for yourself. Budgets help you spend without guilt or fear while allowing you to pay for basic needs. They also free you from constant decision-making. Once you have made your decision on how to spend your money for the month, you can quit thinking about it. Build in a buffer. Every month, I have a six hundred dollar buffer built into my budget. If I need it for an unexpected expense (new tires, friend’s birthday, job interview dress) it’s there. If I don’t need it, I can choose to apply it to the next month’s budget, put it in my savings, or blow it. If that’s not freedom from worry, I don’t know what is. Be flexible. Many years ago, I used to have dozens of lines in my budget thinking that if I could think of every possible expense scenario I would have more control over my money. I was wrong. The categories were cumbersome and restrictive. I felt horrible about myself if I used all the money for eating out in two weeks and I would borrow from other categories. Then I decided to just lump all my personal expenses into one big category and give myself a thousand dollars a month to spend. I have never gone over budget and usually have plenty left over at the end of the month for next month’s expenses. This might be obvious, but the first thing you need to do is make sure that you have enough income to pay all of your expenses on a weekly or monthly basis. All of them. Even the ones you don’t think about like running to Starbucks twice a week. Without taking this first step, you will end up relying on credit cards to make ends meet and ultimately any budget will be doomed to fail as the credit card expenses and fees multiply. If you don’t have adequate income, a second job or major life change (move in with mom and dad?) is in order.
Different Ways To Budget
There are as many different ways to plan for spending your money as there are ways to make it. If you have been turned off by budgets in the past, it may just be because you haven’t found a way that works for you. Here are some ideas that I or people I know have tried:
Old-fashioned Money Jar/Envelope Method
This is a classic and a favorite with teens, young adults, or those individuals who make most of their money in tips or get paid in cash. It requires no daily tracking. No spreadsheets. The downside is that keeping your money laying around in cash is risky.
Make individual envelopes/jars labeled with “Expense Type” and “Dollar Amount”. For example you may have an envelope labeled “Rent $500.00”. You could have 10 envelopes or 2. Your choice. Decide on whether you will budget weekly or monthly. Fill up each envelope with the specified amount as you make it and then set aside. When you have an expense in a given expense category, go to the envelope with that label and pay your expense. Done.
Bank Account App
This is basically the electronic version of the money envelope method. It requires no daily tracking but can be easily accessed multiple times a day with your phone. It is especially useful for people with a limited number of categories of expenses. For these reasons, it is a favorite of my sixteen-year-old daughter who only has to worry about car expenses, food, and savings.
Open a bank account that allows for a package of separate but linked accounts. Virtual Wallet by PNC Bank is an example that both my daughter and I use. Virtual Wallet provides three separate accounts in one, a main checking account, a reserve checking account, and a savings account. Rename the accounts according to your expense categories. The main checking account is the default account where your paycheck or other deposits will start. From there you can allocate the amount you would like in each of your other accounts. For example, when my daughter gets paid, she immediately determines how much she will need to pay necessary car expenses and transfers that money into a separate account in her Virtual Wallet. Then she determines how much she needs for personal spending and leaves that in the main account. The remainder goes into her savings. There are limits to how many times per month you can withdraw your money from the reserve and savings accounts so ensure that you name the accounts accordingly. In other words, make sure that the most frequent expense is paid out of your main checking account.
Handwritten Budget
Some people find that writing out their budget by hand is more useful on a daily basis than using a spreadsheet. The notebook and pencil can just be sitting on the desk whenever you need to jot down an expense. I actually use a combination of spreadsheet and handwritten budgets. My spreadsheet is for planning on a monthly basis and the handwritten budgets helps me keep track of spending my “extra” money. (More on that under Spreadsheet Budget). A handwritten budget requires that you keep up with receipts or debit card expenditures on a daily or near daily basis.
Decide on the time frame for your expenses. While a monthly budget is most common because many expenses like electricity, water, and mortgages are paid on a monthly basis, many people find it more practical to track by the paycheck. The first line of your budget should be your income for the designated time period. Each subsequent line will be an expense. List your fixed payments first then proceed to variable expenses like food, gas money, eating out, clothing, etc. These will be estimates of what you believe you generally spend in a month. You will be doing yourself a favor if you overestimate. I also strongly suggest adding a line for “extra” money. This is your buffer. In good months, you won’t need it and can either save it for bad months or spend it guilt free. In bad months, you’ll be glad you have it. Subtract the expenses from your income. Do you have anything left at the end of the month? Are you able to pay all of your fixed expenses? The budget will reveal where you need to cut back and where you can afford to spend more if desired. This is the reason most people don’t budget. They are scared of what they might find. But trust me, knowledge is the first step in fixing the problem. At this point, you may either need to think about how you could either earn more money or cut down on expenses. Or you may be within budget and ready to go. This next step is the hardest to maintain. You must manually track your expenses to ensure you are not overspending in any one area. I find it helpful to sit down at the end of each day, pull up my account on my phone and subtract my expenses. Some people like my husband keep a stack of receipts in their wallet and do this weekly. I don’t because I can easily overspend in a week’s time. Do what works for your personality.
Spreadsheet Budget
The spreadsheet budget is simply an electronic version of the handwritten budget except that the spreadsheet will do the math for you using some simple spreadsheet formulas. You still start with your income, proceed to fixed expenses, and end with variable expenses and your buffer.
Not only will you be able to run a vertical total of your expenses, you can track how much you are spending in each category with the use of horizontal totals. Personally, I got annoyed with going into my spreadsheet each day and tracking the non-fixed expenses so I started using a handwritten budget specifically for those expenses. Here is an example.
Photo Courtesy of Author
The Credit Card Limit Budget
I used this method of budgeting for convenience for many years and it can work if you follow two important rules: you use your income to pay the balance in full every month and you acquire a credit card with a limit that is at or below your monthly income level. Risky for those with low levels of spending discipline or unreliable income streams.
Acquire a credit card with a points system that has a limit matching or below your monthly budget. Pay for all of your expenses with the card. This provides extreme convenience and does not require remembering to document expenditures. Some expenses, like rent, may not be suitable for credit card payment. At the end of the month, use your income to pay the card in full. Cash in points and get free money for just paying your regular bills.
A budget can be a great planning tool for your financial life. It can help you identify how you use your money and harness the power of that knowledge to get the most out of your income and your life. Budgeting can help you identify unnecessary expenses and allow you to save for important events.
I just love the feeling of deleting a line in my budget as I eliminate expenses and pay off credit cards. Deleting the student loan line in my budget was a thrill for me a few months ago. What used to be a student loan is transformed into savings or a house fund. It’s a visual validation of progress.
I’d love to hear from anyone with a great budget hack or tool. | https://medium.com/breaking-all-the-rules/learning-to-love-your-budget-40ba7066e1 | ['Alecia Kennedy'] | 2020-01-10 17:33:02.830000+00:00 | ['Money', 'Women And Money', 'Money Management', 'Budgeting', 'Financial Independence'] |
TDP: Slack Down 11%…. After seeing data center revenue growth… | Join The Daily Printer! We offer daily finance/options trading newsletter to our 1000+ subscribers. Don’t miss out on the exclusive options news and educational content we provide! Join today: evotradingclub.com/dp
Oct 25, 2020
The Intel on Intel
After seeing data center revenue growth of 40% during the first half of the year, shares of Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) have traded as far down as 11% on the news that the same segment saw a 7% revenue decline during Q3.
While the company overall beat revenue expectations, they raised the bar on the data center segment so high that it becomes hard not to disappoint. Moreover, the decline is indicative of deteriorating capacity to meet demands.
Nothing turns the Street off like a dying business.
Bye Bye ExxonMobil
ExxonMobil is no longer the most valuable energy corporation in the United States. EM was passed in value by NextEra Energy and Chevron. Exxon is one of only 3 companies to top the fortune 500 list and has been on the list since its inauguration in 1955.
NextEra Energy, a Florida based company, could be a huge win if Biden wins the upcoming election. With higher per capita production of solar, and wind energy, than any other competitor, a president who favors clean renewable energy could mean monumental things to the energy tycoon.
Slacking
TSlack stock was down more than 11% this week after Morgan Stanley analysts downgraded the stock to an equivalent of a sell rating. The rating comes due to an increase of usage of Microsoft Teams and Zoom due to the COVID19 pandemic.
The company has seemed to struggle keeping up with demand of working from home, while MSFT and ZM both have been constantly upgrading their software to create and launch better versions of their platforms while being able to simultaneously scale their product to handle more and more users.
Why it Costs you an Arm and a Leg Special Series: The Cost of Luxury (5/5)
One last Anti Law we’d like to mention is advertising to people who aren’t your customer. Going back to Veblen Goods, it’s important to remember that demand goes down with price because the purchase of these items is ultimately an evolution of primitive status symbols; that being said, their worth is contingent on others acknowledging it. Yup, your Gucci Flip Flops don’t count for anything unless society collectively says they do.
All in all, our understanding of the value of luxury goods is actually pretty intuitive: at the end of the day, we’re all fighting over the same resources, so of course you’re going to both respect and resent the person who can show you that he has your salary stored in their outfit.
As we’ve seen though, it isn’t quite that easy to reduce it to this in practice — the successful brands truly have an understanding of how to leverage a sense of exclusivity and scarcity of supply. If you can’t create the image of prestige, no one will pay you a prestigious price.
Fundamental Vs Technical Analysis Education
A very basic concept in regards to the markets is the difference between fundamental and technical analysis, two very different schools of thought in regards to investing.
Fundamental Analysis, what our analysts lean towards at EVO Trading Club, involves an in depth check of what kind of good or service a company actually provides and how they are performing financially; in other words, you’re usually looking for a company that you think is maybe undervalued or possibly going to continue growing aggressively.
On the other end of the spectrum, Technical Analysis looks at the actual stock charts; what’s happening to the price of shares and how is this reflected in various patterns and by signals.
Both schools have their value, so it helps to be aware of them each. | https://medium.com/@dailyprinter/slack-down-11-cc6e380ff358 | ['Evo Trading Club'] | 2020-10-25 19:37:39.760000+00:00 | ['Newsletter', 'Market', 'Today', 'Options', 'Finance'] |
What is to Be Done? From Scattered Resistance to Mass Mobilization | While the coronavirus pandemic strips naked the failures of neoliberalism, it also reveals how completely insufficient popular resistance and left-activism are in the US. The government’s response to the pandemic, characterized by total corporate domination, is a potent reminder that our movements are nowhere near having the capacity to make any substantive change: If we cannot even hamper outright corporate looting during a crisis, regardless of which of the two corporate parties is in power, then we are nowhere near winning our vision(s) of a better world.
Bernie Sanders’ loss is further evidence that electoral politics is not the opening we need to make the swift and urgent system-change that ending poverty and averting ecological catastrophe requires. Our elections are fundamentally broken even from a basic procedural standpoint, and the corporate media, which has an outsized influence over the political judgements of the electorate, ignores or is outright hostile to politicians running on transformative platforms. While “democratic socialists” (who are in practice, moderate social democrats) have won some important victories, sprinkling a few insurgents into the margins of political power ultimately poses no real threat to the corporate oligarchy.
Under corporate authoritarianism, winning the “ideological struggle,” as Bernie Sanders said in his concession speech, is nothing to be very hopeful about. Concentrated wealth has such an immense stranglehold on our society that popular opinion, especially if it conflicts with dominant corporate interests, does not translate into material change. As Albert Einstein wrote in his essay Why Socialism?, “members of legislative bodies are selected by political parties, largely financed or otherwise influenced by private capitalists who, for all practical purposes, separate the electorate from the legislature [emphasis mine].” A true challenge to corporate power, the source of legislative corruption, will not come from within the legislature, but from a national extra-electoral mobilization. The coronavirus pandemic is a better time than any to start building at least one institution that can help catalyze such a movement.
The coronavirus pandemic is a wellspring of organizing potential, yet there are no institutions with the capacity to translate that potential into substantive change, let alone a government response that puts human life over corporate profits. Resistance efforts and labor actions that have exploded as a result of the pandemic lack strong institutional channels that unite them; they are extremely fragmented nationwide, even within locality. Seattle City council member Kshama Sawant recently described the inadequacy of scattered pandemic activism as the following:
“In addition to mutual aid we need to get politically organized for collective action….because those of us who are doing mutual aid have so little and most of the wealth lies in the hands of a small minority at the top. Mutual aid, while it is fueled with great feeling and genuine compassion, can only go so far. Just to give a concrete example, statistics show that 90% of go fund me campaigns [for healthcare] fail for the simple reason that most of us who care about.. our community members have very little to give. The healthcare crisis does require us to wage a political battle to win Medicare for All, and I would go even farther to win socialized medicine. If we just focus on rent relief and mutual aid it is really [just] a bailout for the people at the top who are responsible for the way this crisis is unfolding.”
Getting a fair pandemic and recession response from our government, just like moving towards socialized medicine, requires a mass mobilization that challenges the source of the problem, corporate power and capitalism itself. Scattered mutual aid, rent strikes, car protests, etc., are necessary, but without a unified, nationally-coordinated political mobilization, corporate power is going to emerge from this crisis far more entrenched than before. As Kali Akuno of Cooperation Jackson recently put it, “if we don’t use this moment to press forth the structural demands that we need we are just going to give the right all the power to reorganize society to make it more brutal and repressive than it already is.” We need a concentration of our forces to challenge the corporate state, but there are no existing institutions with the capacity to catalyze such a unification.
Big Labor? DSA?
Big labor is by and large not a force for leftward structural change. Even if union membership doubled in the US, if the majority of that new membership went to mainstream labor institutions with “centrist” leadership that oppose policies like Medicare for All and a Green New Deal, we would not find ourselves much closer to system change. Although increased union membership helps workers secure better pay and benefits, major labor institutions in the US are simply not democratic enough, militant, or radical enough. We need new institutions fighting for system change that can build membership at the scale of a union like the AFL-CIO, which has nearly 13 million members.
The Democratic Socialists of America, the only nationwide radical-left organization in the US with a shred of influence, is also not a reliable vehicle to build the movement our moment calls for, and likely never will be. Despite having an oversized presence in social and left-media, as of March 2020, DSA had a total membership of 65,000, and only a portion of that membership is “active.” It is difficult to imagine the organization building active membership at the rate it would need to have any true revolutionary potential; DSA’s fringe-branding and internal culture simply does not lend itself to a mass-politics in the US. DSA is a social club that organizes cultural-leftists behind a lifestyle-brand more than it is a labor institution that organizes the working class behind a structural agenda. While DSA is a positive development on the left and some chapters are doing good work in their communities, we need radical institutions that are better-resourced and can more successfully organize the working class.
What would such an institution look like? The following is a loose step by step on how to build an organization that could use this pandemic to catalyze a nation-wide, multi-racial, multi-generational political mobilization:
Towards a Mass Mobilization
The first step is gathering a relatively small, diverse team of like-minded organizers to establish an organizational framework (decision making procedures, delegational structure, etc) that strikes a balance between too much centralization and too little. While an excess of democracy or decentralization tends towards discord, inefficiency, and dissolution, too much centralization and bureaucracy tends towards mismanagement, corruption, and a leadership that becomes alienated from the organization’s rank-and-file. There is plenty of history of dissolved or corrupted movements and institutions that have not struck a healthy balance to consider. The structure of the organization should be something completely new, something that adopts the successes of current and past left institutions and learns from their inadequacies or outright failures.
The organization would essentially be Bernie without Bernie. Its policy goals and scope should be nearly identical to the Sanders campaign, which had a tried-and-true movement plank. If a candidate running for political office can build such a broad base of support behind a national agenda, then an insurgent extra-electoral institution with the same or similar vision could also ostensibly garner similar membership and support. If a new hybrid labor/community organizing institution were able to build even half the fundraising machine the Sanders campaign did, its organizing scope could be massive: A dollar goes a lot further building community and labor power than it does being sunk into the unbelievably wasteful elections-industrial complex. This would be especially true of an organization that has a more balanced pay-scale than non-profit organizing programs, presidential campaigns, or labor unions: There is no good reason why any organization fighting for a more just system should pay leadership and management roles an annual salary that is several times larger than on-the-ground roles.
After establishing a basic institutional framework the organization would have to pool together significant funds to begin hiring base-building organizers to grow its capacity. The speed and scale of the organizing needed to build a national mobilization out of this crisis would require a lot of money that would have to be pooled together in short-order. It cannot be launched solely from crowdfunding, it would require some start up funds in the form of grants or big donations. Taking big donations is impure, yes, but no new organization, regardless of who is starting it, could pool together enough small donations to mobilize at the scale this moment calls for. One of the effects of this pandemic could be that wealthy donors become more willing to give money to courageous and transformational organizations; the failures of both the neoliberal status quo and the institutional liberal activist circuit are so stark that such fundraising might be easier than one would expect. The organization would publicize a set of terms attached to the funds to demonstrate complete transparency and show that the money is being given solely out of support for the purpose of the organization, not in service of an ulterior aim. The long term goal would be to sustain the organization through sliding-scale membership fees, small donations, or other alternative means that do not create a potential conflict of interest or the appearance of corruption.
The first phase of the organization would be based around getting a just pandemic and recession response for the most vulnerable populations and resisting corporate consolidation, but the longer term vision would be to endure as a political bloc. The organization would start by unifying activist efforts at the local level and building membership within state programs which would be done in part by hiring and providing stipends to organizers already doing work in their communities and or workplaces. These organizers would aim to build membership by consolidating pandemic-related activism (rent strikes, mutual aid campaigns, decarceral activism, etc.) and orienting communities towards a unified, national struggle.
Each state program would be organized around a set of demands specific to their own state legislature, but national demands would be consistent across state programs. State umbrellas would be split into three base building programs with their own particular strategies, but unified in their demands:
1. National Unemployed People’s Council of [*insert state here*]
2. National Essential Workers’ Movement of [*insert state here*]
3. The Movement for People Over Profit of [*insert state here*]
Unemployed People’s Councils
38 million Americans have filed for unemployment as of March 2020, many of whom are having trouble securing benefits. Unemployed councils across the US could put significant pressure on state legislatures in places like Florida, where only 7.6% of unemployed people were receiving benefits in April of this year. According to a Columbia University study, 21 million people are likely to fall below the poverty line as a result of pandemic-caused unemployment. Given the extent of government neglect, whether or not we build a political mobilization on the basis of unemployment could be a matter of life and death for many Americans. A well-staffed and structured national organizing program could build a significant base of our nation’s unemployed which would be filled with dynamic people from a range of backgrounds who could lend a variety of skills to the organization. For example, given that mass layoffs are currently occurring in the journalism industry, unemployed journalists could be hired full time or given stipends to act as the press arm of the organization.
National Essential Worker’s Movement
Workers whose labor is essential to the functioning of society are systematically undervalued and exploited in our capitalist system. The US could use at least one organization aimed at mobilizing “essential workers” into a national movement aimed at challenging that system. Labor organizers would be recruited out of the many scattered wildcat strikes that are occurring across the country and provided with stipends or full time positions. These staff would build consciousness and demonstrate that a national struggle against neoliberalism is, like bargaining with one’s employer for higher pay, in workers’ immediate self interest. The ultimate aim of the essential worker organizing program would be to build enough membership to be capable of coordinating a cross-sector strike that could paralyze the basic functions of our society. An organization that has enough membership and the institutional courage to even appear capable of staging a general strike could have significant leverage over the federal government; even a relatively small base of organized essential workers at the national level, if working in tandem with a national unemployed persons movement, would be a stronger system-wide bargaining unit than anything that currently exists in the US.
The Broader Movement For People Over Profit
The third branch of each state program would be base-building among community members who are not essential workers or unemployed, but are sympathetic to the policy goals of the organization. This base could include people who are retired, people who work from home, and members of the middle and professional classes who agree with the organization’s policy agenda. System change, and even fighting for a just pandemic and recession response cannot be the burden of those who are already living the most precarious lives; it is the moral responsibility of more wealthy and privileged classes to stand alongside the working class and bear the burden. If millions of people signed on to a letter directed to the White House and Congress threatening a general strike, members of the middle and professional classes would be mobilized to sign on to the threat. If there were a general strike, then those in the broader movement umbrella (including the unemployed) would be called to share in the risk and join the picket.
In summary, the coronavirus pandemic is a major opportunity to build power behind a transformative agenda, but we lack institutions with the capacity to turn this crisis into a political opportunity. While running insurgents for office is not a fool’s errand, when it comes to making the structural changes our moment calls for, electoralism is a dead end. Although the organizing process I laid out here is very general and unrealistic in the short term, it is meant to demonstrate the scale, type of organization, and level of coordination that we would need to stage a political revolution no matter the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.
The three branches of the organization, unemployed councils, essential workers, and a broader movement for people over profit, are bases that, if operating at a large enough scale and working in tandem behind a specific set of goals, could be capable of breaking through the corporate power structure. If we do not attempt to build new movement infrastructure that can consolidate our forces at an historic scale, then we will remain divided and conquered by our ever-concentrating corporate foes. | https://medium.com/@clayhurand/what-is-to-be-done-from-scattered-resistance-to-mass-mobilization-97739893cf56 | ['Clay Hurand'] | 2020-07-08 16:45:25.744000+00:00 | ['Coronavirus', 'Organizing Strategies', 'Activism', 'Revolution'] |
New Jersey Sustainability Reporting Hub marks a unique approach to environmental collaboration | New Jersey Sustainability Reporting Hub marks a unique approach to environmental collaboration
This week the New Jersey Sustainability Reporting Hub announced that it has officially launched and published its first 12 stories.
The NJSR Hub, of which the Center for Cooperative Media is a founding partner, is a unique approach to climate journalism. Its goal is to produce solutions-oriented news and information related to environmental sustainability. It works by recruiting fellows in newsrooms around the state and putting them together in a cohort for the fellowship period.
The Hub is a project of CivicStory, a New Jersey news nonprofit, and it is currently supporting eight fellows. The Hub is funded by contributions from founding partners and individuals. (Additional fundraising is needed to enable another round of fellowships in 2020.)
Participating outlets include The Record (part of the USA Today network); The Press of Atlantic City; WBGO, Newark public radio; The Nubian News (a Trenton-based bi-weekly); Cape May County Herald; VillageGreenNJ.com (Maplewood-South Orange); Green Philly, and New Jersey Hills Media Group (15 weekly newspapers).
“The NJSR fellowship enables a frequency of sustainability stories that would normally be beyond our capacity as a local site,” said Village Green co-founder Mary Barr Mann in a new release the Hub published this week.
The content produced by the Hub is available for republication under a Creative Commons license. Recent stories include “Hey, Jersey, Do You Know Where Your Trash Goes?” and “Harsher climate a challenge to New Jersey tomato farmers. Here’s how they’re adapting.”
The Hub joins a (quickly) growing list of collaboratives in the U.S. that are focused on climate or the environment, an area where I expect to see even more growth in 2020.
Here are just a handful of those collaboratives:
And there are many more examples. There are so many examples, in fact, and so many more to come that the Center is studying climate collaboration for a whitepaper to be released in 2020. Let us know if you’ve been involved in such a collaboration or want to start one and are willing to participate in our research: [email protected]. | https://medium.com/centerforcooperativemedia/new-jersey-sustainability-reporting-hub-marks-a-unique-approach-to-environmental-collaboration-72999705f4ba | ['Stefanie Murray'] | 2019-11-16 15:40:41.048000+00:00 | ['Local News', 'Journalism', 'Climate', 'Collaboration', 'New Jersey'] |
How to Make a Ton of Money Without Really Trying | How to Make a Ton of Money Without Really Trying
3 of the Strangest Products That Have Made it Big
Believe it or not, these are true stories
Million-dollar ideas are literally floating around everywhere, waiting for clever folks to pick them up and run with them.
For instance, the following three entrepreneurs capitalized on rocks, wood, and paper to make lots of cash— even millions of dollars.
(Sounds like a riddle, but it isn’t. These are all totally true stories)
Rock, Paper…Bridges?
The following are actual business ideas that literally made their inventors tons of money and garnered massive attention. No kidding:
1. Pet Rocks
The Pet Rock was a collectible created by Gary Dahl in 1975.
Dahl literally picked up smooth stones (from a Mexican beach) put them in customized cardboard boxes with straw and breathing holes, and marketed them as “pets,” complete with a 20-page manual on “The Care and Training of Your Pet Rock.”
He made over $4 million in about six months.
2. A 128-page book that contains no words (and is not a journal)*
The title of this book by “Dr. Alan Francis,” first published in 1989?
“Everything Men Know About Women.”
For a book that doesn’t say anything (at least not in words), this tome has been a perennial bestseller. It has even spawned a few knock-offs of its own.
3. The Brooklyn Bridge*
In 1983, Paul Hartunian observed workmen repairing the Brooklyn Bridge, and came up with a (dubiously) brilliant idea:
He bought the rotting leftover wood for $500, then cut it into one-inch square pieces, with an official Brooklyn Bridge certificate he designed himself.
Using a press release reading:
“New Jersey Man Sells Brooklyn Bridge for $14.95.”
Hartunian was on the radio, in the magazines, on CNN, the Johnny Carson Show, and just about every major newspaper in the country. | https://medium.com/the-post-grad-survival-guide/how-to-make-a-ton-of-money-without-really-trying-33fb3ce0d80a | ['Sarah Cy'] | 2019-05-18 20:09:22.401000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Busines', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Personal Development', 'Creativity'] |
Citizenship by Investment for 2021 | The 2020 pandemic has caused panic worldwide and has drastically changed the way people interact, travel and do business. Many people who never considered getting a second passport have found themselves looking for a plan B passport as a security measure to have in their back pocket. Many Caribbean islands that offer citizenship by investment have minimal, or no covid cases and people are out and about enjoying their lives instead of being on lock-down in a city.
JH Marlin Law — jhmarlin.com — Citizenship by Investment
Citizenship by Investment options includes; Antigua & Barbuda, Grenada, St.Lucia, St.Kitts & Nevis and Dominica. In JH Marlin’s experience, the two most popular programs that investors seek out are St.Kitts & Nevis and St.Lucia. St.Kitts & Nevis is recognized as a family-friendly option whereas St.Lucia is often sought out for investors looking for a more affordable option.
Saint Kitts & Nevis Citizenship by Investment
Saint Kitts & Nevis Citizenship by Investment (CBI) program has been in operation since 1984, making it the longest CBI program. The country has been running a lower price promotion for families of 4 or less who can obtain citizenship for US$150,000 donation under the Sustainable Growth Fund with additional due diligence and legal fees.
Benefits:
St.Kitts passport allows visa-free travel to over 140+ countries.
Easy to obtain visas
Visa-Free List include Schengen Region and other major countries.
Dual Nationality Permitted under the Laws of Saint Christopher and Nevis
Citizenship is for life.
No requirement to reside or visit St.Kitts & Nevis
Passport and citizenship can be obtained in approximately 3 months — 6 months
Tax Neutral jurisdiction (No personal income tax!)
Stable economy
Spouse, children, siblings and elderly parents can obtain St Kitts & Nevis Citizenship.
Citizenship can be available to future generations via descent.
International Schools & Universities
Safe & peaceful place to live
Citizenship by Investment — jhmarlin.com — [email protected]
St.Lucia Citizenship by Investment
Saint Lucia National Economic Fund is a special fund established under Section 33 of the Citizenship by Investment Act and investors can make a donation to the country starting at US$100,000 with additional due diligence and legal fees. It is a popular option for single applicants. Saint Lucia also recently introduced the COVID-19 Relief Bond: Minimum investment US $250,000. The creation of this special COVID-19 Relief Bond starting at USD 250,000 is a non-interest-bearing government bond to which no processing fee is payable by the applicant. The bond must be registered and remain in the name of the applicant from the date of first issue.
Benefits:
Cost: St Lucia citizenship is one of the most affordable options
Speed: The processing time for St.Lucia citizenship is similar to other CBI programs
Mobility: Saint Lucian citizens had visa-free or visa on arrival access to over one hundred and forty-five (145) countries.
Quality of Life : St.Lucians enjoy a high quality of life with great restaurants, hotels, and activities for family members of all ages.
Weather: The average temperature is between 25–27 degrees year-round and the country is rich in vegetation.
For more information about the different citizenship by investment options, you can get in touch with JH Marlin Law, a law firm specialising in citizenship by investment. We can help guide you through the process and provide details about the differences in the different programs.
Jennifer Harding-Marlin / Attorney / jhmarlin.com / [email protected] /#citizenshipbyinvestment #immigrationlawfirm #residencybyinvestment #secondpassport | https://medium.com/@jenniferhardingmarlin/citizenship-by-investment-for-2021-6b2db928836f | ['Jennifer Harding-Marlin'] | 2020-12-27 01:23:39.207000+00:00 | ['Law', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Citizenship By Investment', 'Business', 'Immigration'] |
London’s Best Pubs: Beat the Winter Chill in These Cozy London Pubs | London may be one of the most beautiful cities in the world, even in winter, but at this time of year there’s no disguising the fact that it’s cold, dark and wet. It’s fair to say that in wintertime the weather isn’t one of London’s best qualities.
The weather can be a nuisance, but it’s fair to say if it wasn’t cold and wet London certainly wouldn’t have as many fantastic pubs as it does. There’s nothing like snuggling up next to a roaring open fire in one of London’s countless cosy pubs in wintertime. Whether you live in London or are simply here and staying in short term accommodation, here are some of the best pubs to visit.
Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese — The City
This is one of London’s oldest pubs, the building itself having stood since 1667. There has been a pub on this spot, however, since 1558, the building being rebuilt after it was destroyed in the Great Fire of London, along with most of Fleet Street.
The pub interior makes you think you’re in Dickensian times, with panelled walls, wooden floorboards and low ceilings in front of a grand fireplace. The sawdust on the floor and the aroma of the place is in itself enough to take you back hundreds of years.
The Jerusalem Tavern — Clerkenwell
On most days of the year the smell and warmth of the fire dominate this small pub. It may not be a large place but has enough nooks and crannies scattered about the place for you to find comfort.
This is a pub for beer lovers as it’s the London base of St Peter’s Brewery, a well known British beer maker based in Suffolk. Examples of their wares are available of draft as well as all manner of bar snacks
The Spaniard’s Inn — Hampstead
This is not only a comfortable cosy pub with an amazing open fire surrounded by comfy seats, it is also rumoured to be one of the most haunted pubs in London. One of the ghosts said to haunt it is that of the famous highwayman, Dick Turpin. The reason being is that his father was the landlord throughout most of the 1700s. Oddly enough whilst Turpin is said to haunt the pub his horse, Black Bess, is said to haunt the car park.
Ghosts aside, this is a charming old pub, boasting not only great beer but also fabulous food too in its dining area.
The Trinity Arms — Brixton
If you’re heading south of the river then The Trinity Arms should definitely be a considered stop off. The throng of traffic and people on Brixton Road is easily forgotten once you’re sitting in front of the open fire inside.
This is a particularly popular pub in the summer months as it has a large outdoor area, but inside it has a quirky feel, with lots of knick knacks adorning the walls and traditional games to be played at the tables. If you’re looking for a place to eat as well as drink, then visiting on a Sunday is definitely appealing as their traditional roasts come highly recommended.
Serviced Apartments in London is the best option to stay if you are planning to visit London. | https://medium.com/@media-4114/londons-best-pubs-beat-the-winter-chill-in-these-cozy-london-pubs-31fec706e24 | ['Elliott Troop'] | 2020-09-04 06:16:16.111000+00:00 | ['Travel', 'Pubs And Bars', 'London'] |
(UX) economic behavior — permadata blog #3 | (UX) economic behavior — permadata blog #3
users conscious
sometimes, the simplest aspects of development can raise the most questions. It’s the case with my PlantSearch component
evolving in an environment with limits
I come from an era where you have auto-completion on search input. My friend once told: one day, your search engine will give you what you’ve been looking for even before you press any key
eMergy cost
this fantasy is arriving, but with a tremendous cost. I could mention : API calls & volume, UI re-rendering, personal data storage .. but in fact, it’s just electricity & hardware
Electricity is not that cheap energy you’ve been using increasingly these decades. As for hardware, production logistics & waste management are not solved with sustainable answers
being conscious of the real emergy cost of digital technology is crucial for our century. It may make the difference between a future with or without humans
firebase quotas
another limitation, more pragmatic (but less holistic), is my hosting (Firebase) solution quotas & monetary cost
I already switch the biggest of my database from Firestore to MongoDB to empower query abilities & avoid exponential call number. But, for exemple, external network requests (like querying database) are free up to 100.000 operations
That’s mainly why I want to remove highly call consuming features like :
letter-by-letter queries & auto-completion
every priorities search results (I’ll explain below)
& replace them with :
manual send (enter key press or button click), with at least 3 characters
(enter key press or button click), with at least 3 characters progressive & targeted search, starting with the simpler operations & able to take back at any of them; as seen below
user time & focus
when you speak to people about economic decline, they often answer you : nobody want to go back to the stone age. Militant minimalists would then answer : what can’t you do with a book, a paper & a pen that you can do with a computer ?
the first one doesn’t want to spend too much time & focus on doing what they are aiming to achieve. We have to keep its user experience super-fluid while reducing the amount of gadgets which we provide
the second one absolutely doesn’t want to use screens. We should ask ourselves what crucial features would then justify using digital tools but those we would waste enormous amount of time doing them in real life
these are just feelings about people I’ve met & projections about how they would interact with the permadata project. We could use them to validate feature perimeter
the process
processing
a plant got an unique ID (from its latin taxonomy) & is related to data atoms, like [data:name] (name type data). In my initial use cases, there is three way to match a plant using a search key :
they key equals ID (1 result)
the key is contained in some IDs (* results)
they key is contained in some [data:name]
& this edge-case : they key is exactly matching only one [data:name]
splitting steps
check if there is a document with ID === key
no — next step
yes — accesses the plant page
another option for the “yes” could be to ask confirmation to the user before leaving the page
2. results on searching key in fragment of plant IDs
0 — next step
1 — UI prompts : do you want to access this { plant.name } ? (yeah we need to automatically bind another query for the plant’s first [data:name] , unless Mongo can aggregate it ..)
, unless Mongo can aggregate it ..) 2..*— UI shows a select with different plant options display name
3. results on searching key in fragment of [data:name] value, in the current language
0 — UI displays “no result found”
1 & key exactly matching value — accesses the plant page
1 else — UI : do you want to access this { plant.name } ?
2..* — UI shows a select
engaging user
my goal is to influence users to go for the cheapest interaction by presenting them as the laziest. & I’m also working on a full gamification process
I know that, putting this form on the application will make it consume more. But playing is also one of the best way to develop habits in human behavior
engaging user means giving him the feeling of flowing steps & of participating to his global “score” improvement. Instinctive & proportionally rewarding call progression :
matched unique ID (+++) matched unique by [data:name] (++) list of matched by ID fragment (+) list of matched by [data:name]
accessing a special step, is possible by :
clicking on “next step” from a previous one (example, results from step 3 did not match your search on a name & you want to push it to step 4)
from point 0, if you already know that you won’t match on the first steps. This option has to be more interesting than making the server run through useless calculation
for the second point, we can imagine a switch like : | https://medium.com/@OhmWang/ux-economic-behavior-permadata-blog-3-bc72903c9ad6 | ['Romaric Ruga'] | 2019-04-04 14:46:15.131000+00:00 | ['Permaculture', 'Firebase', 'Ecology', 'Design', 'UX'] |
An Open Letter to Wells Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf: Lack of Diverse Talent? Maybe It’s Because Blatant Racism and Sexism at Wells Fargo Suppress and Even Fire Diverse Talent | An Open Letter to Wells Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf: Lack of Diverse Talent? Maybe It’s Because Blatant Racism and Sexism at Wells Fargo Suppress and Even Fire Diverse Talent Angela Lu Dec 16, 2020·7 min read
Dear Charlie,
My name is Angela Lu and I’m a recently fired employee from Wells Fargo (“WF”). Let me briefly introduce myself. I’m a minority American woman in my 40s with an MBA degree from a top-5 business school in the US, a CFA charter (Chartered Financial Analyst, one of the most preeminent licenses in financial services), and nearly 20 years of financial services and business strategy experience from top-tier firms, including the past almost 6 years at WF with an impeccable performance record during my entire employment.
By now, you may start to wonder, how did an employee like me who most people would call a talent for sure, let alone a minority woman talent, end up getting ranked by her white male managers at the very bottom 5% of WF’s over 260,000 employees, and even getting fired? In fact, to add astonishing drama to my story, my managers brutally fired me over the phone, effective immediately, with no minimum 60-day notice, no severance for my nearly 6 years of service, and even no paperwork! In addition, I was instantly cut off of access to all company sites including 401(k), pay vouchers and instructions on logistics of departure. The way I was fired was particularly and utterly cruel, not only because my career, name and reputation were viciously destroyed, but also because the whole country has been going through a pandemic and massive unemployment. But that’s not even half of the story. Let me walk you through the very painful ordeal that I was put through by my four very abusive managers and superiors over the course of nearly two years with their blatant racism, sexism and inhumane retaliation against my whistleblowing on their repeated misconduct and company policy violations.
For your reference, my male managers and superiors are:
Dirk Schmidt: EVP and Head of Commercial Banking Strategy
Satoshi Watanabe: SVP who reports to Dirk
Pascal Hoffmann and Jamey Escaler: SVPs who were newly hired in late 2018 and both report to Satoshi
About myself: VP in this group with Dirk and Satoshi ever since I joined WF in 2014. Yes, 6 years and never promoted despite an impeccable performance record, and Dirk and Satoshi even told me to my face that they would never even consider me for a promotion. Also, they rejected all my requests every year for equal pay when I discovered from WF’s internally published compensation guideline that I had been paid only at the entry point for a level lower than mine, even after nearly 6 years at a more senior level.
Please see below the timeline of what happened:
10–11/2018: Upon hiring Pascal, Dirk and Satoshi pressured me repeatedly to hang out with Pascal alone, outside the workplace, against my will, just to make him happy, and even threatened me with performance review and annual bonus cut if I didn’t obey. What they did was out of line so I fought back.
04/2019: Pascal stole two pairs of my dress shoes from under my desk in the office and hid in his drawer — very inappropriate and creepy. Upon finding out, I immediately told him no and that his behavior was unacceptable.
05/2019: The following month, Satoshi demoted/downgraded me from directly reporting to himself (as it had been ever since I joined WF in 2014), to directly reporting to Pascal who was a repeated offender to me, and had a bizarre interest in my very personal item of dress shoes.
02/2020: I reported to Commercial Banking senior executives on Dirk, Satoshi and Pascal’s series of unethical behaviors including: the very creepy shoe incident; forcing me repeatedly to hang out with Pascal alone outside the workplace against my will and subsequently demoting me to even directly report to Pascal; relentlessly covering up for Pascal’s repeated violations of the company’s paid-time-off policy for an appalling 22 times during his 1st year of employment alone (one-time “job abandonment” could possibly result in immediate termination according to the policy), which must be an unprecedented and insurmountable record in WF’s 168 years of history!
02–05/2020: Commercial Banking senior executives escalated my case to the company’s Conduct Management Group for investigation and copied HR. To my surprise, Conduct Management told me loud and clear that WF’s “speak up and non-retaliation” policy is only a guiding principle, but in practice, they would do nothing to protect my confidentiality and safety, or to protect me from retaliation by my managers. Conduct Management even threatened me to submit all evidence for my allegations within “48 hours” or I could face punitive corrective actions including termination — termination of me, the victim and whistleblower! Conduct Management indeed followed through on their outrageous practice by ignoring the evidence and concluding that my allegations were “unsubstantiated”.
04/2020: Despite the fact that I had an active and open case on Dirk’s long-term pattern of unethical behaviors and repeated misconduct, Commercial Banking senior executives, aware of my allegations, promoted Dirk once again to the leadership team, his 2nd promotion in merely two years.
05–07/2020: With his 2nd promotion secured and my case on them thrown out by Conduct Management, Dirk led Satoshi, Pascal and Jamey to launch months of retaliation against me by taking turns to maliciously bombard and intimidate me non-stop. They criticized me in the name of “not taking ownership for my work” for getting sick and taking just 1.5 days off my own paid sick leave, and I had taken 0 sick leave during my entire employment of over 5 years up until that point! They prohibited me from speaking during a performance feedback session, in fact, made it loud and clear that I was only allowed to listen and take orders, and threatened me numerous times that me voicing my opinion is a violation so serious called “insubordination” that they would escalate to HR — 1st clear sign that they were plotting to retaliate and fire me. As I stood up for justice and for myself by calling out the truth, Dirk partnered with HR to issue me a corrective action of “formal conduct warning” — 2nd clear sign that they were plotting to fire me.
07/2020: My managers issued me a mid-year performance review of the bottom rating — only given to the bottom 5% of the worst performing employees among WF’s over 260,000 employees, which was an outright joke and blatant retaliation because I had top-tier qualification (education and experience) and all consecutive years of impeccable annual performance reviews with this same group, as recent as 5 months ago in 02/2020! This was the 3rd clear sign that they were plotting to fire me.
07–08/2020: Conduct Management, together with Employee Relations, reached out to me again and tried to force me into saying in writing that I had never ever faced any discrimination at WF due to race or gender, after I told Dirk that I’m not the type who would ever develop the Stockholm Syndrome and could not take the non-stop torture and intimidation any longer. He was so anxious to fire me but in order to cover his tracks of blatant racism, sexism and retaliation, he brought in Conduct Management and Employee Relations to do something so sick and inhumane that was equivalent to: before murdering me, they force me to sign a statement swearing that they are not my killers, in exchange for a quick death instead of a much more painful slow death. Yes, I was on the brink of collapsing mentally and physically, but I would never be that weak or dumb.
08/05/2020: One day after I fought off Conduct Management’s collusion with Dirk, Dirk and Satoshi fired me the first thing in the morning at 9am over one phone call claiming “professionalism inappropriate conduct”. As mentioned, the firing was effective immediately, with no minimum 60-day notice, no severance for my nearly 6 years of service at WF, and even no paperwork, and I was instantly cut off of access to all company sites including 401(k), pay vouchers, and instructions on logistics of departure. They viciously destroyed my career, name and reputation, and threw me right into the cold in the midst of a country-wide pandemic and massive unemployment.
Dear Charlie, you joined WF one year ago with the goal of overhauling our very troubling practices and leading the company out of its endless public scandals, lawsuits and regulatory consent orders by the Fed and the OCC. From my nearly 6 years at the company, I can assure you that there has never been a shortage of minority and/or women talent at WF. The toxic culture, together with the nepotism and negligence of some racist and sexist managers who run their groups like unchallengeable dictators but get away with it or even better, get fast promoted, are what suppressed aspiring and hardworking minority and/or women talent like me from any career advancement. We have to do far more work, take far less pay, put up with bigotry, bullying and harassment, and most importantly, keep our chin down and mouth shut, just to survive and keep our paycheck, let alone wish for any career advancement or promotion opportunities. I was silent and suppressed like many of my diverse peers for over 5 years, until I was pushed up against the wall by my abusive managers and subsequently fooled by WF’s “speak up and non-retaliation” policy which turned out to be a career-suicidal trap for anyone who dares to speak the truth and report misconduct in the workplace.
My ordeal went far beyond personal between me and my four managers/superiors. HR, Employee Relations and Conduct Management all played their part, among which Conduct Management Group’s handling of my situation was particularly outrageous and concerning. As I’m sure you are aware, Conduct Management Group was established in 2017 as a direct response to numerous regulatory actions with the stated mission of encouraging employees to report misconduct in order to prevent future public scandals. However, my interaction with this Conduct Management Group was all about intimidation and retaliation against whistleblowers while relentlessly covering up managers’ unethical, racist and sexist behaviors. Change, fundamental change to the company’s culture, has been long overdue. To prevent other diverse employees from ever having to live through the horror of racism, sexism and whistleblower retaliation like mine in the workplace at WF, I make a plea to you, to please take actions, do what’s right and what’s necessary, because otherwise, it’s guaranteed that more scandals will come to light, and more regulatory actions will be enforced. What’s at stake here is not only the reputation and survival of the company, but also the interest of millions of shareholders and customers, and ultimately even the stability of the US banking system given that WF is the 3rd largest bank in the country.
Sincerely,
Angela Lu | https://medium.com/@al4diversity/an-open-letter-to-wells-fargo-ceo-charlie-scharf-lack-of-diverse-talent-147870cfc09 | ['Angela Lu'] | 2020-12-16 16:49:05.082000+00:00 | ['Diversity', 'Diversity And Inclusion', 'Racism', 'Banking', 'Sexism'] |
Particl Ledger Video Tutorial (Setup + Cold Staking) | As many of you already know, Particl is now available for hardware storage on Ledger Nano S devices. Moreover, it is also possible to activate cold staking on your Ledger device, meaning your cold staking setup can now be upgraded with all the perks a hardware device offers such as having your funds protected even when transacting from an infected or compromised computer.
We published around two months or so ago a tutorial on how to enable cold staking on your Ledger Nano S device, but we’ve received a lot of request from the community to publish a video tutorial.
In this video tutorial, Christina, Particl’s Social Media Coordinator, and Paul, Particl’s Communications Director, team up to show you how to set up your Ledger Nano S device with Particl and to activate cold staking on the device. Although not an overly complicated process, this video tutorial will walk you through every step of the process and will address any potential issue you might encounter along the way.
So now’s the time to go ahead and enjoy all the benefits from the world’s most secure Proof-of-Stake protocol! You can never be too careful. | https://medium.com/decentralize-today/particl-ledger-video-tutorial-setup-cold-staking-85202073c307 | [] | 2018-10-25 03:25:25.576000+00:00 | ['Privacy', 'IoT', 'Marketplaces', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Bitcoin'] |
The Minnesota Freedom Fighters Are Armed and Patrolling Their Own Neighborhoods | The Minnesota Freedom Fighters Are Armed and Patrolling Their Own Neighborhoods
A group of about two dozen armed Black men—made up of a retired firefighter, a security guard, a veteran, a health care worker, and others—have started to keep watch over local businesses and offer security to protesters in north Minneapolis.
They’re calling themselves the Minnesota Freedom Fighters, and they stepped up after the local NAACP chapter asked for help protecting local businesses from fallout around the protests of George Floyd’s murder in May.
“You just never know when something is going to happen,” said Minnesota Freedom Fighter Randy Chrisman. “As a Black man, I have the same rights as others to also carry a firearm, and I do it.”
The U.S. government has long resisted Black gun ownership. In 1969, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover called the armed Black Panther Party the greatest internal threat to the country, and then-President Ronald Reagan even got the NRA on his side to enforce gun control regulations targeted at Black people.
Read more about the Minnesota Freedom Fighters here: | https://momentum.medium.com/the-minnesota-freedom-fighters-are-armed-and-patrolling-their-own-neighborhoods-da77fa810147 | ['Dave Gershgorn'] | 2020-12-01 06:31:07.485000+00:00 | ['Protests', 'Minnesota', 'Society', 'Community', 'Guns'] |
Face Detection: With 6 simple steps in Python | Face Detection: With 6 simple steps in Python
This article aims to show how we can use an OpenCV library to detect faces in a given image with minimal steps
I’m using a Google Colab Notebook to write my Python program. But, you can use any editor of your choice, like VS Code, PyCharm, etc.
All I’m doing here is that I’m passing an image to the OpenCV library and using it against a trained model to detect faces.
Here are the steps :
Step 1
Open a new Google Colab Notebook, and import two essential libraries matplotlib.pyplot and cv2
We’re using matplotlib to access a given image’s properties and cv2 to access a trained model and use the given image against it to detect faces
If you’re using any other editor you can use pip to install the packages
Step 2
Upload an image that has a face. I preferred to use a group picture, but you can use any picture of your choice. You can find the picture I used here. And upload it in the notebook.
This is the image (from a hit sitcom called Friends) which I’m using in the program
You can upload the image by clicking this icon
Now, that you have uploaded the picture, try to read it into a variable called img in the program.
You can copy the path by right-clicking on the file
Use the path to load the image into the variable using imread()
Step 3
Now, its time to load a model. For this, you need to download one of the XML files from haar cascades called haarcascade_frontalface_alt.xml. You will have to copy the XML content by switching it into Raw mode like this or you can even find it here.
Haar cascades have so many models to detect various parts of a human body like to detect eyes, frontal face, lower body, upper body, full body and so on. But we are just focusing on faces for now.
Now, load the model in a variable called model by copying the file’s path in cv2.CascadeClassifier()
Step 4
Now using one of the functionalities of OpenCV detectMultiScale(), detect all the faces in a given image and store it in a variable called faces
Step 5
Once we have faces, we can iterate them one by one and mark them drawing white rectangles individually
This loop might look tricky, but all it is doing is
Get coordinates (x, y)and size (w, h) to draw a rectangle Set a color using RGB format for the rectangle. I’ve used white (255, 255, 255) here. Set thickness to the rectangle’s border. I’ve used 5 here.
All this work is done by using cv2.rectangle()
Final step
Display the image with rectangle marks around detected faces using imshow()
Here is how the image with markings looks like after running the final code
This is how the overall code looks like
You can find the code in my Colab Notebook here or even in this Github repository. | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/face-detection-with-6-simple-steps-in-python-4e3958660dbe | ['Pradeep Pradyumna'] | 2020-09-09 15:56:10.207000+00:00 | ['Opencv Python', 'Python Programming', 'Matplotlib', 'Haar Cascades', 'Facedetection'] |
Be Calmer — Listening to Plum Village Choir | Be Calmer — Listening to Plum Village Choir
Learn simple ways to reduce stress
Photo by Magicbowls from Pexels
Sometimes we find sounds or melodies that seem to have the power to stop our endless stream of thoughts.
I find it curious how this effect does not seem to be dependent on our ability or knowledge to understand what we are hearing. On the other hand, perhaps this is the explanation, the motive by which we obtain this effect.
Perhaps it is exactly because we do not understand what we are hearing. This lack of knowledge seems to prevent our brain from immediately trying to catalog and interpret what we hear, freeing our attention to focus on something deeper or more intuitive.
This is precisely what I feel when I listen to the Namo Avalokiteshvara interpretation by the Plum Village choir. For those who don’t know them, Plum Village is a Buddhist community of mindfulness practice founded by Thich Nhat Hanh.
I don’t understand the words they sing, nor do I know if these are words or just sounds that form a melody. I don’t know if it’s a song, a mantra, or a prayer. I already thought of going to look for the lyrics or an explanation to understand what they sing. Then I gave up on that idea: I’m afraid that getting to know more about music will break the calming effect that listening to this interpretation has on me.
In addition to the sounds, my attention is also attracted by the expression on the faces of the various elements that participate in this choir from Plum Village. They all seem to be sharing a very profound and at the same time very calm joy.
I find it very relaxing to listen this music, so here I share it with you.
Click on the video, focus your attention, get ready for a special moment.
I hope you enjoy it and that this experience has in you a relaxing effect similar to what I feel.
I often watch/listen to this video to calm myself down or just to take a short break between tasks. If the video has a similar effect in itself, here is one more resource that you can use anytime to create more calm moments in your life. | https://medium.com/illumination/be-calmer-listening-to-plum-village-choir-db8e4167a50 | ['Zen Michael'] | 2020-12-28 14:16:11.415000+00:00 | ['Thich Nhat Hanh', 'Plum Village', 'Mindfulness', 'Meditation', 'Self Improvement'] |
Swap Announcement | We are pleased to announce the development for the new Vites coin is ready. Accordingly, we are going to 1:1 swap to our own blockchain.
The following reasons to swap to your own blockchain are:
the possibilities to stake the new PoS coin.
the new coin offers more stability. The current coin is a Waves assets. It’s platform was in a beta phase. During this period we experienced a lot of nuisance from the assets. Recently it has gone out of beta, but there still seem to be a lot of problems.
Stocks.Exchange (https://www.stocks.exchange/) will facilitate the swap. This means you have to send all your coins to the Vites wallet of your Stocks.Exchange account. Please note that it is required at Stock.Exchange to have Waves in your account for receiving the Vites tokens. If you are sending your Vites tokens without having Waves in your Stocks.Exchange account they might arrive with much delay.
The swap runs from 17th of August 2018 to the 17th of September 2018. This means the 17th of September 2018 at 23:59 GMT+3 time zone is the last day on which you can send coins. Coins sent after this date are not swapped. If all coins arrive before the end of the last day, the swap is executed immediately. Users will receive new coins within 2 days.
The process looks like this:
When all coins at Stocks.Exchange are in, the team of Vites sends the new coins. The swap is then executed. For full transparency, the status of the amount of coins inside Stocks.Exchange can be monitored via the block explorer. This can be done with the information below.
Vites wallet Stocks.Exchange
wallet address: 3PKA39AKwyVQhvzaBxFj5ahaCQwNgwYrdNZ
( NOTE!!! This is the Stocks.Exchange cold wallet. Do NOT send your coins to this address. This is only for coin tracking purpose)
Rich list: http://dev.pywaves.org/assets/FEhAiFpfrjADzYNWDy9jmVehPAVvEVV6HRjof8HVCmAR
Block Explorer: https://wavesexplorer.com/
Current supply distribution
Circulating supply: 30.000.000.000
Development fund: 20.000.000.000
Max supply: 50.000.000.000
New supply distribution
Circulating supply: 30.000.000.000
Development fund: 5.000.000.000
Staking: 15.000.000.000
Max supply: 50.000.000.000
The swap is being executed as soon as one of the following scenarios applies:
As soon as there are 30,000,000,000 Vites in the Stocks.Exchange wallet As soon as the 17th of September 2018 at 23:59 GMT+3 time zone is over
To encourage option 1 we advise to continue trading on Stocks.Exchange.
The pre-mine was obtained over 1 address. For full transparency, we share the pre-mine address and block explorer from which you can see that no more than 35,000,000,000 has been pre-mined.
A blockchain is always maintained and secured by PoW and/or PoS. Now that the new PoS chain is ready, it means people have to start staking immediately to keep the chain running. There is, however, a problem. In about 1 month, the community will have new coins and only from that point people can start staking. If there are no stakers, we run the risk of seriously damaging the chain. In the meantime, the chain is mined on the lowest possible scale to keep it running.
Please note that for this reason the amount of the pre-mine will be a little higher than 35b.
Pre-mine address = Hq8GiVTVL55Lid2bdH6nf87Zo7owujZmXm
Block explorer:
http://80.211.105.222:3001 (temporary url)
http://explorer.vites.io (this will be the final url. It might not work yet)
The coins not claimed are going to be burned or used for bounties. However, depending on the amount of unclaimed coins, we will advise on the final decision for handling these unclaimed coins. The same applies to those extra coins above 35b.
___________________________________________________________________
Specs information
Ticker: VITES
PoS algorithm: Nist5
Block time: ± 2,5 minutes
Block size: 8 MB
Block rewards: 20% year one
Difficulty: re-target 60 minutes
Confirmation time: 10 blocks (± 25 minutes)
Stake maturity: 30 blocks (± 75 minutes)
Minimum age to stake: 8 hours
PoS Period: Infinite
Time until all coins are mined: At current PoS rate 1,5–2 years. But, within or after the first year, we may re-adjust the PoS rate to a significant lower ROI. In addition, we’re going the explore the benefits of adding masternodes. All the changes within or after the first year will be for the health of the project.
___________________________________________________________________
Website & social media
Website: https://vites.io
Twitter: https://twitter.com/viteseco
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vitesecosystem
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vitesecosystem
Discord: https://discord.gg/yk4ueMk
Telegram community: t.me/vitesofficial
Telegram announcements: t.me/vitesnews
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvjD7HWY3OWBKAR0gmDj3QA?view_as=subscriber
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/VitesEcosystem/
Bitcointalk: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4740060.0
Author: Future
Image: Shof & 2+2=4 | https://medium.com/vitesecosystem/swap-announcement-f81ffbdc7b62 | [] | 2018-09-10 16:54:24.225000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Altcoins', 'Freelance', 'Bitcoin', 'Cryptocurrency'] |
AVADO Launches Plug-and-Play Hardware Nodes for Avalanche | Validators are an essential part of Avalanche. They help secure the platform by processing the transactions on the platform in return for rewards in AVAX; the more active validators there are on Avalanche, the more secure the platform becomes. Today, there are 600+ block-producing validators on Avalanche.
To become a validator, you must set up an Avalanche node, which requires actively meeting the staking parameters and additional technical expertise. Some may prefer to have control over the process end-to-end, while for others, configuring and running your own node to validate may not be the best option.
Blockchain computers enable anyone to run a blockchain validator out-of-the-box. By running your own node, you also forgo the expense of paying for cloud infrastructure services.
“With AVADO, the biggest challenge on staking with Avalanche is to have 2,000 AVAX. We make it really simple to run the Avalanche node and access a staking wallet on a dedicated device running from your home. Optimal convenience with maximum privacy and supporting decentralization.” — Bernd Lapp, CEO of AVADO
Making Avalanche Nodes Even Easier to Launch and Maintain
Avalanche is now supported by AVADO, one of the leading providers of hardware nodes for networks like Bitcoin and Ethereum. AVADO takes all of the configuration pain away with their suite of blockchain computers–ranging from the lightweight AVADO i2 up to the AVADO i7.
Avalanche is designed to be a lightweight, user-friendly protocol to implement and run with limited hardware. The integration with AVADO also substantially lowers the barrier to entry for an entirely new wave of adopters to launch their own nodes and contribute to Avalanche’s rapid and unprecedented decentralization. Running an Avalanche node now requires no coding experience. Existing AVADO users can run an Avalanche node alongside or in-place of a node dedicated to another network. | https://medium.com/avalancheavax/avado-launches-plug-and-play-hardware-nodes-for-avalanche-d83cf973b609 | [] | 2020-11-18 18:22:47.229000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Node', 'Community', 'Avalanche', 'Crypto'] |
HOW TO TAKE CARE OF YOUR EYELASH EXTENSIONS TWEEZERS | Turning into a specialist in our field can’t occur without adapting everything to think about the devices and methods that make our work conceivable. The more comfortable we become with our eyelash extensions tweezers, the snappier they’ll turn into an expansion of our fingers, enabling us to work without breaking a sweat. You could never deal with your lash expansions with something besides the most extreme delicacy, so for what reason should your tweezers be any extraordinary? There are huge amounts of things you can do to secure these sensitive instruments with a smidgen of exertion, you can guarantee that your lash augmentation tweezers stay as valuable to you as their first day at work.
CLEAN UP ANY EXCESS LASH GLUE BEFORE STORING THEM AWAY
When you’ve completed with a customer, you’ll need to hide your lash items so they don’t get dusty or messy, toss out any expendable devices like lash wands and eye cushions, and tidy up your tweezers. Your tweezers can get a wide range of overabundance glue which can harm the fragile plating within the tip, and if the glue fixes, you’ll be screwed over thanks to sticky tweezers that trap augmentations. In the event that overabundance cement on your tweezers is a common issue for you, it means you’re either utilizing an excess of glue or not detaching long enough before giving up. Relieved glue on your eyelashes tweezers should chip appropriate off with a fingernail, or you can utilize a nail scrape to deliberately wear out the cement to a point where you can chip it off. Never use lash augmentation remover on your tweezers-that can wear on the completion.
CLEAN AND DISINFECT YOUR TOOLS EFFECTIVELY
After each arrangement, you’ll have to clean and purify your tweezers appropriately so they’re protected to use with your next customer. Each eyelash expansion affirmation program ought to have shown you the fundamentals of sterilizing your apparatuses, yet a snappy boost never stings. To begin with, disinfect your devices by clearing off all unmistakable flotsam and jetsam. At that point, clean them with barricade. You’ll have to utilize 2 oz of barricade concentrate to each 32 oz of virus water — any less won’t appropriately sanitize your instruments. Your tweezers should be in contact with the fluid for 10 minutes so as to be considered completely sterile. Tenderly spot the tweezers in the barricade arrangement watch those fragile tips-and ensure they’re not chancing upon one another in the container. When ten minutes have slipped by, haul them out, and place them on a perfect paper towel so they can air dry.
STORE THEM IN A CASE
Your tweezers are a standout among-est the most significant devices out of your whole reserve of lash augmentation supplies-their fine focuses are the main thing that can control fragile lash expansions and get them precisely where you need them to go. The most ideal way you can secure the fine pointed tips of your lash augmentation tweezers is to store them in a defensive case. There are huge amounts of various choices at each cost point — this smooth case is padded within to secure the fine purposes of up to six of your tweezers at once, and has an attractive conclusion which guarantees that it stays shut even in travel. It’s a basic venture that ensures your most valuable and most diligent devices.
HAVE AN EXTRA PAIR AROUND, JUST IN CASE
Mishaps occur. eyelashes extensions tweezers are commonly, sensitive items, and albeit most matches are made of tempered steel, even a straightforward fall can harm fragile tips and cause them to twist, or scratch their outside. On the off chance that you don’t make a point to dependably store your tweezers for a situation, you should keep an extra pair around consistently. You don’t need a brief moment tumble to destroy an arrangement, and you certainly would prefer not to need to go out and discover another pair if your preferred tweezers twist. When you discover a couple that works for you, request a couple of all the more just to have around. It might appear to be superfluous, however trust us, you’ll be happy you prepared.
AVOID HAND CLEANER WHEN HANDLING YOUR TWEEZERS
Avoid Hand Cleaner
Many lash augmentation preparing projects show their understudies to utilize hand cleaner generously during customer arrangements so as to rehearse great propensities for self-disinfection. While disinfection is an inconceivably significant procedure, you ought to be cautious with most generally accessible hand cleaner around your lash augmentation tweezers. In the event that your preferred tweezers are done in gold, you should ensure your hands are totally dry subsequent to putting close by cleaner, before getting your tweezers. The hand cleaner can strip away the beautiful gold completion.
ENSURE THE TENSION WORKS FOR YOU
Getting a pristine pair of tweezers is exciting on the off chance that you can locate the correct pair that works for you. Lashes from various eyelash expansion organizations fluctuate in size and surface, so ensure whatever tweezers you purchase works with your preferred brands. At Lash Affair, the majority of our tweezers are carefully assembled with super-light pressure which is intended to avoid exhaustion. On the off chance that you discover a couple of tweezers you like, however the strain isn’t exactly right, you can tenderly destroy the different sides separated to make a bigger hole, which will give you increasingly pressure. Our tweezers make it simple to alter the strain just as you would prefer. Simply be cautious utilizing an excessive amount of power can harm them.
There’s no compelling reason to approach your tweezers like a child. A couple of basic advances like the ones we’ve quite recently illustrated for you will guarantee that your tweezers are shielded from the mileage of both use and travel. Thinking about your eyelash extensions tweezers is a key piece of figuring out how to be the best lash craftsman you can be. In case regardless you’re scanning for the best strategy for putting away and thinking about your tweezers, connect with us for a free meeting. Regardless of whether you aren’t utilizing our items, we generally need to enable deep rooted understudies to grasp the craft of lashing.
Alternative Best Links:
Volume Lash Tweezers
Tweezers for eyebrow
Eyelashes with the applicator
lash lifting tools & lash separating tools | https://medium.com/@innovab705/how-to-take-care-of-your-eyelash-extensions-tweezers-faf768082a47 | ['Innova Beauty'] | 2019-07-16 09:55:18.879000+00:00 | ['Instruments', 'Suppliers', 'Beauty', 'Manufacturing'] |
5’2 nd 5’5💞🌎 | Yea…when I said I can leave him for his happiness I found my self too foolish…why ami that foolish to him…god may know tht right…bla bla bla what ever…but I’m not finding his replies…I’m not finding his messages…what’s wrong with my foolish love…what’s Wrong with my selfish love towards him…!?
Hush god whatever Ive decided to end up this story…the story of one of my foolish love…but how can I…how can I be happy after leaving that love…!?
Yea when this sort of thought came into my mind…I received a message saying “I MISSED UH BBY" and how come it would be true…!? How come he would be that thoughtless about me…this is what I always feel regret about my love…
I always see his picture in my eyes when I’m near that mirror…what to do know..have you any idea about my madness…!!?
Damn handsome man…he was my heart I saw…but how to feel myself getting rid from this…!? May I go far to him…or else may I go far to my life…
My happy place or my sad place was he…but now I’ve became the cruel minded girl ever…
“ I do love you till the extinct if this sky…
I do love uh till the extinct of this world….
Uh were my frst message…nd also uh were my last message ever…
How come uh become the faded moon to my life…
As uh know I’m always that star which follows moon..
But why my moon had changed his phase of never appearing back…
Should I wait for uh…or shall I move on by my habits of forgetting uh..!!!?”
I hope uh may read this👀💞
Bye bye gud ni8 guys😋 thanx for listening for this mad girl🙌💞 | https://medium.com/@siri-chandana2k03/52-nd-5-5-c4c88b801bee | [] | 2021-07-20 17:11:36.098000+00:00 | ['Life', 'Baby', 'Storytelling', 'Writer', 'Love'] |
Learn to Speak Millennial, Gen X, and iGen | The Multipurpose Room hosted Dillon Kalkhurst, author of Generation Everyone!– a guide to generational harmony at work, school, and the home — to share tips on how to effectively communicate to the multi-generational audience of the PTA, PTO or school.
Over the last decade or so, the generations that are present within the school system have broadened. In fact, there are five generations actively participating in today’s economy. The elementary, middle school, and high school stages are seeing an influx of Millennial and Gen X parents, whereas kindergarteners bring a concentration of Gen Z parents — individuals that are barely 25. There’s also an inpour of Boomers and the Silent Generation, mainly seen in the form of grandparents who’ve become primary caretakers for their grandkids.
However, a generational disconnect exists, and this is most apparent in the way that we communicate with one another. This disconnect can result in various challenges, mainly because there is a difference in the way one generation likes to receive information from another. For instance, a lot of legacy brands use print material as their main form of communication, a medium, that if used alone, doesn’t resonate well with busy, high tech parents. Making sure that we are resonating with all those generations is important in the school and/or parent teacher association’s mission of children’s advocacy and advancement of their education.
Navigating Generational Differences in Communication Styles
While there are a multitude of generations present within the educational system, K-12 education is primarily dominated by Millennials, Gen X, and Boomers. Naturally, there’s going to be a difference in the way that these generations communicate, so, here’s a short breakdown:
Boomers
The grandparent generation, they’ll be most comfortable — and familiar — with face-to-face communication. Nine times out of ten, you’ll come across a person who would much prefer a personal phone call than a text, with the latter even bordering on offensive. Of course, COVID has brought about some changes, namely in the face of Boomers now using Facebook and Facetime to stay connected in a world wrought by social distancing and lockdowns.
Gen X
These people are known as the generation of emailers, and often you’ll find that the Gen X portion of your school community has a separate folder set-up for all things school-related. But it’s also interesting to note that Gen X is pretty flexible in terms of communication. They’ll respond to emails, they’ll use Facebook, they’ll be up for phone calls, and texting is right down their niche. So, in that aspect, they’re easy to reach.
Millennials
With millennials, you really need to break them up into two categories since they encompass such a large age difference. With the older of the lot — the elementary and middle school parents — Facebook is a great tool for communication. After all, these people are the certified over-sharers, so they’re unlikely to miss a message or notification sent on there. Schools should try their hand at messenger or a simple, quick text, so best to keep your emails short and sweet if you’re opting for them.
As for the younger millennials, they’re app-based. From TikTok to Snapchat to Instagram, they’ve got all the platforms covered. However, they do tend to be Facebook-averse, particularly because of the connected privacy restrictions.
Learning the Art of Engagement
Knowing what mediums to use for communication is the first step, but engagement is just as important. Again, with engagement, the method varies according to the group and purpose. The key idea is to approach each individual using a communication medium and language that they are most familiar with.
So, let’s take a look:
Parent Teacher Organization Volunteers: Millennials
PTAs are always trying to get more parents to volunteer, and you’d be surprised to find out that most parents that don’t volunteer don’t do so because they say they were never asked! This is where the medium makes a comeback as it’s important to ask yourself what platform you were using to communicate. Was it one that hit your target audience?
As a general rule, when asking parents to volunteer, it’s best to do so through as many ways as possible so you can get a higher reach. Recognizing your volunteers is also great as it gives parents an incentive to take part. And of course, parents want to know how their volunteering is going to help their child, so it’s best to make the communication process narrower. Why not have class teachers reach out to parents instead of sending a blanket school notice whenever there’s a need for volunteers?
Timing is also of the essence, and it’s best to reach out to potential volunteers all year-round instead of just near the event. And along with that goes the way you speak. Your language needs to match your audience. For instance, if you’re addressing young parents, make sure to avoid ‘boring’ words like meetings or responsibilities.
PTA/PTO Volunteers: Gen X
Gen X parents are much more straightforward. They like communication to be short and sweet, just tell them what to do and they’ll get it done. Gen X is also surprisingly busy, which means that while they want to give their all to their child’s school, they would love a schedule that’s flexible. So, that’s something to keep in mind when reaching out for Gen X volunteers.
Student Volunteers: iGen
Once you start getting into high school, PTAs, PTOs and other organizations start to communicate directly with students. This is yet another generation to take into account. Today’s high schoolers are a lot more educated than the previous generation was at their age. They’ve got access to more resources and more information channels, and the best way to engage with them is by empowering them. Let them contribute, let them take initiative, and you’ll soon see just how much they have to give.
Summary
Although this is a lot of information, there are a couple of key takeaways to ensure you’re resonating with the broadest possible audience:
Be open-minded
Be inclusive
Be aware
Embrace the differences
Communicate on multiple platforms
Keep the children as your primary focus
If you manage to do all that then you’ll have effective communication under your belt in no time. | https://medium.com/@k12clothing/learn-to-speak-millennial-gen-x-and-igen-512b070792e7 | [] | 2021-01-15 21:28:11.434000+00:00 | ['Volunteer', 'Communication', 'Schools', 'Millennials', 'Social Media'] |
GigaLife APK | Hi friends, GigaLife is the top Android apps with over 10.000.000 download from Google Play. This is the popular product of Smart Communications, Inc..
APK file size of this app is 138M, and we suggest you use the Wi-fi connection when download to save your 3G data. GigaLife works with Android “5.0” and higher version, so please check your system before install. Of course this is the best apps with average rate point is 3 and 177013 of 5 stars rate.
Latest update of apps is 2021–12–06, if you have any trouble with GigaLife, feel free to go Smart Communications, Inc. website and contact to developer. We hope you enjoyed this apps and rate it or share with your friends on Facebook, Twitter.
FAQs
What is GigaLife app?
As mobile users rely on their smartphone to help them in their daily life, the GigaLife App aims to gives subscribers a simple, easy, and smart way to manage their digital activities through convenient features — from balance and account details inquiry, promo and add-on registration, account reloading, viewing of …
How do you use GigaLife app?
How to Manage your Smart Bro Account via Giga Life App
Step 1: Download the Giga Life App.
Step 2: Set Up your Giga Life App. Connect your smartphone to your Pocket WiFi. Open the Giga Life App to log in. The app will automatically detect your Smart Bro MIN. Click continue to proceed.
What is the use of GigaLife?
Downloadable on the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store, the GigaLife App enables prepaid subscribers to check their balance, monitor their data usage, and register to promos with just a few taps on their smartphone. They can also link all their other Smart and TNT accounts in the app.
How do I register for GigaLife?
Dial *123#….Via APP:
Download app in the Play Store or App Store.
Access the New GigaLife App.
Look for ‘MORE GIGA’ > ‘GIGA STUDY’ in the menu.
Go to ‘GIGA STUDY’ and select preferred GIGA STUDY variant.
Click SUBSCRIBE then YES to confirm registration.
How do I redeem my GigaLife points?
User will login on the GigaLife App.
Launch GigaPoints home screen.
Select the Giga or Unli promo to be redeemed.
Select Redeem on the pop-up screen to confirm redemption.
How to use GigaLife App?
Download the GigaLife App on Google Play Store or Apple App Store.
Open the GigaLife App.
Upon your first login, you’ll be asked to switch on your mobile data (if you’re connected to WiFi, turn it off) so that the app will automatically recognize your mobile number.
>>> Soccer Super Star APK | https://medium.com/@apkdownloadblog/gigalife-apk-eeb08afab291 | ['Apk Download'] | 2021-12-24 09:15:03.335000+00:00 | ['App', 'Download', 'Game', 'Mobile', 'Android'] |
“That’s why I’m writing this; because misogyny in hip-hop is a plague and as a survivor, I have to… | “That’s why I’m writing this; because misogyny in hip-hop is a plague and as a survivor, I have to facilitate my own healing.” Adrienne Samuels Gibbs ·Dec 18, 2020
Illustration of Psalm One by Tiffany Burriss
Those are words by Psalm One, a rapper who says she was mistreated and sexually harassed by her record label. She also writes that she is a failed rapper, but perhaps that is too harsh a statement to make at this moment. Still, she gives herself grace, especially knowing that queer female rappers are held to a different standard than any other. Psalm One writes about her experiences and ultimately, her journey to healing herself. | https://zora.medium.com/thats-why-i-m-writing-this-because-misogyny-in-hip-hop-is-a-plague-and-as-a-survivor-i-have-to-362fd8fd0fbc | ['Adrienne Samuels Gibbs'] | 2020-12-18 06:33:09.689000+00:00 | ['Healing', 'Equality', 'Music', 'Psalm One', 'Hip Hop'] |
An Interview with Rebecca Samuels, Crypto #TaxBae | I had the pleasure of interviewing Rebecca Samuels of Pythagus, LLC.
She is a Certified Public Accountant and an Enrolled Agent, an Army Reserve veteran, and a former teen mom who overcame a lot of odds to get to where she is today.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! What is your “backstory”?
LOL- that is a loaded question depending on which area of my life we are coming from. However, to summarize, I am a woman who loves learning. Each endeavor I choose to embark on, I take tons of time to learn about it to become well-versed, so I can make educated decisions. That’s how I ended up serving in the Army, that’s how I became self-employed, and that is also how I ended up in the crypto space.
Can you tell me about the most interesting projects you are working on now?
Well first and for most, launching my own business was a HUGE project that I am working on continuously since its inception 7/28/2017.
As an introvert, I have had to fight through those barriers to get out and network with people that may want to do business with me or that I can do business with, grow and learn from. It was a challenge at first however since then, I have been on a few panels and completed a few interviews to market myself and my business.
Aside from that, I am currently seeking projects to gain more experience within the crypto space. I would love to be on an advisory board or two, help launch a successful project, and just learn more about the technology that will impact us. I am currently in talks with a few different organizations, so we will see which one pans out.
What are the 5 things that most excite you about crypto? Why?
This is like the second coming of the internet. I was about 11 when the internet came out so I didn’t understand any of it and since then, so I missed out on all the fun. Well, now I get the chance to be apart of a second coming sort of speak. The technology is amazing. Blockchain solves a lot of problems (such as the
accounting double entry) and prevents fraud. Things will get much easier when this technology is wide spread implemented. I love the camaraderie among investors, developers, miners, etc. People are truly engaged in this topic and come together at meet ups. Everyone is excited about this! The backstory is interesting. I remember back in 2014, I learned about Bitcoin and Silk Road, the black market and etc. I was taught how to use Torrent, VPNs, etc. I didn’t realize how that was just the start. (I wish I invested in Bitcoin back then lol). I can use my accounting and tax skills/experience to help clients keep their records in check and who want to pay their taxes. This is such a nice bridge from my profession to a topic I am really interested in.
What are the 5 things worry you about crypto? Why?
Not sure if I can come up with anything as of yet. I am more intrigued to see where this is going to go and I am still learning the down sides to this space.
What 3 things would you advise to someone who wanted to emulate your career? Can you share an example for each idea?
Continuing education. The only thing that is constant is change and information changes daily. My field requires a bachelor’s degree, tons of hours of studying and work experience. You will need the education and continuing education to be successful. Find a niche to focus on and network in. Me choosing cryptocurrency as my niche has led me to various networking groups, which has helped grow my business. Stay focused and motivated — there will be days when things aren’t going correctly, and you will face significant challenges. What I have found is things eventually work out if you keep motivated and focused on the task at hand.
Watch the full interview below: | https://medium.com/authority-magazine/an-interview-with-rebecca-samuels-crypto-taxbae-5af72986d76f | ['Charles Wu'] | 2018-06-05 15:45:13.440000+00:00 | ['Pythagus Llc', 'Blockchain', 'Bitcoin', 'CEO', 'Taxes'] |
The Devil, and Bobby, and Me | The Kid-n-Babe appeared in white spray-paint above the Rock, on a large boulder facing the ocean.
Let’s put it another way — my capacity to know when I was in danger and to protect myself had been dismantled when I was a younger child. So, faced with this new world, the part of me that might have said RUN, didn’t kick in. My Catholic, hippie childhood led me toward the edge, not away from it.
Don’t judge. Have compassion. Love others. Say yes. Don’t say no. Love comes in all different forms. All of these things were refrains from my childhood. Bobby looked at me with his unblinking sea-green eyes and captured me easily.
He had a studio apartment and one day, he told me to come to a party. As far as I can recall, I was the only female in the room when I arrived.
Collage by Emilie Mitcham, 1992.
This wasn’t unusual. Bobby put rum and coke in a plastic cup, handed it to me and then took me by the hand to lead me into the bathroom. The other men waved goodbye to us merrily.
Bobby pulled a red chiffon scarf out of his back pocket and placed it gently over the vanity light at the sink. I watched big white bubbles form as he poured green dish soap into the running water. He wanted us to take a bath together. He wanted me to take off my clothes. The fuzzy pink light, the fuzzy white bubbles, the fuzzy feeling in my head — none of it was real. I was Babe. I was in a movie about a girl from Kentucky, new to Brooklyn. Or I was a breathless virgin from my paperback novel.
I was drunk.
I dropped all my clothes on the floor in a pile. I tried not to look at Bobby. I looked around the bathroom like I was assessing its dimensions. Bobby stepped over the tub’s rounded edge and held out his hand for me — he was a prince escorting me into a carriage. He leaned against the back of the tub and positioned me between his legs, with my back against him. His hands roved my body and I tried to be still.
My body floated in the tub with this man who said I was his girl, and I rose silently up and out of my body, to a corner of the room where I could watch the action from a safe distance.
Bobby stood up, dripping water on the skinny, small girl in the tub. She kept her eyes down, and she blinked as the water fell on her face. Bobby reached across for the towel and pulled her out of the tub. He dried her off gently, seemingly with great care. He was happy, smiling — looking at the girl’s face intently, and trying to catch her eye. Moving the hair out of her face, and kissing her.
She took a piece of the towel and bent her face into it, rubbing, and Bobby chided her. That’s not how you dry your face! You’re supposed to blot it, like this. He lightly blotted her face the right way.
See!? I said to myself, from up in the corner of the room. He’s gentle, not mean. He loves her! Look how careful he is being with her.
Bobby put the thin, wet towel down on the floor neatly. The floor was cold. Bobby wanted me to look at him. I worried about the chiffon scarf over the light and whether it would catch on fire. I noticed that the bathroom floor was made of tiny tiles and that the molding where the tub met the floor was old and grey. I listened to the last of the water drain out of the tub. Glug, glug, glug.
We got dressed and walked out of the bathroom to applause. Lots of applause. They had all been waiting for this moment, just outside the room.
The Stones’ Beast of Burden was playing on the radio. I steadied myself with the countertop in the kitchen, and someone handed me another cup. My stomach hurt but I drank up like a good girl and then ran back to the damp bathroom to puke.
I came back again, wiping my mouth and drinking water now. Bobby looked at me indulgently.
Do you trust me? Now you’ll always be my Babe. Bobby whispered into my ear as the others looked on attentively.
I stood uncertainly, taking gulps from the tap water in my hand, and then looking around at the men who were my friends.
Do you trust me? He asked again.
Yes, I said.
My breath felt jagged. I was dizzy. I felt like I was drowning.
Bobby put his arm around the girl who was me, but also wasn’t me any longer, and walked her to the door. She walked home quietly, and alone. Bobby went back to the party to be the big shot.
The voice inside my head said, Stupid, fat cow. I had one very clear dismaying thought — I’d always heard that you never forget your first.
I felt the settling doom of the rest of my life, laid out for me in Technicolor. The rest of my life.
I took the story and I tucked it away.
I took the dirty bathroom floor, the glugs of the water in the tub, and the burn of rum in my throat, and stashed them away in a corner deep inside me where I would try to never look, again.
The men’s applause, their eyes trying to catch mine, the crooked window shade in the ratty apartment, and the casual arm that Bobby threw over my shoulder afterward. The smell of alcohol on his breath, the shuddering urgency to run and hunch over the toilet, and the taste of vomit — I took all of that and I put it away. Gone. I lost my virginity to Bobby. That was all I needed to remember.
I didn’t need to remember it was in a bathroom, at a party just for me, while others waited outside, and that I was only just barely fourteen years old and he was twenty-two. It was enough that I had lost my virginity to a man I thought of as my romantic hero. That was enough.
Got it? Got it. Done. Fine. Good. | https://emiliemitcham.medium.com/the-devil-and-bobby-and-me-e8df50c5fc59 | ['Emilie Mitcham'] | 2019-04-29 15:28:30.827000+00:00 | ['Recovery Success', 'Memoir', 'Coming Of Age', 'Feminism', 'Growing Up'] |
The Holocaust Child in Fact and Fiction [editing] | Auschwitz-Birkenau museum — courtesy Dimitras Vetsikas on Pixabay
LITERATURE
The Holocaust Child in Fact and Fiction [editing]
An exploration of narrative ownership
Since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dismantling of the Iron Curtain, it could be argued that the WWII event with the most enduring influence over geopolitics and western culture is the Holocaust. In its wake, a global awareness of the persecution of Jews emerged, which led to a climate of political acceptance for the establishment of the nation of Israel. Its architects believed that a homeland would end the Jewish predicament of perpetual wandering and ensure cultural survival. The ensuing Middle East conflict has dominated global public discourse ever since.
When adults discuss the problem of evil with children, the Holocaust is cited as a primary example. The human experience of Holocaust survivors uncovered a trove of stories begging to be told. As the graphic horror of the concentration camps was too disturbing for mass consumption, other, less traumatizing narratives would introduce the world to the institutionalized evil of the period. The plight of the Holocaust child was among the first such portrayals in literature and art.
The Diary of Anne Frank is the most famous account of a child’s Holocaust odyssey. The protagonist is a school-aged Jewish girl living in hiding in Nazi-occupied Holland. Her diary entries document both the fear of her predicament and the wonderment and naïveté of her age.
There is another childhood Holocaust narrative in contemporary literature told from the viewpoint of a Jewish boy. The protagonist learns his family has been executed by the Nazis. Left to survive by his wits at the mercy of strangers, he drifts throughout the countryside, hiding his ethnic identity lest he is identified by Nazi forces or hostile locals.
The most famous of these is The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski. Published as a novel in 1965, it was met with widespread acclaim, receiving France’s Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger. As the first account of its kind, it was hailed as an instant classic and translated into multiple languages.
The book was controversial in its portrayal of Polish peasantry. The main character is subjected to abuse and trauma as he drifts around rural Poland where he witnesses incest, bestiality and rape. With its foray into taboo subjects, The Painted Bird acquired an underground cachet.
In 1967, Jack Kuper published his memoir of growing up as an orphaned Polish Jew in Nazi-occupied, rural Poland. Child of The Holocaust details his boyhood experience being taken on as a farmhand by a Polish family. He later learns that his family has been captured by the Nazis.
Unlike Kosinski’s traumatized character in The Painted Bird, Kuper was kept alive by the kindness and, occasionally, the indifference of Polish strangers. Fearing that trusting the wrong person could end in persecution and death, he dropped all pretense of Jewish identity to stay alive only to later reconnect with his heritage and reclaim his sense of self. Kuper’s account has been widely translated and is still in print today.
Jerzy Kosinski enjoyed continued literary success after The Painted Bird. His next book, Steps, won the National Book Award in 1969. Being There was made into a movie starring Peter Sellers and Shirley MacLaine. He won the 1971 Oscar for Best Screenplay. He enjoyed celebrity status, appearing no fewer than twelve times on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. By way of his friendship with Polish filmmaker Roman Polanski, he furthered his legend as a defier of fate in a macabre chain of events.
Author Jerzy Kosinski — Photo courtesy of Rob Mieremet — Wikimedia commons
In August 1969, he was invited to stay at the Benedict Canyon home of Polanski and his wife, Sharon Tate. His luggage was misdirected en route from Paris to Los Angeles and his travels were delayed by a day. As he waited for his next flight, the notorious Manson Family carried out the gruesome murders of Sharon Tate and her guests.
Warren Beatty cast Kosinski as a Bolshevik Revolutionary in his epic film, Reds, about the American Communist Party. He posed for celebrity photographer Annie Liebovitz in the New York Times Magazine. His marriage to heiress and socialite Mary Weir thrust him deeper into the world of wealth, celebrity and privilege. These associations would find their way into his writing, most notably in Blind Date and Passion Play. | https://medium.com/exploring-history/the-holocaust-child-in-fact-and-fiction-461f99a49573 | ['Stuart Grant'] | 2020-11-13 14:03:14.937000+00:00 | ['Novel', 'Literature', 'Holocaust', 'History', 'Memoir'] |
The Wisdom of our Intuition | Do you listen to that little voice inside your head? How often do you pay attention vs brush it off?
Over the last couple years, I’ve had some experiences that were really important, that only happened because I had the courage to listen to my guiding voice. We call it intuition. But I truly believe that it’s your higher self speaking to you.
So what is your higher self? The way I think of it, it’s your soul, or at least, your connection to it. The reason that our intuition is guiding us is because it’s our higher self/soul pushing you toward the best version of yourself. Guiding you to your greatest and highest good, and to your life’s purpose. The Universe assists in this by always giving us opportunities to learn and to make the decision that best serves us — even if those decisions are hard, and they often are.
A great example in my life was when I chose to leave St Thomas. To most people, living in the Caribbean seems like a dream come true, but after five years, I had learned my lessons and had my adventures, and I was feeling more stagnant and unhappy than ever.
I was working in a restaurant, something I’ve done forever, and had been unfulfilled with for a few solid years at that point. I needed a change, but another restaurant wasn’t the answer. It wasn’t the place I was working, it was the work itself. Or it was the island. Or the tourists. Or all of it combined. I craved growth and expansion that I knew I needed to get from somewhere other than the island. I’d known for a little while that I wanted to move back to the states, but I just kept letting a slew of excuses keep me stuck: Corey had just started a new career in fitness…I was “too important” to leave my job…I wanted to pay down some debt before we moved so we could better afford it…
Finally, through a conversation with my life coach, I realized a few things. First, if money wasn’t an issue and I could get on a plane tomorrow and leave, I absolutely would. That’s when I knew it was time to go. Next I accepted that the restaurant would indeed survive my departure — people leaving is the nature of owning a business, and I am replaceable despite what the Leo in me might like to think. I also came to the realization that I had been in debt for the entire five years I’d lived there…and had been “trying” to pay it off for five years. If it hadn’t happened by then (I hadn’t even made a dent), why did I think staying to work one more miserable season would make a difference? That doesn’t make any damn sense. And Corey, being the wonderfully supportive guy he is, he barely fought me on leaving once I explained how important it was to me.
My coach put it something like this — If you go left when you should be going right, the Universe will make it pretty hard for you. It’s trying to get you on the path you should be going, and it will pummel you pretty good to get you there. That was such an awesome revelation for me, because I hadn’t been listening to my guiding voice and I knew it. I had chosen to let the excuses take over, and it showed in the quality of my life.
Now as backward as this is going to sound, being stuck serves our human selves in some ways (and only for the short-term). Change is hard, and is so uncomfortable that we tend to avoid it at all costs. My being stuck was serving me in that it let me stay in my comfort zone, not confront my feelings, not tackle the major work that it is to uproot your life and actually figure out what’s next. It was all fear-based, and since I wasn’t doing what was in my best interest, I just got more miserable, picked more fights with Corey, got more resentful of my job, felt more stuck, got in more debt, didn’t appreciate where we lived anyway, and on and on and on. So you can see how it served my short-term interest, but it came at a cost. Once I had the courage to listen to my intuition and take action on what I already knew to be true, everything changed for the better.
Now we live in Southern California. I’m in a better mental space. I’m actually enjoying restaurant work for the first time in a long time, I just graduated school for Health Coaching, I’ve made fulfilling connections, and I’m working on a career where I get to help people — which is another thing my intuition has been telling me for a long time that I have been pushing down, not wanting to acknowledge.
What are some areas in your life where you’re feeling stuck? Have you thought about how staying there serves you? What would happen if you had the courage to listen to the voice that guides you?
Having the courage to leave island was an important lesson for me! I’m still continuing to be brave enough to listen to my voice. It’s a daily practice. And I understand more now that that little voice has all the answers. | https://medium.com/@jaime-bosworth/the-wisdom-of-our-intuition-a41062298fbf | ['Jaime Bosworth'] | 2020-12-06 01:14:44.640000+00:00 | ['Little Voice', 'Universe', 'Higher Self', 'Guiding Voice', 'Intuition'] |
Blockchain payments put more money in merchants’ pockets | Unless you work in the payments industry, you’ve probably not spent a great deal of time thinking about how credit cards work. You take your item to the cash register, you swipe your card, and then the purchase shows up on your bank or credit card statement.
… it’s complicated
Like with many things in life, there is more to this process than meets the eye. Consider this scenario: your laptop has just had its third birthday, which means that it’s well on its way towards planned obsolescence.
You go online, find the model you like, and make the purchase for $1000.
Behind the scenes
Your $1000 purchase goes straight into the pocket of the merchant, right? Well, not exactly. In total, there are about a dozen steps from the initial purchase to the merchant reaching your payment. You can find a good breakdown of the process here.
From this initial $1000 purchase with your Visa card, after each intermediary has taken its cut, the merchant will receive $944.20.
That seems like a lot… so where does this $55.80 go?
First up is the interchange fee of $25.10, which goes to the acquiring bank — i.e. the merchant’s bank.
The payment processor (PayPal in our example) then takes a cut of $29.30, comprised of 2.9% of the purchase + $0.30 processing fee.
Finally, assessment fees of $1.40 (0.14% of the purchase) are levied by card/payment network (Visa).
Surprise! Blockchain payments are cheaper!
We already know that payments made on blockchain networks can be faster and much cheaper than more traditional methods. But adoption amongst both consumers and retailers lags behind contexts like trade finance.
Luckily, there are a growing number of popular companies like Microsoft, T-Mobile, and Shopify that allow consumers to use crypto to pay for goods.
What if the shop accepted crypto?
For this same $1,000 purchase, let’s look at the fee structure using Nano. The transaction fee is $0.00 and the processing fee from CoinGate is $10, or 1% of the purchase cost. There are no assessment fees, meaning that the merchant ends up with $990.00 worth of Nano.
Depending on preference, the merchant can then decide to convert this crypto back into fiat currency for a fee of 1% + $0.15, bringing the total fiat currency they receive to $979.95. This means that an extra $35.75 goes into the merchant’s pocket if they accept Nano. Transactions with Stellar and XRP yield similar values. | https://medium.com/blockdata/blockchain-payments-put-more-money-in-merchants-pockets-cbb0d4174356 | [] | 2019-04-18 10:14:57.937000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Ripple', 'Bitcoin', 'Payments'] |
Gold is Gold is Gold | Anomaly that is Digital gold
Digital gold caught my attention after RBI put a stop to the wallet party with its master directions on issuance and operations of prepaid instruments in October 2017, mandating KYC for wallets. No wallets led to creative places to hold cashbacks. Cashbacks turned into gift cards and gold back programs.
Digital gold does not require a KYC or PAN. Payment platforms ( PayTM/GooglePay) allow users to buy, hold and sell digital gold. This seems a lot like a wallet ( with GST while buying and a different sell price ). PayTM also allows for gifting gold and using the accumulated gold to pay for gold purchases in a store.
RBI defines a Prepaid Instrument as “PPIs are payment instruments that facilitate purchase of goods and services, including financial services, remittance facilities, etc., against the value stored on such instruments.” This looks and works like a Prepaid Instrument with value stored as gold. Why isn’t it regulated like a Prepaid Instrument? Vaguely related: Elsewhere in the world, people have sued airline miles programs for the inability to withdraw airline miles points as cash.
Folks like PayTM also structured the product as a savings platform. What is worrying here is that there seems to be no single regulator running this product. Niti Aayog’s report suggesting ways to improve India’s gold market goes more into this.
The same gold purchased through a Gold Mutual Fund has regulatory protection, stronger KYC requirements, transparent commission structures, and redressal mechanisms.
MMTC-PAMP, one of the providers of digital gold has the following in its FAQ :
Partner Platform is only providing a platform for the customer to access the Gold Accumulation Plan of MMTC-PAMP, India.
You are responsible for keeping your Partner Platform account details in a secure manner corresponding to existing Partner Platform terms and conditions.
MMTC-PAMP will act solely on instructions received on the Partner Platform, and will not be liable for any losses/ liabilities due to a breach/misuse of your Partner Platform account.
Personally, this does not inspire much confidence.
When the underlying asset is the same, why are there different AML/KYC norms? Read the next section to see the verbose differences between different gold products.
If I were to extend this logic, would a gold-backed cryptocurrency be legal in India without the requirement for regulation?
This is another example of how a lack of clear regulation favors bigger players with legal teams get to play with smaller players sitting out. | https://blog.baseaccount.com/gold-is-gold-is-gold-dbcc5b5762f9 | ['Praneeth Bodduluri'] | 2019-11-15 11:07:23.240000+00:00 | ['Regulation', 'Wallet', 'Fintech', 'India', 'Gold'] |
Learn To Adapt: 5 Ways To Boost Your Adaptability | 1. Get out of your comfort zone
What forced us to grow adaptable in the first place was the lack of a comfort zone. Predators would hunt us in our favorite spots, food wouldn’t just wait for us in the refrigerator, and every wrong move was often deadly.
But nowadays, we have monotonous lives, a stable income, a secure home, and no conflict. This is our comfort zone. We can live in it today and in 30 years. As long as nothing changes, we have all we essentially need.
You aren’t looking for a better job right now, though you’re not entirely happy with the one you got.
You aren’t looking for a new home, though you still hate that the living room gets quite cold in the winter and you have to let the heater run 24/7.
And that’s what is keeping you in the same spot. Comfort.
If you were to lose your job or home tomorrow, your first reaction would be shock. What to do now? You are unprepared.
The comfort zone is a psychological state in which one feels familiar, safe, at ease, and secure. You never change your life until you step out of your comfort zone; change begins at the end of your comfort zone.
― Roy T. Bennett
But if you stop accepting your current comfortable situation as given and constantly search for ways to challenge the status quo, you will grow more flexible and adaptable to change. Not only that, but you will learn to constantly improve your system.
Start small. Go to a different restaurant next time. One that you’ve never been to before. They don’t offer any food items you like? Then order something new.
The goal is to make changes — however small — to your routine. Routine is your enemy. If you get used to something, you need to try something else. Do not settle within the status quo.
2. Change the way you think
One problem with the above is the way we usually think about tasks and outcomes. “That’s the way we’ve always done it” is a common phrase. But is it really the most effective way to do it?
Quick thinkers are resourceful. And lazy. But not in a bad way. They are lazy as in, if there’s an easier or more efficient way to do something, they will find it.
The trick is to first move outside your comfort zone, and then start working on making your new zone a new comfort zone. Then rinse and repeat.
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
— Albert Einstein
You need to change the way you think when deciding what to do and how to do it. Don’t take your current approach for the right way, the best way, or the true way. Look for flaws, find ways to improve it.
Almost every system in the world can still be improved upon today. And those who dare to try it are often the pioneers of success and change.
If you get used to change on a constant basis, then you will find it much easier to react to unforeseen changes. This will allow you to adapt quickly to new situations.
3. Accept failure and learn from it
How you deal with failure is a direct catalyst for your ability to adapt. Do you give up? Then you’re dead. Do you try again without making any changes to your approach? Then you’re still dead.
Do you analyze your mistakes and search for an alternative with better chances? That’s adapting. Learning from your mistakes and trying to improve on your past failure is adaption in progress.
Adapting is for a big part trial and error. Where there’s no trial, there won’t be any errors, but also no progress.
You don’t learn from successes; you don’t learn from awards; you don’t learn from celebrity; you only learn from wounds and scars and mistakes and failures. And that’s the truth.
— Jane Fonda
Growing a thick skin and being able to accept failure as a part of the process can help you with becoming more efficient.
You need to stay resilient when things don’t go as planned. Because when you want to test your newfound adaptability in a real situation, that’s exactly what you’ll need to do.
Many people have incredible problems with accepting failure. They try to ride a dead horse and refuse to move on. At the same time, they become hesitant to try new things, fearing it could only result in another failure.
Accept failure and siphon it for valuable experience and knowledge. Don’t get caught up with the fact something went wrong, but look at why it did. Then use that to do it better next time.
4. Know your values
As Sun Tzu once said: “If you know your enemy and you know yourself, you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.”
In order to achieve change — the battle — you need to know yourself as much as you need to know your enemy. What is important to you? What are you willing to do in order to get where you want to be?
If your will to remain the same is stronger than your will to change, then you will ultimately fail in your mission. Use your values as pivot points to set the machine in motion. It’s the leverage that will keep you motivated and engaged.
It’s very important for people to know themselves and understand what their value system is, because if you don’t know what your value system is, then you don’t know what risks are worth taking and which ones are worth avoiding.
— Ben Carson
To really get to know your values, you need to analyze yourself thoroughly. Your values are more than your basic sense of justice or common sense. Your values are both intrinsic and conditioned priorities you set in life every single day.
They define how ambitious you are, how resilient you are, and when you take risks, leaps of faith, and chances.
Mark Manson — the author of “the subtle art of not giving a f*ck” — wrote a great article to help you find your personal values, here on Medium.
Get to know your values. Because no matter how much change happens around you, your values remain the same. And they help you with taking the next step in a new situation.
5. Take a look at the bigger picture
When we’re caught up with a task, we tend to become self-centered, our vision limited. We don’t think ahead. But being able to see the entire forest is important if you want to adapt to a new situation efficiently.
You need to constantly remind yourself that there is always a bigger picture. Whether you are working as a creative for a client, or you are an author working on your next book. We always need to keep the entire picture in the frame.
If you’re working in a company, you’re working as a part of a big system. If you can understand and improve not only your own tasks but the system as a whole, you will be able to make bigger changes.
And if you understand how the entire system works, you can predict any changes that may affect you down the line. You can adapt before you will be forced to adapt.
You definitely have to think of the perception of things before you actually do certain things. It may not seem like it’s a big deal to you yourself, but there’s a bigger picture.
— Ezekiel Elliott
Being able to adapt means being able to understand the whole system. If something changes, but we don’t know why or how, it will catch us off-guard. And then we might stumble and fall.
Whenever a company or entrepreneur has written a success story, they did so by seeing the bigger picture. They did not only adapt to their immediate environment or situation, but to a whole ecosystem of change.
Learn to understand the entire system. Question how and why things are interweaved, and you will have a much easier time adapting to certain changes. | https://medium.com/the-innovation/learn-to-adapt-5-ways-to-boost-your-adaptability-666142da5315 | ['Kevin Buddaeus'] | 2020-11-11 22:02:57.422000+00:00 | ['Entrepreneurship', 'Psychology', 'Self Improvement', 'Life Lessons', 'Change'] |
How to Light a White Cyc | The studio already had three Arri Skypanel S-60Cs set up for the white cyc. And although the light output of the Nova P300cs is similar to that of the S-60cs, we agreed it would be better served to completely replace the S-60cs because of the slightly higher color reproduction from the Novas and their accessibility with Sidus Link.
Before rigging the Novas, it was essential to take a meter reading of the current setup to ensure that when the Novas are added, the lights at every part of the 26' curved wall was reading evenly throughout to match the previous setup (at an f/5.6).
But what if you don’t have a light meter in this circumstance? Well, you could instead turn on false color on a monitor or camera LCD. This would show where the hot spots are in the space or where there’s a discrepancy with the exposure (use your system’s IRE levels to read the exposure value).
This will significantly help you achieve balanced exposure when filming against a white cyc. As when filming against a completely white background, it’s often be challenging to identify an area with slightly different exposure values to the rest of the backdrop.
As an additional note, with monitors viewable and clients on set, you want to make sure your monitors have LUTs installed to give the client a near accurate depiction of what the image may look like. Too often, you will find clients may fall in love with the flat LOG look. And while it’s of their choice, you ideally want to move them away from that path.
Finally, before rigging the lights, you want to program them beforehand if you have network-compatible lights. We made sure to connect them with Sidus Link first. That way, we can control the intensity, color, and saturation of the lights remotely with an iPad or other device, making lighting adjustments quicker to manage.
Importantly, we can also name each of the lights within the app corresponding to their stage position. That way, we can quickly adjust the correct light when needed. | https://medium.com/aputure/lighting-a-cyc-with-aputure-nova-p300cs-9e898fbc5e86 | ['Lewis Mcgregor'] | 2021-06-17 03:10:03.969000+00:00 | ['Lighting', 'Aputure', 'Filmmaking', 'Lighting Design', 'Movies'] |
Why Time Series has to be STATIONARY ??? | This question choked me up for a long time when I had my first introduction to Time Series. I searched it all over, even took help from fellow kagglers but in vain. Recently, I got a great explanation.
Dependent & Independent data
First of all let’s clear this. Independent data can be any collection of samples independent of each other. Like Titanic, Household regression & so on.
Dependent data, as you would have guessed, samples dependent on each other. Like in Time Series. Here each sample is dependent on other samples present in the data
We must understand a thing, Independence cannot give us an idea of any sort of magnitude or pattern to follow up for prediction
Example-If two numbers are equal, we know their magnitudes are equal but if they are unequal, we don’t have any relation between their magnitudes. Like one can be double of other,1/2th of the other or even imaginary number. But the catch is WE DON’T KNOW the reason behind the inequality!
but for dependency, we can have some idea if we know at least one value. But we have got a problem, dependency can still take many forms. For Example-
Y=a+bX
Y=a+bX²
Y=a+bX³
here Y is dependent on X but each time the dependency takes a different form. But if we say Y is independent of X it can take any form.
Stationarity is just that form/model out of all the dependency models we use to find the relation between the samples in a time series & hence we try to bring our time series in stationary form.
Stationarity & Non-Stationary data
Like in the case of dependence & independence, the same goes for stationarity & non-stationarity. Like for stationarity we know we need constant mean, std & autocorrelation but for non-stationarity, we don’t know anything!! Non-stationarity, as discussed for independent data, can take any form. No fixed norms are present which can model non-stationary data like there exists ARIMA, AR, MA or any other model for stationary data.
The mean can be double, triple of the previous observations can be 0. The same goes for std & autocorrelation, hence it cannot be modeled & that’s why we convert non-stationary data to stationary first so as we know something about the features of this time series & hence can & apply our different models that I will be explaining in my next article!!! | https://medium.com/data-science-in-your-pocket/why-time-series-has-to-be-stationary-37ca8800ddf | ['Mehul Gupta'] | 2021-05-31 08:39:48.873000+00:00 | ['Time Series Forecasting', 'Stationary', 'Timeseries', 'Time Series Analysis', 'Stationary Time Series'] |
Video: A humbled Interview with the late John Bogle: Present and future | New Economic Thinking
A humbling interview with the late renowned Investment magnate John “Jack” Bogle who passed as recently as January 16th 2019. John was the founder of The Vanguard Group, a titan in mutual fund investment leading the way in indexing markets.
In this short cut interview John speaks of the Long term issues we face but are confronting with myopic short-term-ism. These issues are far broader humanitarian problems that we face going forward as he takes a step back from the focus markets do not seem to engage with.
An idealist by nature, his philanthropic work has been influential in influencing some of the greatest minds in finance but he argues the 2008 crisis was an “Ethical Crisis”. The growth of financial complexity and client detachment certainly points towards this, an issue identified by leading economists in the Squam Lake Report: Fixing the Financial System (2010). This report identifies the socialised backstop to private enterprises in 2008, and how moving forward regulation should prioritise the social benefit to minimising social losses through concentrating private gains on private institutions.
An example of this is the Too Big To Fail issue we face which John refers to with Vanguard. By indirectly owning over 8% of all US companies, its economic power should follow with a great sense of economic responsibility, something RBS in the UK notoriously abused in 2008. | https://medium.com/moviq-38/video-a-humbled-interview-with-the-late-john-bogle-present-and-future-254cfebc2bd9 | [] | 2019-01-29 11:51:00.989000+00:00 | ['John Bogle', 'Videos', 'Vanguard', 'Investing', 'Moviq'] |
A Physicist’s Guide to Lists in Python | Photo: Rhett Allain
Physics isn’t just physics. You have to do a lot of other stuff too — like reading, writing, math, drawing, communicating…and yes…programming.
For me, I prefer to use python. OK, I really like Glowscript VPython. It’s basically python but with some pre-loaded modules that has stuff to handle vectors, 3D objects, graphs and more. Yes, it’s my favorite. Oh, and it runs in a web browser too.
Here is a List
I previously created an introduction to functions in python, so now it’s time for lists. In python, lists are sort of like a list you make of your groceries. Let’s just make a simple list. Check this out (code is online).
Here is the output:
There you go. A list. Here are some notes:
You can name a list as you would any python variable. It must be a unique name and it can’t start with a number.
The list is created by using square brackets [].
The items in the list are separated by commas.
The list items can be anything. They don’t have to be just numbers, they can be a mix of stuff.
Here is another list.
This crazy list includes a vector, a string, another list, and a number. It’s awesome.
Addressing List Items
So, you’ve go a list. What now? Let’s make a list of numbers (I’m not really going to use strings in my lists since I am focusing on physics stuff).
things=[2,8,1,3,0]
Here are 5 numbers. Suppose I want to just print out the second element (the 8). That would look like this:
print(things[1])
If you want to print out the first element, that would be things[0] — yes, the items are numbered starting from 0 (not 1).
Here are a couple of other important things about lists.
You can find the length (the number of items in a list) with len(things) — which would be 5 in this case.
— which would be 5 in this case. It’s possible to go through a list backwards. If you use an index of -1 ( things[-1] ), it gives you the last item in the list things[-2] is the second to last item.
), it gives you the last item in the list is the second to last item. If you want to change one item in a list, you can do that. Just do something like things[-1]=20 . This will change the last item from 0 to 20.
. This will change the last item from 0 to 20. You can make a list consisting of lists. This is pretty cool and it’s useful to make things that are sort of like matrices. I’ll cover this in more detail later.
Finally, remember that glowscript.org and trinket.io aren’t real python. They actually take your code and convert it to javascript. This means that if you make two variables equal to the same list, changing one value changes the other. Just be careful.
Adding and Removing Items
Let’s make a list consisting of 10 random numbers. Remember that for GlowScript Vpython, random() returns a random number between 0 and 1.
Here is the plan.
Make a loop that goes up to 10 (but not to 11). You could do this a bunch of different ways, but if you have followed my other python stuff for physics — the while loop is very common.
In the loop, generate a random number.
Add this to the list.
Repeat.
Shouldn’t be too difficult. Here is what it looks like (with some comments afterwards). The code is online.
See. It worked. Now for some comments:
Line 7: I start off with an empty list. There’s nothing in it. But it’s difficult to add to a list that doesn’t exist, so you need to make one first.
Line 4 and 10: I think it’s pretty obvious these are the max number in the list and a “counter” for the list.
Line 12: in the while loop, you need to put <= (less than or equal to) so that it gets all the way up to 10. If you aren’t sure, you can always just make a loop that prints out “n” to check that it’s working correctly (that’s what I do).
(less than or equal to) so that it gets all the way up to 10. If you aren’t sure, you can always just make a loop that prints out “n” to check that it’s working correctly (that’s what I do). Line 14: This adds an element to the list. The thing that you want to add has to be in square brackets.
Pretty cool, right? I like adding to the list with the square brackets because it just makes sense to me. If you don’t think that’s sophisticated enough, you could do this:
rando.append(temp)
Same thing.
What if you want to remove items from a list? Here are some options.
rando.pop(2) — this removes the [2] item (the third) from the list.
— this removes the [2] item (the third) from the list. rando.insert(2,3) — this puts the number 3 at the [2] position.
— this puts the number 3 at the [2] position. rando.clear() — this removes everything from the list (not sure why you want to do that).
— this removes everything from the list (not sure why you want to do that). There’s some other stuff — but I don’t really use it too much. Here is a list of list stuff if you need more.
Traversing a List
You know I’m working my way up to an example using lists — right? Well, one of the things you need to do is to go through each item in a list and do something (physics stuff).
I’m going to show you two ways to go through a list (although there are more). Let me start with a list of 5 vectors — I just feel like using vectors. Here is my list:
Yes, you can have a list continue onto a second line — just end the first line with a comma and you should be fine. Now let’s go through each item in the list and print the magnitude of the vector. Remember that in GlowScript mag() is a built in function that returns the magnitude of a vector. Here’s one way to do this. Comments to follow.
It’s really cool. The for thing in list: does exactly what you would think it would. It temporarily assigns the variable thing to each item in the list. In this case, tempvector is each vector in the list ( vectorstuff ). Then you can just treat that like you would any other vector. Super simple.
When would this method not be the best? What if you need to look at two items in the list at the same time? What if you want to calculate the distance between two position vectors in the list? In this case, you might need to use another method. Check this out.
The output in this method is exactly the same as before. So, here are some notes:
len(vectorstuff) returns the length of the list (but you already knew that). range(len(vectorstuff)) makes a list of numbers that’s the same length as the vectorstuff list. Now the variable n is a number, not the actual list item.
returns the length of the list (but you already knew that). makes a list of numbers that’s the same length as the vectorstuff list. Now the variable n is a number, not the actual list item. With this index (n), vectorstuff[n] is the nth item.
Let’s do some physics.
Example: A Bunch of Projectiles
The cool thing about GlowScript is the 3D aspect. I’m not going into all the details, but here is how you could make a projectile motion problem display in 3D.
But I don’t want to make one ball. I want to make MANY balls. How many? N balls. Here is how this going to work.
I’m going to make a list of balls. Yes, you can put objects (like the sphere() ) into a list.
) into a list. All the balls will start at the same location, but they are going to be launched at different angles. These angles will be evenly distributed between 0 and 90 degrees.
For the projectile motion part, I am going to go through each element in my list: update the velocity and update the position.
Here is the code. I’m going to go over this stuff in two parts. First, this is the set up stuff.
Comments:
Line 6: make an empty balls list.
Line 7: All the balls will have the same starting velocity. This is that velocity.
Line 9,10: This is the starting angle and then the angle step size (pi/2 divided by the number of balls)
Line 13: for the list build, I use the index “i” in the range of the list.
Line 14–15: adds a ball to the list. The make_trail=True just means the balls will leave a trail and look cool.
just means the balls will leave a trail and look cool. Line 18,19: this is the time and the time step (for the numerical calculation).
Now for the code that runs the thing.
Really, this is really similar to the loop for a single ball.
Line 21: the while loop is for 1 second. Different launch angles will take different times, but they should all be finished by 1 second.
Line 22: Remember, rate(100) is a GlowScript thing. This tells the code to not run any more than 100 loops per second. Since the time step is 0.01 second, a rate of 100 should run in real time.
is a GlowScript thing. This tells the code to not run any more than 100 loops per second. Since the time step is 0.01 second, a rate of 100 should run in real time. Line 24: Here is a loop in the main time loop. This loop just goes through each item in the balls list.
Line 25, 26: since I am calling each item “ball”, I can just do stuff that looks like a normal line for a single ball. That’s nice.
Line 27: This is just a check to make sure the ball “hits” the ground. If so, it stops.
So, what does it look like when you run it? Like this:
But wait. What if you want MORE BALLS? You just need to change N to 50 and you get this.
It’s not just physics, it’s art. If you want to spice it up, you could try changing the ball colors and stuff like that.
Example: Using a List for Data
There is one more very useful way to use a list — for data. Yes, let’s say that you get some position-time data in a spreadsheet or something. Maybe this came from a video analysis or data from a sensor. Who knows.
Yes, it’s very possible that you could plot this data in the spreadsheet or some other very awesome graphing program. But what if you want to plot this along with a numerical calculation. Or maybe you need to do some calculations to the data. Whatever the reason, I’m going to show you how to plot this in python using a list.
Let’s start with some data. Here is position-time data from David Blaine’s ascension stunt (with balloons) — full analysis here.
So, here’s what I do. I’m going to start with the time column. I’ll highlight all the numbers and copy them. Then paste them into a list in GlowScript. I’ll do the same for the position data.
When I paste it into GlowScript, it’s just a bunch of numbers one on each line. I usually just manually add the comas and put them in one line. If you have a giant list of numbers, it might make more sense to copy them first into a word processor so you can “find and replace” the return-lines with comas.
Yes, I also know that in real python you can open a file. Actually, you can do this in GlowScript too — but the file has to be on some server somewhere. I just find it’s easier to copy and paste the numbers into GlowScript.
Now, to plot them I just need to traverse the lists and use normal graphing stuff (here is my graphing tutorial). Note: if your two data lists have a different number of elements, you are going to have a bad time.
Here is the code to plot these two.
I really don’t have any extra comments on this. Here is the graph that it creates.
Cool. OK, I think that’s a good start to lists in python. | https://rjallain.medium.com/a-physicists-guide-to-lists-in-python-35f4304d6c6f | ['Rhett Allain'] | 2020-12-28 22:55:53.491000+00:00 | ['Python', 'Data Science', 'Physics', 'Programming'] |
LEGISLATION WATCH: SECURE ACT 2.0, ARE YOU READY? | Sometimes change can be the catalyst for … more change. It’s been one year since the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 (SECURE Act) kickstarted a season of change for retirement plans and IRAs. It was designed to increase access to workplace savings plans and enhance retirement savings opportunities. To accomplish this, the Act revised and modernized long-standing retirement plan rules. For example, the starting age for beginning required minimum distributions (RMDs) was increased from 70½ to 72 and the age limit on traditional IRA contributions was eliminated. These changes accommodate longer life expectancies and working careers.
Just as the retirement plan industry was beginning to digest these changes, the CARES Act (passed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic) brought more changes to retirement plan and IRA distribution rules. While some in the industry might prefer to let the dust settle and analyze whether these changes produced favorable (or the intended) results, others want to capitalize on this moment in time when Americans are more open-minded to changes and new ideas. The Ways and Means Committee Chairman Democrat Representative Richard Neal and Ranking Member Republican Representative Kevin Brady have chosen to use the momentum of change to build on the successes of the SECURE Act by introducing the bill titled SECURE Act 2.0.
Officially titled, the Securing a Strong Retirement Act of 2020, the SECURE Act 2.0 picks up where the SECURE Act of 2019 left off to further enhance workers’ ability to begin to save earlier for retirement, save more, and save for more years. If passed, provisions of the SECURE Act 2.0 would offer more than 30 changes that would simplify and expand the use of different retirement accounts. Here are a few key rules affecting retirement plans and IRAs:
Increase Catch-Up Contribution Limits
Index the age 50 catch-up limit for IRAs so the dollar limit could increase each year
Raise the catch-up contribution limit for retirement plan deferrals, beginning at age 60
Reduce the Impact of RMDs
Raise the starting age for required minimum distributions (RMDs) from 72 to 75
Eliminate RMDs for individuals with retirement savings of $100,000 or less as of December 31 of the year before they attain age 75
Reduce the penalty tax for missing an RMD from 50% to 25% (10% for missed IRA RMDs taken in a timely manner)
Increase from $135,000 to $200,000 the amount of savings that is exempt from the RMD requirement if used to purchase a Qualified Longevity Annuity Contract (QLAC)
Enhance Tax Advantages Related to Retirement Saving
Increase the Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) amount to $130,000, allow QCDs to be made from retirement plans as well as IRAs, and expand the provision to allow for one-time distributions to charities through charitable gift annuities, charitable remainder unitrusts, and charitable remainder annuity trusts
Increase the dollar amount that may be taken as a tax credit for small plan start-up expenses
Increase the dollar amount of the tax credit available to individuals for contributing to a retirement plan or IRA (called the Saver’s Credit), simplify the tiered credit rates to one 50% rate, and increase the maximum income eligibility amount to allow more individuals to qualify for the credit
Increase Participation and Savings Rates in Employer Plans
Require 401(k) plans to automatically enroll employees when they become eligible and implement annual automatic increases in deferral rates unless an employee opts out
Allow employers to treat student loan payments as 401(k), 403(b) or SIMPLE IRA plan salary deferrals eligible for employer matching contributions
Reduce the number of years that long-term, part-time employees must work to be eligible to participate in a 401(k) plan from three years to two years
Timing … TBD
While there is bi-partisan support for this bill, it has not yet been passed by the House or the Senate. Congress still needs to finalize a spending bill and is still debating whether and how much to extend relief measures related to COVID-19. It’s unlikely any of these SECURE Act 2.0 provisions will make it into year-end legislation — but never say never. The passage of the original SECURE Act was a surprise lumped in with a federal funding bill at the end of 2019. Assuming Congress does not fit in retirement savings legislation in the lame duck session, there is a good chance SECURE Act 2.0 will continue to gain momentum in 2021 given the change in administration and Congress’ continued focus on enhancing Americans’ long-term financial security. | https://medium.com/@stratatrustco/legislation-watch-secure-act-2-0-are-you-ready-d434d5989a9 | ['Kelli Click'] | 2020-12-11 17:52:13.774000+00:00 | ['Retirement', 'Secure Act', 'Taxes', 'Alternative Investments', 'Retirement Planning'] |
What Jeff Cavaliere of Athlean X Taught Me About my Limits | As I write this, I’ve just finished BeaXst.
When I say “just finished” I mean that I had the final challenge yesterday. And it was the prompt to write this article.
You see, the BeaXst final challenge doesn’t have a time limit like AX1’s. It doesn’t even pretend like it’s something you should be able to finish, let alone in a specific period of time.
Oh, no. This challenge was developed with the infamous CT Fletcher, and let me tell you, it shows.
Of course, I peeked ahead. I knew this challenge was coming ages ago, and I told myself then “there is no chance I can do that.”
All last week, I told myself “I’m never going to complete that test.”
Yesterday morning, I told myself “No chance.”
I figured I’d fail in the first few sets.
Let me tell you what’s involved:
It’s a gauntlet challenge, consisting of 3 exercises: a dumbbell front squat, a dumbbell push press, and renegade rows.
There are 3 levels of difficulty in BeaXst, and the difference between them in the challenge is the amount of weight you start with. For me, each dumbbell needed to weigh 1/6 of my bodyweight.
So, dumbbell in hand, the gauntlet rules are to do 20 reps. Then you deload 5 pounds and do another 20 reps. You do this for the first 5 sets, then you start adding that weight back on for another 5 sets.
10 sets. 200 reps.
For each exercise.
So that’s 200 squats, 200 push presses, and 200 renegade rows.
To pass the test, it’s required to complete all of the squats, all of the presses, and at least one set of the rows.
And oh yeah, if you can’t complete a set, you fail. At best, you can use a ‘rest pause’, which means you still hold the weight but take a second to catch your breath.
I’m pleased to say that I passed.
Despite all my internal talk about how I had “no chance” of doing it, I did it.
I even racked up another set, completing 22 in total.
And the craziest part is, it wasn’t nearly as difficult as I’d feared.
Yes, it was hard. Yes, my legs were shaking on those last few reps of squats. Yes, my heart rate was up and my muscles were very aware of their existence. And yes, in the very first set of squats (which are the hardest because you start with the heaviest weight) I thought “uh-oh, I’m going to do even worse than I anticipated.”
Yet I pushed through. I used some rest pauses, I set a 2-minute timer between sets, I did some stretching and had fast-paced music in my ears.
It took me 70 minutes, and I can still feel the effects in my back and legs today.
But I did it. I did something I thought was completely out of my reach.
Just as I did in AX1, where I not only finished that 400 rep challenge, but by the end of the programme I’d got my time down to 11 minutes.
In Core4Abs I tested my abs with exercises and time limits it didn’t know existed.
In BeaXst I tested my entire body, and then some.
And at each turn, my body responded. It said “Watch this” and surprised me.
Now I know that I can do more than I realised. I know I’m not just stronger, faster, and fitter than I’ve ever been, I know that I’m more capable, too.
And for all of that, I say: Thank you, Jeff.
What’s next, you ask?
That’s easy: the new AthleanX programme, Old School Iron.
I wonder who I will be by the end of it. | https://medium.com/in-fitness-and-in-health/what-jeff-cavaliere-of-athlean-x-taught-me-about-my-limits-107354fef238 | ['Richard White'] | 2020-12-20 18:44:28.831000+00:00 | ['Fitness', 'Motivation', 'Health', 'Strength', 'Self Development'] |
When Will I Feel Like an Adult? | When Will I Feel Like an Adult?
Doing all of the things grownups do does not necessarily make one feel like a grownup
I am about to turn 38 years-old.
I have been married for over seven years.
I have a daughter that will be turning six this summer.
I believe it’s important to have a family dinner (almost) every night.
I am an uncle and a godfather several times over.
I have a master’s degree.
I have a career that is now more than a decade-and-a-half old.
I often think about retirement.
I live on a budget.
I clean the kitchen and pack lunches.
I cook.
I have a mortgage and two car payments.
I worry about property taxes and interest rates.
I (try to) fix things around the house.
I have random aches and my joints sometimes pop.
I go grocery shopping and curse myself if I forget the coupons or reusable bags.
I am stunned that aspects of my hometown have dared to change in the past 15 years.
I have banal conversations about traffic and weather.
I live within a few miles of close friends and still don’t see them often.
I still think of the ’90s as only a few years ago.
I hate most music released in the past ten years.
I go to bed on weekends at the same time that I used to leave the house to go out.
I feel relieved when plans get canceled.
I complain that it feels like every weekend is a kid’s party or other obligation.
I cherish my alone time.
I do all of the things that adults do.
So when will I feel like an adult? | https://medium.com/the-passion-of-christopher-pierznik-books-rhymes/when-will-i-feel-like-an-adult-2b80233d0f66 | ['Christopher Pierznik'] | 2018-07-19 13:41:59.110000+00:00 | ['Honesty', 'Life', 'Adulthood', 'Children', 'Maturity'] |
Hiring Handbook for Recruiters | 1) Preparation
This is where we first identify the need for the employees. We set the frame for the position and a profile of required competencies and skills for the new hire. A part of the preparation process is also to put together a job ad and choosing the proper communication channels to spread the message. A proper formation of Job description is equally important.
2) Receive applications
Our ad has been posted and the pile of applications is steadily growing. An important step of creating a good candidate experience is to confirm to applicants that their application has been received.
3) Selection stage 1: Weed out unqualified applicants (Screening Phase)
We’ve now started the selection process of the recruitment. The selection process can in turn be divided into several smaller steps, where each stage eliminates further candidates who are not suited for the position. A first selection is done to eliminate unqualified applicants who don’t meet the basic requirements for the position.
By using selection questions as part of the application process, basically asking if the applicant meets the requirement or not, we can quickly discern who does and does not meet the basic requirements. An important point here is to always get in touch with these applicants to inform them that they have not made it through to the next round, preferably making it clear that it’s because they don’t meet the basic requirements.
In our case the questions raised can be:
· When could you start if you were offered the job?
· How much money would you like to earn in this position?
· What did you find most interesting in the job description?
· What interests you about our company?
· Tell me about this two-year gap in your resume. (If any)
· Why do you want to leave your current position? (If Non-Freshers)
4) Selection stage 2: Rating and ranking candidates
The next step of the selection process will be to figure out which applicants should be asked to come to an interview. In other words, we should rank candidates according to which are the most to least interest to meet with. The rating should be based on how well the candidate fits the profile of requirements and skills needed for the position. This is one of the most time- consuming steps where most spend their time reading through resumes and cover letters.
5) Selection stage 3: In-Person Interviews
We’re now deep in the selection process, having screened candidates, evaluated their skills, assessed their abilities, and created a shortlist of the most qualified people. It’s finally time to meet in person with those promising candidates and determine who’s going to be your next hire.
A good interview will help us make better hiring decisions, as we will objectively evaluate and compare candidates’ potential. But there’s more to do than the actual interview. We need to prepare ourself and the entire hiring team to make sure that we will ask all the right questions. More specifically, we should prepare:
A list of job-related questions that assess how well candidates can manage regular job duties. We can ask a mix of:
· Role-specific questions, to evaluate candidates’ knowledge and experience.
· Soft skills questions, to identify candidates who are good not just on paper.
· Situational questions, to learn how candidates would address different scenarios and issues that may arise on the job.
· Behavioral questions, to discover how candidates have previously handled professional challenges.
Cultural fit questions that will help us pick these candidates who are more likely to thrive in our work environment. For example, we can ask:
· Career goals questions, to find candidates whose professional goals align with our business objectives.
· Collaboration questions, to identify team players.
· Adaptability questions, to learn which candidates are more flexible and will have a smooth transition to their new role if hired.
Once we have your set of interview questions ready (and double-checked that we’re not asking anything illegal), we can invite candidates to our offices — or schedule a video call if we’re hiring remotely. Few things to keep in mind while doing that would be:
· Scheduling interviews at least two or three business days in advance. As they also need some time to prepare themselves for the interview.
· Providing candidates with all necessary information. That will include:
- The exact day and time of the interview, taking into consideration different time zones if you’re interviewing remote candidates
- The address of our offices along with directions on how to get there (or, instructions on how to log in to a video platform, in case of a video interview)
- The names and roles of the interviewers
- The scope of the interview (e.g. “We’ll go over your assignment” or “You’ll meet with the CEO”)
- The estimated duration of the interview
· Sticking to the interview questions we have prepared; small talk with candidates or questions that are irrelevant to the job could result in biased hiring decisions.
· Asking all the candidates the same set of questions in a structured way; this way, it’ll be easier to compare their answers and select the most qualified ones.
· Being prepared to answer questions from candidates, too; they’ll probably want to learn more about the team, the company goals and the employee benefits.
· Reviewing candidates’ profile (e.g. resume, assignment, previous communication) before we meet them; we’ll refresh our memory and won’t ask things they’ve already mentioned.
6) Selection stage 4: Simulated work exercise
Following up on the final top candidates from the last round of interview a simulated work exercise can be conducted. It’s a way to check if the candidate we’ve assessed as being highly qualified and suited for the job can actually deliver in a future work situation.
7) Background & Reference checks (If Any)
Background checks reassure us that our finalists are reliable and don’t pose risks to our company. For example, employers may conduct pre-employment checks to make sure candidates have told the truth in their resumes or don’t currently do illicit drugs.
In the final stages of the selection process, we might want to get some references for our best candidates. This way, we’ll get feedback about their performance from people they’ve actually worked with in the past, such as former managers, former colleagues or business partners and clients.
We can ask candidates to provide contact details from former employers and co-workers. Or, we can reach out directly to people you know they used to work with. In any case, when requesting references for a candidate, it’s best to initially send an email to introduce ourself and explain why we want this information. This way, we can schedule a call where we’ll discuss in more detail.
During reference checks, we can:
· Confirm what candidates have already told us (e.g about time of employment and previous job responsibilities)
· Learn how candidates use their skills on the job
· Discover potential weaknesses or lack of practical experience
· Understand how candidates behave in the work environment (e.g. if they’re punctual, if they receive feedback well, etc.)
To obtain objective and relevant information, we need to ask targeted questions, like:
· When did [Candidate_name] work at your company and what was their job title?
· What were [Candidate_name’s] main responsibilities?
· Could you mention one or two group projects [Candidate_name] was involved in? What was their role and how did they collaborate with their colleagues?
· Do you think [Candidate_name] could take on a more senior role? Why or why not?
Once we’re done taking everything, we learnt in the selection process into account, from our own candidate evaluation to background and reference checks, we’re ready to make your hiring decision.
8) Decision and job offer
Finally, after a series of well-organized selection processes for recruiting new employees, we’ve finally found our perfect employee. Now it’s time to let them know we’re offering them a position at our company.
When a candidate accepts the job offer a hiring cycle ends successfully. | https://medium.com/@priyakundu159/hiring-handbook-for-recruiters-8999e7b77e21 | ['Priya Kundu'] | 2020-12-15 07:49:13.742000+00:00 | ['Talent Acquisition', 'Human Resources', 'Hr Talent Management', 'Recruitment'] |
Charming | 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/american-haiku/charming-f7f7145c6c70 | ['Sean Zhai'] | 2020-12-18 02:51:05.878000+00:00 | ['Happiness', 'Emotions', 'People', 'Life', 'Poetry'] |
The Paradox Of Children and Marriage | How We Thought It Would Always Be
I still remember my father-in-laws toast when my wife and I got married.
Actually … I only remember the last line.
He said “Now bring on the grandkids!”
What I didn’t know then … and couldn’t possibly have known then … was that I’d been lied to my whole life.
It was a lie that was drilled into me enough to where I believed it as FACT.
This lie is constructed around the whole concept of what our lives SHOULD be like when we are living them to the highest level.
Find someone you can’t live without …
Get married …
Have kids …
Live happily ever after.
Well … maybe that last part is a little harder to pull off than the first three.
It’s hard because of the lie I mentioned above that was told to me and was undoubtably told to you.
So what’s the lie?
It’s that kids will enhance your marriage.
Before you had kids, you probably looked at them as “marriage enhancers” that would bond you closer together and give you reasons to stay together longer.
My wife and I thought that too … but the OPPOSITE happened when we started having kids.
We started to fight a lot more.
And those fight were WAY more intense than they were before we had kids.
All of the pressure for how we had to show up as parents … show up for each other and show up for ourselves just about broke us.
We just got so wrapped up in our jobs as parents that we had no energy left for each other.
The sexy texts we used to send each other turned into “to do” lists of every place the kids need to be driven to and things one of us needed to pick up from the grocery store or the pharmacy on the way home.
The Friday nights where I would throw on a sport coat and she’d put on this AMAZING pair of leather pants faded into both of us wearing sweatpants and falling asleep on the couch to whatever was on Netflix.
Neither of us even remember when this actually happened …
It was almost like we fell asleep and woke up a year later having become entirely different people.
All you hear about before you have kids is how much FUN they are going to be, then you start having kids and you’re like “really?!”
Don’t get me wrong, there is a lot of REWARD in being a parent … but it is definitely not a FUN job.
And that was part of the problem my wife and I faced.
It was a total shock to our systems that the vision we’d had our entire lives of what it meant to be a parent turned out to be completely wrong.
Neither of us really knew what to do and we didn’t talk to each other about because both of us were kind of embarrassed to be feeling the way we were feeling.
It turns out we both thought the other didn’t share our frustration with how difficult a job this was.
We did make it out of that tailspin … eventually.
And it wasn’t just one thing that got us out.
It was a series of things.
We started being a lot more honest and a lot more raw with each other about what we were feeling …
And we leveled up our parenting game.
There was a lot of stuff we were doing with the kids inside of our parenting game that made everything harder than it had to be.
It’s like we were the salmon you see swimming against the current and having to jump up a waterfall at the same time only to have a bear waiting for them with it’s mouth wide open.
Just like that salmon … we were expending TONS of energy.
It didn’t have to be this way (and if you’re feeling like that salmon, it doesn’t have to be that way for you either.)
It turns out there was a way to get our kids to listen to us and be more cooperative that didn’t take all of our energy.
It actually ended up being a hell of a lot easier than what we’d been doing AND it gave us energy we needed to get our marriage back on track.
I talk about how we did this over at https://www.grownupparents.com .
Check it out TODAY! | https://medium.com/@brent.kocal/the-paradox-of-children-and-marriage-ec54299978b6 | ['Brent Kocal'] | 2020-01-15 23:47:46.920000+00:00 | ['Motherhood', 'Marriage', 'Parenting Advice', 'Fatherhood', 'Parenting'] |
Arba’een A Manifestation of Unity: VP Jahangiri | Iran’s First Vice-President Eshaq Jahangiri has acclaimed the large congregation of pilgrims performing rituals in Iraq during Arba’een in commemoration of Imam Hussein (PBUH) as a manifestation of unity among lovers of justice and freedom, regardless of their religious or ethnic differences.
In an address to the closing ceremony of a conference on Arba’een held in Tehran on Tuesday, Jahangiri said the martyrdom of Imam Hussein (PBUH) and his companions on the day of Ashura carried the message of advocating justice and freedom, religious reform, and uprising against cruelty and tyranny.
He also noted that Arba’een mourning ceremony, which falls forty days after Ashura, is a great effort to convey those messages and moral values to future generations.
The vice president said the Arba’een procession is such a miraculous event that has created unbreakable bonds between Iran and Iraq, the two countries that fought a full-blown war with each other for eight years in the 1980s.
After the fall of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, the ties between the two neighbors improved so rapidly that people of Iraq are impatient to host millions of Iranian pilgrims during Arba’een season, he added.
Jahangiri also highlighted the presence of people from all walks of life in the Arba’een procession, saying different people from around the world flock to Iraq to spread the message of unity in spite of their ethnic and religious differences.
What has kept the Arba’een alive and has turned it into a major social custom is the element of enlightenment in this religious rite, the vice president noted, stressing that such a huge movement must be presented to the world with the works of art.
“The committed artists must try to display a real image of the philosophy of the Arba’een procession to the world,” Jahangiri concluded, stressing that the media could be a loud voice for the promotion of Islam, love for peace and justice, devotion, resistance and freedom-seeking.
Each year, a huge crowd of people, even non-Muslims, attend the commemoration of Arba’een, marking the 40th day after the martyrdom anniversary of the third Shiite imam. The city of Karbala hosts the holy shrine of Imam Hussein (PBUH).
During the Arba’een event, volunteers set up thousands of congregation halls and pavilions in Najaf and Karbala and along the road between them to offer services for the travelers and pilgrims.
https://ifpnews.com/arbaeen-a-manifestation-of-unity-vp-jahangiri | https://medium.com/ifp-news-iran-front-page/arbaeen-a-manifestation-of-unity-vp-jahangiri-148efb2c1c60 | ['Maryam Khy'] | 2019-10-02 09:00:08.736000+00:00 | ['Iran', 'Arbaeen', 'Islam', 'Shiism'] |
Why Women’s Strength is not FREEDOM | It was the 4th day on the market! yeah was just liking to collect more of the count however the instinct engraved in a nutshell was Low cost design was enough must say more than enough!
“It was lifetime breakthrough not in customer premises but my life itself. A lady born limiting herself to a confine scheduled set of movement from School to home and vice versa. I was a normal bee staying home “no moving out kid type”. Any introvert shall relate me “the eruption going on me inside” but self-nature stops …its extreme struggle to speak out! uff! It’s really a challenge to speak, stand in public. And can u imagine how can one change introvert to extrovert in a click?
That does not mean in future 10/20 years’ plan though.
Definitely it was challenge to choose myself in this position followed by pointing fingers.
Alas! it’s okay let me jump first and let my luck decide to “swim and live” or “drown”.”
Ok coming to the point !Then it was 3rd last survey at that medical shop giving input for potential prospects. Suddenly a scooty entered the road with a guy tip top and handsome by look. It was coincidence we both figure out not in that sense though and I continued my job. But the guy double-take thrice and immediately stop his scooty and due to urgency he was misbalancing. I realize he will come to shop with some cause and immediately it happened. He came for Sancho and his focus was towards me. I notify the scenario and left immediately from there and rushed to the vehicle waiting outside.
As was having conversation with driver dai for the next destiny I was growling in pain to leave with the scary thought if that person arrives in search of me. Within a minute he came rushing and start searching as if a Police just miss to catch thief in a second. As we were not moved his eyes found me immediately and came directly to me. I was so panicking, if I was not in that official vehicle would I be safe. At extreme as I believe myself a strong lady but when I was the victim about to be! my power, technique, strength all went down in a second. In a contrary I started recalling how to kick and punch and put all my power to fight back.
What if some poor lady would be there in that situation?
Why we cannot be us to avoid such thought calamities?
Why women strength is not freedom?
Why we should be scared?
Why? | https://medium.com/@utsuktanakarmi/why-womens-strength-is-not-freedom-35934af356f1 | ['Utsukta Nakarmi'] | 2020-12-26 16:53:27.292000+00:00 | ['Strength', 'Safety', 'Women', 'Public', 'Freedom'] |
Letting My Kid Be Angry | It’s so hard to do when you want to make things better all of the time. I’m Mom so that’s essentially my job, right? Except it isn’t. My job is to raise a well-balanced, self-functioning human being. That doesn’t mean a Stepford Robot who is happy and smiling all of the time, because that just isn’t real. None of us live in that world. Least of all an artistic adolescent. Sad happens. Happy happens. And all of the grey too is ok.
Today I tried to reason with her about her sadness and frustrations. She knows full well that there could be no resolution to her problem, no ending to this story, short of an uncomfortable action on her part. But she couldn’t take any action. Not now. Not here at midnight, when she needs to be asleep before the next dreaded day. So that meant she had a whole night to toss and turn with this feeling. This heavy, complex, uncomfortable feeling.
The feelings themselves aren’t new, and she knew that, but the intensity at which she now felt them, that was incredibly new. After about 10 minutes of crying in her room she came and asked for a hug saying she’d never cried like that in her life. And now she felt better, lighter. “I know,” I said. I’ve been there. I could tell that’s what she needed. Time to figure it out herself. To cry it out alone.
It was hard not to sneak back in and tell her a story or crack a joke. It took all I could muster not to turn on her TV and snuggle up over an episode of Doctor Who. But this isn’t the last time she’s going to feel this way. Better she learn how to find her way through the weeds while I’m here to throw a lifeline. “Ugh! Feeling feelings is hard.” Me too kid, me too. | https://medium.com/@JenRogers/letting-my-kid-be-angry-ac80a0bdd60a | ['Jennifer Gregg Rogers'] | 2019-11-23 17:46:59.673000+00:00 | ['Anger', 'Life', 'Children', 'Parenting', 'Emotions'] |
Future Tracker: New York Yankees | Michael Dwyer/AP Photo
Even finishing 92–70, the Yanks had a disappointing 2021 finishing tied for 2nd in the AL East and losing to hated rival Boston in the AL Wild Card game. They dealt with a multitude of injuries (just like every other team) but also suffered from far too much inconsistency from both the supposedly explosive offense and their pitching staff throughout the season. The roster has only seen departures so far this winter as the Pin Stripes struck out on Corey Seager, Robbie Ray, and other high profile names. As of now, this will be a very similar team as last year so let’s take a look at their Team Futures
World Series/League- At most books, the Yanks are tied with Toronto for the 5th shortest odds to raise the trophy and 2nd shortest to represent the AL in the Fall Classic. As a Yankees fan myself and someone who watches a ton of baseball, I’m not really sure I’d currently consider them legit contenders for the title however. Their scary roster on paper has definitely shown signs of becoming another iteration of the “Bronx Bombers”, but this same roster is loaded with injury plagued players who simply cannot stay on the field. They finished below the league average in runs/gm (4.39),steals (63), total hits (1266), and were a bottom 10 team in average. New York was kept afloat by their surprisingly decent pitching staff which was a revolving door all year.
The free agency period came and went without a single major addition by the Pinstripes leaving the fate of the team on the return to form for many incumbent players and attrition. Even with my pessimistic attitude towards these coming to fruition, I see a nice value on them currently. The Yankees began last year anywhere from 5/1–6/1 to win the World Series and were favorites to take the division. Getting 12/1 & 5–6/1 to rep the AL for a team who, health permitting, can be as good as any, is exactly the kind of team I’d wager on. Personally I avoid betting my favorite teams but I do think this number will likely shrink if they start out hot. Here are their current odds at multiple books:
FanDuel: +1200/+550 | Draftkings: +1000/+500 | BetMGM: +1100/+550 | PointsBet: +1200/+550 | https://medium.com/betspertsnewyork/future-tracker-new-york-yankees-994959c70ff2 | [] | 2021-12-30 18:17:19.141000+00:00 | ['Sports Gambling', 'Sports', 'New York Yankees', 'MLB', 'Sports Betting'] |
“The Bubble Kingdom grew and grew, and with it so did the Bubble Kings’s cruelty too. | “The Bubble Kingdom grew and grew, and with it so did the Bubble Kings’s cruelty too.
As bubble towers appeared everywhere, all accused of treason were poked and popped and made to disappear. As the kingdom spread to the far edges of the tub, all along the shore the bubblemen started to find drowned and upside down rubber ducks.
But soon came the day when the bubble folk had had enough, and the Bubble Kings’s grip on power burst in a flurry and a rush. The bubble mob cheered as down came his reign, gurgling in the drain.” | https://medium.com/touching-doodles/the-bubble-kingdom-grew-and-grew-and-with-it-so-did-the-bubble-kingss-cruelty-too-ea3c4e34c1f2 | ['Kyle Freeman'] | 2018-10-15 07:21:45.945000+00:00 | ['Satire', 'Revolution', 'Inktober', 'Webcomics', 'Art'] |
Writing a First Smart Contract Contract Using Solidity | “I call these new contracts “smart”, because they are far more functional than their inanimate paper-based ancestors. No use of artificial intelligence is implied. A smart contract is a set of promises, specified in digital form, including protocols within which the parties perform on these promises” — Nick Szabo, 1996
Solidity
“Solidity is a contract-oriented, high-level language for implementing smart contracts. It was influenced by C++, Python and JavaScript. It is designed to target the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).”
Lets us interpret the above highlighted words one-by-one :
Contract-Oriented: Contracts are a breakthrough technique to reduce the programming effort for large projects. Contracts are the concept of preconditions, post conditions, errors, and invariant .
“Contract” in this context is actually not an Ethereum contract, or a smart contract; it is the name used for a (currently informal) definition of a function or some other unit of functionality. The basic idea is that a function should be separated into pre-conditions, the body, and post-conditions, both in the description (the contract) and the code.
High-Level Language : High level programming languages are associated with human understandable , top layer of abstraction which humans can understand the code and use according their need in projects.Ex: Java , Python etc.
Smart Contracts :act as the back-end logic and storage. A contract is written in Solidity, a smart contract language, and is a collection of code and data that resides at a specific address on the Ethereum blockchain. It’s very similar to a class in Object Oriented Programming, where it includes functions and state variables. Smart Contracts, along with the Blockchain, are the basis of all Decentralized Applications. They are, like Blockchain, immutable and distributed, which means upgrading them will be a pain if they are already on the Ethereum Network. Fortunately, here are some ways to do that.
For all intents and purposes, a smart contract is a programmable escrow of sorts, an independent middleman or a fair judge capable of managing a financial transaction between various parties and autonomously arbitrating a dispute.
Ethereum Virtual Machine(EVM): handles the internal state and computation of the entire Ethereum Network. Think of the EVM as this massive decentralized computer that contains “addresses” that are capable of executing code, changing data, and interacting with each other.
Lets go for an Interesting Example
Say a grandfather who is in his last years wants nothing more than to have his inheritance delivered down to his family through means of a will when he passes. In a traditional will, it would be clear who gets what, how much and when, solidified in a legally bound document. When the time comes to actually distribute the sauce, a judge from a court of law needs to revise the document and make decisions accordingly. A common problem that arises within families is an argument about who gets what, creating tension at best and destroying relationships at worst. During the court hearing, This could influence the decision of the judge, which in turn could produce unfair results and possibly create further damage to family bonds.
So that being said, what if we could streamline this process by drastically reducing this problem?
If the will was a smart contract, a judge would not be necessary. Here’s where it gets awesome. Gramps can actually make the contract hold assets on his behalf, and have them programmatically released to his liking after his passing. In this scenario, the code written in the contract itself would dictate the outcome, effectively eliminating the need for an arbitrator. Sarah gets $10,000, Ben gets $5,000 and Julia gets $2,000. The code executes and the assets in the form of a token or cryptocurrency get automatically distributed to these parties without the need for human intervention. While everyone involved may not be happy with the outcome, nobody can really argue with lines of code on a screen. Sounds practical, right?
Keeping this example in mind, let’s get to the part you’ve all come here for. In this lesson we will build gramps a simple will through a smart contract written in solidity.
Lets get Hands on Practice now ,
First you have to download a Contract Development Tool.In such Context ,you can do with Remix (both offline and online).
Environment Setup to Write Your First Smart Contract in Ethereum
Remix this serves as Development Platform for Writing your Smart Contracts.You will see same window
Head over to the top left drop down “Environment” and make sure “JavaScript VM” is selected. This means that all the code will run as a standalone, and not affect the actual Ethereum network in any way. Click the + icon in the top left corner to create a new file, and call it “will”. A tab will appear at the top which represents which file is currently being edited.
Define the Version
Structure of a Contract
Contracts in Solidity are similar to classes in object-oriented languages. Each contract can contain declarations of State Variables, Functions, Function Modifiers, Events, Struct Types and Enum Types. Furthermore, contracts can inherit from other contracts.
Contract Contract_name{ }
We Write a basic Contract named Student holding name and age:
contract Student {
string name;//1.)state variables
uint age;
//2.)getter and setter functions
function setName(string newName){
name = newName;
}
function setAge(uint newAge){
age = newAge;
}
function getName()public constant returns(string){
return name;
}
function getAge()public constant returns(uint){
return age;
}
}
State variables are values which are permanently stored in contract storage. See the Types section for valid state variable types and Visibility and Getters for possible choices for visibility.
Functions
Functions are the executable units of code within a contract. Function Calls can happen internally or externally and have different levels of visibility (Visibility and Getters) towards other contracts.
On the Top Right of the window you can see Compile , compile the contract you wrote,make sure that you choose the version which you have used in your program .And Start the Compile (Ctrl-S)
Next Click on the Run
Choose the Contract(Student) which you have compiled from the Dropdown their.
And Deploy the Contract.
Cheers !!!!!!! You have Done with First Contract on Remix Development Tool
Please Feel Free to Comment (regards any mistake)
Thank You,
R.Saikrishna | https://medium.com/@rsk.saikrishna/writing-a-first-smart-contract-contract-using-solidity-5a35ea1b736a | ['Saikrishna Reddem'] | 2019-03-22 13:19:58.667000+00:00 | ['Smart Contract Blockchain', 'Solidity', 'Ethereum'] |
80s Comedies F***ed Up Your Concept of Love, and It’s Hurting Your Relationships | 80s Comedies F***ed Up Your Concept of Love, and It’s Hurting Your Relationships
Illustration by the author
“Don’t love to be loved in return. Love for the sake of loving.”
― Connor Chalfant
Love Moves Our World
It makes us feel good; it gives a sense to our existence and makes life bearable.
It sparks something inside our brains that makes us feel instantly happy, like drugs, but it’s cheaper, so it’s more like sniffing glue.
And it’s also the most recurring theme in books, movies, series, poems, and music to the extent that it makes millions in benefits every year. If you want to earn money, you just have to write about unreal love and somebody will buy it.
But it’s also the least understood concept worldwide.
When we were growing up, we were used to 80s romantic comedy plots, where there was lots of drama, an unrealistic relationship, and a happy ending.
We identified ourselves with the protagonists because we wanted to live the same situations they lived. It seemed natural and not toxic at all — while, in fact, it was more toxic than Chernobyl.
We thought life should be an 80s romantic comedy.
The major problem with romantic comedies is that they are pure fiction, you can take them as seriously as a porn movie because they set unrealistic goals for everybody: | https://medium.com/the-bad-influence/80s-comedies-f-ed-up-your-concept-of-love-and-its-hurting-your-relationships-5e0a5eaa9bd7 | ['Jm Miana'] | 2020-12-07 13:03:02.152000+00:00 | ['Relationships', 'The Bad Influence', 'Humor', 'Self', 'Psychology'] |
The Life of a Geeky Kid to Techno Developer | The Book contains about my journey of being a Technology Man.
Chapter I
Start of being a Geeky Kid
Once upon a time I was a curious kid. Playing Super Mario in a family fun station was the most fun of it. Watching a lot of cartoons in our Television makes me wonder about them motion pictures.
No Game No Life
Growing up is good I love to play still mostly video games.
I played arcade game when I was a kid to teen and early adult life. It continued to Dota/Dota2/LoL/etc.. I become curious about the mods and stuff. So I seek modded ones and applied it from Naruto to Bleach etc..
After that I learned how to modify flash games for fun.
Web Developing
I learn to web code wml/html/xhtml in my Nokia Symbian phone as I started to create a wap site in around 2007–2013. In WEN.RU, XTGEM, etc. I love to build communities in pure html/js/css/ codes. This is because of a chat site called mobile69.wen.ru. I was curious on how they make that so I began to build chat site and forum community wap site. One of my web work is called Pinoyastig a Filipino community back in the old days of 2008–2010. In those wap site that I saw I learn web coding by extracting PHP scripts and learning how it works. By watching the source code of a wap site I can understand how they also work.
System Admin Life
I learned that there is a web hosting. I started in a free-hosting to expand my knowledge about setting a web server from the front-end to back-end. I am in love on how MySQL database works delivering queries to the back and front end of a website.
Modifying Software
I modified software to work if they don’t work in my old laptop. Especially those old Encarta Encyclopedia.
I modify mostly DOS .msi files as I extract and change most of its codes and to my excitement it works. I tried to to mod some Symbian games and joined a forum called Symbianize and Pinoyden a Pinoy Internet Forum to learn Free Internet tricks, modding, hacking, web developing and programming.
Being a Script Kiddy
Yes, I am mostly a script kiddy in my web hacking days for fun . I do it because when I was a kid I thought it is so interesting on how it works. I tried to learn some languages in PHP, JavaScript, and Python to understand how the scripts works. SQL injection and XSS is what intrigue me so I joined tournament in forums mostly with of course our script kiddy favorite tools.
Anonymous?
We are Legion, We are Anonymous Expect Us.
As I expand my knowledge I began to look into the freedom agenda of Free Men. I started to work in the shadow before as an Anonymous but I become so sick of the corrupt Leaders of society so I change path for change.
Chapter II
From Kiddy Geek to Techno Developer
Life of a Developer
Now this day I want to build an app that make something that can make change even at the regional level. I love to re-create something that can make an impact so I started to develop and publish apps from templates mostly. I am not a hard coder so I learn and modify apps and scripts before. I am a self taught guy that learned mostly in Google and YouTube. Nothing is impossible so I am hoping that I can inspire those Geeky kids out there.
Blockchain Technology
I love cryptocurrency so I learned how Blockchain works as Satoshi Nakamoto introduced Bitcoin. My team build a blockchain Project called Bilibit but failed. I like this technology so much that I have this urge to Blockchain the whole World. Bitcoin is what we call the free people’s money and Blockchain is the technology of Free People.
Quantum Technology
I am curious about how a QBIT works in the Quantum Level. I want to invent a teleportation device or maybe a Time Machine to change the Universe. I want to learn on how to code QBIT so I began to learn in a free opensource project in one of IBM’s Quantum Experience.
Space Mission
Building a Space Ship is good I want to go to Mars now. I am really inspired about the SpaceX mission. I want to travel to the Nebulae someday but let’s begin first in Mars and the Moon. I hope that humanity will embrace the Universe Majestic Space.
App Developer and Publisher
I found a team to work on App and Web again I hope it will be successful in the Future so that we can build the dream of the Century. We failed but we can return with a fresh Developers someday.
Until now I still play video games mostly mobile and PC in some times to train my motor skills. Nothing is wrong for being a kiddo mind that is still curious.
Being a techy curious person is the best thing to happen in my life as a human. I drop out early at school because of depression yet I bounced back after learning most knowledge in my hermit days. As long as you are curious then I think that is enough for the next idea to pop out in your head
Message to the Young Generation Geeks
Being a curious kid and passionate at what you do is the key to learning most skills. That is how I gained my skills without the need of a diploma. It matters that you don’t give up really.
Have fun in life and enjoy what you do to the extent of possibilities. | https://medium.com/book-of-paul/the-life-of-a-geeky-kid-to-techno-developer-46cacac68fcd | ['Paul The Messiahi'] | 2020-12-23 21:07:09.848000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Passion', 'Developer', 'Geeky', 'Book Of Paul'] |
Watermelon Gezpacho | Watermelon Gezpacho
What’s a Gezpacho, you ask?
Gazpacho, Gaspacho or also called Andalusian gazpacho is a cold soup made of raw, blended vegetables. It’s a classic blend of Spanish and Portuguese cuisine.
Am I dumb, you ask? (Coz watermelon isn’t a vegetable?)
No I’m not, smartypants.
Watermelon is a member of the cucurbitaceae plant family of gourds (classified as Citrullus lantus), related to the cucumber, squash, and pumpkin (Maynard, 2001). It is planted from seeds or seedlings, harvested, and then cleared from the field like other vegetables.
According to Webster’s dictionary, a vegetable is anything made or obtained from plants (2004). Since watermelon is grown as a vegetable crop using vegetable production systems, watermelon is considered a vegetable (Wolford, 2004).
BUT
Like the pepper, tomato, and pumpkin, watermelon is a fruit, botanically. It is the fruit of a plant originally from a vine of southern Africa. Loosely considered a type of melon (although not in the genus Cucumis), watermelon has a smooth exterior rind and a juicy, sweet interior flesh.
There I am, stuffing my face into the ‘Citrullus lantus’ while my friends argue on this controversial topic.
Hence proved, I’m not dumb.
Just in a dilemma, thanks to the copious (and perhaps, unneccesary) amount of information available to me (our generation) on social media.
All a matter of perspective? Never mind. Let’s enjoy the beautiful THING used this gezpacho recipe!
INGREDIENTS
6 parts watermelon chunks
2 parts tomato chunks
2 parts apple chunks
1 part capsicum chunks
Honey/jaggery powder to taste
Salt to taste
For the drizzle:
2tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp chilli flakes
1tbsp chopped basil/mint
PREP TIME
Prep : 15m
Cook : 15m
Ready in : 30
PROCEDURE
Juice watermelon, tomato, apple and capcium chunks together in a blender. Strain through a seive lined with a very thin cloth until all juice and fibre is separated. Alternately, use a juicer.
2. Adjust sweetness and salt.
(You can freeze the fibreous left over nd use to make veg. kebabs later. Just defrost,add in a binder, choice of masalas and fry/bake/airfry. Tastes awesome!)
3. To make the drizzle, heat oil in a small shallow pan on medium low heat. Add in chilli flakes and basil. Cook for 30 seconds.
4. Portion out chilled gezpacho in bowls and pour hot drizzle over gezpacho right before serving!
Enjoy the summer full of watermelons, make the most of what you experience and don’t get crushed under too much mind-boggling information!
Be good! | https://medium.com/@shreyaskulshreshth/watermelon-gezpacho-f36a2b296278 | ['Shreyas Kulshreshth'] | 2020-06-10 17:12:56.514000+00:00 | ['Food', 'Summer', 'Healthy Foods', 'Watermelon', 'Recipe'] |
The Perfect Fit Is Probably Being Overlooked: Hiring Exceptional Talent by Applying an Equity Lens | Image of five fellows from the 6th cohort of Baltimore Corps Fellows during orientation
Finding a Unicorn: Hiring Exceptional Talent by Applying an Equity Lens
Picture it: Baltimore 2020, your organization is ready to hire your next star employee. It could be a new role, or fulfilling a long-standing position, either way, you’re excited for the opportunity to grow and strengthen your team. The problem is you are already overwhelmed by your workload, and unsure about how you are going to find the time to conduct an equitable, and inclusive, search that draws a strong, diverse candidate pool. You want to hire the right person. Let’s not forget that you need to hire quickly because the work does not stop and your team is already stretched. Sound familiar?
That’s a long time to work short-staffed. Most hiring managers have limited time and resources when it comes to recruiting and hiring our next great staff member. We may care deeply about creating an equitable hiring process, but what does that look like and with what time?
Image of one of our partners, Innovation Works, during 2019 Fellowship Orientation
At Baltimore Corps, we’re no strangers to this challenge, that is why we created Place for Purpose. Place for Purpose is a mission-driven placement service, where we are leverage our experience recruiting and placing talent to support your organization in finding the best person for your position.
“Our ambition is to really be the front door to a meaningful life and career here in Baltimore, so that anyone who wants to connect can connect, and can make the city a better place.” — Fagan Harris, CEO of Baltimore Corps
Place for Purpose is an affordable service that capitalizes on our deep network of talented professionals to support your hiring needs. Organizations of all sizes working within the social impact sector should be able to find the right talent, and we are here to make that a reality.
Ready to learn more about Place for Purpose? | https://medium.com/baltimore-corps/finding-a-unicorn-hiring-exceptional-talent-by-applying-an-equity-lens-e4bf2ad6d4a8 | ['Minda Heyman'] | 2021-03-24 23:05:38.074000+00:00 | ['Talent Acquisition', 'Hiring', 'Baltimore', 'Nonprofit', 'Employment'] |
Espejitos de colores | Digital product designer that also happens to do a bunch of other stuff on the side. Jack of all trades.
Follow | https://medium.com/postales-de-la-tormenta/espejitos-de-colores-c15179791872 | ['Nicolás J. Engler'] | 2019-05-11 23:02:46.806000+00:00 | ['Creative Writing', 'Short Story', 'Fiction', 'Nonfiction'] |
FLETA project is about to launch. | FLETA project is about to launch. | https://medium.com/fleta-first-chain/%ED%94%84%EB%A0%88%ED%83%80-%ED%94%84%EB%A1%9C%EC%A0%9D%ED%8A%B8-%EB%A7%A4%EC%B2%B4-4f64d21cf9a1 | ['Fleta Blockchain'] | 2019-01-25 07:18:11.501000+00:00 | ['Ethereum', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Bitcoin', 'Blockchain'] |
Working from home with kids. How Taxfix parents are taking on homeschooling | Today millions of parents find themselves responsible for overseeing their children’s education from home and the struggle is real. Our working moms and dads share their experience with balancing work, life, and homeschooling in times of pandemic.
Under the best circumstances, working from home with children can be a challenge. Throw in lesson plans, lunch prep, and isolation activities, and suddenly you’re juggling several full-time jobs at once. We’ve compiled some ideas for parents and businesses to help ease the stress of this unprecedented balancing act.
Create a schedule together
Head of Customer Success, Kerstin von Blumröder, recommends breaking out the colorful markers and construction paper to plan a routine with your child:
“In addition to helping my team adapt to this new way of working, it was important to make sure my 12-year-old daughter still felt safe, happy, and engaged in her educational process. Creating a detailed, color-coded schedule really saved my life. Every evening we sit together and create the tasks for the next day and discuss the challenges and difficulties in the individual subjects. We set aside time for my daughter to teach me. This helps me to understand if she has gaps in her knowledge and, if so, in what size? It also helps both of us know what our goals are and why they’re important.”
Plan your time in advance
Head of Brand, Yazmina Cabrera, suggests setting up calendar events for parental duties in addition to your work schedule:
“My husband and I have divided our day in equal parts, so that we both can have at least five hours in a row of uninterrupted work time. I also try to squeeze some work in before my two-year-old gets up in the morning and after he goes to bed at night. This way I can really focus on the tasks on my agenda that do not require facetime with my team, rather than trying to do everything at once. I also set clearly defined events in my work calendar to let my team know when I’m on mommy-duty. I still find myself being super productive, but my working hours are distributed all over the place!”
[Also check out the Brand Team’s recent initiative, Taxfix Impact, for German speakers seeking financial advice during the COVID-19 crisis.]
Teamwork is key
Isee Buch, content marketing manager, tackles the current situation with his wife and children as a team — with some well-organized plays and a bit of improvisation:
“A mixture of improvisation and planning — this is how you could describe the strategy my wife and I use. We have two kindergarten-age kids and we are both in full-time jobs. We want our daughter and son to suffer as little as possible. That’s why we split the workdays into four-hour blocks. In the first four hours I take care of them — a lot of reading and building fantasy castles — and my wife goes to the office, which is just around the corner. Especially at lunchtime and in the evenings we dedicate our time exclusively to them. As soon as she takes over, I work from home and so on…the ideal case.
“But sometimes it happens that I join a call or answer emails — for instance with the children next to me on the sofa. As I said, it’s a mixture. But that’s what makes it so challenging, exciting, and not necessarily unproductive. Just different. And with all these circumstances, it’s great to have such an empathetic team on your side.”
Let creativity drive learning
Arielle Tucker, tax expert, tries to use this experience as an opportunity to let imagination steer the learning process:
“My husband and I ask the children about their interests and what they would like to learn. Based on that, we explore areas that generally they wouldn’t have time to. For example, our daughter — age seven — was interested in starting a soap company so we had her come up with a name, logo, soap designs and then ordered the materials for her to make her own soap. Turns out she no longer wants to start a soap company.”
What companies can do
Head of People, Marie Toby, emphasizes the need to listen to your employees and be realistic with your expectations:
“We were very lucky to already have an active parents-talk channel within the company on Slack. It’s a place where they exchange and ask for tips, vent out, share sweet moments. We realized fairly quickly that they were going to face many challenges as parents in home-office. We reached out to Nona.care, a child care service that quickly turned to innovative virtual care due to the lockdown, and worked out a trial subscription for Taxfix parents.
“It seemed to be just so important to approach this as empathetically as possible and to find solutions for them on an individual basis. We made sure to extend deadlines and allow parents to find the working hours that fit best for them. We also want to be realistic in terms of our expectations for what they can deliver. These are special circumstances and we really want them to get over any feeling of guilt. The key message is: ‘We know that you’re trying your best, don’t beat yourself up.’
“My biggest piece of advice for companies is to empathize with the stress and uncertainty your employees may be facing. It not only reassures them but also brings the team closer together.” | https://medium.com/taxfix/working-from-home-with-kids-how-taxfix-parents-are-taking-on-homeschooling-e4df081291c9 | ['Katrina Gnatek'] | 2020-08-02 17:48:14.778000+00:00 | ['Berlin', 'Madrid', 'Working From Home', 'Working Parents', 'Startup'] |
How to Protect Your Construction Business Revenue During Budget Restrained COVID-19 Environment? | The Present Scenario of the Construction Industry
Though the effect of COVID-19 has started to slow down, the long-hauled impact it has created on the construction industry is still persistent. From project owners to contractors, subcontractors, and project managers, all have faced the reduced cash flow adding more pressure to the projects.
Since the safety requirements have become stricter than ever, there has been a significant decline in the labor supply along with the shortage of material which has pushed the material pricing to cut down the profits.
Adding to this, contractors and construction firms have started spending more money on safety essentials such as masks, gloves, sanitizers, and other products. Also, the loss of labor has made even the simplest tasks consume more time adding to the time required to complete the projects.
As most of the manufacturing plants were restricted to function due to safety aspects, the material shortage has become another obstruction to the project’s success. The restriction on imports, cost of logistics, and delays have all caused damage to the revenue-making many contractors and construction companies to struggle for survival.
Tighter Budget & Project Managers
Even though contractors are taking maximum efforts to protect the cash flow, there has been significant pressure on the project managers to control the project budgets while generating profits.
As project managers must take the responsibility for driving profit percentage, it has become even more difficult for them to sustain through these tough times. Therefore, contractors are looking forward to technology solutions that can help yield profit even from tighter budgets.
Project managers have the responsibility of maintaining the profit percentage by keeping track of the variance with project finances, which may be difficult at times. However, planning your goals with the right techniques could prove to be beneficial in yielding profits from tighter margins.
Planning Cash Flow Projections & Job Forecasting
The primary step which project managers need to take for the project’s success is planning cash flow projections as it helps contractors to locate the income source while defining the budget for the essential expenses.
Moreover, it is necessary that project managers should keep a check on operational costs while working on material and equipment purchases. It can help project managers have visible trends for cash flow. Also, the data can be used to work on the job forecasting process for existing and future projects while measuring profits, loss, and average income required for planning expenses or checking possible loan requirements to complete the project.
Measuring Estimated Time for Completion
When it comes to sustaining profit margin, project managers must have a keen observation of the estimated completion time for projects. This can either be done using construction accounting software which can check on true costs and time spent on a particular activity as well as the entire project.
Also, determining true costs even includes project managers to check for change order data such as labor, material, and subcontract data which can help filter profits from the expenses. And to meet such goals, contractors can switch to construction project management software that is designed to automate the recording of all the expenses, checking time for completion, and cutting any chances of unexpected loss due to delays.
Adding to that, the data determined for estimated time for completion of a project and activity can be further used to plan the decisions for upcoming projects while generating the scope for improving the profit margins.
How to Sustain Healthier Profit Margins?
The entire process of sustaining the profit margins begins with the management of expenses, time management, and keeping a check on project budgets. Since project owners can hold contractors and project managers accountable for all the time and money consumed, contractors can simply switch to intelligent construction management software that can handle all the data related to accounting, ERP, CRM, and project management.
Also, using such technology can help project managers to have command over change orders while checking costs anticipated for change implementation, material planning changes, schedule adjustments, etc. This data can be used to create real-time progress reports while delivering access to more precise billings, invoices, progress reports, and
On top of this, using an integrated construction accounting software can be used to process real-time progress reports, drawing a more accurate picture of the variances in the job. Also, this can provide project owners easy access to progress details, invoices, and billings which can improve the entire payment process.
Overall, using a software solution can help project managers to stick to the right path of project progress while aligning with the budget and profit margins. This gives them easy access to expense management and allows timely project development while maintaining the transparency of the entire project.
The Crux
Though working on project planning, expenses, change orders, and profit management may all seem like an effortless process, the goal of the contractors is all about bringing precision to the deliveries.
Therefore, it is significantly important to keep track of project resources and business decisions to have a business advantage. Therefore, it is necessary that contractors must make the right choice when adopting a cloud-based integrated construction accounting software that can add to the profits while meeting the project goals.
Concluding it all, planning revenue and sustaining profit margin in a budget restrained environment is all about precision with estimated time completion, keeping a check on project trends, effective forecasting, and making sure that the project must head in the right direction with respect to time.
Good Luck!
Are you struggling with profit margins due to shrunk project budgets during COVID-19 landscape? Get the necessary support from the experts. Visit www.projectpro365.com | https://medium.com/projectpro365/how-to-protect-your-construction-business-revenue-during-budget-restrained-covid-19-environment-f103335dc9f2 | ['Scarlett Jonathon'] | 2020-12-11 08:08:42.310000+00:00 | ['Construction', 'Construction Management', 'Construction Industry', 'Accounting Software', 'Accounting'] |
The Disintegration Has Begun | A new party is taking shape in British politics. Labour lost nine MPs in a week, and the Conservatives lost three over the same period. The Independent Group now has the same number of MPs as the Liberal Democrats — without a single vote being cast.
Most of the splitters gave two reasons for the breakaway: Brexit and anti-Semitism. If you listen closely though, you will find the real reason for the decision to leave the Labour Party and it is no surprise to anyone with a serious grasp of reality.
It’s not rocket science. The main aim of the split is to keep Jeremy Corbyn out of Number 10. This journalist has repeatedly encountered this perspective first-hand on the Labour right. As one parliamentary assistant told me: “How could you not plot against Corbyn?”
“The Labour Party has to reclaim the centre ground,” she stressed. “Right now, Theresa May is holding the centre for most voters.”
This was just before the 2017 general election, where Corbyn went on to increase the Labour vote by almost 10% and claim super-safe Tory seats like Kensington and Canterbury. That parliamentary assistant now works in PR.
Almost two years after the election, the British media has tried to reset the narrative on Corbyn in the run-up to the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. The Independent Group is likely to become the new focus of a media campaign to sweep away Labour’s gains.
The fantasy is that the group will be able to play the role of kingmaker at the next election and, in the meantime, act as a disciplinary force on both parties. The only problem is that the Independent Group has no clear agenda.
Finding a cause
The Independent Group has yet to form an official party and define its aims. The danger is that there is not enough to hold together this small band of misfits if it wants to do more than stop Corbyn from taking the highest office in the land. It may even be that the group has no unifying set of aims.
“I reckon these MPs can see that there’s no future for them in the party and they’ve decided to take one last stand before it’s all over,” one Labour source said. “This is the last hurrah for the centrists.”
Beyond that, the split may soon run into serious problems. The group may want to become a safe haven for anti-Corbyn MPs in Labour and anti-Brexit MPs in the Conservative Party. However, the absence of a positive vision will inevitably hold the group back.
When Sky News asked Chuka Umunna why he decided to leave, Umunna referred to an “awful culture” within Labour defined by a “visceral hatred for people of other opinions”. But that’s not all he said.
“Can I in all conscience say that I want to make Jeremy Corbyn prime minister?” Umunna said. “Nobody thought that could be a prospect [in the 2017 election], in a future election it could be a prospect and I can’t in all conscience do that.”
Umunna went on to claim that the Labour Party was out of date. Yet the Independent Group resembles the politics of 1994 more than 2019. The space for the centre ground may have been closed by Brexit precisely because the country has become so polarised.
The SDP split was possible because there was such a space in 1981. The Thatcherites were on the rise against the backdrop of post-war social democracy falling into disarray. The left captured the Labour leadership at the time, but there was a shift away from statist solutions underway.
Today it’s quite different. The status quo is the free-market right and its doctrines, not the Keynesian post-war economy with its nanny state. Forty years is a long time for any political consensus and it may be that the neoliberal era is finally coming to an end.
The Brexit factor
What the UK will look like in 10 years depends on the state of play right now. The nationalist right has its vision, and so does the socialist left. Even if neoliberalism is coming to an awkward close, it’s no guarantee of a sunny tomorrow.
The European question has divided the two parties into four subdivisions, each split between Remainers and Leavers. This is partly what has driven the Independent Group to break-off, but only ‘partly’.
The Blairites have been toying with the idea of a breakaway since 2015. Indeed, it’s been reported that the domain name for the Independent Group website was bought that year. Though the Labour right could never quite agree on strategy or what it wanted to achieve.
As Dudley MP Ian Austin told Channel 4 News: “Under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, I think the Labour Party has gone in completely different direction. It’s gone from being a mainstream party to a sort of hard-left sect.”
Austin has left the party, though not to join the Independent Group. The group can’t draw in former Labour Eurosceptics like Austin precisely because they are seen as an anti-Brexit bloc. And yet the breakaway may have killed any hope of a People’s Vote on the Brexit deal.
The second referendum campaign will now have to choose between pushing Labour to adopt its position or backing a new political project. Victory is not certain either way, and it’s not clear that the Labour split will immediately suit the party’s opponents.
Pro-EU Labour members are dismayed by the split precisely because it risks the people’s vote campaign. “The splitters have wrecked our cause,” the Labour source said. “The people’s vote will be set back by this. It’s totally short-sighted.”
The truth is that the UK political system is now so fragmented that the British political class can barely act in its own long-term interests. The disintegration has begun, and there is no end in sight. This is what national suicide looks like. And it’s only the beginning.
Josh White is an associate editor of Souciant. His work has appeared in the New Statesman, Novara Media and Counterpunch. Photograph courtesy of Tiocfaidh ár lá 1916. Published under a Creative Commons license. | https://medium.com/thebattleground/the-disintegration-has-begun-9264a2c281c3 | ['The Battleground'] | 2019-02-25 10:43:50.272000+00:00 | ['Critical Times', 'Jeremy Corbyn', 'Labour Party', 'Brexit', 'United Kingdom'] |
Be Your Inner Indian | Be Your Inner Indian
The grounded feeling
Photo by Stephen Walker on Unsplash
One day my wife said that she was contemplating her inner Indian, and strange enough, this awoke a lot of pictures and feelings in me.
The picture coming to mind was a native American standing tall and observing the world with stoic calm and groundedness. I have no idea what it meant to her, but I was fascinated by what “being my inner Indian” symbolized to me.
I am not a native American, and I don’t know much about what it means, but to me, being an Indian is simply associated with the native Americans. So please forgive me for any misunderstandings about the native Americans.
I associate the native Americans with certain very positive qualities.
Being grounded
An important quality is the ability to be grounded. A grounded person has a deep inner connection. Staying grounded at all times and always see the world from that position.
Being calm
Calmness is a result of being grounded, but it is also a quality in itself. Being calm in the storm is a quality associated with great leaders and people with great authenticity.
Being authentic
Authenticity is a quality in itself. It is the result of being grounded and calm and not going along with any thought that comes up. To be authentic means always making decisions based on your true self. No matter what everyone else says.
Being enough
This person is always enough and have no urge to have more to be fulfilled. There is no doubt because there is a faith that what is needed is already given.
Being connected
It is a person always connected to the important things in life; family, tribe, animals, nature, spirits, etc. He feels them, and they are part of him whenever he makes a decision.
Being wise
The quiet mind will always be wise because it has access to the universal wisdom. The wisdom becomes part of the personality and is recognized by others as the true wisdom that it is.
What comes to your mind when you think of your “inner Indian?” | https://medium.com/life-in-spirit/be-your-inner-indian-9da6d5f8b1f7 | ['Flemming Engstrom'] | 2020-04-26 13:24:13.843000+00:00 | ['Spirituality', 'Awareness', 'Spiritual Growth', 'Self Development', 'Being Yourself'] |
Cool Gadgets and Accessories for Gamers | When you talk about gaming and legends you have Black Shark this reputed online gaming web store knows how to keep you hooked on to your stations with the best gaming gadgets and accessories. They strive to bring you the best at the least through highly affordable deals and discounts like the Black Shark Coupon Codes, Discount and Promo Codes through www.Saveecoupons.com.
Cooling Case: The fun stops when your gaming apps get over heated but Black Shark has the coolest cooling case you have ever come across and its compatible only with Black Shark and you can avail it for as low as $59.90 through the Black Shark Coupon Code.
Gaming Kit: Whether you are at home or out somewhere the fun should never stop and Black Shark assures you that you don’t have to compromise on location by introducing the Black Shark Portable Gaming Kit for as low as $89.90 through the Black Shark Discount Codes.
Earphones: This is another accessory that has premium value when it comes to gaming as gaming without proper sound effects will definitely not be entertaining enough so it’s best to indulge yourself in one before you start your gaming experience. You can avail it now for just $19.90 and start of the game like a perfect gamer.
Power Adapter: This looks like a petty device but this small adapter plays a vital role when it has to keep y our gaming devices charged so if you haven’t purchased one it’s the right time to get one now and you can avail it for as low as $9.90 through the Black Shark Coupon Code.
Rookie Kit: This is one perfect innovation of Black Shark and missing it out could mean missing on a whole gaming experience. The rookie kit ha s everything you would need from holders to game pads and you can avail it for as low as $39.90 through the Black Shark Coupons. | https://medium.com/@muzammilnaeem/cool-gadgets-and-accessories-for-gamers-a89ac5b25aff | ['Muzammil Naeem Khan'] | 2019-09-20 16:15:09.389000+00:00 | ['Games', 'Online Shopping', 'Coupon', 'Mobile Accessories', 'Gadgets'] |
My Story — part 2. Choice | Image by Jim Semonik from Pixabay
Choice
A couple of years after the clearing [see part 1] I came across an advertisement for a group meditation held at the church where I had received the message. Thinking meditation was all that was involved I toddled along in time for the next class and asked to join.
I was certainly welcome enough, but the woman taking the group [Lorraine] seemed confused as to why I hadn’t brought a flower with me. The advertisement had stated that the next meeting would be flowers. I didn’t know what that meant but assumed we would be using the imagery of flowers for the meditation, but no, an actual flower was needed so I was told to get a flower from one of the car-park's bushes without allowing anyone to see what I had picked.
Once inside everyone covertly placed their flowers under a cloth on a tray. A few formalities followed, everyone settled, and the meditation began. I hadn’t spent much time in group meditation so I, at first, felt a little awkward, the group energy that began to build soon took care of that, I calmed and relaxed. It is a nice way to meditate.
A short discussion of experiences took place at the meditations end, then the covered tray was passed around the circle with each person taking any one of the flowers not their own. At this point I still didn’t know what the flowers were for. Lorraine began talking something about impressions, feelings, emotions. Finally, I got it. We were expected to read the flower, or really, the energy of the person who had brought the flower. I had never heard of such a thing. I had of heard psychometry, of course, but not with a flower. This wasn’t what I had expected, I had come for the meditation.
I began to panic a bit, but even through the panic I could feel information bubbling up into my awareness. So, against all past belief or reasoning I sat there and calmly read the flower. No-one in the circle seemed at all surprised, but I sure was.
I had known, of course, that I had some ability, it’s just that I had never been asked to perform on the spot and I didn’t know I could. I had thought my form of psychic knowing had to be gifted to me at the appropriate times rather than be called up at will. Looking back, it’s as if before this episode I believed I didn’t have any choice in the matter. Possessing the ability to read others at will was a revelation to me.
I stayed with the group for quite some time, they were a lovely bunch of people. I had great fun reading all sorts of objects and learned much from this association. Eventually, for reasons I do not know, the group dissolved. I felt a little lost for a while, even though I hadn’t ever expected to actually “go” anywhere with this new knowledge, I again wondered why the cosmos should lead me to this beneficial situation only for it to dwindle away.
Maybe I simply needed to be shown what I was capable of when automatically accepted and encouraged. Maybe, or perhaps the teaching here really was about choice.
I realized through this episode that up until then I had been living a huge amount of my life switched off to anything other than accepted reality. I still do, apart from the time I spend channelling my awareness and perception is reined in, closed up. I don’t feel that this is a necessarily bad thing, as I am sure any fellow empath would agree.
I am guessing this reining in, probably, unconsciously began in early life. If this is so I bear no regret. The human survival instinct is strong in all of us from the moment of birth, and if my younger self deemed this action necessary it’s okay with this older self.
The obvious difference now is that I am fully aware of my right of conscious choice. Not just in this matter, but in all matters, we have much say in our way of being.
When I lost the outlet provided by the group I could have sought out another group, I could have looked for a mentor to help hone my abilities, I could have , perhaps, become confident enough to begin reading for clients, but I happily did none of this. I instead returned for a while to ordinariness.
I do not believe it to be true that only a few are gifted with psychic ability, levels may differ, awareness of ability may differ, but everyone possesses the raw form of it. Its expression may be suppressed for many reasons, not all of them negative, sometimes its muteness is part of a teaching for a life plan. Few people live without basic intuition though, and I think that is often enough.
Some very talented people can easily walk their chosen path with one foot in each of the worlds. I have the greatest respect for those who do, and for the gifts they are willing to share. I know I have benefited greatly from any readings I have been fortunate enough to receive and I certainly do not mean to dismiss the worth of the comfort good readings can provide to someone in need, but I believe many people often do not need to know the things they are told through them.
Sometimes it is best to rely on our own intuitive knowing while living a life in solid, ordinary reality, that is what most of us are mainly here for after all.
So, with these sentiments in mind my return to ordinariness proved no hardship. About four years ago I did, however, join another group that, among other things, involved psychic development. Again, with a lovely group of people who taught and gave me much. It was through this association that the channelling came to the fore.
I hadn’t known that those I channelled for myself over years were capable of delivering broader teachings to anyone who would “trigger” them. With this development I again seemed to be confronted with a choice. Do I continue to hone my reading skills or do I concentrate on the teachings coming through?
As I was, and am, a terrible tarot reader [really useless, give me an object any day] and as I felt the teachings held more depth, this choice was easy to make.
So, for now, I hold fast to this choice, the choice I have so far consciously made twice. I wonder how many more times I will be presented with the same choice. One thing I know for sure is that I won’t be trying to read my own tarot cards to find the answer — no point. So, I think, as I believe so many of us should, that I will just keep toddling along not really knowing what to expect.
Who knows maybe I’ll find something even more surprising than talking flowers.
Claire. | https://medium.com/illumination/my-story-part-2-2371faca083c | ['Claire Elaine'] | 2020-07-10 05:23:08.264000+00:00 | ['Personal Growth', 'Spirituality', 'Awareness', 'Biography', 'Choices'] |
How To Run Your Life From Your Home Screen | From time to time, when I get up in the morning, I feel like my phone is no longer works for me. Too many installed apps, on the one hand, that some take too much of my attention, and on the other good apps that I neglected. That made me think about how to do things differently this time.
The phone’s home screen has a very big effect on our time and attention. The more distracting the apps on the home screen are, the more time we spend on involuntary content consumption.
But you can change that.
I decided to create a new order for my home screen that has a slightly different architecture. Apps arranged by my biological clock and daily routines. So, let’s get started?
First-row 👉 morning routine apps
I start every morning with routines that maximize my energy level. Here are the apps I use.
1. Oura — The first app I open in the morning to track my sleep metrics and overall body recovery.
2. Waking Up — mostly for short meditation. I found it more effective than Headspace, which annoyed me recently.
3. Onyx — mainly for waking the body up by doing quick exercises. The app also corrects my movements and monitors my activity through the phone’s camera.
4. DayTwo — mostly to plan what I will eat for lunch and dinner.
Second row 👉 Apps that help me get focused
After I finish my morning routine, I begin with 90 minutes of deep work during which I finish my most important task of the day
5. Restart — An old-fashioned routine where I document 3 things I am thankful for today and mention what is the most important task for that day.
6. Focus Mode — Nice automation where I set how much focus I want to get. The automation puts the phone on “Do Not Disturb” mode, sends a message to my wife that I am in focus for the time I set, and if she is looking for me she can call twice. It then runs Brain.fm that puts on music for my brain, and then it opens a timer that shows me how much time is left on this focus session has left.
7. Brain.fm — Music that is good for your brain.
Third row 👉 on-the-go apps
After I finish my important task, I leave my home and head to the office. The reason is that most of the time, the office has more distractions. I always walk to work. It takes me 30 minutes and during that time I put power into my brain.
8. Google Maps — If I need to navigate to the meeting. I’m usually using this one during the day.
9. Audible — Reads my books to me.
10. Pocket — Reads articles that I’ve saved to me.
11. Blinklist — Reads the contents of each book to me.
12. Krisp — Eliminates background noise for calls I make while walking in noisy areas.
13. Superhuman — If I happen to have an email from the phone on the go (rare, but there are situations).
Fourth row 👉 applications for continuous creativity (10:30–17:30)
After coming to the office I try to use my phone mainly for capturing things and creativity. Or best — put it aside.
14. Notes — There are better ones, but it is most convenient for me to write notes.
15. Voice Notes — Again, there are better apps for this(like Outter). But it’s most convenient for fast capture.
16. Paste — A magical app that lets me transfer information and photos from my computer to my phone.
17. Mind Map (MindNode) — I use this for mapping meetings, presentations, ideas, etc.
Fifth Row 👉 Do Less, Be More
18. Instant messaging apps. WhatsApp, Twitter, and Messenger are located here. Keeping them in this folder keeps me focused.
19. Strong — A great app for gym routines. I usually go at 5:30 pm.
20. Pocket Cast — In my leisure I use this app to listen to podcasts.
Two apps I use on my mobile before I go to sleep.
21. Toothbrush timer- I know it’s dumb but I need it.
22. Zero — I’m committed to intermediate fasting. This is the best app. I set it up at night.
Bottom line 👉 spontaneous and continuous use.
These are apps that I use throughout the day. The phone is needed sometimes for calls and updates, Spotify — because music is the air that we breathe. Fantastical — Because I live by my calendar and it’s the best calendar that exists. And Notion, because I pretty much run my life on there.
Now, show me your home screen and I will tell you who you are. | https://medium.com/supertools/how-to-be-the-architecture-of-your-home-screen-ccc1cb6fdcbd | ['Tommy Barav'] | 2020-03-24 08:21:56.432000+00:00 | ['Morning Routines', 'Productivity', 'Phone', 'Hacks'] |
I AM YUNG HAZE ‼️ | 🖖🏽I AM YUNG HAZE independent adaptable artist from another Universe Creator of #HipPopAndB
APPLE MUSIC, TIKTOK and Tidal going up of numerous listeners since my release 🖖🏽🚀 🚀🚀
Reaching 100k streaming on Spotify/ check out F.O.G & my new single VERSIONS — OUT NOW /// stay tune for DEMONS collaboration with my new clothing line / EP on the way.
Plug 🔌 Rich®️
CLICK THE LINK BELOW ‼️👇🏼 | https://medium.com/@yunghaze/i-am-yung-haze-%EF%B8%8F-5029964d365c | ['Yung Haze'] | 2020-12-27 17:13:40.548000+00:00 | ['Apple Music', 'Spotify', 'Spotify Playlist', 'New Music', 'Music'] |
OpenStreetMap Data to ML Training Labels for Object Detection | So I wanted to create a seamless tutorial for taking OpenStreetMap (OSM) vector data and converting it for use with machine learning (ML) models. In particular, I am really interested in creating a tight, clean pipeline for disaster relief applications, where we can use something like crowd sourced building polygons from OSM to train a supervised object detector to discover buildings in an unmapped location.
The recipe for building a basic deep learning object detector is to have two components: (1) training data (raster image + vector label pairs) and (2) model framework. The deep learning model itself will be a Single Shot Detector (SSD) object detector. We will use OSM polygons as the basis of our label data and Digital Globe imagery for the raster data. We won’t go into the details of an SSD here, as there are plenty sources available. We will run the object detector in AWS Sagemaker. This current article only focuses on the training data generation. I’ll follow up with a separate article on model training.
I should note that this tutorial is available in this Github repo, so you can bypass this article if you want to dive in. Although it is a work in progress as part of an upcoming UW Geohackweek. I anticpate using this tutorial in conjunction with HOT-OSM related tasks — where there may be crowd-sourced vector data as part of a specific project. For the purpose of establishing a demo, we will use a recent HOT OSM task area that was impacted by Cyclone Kenneth in 2019, Nzwani, Comores.
Cyclone Kenneth track in late April 2019.
HOT-OSM task data from https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/2019_Cyclone_Kenneth.
The OSM vector data is freely available. The imagery we require is often not. Welcome to the world of GIS. BUT, Digital Globe has Open Data imagery for many of these natural disaster areas. So we can grab that data for this application (a little later on).
I decided to use the OSMNX python library for interfacing with OSM (which can be a bit daunting otherwise). Based on the HOT-OSM task, Nzwani, Comores was labeled as an ‘Urgent’ location (see table above). So I’m going to start there because it seems like a lot of training data could be available.
(left) The OSM ‘DiGraph’ of nodes & edges. (right) The Nzwani landmass with the roads and buildings overlaid.
If you inspect the length of the buildings (a geopandas dataframe that is returned), you will see a significant amount of features. We will use these as the training data for our object detectors.
Let’s grab some DG imagery. To create an object detector, we will mimic the VOC Pascal training data format, where we require pairs of images (jpegs) and vector (xml) labels. The xml files are formated in a particular way. You can read about it (on this difficult to navigate) website.
I would prefer to pull the data directly from the Digital Globe Open Data website, but unforuntately at present, there seems to be no imagery that covers this area post-event. I really want to keep this location as a point of focus, given the amount of buildings we found and the relevance of this task. So, I will just separately download the necessary imagery and make a small subset available for this demo. You can find a sample GeoTIFF in the GitHub repo. | https://medium.com/@shay.strong/openstreetmap-data-to-ml-training-labels-for-object-detection-ce0a3ccdb907 | ['Shay Strong'] | 2019-05-08 05:50:13.732000+00:00 | ['Geospatial Intelligence', 'Machine Learning', 'Openstreetmap', 'Geospatial', 'Data Science'] |
Building Discipline While Working from Home | One of the questions I’ve commonly been asked is, “How do you get anything done while working from home?” You see, I was a remote worker well before the pandemic hit this year. To many people, the concept of working from home seemed unfathomable. However, throughout my education and graduate studies, I found that the key to working from home was cultivating discipline.
Simply put, discipline is the ability to have the self-control to act or not to act in order to achieve a goal. Discipline can include honoring time commitments, embracing the will to act, and creating the right mental frame of mind. Not every day will be an easy day. Some days will be easier than others. Discipline is a process and building it will come with its ups and downs, but a large part of building this right mental frame of mind is not letting the setbacks beat you.
Discipline is very much like a skill — it requires work and conscious effort to develop and improve. Much like a muscle that needs to be used over and over to get stronger, discipline requires effort and practice. The more your practice discipline, the stronger it becomes, and the easier it is to be disciplined. As a caution to this though, just in the same way you can overwork a muscle, you can burn yourself out by almost being “too disciplined”. Being disciplined doesn’t have to mean you immediately change every aspect of your life in order to accomplish a goal. Part of being disciplined is also knowing your limits. Don’t try to be overly disciplined right from the start if you know that that is something you might not be able to sustain.
Like any skill, there are certain steps you can take to ensure you cultivate discipline. While these skills can be applied to any goal you want to achieve, I have specifically provided examples relevant to maintaining productivity at home:
1. Know your limits and how you work best: Do you have kids at home? Other time constraints? Best times of the days to work? Figure out your most productive hours and plan your work accordingly.
2. Embrace “small victories”: Getting started is the hardest part. Divide up your tasks so that you have small tasks to accomplish to get you going in the morning.
3. Ensure you’re getting the right help: Sometimes building discipline can be a daunting task alone. Look to those around you for support and seek support from those if you feel yourself slipping. You may need to schedule more check-ins with your boss to ensure you are meeting (and exceeding) expectations.
4. Challenge yourself and others: If you find yourself ahead of schedule, don’t slow down — set higher goals. As well, by challenging others, you help to create a level of accountability around yourself that you can look to use as support or motivation to stay disciplined. Challenge your work teams to be more productive than you were in the office.
5. Be patient: Building discipline is a process that takes time. If you find yourself getting caught up with too many things on your plate or rushing through activities you can often begin to lose your discipline, so be sure to slow down and take your time — don’t sacrifice your quality of work. However, do be honest with yourself and identify areas where you can improve.
Thanks to Nicolas Simard. | https://medium.com/horizonperformance/building-discipline-while-working-from-home-8f1a637861d8 | ['Julia Brown'] | 2020-10-07 19:42:03.979000+00:00 | ['Leadership', 'Remote Working', 'Work From Home'] |
How A 28-Year-Old Got Fired Then Built A $500K-A-Month Business While Traveling The World | John Crestani was sitting on a beach in Thailand, poor and lost in his life when he opened a book that helped transform him from a job drifter to a successful internet entrepreneur.
It was 2009 and Crestani, then 21, had fled to Thailand after dropping out of college. He was bumming around the country on a small loan from his family and trying to “find” himself. To that end, he brought along spiritual works like The Bible and the Bhagavad Gita (Hindu scripture). But his saving grace turned out to be a business book: The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss, the now-classic manual for breaking free of the nine-to-five by building an online business.
Ferriss’s key tenet in the book is to stop trading time for money and build businesses that can, eventually, operate almost entirely on their own after you set them up: passive income.
“I was at a point in my life where I had very little direction, didn’t know where I was going, and had this void,” says Crestani. “I thought ‘This sounds freaking awesome and I want to do it.’”
And he did. Crestani used his own hustle and Ferriss’s tips to build an affiliate marketing network that currently generates $250,000 to $500,000 per month, enables him to travel the world, and scales on-demand.
While plenty of people aspire to join other followers of Tim Ferriss’s lifestyle design, Crestani is its high prophet. But he didn’t get there overnight.
JOIN HIS SECRET TRAINING COURSE FROM THE LINK BELOW
https://bit.ly/3o1sSIu | https://medium.com/@eugeneowusu-63642/how-a-28-year-old-got-fired-then-built-a-500k-a-month-business-while-traveling-the-world-ff20788fec78 | ['Eugene Owusu'] | 2020-12-14 14:24:38.567000+00:00 | ['Work From Home', 'Enterprise', 'Startup Lessons', 'Marketing', 'Lessons Learned'] |
How .NET 5 Can Make Your Life Better | “The .NET 5 project is an important and exciting new direction for .NET,,” Microsoft said. “You will see .NET becomes simpler but also have a broader and more expansive capability and utility. All new development and feature capabilities will be part of .NET 5, including new C# versions.
“We see a bright future ahead in which you can use the same .NET APIs and languages to target a broad range of application types, operating systems, and chip architectures. It will be easy to make changes to your build configuration to build your applications differently, in Visual Studio, Visual Studio for Mac, Visual Studio Code, Azure DevOps, or at the command line.” | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/how-net-5-can-make-your-life-better-7333b769645b | ['Adem Zeina'] | 2020-05-29 16:54:41.342000+00:00 | ['Dotnet', 'Software Development', 'Microsoft', 'Dotnet Core', 'Web Development'] |
When the Whole Job is One Big Side Hustle | Photo by Anthony Young on Unsplash
Scrolling through LinkedIn, Medium.com, Instagram or other related platforms, you see a lot of references to side hustles. In the golden age, at least to date, of the gig economy, wherein lots more people look to create their own living, finding reliable, viable job opportunities dwindling, the side hustle has become standard nomenclature. The promise of thousands-of-dollars-per-month side hustles, however, doesn’t totally square with reality. I’d argue, at that point, it’s just your job. Welcome to freelancing.
The various arguments in favor or against aside, the bigger and more pertinent question is about sustainability, and future evolutions of side hustling and gig working. COVID-19 has taught us many things. Among them, if you let your employees work from home, your entire organizational structure will not crumble. Productivity, in some instances, may even go up (negatively correlated with having to concurrently home-school your kids during pandemic-driven school closures).
In recent years, the business community has had more hallelujah epiphanies about how treating your team well will in turn contribute to your business doing well. Some people perform great working in an office setting. Some not as much. There’s increasing, belated acknowledgement that open-concept office floorplans are counterproductive. Regardless, life happens. Sometimes you have to tend to it, and sometimes it can only be done between 9am and 5pm, Monday through Friday.
As with most things, since this is the way my mind works, I think a lot of what needs to happen going forward is in how we frame and talk about these phenomena. Even the terms “side hustles” and “gig work” devalue these professionals’ contributions. Far from seeing it simply as a cost-savings to your company, look at it as hiring a skilled worker with beneficial talents. Even that a thing like the side hustle exists is problematic. It’s just a pretty way of saying that people, commonly in creative fields, need to get a second job to supplement their income.
A lot of freelancers came to their current vocation from previously high-level backgrounds and careers. I, for one, have a law degree that I worked my tail off for, and worked in offices with big-deal people on important tasks. If I call what I’m doing now ‘consulting’ does that make it sound more serious? If I tell you that I sometimes earn much less per hour than an experienced plumber, how does that come across? And, by the way, why did plumbers get labeled as the poster children for trades that earn surprisingly good money? A skill is a skill, and if I need a talented plumber I don’t argue with the rate; I happily pay, because goodness knows my own attempts at repair are unlikely to end well. And, when they quote me for a job, I doubt they quake as they say the number, wondering nervously if they’re asking for more than they’re worth.
I’m not opposed to shifts in how the world works. Maybe this is a slow-burning industrial revolution. But the reality is that freelance/gig workers don’t have a lot of protections or stability. To ensure that professionals flourish in these capacities, a good first step is for the companies hiring them to first state their value. The argument is a little circular because, surely, a lot of small businesses are operating on thin enough margins that allocating dollars to contract workers can feel like a leap of something more than faith. So, the value has to be mutual.
A collective shift in lingo, though, would be free. Then we can all agree there’s no need for the side hustle. It’s just hustling, period. There’s no gig work. It’s just work. With the result, ideally, better outcomes for all parties. | https://medium.com/@cgridgway/when-the-whole-job-is-one-big-side-hustle-a3e1b65905fe | ['Caroline Ridgway'] | 2020-06-03 19:56:05.227000+00:00 | ['Freelance', 'Work Smarter', 'Side Hustle', 'Self Employed', 'Gig Economy'] |
8 Signs You May Be Suffering From Postnatal Depression | You’ve just had a baby, and you expected to be filled with joy and happiness about your newborn. Instead, your feeling down, consumed with sadness and guilt and you’re not sure if you’re cut out to be a mum. While it’s normal to feel overwhelmed and have feelings of sadness and uncertainty, especially in the first few months. It’s not normal for these feelings to be so severe that they stop you from enjoying life.
If you are struggling, it could be a sign of postnatal depression. Around ten percent of new mums experience postnatal depression. The problem is, many new mums don’t realise they are suffering from postnatal depression and think it’s the way all new mums feel. Being tired is normal, but prolonged feelings of hopelessness are not.
If you’re not sure if the way you are feeling is normal, here are eight signs that you may need to seek some support from your doctor. The earlier you seek treatment, the sooner you can start to feel like yourself again.
THE ‘BABY BLUES’ DON’T GO AWAY
The baby blues affect up to 80% of women after they give birth. Women who experience the baby blues can expect to feel down for a little while shortly after having their baby. They probably occur due to the sudden hormonal and chemical changes that take place in your body after childbirth.
They usually last between 10–12 days after having your baby. If you continue to feel down and hopeless for more than two weeks, it’s a sign that something is amiss.
YOU LOSE INTEREST IN THINGS YOU USUALLY ENJOY
Are you enjoying spending time with your baby? Are you enjoying going out with your baby for walks? Are you eating and enjoying your favourite foods? Are you laughing at your partners silly jokes? If the answer is no, its a sign, you need to talk to your doctor about the way you are feeling.
YOU FEEL SAD AND GUILTY MOST OF THE TIME
It’s completely normal to feel a little down at times; your hormones are all over the place after you have had a baby, and the lack of sleep can have a real impact on your mood. It’s normal to find yourself questioning if your ‘good enough’ or if you are cut out to be a mum. But, to feel consumed by sadness, to cry frequently for no apparent reason and to feel unhappy about being a parent isn’t normal and maybe the first signs of postnatal depression.
YOU DON’T FEEL LIKE YOURSELF ANYMORE
Having a baby undoubtedly causes a massive shift in identity. When you become a parent, personal freedom gives way to responsibility and self-love gives way to a type of all-consuming love for another that only a parent can understand. While becoming a parent changes us as people, if you are feeling lost and hopeless and don’t feel like yourself anymore and the feelings are all-consuming and last for a prolonged period, it could be a sign that something is wrong.
YOU WANT TO SLEEP ALL DAY OR STRUGGLE TO REST
Of course, when you have a baby, you expect your sleeping patterns to change. When your up all night with a new baby its normal to want to nap during the day, But, if you feel like you want to sleep all day and not tend to your babies needs. Or, your unable to rest or sleep when your baby is sleeping — its a sign that something is wrong.
YOU ARE IRRITABLE AND ANGRY
When you’re looking after a new baby and not getting much sleep, it’s normal to be a bit grumpy and short. However, it’s not normal to have uncontrollable and irrational feelings of anger and rage. If you are struggling to keep your temper under control, it might be time to speak to someone.
YOU STRUGGLE TO MAKE DECISIONS
Sometimes when you’re a new mum, you can feel so tired you’re not sure whether you’re coming or going! If your finding day to day life particularly tricky and can’t make decisions on simple things such as staying in or going for a walk. Making yourself something to eat or not eating at all or whether you should change your babies nappy. It could be early signs of postnatal depression.
YOU THINK ABOUT HARMING YOURSELF
Having suicidal thoughts or thoughts about harming your self or your baby is an advanced sign of postnatal depression. It’s nothing to feel ashamed about, and you shouldn’t keep these feelings yourself. Speak to your partner or a close family member about how your feeling and contact your doctor, midwife or health visitor straight away.
There is a range of help and support available and several helplines you can call to speak to someone impartial. Visit the NHS website for help and support: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/suicide/ | https://medium.com/@info_73965/8-signs-you-may-be-suffering-from-postnatal-depression-c8be143bdd30 | ['First Time Mama'] | 2020-02-20 10:40:38.372000+00:00 | ['Motherhood', 'Baby', 'Pregnant', 'Signs', 'Postnatal Depression'] |
The Magic World of Money. Aprender con un Sistema totalmente… | The Magic World of Money
¿ What is the Eternal Mastery in Successful Entrepreneurship? (M3E)
For some time now, people who see beyond the formal, look for a way to work online, either due to lack of a “stable” job or because they want to be owners of their time, really choose a job that allows them to get very good income. Tempting isn’t it?
But as in any profession, one must know, be sure of the steps to take, in order to understand what, how and why, as well as what works and what does not, the different strategies of entrepreneurship, such as new tools. that are trends for this type of business, and the ones that we are all interested in and really want to achieve is to be able to be Free, financially and manage our times, travel, be with the family, etc.
So what is M3E? It is precisely a new Operating System, which is testing the techniques that already exist in the market, creating new techniques so as not to get stuck, stranded, but rather offers us trends, visionary techniques, which have been tested by people who handle this world and that we are neither improvised, nor smoke sellers.
It is time to study seriously, giving ourselves the opportunity for and for ourselves. Taking full advantage of the immense possibility that this Master offers us that will train us not only in theory, but in practice, because we will be guided and accompanied with videos, exercises, so that in this way we gain knowledge, investing our time in power.
Searching, I found this Institute, researching, and collecting different testimonies, confirm that M3E works, because you will gain knowledge of something that no one can ever take away from you !!!
I leave you this link https://hotm.art/piLZQEW I hope to help someone to discover this exciting online world of generating money, discover how it works, learn this new profession that will undoubtedly be exciting, and we still have still much to know. | https://medium.com/@silvialunasosa/el-m%C3%A1gico-mundo-de-dinero-6272a9b32961 | ['Silvia Luna Sosa'] | 2020-12-27 23:13:21.549000+00:00 | ['Libertad Financiera', 'Marketing Strategies', 'Educación Financiera', 'Dinero', 'Lifestyle'] |
Palantir Apollo: Powering SaaS where no SaaS has gone before | At Palantir, our approach to software has undergone a radical transformation in the past few years. When we first launched Gotham in 2008, cloud computing was in its infancy, and most enterprise software was still installed on customer-owned hardware. This was especially true in the large governmental organizations that used Gotham, where our software ran on-premises and upgrades were relatively infrequent and manual.
Palantir software circa 2008: installed on-premises in heterogeneous environments; often air-gapped/classified networks.
Government and Enterprise use Foundry on public cloud for mission critical operations.
When we built Foundry in 2016, the software world looked a lot different, so instead of replicating what we did with Gotham, we took a new approach: we built Foundry as a cloud-native SaaS with a microservice architecture. Our customers embraced the SaaS model much faster than we expected, and it has since come to dominate our business. In the past two years, every new Commercial customer has opted for our SaaS platform. And the same can be said for the US Government, where since receiving FedRAMP Moderate and DoD IL-5 authorization — the highest SaaS authorization, used for Mission-Critical and National Security Systems — our public-cloud SaaS has been used by nearly all new customers for their unclassified work.
However, what makes our two user-facing SaaS platforms — Gotham and Foundry — truly unique is what is under the hood. Both of these platforms stand on the shoulders of a continuous delivery system we call Palantir Apollo. Apollo has been so critical to our success, we consider it to be our third platform. It not only unlocked our transformation to SaaS platforms, but has allowed us to go beyond just SaaS. With Apollo, our SaaS platforms run seamlessly in places where no SaaS has gone before.
We initially built Apollo to power Foundry’s public cloud SaaS infrastructure.
Most enterprise SaaS companies only run in the public cloud, and often only use a single cloud provider. But this wasn’t enough for our customers. Some of our government customers require their software to run in purpose-built government or classified clouds that live separately from standard public cloud infrastructure. Others need to use our software in extreme disconnected environments, from submarines to drones. We asked ourselves, how do we build a SaaS that works for all of our customers? That’s where Apollo comes in.
In the past, we’ve written about the value of Apollo for our developers. In this post, we’ll discuss the value of Apollo for our customers.
What is Palantir Apollo?
Palantir Apollo is a continuous delivery system that powers our software platforms. Apollo was conceived alongside Foundry, initially built as the automation and delivery infrastructure for our public-cloud SaaS. However, given our roots in classified and on-prem environments, we knew that a traditional SaaS based on a single public cloud provider wouldn’t work everywhere. We needed unified tooling to bring the same SaaS platform to all of our customers, regardless of environment constraints. So we built Apollo to run as its own standalone platform — independent, decoupled from Foundry, running as a layer that sits between our applications and the underlying infrastructure.
Today, Apollo brings the same SaaS-style management to all of our platforms. It runs nearly everywhere that our software is deployed — cloud, on-prem, and classified networks — and has transformed the way that our software scales. Apollo orchestrates updates across heterogeneous deployment targets, unlocking fleet-wide autonomous management that has been a step-change in the efficiency of our operations.
Because we built Apollo as a standalone platform, we’ve since extended it to power both Foundry and Gotham. Apollo automatically delivers platform upgrades without any user downtime or human intervention, regardless of environment.
Apollo manages and safely deploys our Gotham and Foundry platforms. Each platform is made up of hundreds of individual services, each owned by a development team that writes and releases product features independently. This approach allows us to roll out updates across services asynchronously, increasing feature velocity. However, this type of microservice architecture traditionally makes the deployment of the software more complex. Apollo is the brain that automates this complexity away. It is configured to decide what to upgrade, when to do it, and how. It monitors developer releases, resolves dependencies, and deploys new versions.
Apollo does this automatically in a way that obviates the need for user downtime or human intervention. It performs safe deploys with staged blue-green upgrades, and observes the roll-out process. If it notices an emergent issue, it begins a roll-back process, notifies the relevant development team, and avoids an outage. If successful, it moves on to the next service, and repeats — continuously delivering incremental, automatic updates for the fleet over 41,000 times a week.
Apollo enables the monitoring of an entire fleet from a single pane of glass.
Apollo performs this same automation for not just our SaaS, but also connected on-premises appliances, removing operating environment as a constraint. In fact, that’s one of the main reasons we built it. From Day 1, we’ve worked with customers in the most secure and highly regulated industries, operated in the world’s most logistically challenging environments, and built software capable of handling our customer’s most sensitive data. The experience of solving for the most technically challenging environment first, rather than adding it on later, is what led us to build Apollo as a foundation for software that can be written once and run anywhere.
Apollo has allowed us to extend our platforms across cloud regions to meet our customers’ data residency requirements, and across cloud providers to run a multi-cloud SaaS. It has allowed us to extend our platforms on-premises to connected hardware appliances and edge devices. And it has done so without adding significant overhead or requiring specialized workflows: our software developers write code, Apollo deploys it, and our centralized operations team can monitor the whole fleet from a single pane of glass. In other words, Apollo has enabled Palantir to bring our SaaS — and the SaaS economics that come with it — to environments where no SaaS has gone before.
Customers receive the latest platform upgrades automatically through Apollo and without any disruption to operations.
Why is Palantir Apollo critical for our customers?
At Palantir, we don’t take any software deployment scenario for granted. Our software engineers don’t know if their products will be deployed as part of our standard SaaS platform, serving web-scale traffic from the public cloud, or in Afghanistan, running on a ruggedized server rack in the back of a Humvee. Because Apollo removes the environment as a constraint, engineers can focus on velocity and application code. They write code once that works for all customers. This is in stark contrast to other software companies, where engineers write code that targets a specific environment and must engineer specialized products for each new deployment scenario they face. Ultimately, this approach brings more capabilities to our customers, faster.
This technology brings our SaaS and all its benefits to organizations who have never used SaaS before. Not only can we fully embrace modern development practices like devops, continuous delivery, containerization, auto-scaling, and automated upgrades — the core components of a SaaS solution — but we do so without traditional constraints of only supporting a single public cloud provider. We run our software in a homogenous way across heterogeneous environments, powered by Apollo. Apollo is the platform that makes it possible to bring a unified SaaS to our entire customer base.
Authors
Akshay Krishnaswamy leads Enterprise Architecture for Palantir’s Commercial business.
Clark Minor leads Palantir’s platform infrastructure and cloud strategy.
Rob Fink is the founding engineer of the Palantir Foundry data platform. | https://blog.palantir.com/palantir-apollo-powering-saas-where-no-saas-has-gone-before-7be3e565c379 | [] | 2020-10-08 13:30:34.138000+00:00 | ['Palantirtech', 'Continuous Delivery', 'Palantir', 'Engineering', 'SaaS'] |
Bitcoin Wallet Guide, Reviews and Comparison | Bitcoin Wallet Summary
A Bitcoin wallet is a software program in which Bitcoins are stored. Technically, Bitcoins are not stored anywhere. For every individual who has a balance in a Bitcoin wallet, there is a private key (secret number) corresponding to the Bitcoin address of that wallet. Bitcoin wallets facilitate the sending and receiving of Bitcoins and give ownership of the Bitcoin balance to the user. The Bitcoin wallet comes in many forms. The four main types are desktop, mobile, web, and hardware.
If you want the complete guide to Bitcoin wallets and different wallet reviews keep on reading. Here’s what I’m going to cover:
1.What is a Bitcoin wallet?
A Bitcoin wallet is a software program that allows you to transfer and store bitcoin. Bitcoin isn’t technically “stored” anywhere so the wallet actually stores a private security key that corresponds to the Bitcoin address of your wallet. The key is actually what gives you ownership and control of bitcoin stored in it, making it an invaluable tool as an investor.
A Bitcoin wallet is “a way for you to store your digital keys, or access, to certain locations on the blockchain”.
Similar to other cryptocurrencies, bitcoin is stored in addresses on its blockchain, which is essentially a ledger or database that can’t be modified or erased. Each address has two keys (i.e., alphanumeric codes) associated with it, a public key and a private key. The public key is what other people can use to send bitcoin to it, and the private key is what you’d use to send bitcoin from it.
This is precisely why some investors prefer storing their bitcoin on a wallet instead of a third-party platform. A wallet holds the private key, which is necessary to validate that the true owner of a Bitcoin address is really requesting that bitcoin be sent from that address.
Here’s a Bitcoin address example: 1i9qXx1ZhaY8DuZEwpexbfafa4DT2mSwP
(Bitcoin addresses always start with a “1” or “3”)
2. What is a private key?
A private key in the context of Bitcoin is a secret number that allows bitcoins to be spent. Every Bitcoin wallet contains one or more private keys, which are saved in the wallet file. The private keys are mathematically related to all Bitcoin addresses generated for the wallet.
Because the private key is the “ticket” that allows someone to spend bitcoins, it is important that these are kept secret and safe. Private keys can be kept on computer files, but are also often written on paper.
Private keys themselves are almost never handled by the user, instead the user will typically be given a seed phrase that encodes the same information as private keys.
Some wallets allow private keys to be imported without generating any transactions while other wallets or services require that the private key be swept. When a private key is swept, a transaction is broadcast that sends the balance controlled by the private key to a new address in the wallet. Just as with any other transaction, there is risk of swept transactions to be double-spending.
In contrast, bitcoind provides a facility to import a private key without creating a sweep transaction. This is considered very dangerous, and not intended to be used even by power users or experts except in very specific cases. Importing keys could lead to the Bitcoins being stolen at any time, from a wallet which has imported an untrusted or otherwise insecure private key — this can include private keys generated offline and never seen by someone else
Custodial vs. Non-Custodial wallets
Anyone who has been around the Bitcoin and cryptocurrency space for more than a couple of weeks has probably heard the phrase, “Not your keys, not your Bitcoin.” But what does this mean?
In Bitcoin, the idea is to give the individual user complete control over their money. In other words, when used properly, a user’s funds cannot be seized by a third party such as a government or financial institution.
To take full advantage of cryptocurrency technology, users must understand the differences between custodial and non-custodial wallets.
What Are Custodial Wallets?
Custodial wallets are despised by some segments of the Bitcoin community. The basic idea is your cryptocurrency is handed over to a third party to be stored rather than taking care of the funds on your own. The removal of third parties from the financial system is a clear point of this technology and explained in the original Bitcoin white paper, which is why custodial wallets are sometimes referred to as Bitcoin banks.
Pros & Cons of Custodial Wallets
Pros
If computer security isn’t your strong point you may be better off letting a third party secure your crypto.
A third-party custodian can be helpful in making sure you don’t lose access to your funds.
Custodial wallets are often a requirement if you want to trade on the most popular cryptocurrency exchanges.
Some custodians will offer you a return on your cryptocurrency-based savings.
Cons
You don’t own your private keys, which means security is being left up to a third party.
Someone else is holding your money for you, which means they could decide to simply take it.
Custodial wallets operate very similarly to the traditional financial system due to the fact that they are centralized.
You may not gain access to new cryptocurrencies that are created via forks of cryptocurrencies that you already hold.
What are Non-Custodial Wallets?
Non-custodial wallets are Bitcoin in its truest form. A non-custodial wallet is simply a piece of software on your own computer or phone that puts you in full control of your cryptocurrency holdings. You hold your own private keys, which means no one else is able to make a transaction on your behalf. However, with greater power comes great responsibility.
Pros & Cons of Non-Custodial Wallets
Pros
You are in complete control of your Bitcoin, which means your assets are much more difficult to seize.
You can make transactions without someone looking over your shoulder.
You can gain access to advanced features such as non-custodial access to the Lightning Network.
You can opt into different levels of security depending on your threat model.
You can gain access to higher levels of security through the combination of hardware and paper wallets.
You will have full access to any dividends or staking rewards associated with your cryptocurrency holdings.
Cons
It will be more difficult to trade your cryptocurrency quickly, as it will first need to be sent to an exchange.
Being in charge of your own security comes with great responsibility, and human error could lead to theft or accidental deletion.
You will usually be presented with user interfaces that are a bit more difficult to understand.
3. Types of Wallets
There are two main types of Bitcoin wallets — cold storage, and hot wallets.
>>The Best Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Exchange Guide<<
Cold storage: The secure way to hold Bitcoin
Cold storage (or cold wallets) refers to any type of wallet that is detached from an Internet connection and therefore cannot be hacked remotely. Some examples of cold storage wallets are hardware wallets, paper wallets, and brain wallets. All cold storage wallets are non-custodial.
Hardware Wallets
A hardware wallet is a physical electronic device, built for the sole purpose of securing crypto coins.
The core innovation is that the hardware wallet must be connected to your computer, phone, or tablet before coins may be spent.
The two most popular and best Bitcoin and cryptocurrency hardware wallets are:
Hardware wallets are a good choice if you’re serious about security and convenient, reliable Bitcoin & crypto storage.
Hardware wallets keep private keys separate from vulnerable, internet-connected devices.
Your all-important private keys are maintained in a secure offline environment on the hardware wallet, fully protected even should the device be plugged into a malware-infected computer.
As bitcoins and cryptocurrencies are digital, cyber-criminals could, potentially, target your computer’s “software wallet” and steal them by accessing your private key.
Generating and storing private keys offline using a hardware wallet ensures that hackers have no way to reach your coins.
Hackers would have to steal the hardware wallet itself, but even then, it can be protected with a PIN code.
Don’t worry about your hardware wallet getting stolen, lost or damaged either; so long as you create a secret backup code, you can always retrieve your coins.
Paper Wallet
A paper wallet is an offline mechanism for storing bitcoins. Unlike fiat currency, there is no physical representation of a bitcoin (or most other types of cryptocurrency). Rather, wallets that are used to store digital tokens are usually software programs that help to facilitate updates to the blockchain ledger when transactions are made.
Paper wallets are different from so-called hot wallets because they operate separately from the Internet. However, they still do not store physical bitcoins; the paper quality of these wallets refers primarily to the method of access for the cryptocurrency owner.
Paper wallets were primarily popular in the early years of bitcoin. In recent years, cryptocurrency users have tended to explore other methods of securing their holdings.
Hot wallets — The convenient way to store Bitcoin
A hot wallet refers to any form of Bitcoin wallet that is connected in some way to the Internet. This can be a wallet that is connected to a web service, a wallet installed on a computer connected to the Internet, or even a wallet installed on your mobile phone, assuming you have an active data connection to and from your phone.
Hot wallets, while being the most popular type of wallet, are also the least secure because they allow access to their inner workings through Internet connections.
Desktop wallet
As the name infers, a Desktop wallet is a product you download and execute locally on your PC. Not at all like some online adaptations, work area wallets give you full command over your keys and assets. At the point when you create another work area wallet, a document called “wallet.dat” will be put away locally on your PC. This document contains the private key data used to get to your cryptographic money addresses so you ought to encode it with an individual secret key.
In the event that you scramble your Desktop wallet, you will be required to give your secret phrase each time you run the product with the goal that it can peruse the wallet.dat record. On the off chance that you lose this record or overlook your secret word, you will undoubtedly lose the entrance to your assets.
Hence, it’s pivotal to reinforcement your wallet.dat document and keep it some place safe. On the other hand, you can trade the comparing private key or seed state. Thusly, you will have the option to get to your assets on different gadgets, in the event that your PC quits working or becomes out of reach by one way or another.
All in all, work area wallets might be viewed as more secure than most web adaptations, however it’s critical to ensure your PC is spotless of infections and malware before setting up and utilizing a cryptographic money wallet.
Mobile wallet
Mobile crypto wallets are generally the same as desktop crypto wallets — they’re still non-custodial, hot, software wallets — except they’re downloaded on your phone or tablet. Some mobile crypto wallets support Android and others iOS, and some support both operating systems. They can also allow you to trade while in control of your private keys. Other software wallets can have both mobile and desktop versions.
The major benefit of a mobile crypto wallet over a desktop one is its portability. If your mobile crypto wallet is on your primary phone, it’s likely on your person whenever you need it. That’s also it’s biggest drawback; many are reluctant — others tempted — to walk around with all their crypto in their pocket. Even though your mobile crypto wallet likely has a PIN and recovery phrase, you could be putting your funds at risk if you haven’t taken sufficient precautions.
Web wallet
You can utilize web wallets to get to blockchains through a program interface without downloading or introduce anything. This incorporates both trade wallets and other program based wallet suppliers.
As a rule, you can make another wallet and set an individual secret key to get to it. Nonetheless, some specialist organizations hold and deal with the private keys for your benefit. Despite the fact that this might be progressively helpful for unpracticed clients, it’s a hazardous practice.
On the off chance that you don’t hold your private keys, you’re confiding in your cash to another person. To address this issue, many web wallets currently permit you to deal with their keys, either completely or through shared control (by means of multi-marks). So it’s imperative to check the specialized methodology of every wallet before picking the most reasonable for you.
4. What is the Best Bitcoin Wallet to Use?
Different people use different Bitcoin wallets for different purposes. For example, if I need to store a large amount of Bitcoin safely, I will probably use cold storage. If, on the other hand, I just want to pay for a cup of coffee a hot wallet would be more suitable.
Usually, wallets vary on the scale of security versus convenience, and you need to decide where you want to be on that scale. Some of the questions you should ask yourself include:
How many bitcoins will I be storing?
How frequently will I use the wallet?
Can I afford to pay for a wallet?
Will I be storing additional coins other than Bitcoin?
Do I need to carry the wallet around with me?
Do I need to share the wallet with someone else?
How tech savvy am I?
How much do I value my privacy?
Do I trust myself to safeguard my wallet, or do I want to give a third party the task of doing so?
You may want to use more than one wallet. For example, you can use a hardware wallet for large sums of Bitcoins and a mobile wallet with a small balance on it for daily payments. This way, even if your mobile phone breaks or gets stolen, you’re not risking a lot of money.
How do I get a Bitcoin Wallet?
Desktop and mobile wallets can be download for free from the Internet, hardware wallets can be bought online and will be shipped to your home or office. Web wallets require you to sign up to a specific service. What is the Best Bitcoin Hardware Wallet?
What is the Best Bitcoin Hardware Wallet?
Ledger
Ledger wallets are hardware cryptocurrency wallets made by Ledger, a company headquartered in Paris, France. In the U.S., the company has offices in San Francisco, California. Ledger was launched in 2014 by eight experts who had backgrounds in embedded security, cryptocurrencies, and entrepreneurship. The company’s goal is to create secure solutions for blockchain applications.
Pascal Gauthier is the company’s chief executive officer (CEO). The company has over 130 employees.
TREZOR
TREZOR is a pioneering hardware wallet company. The combination of world-class security with an intuitive interface and compatibility with other desktop wallets, makes it ideal for beginners and experts alike. The company has been gained a lot of the Bitcoin community’s respect. TREZOR offers two main models — The TREZOR One and TREZOR Model T (which has a built in touch screen).
Keepkey
The KeepKey has a robust design with anodized aluminum on its backside, making it portable and easy to hold.
One of the main innovations of the Keepkey is its native integration with web-based trading platform ShapeShift. It’s worth noting that while the KeepKey has the deepest integration with ShapeShift, you can still use it with other wallet software.
CoolWallet
CoolWallet is a credit card sized Bluetooth device that stores and secures your bitcoins and private keys. It fits in your wallet and works wirelessly.
Every Bitcoin transaction must be manually confirmed and approved through its e-paper display and button.
CoolWallet only acknowledges the paired smartphone. Whoever stole the CoolWallet are not able to steal any bitcoins. Using recovery Seed can restore all your bitcoins in case you lost the device.
What is the Best Bitcoin Desktop Wallet?
Exodus
Exodus is a multi-currency wallet that supports over a hundred cryptocurrencies. The crypto wallet was originally available only on desktop, but is now also available for iOS and Android mobile platforms as well.
Exodus sets itself apart from other wallets with a design focus on people who have never dabbled with cryptocurrencies. It has an easy-to-use interface and its developers spend a great deal of time and effort polishing the UI to make it more intuitive.
Electrum
Electrum is one of the oldest Bitcoin wallets out there, with a focus on speed and low resource usage. Written in Python, the open source wallet manages to achieve this by using servers that index the Bitcoin blockchain.
Electrum makes judicious use of disk space and bandwidth, using the Simple Payment Verification (SPV) mechanism to verify transactions. Since it uses SPV, Electrum doesn’t download the entire blockchain, but instead tracks transactions by querying servers on the Bitcoin network. Using SPV also helps Electrum to verify transactions faster than some of its peers.
The wallet also packs quite a few advanced features. It can be used to set up MultiSig transactions, supports the replace-by-fee (RBF) mechanism and also offers coin control features.
Bitcoin Core
Bitcoin Core (also known as Bitcoin QT) is a full node, meaning it’s a wallet that downloads the complete Bitcoin blockchain to your computer. This takes a lot of time (can reach several weeks) but also gives you an array of advanced options that are more suitable for experienced users. If you’re just starting out I suggest avoiding this wallet.
Armory
Armory wallet is one of the oldest cold storage systems for Bitcoin. The BTC-only wallet allows you to store your Bitcoins away from prying eyes of hackers and scammers. This wallet has been one of the safest and most popular options for people who want to keep their BTC funds safe in an open source, cold storage wallet that provides offline functionalities too.
What is the Best Bitcoin Mobile Wallet?
Ledger Nano X
The Ledger Nano X is the latest hardware wallet by Ledger. The Nano X’s interface is done through the Ledger Live mobile app (via a bluetooth connection). Ledger’s intuitive design is maintained with this model. This is probably one of the safest ways to store coins on your mobile device since the private key isn’t on the device, it’s on the Nano X itself.
Edge
Edge is a decentralized and secure mobile multicurrency wallet. Rebranded from Airbitz, the Edge Wallet provides true financial autonomy & privacy for its users. Neither Edge nor any 3rd party can access users’ funds or data within the Edge wallet. A clean, user-first interface solves many of the usability issues plaguing current wallet solutions while adding features including:
Decentralized server architecture. Wallets work even if Edge servers are down
Supports Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) to transfer funds instead of scanning QR codes
Simple account creation using just a login & password (no printing or emailing of PDFs, writing down passphrases or adding encryption settings)
Automatic wallet encryption, backup, and multi-device synchronization
Coinomi
Founded back in 2014, Coinomi is the oldest multi-asset wallet available, with millions of active users. Most importantly, no Coinomi wallet has ever been hacked or otherwise compromised to date.
Coinomi is a security-first, multi-asset wallet for both mobile & desktop that provides native support and true ownership for as many as 125 blockchains (the largest number in the market) & 382 tokens — a total of 507 assets. Supports virtually thousands of assets since the user can add any ERC20 token himself!.
BRD
Review BRD is probably one of the simplest Bitcoin mobile wallets around. The wallet is open source which makes it more secure and reliable. No registration is required to use the app; once the app is installed you can instantly start sending or receiving Bitcoin. However, its simplicity also makes it lacking in features.
5. Additional Bitcoin Wallet Terms
Multisig wallet
Multi-signature (multisig) refers to requiring multiple keys to authorize a Bitcoin transaction, rather than a single signature from one key. It has a number of applications.
Dividing up responsibility for possession of bitcoins among multiple people.
Avoiding a single-point of failure, making it substantially more difficult for the wallet to be compromised.
m-of-n backup where loss of a single seed doesn’t lead to loss of the wallet.
Use as a joint account
Standard transactions on the Bitcoin network could be called “single-signature transactions,” because transfers require only one signature — from the owner of the private key associated with the Bitcoin address. However, the Bitcoin network supports much more complicated transactions that require the signatures of multiple people before the funds can be transferred.
These are often referred to as m-of-n transactions. The idea is that Bitcoins become “encumbered” by providing addresses of multiple parties, thus requiring cooperation of those parties in order to do anything with them. These parties can be people, institutions or programmed scripts.
Use for increasing security
The private keys needed to spend from a wallet can be spread across multiple machines, eliminating any one of those machines as a single point of failure, with the rationale that malware and hackers are unlikely to infect all of them. The higher the number of keys required to spend the funds (ie the higher m is in m-of-n), the more difficult it would be for an attacker to successfully steal your funds, however the more cumbersome actually using that wallet becomes.
The multisig wallet can be of the m-of-n type where any m private keys out of a possible n are required to move the money. For example a 2-of-3 multisig wallet might have your private keys spread across a desktop, laptop, and smartphone, any two of which are required to move the money, but the compromise of any one key cannot result in theft.
This can be used in conjunction with hardware wallets. By requiring that keys from multiple hardware wallets sign transactions, it can vastly reduce the likelihood that a malicious party that handled your hardware wallet could steal your funds, because in order for it to do that, the malicious party would have to compromise multiple hardware wallets. If each hardware wallet you use in a multisig wallet is made by a different company, it would be incredibly difficult for them to secretly conspire on an attack.
Use as a backup
Storing multiple keys to an m-of-n wallet in different locations can serve as a backup. For example, in a 2-of-3 multisig wallet, the loss of one key does not result in loss of the wallet, since the other two keys can be used to recover the funds. The redundancy of the backup is the difference n minus m, so for example a 3-of-5 multisig wallet (with no additional seed backups) has a redundancy of 2, meaning that the loss of any 2 keys can still be recovered from.
SPV wallet
Simplified Payment Verification (SPV) — using Bitcoin without running a full network node. By default, upon receiving a new transaction a node must validate it: in particular, verify that none of the transaction’s inputs have been previously spent. To carry out that check the node needs to access the blockchain. Any user who does not trust his network neighbors, should keep a full local copy of the blockchain, so that any input can be verified.
As noted in Nakamoto’s whitepaper, it is possible to verify bitcoin payments without running a full network node. And this is called simplified payment verification or SPV. A user or user’s bitcoin spv wallet only needs a copy of the block headers of the longest chain, which are available by querying network nodes until it is apparent that the longest chain has been obtained.
Then, wallet using spv client get the Merkle branch linking the transaction to its block. Linking the transaction to a place in the active chain demonstrates that a network node has accepted it, and blocks added after it further establish the confirmation.
Brainwallet
A brainwallet refers to the concept of storing Bitcoins in one’s own mind by memorizing a seed phrase. If the seed is not recorded anywhere, the Bitcoins can be thought of as being held only in the mind of the owner. If a brainwallet is forgotten or the person dies or is permanently incapacitated, the Bitcoins are lost forever. Using memory techniques allow them to be memorized and recalled easily.
To create a brainwallet, use Bitcoin wallet software to generate a seed phrase and then memorize it. Such seeds are generated by wallets like Electrum, Armory and Mycelium.
Brainwallets are not recommended to be used in general because of fallible human memory. But in special situations they could be very useful, for example when fleeing a country as a refugee with only the clothes on your back.
6. Backing up your Bitcoin wallet
Because private keys and seed phrases have complete power over your Bitcoins they must be kept secret and safe. If you fail to protect your wallet’s private key or seed, the Bitcoins it controls could be irretrievably lost.
A standard Bitcoin wallet (i.e. not an HD wallet) will create a wallet.dat file containing its private key. This file should be backed up by copying it to a safe location, such as an encrypted drive on your computer, an external flash drive, or even a piece of paper that’s hidden away.
An HD wallet, on the other hand, will supply you with a seed phrase with 12–24 words that you should write down in a safe place. One interesting product people often use for backing up their wallets is the Cryptosteel, an indestructible metal plate that has your private key on it.
7. Transaction fee handling
Each Bitcoin transaction has a transaction fee attached to it. This fee is included in order to incentivize Bitcoin miners to include the transaction in the next block of transactions. The larger the size of your transaction, the higher the fee you’ll need to pay in order to get confirmed in the next block.
Some transactions aren’t as time sensitive as others. For example, if I’m just moving funds from my desktop wallet to my hardware wallet for safekeeping, I don’t really care if it takes the transaction even two days to get confirmed. That’s why I can allow myself to use a lower fee. However, if I’m sending payment for a service or a product I purchased, I might want to use a higher fee so the transaction is confirmed faster.
Fees are also highly dependant on the number of transactions waiting to be confirmed. Since if a lot of people want to confirm their transactions, they will start bidding up the attached fees. Therefore, a fee that was considered high yesterday might be considered low today.
One of the important features to check out in a wallet is fee handling. Here is what you need to find out:
Does the wallet allow you to choose your own fee or does it choose it automatically for you? Does the wallet support Segwit? An upgrade issued to the Bitcoin protocol, which — among other things — allows you to shrink your transaction file size (hence reducing your required fee). Does the wallet support Replace by Fee (RBF)? If your transaction can’t get confirmed because you didn’t pay a high enough fee, you can easily bump the fee via the RBF option. Your wallet will then rebroadcast the transaction with a fee raised to your required level.
8. Conclusion — My Top Picks
Now that you’re a Bitcoin wallet expert you probably understand that there’s no simple answer to the question “what is the best Bitcoin wallet to use?” But not to leave you empty handed here are my personal picks: | https://medium.com/@bitsquabi/bitcoin-wallet-guide-reviews-and-comparison-44fcf1992741 | [] | 2021-09-13 16:51:45.714000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency Investment', 'Bitcoin', 'Bitcoin Wallet', 'Crypto', 'Cryptocurrency'] |
On Joy | It’s not what we get but what we give to life
[From www.pexels.com]
We all want to be happy in life. But what does that really mean? And is it really something that can be pursued, constructed, or discovered?
According to Martin Seligman, the eminent Positive Psychologist, there are three types of happiness:
A pleasurable life
A meaningful life
An engaged life
Modern western society tends to revolve around the pursuit of pleasure. We fill our lives with as many activities that activate the pleasure centres of our minds as we can, from Netflix to Uber Eats to tequila slammers. It’s about short hits of happy, now.
Many careers are simply constructed to acquire the wealth that will allow us to buy pleasure (ironically neglecting to notice that we thereby sacrifice the time in which we can experience it). But most of us, intuitively, understand that there is more to life than this. This may mean finding a career which focuses specifically on fixing a social issue, but is not limited to the workplace, letalone to ‘impact careers’.
But as any ‘dogooder knows’, this existence can be exhausting and unrewarding too. We can do the ‘right thing’ at every turn, feeling we deserve some payoff from the universe in return, but the more we strain the worse we feel. This causes many to burn out and give up on their higher principles. Because when we consistently feel bad doing something, we naturally lack the desire to continue doing it.
What they are lacking, even when they have meaning and pleasure in their lives, is engagement.
What is engagement and why do we need it?
This is where joy comes in. When we are fully engaged, this naturally begets a joyful state. I interpret joy here as meaning the automatic positive emotions we feel when we are connected to our experience, made up of the world around us, the people we are with, and us ourselves.
Engagement allows us to feel joy because when we are connected to experience itself, as opposed to our own analysis and interpretation of it, the thinking mind drops away. We are freed of the stories it tells us as to how things should or shouldn’t be.
That is, we are freed of expectation.
This is so critical because it is only our expectation of how an event should or shouldn’t be which gets in the way of us actually enjoying it, which can occur in numerous ways.
The obvious sense in which expectation harms our ability to actually enjoy something is that, by interminably looking forward, we inevitably do not fully experience the fruits of the present, either not noticing them, or holding them up against some idealised image of how they should be in our heads. Pain is rendered less bearable because we rail against it, unable to accept it because it shouldn’t be happening. Pleasure is rendered less pleasurable, because we are constantly preoccupied with its cessation, focusing on clinging to it rather than experiencing it.
There is a subtler and more pernicious way expectation harms us. And this is the sense whereby we are waiting for the experience to give us something. It is the sense, when approaching events perceived as happiness-generating, of having earned some happiness: I’ve worked very hard for this, and now the world owes me something.
This, however, is not how the world works. Perhaps the world will give us what we want. Perhaps it won’t. But when we focus on externals we are bound to disappointment, either because we fail to achieve our desired outcome, or because we do, only to find that now we want more. That our expectations from the world have only increased in fact.
Both of these forms of expectation are so harmful because they derive from a common problem: we cannot reliably — which is to say without fail — negotiate with external reality. It is a shared space being manipulated by all of us — we cannot all control it to fit our exact desires all of the time. And so we are doomed to disappointment when we build our lives around doing so.
The final sense in which expectation is so dangerous is that however we expect the world to be is destined to be how we perceive it to be, and to a certain extent how it is. If I am cautious and mistrustful, it is likely the world will act in kind to me. If I perceive others as selfish, I am more likely to act selfishly in turn, protecting my own self-interests against an apparently hostile and dangerous world.
These ideas can be seen as a take on the basic observations and conclusions of Buddhism: the outside world is ultimately beyond our grasp and thus unsatisfactory. Moreover we generate a lot of unhappiness through clinging to perceptions which are false.
The conclusion is that we should attend to our own sense of dissatisfaction, rather than the thing which by its nature gives rise to it. Aside from engaging in spiritual practices that help us detatch from our expecations though, what are other, more accessible solutions?
If you’ll allow me to elaborate on what sounds like a platitude, the revelation I have recently had is that it is all about giving. Not money or anything material. Not even your time. Rather it is about giving energy. And I don’t mean anything spiritual or esoteric here. I’m not talking about a little wizard’s box of manna you sprinkle onto the people around you or some forcefield you generate with your pixie wand. I’m talking very simply about the attitude that you bring to each moment and how this demonstrably influences your experience and the experience of those around you.
The energy or attitude inherent in giving is that it is other-, rather than self-, focused. When we decide to focus on those around us, on how we can make help them feel more comfortable and happy, we get out of our own heads and naturally begin to feel better ourselves.
I believe that what holds so many of us back from engaging in the open exchange of love and kindness that we all feel we want and even deserve is the fear of judgement. We wait for social cues to tell us what is an appropriate level of care and attention to show each other and, discovering a world in which everyone else is doing the same, we fail to find encouragement and thus play it safe, keeping in our own little bubbles. That is, there is an expectation of judgement from the world which paralyses us into inaction.
Giving is antithetical to expectation because it does not wait for experience to fulfil some prior condition which would make such giving acceptable. And the experience of giving is joyful because it is creative, initating a process which builds a world that is actually one we want to engage in. And this joy is crucial because it is the deeper felt sense behind what we are doing which motivates us to continue to do so.
Even if there is no cosmic significance or grand unifying reason behind our brief visits to this lonely little sphere, all we can be sure of is that we are here together. When we engage in the process of making all of us feel welcome, we begin to feel welcome ourselves, and the meaning of our own private melodramas begins gradually to dissolve.
Joy is the core which sits at the heart of this process, because it is that feeling we experience when connecting to those around us, which tells us in a language deeper than words: this is why we are here. | https://medium.com/@ronanloughney/on-joy-b10bad11b2bb | ['Ronan Loughney'] | 2021-09-01 12:05:51.766000+00:00 | ['Giving', 'Joy', 'Expectations', 'Engagement', 'Happiness'] |
Being Pregnant during a Pandemic | Being Pregnant during a Pandemic
How COVID-19 is preparing us for parenthood
Photo by freestocks on Unsplash
I found out we were pregnant at the beginning of 2020, rounding the end of the first trimester as stay at home orders were released. I had been quiet about my pregnancy except to a select few, praying for a healthy outcome.
My husband’s first day joining me working from home, the doctor called. He quickly reassured us that the latest tests showed all was fine with the pregnancy and then asked an exciting question. “Do you want to know the sex?”
My husband and I had previously debated the merits of gender reveal parties and decided they weren’t for us. We had weighed potential options to make this unveiling more of an event, but ultimately asked that the gender simply be emailed to us. I was so grateful my husband was home so we could find out together, right away. We opened the email at the dining room table mid-day. After quickly celebrating the joyful news, it was time to return to the at home work day.
This quiet, uneventful experience of gratitude between just the two of us at home pretty much describes my entire pregnancy thus far.
I haven’t shared the news on social media. I’ve been spared strangers hands on my belly and comments about how big I’m getting. Managed to get by without maternity clothes. Never browsed the aisles of a baby store. Haven’t sat in a circle with other women, our partners behind us, practicing breathing.
I’ve slept in a lot. Dealt with the throes of morning sickness in my own bathroom before curling up in bed again. Assumed a uniform of terry cloth shorts, loose tees, and no make-up except for the rare conference call. Cleaned out every corner of the house, regularly making masked trips to the Goodwill. Our dog has forgotten we ever used to leave the house without him.
We stayed at home, not seeing anyone but each other. I was deeply grateful to have married someone I could enjoy being with 24 hours a day. The world slowly began to reopen in May. We cautiously saw a few friends and family, dared go inside our favorite coffee shop. And then watched the case count soar. Asked, now what?
It’s the end of July now, almost a month since we’ve seen anyone but each other. Learned that I’ll likely have to labor and meet my baby wearing a mask.
I worry things will get worse. That somehow my husband will be kept from her birth. Or I’ll get sick? Either sooner and somehow harm her, or later and not be able to care for her. Will it be safe for her grandparents to see her? Will we have a newborn and be entirely alone?
When this is all behind us has stretched from surely May… later this summer… by the time the baby is here… sometime next year? What ifs and whens swirl. Each day fades in and out, more or less the same, save my growing belly.
This will be my first child. I don’t know who she will be or what challenges she’ll face. The pandemic informs some of this uncertainty, but not all of it.
I’m comforted knowing that the time spent expecting a baby creates space to come to terms with the unexpected. As much as I’ve worried about how the Coronavirus might impact this pregnancy, it’s not been my only fear. Will I carry the baby to term? Will she be healthy? Will I be a good mother? How will this change my life?
I can provide my child with love and encouragement. I can’t keep her from experiencing pain. I can work to provide every opportunity for her to learn and thrive. I can’t guarantee what her innate abilities will be. I can model perseverance and hope. I can’t prevent the obstacles she’ll face. I can wash my hands and wear a mask and keep the world at a distance. I can’t always keep her from getting sick. I can love and accept the unique individual that I took part in creating, but ultimately the life she creates will be her own.
Is being a parent not a daily practice in learning what you can and cannot control? I certainly have reckoned with forces beyond my control throughout my life. Somehow I seem to have come out unscathed. I know others haven’t been so lucky. I’ve been blessed with a buoyancy that, above all, finds hope. It seems clear now the only choice is to just keep moving forward into the unknown. | https://medium.com/home-sweet-home/being-pregnant-during-a-pandemic-5b845c8e27ec | ['Leslie Keyes'] | 2020-07-28 10:39:41.029000+00:00 | ['Hope', 'Fear', 'Pregnancy', 'Parenting', 'Coronavirus'] |
Tripp Lite AVR900U UPS review: This uninterruptible power supply has the wrong set of features | The 12-outlet Tripp Lite AVR900U is the wrong intersection of perfectly fine separate features in an otherwise well-made model. Its reasonable battery size could support a tricked-out computer system with multiple displays and peripherals for a few to several minutes during a power outage. The line-interactive approach incorporated in its design provides fast power switch over (as quick as a few milliseconds) along with constant power conditioning to correct for minor fluctuations without wearing out the internal battery.
Mentioned in this article CyberPower PFC Sinewave UPS model CP1000PFCLCD (1000VA, 600W, 10 outlets) Read TechHive's reviewSee it On the other hand, the AVR900U relies on simulated power switching instead of a “pure” sine wave. That means it’s not the right choice for computers with active power factor correction (PFC). A simulated, or stepped, sine wave fed into an active PFC power supply can cause a high-pitched whine and prematurely wear its components or even cause it to fail.
This review is part of TechHive’s coverage of the best uninterruptible power supplies, where you’ll find reviews of competing products, plus a buyer’s guide to the features you should consider when shopping for this type of product.Active PFC power supplies are more efficient than previous designs, and also allow voltage adaptative for worldwide sales. But they’re finicky about the smoothness of the alternating current fed into them, and it’s not worth the price of repairing your computer rather than buying a better-suited UPS with a pure sinewave output that’s as smooth as utility power.
For about $40 more, you can purchase instead the CyberPower CP850PFCLCD, a line-interactive UPS that also has a pure sinewave output and similar power capacity. (We reviewed the slightly higher-capacity CyberPower CP1000PFCLCD, which is in same series of UPS models.)
Tripp Lite The Tripp Lite AVR900U has a generous number of outlets: Six that provide both battery backup and surge protection, and six that provide surge protection only.
The AVR900U might be right to power home-networking gear in the event of power outages, as its battery could support about a combined 20W of equipment power draw for up to two hours and 100W for up to 30 minutes. (Check your broadband modem, Wi-Fi gateway, and other solid-state communications gear power specs to figure total power required.) Its generous 12 outlets are split into one set of six backed by surge protection only and another six that are additionally shored up by line conditioning and the battery. Two outlets on either side are 1.75 inches apart from four grouped tightly in the center, the better to add DC-adapter “wall warts.”
[ Further reading: The best surge protectors for your costly electronics ]But for the AVR900U’s price, the line-interactive power conditioning that comes at a premium isn’t worth it. Instead, consider a UPS with a standby design, which is perfectly fine for networking gear that doesn’t have spinning drives or picky power supplies. A standby UPS might tap its battery more frequently if local power is routinely erratic, dipping below or above standard voltage. If you have those issues in your area and want to use a UPS to solve them while backing up network hardware, the price premium is worthwhile.
I don’t recommend the AVR900U in any use case, not because of any flaw in the product itself, but because it doesn’t scratch the right itch. Other products from Tripp Lite and other UPS makers have a better mix of features that intersect usefully. For instance, we like the Tripp Lite SmartPro SMC1000T, a 600W unit ideal for computer-system power conditioning and support.
The AVR900U has a variety of other minor flaws. It lacks a fairly standard multi-purpose electrical fault detector for grounds, shorts, and other issues that indicate an electrical wiring problem that should have you on the phone to an electrician immediately. It’s a good feature for installing a new UPS or noticing if there’s a problem over time.
It lacks programmable features via buttons. You must use downloadable software when connected to a computer by USB with an included cable. The software is mentioned in the manual, and you have to hunt the site to find it—only to discover the control software only works under Windows and requires Java. You can, however, use automatic restart, scheduled, and other built-in UPS features found in Windows and macOS without installing the software.
Tripp Lite The Tripp Lite AVR900U produces a simulated, or stepped, sine wave, which isn’t a good choice of backup power for sensitive electronics.
Tripp Lite doesn’t include warranty information in the box, but the packaging says a $100,000 and 3-year warranty is included. The manual has a link to product registration and generic warranty details; you apparently don’t get the specifics of the warranty for your unit until you register.
Only the original purchaser is covered, and claims must be filed with 30 days of an incident. Tripp Lite’s insurance notes that it could offer to repair up to $100,000 of damaged equipment, but it might replace it on a “pro rata” basis, which I interpret to mean its depreciated current value, instead of its actual replacement cost.
Bottom lineTripp Lite turned the dials on its product matrix incorrectly to come up with the AVR900U, but don’t let that discourage you from examining the company’s other products. The care of manufacture and quality of design aren’t at issue, only its suitability to purpose and cost per watt for potential appropriate uses.
Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details. | https://medium.com/@stephan63988154/tripp-lite-avr900u-ups-review-this-uninterruptible-power-supply-has-the-wrong-set-of-features-1c93361164b4 | [] | 2020-12-24 08:09:27.310000+00:00 | ['Services', 'Security Cameras', 'Chromecast', 'Connected Home'] |
Graphs Everywhere! An Introduction to Graph ML | Graphs Everywhere! An Introduction to Graph ML RappiBank Follow Sep 1 · 7 min read
By Luisa F. Roa, Ana M. Quintero Ossa, Jaime D. Acevedo-Viloria
What is a Graph? — They are EVERYWHERE!
Graphs are structures made up of nodes and edges; the nodes represent entities, and the edges represent interactions/connections between a pair of nodes. Many systems can be represented as graphs since only interactions between entities are required, from social networks to drug discovery, most types of problems can be modeled as graphs. For example, the theory of six degrees of separation uses graphs and the concept of “friend of a friend” to prove that we are only 6 people away from everyone in the world. Amazing, isn’t it?
Six-degree separation
In addition to the fact that this type of data is abundant (although it is often not seen), graphs have been shown to have an added value when studying different types of problems. In fact, in recent years, the use of graphs in machine learning has become so popular that the increase in papers related to graphs has been exponential in the four major AI conferences, as seen in Figure 1. Hence a new branch of machine learning commonly known as Graph ML has emerged, this focuses on how to obtain features based on graphs and the development of algorithms that consider the structure of a graph.
Fig 1
But… Why Graphs?
Why graphs have caused such a boom in the field of AI is due to two main reasons. First, the development of computational resources (GPUs) that allow processing these types of graphs, and second, the knowledge that these structures capture shows that connections are as important as the data itself and outperform traditional ML tabular data and models.
Let’s focus on the advantages that graphs offer:
Provides context: Graphs connect and structure knowledge of a system leveraged by connections and interactions.
Graphs connect and structure knowledge of a system leveraged by connections and interactions. Shows temporal evolution: Graphs are capable of capturing the evolutions of your system without having to create temporary variables or have complex definitions.
Graphs are capable of capturing the evolutions of your system without having to create temporary variables or have complex definitions. Contains business/problem logic: Graphs based on different types of interactions are capable of generating a data structure that intrinsically captures the logic behind a problem or business.
Graphs based on different types of interactions are capable of generating a data structure that intrinsically captures the logic behind a problem or business. Easy interpretation: Since we have an intuition of how graphs work in our daily life, they are easy to explain and visually show results derived from them.
Now: Machine Learning with Graphs
As explained before graphs are able to capture new information from a particular problem; therefore, they are also able to build new robust ML tasks to predict over a particular node, the connection between a pair of nodes, or even over a whole graph. Taking this into account, the first thing to do is to define what information we are expecting to extract from the graph and what would be an appropriate structure that captures this information.
For example, if we want our system to predict if someone X would be interested in taking a job for a company Y (such as LinkedIn) a graph that connects people and companies by the first letter of their name would not be useful. On the contrary, if the connection would be related to their interest in a particular industry and the company’s industry, the output would be pretty great.
After realizing the structure, it will lead us to identify the primary entities, and the relation that joins them together; which will be the nodes (N) and edges (E); in fact, in many cases, we can think of more than one type of nodes and more than one type of relations. This is the notion of homogeneous (one type of nodes and edges) and heterogeneous (more than one type of nodes and edges) graphs, which is very useful and can give a better understanding of the system.
Finally, we can add relevant information about the entities we choose as well as the edges, usually tabular data in traditional ML tasks. For example, labels/categories for nodes, numeric features for nodes, weights in edges, and many others that contribute to extract better information
What can ML do with graphs?
We can gather all algorithms and their objectives in 3 general ML tasks:
Classification (nodes): As in traditional ML, classification is a big issue that should be solved. In this case, for graphs, we can classify the label of a node given its neighbors — What is my favorite sport if all my friends have soccer as their favorite sport? Probably soccer too. Link prediction: In this case, the objective is to determine if there might be a connection between a pair of entities given the structure between them — Would you know the best friend of your best friend eventually? or, would you buy fancy shoes if you already bought a fancy dress? Big companies as Facebook, Amazon, LinkedIn, use this concept to suggest relationships Graph classification: As complex as it might sound, it attempts to identify if the whole can be classified as a previously seen graph given the structure — this is commonly used in molecules detection in chemistry
How has Rappi Bank taken advantage of Graph ML?
Graphs are useful for the detection of patterns in the way a group of users interacts with the rest. These are some examples:
Fraud Detection
Let’s say we create a graph where we join users in a graph where they are connected to the devices where they have logged in to the app, and the credit cards that are registered in the app. Normally, a user wouldn’t have much of these interactions, maybe just having the interactions between direct family members and so. An example would be the next graph, which can probably represent a couple with a child, where the child has used the credit cards of both his parents.
On the other hand, fraudsters that are attempting to violate another person’s account or credit card would create suspect patterns in the graph. In the case of attempting to access another person’s account, we would see an agglomeration of accounts logged in the same device. In the case of a fraudster attempting to access another person’s credit card through the app, we would see many different credit cards registered to a single user. We can see in the next example graph, how the previous healthy graph could be contaminated by a couple of fraudulent users.
We can leverage both of these interactions to detect fraudulent users live with a graph-enhanced model.
Credit Score Estimation
Graphs can also help us find more complex interactions for the detection of communities or the finding of strong relationships. This is highly valuable in a credit risk prediction task, where not all the users possess a credit history.
Using multiple interactions we can assume an un-banked user would behave similarly to a strongly connected banked user. Let’s say if they share the banked user’s credit card, their favorite place to order deliveries, and the same IP, we could be looking at a couple where the Credit Risk could be quite similar for both of them. We can even expand this idea and search for strongly connected small communities. This, with the idea of finding families, where children over 18 years old could be targets for a protected credit card given the Parents Credit History.
Let’s take the previous healthy graph and further add GeoHash connections, here, we could assume that any un-banked user of the subgraph would have a similar Credit Risk to the others in the graph.
Further Knowledge
As you can see, graphs are an amazing area that has the potential to boost the Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence models in all data-driven companies. Stay tuned for our following post where we are going to discuss ML tasks with graphs, algorithms, and some case studies | https://medium.com/rappibank/graphs-everywhere-an-introduction-to-graph-ml-f0a3d5893cb8 | [] | 2021-09-02 14:25:57.964000+00:00 | ['Data Science', 'Machine Learning', 'Data Structures', 'Graph'] |
nwzer seeks to harness the wisdom of the crowds with AI and blockchain | Karim Maassen is a Dutch entrepreneur and web fanatic, he is also the founder of nwzer.
nwzer is an AI and blockchain assisted, user-generated news agency. It is the world’s first artificial intelligence & blockchain powered citizen journalism platform.
According do Karim, nwzer seeks to harness the wisdom of the crowds, remove advertising from the equation and build on trust.
We had a long discussion about blockchain, why he would rather not use the word when explaining what nwzer is and does.
Also, Karim told us how he sees the technology being used in journalism.
Listen to our interview
Subscribe to the Check Your Facts podcast: Apple Podcasts (iTunes) | RSS Feed
You can follow Karim Maassen on Twitter, check out his website. Plus, be sure to follow nwzer on Twitter and sign-up for alpha testing to be among the first users to try it out.
Links to the stuff we mentioned in the podcast
Civil, the blockchain-based journalism marketplace
How the Blockchain is Redefining Trust
nwzer funded by Google Digital News Initiative | https://medium.com/check-your-facts/nwzer-seeks-to-harness-the-wisdom-of-the-crowds-with-ai-and-blockchain-636b38809309 | ['Check Your Facts'] | 2018-01-22 08:27:22.041000+00:00 | ['Media', 'Citizen Journalism', 'Blockchain', 'Podcast', 'Journalism'] |
Muthuswami Dikshithar | Virtual Music Club | Nadhajyothi Muthuswami Dikshithar was a South Indian Poet , Singer and Veena Player and a legendary composer of Indian Classical Music , who is considered one of the Musical Trinity of Carnatic Music.
Nadhajyothi Muthuswami Dikshithar was a South Indian Poet , Singer and Veena Player and a legendary composer of Indian Classical Music , who is considered one of the Musical Trinity of Carnatic Music.
Muthuswami Dikshithar was born in Tiruvarur near Thanjavur .He was the eldest son of the composer Ramaswami Dikshitar.He learnt the Vedas, Poetry , Music and Astrology from his father.
He had two brothers Chinnaswamy and Balaswamy and a sister Balamba.
Muthuswami Dikshithar moved to Manali near Chennai with Venkatakrishna Mudaliar , a local Zamindar. The Dikshitar brothers went to Fort St.George where they were introduced to Western Orchestral Music and the Violin .
An Ascetic named Chidambara Natha Yogi took Muthuswami with him to Varanasi. There he was instructed in Music Esoterics , Philosophy and Yoga. He was also exposed to Hindustani Classical Music, particularly the Dhrupad Style , which according to some scholars influenced his later compositions.
After the death of his Guru Chidambara Natha Yogi , he returned to Tirutani as per his Guru’s instruction . It is believed that Lord Murugan placed a piece of sugar candy in his mouth and commanded him to sing. From then onwards he started adopting the Mudra GURU GUHA one of the many names of Murugan.
His first composition was “ Sree Nathadi Guru Guho Jayathi Jayathi “ in the raga Mayamalava Gaula set to Adi Tala
Watch Now: https://youtu.be/Qrq4Tu40bx4
https://youtu.be/VjJ7fPKL_Sk | https://medium.com/@techsarigaclub/muthuswami-dikshithar-e7be0c9019b | ['Techsariga Club- Make Music Online'] | 2019-09-24 10:13:39.148000+00:00 | ['Online Music', 'Technology', 'Songs', 'Music', 'Online Music Club'] |
The Unravelling of Reality | Photo by Joel Filipe on Unsplash
The unravelling of reality in a heartbeat,
A beat of infinite ticking,
Stacking wave upon wave upon wave,
Past memories in present time
And future visions sitting still before us,
Begging us to keep ticking
By Ronan Colfer | https://medium.com/an-idea/the-unravelling-of-reality-b112b8a3b716 | ['Ronan Colfer'] | 2020-11-01 05:10:31.089000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'Poem', 'Poetry On Medium', 'Time', 'Space'] |
Owning Your First Car: Is the Luxury Really Worth Your Savings? | Own a car? Saving up for one?
A dream car is one of those popular life dreams, like a dream home, or a dream job. The car is the most popular transport option for journeys under 400km, and over 70% of all passenger movements within Australia occur on roads. Cars have become such a fundamental part of our lives, even aliens that come to visit Earth mistake cars for the planet’s dominant species.
http://www.theisthmus.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Cars-the-dominant-species.mp4
The overwhelming presence of cars in our society is a growing cause for concern. Automobile exhaust is responsible for one eighth of greenhouse gas emissions, and five pacific islands just sunk as a direct consequence of excess greenhouse gases. If you drive a car or aspire to, not only will you be causing externalities, but the added benefit of owning a car may not be as beneficial as you thought.
A car you freedom to travel wherever you want… or does it?
I was at a seminar yesterday with a few friends. They all drove to the event whereas I walked. Those who drove had to leave at a certain time whether they liked it or not because otherwise their parking ticket would expire, whereas I was not constrained by any such factor.
Driving costs don’t stop at just the petrol and parking. In Queensland, licencing, registration and CTP insurance are overhead costs totalling $700–900 annually depending on the vehicle. But the average person only drives their car on the road for 4% of its life, chances are 96% of that money is paying for your car to sit parked doing nothing but depreciating.
A car owner once told me “cars are a bottomless money pit.” He was referring to the fact that he relies on a car to get to work and he had to choose between paying for repairs that would cost almost as much as what he bought the car for, or buying a newer more reliable car. The point is, he did not fully consider all possible costs that arise as a result of his ownership of that car. Many car buyers do not and end up paying through the nose for it.
The Costs of Automobile Dependence
Automobile addiction is the concept that once you buy a car, and start using a car, it is harder and sometimes costly to stop. This is because a person’s lifestyle patterns start to depend on the use of a car, such as time-budgeting and employment (many job descriptions require your own car), and a car owner becomes more price-inelastic to increased insurance, fuel and service fees. Personal funds are paid and sacrifices are made in order to maintain the person’s car ownership. The concept extends to the implication of infrastructure and businesses are being tailored to automobile use.
This Westfield shopping centre in Cheltenham, Victoria has a car park that’s almost as big as the shopping centre itself.
Car parks are a significant opportunity cost of space caused by automobile addiction. Developments such as high rise apartments and shopping malls are often accompanied by huge car parks to accommodate their car-driving clientele. Even fast food is tailored towards cars; after 11pm many fast food outlets in Australia refuse to serve customers without a car.
Expenditure to accommodate more individual cars instead of on more efficient mass transit systems affects the national economy as a whole. Although drivers are not directly paying for it, their aggregate demand for more road infrastructure leads governments to prioritise it higher in the budget, increasing the opportunity cost of not being able to fund other projects.
The government funds currently significantly more roads instead of railway and public transport infrastructure.
Furthermore, congestion is an externality of driving. A very expensive externality for that matter, estimated at $15 billion per year to Australia’s national economy. Congestion-reducing projects such as bypasses often force residents out of their much-loved homes.
http://www.theisthmus.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Lying-in-front-of-the-bulldozer.mp4
But we don’t necessarily “gotta build bypasses.” Increased car ownership in an economy decreases the value of cars and makes alternative transport infrastructure like railways more attractive, as trains are not affected by traffic congestion.
If I buy a car, am I doomed to succumb to automobile dependence?
Private and public transport can co-exist harmoniously. Most public transport users in Melbourne also own a car. They choose public transport because it is less stressful, faster and more convenient, and only drive to and from train or bus stations and other less frequent trips. This effect is observed in many other high-density cities across the world where CBDs riddled with high parking fees and traffic congestion whereas public transport to the CBD is frequent, can bypass traffic and is cheaper.
Buses and trains in the city of Melbourne
Cars do serve an important purpose for many people. In NSW, work-related business was found to be the most common reason for driving. Driving for work-related business includes real estate agents driving to properties, tradesmen driving to their customers, or emergency services. These work tasks could not be accomplished effectively without private transport. Interestingly, less participants drove just to commute to work and more used public transport instead for that purpose, again showing evidence of decreasing automobile dependence.
The car is most commonly used for business-related journeys in NSW, not necessarily for commutes and personal journeys
If you own a car less than 9 years old and are over 21, you may be able to make money and reduce automobile dependence at the same time. Serving passengers was second by 1% to being the most popular reason for driving a car in NSW. This includes taxi and shuttle services and most recently the controversial ride-sharing gazelle, Uber. Uber provides a cheap, accessible service for people who cannot afford cars or only need car transport incidentally, but it only exists because people own cars.
Should I continue driving or saving up for a car?
Personally, I have a licence and the money to buy a car, but I choose not to drive. I live next to a train station a short distance from the city. Parking at work or uni is costly and may not even save any time compared to catching the train given the time it takes to wait in traffic and find a parking spot, and the fact I can use green bridges as a shortcut. I am not the only one in this situation, yet another sign of reduced automobile dependence in capital cities.
The Eleanor Schonell Bridge just a street or two away from my house. It connects the suburbs of St Lucia and Dutton Park exclusively by bus, bike and on foot. It was Australia’s first “green bridge” built in 2008.
Car ownership in excess creates national economic problems like environmental damage and traffic congestion, but owning a car yourself is not necessarily bad, especially since cars can be used to efficiently provide goods and services for the economy. At the same time, a car is not necessary for a successful life and does not necessarily give a person freedom. The reality is car ownership is beneficial for some people with a certain lifestyle, but it is not for everyone. | https://medium.com/the-isthmus/owning-your-first-car-is-the-luxury-really-worth-your-savings-1e43e024a28f | ['The Isthmus'] | 2016-05-29 14:15:41.156000+00:00 | ['Cars', 'Consumer', 'Business'] |
Producing a landmass shapefile of the Last Glacial Maximum in R | The major cause of global sea-level change is the exchange of water between ice and ocean during ice ages. The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) was the most recent period with ice sheets at their greatest extent (maximum coverage between 26,500 and 19,000 years ago).
Massive ice sheets covered much of Northern Europe, North America and Asia and significantly affected global climate with increasing drought and desertification. Sea levels dropped about 120 meters (about 410 feet) when compared to today. This lead to exposed continental shelves, joined land masses and extensive coastal plains.
Here are a few lines of R code to produce a landmass shapefile of the Last Glacial Maximum for Geographic Information Systems. The code uses a bathymetry raster layer extracted from Bio-ORACLE, an open source dataset of GIS layers that provides geophysical, biotic and environmental data for surface and benthic marine realms.
library(raster)
library(rgdal)
library(rgeos) bathymetryFile https://github.com/jorgeassis/rGIS/blob/master/Data/BathymetryDepthMean.tif bathymetry <- raster(bathymetryFile)
rclmat <- matrix(c(-Inf,-121,NA,-120,0,1,NA,NA,1), ncol=3, byrow=TRUE)
bathymetry <- reclassify(bathymetry, rclmat)
plot(bathymetry)
The first section of the code reclassifies bathymetry to a binomial layer where depths above -120m are considered as landmass.
bathymetryPoly <- rasterToPolygons(bathymetry, fun=NULL, n=4, na.rm=TRUE, digits=6, dissolve=TRUE)
plot(bathymetryPoly)
writeOGR(bathymetryPoly, ".", "landmassLGMPolygon", driver="ESRI Shapefile")
The second section uses a simple function to transform the binomial layer into a polygon. This is saved as a shapefile for Geographic Information Systems.
Landmass polygon of the Last Glacial Maximum
ggplot() +
geom_polygon(data = bathymetryPoly, aes(x = long, y = lat, group = group), fill="#848484", colour = NA) +
geom_path(data = bathymetryPoly, aes(x = long, y = lat, group = group), color = "#848484", size = 0.1) +
coord_equal() +
theme_minimal() +
theme( axis.text = element_blank(),axis.ticks = element_blank(),axis.title = element_blank() )
The third section uses ggplot package to produce a map with landmass of the Last Glacial Maximum.
Permanent repository: github.com/jorgeassis/
How to cite the code: Assis, J., Tyberghein, L., Bosch, S., Verbruggen, H., Serrão, E.A. & De Clerck, O. (2017) Bio-ORACLE v2.0: Extending marine data layers for bioclimatic modelling. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 27, 277–284. | https://medium.com/themarinedatascientist/producing-a-landmass-shapefile-of-the-last-glacial-maximum-in-r-1fb38b12b614 | [] | 2020-02-21 13:48:09.968000+00:00 | ['Oceans', 'Climate Change', 'Featured', 'Data Science', 'Code'] |
COVID versus World War II | COVID versus World War II
It tends to a get a bad rap these days. But we recently challenged ourselves to try and use Twitter for a better and higher purpose than has often been the case recently. In particular, we’re attempting to tackle the thorny issue of the sacrifices we have all been asked to make in the face of the implacable enemy of COVID19.
We started with the idea of how what we are being asked to do compares to the sacrifices made by other generations when faced with similar, global calamaties. World War II was the first thing which came to mind both in terms of its impact and it’s scale. However, to avoid a comparison of the two conflicts — which is comparing two really incomparable events — we chose to focus on the progress of the disasters on a day-by-day basis and the impact to ordinary citizens.
We finally settled on the idea of a Twitter feed called COVID versus World War II which has an incredibly simple premise: what day are we at in relation to when the global pandemic was declared (March 11th, 2020) and what happened in World War II on the same day in relation to the start of conflict (September 1st, 1939). With each tweet — there’s typically only one per day — we provide a link to a newspaper article from that day in World War II — all links furnished by Newspapers.com. That’s it. We don’t try and spin the article in any particular way. We leave the interpretation of these tweets to the reader.
Given our locale, we are for the most part linking Canadian newspapers from the period but will occasionally feature articles from US- and UK-based publications. Note that we are not attempting to cover the big, earth-shattering developments of World War II (@RealTimeWWII already does an excellent job along these lines) but rather to find the stories of ordinary citizens being asked — and being willing — to make sacrifices for the greater good.
Beyond that angle, we provide these links without comment with the hope that readers will simply be given pause to think about whatever they’re being asked to do with respect to COVID19 and compare it to what our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents did in the past. We encourage you to reach your own conclusions.
We invite you to follow @COVIDvWorldWar2 and let us know how we did. | https://medium.com/the-intellog-blog/covid-versus-world-war-ii-c14e9db45a63 | ['Intellog Inc.'] | 2020-12-12 21:40:03.108000+00:00 | ['Covid 19', 'Social Media', 'World War II'] |
6 things to ensure you excel at work as a brand new mom | I have had a fast track career growth at an IT firm, which I have joined straight after college. It’s been almost 9 years now and it has been an extremely enriching experience. Personally, I am very ambitious and I know where I would like to see myself 5 years and 10 years down the lane.
So, almost an year ago, when I learnt that I was going to have twins, I knew things weren’t going to be the same. I was entering a phase of my life where I needed a newer perspective towards everything.
Now my twins are 6 months old and I can confidently say that along with the joy of motherhood ,my career is on track too.
Here is my guidance for all to be and new moms out there from my own personal experience:
1) List down your priorities and goals
I was in a full time job, was pregnant, had nausea through the 9 months and so finding peaceful time to focus on future forward seemed difficult but I knew this was a very important step to complete before I go into labor.
Just find some alone time with a pen and paper. Think about everything you want for yourself , personally and professionally, after you have had your baby ( or babies, like in my case).
I had listed down all my thoughts such as:
I need everyday quality time with my babies
I want to be a hands-on mom
I need my financial freedom, now more than ever, which means I need to continue to work
I need support at home to look after my babies , while I was away for work
At work, I needed an equivalent or a better role , once I return to ensure I am not heading backwards from a career growth perspective
I need flexibility to be able to work from home , when needed
Just list down all your thoughts in a flow. You will be surprised later while reading some of them that you consciously didn’t know needed attention or planning
2) Establish your support system
A support system that understands your thoughts and plans is a MUST for you to succeed and this is both at home and at work. Share your thoughts with your spouse , parents , any other family members , with your boss, your peers and subordinates at work and anyone who you believe plays a role in this journey. Especially with those , who have gone through this journey themselves or via their spouse.
You need all the support , advice , learnings and guidance on any aspects you would’ve overlooked.
Tell them what your priorities and plans are. Be very clear on what is possible vs not possible for you.
Based on all the discussions, be prepared for a fallback plan for anything that seems to be not working out.
For example: I wanted to be able to gradually transition to a less stressful role towards my last trimester, which means I needed someone to transition to my current role at work. That somehow didn’t work out and so we made a fallback plan where I continued in the same role but was enabled to work from home , so that gave me the flexibility and relaxation I needed | https://medium.com/@niharika-gudur/6-things-to-ensure-you-excel-at-work-as-a-brand-new-mom-fe5a0daf91bd | ['Nihu Gudur'] | 2020-05-16 01:41:08.948000+00:00 | ['Careers', 'Woman In Tech', 'Working Parents', 'Career Advice', 'Moms'] |
Tiny Organics | Anyway, they approached us with the idea that they really wanted to break into the high end baby market, think Maisonette, Rylee + Cru, Gathre, etc. After all they were hand making hundreds of individual meals that were scientifically perfected to make sure your child is getting the best nutrients and diverse flavors, so why not lean into the fancy schmancy vibe?
Too Schmancy™
We went to town making some marks that felt elegant and whatnot but when we presented them something didn’t sit right with the Tiny team. Maybe going the elegant route was too exclusive? Too snobby? They asked us to take another stab at it and maybe aim for more of a “Target fancy” vibe. Clean, simple, fun, and accessible.
Side note: Something I struggle with constantly when making logos/brands is how do you boil something down to the simplest it can be while still being unique? I had one client accuse me of “just picking a typeface” and it kinda ruined me forever. Can I just use a simple sans serif and call it a day? Can I use circular? No, you can never use circular. | https://medium.com/smith-diction/tiny-organics-c6b2c4ca11b4 | ['Smith'] | 2021-06-23 13:04:18.695000+00:00 | ['Branding', 'Design Process', 'Startup', 'Baby Products', 'Nutrition'] |
Day 14 QT- reflection | Well, we’ve made it. I say “we” because these daily posts have added a welcomed ‘nother dimension to my days that I didn’t plan for. Cheers for keeping me company!
Today, I packed my 3 suitcases (then unpacked them in a mission to find moisturiser) and enjoyed my final day from the grey armchair on the balcony starting out to the vista that has comforted me for the past 14 days.
Technically, because my flight landed at 6:30pm on the 15th November 2020, I am released from quarantine at 6:30pm on the 29th November 2020. However, due to the complexities of trying to catch a flight tonight, I’ll be leaving mid-morning tomorrow. So yes, I’m volunteering to remain in this hotel room for an extra night. Even though I have finished my quarantine, I’m not allowed to roam the streets or feel the sand on my feet at the beach, which is understandable.
When I exit this room, for good, I’ll be thankful for the break isolation has afforded me. It will be back to the daily grind. I’ll be busy with a regular 7:30–4:30 day at school & the gift of marking mid-term exams is already awaiting me.
If there are any lessons I can share about being alone for two weeks where the only physical touch you have is a nurse in a hazmat suit, then here are a few. Note- this applies to those who are quarantining alone. Obviously, if you have kids, you won’t have any time for my list.
1. Quarantine is a great transition from one country to another in this new pandemic ridden world. Take your time to adjust to the language, food, and friends in the new country.
2. Make the space work for you. If you need to move furniture around, put up pics and letters to make you feel loved and remembered, do it. Create a home for yourself early in the piece so you can settle in and enjoy.
3. Make the most of the time you have. I’ve taken up cross-stitch (much to my mother's delight) because Nikki picked it and it gets me away from endlessly scrolling screens. I’ve also written these posts daily which is probably my biggest triumph. Live it up because when are you ever going to have 2 weeks of mindful nothingness again?
4. Don’t panic, don’t overthink it. Undoubtedly, the world beyond quarantine will be filled with busyness and catch ups with loved ones that have been aching to see you for so many months. After being alone for so long, I’ll be seeing my friends and surely discussing how we each had the worst 2020, at my leisure.
5. Use video chat often. It’s amazing how you can actually go days without physically using your voice. As a teacher, that ain’t a trait I can afford to lose right now.
6. Eat all your favourites and screw the guilt
7. Exercise and take care of your body. It’s important to keep moving and even more important not to be sick or get the sniffles. Get those vitamins into you and find a sunny spot when you can.
8. Keep a routine and allow for rest and… lots of Netflix.
9. Dress down but get dressed. As tempting as it is to laze in your pj's from the night before, I found this just made me want to sleep all day. Getting dressed did wonders for me in helping to separate the day and night hours in a confined space. It also forced me to get creative, putting together outfits with the limited options I had.
10. TBA …I can’t think of a 10th one right now because my dinner is here. I’ve ordered my fave seafood dish (for the third time in 2 weeks) and I’m going to bloody enjoy it!
… do I really need to leave? | https://medium.com/@rosalinamenton/day-14-qt-reflection-f8811b4f5f33 | ['Rosalina Menton'] | 2020-12-20 02:49:46.510000+00:00 | ['Quarantine', 'China'] |
I am raising a Son and I know what it means. | So it happens that I am a mother of a son, which makes me realize that I have the ownership of a very important responsibility! Yes, I as a mother and my husband as a father, we, together carry the onus to bring up a male child who respects women, treats them as equal and doesn’t hold any prejudice or bias towards them, no matter going ahead he gets a female sibling or not!
Raising good men is a social challenge, a social change that starts with the people, people who are parents, people who have niece or nephews, people who have grandkids or people who are just neighbors! Change starts at home, no leader can bring about social change unless people agree to partake and make it a daily habit in their home.
It takes two to make a baby and it takes two to raise a baby! We as parents will have to take it on ourselves to bring this social change, to raise good responsible men, to provide safety to our daughters and to treat them as equal.
I am writing this because i feel strongly about this issue, every crime against women disturbs me to the core, hence, my movement starts with my own home, i pledge to make my contribution by teaching my son that being a male doesn’t make him superior and all humans, irrespective of gender and age, should be treated well and respected.
It’s my request to all the parents, especially of boys, to consider this movement as their own, and do their best in bringing about the change. Our kids deserve a better environment, where neither liberation is sexist nor restrictions!
I would also request the parents of girls, to not only give them independence of body and mind, but of self defence as well. While carrying knives and chillies in handbag is ok, but the need of the hour is more autonomy in defending the self. Parents should actively enroll their girls in a self defence art form.
Kids should be made aware about good touch and bad touch at an early age. Often 5–6 year olds are curious and want to explore their bodies, but a knowledge of good touch and bad touch will guide them to not behave inappropriately with others as well to not let anybody else misbehave with them. Honest communication should be emphasized and they should be assured of no harm if they come forward and report a known person misbehaving with them. Research indicates most often a family member or someone closely known is involved in such heinous acts rather than strangers.
A child irrespective of gender should be raised to live with dignity and self respect and that physical misconduct should neither be done nor accepted. If unfortunately a child becomes a victim of physical abuse, they should be taught to raise their voice and run for safety. It is also important to make them understand and assured that a physical abuse does not result in a lesser you and that it was not their fault. In a grander scheme of things, it is not about one gender fighting and protecting against another, it is about dignity, respect, self control and moral values that make all of us human and equal.
But before all this, the current generation of parents need to be sensitized about the essence of this change we seek to bring. We as parents should realize that we are involved in the upbringing of next set of civilization and civilizations are built on civil virtues. We cannot afford to ignore this aspect of parenting and cannot sit back thinking that kids will eventually learn on their own, which they might, but then we would have lost the battle and our kids. | https://medium.com/indian-thoughts/i-am-raising-a-son-and-i-know-what-it-means-a048a4fadfc0 | ['Gunjan Sharma Arora'] | 2017-05-08 16:31:11.216000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Social Change', 'Feminism', 'Nonfiction', 'Motherhood'] |
Keeping Your Clothes In The Loop | By buying or selling pre-loved fashion on totel.ly you are already prolonging the life and value of a product. You are keeping it in the loop as it is re-loved, re-used and perhaps even repaired and re- fashioned by its new owner. It could be that you bump into it again during its future loops!
Reselling and swapping are definitely fun and important ways in which we can cut the waste out of the journey. Reducing waste like this will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and limit the reliance on resources through manufacturing. The older the clothes, the less microfibre they wash into the waters. Instead, ‘waste’ has become an asset.
But, there will be a day when the circled item can loop no more.
There is no landfill in the natural world — instead materials flow. Once your product has been loved, and has exhausted its purpose; it can feedback into the cycle and serve as a nutrient to something new.
What can we do?
Here are a few tips to help us enjoy the product for as long as possible and ways in which we can keep it from landing in the landfill once we are done. | https://blog.totel.ly/keeping-your-clothes-in-the-loop-bdbdea5b691a | [] | 2021-05-20 15:47:53.689000+00:00 | ['Environment', 'Circulareconomy', 'DIY', 'Zero Waste', 'Clothing'] |
Your Customized Medium Sub-Domain Profile Has One Less Feature Now | Your Customized Medium Sub-Domain Profile Has One Less Feature Now
I wish we can revert to the old design
Photo by Helena Hertz on Unsplash
Medium released a new profile layout on the 14th of October. That evening a sub-domain for writers was one of its change-highlight. Earlier, the sub-domain was available only to Medium owned publications but now it is available to all users. On that very evening, we have lost an important feature on Medium.
One of the best features available earlier was to find an article published by a user on a definite publication.
You don’t understand? Let me explain.
My Friend Ryan Fan publishes many articles in a week. So, I may not view all of his stories. However, I don’t want to miss a post he publishes on Koinonia Publication. To find his Koinonia article, I neither need to go through his profile nor I need to google search and type “Ryan Fan Koinonia” (Google may provide, but it is complicated you know!)
Screenshot by author
So what did I do? I mostly applied a simple URL trick. I added a publication URL before his user id and hit enter which showed me the entire post published on Koinonia.
My earlier URL:- medium.com/koinonia/@ryanfan. But now since he customized a sub-domain for him, I will have a tough time finding him.
To the worst, Medium removed this URL trick from everyone's profile. It was a helpful trick. I badly miss it now.
I wish Medium can add this feature one more time.
Talking about the good side, I like the new design. I like how an individual can make their own profile. I like the way how you hide the top writer tag (especially for someone like me who obtained none in the last year)
Yeah, I love this new design of Out of nothing something.
Medium page if you lost out.
Medium Staff, are you listening? If you can hear me, I would suggest one more important feature to be added. I would want a personalized notification for my favorite writers. I know irrespective of distribution or not; you mail me your best post from the people I follow on Medium. But I want something more.
I do not want to miss stories of some specific writer, and I want to click a notification bell on their profile so every time they post something, even if I am the only person to read that article, I want a real-time notification/mail so I can read them without depending on your algorithm.
While I still wish if we can revert to the old URL trick, I hope Medium can manage some changes so I can search for my favorite writer as per the publication. Also, please add a notification bell on every profile.
I have a few more suggestions but will write later. | https://medium.com/the-partnered-pen/your-customized-medium-sub-domain-profile-has-one-less-feature-now-ccf05d0a6b98 | ['Suraj Ghimire'] | 2020-10-16 16:31:55.954000+00:00 | ['Social Media', 'Change', 'Writing'] |
Principal Component Analysis (PCA) using python (Scikit-learn) | These are 3 steps for us to get the principal components
Standardizing the data. Obtaining the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the covariance matrix. Sorting the eigenvalues and cumulate them.
Standardizing the data.
Eigendecomposition
We need to make the covariance matrix when we are doing eigendecomposition. For those who are not familiar with eigendecomposition, you can check this out: Eigendecomposition and PCA, this video explains the role of the covariance in eigendecomposition thoroughly.
A.T A is the covariance matrix
## Raw Eigenvalues:
## [6.17980179 1.48891782 1.24286411 0.85643648 0.80067244
## 0.62055361 0.53548571 0.40782165 0.07238151 0.26928531
## 0.21920788 0.16128337 0.18211551]
## Percentage of Variance Explained by Each Component:
## [0.47402652 0.1142086 0.09533486 0.06569363 0.0614162
## 0.04760005 0.04107485 0.03128228 0.00555208 0.02065574
## 0.01681451 0.01237137 0.01396931]
Because we have 13 variables in our X, we got 13 PCs.
Sorting the eigenvalues and cumulate them.
Sorting the eigenvalues by decreasing order to rank the eigenvectors and cumulate them to figure out how many PCs are we going to use.
## array([0.47402652, 0.58823512, 0.68356998, 0.74926361,
## 0.81067981, 0.85827986, 0.89935471, 0.93063699,
## 0.95129273, 0.96810724, 0.98207655, 0.99444792,
## 1.])
This plot looks exactly the same as what we learn PCA in JMP. | https://medium.com/luca-chuangs-bapm-notes/principal-component-analysis-pca-using-python-scikit-learn-48c4c13e49af | ['Luca Chuang'] | 2020-03-11 12:52:47.765000+00:00 | ['Numpy', 'Pca', 'Sklearn', 'Python', 'Machine Learning'] |
Losing My Virginity to My Older Neighbor | Photo by Sharon McCutcheon
I was nineteen when I lost my virginity. It was also the day that began my love for older women. Nancy lived next door. Blonde, slender, busty, and a fifty-eight-year-old divorcee. She took the time one afternoon to teach me about sex and completely rocked my world.
That afternoon was hot as I vacuumed our pool. It was the summer between my freshman and sophomore year at college and other than trying to rekindle what I had with my high school girlfriend, the summer had been a complete flop. That is, until that day when Nancy called me over to where she lay sunning herself on her patio.
She lay back on a chaise lounge in a barely-there bikini. Her large breasts were straining the tiny leopard print bikini top and the small triangle between her legs was so small it was evident that she was completely shaved. I tried to avert my eyes out of politeness but eventually my hormones got the best of me. Awkwardly, I stood over her drinking in her entire body. From her beautiful smile down to her long tan legs, she was hot for any age; let alone for being in her fifties. Despite my best effort, my cock was starting to harden instantly.
Nancy had been reading a book and sipping on a cocktail when she called me over. “It’s too hot for work, don’t you think?” She asked as she lowered her sunglasses to pear over them at me.
Even her opening line sounded like a line from a porno, but I didn’t care. My eyes were glued to her body.
“It looks like you’re enjoying the afternoon,” I tried to think of something cool to say but failed miserably as I shifted awkwardly above her.
My friends in high school had always picked on me about my hot neighbor. To me, she had always been just Nancy. To my friends, she was the hot older chick that lived next door to me.. As I stood there on that hot summer afternoon, I could finally see what they had always been saying. She was smoking hot.
“Maybe we should go inside where it’s cooler,” Nancy offered slyly as she pushed her sunglasses back up and gave me a wicked smile. I could feel her eyes undressing me as they scanned up and down my body behind her sunglasses . I also knew what was on her mind and as I stared down at her. Her advances weren’t lost on my as my cock thickened in my shorts.
“Lead the way.”
Nancy swung her long tan legs off the chaise and offered me her hand to help up. As I did, she brushed against me with her ample breast and I felt it’s firmness. I’d had some experience with girls my age but up to that point, it had been limited. Nancy’s breast felt firmer than most of the short list of girls I’d gotten that far with. As she turned and headed for the backdoor, my eyes locked on her swimsuit bottom. The thing strap of the thong was wedged deep in her ass. The sight of her voluptuous hips swaying and the slight jiggle of her ass as she walked made my cock unspring the rest of the way. I was hoping I was reading the situation right as I followed her.
Inside, she leaned against the counter and took off her sunglasses. Her dazzling blue eyes seemed to pierce me as a sly smile broke across her face.
“I saw you in your hot tub a few weeks ago with that girl,” Nancy began.
Blushing, memories of that night came flooding back. Heather and I had come close to losing our virginities. In the end, she had said she wasn’t ready and had given me a hand job as I sat on the edge of the hot tub. We hadn’t realized that we had a witness.
“You did?” I croaked as I tried to look away from Nancy. She was staring intently at me.
Then, she took a step toward me. “I most certainly did. You have a big cock, you know?” Nancy was pressed against me by the time she finished her question.
“Kinda,” I replied.
“How big is it? I haven’t met a guy yet that hasn’t measured it.” She bit her lip sexily waiting for my answer. Her voice was barely a whisper and sultry. “It looked like eight.”
“Seven and three quarters,” I stammered. Her perfume was intoxicating and she was dangerously close.
“That three quarters makes all the difference in the world. Trust me.”
My cock was growing even more as she spoke and her sultry voice had me panting. Then, she leaned in and kissed me. “Mrs. Pemberton,” I whispered as she pulled slowly away.
“Nancy.”
“Nancy. What’s going on?”
“You are a virgin, aren’t you?” My face flushed as she asked me point blank what I had been dreading to confess.
“Yes.”
Nancy kissed me again. “Do you want to be?” She whispered as we parted.
“No.”
She took my hand. “Then follow me.”
I didn’t respond as I followed her through the house and up the stairs. My eyes were glued to her bare ass with the thong string buried deep in it. In her bedroom, she made sure the curtains were closed and no one would pry; especially my parents if they came home early from work. As she turned to me, Nancy pulled the string on her top and the tiny triangles fell loose. Pulling the other string over her head, she stood topless in front of me. I stared at her bare breasts in awe. Large, firm and capped with hard red nipples, they looked inviting. Her thong was next and in a second, Nancy stood naked in front of me and I saw for a fact that she was completely shaved. My cock was throbbing in my shorts.
My clothes were next. Nancy helped me out of my shirt, and she struggled to get my shorts down over my erect cock. As I was bared, Nancy lowered herself to her knees and studied my cock as she hefted it.
“You are big. Very big,” she told me before plunging my cock into her mouth.
Her warm wet mouth felt incredible as she worked my cock in and out of her mouth. Her hand reached up and cupped my balls as she moaned and stroked me between her lips. Nancy only did it for a minute before she pulled me out of her mouth and smiled up at me.
“Nancy,” I croaked as she stood and moved backward onto the bed. She pulled me toward her as she lay back and spread her legs. My mind was racing as my cock throbbed painfully.
Her cunt blossomed open. Small, pink and perfect, it glistened with her excitement as it spread open. Nancy pulled me over top of her and took my cock as she guided it into her. In a split-second, I was no longer a virgin. Her hot wetness enveloped me as I sank into her and she sighed. I was holding myself off her as I lodged my cock deep inside her.
“You feel so good,” Nancy cooed as I began thrusting. “So big.”
Looking down, I watched my cock impaling her as she clung to my arms. She was arching her back off the bed as I pushed deep inside her. It took only a minute for the inevitable to happen. As I thrust, the waves of pleasure started pulsing through me. My hips started thrusting harder as I gasped and my orgasm started to build.
“Oh God,” I groaned as I thrust into her.
“Go ahead,” Nancy coaxed me softly knowing my orgasm was imminent. She reached hand up and tenderly stroked my hair.
With a loud groan, I came inside her. Thick ropes of cum spurted from me and filled her as Nancy lay under me moaning. When I finished, I collapsed on top of her gasping as she continued stroking my hair.
“That’s what I expected,” she whispered to me as I finally looked up and saw her smiling at me. “Now move off me. Give me a second.”
Rolling to my side, Nancy pushed herself of the bed and I watched the sway of her ass as she walked into the bathroom. A minute later, the toilet flushed then I heard the water running in the sink. When she came back to bed, she was still smiling.
“That was quite a load. I had to wipe four times,” she told me as she lay against me and stroked my chest. “I made sure to wash myself too. But you shoiuld know, a man should never leave a woman unsatisfied.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s not all about your pleasure Sweetie. Here,” she rolled onto her back, “use your mouth. I cleaned up well for you but stay high. Concentrate on my clit.”
Guessing her meaning, I moved between her legs. Nancy’s cunt was indeed clean without a drop of my spunk that I had shot into her. Nestling between her legs, I dipped my tongue furtively into her folds and tasted her sweetness. Her musky scent excited me, and I began to get hard again as I started lapping at her. Nancy’s hips moved in rhythm with my tongue on her clit and she moaned as she wound her hands into my hair to pull me in deeper. When her thighs clamped around my head, I knew she was coming. She arched her back and cried out as she climaxed, and I tasted a sweet gush of liquid in my mouth. It was the first time I had ever made a woman climax. It felt powerful and exciting.
“Very well done,” Nancy complimented with a sigh as she relaxed back onto the bed, and I felt so young and inexperienced compared to her.
My cock was hard and pulsing again as I looked up at her over her mound. Her large breasts were heaving.
Nancy pushed me backward with her hand then I watched as she rolled over and thrust her ass back toward me. Guessing her intention, I took her hips in my hands, I probed my cock into her wetness but failed to find her opening. Nancy reached between her legs, grasped my cock then guided me into her. From behind, I sank fully into her again.
“Fuck me,” she moaned, and it sounded guttural. Obeying her command, I started slamming my cock into her. Nancy was moaning and crying out as I pounded my cock into her. “Don’t stop fucking me,” she commanded.
I was hoping I could hold back. When Nancy came again, her entire body spasmed. Convulsing in front of me, and Nancy screamed as she climaxed. I was driving me cock into her hard enough I could feel my balls hitting her clit. Her cum coated my cock as I dug my fingers into her soft ass and fucked her even harder. My orgasm wasn’t far behind hers.
“I’m coming!” I announced as my cock pulsed with each hard thrust.
“Come with me,” Nancy pleaded and as I drove my cock savagely into her, I felt her pulsating around me.
“Oh God,” I groaned as I came again and released another stream of cum deep inside her. Nancy was panting and clawing at the bedding as she came with me.
Our mutual climax was hot, sensual and utterly amazing as we came together then collapsed on the bed in a tangle of sweaty satisfied flesh. I was gasping as Nancy pushed several locks of blonde hair from her face and smiled at me. She looked radiant.
That started our ritual that summer. Whenever my parents were gone, I was at Nancy’s and spent my time learning about sex and making love. There wasn’t a part of Nancy I hadn’t come in or on by the end of the summer. My ability to stave off my orgasm had grown, and I had become a more adept lover. The only problem was I was no longer interested in girls my own age. Nancy had shown me that older women were far more sensual, sexual and experienced. She had not only taken my virginity but had changed my outlook on women. | https://medium.com/@casey-holt-erotica/losing-my-virginity-to-my-older-neighbor-be0f5dad55e9 | [] | 2020-12-20 16:39:11.142000+00:00 | ['Short Story', 'Sex', 'Erotica', 'Literatura', 'Fiction'] |
Writing from the ether | Sometimes you pull writing from the ether. It comes from you. But it sounds like somebody else wrote it.
This is the purest writing.
You don’t have to think, it’s already there. Uncovered rather than constructed. | https://medium.com/@notesfromdc/writing-from-the-ether-db74bf291f08 | [] | 2020-12-21 03:13:08.998000+00:00 | ['Writing Process', 'Writers On Writing', 'Writer', 'Fiction', 'Writing'] |
Color correction for streaming | Tutorial
Color correction for streaming
This post is quite a bit different from my usual topics of programming. But proper color correction is a cheap and easy way to make a stream or video look more professional. Unfortunately, I keep having to re-figure out how to do it, so I figured I would write it down, and perhaps it can help somebody else too if I make it public.
The tools I use are:
Open Boardcaster Software (OBS)— https://obsproject.com/
DaVinci Resolve — https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve/
A color chart
Part 1: Getting the reference color map and image
Color correction in OBS is done through something called a LUT filter that uses a color map. Therefore, the first step is to get the reference color map. We also need to take a reference photo with the color board.
Launch OBS Create a scene with no filters and add the webcam with no filters. While holding up the color board, take a screenshot and save it to the desktop. Note: if the light is skewed towards one color, that may mess up the result.
4. Right-click the scene, then “Filters.”
5. Right-click in the left panel, then “Apply LUT.” Give it a name if you’d like.
6. Hit the “Browse” button and copy the “original.png” file. Paste it to the desktop.
Part 2: Correcting the colors
Having gathered the raw materials, it is time to do the color correction. We will be using DaVinci Resolve to do the actual color correction, so:
Launch DaVinci Resolve and create a new project. Go to the “Cut” mode at the bottom:
2. Drag and drop the two images from part 1 into the media pool.
3. Drag and drop the two files from the media pool into the timeline.
4. Switch over to the “Color” mode at the bottom.
5. Making sure you have your image selected, add the “Color Chart” overlay.
6. Adjust it, so it fits with the color board.
7. Go into the color matcher. Make sure the preview has the same colors as your color chart; otherwise, you can change it. Finally, hit “Match.”
8. (Optional) This can make the colors a little flat, so to make it pop a bit, you can go into the “Color Wheels,” goto the second tab, and turn up the “Col Boost.”
9. Now, we need to transfer those settings to the color map. To do this, select the color map, and then middle-click on the selfie. The colors on the screen should change slightly.
10. We now have to export this corrected color map, so we first need to change the settings to match that image's size. Hit the settings-cog in the bottom right corner, then set the resolution to 512x512 and hit “save.”
11. Right-click inside the player and hit “Grab Still.”
12. Change over to the “Gallary,” right-click the still, and hit “Export.”
13. Give it some name, and make sure to save it as “PNG Files (*.png).”
Part 3: Adding the LUT filter in OBS
Now that we have the corrected color map, we are finished with Resolve and can put it into OBS.
Open up the “Apply LUT” filter we added to the scene in part 1. Hit browse again and locate the file we made in part 2.
Voilà. That’s it. I now have some more color in my cheeks instead of looking extremely pale.
Before color correction (left) and after
I hope this was helpful. If you have questions or want to watch some programming, then come by my stream Tuesdays or Thursdays at 7:30 pm CEST: https://www.twitch.tv/thedrlambda | https://medium.com/@thedrlambda/color-correction-for-streaming-67b1557e6625 | ['Christian Clausen'] | 2020-11-16 11:17:18.650000+00:00 | ['Colors', 'Open Broadcaster Software', 'Lut', 'Color Correction'] |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.