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LOSS WEIGHT (flat belly )ONLY 7 DAYS CHALLANGE | direct purchace product loss belly fat with in 7 days
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1. Start strength training
Strength training is a type of exercise in which your muscles contract against resistance. It builds muscle mass and increases strength over time, and it usually involves lifting weights.
Research reveals that strength training has multiple health benefits, especially when it comes to fat loss.
According to a review of 58 studies, resistance training for at least 4 weeks may help decrease body fat by an average of 1.46%. It may also significantly reduce body fat mass and visceral fat, which is a type of fat that surrounds the organs in your belly (1Trusted Source).
Another study showed that 5 months of strength training was more effective at reducing body fat in adolescents with obesity than aerobic exercise alone (2Trusted Source).
Plus, resistance training may help preserve fat-free mass, which may increase the number of calories your body burns at rest (3Trusted Source).
According to one review, resistance training boosted people’s resting metabolic rate compared with a control group, while aerobic exercise had no effect on metabolism (4Trusted Source).
Doing bodyweight exercises, lifting weights, and using gym equipment are a few easy ways to get started with strength training.
2. Follow a high protein diet
Eating more protein-rich foods may help reduce your appetite and increase fat burning.
In fact, multiple studies have associated eating more high quality protein with a lower risk of excess body fat and obesity (5Trusted Source, 6Trusted Source).
Other research indicates that a high protein diet may help preserve muscle mass and metabolism during weight loss (7Trusted Source).
Upping your protein intake may also increase feelings of fullness, decrease hunger, and reduce calorie intake — all factors that aid weight loss (8Trusted Source, 9Trusted Source).
Try adding a few servings of high protein food to your diet each day. Protein-rich foods include meat, seafood, eggs, legumes, tofu, and dairy products like milk, cheese, and yogurt.
3. Get more sleep
Going to bed a bit earlier or setting your alarm clock a little later is a simple strategy to help you reach and maintain a healthy weight.
In fact, several studies associate sufficient sleep with weight loss.
One 10-year study linked sleeping fewer than 6 hours per night to a higher risk of obesity among young women (10Trusted Source).
Another small study showed that getting 1 less hour of sleep per night led to less fat loss in people following a low calorie diet, compared with a control group (11Trusted Source).
Other research indicates that a lack of sleep may contribute to alterations in hunger hormones, increased appetite, and a higher risk of obesity (12Trusted Source).
Although everyone needs a different amount of sleep, most studies tie at least 7 hours of sleep per night to the most benefits for weight management and overall health (13Trusted Source).
To support a healthy sleep cycle, stick to a regular sleep schedule, limit your intake of caffeine in the evening, and minimize your use of electronic devices before bed.
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Design System tools & workflow for small teams. | UI Library
Design System contains various layers — Atoms, Molecules, Organisms etc. Atoms and Molecules are Colours, Typography Styles, Primitive components such as Buttons, and it can go as far as Layout Grids and such complex components with pre-defined micro-interactions as Modal windows.
Terminology break:
Component is a reusable part of the interface. It is also called Symbol (Sketch terminology). Components can be infinitely nested within each other — Button can be pard of Navigation, Navigation -> Header etc. The same component may have different customizations, also called as States. Such as Button can be Default, Active, Disabled. Micro interaction -– components response to a trigger. It can be pressing a button, drag-and-dropping an element.
Often such atoms and molecules are agnostic of actual Product speciality. A button remains a button in a Hotel Booking app or a Trading Platform. It can be heavily branded, have sharp corners with stripped shadow, or be rounded with a neon gradient — different skins don’t change the essence. That is why it is common to use standard UI kits or even full-stack UI Frameworks such as Material UI made by Google. Some of them exist only as libraries for design tools, such as an Invision UI Kit or Prime Design System, some have all components developed with a variety of frontend technologies. It saves time not only to designers but also frontenders and surely helps them speak the same language.
Many design teams make a mistake to produce their UI kit from scratch by themselves. Building a UI kit library in-house nowadays is like inventing a wheel millionth time. Organizing all UI elements in a system is just a long and labour-intensive task. Well, first five times I did it was fun. Depending on the complexity of your Product and size of the team, the project can take months and still, by the time you finish, it is outdated. Good quality UI kits for Sketch have a sophisticated sizing and styling properties made by real Sketch wizards, which are a rare find among in-house UX designers. And last but not least, professionally made and tested UI libraries establish a solid quality bar.
On the other hand, if your product consists of a limited number of well-defined components, dragging a gigantic framework is unnecessary for both design and development.
Focus on what your team’s strength and competence, delegate the rest. The primary goal of a UX is to create the best solutions for user problems. Not having to worry about UI primitives frees up mental energy for a deep understanding of the industry and users.
Organisms
Let’s call organisms components that mean something particular in the context of a given Product.
Intercom describes it as a part of Full Stack Design System. Here are some of the examples of organisms they give:
Facebook: Friend, Post, Message, Event, Page, Group. Airbnb: Listing, Host, Guest, Trip, Experience. Slack: Team, Member, Channel, Message, Reaction, Thread. Intercom: Customer, Teammate, Message, Conversation, Article.
You can get wild with your organisms; they are real game-changers.
Environment Setup
Time to embrace the Libraries — they allow to link components (symbols), layer and typography styles between multiple files. Any Sketch file can be used as a library; any object can become a component. Layer and text styles allow to define and them all in a single file.
Think upfront of a file system that would reflect your team and company structure. If you work with multiple products, platforms, teams — you can group shared library files into a separate Sketch folder. What would be an area of usage for each library file? There can be a global library used across All files (e.g. Brand styles and elements), then iOS and Android libraries, then Feature Libraries etc.
Basic UI library
For our Product we use Material UI React Framework, so for basic UI we purchased a Material UI Sketch Library. There are many similar Libraries. Discuss with frontend team first; probably they already use a framework on their side. In thas case, the most effective is to find a corresponding Design Library for that framework. Otherwise, check out the options and pick one that fits your current state of design best.
Material UI, like any other UI framework, comes with specific hierarchy and naming for its styles and components. I highly recommend to embrace it to avoid confusion with double-standards. Developers would also appreciate it if you refer to Green as a Success Colour, and to Your Brand Purple as Primary. Take some time to understand the structure and logic of your Library, try to apply to your cases.
Start customizing, but baby steps first, the best is to customize the Library while applying it to real mockups. Start with standard Colours and Typography, then update essential UI components. Only edit existing components, do not add any new ones to this file. It should be as close to the original Library as possible, then in case if the Library is updated — it’s easier to adopt the change.
Here are guidelines on how to edit styles
..and master components
Cloud Sharing
Sketch Cloud and Sketch for Teams allow to store, organize and safely collaborate on files as they are automatically saved in versions. Not a massive change if you used something like Dropbox or Abstract, but it definitely became easier. Simultaneous collaboration on the same file is still not possible in Sketch but promised to come soon.
You can play with Library locally or upload your library file to Sketch Cloud, make sure connected as a library in your Sketch and Cloud Settings. You can test it by creating an empty file and see if you see it in your Symbols panel.
Product-Specific Libraries
Styles and components that are only specific to your Product, or parts of the Product, can be collected in separate libraries. Find the right balance how specific it makes sense for your setup. Don’t blow up a single library putting everything in it, but it’s also easy to get lost with too many specific files. Take into account how many designers/design teams work with each mini-library, how often libraries are used together. Experiment, you can split or unite library files later in the process.
Creating components — the smart way
I assume you are already familiar with the standard way to create Symbols in Sketch. I share a couple of tricks that help to create and organize your assets smarter.
How to keep related components together on the same page?
When a symbol is created in a standard way — select a group of Layers and Click “Create Symbol” — it appears on a Symbols page, and the selected layer becomes this Symbol instance. There are 2 immediate problems with this approach:
All symbols are dumped on a single page in random order. Instances are not necessary within a library file; they can be deleted
Instead, you can wrap the group layer in an artboard and convert this dartboard into a Symbol. This way, it immediately becomes a Master Symbol and remains in the current place. This approach does not only save time re-organizing symbols on the Symbol page and removing unnecessary instances but also allows to arrange them on multiple pages.
How to create nested components
Create a new library file or convert existing ones
There are two ways to start a library file:
create a blanc file where all components are collected; use existing files.
Let’s explore both approaches.
Creating a blank file makes sense if there are many existing instances same and similar components used in multiple product parts/design files. For example, at Checkout page, there is a Payment Method component that is used for many different Payment flows. We extracted this component into a separate library and gradually updated it in all files.
On the other hand, there is a set of specific feature component that you want to use in other files — parts of a product. Instead of dragging it into a separate file, it makes sense to it immediately inside the existing one, while converting the file into a library. This way, the existing file logic does not need to be changed.
Developers Handoff, User Flows, Prototyping
Sketch for Teams has recently added a long-waited Design Inspect feature, which allows retiring Invision and Zeplin kind of tools. Nonetheless, there is a little issue with it. Sharing working Sketch files might feel uncomfortable for both developers and designers. Designers can organize their files in a way, that doesn’t make sense to developers. They keep different variations of the thing they work on, collect references right in the working file, make notes irrelevant for other parties etc. Developers, on the other hand, would expect to see the same design assets organized differently.
How to keep assets separate from working files, while having a single source of truth?
Remember, that you can convert entire artboards into symbols? And any file can become a library. Artboard instances can be used in other files while been designed in a working file. It’s not only useful for developer handoff, but any other scenarios you want to reuse your views:
making interactive prototypes to share directly with testers;
mapping user flows including multiple features;
even for making modal windows with another artboard a background.
To create a file for a hand-off:
Step 1: Convert artboards with views you want to share into symbols Step 2: Make a file containing those artboards into a library, and enable it in Sketch Step 3: Create a new Sketch document Step 4: Paste necessary views from the parent library Step 5: Wrap each view into a new artboard Step 6: Upload it to Sketch Cloud, enable Inspect and Export Assets checkbox in the file setting Step 7: Share the link with your steakholder
Team Collaboration
When working with different teams, we need shuffle things around in different ways and welcome non-design people contribute. Miro is a perfect bridge between design and non-design world. It is intimidating or requires special skills; anyone can be quickly involved and contribute at any time, stakeholders are not afraid to break things while moving them around (like if they would get direct access to Sketch or Figma).
We typically run our brainstorming sessions, presentations, build user flows, product maps in Miro and “Big Picture” overviews in Miro. Especially now, in the era of remote working. Artboards can be exported directly from Sketch with a plugin. There they can be organized in a way, which fits a particular goal: a user journey map connect different part of products while skipping irrelevant responsive variations and states. | https://medium.com/sketch-app-sources/design-system-tools-workflow-for-small-teams-303adea1d16f | ['Anna Arteeva'] | 2020-07-15 17:58:26.951000+00:00 | ['Product Design', 'Sketch', 'Design', 'UI Design', 'Design Systems'] |
Incent Loyalty: 18 months on | The blockchain rewards system crowdfunded in October and November 2016, one of the first to hold a token sale on the Waves platform, and is set for mainstream integration next month.
Eighteen months ago the Incent Loyalty project was born after a successful token sale on the Waves platform. The blockchain rewards programme was one of the first initiatives to launch a token on the new Waves network, which itself had only recently launched mainnet after crowdfunding $16 million that summer.
‘Humble beginnings’
During its crowdsale, Incent collected around $1.1 million in BTC and WAVES at the time — a modest amount compared to more recent token sales.
‘Incent started from pretty humble beginnings,’ says CEO Rob Wilson, who has been active in the cryptocurrency space since 2013. ‘It was just a couple of us working part-time in a shared office. But we knew that there was a huge opportunity here. We’d learned from BitScan, our directory of bitcoin businesses, that merchants were hurting. Competition with the big online marketplaces is tough, and no conventional loyalty programme delivers returns. We knew we could offer something different, and that a blockchain currency was the way to do it.’
Incent’s solution is a form of loyalty points that are bought from the open market at point-of-sale, rather than being issued as IOUs, like traditional reward schemes. ‘It’s basic economics that if there’s a fixed supply and you’re expanding the ecosystem with greater merchant and consumer demand, your currency will be worth more in the long term,’ continues Wilson. ‘And because it’s hosted on a blockchain, customers have the freedom to do what they like with it — spend it, save it, give it away, sell it. The choice is theirs.’
Going live
The crypto landscape has changed markedly since 2016. Firstly, there is far greater regulatory clarity. Exchanges such as Bittrex, Incent’s primary trading platform, have undertaken an extensive process of vetting each coin listed to ensure it is compliant with the current requirements. Additionally, the meteoric rise of the cryptocurrency markets over the course of 2017 means that there is far more than $1.1 million in Incent’s war chest, even after 18 months of development costs and this year’s sharp downturn. The company has rented its own office space in Darlinghurst, Sydney, and now has 17 employees.
Incent launched in beta in January with a Chrome toolbar that pays users small amounts of Incent for browsing. This proof-of-concept was followed by their marketplace, which rewards customers with Incent for shopping with hundreds of different affiliate websites. ‘Full integration with our first local partners will happen at the end of July,’ states Wilson. The company has around 15 bricks-and-mortar businesses set to come on board, all of whom will issue Incent to customers in real-time as they pay. ‘Then in November, we’re looking at integration with a number of national Australian brands. We’re already inking those partnerships. If we pull it off, it will be a world first, putting crypto in the hands of thousands of mainstream consumers.’
For more information, or to sign up for the Incent marketplace, visit www.IncentLoyalty.com. | https://medium.com/incent-loyalty-blog/incent-loyalty-18-months-on-c6d24b48ac96 | [] | 2018-07-13 05:59:49.619000+00:00 | ['Incent', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Business', 'Bitcoin'] |
ANU#62 — New Wallet Screen, Backup and Restore Options | Welcome to the AppCoins News Update, ‘ANU’ for short. This week, we bring you many new updates to the AppCoins Wallet, which are detailed in our latest release, and more!
Welcome to this week’s ANU, where we explain the major changes that are in the works. This includes an improved way to show AppCoins Wallet details, as well as some changes on how to ‘Backup’ and ‘Restore’ a wallet.
Upcoming release
This week’s update isn’t backed up with a release per se. However, our upcoming release is arriving soon and it’s packed with new updates!
Here are the upcoming changes we are testing and improving for the AppCoins Wallet:
Wallets Screen
We understand the importance of a wallet address, hence we thought it should be one of the first things users see when entering the wallet. For that reason, we are now removing the access to the wallet from ‘Settings’ and you can now find it in the ‘Balance’ view, which is accesible from the bottom navigation menu.
We still provide the balance details of the selected wallet, as well as the total amount of funds that the user has in the wallet.
Now, the wallet address will be shown right below the balance of your wallet, and it will have quick actions, such as copy/paste, available. In the bottom there is a quick overview of how many wallets the user has created and the total amount they contain.
When swiping up (where it says the number of wallets) users will be able to pull up their list of wallets. There they have a quick view of the balance of each one of their wallets, access to the ‘Restore’ option (previously known as ‘Import Wallet’), as well as the ‘Create New’ wallet option.
In this list of wallets, users can also access the details of each wallet by clicking on the wallet they want. Once users are in the wallet they want, they can see the backup option and remove options for all.
However, users, please note that the wallet you are checking is not the active one as we don’t allow the removal of the active wallet. Users can also click the button on the bottom — ‘Make This Wallet Active’ — to change the active wallet.
Backup Wallet
While making changes to the ‘Wallets’ screen, we decided to take one additional step and improve the backup process of a wallet. When presented with the new wallet ‘Backup’ screen, users will be able to see its balance so that they can make sure they are backing up the wallet they really want.
Users can then add a password to that backup and store it someplace safe. They will then be able to share it with the channel they prefer or save it in their phone, as of now the backup is stored as a file instead of text.
The main objective with this change is to turn the backup into an easy process and not expect users to have prior knowledge on how to backup their wallets.
Restore Wallet
Since we made changes to the ‘Backup’, it was only natural to make changes to the ‘Restore’ process too. Now users are able to use it the old way; by adding a keystore or private key or importing the backup file generated in the new backup process. We will only request a password when needed.
Other Improvements
Support notification
As you know, our support channel is very important to us. It not only provides essential feedback from our users, but also allows us to quickly reply to users that reach out for help.
We’ve put extra effort into making sure that when we answer on a support chat, the user receives a notification letting them know that their question has been answered.
Support channel in settings
Still on the support train, we’ve made another improvement by updating the access to the support channel in ‘Settings’. Many of our users tried to reach our support through our ‘Github Issues’ page, however, unfortunately Github does not have the same attention as our dedicated support channel.
So, from now on, the support channel will be available through ‘Settings’, where users should direct messages for a faster and more personalised response.
Onboarding landscape
Our journey through the landscape world continues; our focus lays on making a better user experience for the horizontal orientation. This time, we’ve added the changes we’ve shown you in the previous ANU. More features will be included soon!
Design Update
Landscape Top-Up
The improvements to the landscape orientation are something we have been focusing on to make sure that all our users have the best use of the AppCoins Wallet — regardless of the device they choose.
One of the screens that required such an update was the ‘Top-Up’ screen. This screen is often used by our users and, because of that, it should be easy to navigate and not require UI shortcuts to work properly in landscape mode.
Check our design suggestion for this update:
Access to Backup and Restore
Enhancing the user experience changes in the ‘Wallets’ screen, as well as in the ‘Backup’ and ‘Restore’ wallet features, can seem a bit disruptive. We don’t want to alarm our users when they can’t find the essential functionalities right away.
For that reason, we are working on providing two of the most common actions in a standard place, and as the main action. Lets us know what you think about the new location for the ‘Backup’ and ‘Restore’ actions, as well as the new flow:
As always, you’re invited to follow our work regarding all of the products we’re working on:
Published artifacts:
At the time of writing, the current market cap is close to $3,270M USD, with $1,786M USD in volume in the last 24 hours across these exchanges: Binance (95.60%), Huobi (4.30%) and HitBTC (0.01%).
Since the last ANU, APPC value has witnessed a high of $0.036 USD on May 19th, and a low of $0.028 USD on May 10th. You can see more info about APPC markets at Coinmarketcap.
Name: Duarte Botelho
Role: Python Backend Engineer
Bio: Duarte’s adventure at Aptoide started almost two years ago, when he was a part-timer finishing his Master’s degree.
He has worked in various Aptoide teams before landing his current position as Python Backend Engineer.
In his spare time, Duarte enjoys reading and playing online racing and FPS games!
Missed one of our previous publications? Not to worry. You can read them right here:
ANU#61 — Landscape Orientation and Layout Improvements
ANU#60 — New AppCoins Wallet Release and Pay As A Guest
ANU#59 — Local Payment Updates and User Incentive Bonus | https://medium.com/@appcoins/anu-62-new-wallet-screen-backup-and-restore-options-99033ab17b7 | ['Appcoins Official'] | 2020-06-01 14:22:57.752000+00:00 | ['Restore', 'Wallet', 'Appcoins', 'Release', 'Backup'] |
Is There Such a Thing As Neutral Representation? | Warning: Spoilers for Game of Thrones and Supernatural
The question of representation has been around for as long as there have been identities that challenged the status quo. For a long time, the push was simply to get any representation, especially for non cis-het sexual and gender identities, in a world in which there was close to none. More recently, however, since we have the luxury of choice (in most cases) in seeing our identities represented on-screen, there has been a lot of discourse in marginalized communities in the value of bad representation versus no representation at all. If we see a member of our community represented in a film or television show, is it enough to see them on screen, or must they be well-written and executed? If a character or story falls into tired and even harmful clichés about a particular group of people, is it actually worse than if that character or story had never existed in the first place? Essentially, is there value in representation for representation’s sake? I know I won’t be able to answer that definitively, but let’s explore some pros and cons in a few specific examples, shall we?
Game of Thrones. Say the name, and a thousand angry nerds warm up their fingers to type out a completely unoriginal hot take about how the last season was either too feminist or not feminist enough (at least pretty much everyone can agree that no matter which it was, the last season was bad, so congrats Benioff & Weiss I guess). I’m going to take it as a given that anyone reading this is familiar with the show, because practically everyone is at this point, even people who haven’t seen it. Without assigning any value judgement (yet), let’s look at the facts: by the final season, practically all the major players left were women. Sansa Stark, Daenerys Targaryen, and Cersei Lannister were the main contenders left vying for power. Olenna Tyrell, Yara Greyjoy, Brienne of Tarth, and Arya Stark were all significant characters in the show’s culmination, although none were directly interested in becoming monarchs. As for the men, there were still major characters like Jon, Jaime, and Tyrion, but they had little to do except bicker about who was going to become queen while the women did all the heavy lifting (until, obviously, the end, goddamnit Jon). Bran was arguably the most important male character left, narratively speaking, although his whole storyline was just so deeply stupid, I’d honestly rather just ignore it.
So, the women. We have two women going for the same crown, and a third deciding she’d had enough of all this nonsense and wanted to secede from the union, er… the kingdom, and decides to support the woman her brother is porking so she can have her own crown on the side. In a vacuum, without any discussion of the portrayals of the characters themselves, this seems amazing. A major television show known for violence and sex, which was marketed as “fantasy for people who hate fantasy” (meaning that their target demographic was largely young guys, the frat bro crowd, if you will), ended with women in all major political positions! (until it didn’t, again, goddamnit Jon). However, even ignoring the horrifying and poorly written ending for its two most important female characters (which I’m not saying you should, when evaluating the series, but I’ll get to that later), the way the show wrote the women left a lot to be desired, to say the least.
Cersei, who had become one of the shrewdest political actors left on the show, who had orchestrated a mass killing of her opponents not two seasons prior, spent the entire last season standing on a balcony drinking wine, until she died, crying in her brother’s arms. Is this truly a woman having power and exercising agency in her kingdom, whose crown she has spent seven seasons clawing her way to? This is, in my opinion, an example of something that could be called neutral representation. It’s not good, by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s also not inherently harmful to the idea of the representation of women in power. It’s bad, but not in a way that is directly tied to ugly stereotypes of femininity (save for, perhaps, her death, where she’s reduced to a scared little girl). It’s just bad characterization, but about on par with the rest of the final season’s butchering of practically every other character.
The two most insidious examples of bad representation in the final season are Daenerys and Sansa. Daenerys, who had literally made her name in Westeros by being the breaker of chains (aka caring about the plight of those less fortunate) suddenly turned into a bloodthirsty lunatic who raged out because of… symbolism, I guess, if Benioff & Weiss are to be believed. Not only did she murder a bunch of people for no good reason, but she also became stupid. It should be noted that this was a fate that seemed to befall many of the previously intelligent characters on the show in the final season (notably Varys and Tyrion, turning into just absolute dinguses). However, Dany’s heel turn is a sharp 180 that directly feeds into the stereotype that women are too volatile to hold positions of power. Note that this season was filmed in 2017, less than a year after the 2016 election, where a regular talking point on right-wind media outlets was that Hillary Clinton couldn’t possibly be in charge of the nuclear launch codes because what if she was on her period and started WW3? Dany’s steep descent to madness and loss of all common sense and political nous she had previously held plays directly into this stereotype, and could, in terms of net effect on the world, cancel out the possibly positive effect of seeing a woman in the top position on a show. In terms of her untimely death, at the hands of her lover/nephew, the scene is horrifying and disrespectful to the character, but much like the Cersei nonsense, is just bad writing without as much of a misogynistic slant. It’s gross, and problematic in terms of one character removing another character’s agency and plays into a more overarching trend in media of killing someone “for the greater good,” but it’s not necessarily specifically about her being a woman needing to be put down. Arguably. With the smallest of allowances.
Sansa and Daenerys are two sides of the same coin, the currency being bad representation of women in media. Where Dany plays into the stereotype of women being too emotional to hold political office, Sansa plays into the equally dangerous notion that for a woman to be “strong,” she must be emotionless. Better writers than I have talked at length about the plague of “strong female characters” in film and television of the past several decades (notably Carina Chocano in the New York Times in 2011), yet the trope continues to be used, seemingly because writers (mainly male ones) feel the need to justify their protagonists (or even side characters) being female. If a woman is to be the protagonist instead of a man, then she must lose all the parts of traditional femininity that men find off-putting in order to be marketable and believable as action hero, or scientist, or monarch. In Frozen, for example, Elsa is told explicitly that her emotions will be her downfall and she must practice stoicism to keep herself and others safe. In practically every adaptation of the Millennium series, Lisbeth Salander borders on robotic, and her emotions are more hinted than anything else. This trope is similar to the “not like other girls” trope, wherein a girl is only considered cool because she likes sports and doesn’t wear lipstick or something, which is a deeply sexist trope, and it is incredibly problematic that it’s primarily used in YA narratives.
Anyways, Sansa. Sansa is practically the only character who gets what she wants by the end of the series. The North has seceded, and she is crowned Queen of it with a cool direwolf coronet. However, I would argue that they did her character so dirty in the final season that it kind of overshadows any positive effect from having a woman “win.” Sansa became kind of stupid, like all the other characters, but she also seemingly lost all shred of humanity that had previously been a mainstay of who she was. More than this, the show tries to make it seem like a good thing, even having her go so far as to say her violent rape at the hands of Ramsey Bolton was actually a good thing, since it… taught her not to be meek? Naïve? Something along those lines. Ignoring the fact that that is a disgusting thing to make a victim of sexual assault say, and for millions of victims of sexual assault to hear, this is supposed to mark her transition into the “strong female character.” Where previously she was trusting and kind, she is now Strong. She distrusts Dany on sight for no particular reason (she’s later justified by the narrative, but you can’t retcon logic into an illogical decision), and she is cold and unkind to Dany (who, at that point, has saved the lives of Sansa’s brother and countrymen, lost a dragon, and offered her two other dragons and sizable army to help Jon and Sansa). This is another trope of the high-powered woman, something parodied in the recent Rebel Wilson movie Isn’t It Romantic (note: I didn’t actually like that movie, but it made certain valid points): whenever there are two women in a movie (often sharing a workplace or going to the same school) they instantly hate each other, for no reason. Women can’t be friends, I guess. Sansa and Dany both turn into spiteful, catty girls who can’t stand the other for no reason other than that they are the other woman in each of their stories. Sansa, in the final season, showcases the truly nefarious nature of the Strong Female Character trope: to be smart is to be unkind and distrustful, to be strong is to be emotionless.
In both Sansa’s and Daenerys’s cases, women are shown that our emotions are the enemy. If we choose to shove our emotions down and become stoic and utilitarian, we can succeed at the expense of our humanities. If we do not, our emotions will get the better of us and we will explode into rage monsters who do untold harm until we need to get put down like Old Yeller (credit to Lindsay Ellis for that joke). I watched Thrones from the first season, and I even read the books, before any luddite nerds come for my cred. For years, I listed Dany as one of my favorite female characters ever. I loved her and the show. I don’t think I would say that anymore. Do I think it’s fantastic that women represented all the major powers left in the last season? Sure. Do I think the way the show treated its female characters ultimately did more harm than good? Maybe. I think there’s power in raw representation, but the perpetuation of harmful stereotypes and tropes have a sincere negative effect on the world, and that’s important to talk about too.
Let’s move on from the ladies to the gays.
Supernatural. Never heard of it? Lucky you. Supernatural recently ended its fifteen-year run in November of this year with an ending that, much like Game of Thrones, divided the fandom and managed to piss off most of its viewership. The show never had the mainstream appeal Thrones had, but it had a significant viewership, with an average of four or so million viewers per episode, and an extremely loyal and dedicated fanbase. It was regularly in the top five most viewed shows on its networks (WB for the first season, The CW for the second through the last). For the uninitiated, the show is, in a nutshell, about two brothers, Sam and Dean Winchester, who hunt monsters of all sorts. Although the show started as polytheistic, with its paranormal monsters of the week drawn from all manner of pantheons and cultural traditions and mythologies, a subplot with Abrahamic angels and demons started to gain traction around season three, and by season five the show was firmly entrenched in Christian theology. It doesn’t really matter for the point I’m making, but I feel the need to state that this show is not, er… good. It’s not. The writing is ridiculous and borderline nonsensical at times, the editing is visibly slipshod, the acting is average at the best of times. The soundtrack is probably the one actually great thing about the entire show, composed almost entirely of classic rock, except when it’s funny to have something else.
One of the characters who popped up in the fourth season was Castiel, angel of the Lord. Although he was supposed to be a one-off character for a few episodes, the character quickly became a fan favorite, and would eventually become one of the three main stars of the show. As soon as he started appearing, fans noted that there seemed to be a lot of chemistry between Castiel and Dean. It should be noted, for those who have never seen an episode, that Supernatural, especially in the first few seasons, was almost aggressively heterosexual. All the main characters were hypermasculine with overly emphasized deep voices (these are not the actors’ real voices) who love beer and violence, and constantly lust after any and all women they come across. Aside from a very rare few, most of the female characters exist to be a man’s love interest and then die, or to be the sexy helpless victim and then die, or to be the sexy villain and then die. The show has an abysmal track record with women, but that’s not what I’m here to talk about right now. We are gathered here today to talk about gay stuff. Supernatural is far from the only example of bad gay rep, but it’s the freshest in my mind, and I think its historic run and the fact that a month after the show ended, the fandom keeps learning new things about the possible homophobic conspiracy of the show’s finale, make it interesting to talk about.
So, Dean and Castiel. Destiel, as they quickly became known. Destiel near-instantly became the most popular ship on the show, followed very far behind by the second most popular, Wincest (the incestuous pairing of Sam and Dean; the show basically didn’t have any female characters who lasted long enough to become popular love interests, so this was all most people had until season four). Destiel, or even the idea of feelings between Dean and Cas, was never explicit in the narrative. The two characters (and the two actors) had tremendous chemistry, and were best friends, and clearly cared deeply about each other, but the show made it very clear early on that these dudes were into chicks. Despite the fact that angels and demons can inhabit a body of any sex, and we saw many characters hop from male-presenting to female-presenting bodies and vice-versa, Cas, an angel in a male-presenting body, is only shown to have sex with human women and a demon in a female-presenting body. Dean is also only ever shown to have sexual and romantic relations with women (and one fallen angel in a female-presenting body), but a lot of small hints and running gags led a large number of fans to see Dean as a bisexual character from very early in the show. These include his obsession with a TV character called Dr. Sexy on an in-show spoof of Grey’s Anatomy, his reactions to male characters hitting on him (which could also be read as straight panic, but you take what you can find), and his intense emotional bonds with other male or male-presenting characters, such as Benny (a reformed vampire) and Cas. It’s also important to note that fandom spaces, such as Tumblr and fanfiction sites, tend to be largely populated by young queer people, starving for a character to latch onto to and relate to. That definitely contributed to the popularity of the ship, and the firm belief that so many fans had that it was canon, but as someone who has, unfortunately, watched the entire thing, let me just say: it’s there. It’s all there. There’s so very much there.
I digress. The point I was trying to make is that Destiel was incredibly popular from the get, and their relationship continued to be a core aspect of the show for twelve years. Twelve years of both of them constantly sacrificing themselves to save the other, changing the course of history itself to save the other, having practically any character who came in contact with them refer to them as a couple (whether joking or otherwise), breaking up and making up several times, and in general being intensely devoted to each other. That brings us now to season fifteen. The last hurrah. It’s practically impossible to explain the plot of the final season without spending several thousand words explaining a decade of development, but what’s important for this discussion is that Cas dies. Kind of. Briefly. In episode 18, the second-to-last episode of the show, Cas sacrifices himself and in doing so saves the world, but it’s very clear in the moment that he’s doing it specifically to save Dean. Without explaining a lot of the extremely convoluted nonsense, Cas had made a deal with a primordial entity in season fourteen that as soon as he experienced a moment of true happiness, the entity would come and take him away, meaning he would die. Cas achieves this by finally, after twelve years of buildup, confessing his love to Dean. He doesn’t pussyfoot around, either, he says “I love you” in no uncertain terms and has a whole dramatic monologue about how Dean is the most wonderful person to ever live, all while Dean stands there, not reacting, looking like the Real Housewives cat meme. Cas confesses his big gay love, and then immediately dies. That is the last we see of him on the show. Again, without getting into the whole backstory, this is one of the most controversial aspects of the finale. The show went on hiatus after filming episode 18 due to the pandemic, so the final two episodes were shot in Covid conditions. Supposedly, the ending was supposed to be different, Cas was meant to be in the finale (he’s mentioned to have been brought back to life offscreen), and a whole bunch of stuff was changed because of this. This hullabaloo is still ongoing, though, so I can’t say anything definitively. Googling “destiel conspiracy” right now will have you going down a rabbit hole that might end with a recent tweet from a VFX coordinator on the show saying he’s had two boyfriends but is still totally straight, so do so at your own peril. I would recommend just watching the Sarah Z video about it for a good primer (it’s an hour and a half long).
So, anyways. Castiel is queer. Unabashedly, explicitly, canonically queer. Does this even count as representation? If so, is it good rep? Did the show somehow manage to pull off a love confession scene that was both gay and homophobic? There are a few things to discuss here. First is the notion of fan service. This one is a bit murky for this ship for this show in particular, but I’m choosing my hill to die on here. The show spent twelve years having an intense emotional relationship between two guys who, by the last few seasons, had all but given up relationships with women. This isn’t something that was ever addressed, but by the end they were all mostly busy with killing God and raising their antichrist son together, so none of them had any romantic relationships the last few years of the show, except for Sam, briefly. Although I tend to agree with a lot of fans reading bisexual implications into Dean’s character, I genuinely don’t believe the showrunners intended this reading. I think that a lot of the hints were at best mildly lazy gay jokes that just hit different when you’re a queer viewer looking for queerness. Additionally, everyone involved with the show (except Misha Collins, the actor who plays Castiel) has been adamant that Destiel is not canon, and that Dean is strictly heterosexual. Spending twelve years insisting all the gay stuff is not there, and then dropping in a “oh yeah he was gay all along” at the very end, does not count as doing the work for gay representation. It should be noted that that episode was written by who I believe to be the only openly gay member of the writers’ room, Robert Berens, so I’m not necessarily saying that episode and that scene were done in bad faith. However, I’m not about to call this good representation, by any stretch. The fact that the showrunners decided to confirm a character as queer seemingly only to appease the fans, without doing any of the work for the prior twelve years, is not great, but it’s also not the worst part of this.
Let’s talk about burying your gays. For those who don’t know, “bury your gays” is a trope in film and television where queer characters inevitably end up dead in any given piece of content. This trope has a long history in cinema and can be traced all the way back to the days of the Hays Code (production code in the film industry from the 30’s to the 60’s) and censorship laws, which dictated that if you absolutely had to have a queer character on screen (because they would prefer if you just didn’t do that), they had to either die or be explicitly labeled villainous or criminal. This is also what led to villains being constantly gay coded (see any Disney villain, Ursula, Scar, Governor Radcliffe, Hades, etc). This trope, however, continues to plague the world of cinema and television to this day, with gay characters constantly dying in lieu of their straight counterparts. It’s not usually explicitly cosmic punishment for being queer, but it’s still a highly troubling trend. Doesthedogdie.com has a whole section for “does an LGBT person die,” if you wanted to see some examples.
So Castiel dies literally right after confessing his big gay love. Is that burying their gays? Yes. Kind of. From a certain point of view. An important caveat here is that one of the most prevalent elements of Supernatural is that everyone dies. A lot. The three main characters (Sam, Dean, and Castiel) have died hundreds of times, all combined. They’ve come back every other time. So, the fact that Cas died does not immediately translate to burying his gay self, since they’ve all died so many times before. However, what made this particular instance problematic to say the least is that he got sent to turbo-hell because of his big gay love. This was, quite literally, cosmic punishment for being queer. His confession of love was his “true moment of happiness,” which is what directly caused his death. This is where the problem lies. Castiel does very much die because he is queer. This is one of the most damaging possible forms of queer representation. On the other hand, I know that finally having canonical confirmation that Cas was queer all along was important for a lot of fans. This mattered to people. For many, this was the final payoff after twelve years of dedication to what they saw as the slowest burn of all time. Even this incredibly problematic and disingenuous representation, insofar as it can be called so, has value to people.
There are also other examples of bad queer representation, on much larger scales. One of the most prevalent myths around bisexuality, for example, (besides the notion that being bisexual just means you’re either gay and lying to yourself or straight and experimenting) is that bisexual people are sluts and will sleep with anything that moves. I want to make it clear that I personally am not casting any moral judgement on people who choose to have a lot of sex. I’m merely noting that media and society at large tend to view people who sleep around as morally dubious at best, and so the representation of bisexual people this way is explicitly meant to be derogatory. There are so many examples of this in film and television, like Rent where Maureen is portrayed as extremely promiscuous and drives all her partners to paranoia, or Blue is the Warmest Color and The Kids are Alright, where in both cases one of the leads cheats on her longtime partner with a man.
One recent example I’m personally familiar with is on Emmerdale, one of the five major ongoing British soaps. Now, everything that happens on a soap has to be taken with a grain of salt, because, well, they’re soaps. Everyone has an extremely high probability of dying or killing someone, and everyone has slept with everyone else except (usually) the people to whom they’re closely related. One of the most popular relationships from the recent era of that long running soap was Robert and Aaron, affectionately known as Robron. Aaron is gay and has been so, openly, for a long time, but Robert is bisexual, although he wasn’t explicitly confirmed so until several years into their relationship. Robert is also shown to have cheated on every single person he has been with, from his wife with Aaron, to his then-husband Aaron with his ex-wife’s sister, with whom it was revealed he also cheated on his ex-wife. Aaron does take him back, and Robert stays faithful to him until he leaves him because the actor wanted off the show. The portrayal of Robert as unable to commit to a person, however, is still quite notable, since it’s horrifyingly common in portrayals of bisexual characters. Another popular character on the show, Charity, also recently cheated on her wife with a man.
These are obviously not ideal forms of representation. However, I was online during the heyday of Robron’s relationship, and I know that for a huge number of viewers, it was incredibly meaningful and important when they finally heard Robert and Aaron use the word “bisexual.” It’s something that’s often skirted around or implied rather than outright stated, so characters verbally and proudly using it mattered to a large part of the community. Does that then outweigh the negative effects of Emmerdale’s slut-shaming its bisexual characters?
Obviously, I can’t speak for the entire queer woman community, and I’m not going to pretend to think I’m important or smart enough to come up with a conclusive answer here. I do think, though, that media representations of marginalized groups should be examined further than “good” or “bad” rep, and value can be found even in portrayals that play into possibly harmful stereotypes. By no means am I saying that we should be content with this if it’s all there is. We should continue every day to fight for and demand better and more representation for all non-cis-het-white-able-bodied people. However, don’t throw the baby out with the bath water, is all I’m saying. If there’s joy, or empowerment, or the slightest amount of progress in a given piece of content, don’t let the problematic aspects completely negate the possible good. Think critically, yes, but don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good, or however the saying goes. | https://medium.com/@liviacamperi/is-there-such-a-thing-as-neutral-representation-6176f2f16353 | ['Livia Camperi'] | 2020-12-27 00:24:07.043000+00:00 | ['Game of Thrones', 'Supernatural', 'Representation', 'TV', 'LGBTQ'] |
America’s Last Emperor: Broderick | Chapter Four
Click here for Chapter One.
A picture of the water lots at Fremont and Howard taken from Second Street (running in foreground) courtesy of OpenSFHistory.org
December 14, 1849
The pace of activity was hectic for Norton once the Genesee was run aground. The ship was stabilized by chopping down both of the masts of the brigantine and wedging large beams cut from the masts between the mud and the boat on either side of the rudder. At high tide small boats could float right up and unload with the Genesee’s deck davits. The deck was currently awash with laborers building a shed over the open deck, which would keep the stored goods dry. It was coming together — on his inspection visits to his lots, he mused that the wooden house on deck might have looked a lot like the Biblical ark of Noah.
The Genesee was one hundred thirty two feet long including the forespar. Coincidentally, one side of Norton’s fifty vara plot at Fremont and Howard, where the Genesee was run aground, was one hundred and thirty two feet long. Through the alcalde, Norton managed to get the city behind building the Fremont Street wharf and make it far easier to unload and cart goods across town to the stores Norton planned to build on his land at Jackson and Battery.
For the past few days life had settled into a steady routine for Norton. First was waking and breakfast at the Jones Hotel. He’d decided to stay there for a while, and managed to talk his way into a discount for a longer stay. He suspected that the hotel was hedging its bets, because it was getting harder to get top dollar for rent anymore. Norton’s walk from the hotel was usually initiated by a stop at the New World Coffee Salon tent, for a meeting with Tom Sawyer. Sawyer had hired two other men he’d known from back east, and they took turns guarding the Genesee storehouse. It was less than two weeks since he’d touched land here, and he already had four employees to worry about. His meetings with Sawyer each morning were strictly routine — there was very little to talk about since Rincon Point was not exactly crime-ridden.
The real crime was over near Norton’s office. The adobe building housing his offices had already been broken into once in the two weeks since the tavern had closed down. The miserly landlord had already started moving pianos into the space, and the only thing that was worth taking that actually could be carried was the old stock of whiskey that had been watered down with Captain Keene’s well-water. The method of theft was more worrisome. One of the thieves had set a fire a couple of blocks away, and burned down a house. While the attention of the neighborhood was on that fire, the thieves had broken into every storefront up and down Jackson to the water.
Every morning, as Norton walked up Montgomery towards the old adobe, he wondered at the way the street seemed to change almost every day. As he crossed California Street, construction on buildings seemed to be happening on every other lot. Closer to California Street they were mostly starting to build in brick, but the vast majority was wooden buildings that had either been shipped in pieces, or rough shacks thrown up out of anything the builder could find. Norton reminded himself to start attending town halls to suggest they set some standards for building so these slapped together cottages would not fall down and kill someone.
It was a Friday, and Norton could tell that the neighborhood was getting ready for the weekend. Behind his office on Pacific Street was where new taverns had opened up, and from his single office window he could see there was a steady pace of horses drawing wagons up Montgomery Street bearing alcohol from the docks. He was always into the office by seven in the morning, beating Mr. Robertson by a good two hours regularly. Following their partnership, Mr. Robertson had moved from his hotel into a space closer to Portsmouth Square. He regularly came in smelling vaguely of alcohol, but this did not bother Norton — as long as he worked well, he did not care what Robertson did in his off hours.
He was in the middle of directing Robertson how to do the weekly bookkeeping when there was a knock on the door. Norton opened it to find his friend Mr. Eastland.
“Eastland! Splendid to see you! What brings you to this neighborhood?” said Norton.
“You,” said Eastland. “I came to extend an invitation to lunch at M and W, with the Alcalde.”
Norton perked up at this. M and W meant Macao and Woosung, the chinese restaurant. He was anxious to try the food, and hobnobbing with city officials was always fruitful.
“Today?” he asked, hopefully.
#
As he walked out of his office at noon, Norton noticed that the muddy fen on the southwest corner of Jackson and Montgomery was turning into a dumping ground for all types of construction debris. He walked up Jackson towards Kearny, and then southeast to Portsmouth Square. In the two weeks he had been here the number of people on the streets seemed to have doubled. There were many more sightings of women, especially as he got closer to Commercial Street and the restaurant. He’d heard about two hundred ladies from Paris arriving on a single boat they had chartered, just in time for Christmas. By his own estimates this would increase the number of women in town three times over. He had also heard that the women were prostitutes, which he wryly thought meant that some people in town would have a merry Christmas indeed.
Portsmouth Square was a beehive of activity. There seemed to be some kind of auction going on near the Alcalde’s office, with the requisite crowd of about a hundred people. There were just as many people clustered around a man speaking on the opposite corner. As Norton passed he overheard some of the speaker’s complaints — he was talking about someone he had known that had been the victim of a murder. The speaker was full of passion and Norton wanted to stop to listen to him, but he had an engagement to meet.
As he approached the restaurant, he saw Eastland and Donohue outside with two other men. One of the unidentified men was talking as Norton walked up.
“I can’t really stay,” he was saying. “I have some parts to make in the shop that the customer asked for expedience on.”
“Is that all you came to say?” asked Peter Donohue. “You could have just not come. Ah, Norton, there you are.” He shifted his attention to Norton.
“Joshua Norton, meet my brothers. Jim and Mike.” said Donohue.
“Joshua Norton, at your service,” said Norton, offering his hand.
“Nice to meet you,” said Jim, who was speaking before. “Sorry I can’t stay, but I do have some work to get done by nightfall.”
“I’ll bring you some food later,” said Mike.
“That thing we got last time,” said Jim. “Ask Norman what it’s called again, I forgot.”
#
They were greeted at the door by a Chinese man who stood about a head under Norton. He was dressed in a traditional black chinese jacket and had a cap of silk on his head with a gold button on it. He smiled as they walked in.
“Welcome to Macao and Woosung, gentlemen,” he said in a voice completely without any trace of an accent.”It is good to see you again, Mr. Donohue.”
“It’s good to see you too, Mr. Ah Sing,” said Donohue. “We’re here for the alcalde’s luncheon.”
“Right this way, gentlemen,” he said. “Big luncheon today. Please, call me Norman.”
They followed Mr. Ah-Sing to a back room with sliding panels for doors. As he opened the sliding doors, the room inside was revealed to have a huge round table at the center. Loaded down with exotic foods that Norton had trouble identifying, it all smelled delicious. Equally loaded down were the chairs. almost 20 chairs were around the table and almost all of them were occupied. Everyone in the room was talking, and Donohue picked out the Alcalde on the far side of the table and moved to where he was. The Alcalde had already noticed them, and waved to Norton and his party as they entered.
“I will check in on you from time to time,” said Mr. Ah-Sing as he backed out of the room while sliding the doors closed.
As Norton looked around, he saw many faces he vaguely recognized. His two weeks in town was already a whirlwind of meeting men in situations such as this. This time was slightly different — he realized that most of the men in the room were his fellow Freemasons. Norton idly wondered if there was a lodge in town already. It did not help that they were all dressed in the same black suits as Norton.
He saw the publisher of the only newspaper in town, which stood to reason. He also saw members of the town council, every person of which he had been introduced to but the only person he could remember was Sam Brannan, a brash and loud man. He saw Brannan talking to a man wearing a Shenandoah beard, upper lip freshly shaved. As he noticed this, the alcalde stood up and started to speak.
“Gentlemen, thank you for coming,” said Geary. “We’re talking about the relative increase in crime in town today. As you all are businessmen here in town, we are open to suggestions on how to deal with it.”
“More policemen!” said someone from around the table.
Norton moved to an open seat and took it. Eastland took the seat next to him.
“We are still trying to figure out the budget for that,” said Brannan.
“Curfews!” said another person.
“And how will we enforce those?” said Geary.
Donohue and his brother found another pair of seats and took those.
“Excuse me,” said Norton. The entire table turned to look at him.
“This is a subject that is dear to my heart,” he started. “As some of you may know, the captain of the ship I arrived in was found dead a few days later, having died on the night we arrived. Nobody saw what happened to him, and it seems suspicious to me. It is my opinion that the problem is that the streets are very dark at night, and this contributes.”
The murmurs around the table seemed positive to Norton.
“Maybe a law stating people have to place a lantern outside their doors,” said someone else at the table.
More positive murmurs.
“This is a good immediate solution, but might I suggest another?” said Norton. “I arrived here from South Africa, Cape Town. A few years ago, that noble town installed gas lighting on the street.”
Donohue spoke up, “I’m in favor of that solution, we have the resources needed to do that.”
Geary looked like he was considering this seriously.
“What about the murder at the Bella Union last night? That didn’t happen on the street.” said the man with the Shenandoah.
“We are endeavoring to get more police officers,” said Geary. “At present, Captain Fallon has 35 officers on his force including himself.”
Norton quickly inhaled at the news. The town he walked through every morning was at least as populous as the Cape Town he had left, and that city’s population stood at twenty thousand at the last count. People were pouring into the city and they were mostly transients headed to the gold fields.
“This isn’t a bad number of police for the population,” said Brannan.
“Yes, but most of those men are corrupt,” said the person who’d talked about the Bella Union.
“Mr. Broderick, we’re well aware of the makeup of the police department,” said Geary. “The sad truth is that the police are a gang just like any other. They are just a gang under our control.”
Mr. Broderick looked at him soberly. “If that’s what you think, you may have some surprises in the future.”
Norton decided he liked Mr. Broderick.
“Well, my position here is only temporary,” said Geary. “California will become a state in the near future, and when it does become one this town will become the largest city in the state. Currently the bylaws drawn up convert my title from alcalde to mayor, and limits me to a year term. I’m trying to get as much done in my time as possible, to give this city a good start in life. We get very few men applying to be police, when the only equipment we can issue them are machetes. Although most have their own preferred weapons.”
“They need to be more visible,” said Brannan. “They don’t even have regular beats drawn up to walk. These men are the most inexpert lawmen I’ve ever seen. Did any of you see any police officers on the way over? They sleep in until noon usually!”
“It’s because most of them are ducks,” said Broderick.
Norton wondered why the men would be ducks.
“What would you have me do, burn down Sydney Town?” asked Geary. This alarmed Norton because from what he understood Sydney Town was two blocks from his office.
“Just don’t hire officers straight out of the Sydney Ducks!” said Broderick. Suddenly Norton clued in on the fact that this must have been a reference to the inhabitants of Sydney Town.
#
“I have a concern,” said Norton, as all eyes turned to him.
“Do go on,” said Mr. Geary.
“Well, as you all may or may not know, my office is at Jackson and Montgomery. Mr. Lick is my landlord.”
Murmurs of approval flitted around the table.
“At any rate, word in the neighborhood is that criminals are setting fires and robbing establishments that guards have abandoned to help fight the fires. Does anyone think a fire department, standing by with a good fire engine, might not be a good idea? So that fire fighting is not strictly the provenance of passersby and good samaritans?”
More murmurs of approval.
“That is a very good point,” said Mr. Geary. “We have a town council meeting set up in January to discuss this very thing.”
Norton felt invigorated that two of his suggestions might be considered seriously. He made a note to keep trying to be forward thinking.
#
As the meeting wound down, Geary brought Mr. Broderick over to introduce him to all the late arrivals. They made their way around the table, finally getting to Norton and Eastwood. Donohue made his way over as well.
“Mr. Norton is a new arrival to our shores, from South Africa,” said Mr. Geary. “We’ve been helping our brother out as much as possible.”
“Pleased to meet you, Mr. Norton,” said Mr. Broderick.
“Likewise,” said Norton. “What is it you do, Mr. Broderick?”
“I’m an assayer,” said Broderick. “I buy and sell gold dust, turn it into coins for general consumption. Do you have a gold coin on you?”
“I only have some of Naglee’s paper money on me at the moment,” said Norton.
“No mind,” said Broderick. “My real goal is public office when California becomes a state. To that end, I’m investing in the infrastructure here in San Francisco.”
This made Eastland and Donohue perk up.
“Well I look forward to seeing more of you, Mr. Broderick,” said Norton. Politicians made him slightly nervous.
“Yes, definitely,” said Eastland, as Broderick and Geary moved to the next person.
Restaurant workers had quietly begun clearing the table of food under the watchful eye of the restaurant owner, and Donohue noticed. He motioned for the owner to come over.
“Do you think you could prepare that dish we had last time we came? you called it ‘chop suey’,” he said to the owner.
Mr. Ah-Sing replied, “You mean shap sui.”
The busboys did not stop working, but they did glance over at Mr. Ah-Sing and one coughed as he averted his eyes from the foreigners.
“That’s it. My brother could not come and requested I bring it to him.”
“To take it with you?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Right away, Mr. Donohue,” said Mr. Ah-Sing.
He walked out, directing a torrent of Chinese at the busboys, a couple of whom laughed despite the serious look on Mr. Ah-Sing’s face.
“Chop suey!” said Donohue. “My new favorite.”
“I wonder what on earth that name means?” pondered Norton.
#
As the men were preparing to leave the luncheon, Geary cornered Norton.
“Mr. Norton, good to see you again. I hope those water lots are coming into good use for you.”
“Splendid, Mr. Geary. It is invaluable to have a place where boats can pull up and unload that is not the central wharf.”
“Indeed it is,” said Mr. Geary. “We are also filling in parts of the harbor near your office as well. I will let you know when they come up for auction.”
“Why thank you, sir. I think it would be great to have lots downtown — I could use a place to sell my cargo that I can get top dollar for it, and a storefront would be perfect on Jackson Street if it could be extended past the point,” said Norton.
Geary looked around for a second conspiratorially, then turned back to Norton.
“How would you like your water lots to be even more valuable?” he asked.
“Just tell me what I have to do,” said Norton.
#
December 24th, 1849
English Jim nodded to his companion, who made sure to splash the turpentine on every available wood surface outside the old adobe. He grinned at the sign that said “ALCALDE’S OFFICE”. Didn’t much matter who the mayor was to him, as long as his friends on the police force let him know when they wouldn’t be watching certain buildings. When they were done with the alcalde’s office, they trotted across the road and began their work on a building labeled “Dennison’s Exchange”. English Jim figured he could come back and pick gold nuggets out of the ashes.
When they were done, he called his companion over. The man took out a pocket watch and checked the time. It was exactly five AM.
English Jim took out a cigar and a match. He struck the match on his bootheel, and lit the cigar with it. When he was finished, he tossed the lit match into a puddle of turpentine on the wooden sidewalk.
The two men walked east and disappeared among the alleyways of Pike Place as the entire block northwest of the square became engulfed in flames. It took less than thirty seconds.
#
Norton awoke to the sound of clanging church bells. As he opened his eyes, he was aware that it was still completely dark. He wondered what could be happening as he hauled himself out of bed. There was a commotion outside.
As he threw back the curtains an unearthly glow filled the room. As he stepped onto the balcony he saw that the glow was coming from Portsmouth Square, less than three blocks away. Then something made a loud bang, and flames shot into the air.
Norton rushed back inside to get dressed and head to see how he could help.
#
English Jim and his companion crept along the dock to the Genesee, trying to see if anyone was on board. Stealthily they moved onto the deck, noticing how unnatural it was for a boat to be steady as a rock.
They moved up to the forward part of the deck, towards a door. English Jim got out a tool kit and knelt to deal with the lock.
As he did so, he heard a noise like swooshing and instantly knew the whistle of a long knife. He dived sideways along with his companion.
He scrambled to get to the side and looked back to see his companion lying on the deck with a widening pool where his head once was. He dived over the side and hit the muddy waist high water with a splash and swam towards the open bay as fast as he could.
On deck, Tom Sawyer buried the bloody machete in a wooden upright and considered the fleeing felon. He looked back at the severed head lying in the waxing moonlight, as one of the other guards came running forward.
“Why didn’t you warn him?” the man asked.
“To send a message,” said Sawyer.
A distant boom caught their attention as they saw a glow coming from Portsmouth Square.
“Stay here,” ordered Sawyer.
“Sure thing, boss,” said the guard.
#
Click here for Chapter Five.
New chapters are published every Monday.
If you would like to read ahead on my rough drafts, the latest drafts are always on my Patreon Page at https://www.patreon.com/tjcrowley/. You can read it before anyone else for $1. | https://medium.com/@darrenmckeeman/americas-last-emperor-broderick-46fdf82fbbc5 | ['Darren Mckeeman'] | 2020-12-28 17:11:00.391000+00:00 | ['Emperor Norton', 'San Francisco', 'Fiction', 'Historical Fiction', 'San Francisco History'] |
If You Are Still Voting for Trump, You Are Not a Conservative | If You Are Still Voting for Trump, You Are Not a Conservative
You’re a Trumpist
Ronald Reagan, Barry Goldwater, William F Buckley and Irving Kristol. (Photo from the Hertog Foundation)
Ideological terms have a fluid quality. They typically emerge in the lexicon as a literal definition of a political perspective before serving as tribal labels with entirely new connotations. History also tells us that extremists on both ends of the spectrum tend to behave similarly; think of The Troubles of Northern Ireland in the latter part of the 20th century, in which Protestants and Catholics, two groups originally defined by their belief in Christianity, were reduced to decades of killing each other. This is all to say that the brand of a political ideology has a tendency to wander from its origins in service to its tribe, and nowhere is this divergence more striking than today’s brand of American conservatism.
Regardless of one’s personal beliefs or preferences, the orthodox ideology of conservativism is deserving of respect and inclusion in any dialogue on proper governance. While liberalism originates from a philosophy of collectivism and the importance of the common good, conservatism honors the individual as its starting point, giving high priority to the constitutional rights of individuals to pursue happiness with maximum freedom and minimal government obstruction in an imperfect world.
We typically define liberalism and conservatism within two spheres of influence: the economic and the social role of government in our lives. One of the more appealing features of conservatism is its clarity, in part because it professes a limited role of government. Within the economic sphere, the fiscal conservative believes in minimal taxation and spending, a balanced budget, free trade, prudent regulation and a reduced government role that is primarily limited to national defense and infrastructure. Socially, conservatives tend to be anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ, and pro “religious-freedom” — a position that is often mutually exclusive of the freedoms of LGBTQ people — with a strong emphasis on the personal responsibility and moral character of individuals as an essential core value.
As a liberal, I don’t agree with many of these perspectives, but I value them as a necessary part of a good faith dialogue and a counterweight to far-left leaning liberalism. As I’ve written previously, the very large majority of American citizens across the spectrum want the same things; we all want safe neighborhoods, good schools, access to quality healthcare, decent housing, and a strong economy that provides an equal opportunity for personal and economic growth. We have shared destinations but we believe in different paths to reach them.
Regrettably, the last five years have given rise to an alternative ideology, one that masquerades as conservatism but continues to doggedly pursue its very own bizarre destination best described as “owning the libs.” This is Trumpism, and as our election approaches, the time is long overdue to differentiate this ideology once and for all from conservatism.
Trumpism is not just antithetical to conservatism, it is an insult to it. In the economic sphere, Donald Trump has exploded the debt and deficit, with neither a plan nor a vision to bring it back under control. He has failed at government’s core function of preserving national security by squandering our resources and continually mismanaging our defense against a disease that will very likely kill as many Americans in a single year as those who died in the four years of World War II. He regularly denigrates the men and women who have served our country and sacrificed their lives. He is an economic protectionist, imposing market-distorting tariffs at the expense of both American consumers and producers. His incompetence in response to Covid-19 has led to an economy that has dramatically reduced job opportunities, creating economic instability and uncertainty with no end in sight.
Socially, Trump is not and never was what he claims to be: a pious bible loving believer in Christianity. He has duped many millions of practicing Christians into believing he is the best leader to promote their values without considering the impact his examples have set for our youth, our future generations and the remaining billions of people around the world who still look to America for moral guidance. He reflexively blames others for any failure with which he is connected, demonstrating his inability to live up to the core conservative principle of personal responsibility. He lacks moral character; he lies on a near-hourly basis and he is devoid of the empathy that is so fundamental to all major religious beliefs.
Beyond the social and economic spheres, conservatism places a high value on our Constitution, the Rule of Law, and the balance of power across our three branches of government. In contrast, Trump sees government as a tool for advancing his own self-interest, using it to generate revenue for his businesses, imploring his attorney general to arrest and lock up his political opponents, threatening our free press with bodily harm and imprisonment, explicitly claiming that he is above the law because he is president, signing executive orders to circumvent the legislative branch, and appropriating our military to invade cities and gas peaceful protesters. His actions are the definition of government overreach and abuse of power — two of the most egregious violations of conservative ideology.
Conservatives were once the leading voices in favor of a robust system of immigration — a perspective that Ronald Reagan captured so well in his reference to America as the shining city on the hill. As a nation of immigrants, we rewarded our newcomers with a version of freedom and opportunity found nowhere else in the world. The generations of immigrants that preceded us responded with hard work and a love of their new country that continually revitalized our economy and made us who we are — a nation with the courage in its DNA to welcome the courageous. Today, far too many conservatives have succumbed to the xenophobia espoused by their leader, a capitulation to fears that runs counter to everything we expect of America at its best.
Conservatives in the Trump fold often reference the appointment of conservative federal judges as justification for their allegiance, but even that could be considered an abuse of power if one considers that neither the President, nor the Senate — and as a consequence, the composition of the Supreme Court — are a reflection of the will of the American people. The Republican party has gained a disproportionate measure of power purely as a result of the quirks of the electoral college and the lopsided representation that is characteristic of the Senate — a circumstance that effectively grants someone from Wyoming 70 times more influence than someone from California. It is a structural example of owning the libs and likely the only means of securing so many conservative judges for the simple reason that the conservative perspectives underpinning these appointments would be unable to earn majority support from Americans on their own — an instance of government overreach that, by itself, contradicts conservative ideology.
The endangered conservative respects the rights and representation of all individuals and not just those in their tribe. As with Abraham Lincoln, and with the will of the people as their guidepost, it is reasonable to consider that any remaining conservative governed by principle would have deferred the nomination of the next Supreme Court justice to the winner of the election that is currently underway.
In the world of business, many of America’s greatest success stories are a tribute to conservatism. The creation of thriving enterprises that are strong enough to weather the ups and downs of volatile market sectors year-over-year so often owe their success to the far-sighted and financially sound decision-making of conservative leadership. But as we should all know by now, being in business is not synonymous with being a conservative, and it’s certainly not personified by any business leader who has been forced into bankruptcy six times. Conservatism correlates with business success because it values the stability and predictability that allow long-term forecasting, planning and prudence, all of which is the antithesis of the unpredictable, plan-averse occupant of the White House who claims to be a businessman. As a consequence, Wall Street is beginning to suffer from Trump fatigue, as indicated by the normally conservative financial industry’s emerging belief that Biden is the best prospect for the restoration of a long-lost and much-desired state of predictability.
Whether conservative or liberal, ideologies inform our vision for the future. They serve as the pillars of a political platform, reinforcing our principles and connecting them to the benefits we expect to accrue. For a political party, their platform is their raison d’etre — a pragmatic combination of their vision and goals, of the achievable and the aspirational with the intent to drive action and inspire support. Perhaps this is why there is no better testament to the schism between Trumpism and actual conservatism than the Republican Party’s absurd excuse for a 2020 election platform: “. . . to reassert the Party’s strong support for President Donald Trump and his Administration”. It is as bankrupt of vision as the man it worships.
To state the obvious, owning the libs is not a sustainable governing ideology for Trump or his party, and yet Republican Senators have relinquished conservatism and chosen Trumpism because power is more important than principle. Their submission suggests that they see no other option to retain their office, which begs the question: if they don’t have confidence in themselves and the promise of conservatism, why should anyone else?
The cowardice of Republican leaders is setting the cause of a foundational American ideology back several years — something that true conservatives should never forget. Will a reformed, enlightened Republican Party that lives up to the literal definition of conservatism re-emerge from the ashes of Trumpism? Such a resurrection is in everyone’s interest because leaders of good faith know that good ideas can come from anywhere and there is no need to “own” anything or anyone. But this is a hope that relies on more than ideology; it will take a new wave of courageous men and women who value shared progress over personal power, unity over division, and a well-articulated conservatism that is worthy enough to inspire others. | https://medium.com/bigger-picture/if-you-are-still-voting-for-trump-you-are-not-a-conservative-93ce28fbcb1e | ['Kevin Donovan'] | 2020-10-27 23:54:59.957000+00:00 | ['Election 2020', 'Trumpism', 'Trump', 'Ideology', 'Conservatism'] |
Living With FEAR | During your divorce, did you fear messing up?
Like everything you did was going to be held against you in your custody battle? So you parented differently. You responded differently. You agreed to things you normally would not have. You allowed things to happen that you would have never had before.
If you are going through divorce now, do what is best for you and your kids, fuck him and using everything against you. Hard to hold being a good parent against you. Don’t let yourself get so wrapped up in the divorce that you forget to be you as a parent.
If you went through a divorce and you now look back…do you regret the way you conducted yourself during the divorce process? Did you live in constant fear of fucking up? | https://medium.com/@samanthaboss/living-with-fear-8cf9d31f61b4 | ['Samantha Boss'] | 2020-12-22 16:49:13.423000+00:00 | ['Live In The Now', 'Parenting', 'Divorce', 'Coparenting', 'Children'] |
Heads-up: We’re interviewing Matt Cooke from the Google News Lab for an upcoming episode! | 🇳🇱 Groeten uit Amsterdam en Bratislava! 🇳🇱
First off, we want to apologize for not staying in touch with you. There really are no excuses for it — BUT… Henrik Ståhl was in Hanoi 🇻🇳 for a week, David Tvrdon was in Perugia 🇮🇹, and now Henrik is in Amsterdam 🇳🇱 (hence the Dutch greeting 😉).
Not a subscriber yet? Sign up here:
Anyway. We’ve published a few episodes since the last time you heard from us:
Episode 8: Flashy and pretty visual graphics are boring — give us context and meaning! Guest: Rachel Schallom, visual storytelling specialist. (If you don’t already subscribe to her newsletter Best of Visual Storytelling, you should definitely sign up asap!)
Episode 9: What do Perugia and Stockholm have in common? We talk trust in journalism. Henrik and Dávid discuss the International Journalism Festival in Perugia, and also dissect the recent terrorist attack in Stockholm 🇸🇪.
Episode 10: Ask for forgiveness, not for permission — the recipe for digital innovation and transformation. Guest: Wojtek Grójec, digital editor at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. (Wow, it’s already been 10 episodes? Having Wojtek as guest was the perfect way to celebrate our tenth episode, because he has sooo much interesting and smart things to say. A must-listen-to episode!)
And while in Amsterdam, Henrik will conduct interviews with innovative Dutch journalists, and he will also discuss digital journalism and innovation with non other than Matt Cooke, the Google News Lab lead for the UK, Ireland and the Nordic — so stay tuned for the upcoming episodes of the Check Your Facts podcast.
Cheers!
/Henrik and Dávid | https://medium.com/check-your-facts/heads-up-were-interviewing-matt-cooke-from-the-google-news-lab-for-an-upcoming-episode-3743fe1254a6 | ['Henrik Ståhl'] | 2017-04-24 12:05:29.976000+00:00 | ['Social Media', 'Innovation', 'Storytelling', 'Google', 'Journalism'] |
Define Happiness? | Define Happiness?
“wHaT wOuLd YoU sAy WaS tHe HaPpIeSt DaY oF yOuR LiFe?”
This singular question is rampant on social media nowadays but not for its original purpose. Psychologists ask the question to trigger nostalgia to place the subject in a positive psychological realm, as an aid to bring out deep seated and pressing concerns. It is more in use nowadays to trigger responses for no sincere purpose, mostly for web traffic; things we call click-baits nowadays. So filtering through responses sometimes would make one wonder if people really mean what they type to themselves, because, face it, being on your phone, or device, and staying on social media is like having an inaudible monologue with your phone and your followers as the combustible, ever present, but silent audience who offer no ambience but just stare at you and have the ability to cheer you on or jeer you out.
The idea of happiness is almost transient as people describe moments of grand designs and at some point try to “outhappy” the previous comment from an unknown individual.
This is not about doubting their experiences or trying to demean another individual’s meaning of happiness, it just simply puts one at the centre of that audience and I watch as everyone wants to get on the stage without anyone reading the script and the director; the person that initially asked the question, staring gleefully at the ensuring chaos and calling it entropy.
Amidst the chaos I ask myself this same question and I fall short of an answer, I had unconsciously attached other emotions to those memories people had laced with endorphins and dopamine, don’t get me wrong, I had some happy moments, but trying to connect my own experiences to similar ones I was reading and visualizing came up short. None of them come close to being the happiest.
I have a problem, I know, but please understand my point.
I got into university knowing I would graduate one day, my final day wasn’t going to rub my eyes blind to the mental torture I had academically & emotionally from my first day in the school till that day, I never could single out my induction into the medical and dental council as a happy day. Till date, the medical and dental council have treated me like a cashcow, our relationship is similar to that of an absent stepfather who shows up to his sons door once a year to collect money for liquor, I know you can’t relate but imagine a landlord coming to collect his rent once a year but you have been staying all year in his dilapidated house with cracked walls, broken windows & a leaking roof.
At first glance I would sound like a sad person, like a man that has no joy, but it’s far from it. The difference between me and you is that I consciously avoid being plagued to keep a memory of extremely happy moments because that in itself is a show of doubt that they will be scarce, that they will never be repeated, that they are one-off moments that need you revisiting the past to get some succor and a window away from the present.
The mindset I have is totally in the present, if a happy moment occurs, I totally enjoy it, I stay there and that’s it. The memory stays but its fleeting, not because a sad one comes to replace it, but I genuinely know that a happier one is around the corner.
I had a son recently, there was anxiety…
… I remember not having a clue to what I should do, or how I should act days to his birth, nothing prepared me for that moment. There was joy, overwhelming feeling when I had him in my arm, but I was still crazy anxious that my wife was still in the delivery room, I handed my son to his grandma, my son, by the way, kept looking at me like how I look at the medical and dental council reminder for license renewal but there was joy…
…the idea that biology came full circle and I was holding an offspring was a moment laced with enough joy to last me through the coming days, at a point there was a flash forward and I could already see the little chap telling me to help him with his homework…I digress, then there was relief…
…The journey with my wife is filled with moments of me wondering if she was okay, to me calling myself out as to how I could just be the way I was with no bodily change, but her body changing daily before my very eyes. She would jokingly quip if I didn’t mind carrying the big bump for a day so she could rest, just a joke, but to me I wished there was a possibility. There was anxiety, joy, and relief…then there was happiness…
..It came when I saw my wife carrying my son, smiling at him, she said hi… that moment…only that moment… and it passed, then there was silence… that was me putting everything into view and a baby’s cry broke the silence… then there was reality.
To immediately go to my memory when asked for “happy” would be false on my part, memories fade, so I put the unhappy ones there, let time come as waves and wash up that sand, but you see happiness, its present, it does not last long, but no matter how little time it spends with you, it lingers, and it is worth it.
One day we will have to stop the monologue with our phones and shut the audience and really get to have conversations with ourselves, that’s when we would define happiness. Not some fleeting rendition of a hopeless performance of other similar emotions directed by memory… Happiness stays as that short-lived feeling that stains the fabric of your mind permanently and forever. | https://medium.com/@chijiokeisichei/define-happiness-54fa6041a4a7 | ['Isichei Chijioke'] | 2020-05-20 13:27:26.403000+00:00 | ['Happiness', 'Baby', 'Parenting', 'Social Media'] |
Introducing Fixed Income Plan | Dear Traders,
A brand new feature has arrived on Bitbns. And there is something unique about it. There’s nothing hidden, nothing sugar-coated. You invest a certain amount of money and get assured returns agreed upon. This new feature does what it says, returns what it promises.
We call it — Fixed Income Plan (FIP)
FIP is available on the Bitbns (website version only, as of now) where users can invest a certain amount of USDT or BTC in one of the FIP plans (or more), for a fixed period of time and rate of return. Users are free to choose a suitable plan from among multiple FIP plans available on the dashboard, where each plan has an allocation limit, beyond which further investments into that particular plan will not be accepted. Past that, the funds accumulated will be locked in for said maturity period for interest calculation. As maturity period ends, the user receives the principal amount along with the interest they earn, in their Bitbns wallet.
Like we said, does what it says.
How to invest in FIP
Really, it is so simple we shouldn’t even be explaining this, but here we go:
Login to your Bitbns account (on website) and select ‘FIP’ on the top navigation menu.
Check out the plans and figure out which one suits your preferences. Then, click ‘Invest Now’.
Enter the amount of BTC or USDT you want to invest. This amount will be transferred from your Bitbns wallet to your FIP plan. So please maintain sufficient balance.
Make sure you verify the rate of return and early redemption charges, maturity period and estimated total at maturity before investing. The rate of return is annualised and interest is calculated per day.
When you are all set to proceed, hit ‘Deposit’.
Interest Calculation
Here comes the interest-ing part; interest calculation, and the whole process of it:
There are multiple plans on the FIP board to choose from. Each FIP plan has a maximum allocation limit i.e the maximum amount of USDT or BTC it can collect from users.
Users invest and wait till maximum allocation of the plan is reached. Once maximum allocation is hit, the funds allocated are locked in and maturity period commences.
Each plan has a ‘Rate of Return’ and ‘Early Redemption Rate’. Let’s understand them both with an example:
Suppose you have invested Rs. 1000 in an FIP plan for a maturity period of 14 days, where rate of return is 10% and early redemption rate is 9.12%. Now in case you withdraw Rs. 300 on 4th day of maturity period, out of the Rs. 1000 invested, you get:
9.12% annualised returns calculated for 3 days on Rs. 300 in your Bitbns wallet right away. Please note that early redemption rate would be levied in as penalty.
Interest generated as per a 10% annualised rate of return on remaining Rs. 700 (invested for full maturity period).
*Note: For those looking forward to FIP on mobile app, we'll launch it soon!
FAQs on FIP
What is the minimum amount I can invest in FIP?
For a particular FIP, the minimum amount for your first investment is 10 USDT or equivalent BTC. After the first investment, there is no minimum amount.
When does the interest calculation start, for my investment?
Once the maximum allocation for a plan is reached and funds are locked in, the maturity period begins during which the interest on your investment is calculated.
Can I redeem before maturity?
Yes, you can redeem before maturity. However, the amount you withdraw will receive interest calculated as per Early Redemption Rate for the number of days it remained invested in the plan. In case of partial redemptions, the amount redeemed would receive interest as per Early Redemption Rate and the rest will receive interest as per ordinary rate of return.
What is the minimum maturity period for which I shall stay invested in FIP to make minimum possible interest?
24 hours is the minimum maturity period to start making interest in an FIP plan.
Can I withdraw during the allocation period?
No. Withdrawals are not allowed during the allocation period. | https://medium.com/bitbns/introducing-fixed-income-plan-3bc59a18aed2 | [] | 2020-05-19 02:38:42.898000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency', 'Bitbns', 'Cryptocurrency Investment', 'Bitcoin', 'Return On Investment'] |
Living with the 1% | About 3 years into my relationship with my ex-partner I took myself to a bar in a downtown hotel. I had become a cliché. A middle aged woman with a wealthy husband sitting alone drinking in a hotel bar.
I picked this place because I wanted anonymity. I figured hotel bars were used to seeing us — middle aged women who are weary and yet have everything anyone could possibly want. A little later a friend joined me. During our conversation she stated that I had “won the online dating lottery” (I had met my partner online). I was with a handsome, charismatic 1%’er — the richest of the rich. I could have anything I wanted.
Except a safe, loving home.
I didn’t tell her that. Because at the time I didn’t know.
Three and a half years and many, many therapy sessions later I can finally name what was missing from my relationship with him. It has taken me this long to understand what the emotional abuse of my relationship did to my soul, what my history of family trauma did to my nervous system, and how the one fed off the other.
To say I was emotionally abused when I was with him would have seemed incongruent when looking at our lifestyle. We went on holidays to expensive and beautiful places, and were VIPs at music festivals. At the Austin City Music Festival we were near the stage in a cordoned off section and given water pistols to keep us cool. I started spraying the crowd of young people outside our area, and they began chanting, “V. I. P., cool us down.” I stopped after that, feeling awkward at being identified for who I had become.
The strange narrative of my relationship with Rob is that I never cared about money. I was committed to a life of social change, and had many careers in which to manifest this desire. The last version, when I met Rob, I was an urban planner. It was confusing, me earning a good, middle class income and living with someone who went to the office every day but could have, if he wanted, parachuted out of a plane instead.
Looking back at my relationship and seeing who I became scares me. Radiohead has a video for their song “No Surprises” which shows the beautiful and melancholic Thom Yorke in a diver’s suit which is slowly filling up with water. The video is the story of my relationship. I was losing myself while standing in place, drowning by the thing that was meant to keep me safe.
The emotional abuse — gaslighting as it is often called — consisted of him layering lies, manipulating the truth, controlling my behaviour, covering up and denying. Probably the worst of it was the blame. Everything was my fault. It is exhausting to always be told by your lover that you are wrong, you are to blame for everything and anything, even if nothing bad happened.
I tried to counter with my truth but any attempts were met with silence, coldness, and disregard. As a woman with a history of trauma woven into my DNA from my family, it was impossible for me to understand what he was doing was wrong. For me it was familiar.
And unfortunately for all of us, it seems emotionally abusive behaviour is accepted when it comes to those who are very wealthy. We have seen it with the now-exiting president of the USA. It was there with Steve Jobs, it is no doubt there with Jeff Bezos — redirecting and blaming others while their bad behaviour continues.
When my partner and I were splitting up I had a lawyer who was like the Laura Dern character in “Marriage Story,” only without the expletives. My lawyer worked with lots of wealthy clients. I was trying to understand my ex-partner’s abusive behaviour and wondered aloud if the money had made him who he is. She said it is hard to know whether the money made him who he is, or if who he is made him go after the money. I had never looked at it this way — that he was empty long before he became rich, and the money was the only way he knew how to fill up.
My partner has since remarried. He found a woman who calls him her ‘tycoon,’ ‘emperor’ and ‘alpha.’ I grimace as I write these down, but they are public declarations she has made. At the same time, I am still waiting for my him to return my belongings to me.
When I left our home I didn’t pack up everything because, initially, I didn’t know how long our separation would be. A few months and therapy sessions later I told him I couldn’t reconcile. I didn’t realize he would keep things that never belonged to him. His millions could easily replace anything I had left behind.
If you had asked me eight years ago if I thought this is where we would be, I would have laughed. Rob has no need for an antique chair I found and had reupholstered, a retro screen print I had framed, or a piece of street art an ex-boyfriend gave me many years ago.
But emotional abuse is not about the things in and of themselves. It is of the need to control, manipulate, and maintain power.
On a recent sunny day in Vancouver I was delivering food boxes to lower income residents as part of a volunteer, Covid-emergency response program. All the residents I deliver to live in Vancouver’s eastside, the poorest postal code in Canada. All the people I deliver to are lovely and kind.
My ex- owns four houses between Vancouver and Whistler, all in nice areas with lots of amenities. He is admired for his wealth and acumen, while so many people live in substandard conditions. Yet he goes uncriticized.
To me this is a microcosm of how we have all internalized the emotional abuse of a system that lets the wealthy do what they want. It suggests, perhaps, how we all need to go to therapy to understand how our own belief system is destroying us. As long as we think it is good for a handful of people to have a lot, while a lot of people have little, we are accepting a system that hurts us all.
For my own part I am grateful I met Rob. If not, I never would have looked deeply into my own history of trauma. I woke up late in life to finally understand that love doesn’t have to hurt; in fact, that is not love. They say you keep getting the same lesson until you finally learn what you need to. I think I’m good. I got the message.
But I worry for the larger numbers of us, those who may idolize the rich, who don’t see they should be more embarrassed for their wealth and emptiness than they are.
The ones we should appreciate are like the Indigenous mother and daughter I met on Vancouver’s eastside who obviously love and care for each other. Despite what are probably deep histories of colonial abuse, inter-generational trauma and economic marginalization, the mom proudly introduced the young woman standing beside her as her daughter, and the daughter beamed happily. In that moment they showed real love. That depth of emotion is what we should aspire to.
This honest, deep emotion is as rare, if not rarer, than the 1%, and so much more valuable. | https://medium.com/@mes21/living-with-the-1-5c72bcf10ca3 | ['Maria Stanborough'] | 2020-12-19 16:53:26.561000+00:00 | ['1 Percent', 'Inequality', 'Equality', 'Wealth', 'Rich'] |
We Are Entering Hyperinflation Even If The News Says We Are Not | Photo by Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash
We Are Entering Hyperinflation Even If The News Says We Are Not Jessica Bugg Follow Dec 10 · 6 min read
What is inflation? Inflation is the rise in the cost of goods and services largely in part due to putting more money into the economy (ie the Federal Reserve printing more money and expanding the money supply by cutting the interest rates banks use to lend each other money).
Our interest rates are at an all time low. The lowest. Lower than post 2008 when we were told that we would never see mortgages under 4.5% in our lifetimes.
We are now at almost half of that.
Cost of Goods is Rising
Although interest rates being low may seem like a good thing, that is not always the case. Take home loans as an example, now because the interest rates are around 2–3% depending on the day.
That means little Joey buying a house who can only afford a $1200/month payment previously could only get a mortgage valued at around $150,000.
Now that interest rates are hovering around 2.9% at the time of writing this article, Joey can now take out a mortgage valued at $180,000 and be at the same amount of monthly payment give or take $20.
But Jessica, Isn’t It A Good Thing that the Interest Rates Are Low?
It can be because it means it’s almost free to borrow the money. That is the good thing.
The elephant in the room however is the rising price essentially overnight in economic terms due to the interest rates being so low.
So in our previous scenario, Joey could only afford to pay $1200 for a mortgage. His budget for his mortgage allows him to borrow $150K if rates are at 5%
Couple that with a 3.5% down payment (because most people do not put 20% down no matter what your favorite blogger wants to tell you).
Joey can afford about $155,000 for a house purchase.
Joey however, lives in Jacksonville, where most single family homes (the ones we are indoctrinated to believe hold their value) are about $180,000-$200,000.
Joey is saddened because he doesn’t want to buy a condo. He wants a house with a yard. His only choice is to buy a condo or wait until he has a larger down payment.
Then interest rates drop
So now our friend Joey has decided to wait until he can afford a larger down payment when wait! The mortgage interest rates have been cut! His mortgage broker calls him to say you can borrow more money than before!
Joey with the same $1,200/month is now bankable for a mortgage around $180,000.
Joey is ecstatic! He can go get that single family starter home of his dreams with enough back yard space to play cornhole.
Armed with his preapproval for $180,000 in mortgage money . . . Joey begins to look at single family homes now.
After all, he has an extra $30,000 to work with. He can definitely buy a single family home now.
Except He Can’t.
While Joey received more buying power through lower interest rates . . .
So did everyone else
Home prices, as a result, rise when interest rates are low, because more people can afford to buy the property AND can pay a larger total price for the home even though the monthly payment is the same.
Joey sadly, is STILL priced out.
But Jessica, Everyone is buying all the things right now, the stock market is up, and the TeeVee says that the economy is great.
The news often trails recessions by a 6 month lag time. It’s equatable to the amount of time it takes your parents to discover a “new song” or “new show” even though it’s been out for a year.
By The Time The News Reports A Recession It Is Almost Already Over | https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor/we-are-entering-hyperinflation-even-if-the-news-says-we-are-not-864ebefe8705 | ['Jessica Bugg'] | 2020-12-14 16:24:44.140000+00:00 | ['Economics', 'Money Management', 'Money', 'Education', 'Finance'] |
Getting Inked — First timer. Tattoos have always fascinated me but I… | It might be obvious why I chose them, I like going minimalist. They are simple geometric shapes with a good deal of meaning to them so I was okay with my choice.
Where to get it done?
As I was a first timer, I had a lot of options to choose from. Now here is where you need to ask yourself, do you want this tattoo to be your identity or something that you look at when no one is around. What I mean by this is, if you are getting it done for the purpose of some internal commitment and you want it done just because you want it for yourself, then you should pick places that are concealed in a casual posture — lower wrist, biceps, chest, etc. If you want the tattoo as a personal brand then go for well exposed places — fore arm, fingers, I don’t know, forehead may be.
I was getting it done because I wanted to experiment with my body at the same time get something meaningful out of it in the end. So, I went for lower wrist extending all the way towards my elbows. So it is something I could hide using a simple full sleeves shirt. Plus my designs were not something that could get me killed in jail so I was okay with showing them off if I had to. So I was golden.
Picking an artist…
Be very picky about this. This is not your grocery store. If you wanted plastic surgery done, would you just ask a few friends for a plastic surgeon. Of course not. So do a proper research. If you are not satisfied with the guy your research yielded, then wait for the right moment. Always remember, the ink is going to stay.
So I did my research well and being in Varanasi has its merits. The place I went to is called Tattoo Adda. The place is a well known spot for tattoo enthusiasts. Here are the contact details just in case you feel like getting a tattoo done.
Facebook
Mobile number: +919369140551 ( Akash )
It is pretty easy to find ( 5min walking distance from PDR Mall, Varanasi )
So I contacted Akash directly regarding the art work I wanted, to which he replied promptly. The questions you should ask are how much will it cost. It would be nice if you have the pictures of the design handy because he will ask for it to give you an estimate. The minimum charge for any design would be 1K INR ( 1–3 sq inch ). If you smartly plan your tattoo design, you can get a big design in under 2K.
A thing to note here is, even though it might seem that Akash would be the one inking you, that may not be the case. It is a tattoo shop and there can be more than one artist working there, so chances are you may end up with a different artist. But I would say, trust your gut like I did. If you feel that the guy is confident and knows what he is doing then go for it. If not, cancel your plans. The person who inked me was Vishal Dwivedi and I can vouch for him. I will show you his work at the end of this article.
Pros:
They are professionals
Hygiene is maintained throughout the process
He will give you a thorough set of guidelines on how to maintain your tattoo and keep it from losing its sharpness.
Cons:
The place is a bit small, and I was hoping for a dedicated tattoo work room, but that was not the case.
The place was loud, really loud music. For which I will advice a few things later in this article. See, they too need to enjoy their work so you cannot expect the place to be dead silent just because you don’t like loud music.
Welcome to the world of hurt…
Probably the most important part of this article. The pain, the agony, the torture. The question that I used to ask, the question that everyone asks — Kitna dard hota hai? ( How much does it hurt ). I will be very honest with you. It is all in your head. Had I gone through this process 4 years back, I would not have been able to sit through that painful procedure but some how I have lost the fear of needles in my 2nd year of college when I went through a Rhinoplasty. Since then, I have never looked away when I was being pricked by a needle. I don’t wish to sound cocky, but I enjoyed the pain. Bring in some music that you usually enjoy and play it on a loop and sit back and chill. If you control your mind well enough, it will feel as if a cat is scratching you. If you don’t know how to get your shit together, you’ll probably won’t last a minute. I repeat — It is all in your head.
Actual image of my tattoo process
But truth be told, when the needle hits you, you’ll know it. When they do a round 2 on your tattoo, you’ll feel as if your skin is on fire, but keep a straight face and listen to your music. May be curse your ex for making you get this tattoo done while you are at it.
By the way, this is the music I kept playing a loop with my earphones on https://soundcloud.com/axelthesleff/red-sun
Yet another actual image of my tattoo process
The procedure itself
Just to give you an idea of what the process involves:
Firstly they will shave off all the hair from the target site.
They will apply a local anesthesia gel to numb the place a bit.
They will use something similar to a carbon paper to get the design on a sheet of paper, which is then transferred onto your skin to give them a guideline to trace.
Then comes in the needle gun. If you are into sketching, you’ll see something similar here.
An occasional application of Vitamin A and D is done to help you heal faster.
And occasional soap spray is done to clean up the artwork.
Finally another healing spray is applied and the whole tattoo is wrapped in a cellophane sheet which you are supposed to remove in an hour.
Finally the artist will give you tips on how to take care of your tattoo which I will mention in detail later in this article.
Pro tips: Do a proper breakfast before the session, keep a few chewing gums and use the restroom if you have to.
Science rules all
So being an engineer, it is a habit of mine to do a good deal of research on what I am getting myself into. Here is a good video on the working of a tattoo gun. | https://medium.com/heuristics/getting-inked-first-timer-d81f0892dbd3 | ['Aakash Mallik'] | 2020-01-27 07:52:31.854000+00:00 | ['First Time', 'Life', 'New Things', 'Tattoo', 'Varanasi'] |
PostgreSQL How-to: SportsDB Running on a Distributed SQL Database | SportsDB is a sample dataset compiled from multiple sources, encompassing a variety of sports including football, baseball, ice hockey and more. It also cross-references many different types of content media. It is capable of supporting queries for the most intense of sports data applications, yet is simple enough for use by those with minimal database experience. The database itself is comprised of over 100 tables and just as many sequences, unique constraints, foreign keys and indexes. The dataset also includes almost 80k rows of data. It has been ported to MySQL, SQL Server and PostgreSQL. You can check out a detailed ER diagram here.
In this post we are going to walk you through how to download and install the PostgreSQL compatible version of SportsDB onto the YugaByte DB distributed SQL database with a replication factor of 3.
What’s YugaByte DB? It’s a high performance distributed SQL database for global, internet-scale apps. YugaByte DB is a PostgreSQL-compatible database. Similar to Google Spanner, YugaByte DB gives you all the scalability characteristics of NoSQL, without sacrificing the ACID transactions or strong consistency you are accustomed to with PostgreSQL.
Download and Install YugaByte DB
For complete instructions on how to get up and running on a variety of platforms including prerequisites, check out our Quickstart Guide. In the following section we’ll cover the basic steps for getting up and running in just a few minutes with a local 3 node cluster on your Mac.
Download and Extract YugaByte DB
$ wget https://downloads.yugabyte.com/yugabyte-1.3.0.0-darwin.tar.gz
$ tar xvfz yugabyte-1.3.0.0-darwin.tar.gz && cd yugabyte-1.3.0.0/
Note: The above instructions are for version 1.3.0. To find the latest version of YugaByte DB, visit the quickstart page.
Configure Loopback Addresses
Add a few loopback IP addresses for the various YugaByte DB nodes to use.
sudo ifconfig lo0 alias 127.0.0.2
sudo ifconfig lo0 alias 127.0.0.3
sudo ifconfig lo0 alias 127.0.0.4
sudo ifconfig lo0 alias 127.0.0.5
sudo ifconfig lo0 alias 127.0.0.6
sudo ifconfig lo0 alias 127.0.0.7
Create a 3 Node Cluster
With the command below you’ll create a 3 node cluster with a replication factor of 3.
$ ./bin/yb-ctl --rf 3 create --tserver_flags "memory_limit_hard_bytes=6442450944"
Note: Due to the hardware limitations of my laptop and size of the scripts, I temporarily bumped up the available memory accessible to YugaByte by adding the above tserver_flags argument. Depending on your setup, you might need to bump it up as well if you see errors like the one below while executing the database scripts.
Service unavailable (yb/tserver/tablet_service.cc:239): Soft memory limit exceeded (at 96.13% of capacity)]
Check the Status of the YugaByte DB Cluster
Now let’s take a look at the status of the cluster and all the nodes that comprise it.
$ ./bin/yb-ctl status
As you can see from the output, we have three nodes running locally with a replication factor of 3. This means that every piece of data is being replicated on all three nodes.
Enter the YSQL shell
Next run the YSQL shell command to enter the PostgreSQL shell.
$ ./bin/ysqlsh --echo-queries
ysqlsh (11.2)
Type "help" for help.
postgres=#
What's YSQL? It's YugaByte DB's PostgreSQL-compatible, distributed SQL API.
We are now ready to build the SportsDB database.
Download and Install the SportsDB Database
Download the SportsDB Scripts
You can download the SportsDB database that is compatible with YugaByte DB from our GitHub repo. The five files you’ll need are:
sportsdb_tables.sql which creates tables and sequences
sportsdb_inserts.sql which loads the sample data into the sportsdb database
sportsdb_constraints.sql which creates unique constraints
sportsdb_fks.sql which creates foreign key constraints
sportsdb_indexes.sql which creates indexes
We’ve purposely broken up what would otherwise be a very large script. By breaking it up into building blocks, it’ll be easier to see what YugaByteDB is doing and spot any problems (if you encounter them) a lot easier.
Create the SportsDB Database
CREATE DATABASE sportsdb;
Let’s confirm we have the sportsdb database by listing out the databases on our cluster.
Switch to the sportsdb database.
postgres=# \c sportsdb
You are now connected to database "sportsdb" as user "postgres".
sportsdb=#
Build the SportsDB Tables and Sequences
sportsdb=# \i /Users/yugabyte/sportsdb_tables.sql
We can verify that all 203 tables and sequences have been created by executing:
Load Sample Data into SportsDB
Next, let’s load our database with sample data, ~80k rows.
sportsdb=# \i /Users/yugabyte/sportsdb_inserts.sql
Let’s do a simple SELECT to pull data from the basketball_defensive_stats table to verify we now have some data to play with.
sportsdb=# SELECT * FROM basketball_defensive_stats WHERE steals_total = '5';
Create Unique Constraints and Foreign Keys
Next, let’s create our unique constraints and foreign keys by executing:
sportsdb=# \i /Users/yugabyte/sportsdb_constraints.sql
and
sportsdb=# \i /Users/yugabyte/sportsdb_fks.sql
Create Indexes
Finally, let’s create our indexes by executing:
sportsdb=# \i /Users/yugabyte/sportsdb_indexes.sql
Note: If you have worked with the SportsDB sample database in the past, you know that the index creation section specifies the use of a BTREE index. YugaByte DB makes use of LSM trees, so we’ve modified the script as such. You can read more about LSM vs BTREE in our post, “A Busy Developer’s Guide to Database Storage Engines — The Basics.” Even if we had not specified LSM, you would have seen an informational message that advised you that YugaByte DB had made the switch behind the scenes.
Explore SportsDB
That’s it! You are ready to start exploring SportsDB running on YugaByte DB using your favorite PostgreSQL admin or development tool. You can learn more about the SportsDB project, libraries, samples, web services and more by visiting the project page here.
What’s Next | https://medium.com/yugabyte/postgresql-how-to-sportsdb-running-on-a-distributed-sql-database-8e300f28a4d8 | ['Jimmy Guerrero'] | 2019-07-27 11:15:19.209000+00:00 | ['Postgresql', 'Yugabyte', 'Postgres', 'Oracle Database', 'Oracle'] |
When My Life Spins Out of Control | This morning I woke up feeling like my life was in a tailspin. I won’t list all of the reasons why. Let me just say that I’m behind on just about every task that needs to get done to write and publish my blogs, to post this season’s podcast episodes, to prepare questions and then interview guests for the next season’s podcasts…the list goes on.
Have you been where I am today?
Exhausted after a night of obsessing about everything that hasn’t gotten done, I pulled myself out of bed and opened my laptop. Up popped Dr. Andrew Weil’s Health Tips for the day:
· Feel and express gratitude
· Look for humor in difficult circumstances
· In appropriate situations, relinquish control and learn to just go with the flow!
Feel and Express Gratitude
We all know that people who consciously count their blessings tend to be happier and healthier. But how does this actually happen?
A recent study suggests what might be behind gratitude’s psychological benefits. The researchers used an fMRI scanner to measure brain activity in order to distinguish subjects who experienced gratitude and those who did not. They found that people who practice gratitude showed greater neural sensitivity in the medial prefrontal cortex, a brain area associated with learning and decision making. And this effect was found three months after the gratitude practice began. The researchers concluded that simply expressing gratitude may have lasting positive self-reinforcing effects on the brain.
What are you most grateful for today?
Look for Humor
Something is humorous when it’s unexpected or incongruent. For example, things that don’t belong together seem funny when put together.
Injecting humor into our lives supposedly improves the immune system, lowers blood pressure and enhances blood flow. But I doubt that this is true for any kind of humor. The type of humor I’m likely to experience today would surely carry an underlying negativity…like the sarcastic thought, “This is just what I needed today.”
By contrast, healthy humor creates joy. When life knocks me down, as it has today, healthy humor helps me focus on the absurd parts of my experience and laugh at myself. I notice that I cannot feel guilty or anxious when I’m laughing. At least not when I’m really laughing. It’s my choice: to laugh or not to laugh.
What’s hilariously funny in your world?
Relinquish Control
This is without a doubt the one I struggle with the most. When life feels out of control, like it does today, my vision narrows, adrenalin begins to pump up my heart rate, I lose awareness of the present and my mind jumps from one thing to another, trying to bring order back into my universe.
The irony is that the tighter my grip on trying to control my world, the more it seems to spin out of control.
So, when do you need to just stop and breathe?
Nita Sweeney, my guest on this week’s podcast, described herself as a 49-year-old overweight woman suffering from crippling depression and bipolar disorder, when she caught the running bug. Her first run lasted 60 seconds, but she kept running just a bit longer and a bit longer. Since then, she has completed three full marathons, 28 half marathons and almost 100 shorter races — and through it has discovered an inner strength she didn’t know she had. With refreshing honesty, Nita shares her journey from debilitating fear to self-mastery.
I asked her, “By what process do you begin to let in the fact that you are a winner, especially when your inner voice says you’re not?”
I love what Nita said:
I still have the doubts that plague many of us. If I don’t run for two or three days, my brain will say, “Well Nita, that was fun. But it’s over now. Like, I’m never going to run again. So, I say, “Thank you. I appreciate that you’re trying to protect me. Now I’m going to go put on my running shoes and just go run a couple of miles. So, hang tight, and let’s see what happens.”
Did you notice that Nita’s response to her brain includes gratitude, humor and relinquishing control? | https://byrslf.co/when-my-life-spins-out-of-control-70a1b588fe44 | ['Marlena Fiol'] | 2020-02-23 19:14:59.113000+00:00 | ['Gratitude', 'Anxiety', 'Control', 'Humor', 'Beyourself'] |
How to Prove Ownership With a Bitcoin Cash Address and Digital Signature Using Melis Wallet | How to Prove Ownership With a Bitcoin Cash Address and Digital Signature Using Melis Wallet Melis Jun 17, 2019·4 min read
Bitcoin is an amazing form of money and the technology Satoshi created has incredible potential. However, most people don’t realize that the blockchain not only allows for a great medium of exchange, but it also provides the means for creating notarized proofs. The following walkthrough aims to show anyone how to prove they own a bitcoin cash address using Melis wallet (provided that you own your private keys and Melis leaves private keys in users’ hands).
The decentralized cryptocurrency bitcoin cash (BCH) not only provides people with the means of permissionless exchange with extremely low fees, but it also can help verify the owner of a specific BCH address. It also means that notarized proofs can be managed on the BCH blockchain, but today for simplicity sake we’re just going to deal with proving ownership of a specific BCH address.
With a private key, an owner can create a message like “I own this address,” show the public address, and provide a valid signature which essentially proves ownership of the address. In order to get started and test a public address, download the latest version of Melis. The client is a reliable BCH wallet that comes with a tool that allows you to sign messages and prove address ownership.
After downloading Melis, open it on your desktop and create a new BCH account (singlesig and without server sign). Following the new creation of a BCH account, navigate to the “gear icon” that represents the settings of specific accounts ash showed in the image below.
At this point, click on the “Addresses” icon, the one circled in the image below.
From the list of addresses (you can have as many as you want) choose the one you want to sign.
From here simply press sign and the wallet will provide a long alphanumeric string and you can copy and paste this signature. Melis will ask you PIN code before signing, so the software will prompt you to enter it before signing the message. Now the combination of these three things will allow you to verify the message and the signature. Another person cannot sign with the address unless they hold the private key and if its password protected it’s even harder to steal.
Verify the Integrity of the Digital Signature
Close the pop-up window (“Dismiss”) after you have copied the message, address, and the alphanumeric string (signature). Go back in your BCH list of addresses and in the upper right corner of the screen you see a button named “Verify”. Click it.
Enter the same exact text (message — public address — signature) into the three sections. You can then press verify and if all the information is correct, the wallet software will validate the integrity of the message and ownership of the address.
Moreover, other people can verify the integrity of the message and signature as well with different types of wallets and alternative software. So after you’ve created a unique message, you can give it to friends, family or to anyone in the world and show them the notarized proof. Remember, all the person needs to provide a notarized message proving ownership of a specific BCH address is:
The Message
The BCH address
The Signature — (a long alphanumeric string much longer than an address), a signature tied to an address cannot be completed without private key ownership.
This method of proving ownership can come in handy for many reasons because only the person with a private key associated with the signature can prove they own the BCH address. Proof of ownership helps bolster things like proving existence with a message and notarizing certain data and making it impossible to forge. Back in 2017, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange used a message on the BTC chain to prove existence and that he was still alive.
In fact, the person behind the Satoshi Nakamoto monicker could prove he/she is Bitcoin’s creator by providing a legitimate message and signature tied to one of Nakamoto’s known addresses. The private key associated with the signature makes it so no one can create a signed message with your address on your behalf without that key. Learning to sign and verify with a bitcoin cash address using Melis is easy and only takes a few minutes to understand the basics. | https://medium.com/@melis-io/how-to-prove-ownership-with-a-bitcoin-cash-address-and-digital-signature-using-melis-wallet-7e90359c561 | [] | 2019-06-17 15:12:53.850000+00:00 | ['Usability', 'Melis Wallet', 'Blockchain', 'Bitcoincash', 'Digital Signatures'] |
Black Friday 2020: Online customer experience | After the Covid-19 pandemic and the global financial crisis, Black Friday 2020 is the perfect opportunity for you to boost your sales, especially online. Last year, Black Friday brought in $6.2 billion in online sales, a growth of 23.6% year over year.
However, the competition is fierce and basically, everybody is doing the same things: huge sales, attractive prices and lots of advantages like free shipping.
It’s particlarily tricky to stand out against the online giant Amazon.
The good news is that 85% of customers said they would be willing to pay up to 25% more to get a better customer experience. So, the moral of the story is: great experiences get the customer.
This year, do things differently. In order to make the most of Black Friday, focus on the whole customer, rather than focusing on only boosting the sales.
Focus on the long term:
It’s true that Black Friday is the perfect opportunity to attract new customers, it’s also true that these customers might not come back.
Depending on the experience with your brand, these new customers can either become Promoters or Detractors. In other words, either they will recommend your brand and give positive feedback about it, or talk negatively about it to their friends and colleagues.
The best way to know if they were satisfied and if they would recommend, is the NPS question. Read our article about NPS to learn more.
Of course, the goal here is to make these customers stay, creating loyalty can be huge for your business.
This doesn’t mean that you should forget about the loyal customers that you already have. They are responsible for a good part of your revenue: customers with the best experiences spend 140% more than those with the poorest.
Feedback, feedback and feedback:
With the number of customers increasing on Black Friday, this is the best chance for you to ask for customer feedback. The best way to know what the customers think is by asking them directly. It’s as simple as that.
Choose the feedback tool that is the most suitable for you and create a feedback form after every purchase. You can also use a ready-to-use template to save your time.
However, customizing the form and adapting the branding to your company is crucial. The customer needs to see that you put some effort into creating the form and that you actually care about what they have to say.
It is also important, to make the feedback form as short and as fun as possible. People don’t like to waste their time on something boring and outdated. Using Google Forms or SurveyMonkey will certainly not get you the answers that you need.
Add images, emojis, GIFs and use a Feedback tool, like Feedier, that will make the form look dynamic and interactive.
Make data-driven decisions:
What do your customers like most about you? About your competitors? Whether you dive into them before or after Black Friday, these insights are critical to sustainable success.
Improving products and services based on insights from online feedback builds the type of engaged brand that customers love.
Uncover the root cause of sentiment so you can succeed in solving problems or replicate the positive performance. Feedier comes with smart analysis tools that do this for you. Get visual PDF reports, dynamic User Stories, interactive Feedback Forms, and a lot more… | https://medium.com/@feedier/black-friday-2020-online-customer-experience-12d4971d0da9 | [] | 2020-11-27 13:44:16.116000+00:00 | ['Surveys', 'Customer Success', 'Black Friday', 'Customer Experience', 'Feedback'] |
ZBG 3 Anniversary event — BTC 40% Discount | To All Project Initiators and Investors Caring for ZBG.COM,
On the occasion of the third anniversary of ZBG, ZBG launches a 40% discount Bitcoin purchase event to give back to the new and old users who have been paying attention and supporting us!
【Event time】
July 18, 15: 00-July 21, 18:00(UTC+8)
【The event rules】
During the event, there will be three BTC discount purchase events held at ZBG SuperLaunchpad for users who hold ZT ≥ 3,000ZT or more.
Details as follow：
Note: The specific subscription price is based on the market price of BTC/USDT on the ZBG platform at 14:00 (UTC+8) on the day of the event.
Event details:
Actual tokens received= (Individual Subscription Amount / Total Subscription Amount ) X Total Sales Volume
Purchase result: it will be delivered to the user within 2 hours on the end of the purchase time, without freezing.
Rules of ZBG Super Launchpad:
1.Set up Funds password before the event.
APP: Profile — Safety Center — Safe Password Setting
WEB: Account — User Center — Funds Password Setting
2.Agree on Guidelines for Usage of the Services during the event.Guidelines for Usage of the Services：https://www.zbg.com/Purchase
3.Sub-Account is not supported.
Reminder: Users need to complete their account verification and also be from an accepted jurisdiction to participate in this token sale.* Users from the following countries will not be able to participate in token sales on the zbg Launchpad platform: Afghanistan, Albania, Belarus, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Burundi, Canada, Central African Republic, China, Cote dIvoire, Cuba, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Liberia, Libya, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, North Korea, Republic of Macedonia, Serbia, Somalia, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria, Thailand, Trinidad & Tobago, Tunisia, Uganda, United States, Venezuela, Yemen, Zimbabwe.
Risks:
Since it’s an innovative investment product, the price of digital asset fluctuates widely. As a neutral trading platform, ZBG is founded to provide convenience for digital asset enthusiasts only, and won’t assume any guarantee or compensation for the investment value of digital asset. Please make a rational judgment on your ability to invest and take cautious investment decisions.
Should you have any further questions, please contact our client service.
ZBG Official English Group(Telegram): https://t.me/ZBG_Exchange
ZBG Global Official Chinese Group (Telegram): https://t.me/ZBG_ChineseOfficial
ZBG Official Bangladesh Group (Telegram): https://t.me/zbgbangladesh
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ZBG_Exchange
ZBG, World’s top 10 crypto currency exchange.
Link to future value!
ZBG Team
July 5, 2021 | https://medium.com/@zbgofficial/zbg-3-anniversary-event-btc-40-discount-9254da924ec6 | [] | 2021-07-06 08:27:01.723000+00:00 | ['Anniversary', 'Zbg', 'Discount', 'Bitcoin', 'Cryptocurrency'] |
Unforgotten Haven stuffs record number of Chemotherapy bags | Unforgotten Haven stuffs record number of Chemotherapy bags
In memory of a South Jersey resident who passed away while battling cancer late last year, her family helped put together 1,500 chemotherapy bags for those fighting cancer while at infusion centers Matthew Shinkle Jan 14, 2019·3 min read
On a misty Monday night in early January, the streets of Blackwood in Gloucester Township move slowly. Cars pass by about every 20 seconds, with residents going back and forth about their evening, but few people walk the streets.
That is until one woman gets out of her car and walks to the storefront of The Unforgotten Haven carrying supplies to be donated.
Inside the building stand more than 30 volunteers who have come together to remember a woman who, after her death, is helping others in a similar situation she was in before passing away this past September.
Elaine Papagno passed away after battling lung cancer. Bridget Papagno, Elaine’s daughter-in-law, is a community outreach ambassador for the Holistic Chamber of Commerce and routinely drove Elaine to and from her treatments.
Every now and then, they would talk about Bridget’s current work during the drive to and from infusions. One week, after Bridget had finished a project assembling bags for victims of domestic violence, she said she was thinking about possibly working next to assemble chemotherapy bags.
Elaine, at the time, was receiving treatment in both Cherry Hill and Philadelphia, and loved the idea of collecting chemotherapy bags for those battling cancer.
“She said they gave them to her in Cherry Hill when she went for infusions,” Bridget said. “She was getting chemotherapy in Philadelphia, and they weren’t giving them to her there, but she said it really made her day when she got them and saw the messages. So I said, ‘done deal, that’s my next project.’”
Elaine had said she wanted to help in any way that she could, but passed away before the project got moving.
Last week, The Unforgotten Haven stuffed 1,500 chemotherapy bags in Elaine’s honor, the most they’ve assembled in a single night since starting approximately three years ago. Instead of flowers from friends and family, Elaine’s family requested monetary donations to The Unforgotten Haven.
Inside the bags are prepackaged peanut butter crackers, pretzels, apple juice, hard candy and mints, cookies, lip balm, tissues and homemade cards of encouragement from students at Blackwood Elementary School and from the nonprofit as well.
Joe Papagno says his mom was receiving infusions at Penn Medicine twice a week for an autoimmune condition, receiving treatment for four hours a day every Monday and Tuesday for more than a year.
“She was so excited when Bridget said The Unforgotten Haven did chemotherapy bags,” said Joe.
Elaine did not receive chemotherapy bags during her time at Penn in Philadelphia, however she did when she would go to Penn Medicine in Cherry Hill. However, in Elaine’s honor, the first drop off location for the bags made this past week will be going to Penn Medicine in Philadelphia.
Sophia Vicardi, who volunteers at The Unforgotten Haven, got connected with the organization months ago after her aunt had worked with the organization. She was just one of the many volunteers who came out to help assemble the bags for patients they will never meet.
“These are blessings for others who really need it,” Vicardi said, who found out about the packing event through Facebook. “It’s a joy to be able to help out like this.”
Additional monetary donations or supplies can be made at theunforgottenhaven.org. | https://medium.com/@mshinkle/unforgotten-haven-stuffs-record-number-of-chemotherapy-bags-2a2ce67c91e5 | ['Matthew Shinkle'] | 2019-01-14 20:44:32.213000+00:00 | ['Giving', 'Cancer', 'Community', 'Nonprofit', 'New Jersey'] |
Some thoughts on how technology and the climate crisis are impacting on the real estate sector | IMAGE: Mohamed Hassan — Pixabay (CC0)
It’s worth giving some thought as to how key sectors of the economy like construction or real estate are impacted by new technology and the climate emergency, and to what extent these factors will play a role in the next, foreseeable, economic crisis.
In the United States, there is already a growing shortfall of more than seven million affordable homes, especially in the low and very low income bracket, which has been most affected by the pandemic. Furthermore, a good part of the economy depends on more than $1 trillion in mortgages, with repayments now seriously compromised by the pandemic.
In addition to this relatively short-term problem, there is another threat that many people thought was long-term, but that is making itself felt with increasing ferocity: the climate emergency and the war that humanity has unleashed against nature. Throughout this year, the frequency of natural disasters such as hurricanes or fires in many areas of the United States has increased significantly due to climate imbalances — which is why this year’s storms and hurricanes now have names with Greek letters — which, coupled with the progressive rise in sea levels, foreshadows the likely displacement of millions of Americans. An unprecedented mass migration that will undoubtedly put further economic strain on those already hit hard by the pandemic.
However, these factors will not only affect those forced to migrate in search of safer areas and who will require new homes at reasonable prices: in addition, home loans linked to many of the properties that are likely to be destroyed are collateralized in packages that have not taken into account the climate risk, which points to a looming repayments crisis.
Technology plays another interesting role: a large number of properties, especially in city centers, are in the hands of owners who opted for short-term rents through companies like Airbnb. The drop in activity caused by the pandemic led many analysts to talk about recovering these properties for cheaper long-term rentals, a prediction that in the aftermath of the company’s very successful IPO last week is unlikely to materialize.
In some areas, such as California or Seattle, there is talk of significant housing shortfalls, which is leading large technology companies such as Google, Apple or Microsoft to plan their own real estate supply or to allocate funds to housing supply, either to secure properties for their employees or to try to alleviate a crisis resulting from gentrification, which they are largely responsible for. At the same time, the housing market in areas such as San Francisco has cooled as more technology workers move to other areas now that they can work from home, but prices remain largely very high.
A set of short- medium- and long-term effects that presage enormous uncertainty in industries with big impact on the economy. And this is only in the United States. In other countries, things are much worse. | https://medium.com/enrique-dans/some-thoughts-on-how-technology-and-the-climate-crisis-are-impacting-on-the-real-estate-sector-d4904387b898 | ['Enrique Dans'] | 2020-12-20 12:16:21.272000+00:00 | ['Climate Change', 'Real Estate', 'Airbnb', 'Natural Disasters', 'Construction'] |
How to integrate Salesforce with Zomato using Lightning Web Components | In this post we are going to learn how to integrate Salesforce with Zomato by Http Callouts in LWC.
Remote Site Settings
Now comes the Code.
We are all aware of the newly introduced Lightning Web Components by Salesforce online training. Now we can build Lightning components using two programming models,
Lightning Web Components (New model)
Aura Components (Original model)
salesforce Lightning training web components are custom HTML elements built using HTML and modern JavaScript. With newly introduced tech comes new challenges. We are going to overcome those challenges and develop a component.
In order to integrate with Zomato, we need to add Zomato site URL in Remote Site settings in Salesforce.
Remote Site Settings
Salesforce allows you to access external website resources from a Salesforce application for your organization. You can access these external websites through Apex Callouts. To avoid access to malicious websites from Salesforce, the website first needs to be registered with remote site settings. Once the site is registered, it can be used within Salesforce cpq training.
In Salesforce go to,
Settings Security Remote Site Settings New Remote Site
Add the Site name and Url (In site Url add: https://developers.zomato.com) and click on save.
In order to integrate with Zomato and access its data, we need to request zomato for an API key, which you can generate from here in less than a minute.
Generate API Key
Sign up into Zomato and generate API key by following the instructions.
You will get the key similar to the above key in the image. Save it, as we are going to use that in the api call.
Zomato API documentation consists of all the services provided. In this session, we are going to use only two services.
Location (to get the location details) Search (to search the restaurants based on the selected location)
Now comes the Code!!!
First, we need to write Apex Classes for Locations and Search [GET] services provided by Zomato, which are selected in red in the above image. Please refer How to convert JSON to Apex to know more about the conversion of JSON to apex.
Related Post: How to convert Json to Apex
Controllers: ZomatoLocation.cls ZomatoSearch.cls ZomatoClass.cls
Components: zomato.js zomato.html
zomatoDisplayRestaurants.js zomatoDisplayRestaurants.html
pubsub.js zomato.html
<template>
<lightning-card title="Enter Location" icon-name="standard:location">
<lightning-layout>
<lightning-layout-item size="6" padding="around-small">
<div class="header-column">
<lightning-input label="Location" value={location} onchange={handleLocationChange}></lightning-input></br>
<lightning-button label="Select Location" onclick={selectLocation}></lightning-button>
</div>
</lightning-layout-item>
<lightning-layout-item size="6" padding="around-small">
<div class="header-column">
<lightning-input label="Location Selected" value={selectedLocation} readonly onchange={handleLocationChange}></lightning-input></br>
<lightning-input label="Restaurant Name" value={restaurant} onchange={handleRestaurantChange}></lightning-input></br>
<lightning-button label="Search Restaurants" onclick={searchRestaurant}></lightning-button>
</div>
</lightning-layout-item>
</lightning-layout>
</lightning-card>
</template>
How to integrate Salesforce with Zomato using Lightning Web Components
When the user enters the location name in the input and clicks Select Location button, the entered location is sent as a parameter to getLocation(location name). The entered string is concatenated to the endpoint URL.
After location is selected and entering Restaurant/Cuisine/Location (optional), on clicking the search Restaurants button, the obtained location entity Id and entity type are passed to the method search Restaurants(entityId, entityType, location), list of restaurants are obtained from the API.
Zomato.js
/* eslint-disable no-console */
import { LightningElement, track, wire} from 'lwc';
import getLocation from '@salesforce/apex/zomatoClass.getLocation';
import searchRestaurants from '@salesforce/apex/zomatoClass.searchRestaurants';
import { CurrentPageReference } from 'lightning/navigation';
import { fireEvent } from 'c/pubsub';
export default class Zomato extends LightningElement {
location = '';
entityId = '';
@track selectedLocation = '';
entityType = '';
restaurant = '';
@wire(CurrentPageReference) pageRef;
handleLocationChange(event) {
this.location = event.target.value;
//console.log('location', this.location);
}
handleRestaurantChange(event) {
this.restaurant = event.target.value;
//console.log('restaurant', this.restaurant);
}
selectLocation() {
getLocation({ 'locationName' : this.location })
.then(result => {
const output = JSON.parse(result);
this.error = undefined
console.log("Location::::", output);
if(output !== undefined) {
this.entityId = output[0].entity_id;
this.entityType = output[0].entity_type;
this.selectedLocation = output[0].title;
console.log('this.selectedLocation',this.selectedLocation+this.entityId+this.entityType);
/*this.dispatchEvent(
new ShowToastEvent({
title: 'Success',
message: 'Account created',
variant: 'success',
}),
);*/
}
else {
console.log("No info returned in call back in selectLocation method");
}
})
.catch(error => {
this.message = undefined;
this.error = error;
/*this.dispatchEvent(
new ShowToastEvent({
title: 'Error creating record',
message: error.body.message,
variant: 'error',
}),
);*/
console.log("error", JSON.stringify(this.error));
});
}
searchRestaurant() {
console.log('restaurant selection data',this.restaurant+''+this.entityId+''+this.entityType);
searchRestaurants({ 'entityId' : this.entityId, 'entityType' : this.entityType, 'searchTerm' : this.restaurant})
.then(result => {
this.message = JSON.parse(result);
this.error = undefined
console.log("Restaurant List::::", this.message);
if(this.message !== undefined) {
console.log("searchRestaurants pubSub fires....");
fireEvent(this.pageRef, 'restaurantListUpdate', this.message);
/*this.dispatchEvent(
new ShowToastEvent({
title: 'Success',
message: 'Account created',
variant: 'success',
}),
);*/
}
else {
console.log("No info returned in call back in searchRestaurant method");
}
})
.catch(error => {
this.message = undefined;
this.error = error;
/*this.dispatchEvent(
new ShowToastEvent({
title: 'Error creating record',
message: error.body.message,
variant: 'error',
}),
);*/
console.log("error", JSON.stringify(this.error));
});
}
}
When the list of restaurants is obtained successfully, we pass the list to zomato Display Restaurants component using an pubsub event, where the list is displayed. Don’t worry about pubsub, just use the given the code, we will learn in-depth about it in further posts. For now, imagine it is similar to Application event in Aura framework.
zomatoDisplayRestaurants.html
<template>
<lightning-card title="Restaurants nearby..." icon-name="custom:custom65">
<ul class="slds-has-dividers_bottom-space">
<template for:each={restaurantsList} for:item='rest'>
<li key={rest.restaurant.id} class="slds-item" value={rest} onclick={handleRestaurantSelected}>
<lightning-tile label={rest.restaurant.name} href="javascript:void(0)" type="media">
<lightning-avatar slot="media" src={rest.restaurant.thumb} fallback-icon-name="standard:person_account" alternative-text={rest.restaurant.name}></lightning-avatar>
<ul class="slds-list_horizontal slds-has-dividers_right">
<li class="slds-item">{rest.restaurant.cuisines} . {rest.restaurant.user_rating.aggregate_rating}</li>
<li class="slds-item">Rs.{rest.restaurant.average_cost_for_two} for 2</li>
</ul>
</lightning-tile>
</li>
</template>
</ul>
</lightning-card>
</template>
Iterates over restaurantsList displays the list.
zomatoDisplayRestaurants.js
/* eslint-disable no-console */
import { LightningElement, wire, track} from 'lwc';
import { CurrentPageReference } from 'lightning/navigation';
import { registerListener, unregisterAllListeners } from 'c/pubsub';
export default class ZomatoDisplayRestaurants extends LightningElement {
@track restaurantsList = [];
@wire(CurrentPageReference) pageRef;
connectedCallback() {
console.log('In connectedCallBack in ZomatoDisplayRestaurants');
registerListener('restaurantListUpdate', this.handleRestaurants, this);
}
disconnectedCallback() {
console.log('In disconnectedCallback in ZomatoDisplayRestaurants');
unregisterAllListeners(this);
}
handleRestaurants(restaurants) {
console.log('In handleRestaurants in ZomatoDisplayRestaurants');
console.log('restaurants in handle', restaurants);
//const output001 = JSON.parse(restaurants);
//console.log('output001', output001);
this.restaurantsList = restaurants;
console.log('this.restaurantsList', this.restaurantsList);
}
handleRestaurantSelected(event) {
this.restaurantSelected = event.target.value;
console.log('event.type', event.type);
console.log('event.target.value', event.target.value);
console.log('event.target', JSON.stringify(event.target));
console.log('event.currentTarget', JSON.stringify(event.currentTarget));
console.log('this.restaurantSelected', this.restaurantSelected);
}
}
ZomatoLocation.cls
public class ZomatoLocation {
public List location_suggestions;
public String status;
public Integer has_more;
public Integer has_total;
public class Location_suggestions {
public String entity_type;
public Integer entity_id;
public String title;
public Double latitude;
public Double longitude;
public Integer city_id;
public String city_name;
public Integer country_id;
public String country_name;
}
public static ZomatoLocation parse(String json) {
return (ZomatoLocation) System.JSON.deserialize(json, ZomatoLocation.class);
}
}
ZomatoLocation.cls class is written based on the JSON response.
ZomatoSearch.cls
public class ZomatoSearch {
public Integer results_found;
public Integer results_start;
public Integer results_shown;
public List restaurants;
public class Restaurant {
public R R;
public String apikey;
public String id;
public String name;
public String url;
public Location location;
public Integer switch_to_order_menu;
public String cuisines;
public Integer average_cost_for_two;
public Integer price_range;
public String myCurrency;
public List offers;
public Integer opentable_support;
public Integer is_zomato_book_res;
public String mezzo_provider;
public Integer is_book_form_web_view;
public String book_form_web_view_url;
public String book_again_url;
public String thumb;
public User_rating user_rating;
public String photos_url;
public String menu_url;
public String featured_image;
public Integer has_online_delivery;
public Integer is_delivering_now;
public Integer has_fake_reviews;
public Boolean include_bogo_offers;
public String deeplink;
public Integer is_table_reservation_supported;
public Integer has_table_booking;
public String events_url;
public List establishment_types;
}
public class R {
public Integer res_id;
}
public class User_rating {
public String aggregate_rating;
public String rating_text;
public String rating_color;
public String votes;
public Integer has_fake_reviews;
}
public class Offers {
}
public class Restaurants {
public Restaurant restaurant;
}
public class Location {
public String address;
public String locality;
public String city;
public Integer city_id;
public String latitude;
public String longitude;
public String zipcode;
public Integer country_id;
public String locality_verbose;
}
public static ZomatoSearch parse(String json) {
return (ZomatoSearch) System.JSON.deserialize(json, ZomatoSearch.class);
}
}
ZomatoSearch.cls class is written based on the JSON response.
ZomatoClass.cls
global class zomatoClass {
//Used to get entityId and entityType
@AuraEnabled
public static String getLocation(String locationName) {
String reponse;
List locationList = new List();
List locationList1 = new List();
// Instantiate a new http object
Http h = new Http();
String url = 'https://developers.zomato.com/api/v2.1/locations';
url += '?query='+locationName;
// Instantiate a new HTTP request, specify the method (GET) as well as the endpoint
HttpRequest req = new HttpRequest();
req.setEndpoint(url);
req.setHeader('Content-Type', 'application/json');
req.setHeader('user-key', '3e8b235d70f0a4e7f0e5e6feebc29dd0');
req.setMethod('GET');
// Send the request, and return a response
HttpResponse res = h.send(req);
system.debug('response:::::'+res.getBody());
reponse = res.getBody();
//return res.getBody();
if(res.getStatusCode() == 200){
system.debug('Status::::::::'+res.getStatus());
ZomatoLocation.Location_suggestions locationClass = new ZomatoLocation.Location_suggestions();
ZomatoLocation jsonApex = ZomatoLocation.parse(reponse);
system.debug('jsonApex::::::'+jsonApex.Location_suggestions);
for(ZomatoLocation.Location_suggestions loc : jsonApex.Location_suggestions){
System.debug('location details'+loc);
//System.debug('Categories:' + category.Categories.id+':'+category.Categories.name);
locationList.add(loc);
}
system.debug('locationList'+locationList);
}
system.debug('locationList222'+locationList);
String locationString = System.JSON.serialize(locationList);
return locationString;
}
@AuraEnabled
public static String searchRestaurants(string entityId, string entityType, string searchTerm) {
string reponse;
System.debug('Data::::'+ entityId+''+entityType+''+searchTerm);
List restaurantsList = new List();
// Instantiate a new http object
Http h = new Http();
String url = 'https://developers.zomato.com/api/v2.1/search';
url += '?entity_id='+ entityId;
url += '&entity_type='+ entityType;
url += '&q='+searchTerm;
// Instantiate a new HTTP request, specify the method (GET) as well as the endpoint
HttpRequest req = new HttpRequest();
reappointment's(url);
req.setHeader('Content-Type', 'application/json');
req.setHeader('user-key', '3e8b235d70f0a4e7f0e5e6feebc29dd0');
req.setMethod('GET');
// Send the request, and return a response
HttpResponse res = h.send(req);
system.debug('response:::::'+res.getBody());
reponse = res.getBody();
//return res.getBody();
//locationDetailsList = new List();
if(res.getStatusCode() == 200){
system.debug('Status::::::::'+restaurateurs());
//string strResponse = reponse.replace('Currency', 'myCurrency');
//System.debug('strResponse:::::'+strResponse);
ZomatoSearch jsonApex = ZomatoSearch.parse(res.getBody());
system.debug('jsonApex::::::'+jsonApex);
for(ZomatoSearch.Restaurants rest : jsonApex.restaurants){
System.debug('Restaurants:::::'+rest.Restaurant.name);
//System.debug('Categories:' + category.Categories.id+':'+category.Categories.name);
restaurantsList.add(rest);
}
system.debug('restaurantsList::::'+restaurantsList);
}
String restaurantString = System.JSON.serialize(restaurantsList);
return restaurantString;
}
}
Hope this post helped you gain some knowledge, If you like the please don’t step back to like my page and leave your feedback, It will motivate me to make more posts Salesforce online training in Hyderabad. | https://medium.com/@prasannajyothi/how-to-integrate-salesforce-with-zomato-using-lightning-web-components-d4239084eb8d | [] | 2020-03-17 06:17:20.129000+00:00 | ['Lightning Network', 'Components', 'Zomato', 'Salesforce Productivity', 'Salesforce'] |
Hardware of Computer | A computer is a device which becomes essential nowadays. Almost in every field, computers play a key role in every aspect. Computers help in data entering, video editing, photo editing, saving vital documents, searching imperative knowledge in an internet browser doing many such tasks and many important errands.
§ Essential Components
A computer consists of many fundamental elements. Some of these are given below.
· Motherboard
· Random-access memory (RAM)
· Central Possessing Unit (CPU)
· Hard device
· Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)
· Power Supply Unit (PSU)
Such imperative devices connect each other to run a computer and help in doing many important chores. The explanation of each device is given below one by one.
§ Motherboard
Motherboard acts as the brain of the computer. Without a motherboard, the computer is not switched on either. Its communities the CPU and is a pivot that all other hardware runs through. Motherboard assigning power where it’s needed, joining with and synchronizing across all other components — making it one of the most important pieces of hardware in a computer. When we chose a motherboard, it is obligatory to check what hardware ports the motherboard supplies. Usually, it is of size according to USB and its grades and many other devices which are connected with it.
§ Random-access memory (RAM)
Random-access memory abbreviated as RAM is a provisional memory device that is present only when the computer is switched on and when the computer is switched off all the memory stored in it is completely lost. RAM makes the data proximately reachable. The tasks that require this haphazard memory device could be; rendering images for graphic design, edited video or photographs, multi-tasking with multiple apps open (for example, running an internet browser on one screen and chatting via Discord on the other). RAM is much sooner to read from and write to than other types of storage, including a hard disk drive (HDD), solid-state drive (SSD), and optical drive.
§ Central Possessing Unit (CPU)
Central Possessing Unit abbreviated as (CPU), is also known as the processor. It has all the significant information to run almost all the programs on a computer. Just like motherhood, without the CPU computer has no meaning to do crucial chores of our lives. The clock speed of the CPU is measured in gigahertz (GHz). It is directly connected with motherhood. It receives information from motherhood to do provincial tasks. This means that a processor publicity a high GHz rating will probably achieve rapid than a similarly specified processor of the same brand and age.
§ Hard device
A Hard device is used to store any permanent and temporary data. It is totally upon us either we store any type of data perpetually or provisionally. The data comes in many different formats but we need to save or install data from the hard device in our computer. There are two different types of storage devices: the traditional hard disk drive (HDD), and the newer solid-state drives (SSD). Hard disk drives toil by inscription binary data onto spinning magnetic disks called platters. Platters rotate at high speeds. While a solid-state drive piles data by using static flash memory chips. Find out more about computer storage and how solid-state drives work.
§ Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)
Graphics Processing Unit abbreviated as (GPU) is used for 3D rendering as its name suggests. GPU is used for huge batches of graphic data processing. There is at least one graphic card used in one computer according to our will. It is totally upon us how much we used. GPU receives the order from the motherboard and according to it do graphic competence. After that, GPU projects information onto the screen. A graphics card targets to confiscate the processing strain from the processor or RAM. Not only this, but modern GPUs achieve a broad computational workload beyond just rendering, making them leeway to the central processing unit.
§ Power Supply Unit (PSU)
Power supply unit abbreviated as PSU is used to provide power to different components of the computer. First of all, power is reached into the motherboard and after that, it is provided to different components of the computer such as Central Possessing Unit (CPU), Random-access memory (RAM), Hard device, Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), and many more such type of devices. Power Supply Unit (PSU) is used according to the sizes of components of the computer. For example, a modern computer will generally need a PSU that’s rated between 500W — 850W. Computers that are used for very rigorous chores such as graphic design or gaming require more influential components and thus will need an advanced PSU to supply this superfluous need.
§ Hardware vs Software
Hardware is used for the physical components of a computer. Hardware refers to the palpable aspects of a computing device that are needed to store and run the software. Software is used to order hardware to do professional chores of the computer. Companies manufacture hardware and engineers design software to build up a new computer and replace the old components of a computer. Hardware is a substantial part of the computer and includes the monitor, keyboard, mouse, printer, CPU, and HDDs. The non-substantial software consists of the OS, programs, and applications that need to be installed on the computer. There is some malevolent software (malware), such as viruses, Trojan horses, spyware, and worms, that can damage software. Hardware is not affected by this malevolent software.
External hardware components are known as peripheral. Peripherals consist of input devices, such as a mouse or keyboard; output devices, such as a monitor or printer; and external storage devices, such as a hard drive or USB. Some external hardware components are microphones, monitors, speakers, headphones, digital cameras, touchpads, stylus pens, joysticks, scanners, USB flash drives or memory cards, and many more are included in this section. All these hardware devices are conscious to either provide direction to the software or extract the results from its implementation.
§ Result
Hardware and Software work side by side. For the proper functioning of a computer, both are essential and crucial. This information is very essential and helps a lot in solving many problems of a computer and to build up a novel and prevailing computer.
Created by M.Saleem | https://medium.com/@ms0811192/hardware-of-computer-5a00e8a05aa1 | ['Muhammad Saleem'] | 2020-12-12 18:32:36.504000+00:00 | ['Information Technology'] |
Universal Sexual Forces | Masculinity and femininity are not reserved solely for gender. They refer to universal sexual forces. Polarity within that either attracts or repels… And just because wild magnetic attraction exists doesn’t mean you should be romantically and deeply involved…
These energetics reside within all of us. The truth is for us to be in attraction and remain in attraction it is essential that we attract (and remain attracted) via means valuing the opposing energies we bring to a relationship.
Difference attracts and maintains attraction and desire, similarity helps us feel safe and grounded enough to explore this attraction.
Sexual attraction, deep spiritual ecstasy, and intimate union expand in relationships when there is a clear polarity between the energies of both people. If two people have a similar sexual polarity, eg. Both are more “masculine” then the attraction between them will be lessened.
Attraction unravels with the energetic charge from the sexual polarity of opposites. These masculine and feminine energetics are essential life energies to be expressed and experienced. Sexual polarity is the main energetic force that ignites the passionate flow of sexual attraction that arcs between the masculine and feminine poles in romantic partnership and creates safety and attunement.
Take electricity, the electrical charge of energy is conducted when the “masculine” plug is inserted into the “feminine” receptive outlet. Two masculine plugs can hang out but they don’t create intimate polarity and most of the time you would probably find them engaging in “masculine motivations”.
The love we have for family or things is different from the energy of attraction. Sexual polarity often diminishes in longer-term relationships because life becomes busy, roles become heavy and people do not know how to re-ignite the spark.
Of course, there are other reasons sexual polarity diminishes: closed hearts, low emotional intimacy, unresolved trauma and pain, and paralyzing fears. Two polarizing energies, a loving heart connection, and devoted intimacy are required to create the passionate energy of sexual polarity attraction in any romantic relationship.
One is glad to be of service.
Photo: https://unsplash.com/@dainisgraveris | https://medium.com/@stefanossifandos/universal-sexual-forces-8cc888e75532 | ['Stefanos Sifandos'] | 2020-12-25 23:10:51.180000+00:00 | ['Sex', 'Sexual Polarity', 'Gender', 'Polarity', 'Gender Dynamics'] |
The 2020 Election Will Come Down To The VP | The 2016 election came down to the electoral college. Trump didn’t and doesn’t care about being popular or winning the popular vote, he’s never going to. But winning the election means getting to 270 electoral college votes. It is the only thing that matters.
Trump switching VPs to Haley would indicate he isn’t concerned about winning Illinois or perhaps that he was scared of losing South Carolina. The southern state has gone to almost every Republican candidate for as long as most people have been alive. Yet, President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had made some inroads for Democrats in recent elections. Having Haley on the ticket would solidify those 9 electoral college votes.
If Pete Buttigieg is the candidate or VP pick, Trump will need to keep Pence on the ticket. If for no other reason than to make the midwestern state competitive and hopefully secure the 20 electoral college votes for himself. Pence is a former governor, which will help with the constituents. Though Buttigieg is young and charismatic, which will make it a fight to the finish line in a state that was solidly red in the past.
The Bloom Is Off The Berg
Adding even more weight to the theory the 2020 election will be all about the VP is Michael Bloomberg’s surprise announcement that he wants Hillary Clinton to be his VP. Many talking heads said this was his way to secure the momentum that his campaign has been building and take into the stratosphere before Super Tuesday. Adding Clinton, even hypothetically, to the ticket suddenly gives weight to the Bloomberg candidacy.
Most people think Bloomberg’s camp put out the Clinton as his VP story to change the conversation. Controversial statements the candidate had made about his stop and frisk policy in New York City. While we won’t know the exact damage the story caused, it was prudent to change the conversation and a VP was just the ticket. Should Bloomberg get the nomination, Clinton won’t help much with his electoral college math. Her home state of New York almost always goes blue.
But Clinton adds national experience to the ticket and legitimizes Bloomberg as a serious candidate. Given that she won the popular vote in the 2016 election, it is easy to see why he would want her on his team. An experienced politician, who remains popular amongst the party is just what this campaign ordered.
Buttigieg, likewise, would do well to start thinking about his VP pick. He is doing very well this primary season and could very well end up with the nomination. A running mate like Kamala Harris would go a long way towards helping the former Mayor shore up support among people of color and potentially women.
Whatever else happens this election season, the results are likely to come down to the vice presidential picks. Making the role more important than ever. | https://medium.com/harsh-light-news/the-2020-election-will-come-down-to-the-vp-bc5f84d6e5dd | ['Edward Anderson'] | 2020-02-18 18:07:05.297000+00:00 | ['Strategy', 'History', 'Opinion', 'Election 2020', 'Politics'] |
Pokémon Legends: Arceus Will Get Texture and Framerate Upgrades | Pokémon Legends: Arceus Will Get Texture and Framerate Upgrades Nightshade Follow Jul 4 · 2 min read
The Pokémon Company
None of us were happy to see the ‘N64 tree’ return in the Pokémon Legends: Arceus reveal trailer.
The infamous tree
Not to mention the stuttering Pokémon animations. But one thing is for sure, what they revealed was clearly an ‘early alpha’ of the game. Which GameFreak will improve by the time it releases.
We have seen the Dynamax battles in earlier reveals of Pokémon Sword & Shield having a similar texture and design issue. But most of it was addressed at launch, and a few more improvements came in later as updates.
You might have also noticed how some scenes had better textures and framerates in the trailer—especially the battle sequence between Gallade and Garchomp. And the N64 tree did not appear here either.
Garchomp vs. Gallade: Open world battle
An interesting leak on Twitter also confirms that Legends Arceus will get better framerates, fluid animations, and some texture improvements.
It so looks like all is not lost yet, and Pokémon Legends: Arceus might turn out to be the legendary Pokémon game we all waited for
Follow nightshade7 on Medium for more Pokémon and Nintendo news. | https://medium.com/counterarts/pok%C3%A9mon-legends-arceus-will-get-texture-and-framerate-upgrades-2178d39978c | [] | 2021-07-04 15:10:21.716000+00:00 | ['Design', 'Gaming', 'Nintendo', 'Graphics', 'Pokemon'] |
A Poet-in-Progress | I doubt anyone will memorialize me as a dead poet. I won’t be read or studied or quoted. And, that’s perfectly okay.
I don’t write to be famous or to be remembered.
I write to remember.
Writing, especially poetry, is how I access memories and the emotions tangled in those memories. They need to be sorted, unknotted, filed in an appropriate box of yesterday, or discarded like useless garbage. I feel lighter after writing a poem.
Poetry came to me at the age of nine. I wrote my first ten poems in one afternoon and read them to my older sister, who claimed I stole them from a published poet. At nine, I could write poetry but didn’t know how to plagiarize.
I continued writing poetry into my 20s. Then, stopped to live a life I didn’t want to live.
The one good thing about the 2016 election was that I quit Facebook and found Medium and began a new love affair with poetry, although I didn’t start off writing poetry here. It was a gradual reintroduction. I thought I may be too old and jaded to be a poet. I was wrong. Or, maybe, being old and jaded helped me write poetry!
My love of poetry doesn’t center around any particular poets of years past — the ones we studied in school — or any particular style. My favorites of both are varied, although I’ll mention Langston Hughes and Margaret Walker as great inspirations. I also have a fondness for Asian poetry and poets.
Here on Medium, my poetry tastes are just as varied. There are too many good poets here to list so I won’t try. Instead, I’ll describe what I like to discover in a poem.
In a poem, I want to unearth an image that incites emotion. Paint me a picture with the words you use.
I crave words that make me swoon, especially those that beg me to explore them further. Online dictionaries are such noble assistants. One word will lead me down a path to another and another. Contrary to many authors who write about writing, I like unfamiliar words, unusual and wonky ones — words that sound melodious or strident, that make me smile or cringe. Give me words that scream and whisper, that leave me interested and engaged. I want to be introduced to new words as if the poem is a meet-and-greet cocktail hour. Let me shake hands and get to know them over an Old Fashioned.
I like poems that tell me your story.
If a poem isn’t personal, what is it?
I have no habits or schedules for writing. That feels too much like work, and I am fortunate to not depend on my writing to pay the bills, allowing me a freedom that professional writers don’t have.
As a photographer, I’m often inspired by a photo I took or sometimes, a poem I write inspires me to take a photo to be its partner.
I like to write for prompts. Prompts take me to places I may never have visited otherwise. Writers get in ruts, creating different versions of the same poem or story over and over. A prompt jolts your brainwaves, sends them twirling in new directions.
My past is also a regular inspiration for my poetry. Such poems are a form of exorcism — needed, difficult, revealing, and releasing. J.D. Harms has a special knack for giving prompts that serve as extreme therapy for me.
The only advice I can give new poets is to pay attention. Life is so full of busyness that we miss the little things. Poems tend to grow from those tiny moments— a shadow across the kitchen table, steam rising from a cup of coffee, a tiny mushroom nestled in leaves, the rhythmic breath of a sleeping baby, the sound of nothing at the end of the day. If you are too busy to notice these moments, you will never be a poet.
To keep my focus on the tiny things, I often go out with my camera searching for what isn’t easily noticeable. Photography is an excellent form of meditation that keeps my mind attentive to what is often overlooked.
But, we all have our methods. Find yours.
If you can be slow and easy, a poem will catch up to you.
© Dennett 2020 | https://medium.com/scrittura/a-poet-in-progress-30904b2baca6 | [] | 2020-11-21 03:08:39.177000+00:00 | ['About Me', 'Prose', 'Interview With A Poet', 'Poiesis News', 'Thinking About Poetry'] |
Jewelry Photography | I’m very blessed to have a beautiful model that signed a lifetime contract with me (my wife) so I’m pretty familiar with portrait photo. I’m working on a new project where I need to take jewelry photos.
I turned on the light box, placed it on top of the product, and started taking pictures with my 24–70mm lens. This lens is good for landscape and portrait in general but I know that I needed a macro lens, the lens that you see other photographers take pictures of bugs and insects with extreme details.
test shot with 24–70mm zoomed all the way in, can’t capture its detail
When I test shot the first image, it looks good with the reflection at the bottom. The ring was placed on my Ikea desk, I needed something more shiny. Looking around my desk I see my external backup hard drive is pretty shiny so I tested the shot on it.
this external hard drive has a shiny surface
Ok, looking good, but the surface has a lot of scratched so it doesn’t look good under macro detail. Looking around, I see my iPhone has a reflective screen too.
iPhone screen is pretty shiny too, but too small
But that screen is too small, I needed a bigger screen that is similar to iPhone, iPad! I ran into the bedroom, wife was watching some Vietnamese kid music show, told her I’ll trade her iPad for my iPhone. She was hesitating with a confused look on her face. I said ok I’ll sweeten the deal, I’ll swap iPad for iPhone with a kiss. She smiled and it’s a deal.
almost a full reflection on iPad screen
Now I need to hang the jewelry so I can get different angels and other details. There’s a water bottle on my desk so I tested that concept, didn’t work out well.
test shot trying to hang the product
I need the jewelry to be on its own, so something to hold it. I have a wooden toy on my desk too (ok by now you should know that my desk is super messy, I thought I had my own corner but somehow it was placed right next to the main door, people put all kind of stuffs on it).
wooden toy can hold stuffs!
But as I introduced the jewelry carrier, he kinds of block the lighting from top. Also my light metering also have to measure light with the wooden toy in the frame, so I can’t get a sharp lighting on the subject.
I contacted my friend, he happened to have the 100mm macro lens. It’s a life changer, I can get super close up shot of the products. Here are the results, I really enjoyed working on it. | https://medium.com/@kienpham2000/jewelry-photography-440f719008f2 | ['Kien Pham'] | 2016-10-31 01:17:22.299000+00:00 | ['Photography', 'How To', 'Jewelry', 'Macro Photography', 'Jewelry Design'] |
Sex Story 4 | Sex Story 4
Source: StoryVa (Free Love and Sex Stories)
Erotica Stories from StoryVa.com
Bedtime was the best part of the day for eighteen year old Nita Bainbridge. She loved to go upstairs for her nightly shower, then shower and slip on the old and paper thin flannel nightgown that she had put on every night since she had turned fifteen. It had been a birthday present from her stepfather, Lyle Hannover. Nita had spotted the nightgown during a shopping trip and her mother, Althea Hannover, had turned up her nose at the garment and insisted on a frilly, girly teddy that Nita had not been comfortable with. Lyle had noticed how much she liked the nightgown and bought it for her later.
In the last six months Nita had started wearing the flannel gown with nothing underneath it, the soft fabric felt good against her skin, and especially on her nipples. There were places in the fabric that were so thin that she could see right through it-and that was the biggest reason that she wore it so often now. Her crush on Lyle had begun to develop years before, but in recent months she had been aware that her mother’s treatment of Lyle was not that of a loving wife at all. The two seemed to exist in separate worlds, simply tolerating each other. Just a few months ago, Althea had moved all her belongings into the guest bedroom. There had been no arguments, no fussing. Nita had just come home one day and it had been already been done.
The buttons on her gown enclosed an opening that extended down below her breasts, and Nita rarely bothered to fasten any of them. After she noticed Lyle watching the gap as she moved, she stopped bothering with them at all. It wasn’t long before Althea began to become involved in so many community groups and clubs that she was rarely home at all.
“Where’s mom?” Nita asked one Friday afternoon towards the end of school. Lyle was sitting on his upholstered chair reading the newspaper.
“Some Garden Club function in Atlanta,” he said absently, not even looking up.
“Dad, aren’t you worried about mom cheating on you?”
Lyle did look up this time, surprise on his handsome face. Then he laughed and shook his head. “Trust me baby, the very last thing I worry about is your mother cheating on me. I doubt if she even remembers what sex is.” He went back to reading the paper.
“Daddy, don’t you and mom ‘do it’ anymore?” Nita felt something stir deep in her belly. She had never talked with Lyle about sex, and had never even hinted about her crush on him.
“I don’t know if it’s even appropriate for me to discuss this with you honey-“
“Why not?” Nita asked breathlessly, “I’m over eighteen, and I’m pretty sure I’ve heard worse in the locker room at gym class.” She gave him her most adoring smile and sat on the ottoman, just inches from his muscular legs. “If you tell me about it, I’ll tell you some of my stories,” she batted her eyes at him, hoping that the promise of trading her secrets for his would prove too much for him to resist.
Continue reading on StoryVa (Free romance & erotic stories and short stories) | https://medium.com/@max.storyteller/sex-story-4-69b1ad4efb0d | ['Max Storyteller'] | 2020-10-10 14:43:58.082000+00:00 | ['Nsfw', 'Romance Story', 'Lovestory', 'Sex', 'Erotica'] |
Missing data imputation in Machine Learning pipelines | Why do we need NADIA?
Machine learning is an important part of working in R. Packages like mlr3 simplify the whole process. Its no need to manually split data into training and test set, no need to manually fit linear models. Even more, packages like mlr3pipelines let you crate complex pipelines and include feature engineering and transformation in your models. R is also used by statisticians, from statisticians we have advanced methods of imputing missing data like mice or Amelia . What happens when we want to connect machine learning with a statistical approach. This is where NADIA comes.
NADIA is available on CRAN: install.packages("NADIA")
How does it work?
At this point, maybe some of you wonder what NADIA is really doing? So NADIA ( NA Data Imputation Algorithms) creates a unified interface for popular imputation packages using mlr3pipelines . If you want to use mice , missMDA , Amelia , or another popular package in your machine learning models you can do it much easier NADIA.
Statistical approach standing behind all of the included packages generates problems when we want to use them in ML. Neither of them creates models. In a typical machine learning case, imputing missing data is treated as part of the model and should be trained on training data. This is not possible with included packages, to solve this problem we propose something a little different:
Approach to data imputation used in NADIA. Graphic inspire by mlr3book
We decided to exclude imputation from the normal ML workflow. In this case, imputation is basically trained and used separately for training and test sets. This allows to include any method of imputing missing data in NADIA. For some packages (for example, mice ) the standard approach is also available. We are currently working to suit more packages to work in a normal approach.
Case study
The true power of the presented package comes from, how it simplifies the process of including advanced imputation techniques in ML models. To show you what I mean I will present how to perform a simple task with and without NADIA.
The task will be to evaluate imputation methods in ML using two folds cross-validation and compare results.
First, we must make certain assumptions:
We will use a dataset called Pima containing Indians Diabetes data from mlr3
I will try to maximally shortcode but include every necessary step
As a result, we will compare the accuracy achieved by two packages
I will not care to assure the same rows in test and training set between the two approaches (they will be the same for two packages in one approach)
With NADIA
# Creating Graph graph_mice <-
PipeOpMice$new() %>>% lrn('classif.glmnet') graph_missMDA <-
PipeOpMissMDA_PCA_MCA_FMAD$new() %>>% lrn('classif.glmnet') # Creating Graph Learners Learner_mice <- GraphLearner$new(graph_mice)
Learner_missMDA <- GraphLearner$new(graph_missMDA) # Cross-Validation set.seed(1)
rr_mice <-
resample(tsk('pima'),Learner_mice,rsmp('cv',folds=2)) set.seed(1)
rr_missMDA <- resample(tsk('pima'),Learner_missMDA,rsmp('cv',folds=2)) # Compering accuracy rr_mice$aggregate(msr('classif.acc'))
rr_missMDA$aggregate(msr('classif.acc'))
This task is simpler with NADIA because you have access to already written methods from mlr3 .
Code, where I am doing it manually is long, so I included only a part of it. Without using NADIA this task involves a lot of operations, it’s more complicated and requires knowledge about used packages.
First, we need to extract data from the task.
data <-
as.data.frame(tsk('pima')$data(cols = tsk('pima')$feature_names)) target <-
as.data.frame(tsk('pima')$data(cols = tsk('pima')$target_names))
Before creating models I need to manually impute missing data.
# Creating split ind <- sample(1:nrow(data),floor(nrow(data)/2)) # I have to impute data in 4 data frames data1_mice <- complete(mice(data[ind,]))
data2_mice <- complete(mice(data[-ind,])) # In the case of missMDA, I have to include the
# preparation step ncp_1 <- estim_ncpPCA(data[ind,])
ncp_2 <- estim_ncpPCA(data[-ind,]) data1_MDA <- as.data.frame(imputePCA(data[ind,],ncp_1$ncp)$completeObs)
data2_MDA <-
as.data.frame(imputePCA(data[-ind,],ncp_2$ncp)$completeObs) # Adding back column with target data1_mice$diabetes <- target[ind,]
data2_mice$diabetes <- target[-ind,]
data1_MDA$diabetes <- target[ind,]
data2_MDA$diabetes <- target[-ind,] # I have to create all tasks manually task1_mice <- TaskClassif$new('mice1',data1_mice,'diabetes')
task2_mice <- TaskClassif$new('mice2',data2_mice,'diabetes')
task1_MDA <- TaskClassif$new('MDA1',data1_MDA,'diabetes')
task2_MDA <- TaskClassif$new('MDA2',data1_MDA,'diabetes')
To finish the experiment, I would need to manually train and evaluate one model per fold (four models). I show how to do it on only one model.
# Crating Learner
Learner <- lrn('classif.glmnet') # Fold 1 mice
Learner$train(task1_mice)
acc1 <- Learner$predict(task2_mice)$score(msrs('classif.acc'))
As you can see it's faster using NADIA but being faster and easier is not the only advantage of our package.
Firstly, you don't need to know about additional steps to use the full potential of the chosen methods. In this example, this step is pretty simple, but this is not always the case. In our package preparation steps are automated and can be done without the attention of the users. The presented package also implements any forms of improving imputation if such is included in the imputation package. For example, using mice we can choose an imputation matrix (matrix indicating which variables will be imputed using which). In NADIA, the process of finding the best possible matrix is automatized.
Secondly, NADIA allows you to handle errors using functionality already implemented in mlr3 . Error handling is important when you want to use advanced statistical methods on real data.
Conclusions
NADIA is a useful extension to mlr3pipelines and simplifies work with imputation packages especially in machine learning. Our package is also simple to use and if you already know mlr3 you shouldn’t have any problem working with NADIA.
In case of question or issue, you can write here: NADIA GitHub
If you need more examples and technical information you can look here at NADIA Basic examples or here NADIA.
If you want to read more about data science: ResponsibleML
To see more R related content visit: https://www.r-bloggers.com | https://medium.com/responsibleml/missing-data-imputation-in-machine-learning-pipelines-214ef302889e | ['Jan Borowski'] | 2020-12-11 17:03:34.345000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Missing Data', 'Data', 'R', 'Data Science'] |
Making Redux in Rust | Making Redux in Rust
Recreating one of GitHub’s most popular libraries in Rust
Photo by Felix Brendler on Unsplash
Rust is an amazing language, boasting speeds comparable to C, and abstraction comparable to high-level languages like C# or TypeScript. It piqued my interest a few years back — but that’s as far as I went with it (merely interested). I have a pretty solid (and fanatically functional) JavaScript background, but I have always felt like I was a front-end dev only by default. There is such high availability of classic web technology guidance at the tips of my googling fingers! I have done a bit of programmerly soul-searching of late in an attempt to find my niche and really build something. And since Rust can literally go anywhere (?) what better language to learn?
Thus, I’m investing my further learning in Rust. I can still boast some great JS skills that will likely be in demand for years to come, but I see Rust as a major player in the near future.
Anyway. My assumption is you, my reader, are in a similar boat. You’ve come from JS and love web technologies; you have heard about Rust and are hungry for more. Well, I’ve got you covered, because today I’m going to write something relatable to most JS devs — Redux in Rust!
If you’re not familiar with Redux, that’s OK too. Redux is a simple state management machine that
holds some state, updates that state based on pure functions known as reducers.
That’s the most basic version, anyway. It’s an implementation of a messaging system popularized by the people at Facebook known as a Flux. Redux is probably the simplest implementation of a Flux. We’ll do more in our example than just hold state and update it, though. We will introduce the ability to handle side effects apart from the pure functional state reducer and provide a way to back-trace the state history, too.
Side note: A pure function is one that doesn’t perform any side effects. That is to say, if you give it the same input, it will always produce the same output and will never modify outside state.
First, we’ll need some state to manipulate:
Start basic.
That’s quite nearly the simplest state we could be managing. This should suffice for our examples, though. Since we want our state changes to be immutable steps, we should probably also derive some traits here:
Add some free functionality with derive .
Copy and Clone let us pass our struct around by value on the stack. Default lets us initialize our type without a new function. PartialEq allows us to compare our struct with == and != . We’ll enjoy these traits’ features when we are implementing our state store.
The next thing we need to do is define a wrapper for our state. This wrapper is what is known as the Store. You can think of the Store as a unique reference to the state it contains. There will only ever exist one current copy of your state within the Store.
Defining a simple state reducing store.
…and that got complicated quickly. This requires some explanation. Store is a generic type with a few fields.
It wraps up our state, T , which can be any type at instantiation. It takes a trait object as its reducer field. What this field allows us to do is pass a function as the value for reducer . The Box is merely a pointer to a heap-allocated item, which our function must be since its size cannot be known at compile time. We expect this function to take the form Fn(T, Msg) -> T .
But hold on, what’s Msg ?
This will hold our message types.
For right now, that’s Msg . If you’re familiar with JavaScript’s Redux library, this is what you’d normally call an action. Msg will eventually expand to cover all the possible actions for our application — or at least all the actions that we will perform for this one piece of state. Now that we’ve got some of the pieces, let’s get some implementation going. We will be implementing functionality for the Store struct:
Constructing a store with idiomatic new.
We have added some trait bounds to our impl block. where designates that the following type parameters must implement the traits provided. The traits that must be implemented on our data structures are listed in addition to format. Remember the traits we derived on our state struct, MyState ? These trait bounds allow us to leverage the traits that we’ve supplied to our state so that the compiler will know that what we’re doing has prerequisites and is OK so long as those PRs are met. This lets us do things like call the generic parameter T ’s default() function — the compiler knows T must implement the Default trait. Let’s kind of ignore the reducer parameter of our constructor for now. We’ve already discussed that heap-allocated trait object situation a moment ago, and it will make more sense as we move forward and utilize these fields than it will to discuss exactly how it works in memory.
Let’s add some more functionality. At the core of the Flux pattern is the concept of a dispatcher. Though I could (and in a more advanced scenario, probably would) make the dispatcher its own structure, I’ll opt in favor of the Redux route and simply make dispatch a method of the Store.
The only way to update our state is via dispatch.
That’s a stupid-simple and ultimately naive solution, but let’s run with it for now — it should compile anyhow. The dispatch function takes a Msg type object. All we do is take the current state and reassign it to the result of our reducer function, passing in the current state and the dispatched Msg parameter. OK, but what about the reducer? We still haven’t tried to construct a Store yet, but when we do, we will need a reducer according to our new signature. First let’s define an action that represents a request to change the state:
An actual action.
We’ve added a variant to our Msg type. Now we have something to work with in our state reducer:
A basic reducer function.
It’s a really simple reducer to accompany our really simple state structure. A reducer typically behaves this way: It matches the message received, then returns a brand new state object based on the data in that received message. Our current messages are so simple that they don’t have any payload data, they are merely flags. Our reducer only needs to match a single case for now; in all other cases, we pass back the original state. Now we can try out our machine:
A store that does…nothing. Yet.
Great…but, uh…what can I do with it? Nothing! I can’t log my state, look at my state, or do practically anything at all except send out my increment messages into the proverbial void, hoping that they’re producing correct state objects!
This leads us to another big part of the Flux pattern: isolating side effects. A side effect in the computer science world is practically everything you want to do with an application. Logging in? Side-effecting. Saving data? Side-effecting. Web request? Side-effecting again. The only thing that isn’t side-effecting is a pure function — one that, given the same input, will produce the same output every time forever. Side effects are necessary bits of chaos that must be controlled!
Since side effects aren’t part of our pure state reducer and may change variables outside of the supplied parameters, it’s best to isolate them from pure code so that you can change or remove them easily. So, to handle these side effects, I’ve opted to take the route of supplying a hook for middleware-functions to perform side effects as a part of the dispatch mechanism. First we must add a vector of pointers to functions that take the form Fn(Msg) -> Msg .
Adding a new field to our Store.
I used a vector of functions because I want to allow for the use of multiple middleware functions on the Store. This will allow us to compose our side affecting functions later. Now we need to add some implementation to utilize our new field:
Middleware-capable.
There are two new functions to add to our impl block for Store. use_middleware registers a function to our middleware pipeline. middleware_strategy is a helper that we will call within dispatch (which I’ll describe momentarily). Since we can’t mutably borrow self again inside our first for loop, our strategy gathers the results (which are of type Msg ) in a Vec and then iterates through those, allowing us to borrow self again to dispatch each Msg . Now we just need to plug this middleware hook into our dispatch function:
Noop-terminating dispatcher.
I’ve added a helper function, is_empty , which takes a message and determines whether it is the Noop variant of Msg . I’ll explain why it’s important in a series of steps:
When our dispatch fires, we immediately start the middleware loop.
fires, we immediately start the middleware loop. Each middleware returns a new message and then dispatches that message.
dispatch fires and we start the middleware loop.
fires and we start the middleware loop. And now we’re looping infinitely.
So to circumvent the infinite looping, we must have some kind of non-propagating action that will always terminate the middleware loop by not triggering a new dispatch . That’s what our Noop variant will be most useful for here. Let’s write a middleware to log messages received by the Store.
Finally, some insight.
That should now log our Increment message twice. All right! We’re doing something “useful” with our Flux implementation. Notice how we must return the Noop message in logger_mw to stop the dispatch process.
Now that we understand how middlewares work, let’s write one that would be more useful in real life. I’m going to introduce a conditional message splitter by changing a few things. First we should think of the original dispatch message as a request, which could yield success or failure:
Splitting messages, part 1.
Now we dispatch the TryIncrement message, and we will have a middleware handle the condition. Let’s write our splitter middleware now:
Splitting messages, part 2.
We’ve introduced some arbitrary rules — if we call upon our state to Increment more than ten times, the Increment should fail. Now if we plug that in with use_middleware , it should split the messages. And if we update our logger:
Logging our new messages.
…then it should also tell us what message gets dispatched. If we call it more than ten times, it should log IncrementFailed messages instead,
Before we call this experiment done, we should implement a way to see the state’s history. Let’s add some pieces:
A few things are happening here:
We’ve added fields to represent the history as a Vec of the provided type T . We modify our non-terminal dispatch branch to include capturing the previous state and storing it in our history Vec . Finally, this is the reason we added PartialEq to our trait bounds — it allows us to compare the previous and next states using a simple != operator. Based on the result of that comparison, we can either determine the states were equal and not add to the state change history, or we determine that the states were inequal, subsequently adding the previous state to the history. We also need a function to retrieve the history. bactrace looks back as many steps as requested, returning a Vec containing up to steps state changes, provided enough changes have occurred.
I think that just about wraps it all up. We’ve learned how a Redux/Flux implementation works to split pure and impure portions of code. We learned how to make modular function middlewares to perform side effects. We implemented simple logging and state back-tracing. And we did it all in Rust!
Here’s a link to the Rust Playground.
Until the next episode of my Rust journey, FP on folks! | https://medium.com/better-programming/redux-in-rust-d622822085fe | [] | 2020-11-23 17:31:58.794000+00:00 | ['Rust', 'Programming', 'Software Development', 'Technology', 'Data Science'] |
Code Smell 01 — Anemic Models | Code Smell 01 — Anemic Models
Your objects are a bunch of public attributes without behavior.
Photo by Stacey Vandergriff on Unsplash
Protocol is empty (with setters/getters).
If we ask a domain expert to describe an entity he/she would hardly tell it is ‘a bunch of attributes’.
Problems
No Encapsulation.
No mapping to real world entities.
Duplicate Code
Coupling
Solutions
1) Find Responsibilities.
2) Protect your attributes.
3) Hide implementations.
4) Delegate
Examples
DTOs
Sample Code
Wrong
Right
Detection
Detection can be automated with sophisticated linters ignoring setters and getters and counting real behavior methods.
Also Known as
Data Class
Tags
Anemic
OOP as Data
Encapsulation
Setters/Getters
Mutability
More info | https://medium.com/dev-genius/code-smell-01-anemic-models-f9fb5a1323b3 | ['Maximiliano Contieri'] | 2020-10-25 01:19:11.084000+00:00 | ['Software Development', 'Code Smells', 'Clean Code', 'Object Oriented', 'Programming'] |
Üftade | 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/t%C3%BCrkiye/%C3%BCftade-77da7285ab9 | ['Fettah Açıkel'] | 2020-12-21 10:59:57.993000+00:00 | ['Şiir', 'Türkçe', 'Edebiyat', 'Şair', 'Türkçe Yayın'] |
Trusting yourself gives you a lot of power back | “The more disciplined your environment is, the less discipline you need to be, don’t swim upstream”- James Clear
(Source: Instagram, @elena.masci_illustrations)
There are so many pieces of life advice that are contradicting, but one that I struggle with most is choosing between spending time with people you love whose values and lifestyles you may not resonate with, and spending time with those that inspire you to be better.
I am a believer of the fact that ’you become the average of the top 5 people you surround yourself with’. I believe that whom you spend your time with matters.
The question that arises is, what if some people make you happy, but there are some values they have which don’t resonate with you, or they prefer not to take risks and are happy to settle for what they have? As a person who treasures my relationships, I don’t believe in ending a relationship based on the mere fact that the person does not have similar values and goals.
Though I am still figuring out how reconcile these two values, I always tell myself to listen to my intuition. There are some people whom, you know may not influence you positively in terms of lifestyle, who nonetheless make you feel valued and happy. It’s about knowing how to draw the line, and also trusting yourself. Trusting that you are responsible for your own actions and lifestyle.
Trusting yourself gives you a lot of power back. When you trust yourself, you don’t need to only spend time with everyone who resonates with your values, because you know that even when you spend time with those who don’t, you still have the internal motivation and discipline to stay grounded and driven, regardless of how others live their lives. | https://medium.com/@claudia1ee/trusting-yourself-gives-you-a-lot-of-power-back-c135e4996551 | ['Claudia Lee'] | 2020-12-11 16:41:19.072000+00:00 | ['Self Improvement', 'Intuition', 'Life Lessons', 'Trust', 'Self-awareness'] |
Ethics: added value for your business! | Your business, you created it with your own hands. She is part of you. She is a bit like your child and it is normal that you want to transmit your values to her. I would even say it’s completely legitimate. So you do it in your everyday life, but you navigate a little on sight: you sometimes find it complicated to integrate ethics into your business, that it involves sacrifices, that you have less room for maneuver. You even sometimes doubt: are you not taking a path strewn with pitfalls? Are you not harming your business? Are you too idealistic to be an entrepreneur ?
I wrote this article to reassure you. No ! You are right to embark on the path of ethical entrepreneurship. Your business is you: it must be like you. And then, ultimately, ethics pays off, I promise you. I’m going to show you that building a business with strong values is like guiding your child to become a good person. It’s rewarding and it enriches everyone, you and society as a whole.
Why are ethics important in the business?
The challenges of responsible entrepreneurship
What if we started with a small definition of ethical business ? It is a company that establishes moral rules in the conduct of its business. If, for example, you offer massage services to your clients and you have made the choice to only use organic products for environmental reasons, you are already in an ethical process. Perhaps you also promote diversity and parity in your team. Etc. It is all part of a reasoned approach which is based on something other than simple profit. You are part of this generation of entrepreneurs who wonder how to reconcile economic growth, preservation of the environment and respect for people. You are not alone, rest assured! To those who wonder why we talk so much about ethics in business, I want to answer that responsible companies are the only solution to today’s societal and environmental challenges.
Customers in search of ethics
Moreover, consumers have understood this well. And consumers are your customers. It is therefore in your best interest to listen to them, understand them and adapt to their concerns. These customers are like you. You want to build a business that matches your values. Customers want services and products that match their own values. There is a fundamental trend towards a more reasonable consumption. Among the criteria, we find a desire to:
consume local and of focus on made in France, short courses, small producers and small artisans instead of choosing large international brands whose products and their components go around the world four times;
buy healthier products and services, often from the organic farming, respecting binding charters and having serious labels;
supporting ethical entrepreneurship and inclusive businesses, which highlight mixed and parity, and at least provide decent working conditions for their employees.
According to one Harris Interactive study for Cetelem from May 2020, the French were 53 % to wish to consume less. Of course, this investigation must be placed in the particular context of the Covid 19 health crisis. However, many signs show a change in mentality that must be taken into account. So you are not a sweet dreamer or a sweet dreamer if you have chosen to emphasize ethics in your business. On the contrary, you see clearly in the future!
Restore trust with customers
Frenzied lobbying for the protection of pesticides; scandalous working conditions in the textile industry (including in Europe); suicides of employees at work … We could make an endless list of scandals that have directly or indirectly affected very large companies. Even when they buy their products or services, consumers no longer have too much confidence in big brands. Small structures like yours have greater potential for credibility. You should therefore not doubt your ethical choices: they are relevant!
Have you noticed that adults always rave about kind, smiling, kind and respectful children of their peers? Just as you raise your child by giving him the best that you have in you, you must build a business in your image. Your prospects and customers will see your authenticity and appreciate your beautiful values. No one wants to buy from a clothing manufacturer that employs children in Bangladesh rather than from a French company that guarantees responsible production. If some consumers still buy from the first, it is because of the price. And the low price is not a qualitative selling point: it is the only argument that remains when you have nothing else to promote in your business.
So believe in social, solidarity and environmental entrepreneurship ! Its advantages are real, I’ll tell you about them right away.
The benefits of ethical entrepreneurship
The advantages of ethics in business? Cons, yes!
We just saw why it was necessary to promote ethics in the company. Now let’s talk about the concrete benefits that this will bring to you, you as a business owner, because I am very keen to dispel your doubts on this subject.
At this point in your business, you may only see the downsides of your ethical positioning. You see the budget it takes and the time it takes you. Freeing yourself from all social, environmental and human constraints saves time and money in the short term, no doubt! Otherwise, everyone would go out of their way like you, wouldn’t they?
I can imagine that sometimes you look at invoices from your local supplier, and / or organic, and / or fair trade, and think about the savings you would make if you did like everyone else and import from the other end of the planet cheaper and lower quality products …
I will therefore use my analogy with the child being educated, because I find it decidedly very relevant. It takes patience, time and energy to grow your child with respect for oneself, for others and for the world. But what a reward, then!
The same goes for your business!
Ethics create value in the eyes of the customer
Like I was telling you, if it was so easy to build ethics into your business, everyone would. And it wouldn’t be as valuable to customers anymore. Ethics are one of the elements that set you apart from your competitors in the eyes of your target customers. Think of these start-ups which promote their teams based on diversity and parity or these e-shops which have based their business model on made in France, organic products or artisanal cooperatives. A few examples of ethical companies who succeeded: Perus, Peau éthique, Bonjour Maurice, etc.
There are consumers who cannot find satisfaction in the market because they have ethical demands that are not shared by your competitors. What if you made a difference? What if you posed as an initiator? You may even be getting ahead of future legislation or anticipating what will be common consumption patterns tomorrow. Who knows ?
Ethics create enthusiasm in the company
If you want ethical entrepreneurship, it’s because it meets a deep need that comes from you. It is obvious that we feel more fulfilled when we promote our values in our daily activity. You are going to be the first or the first to savor it (in any case, as soon as you have dispelled the doubts that assail you!).
You and your team, your collaborators and your employees: it is very motivating to work for more than good remuneration. It’s inspiring to feel useful, to bring added value and of quality to the world. And to know that its suppliers and partners also benefit from your ethical choices. It’s great to be the link in a virtuous circle.
An architectural firm that promotes renewable energies in its projects is moving forward with more conviction. A business start-up coach who helps clients achieve their lifelong dreams is immensely satisfied. 😉
According to a study by Harvard Business School 1, 180 American companies committed to a sustainable development policy had been much more profitable than their competitors. Why, if not because their teams felt carried by the enthusiasm of their approach?
Ethics help sell
If you are already engaged in an ethical entrepreneurial process, you surely feel a great conviction when you talk about your products and your services. You have nothing to hide, since everything is fair. So you speak with transparency and sincerity. And with passion. What more can you ask for from a salesperson?
It is one of the benefits of business ethics : it makes you persuasive, in any case when the approach is sincere.
Otherwise, ethics is just a tool of communication without value. It is as if a parent is teaching their child good manners and having homophobic, sexist or racist comments in front of them in private. Not great, is it?
You are different, You believe in your ethical entrepreneurship. You believe what you say and that makes all the difference in your communication!
How to reconcile ethics and profitability?
Well, when you raise a child, you don’t think about profitability. We do not say to ourselves that it is money and wasted time to teach him to respect the planet and others. Although, sometimes, one wonders if developing kindness in one’s children might not risk making them prey in a world populated by sharks.
It’s a bit the same for your business, once again. The ethical social entrepreneurship, it’s great, but how do you apply it on a daily basis? How to reconcile growth and sustainable development, for example ? How to promote diversity? And how do you fit all this into the budget and generate a turnover that allows you to make a good living from your activity? Because you are not a philanthropic association: you manage a business and it is quite normal that this one makes you earn money!
Target the right customer segment
I have already spoken a little about it. It is capital to well define your target customer and your personas. Your positioning will not meet with everyone’s support. Let’s be honest, some people don’t feel very concerned about climate change, the disappearance of bees, harassment at work, or employment conditions in certain industries in Southeast Asia. Too bad for them, you are not talking to them. Other people, on the contrary, are very vigilant and demanding and want to consume products and services in accordance with their values. Among these, some will be seduced by your speech. Identify them!
Integrate ethics into the business plan
Find responsible suppliers, hire aware employees, budget for additional costs, etc. : choose an ethical business model that has requirements that must be foreseen upstream.
If you have decided to start a business training in aromatherapy and selling organic and local essential oils, you need to find specific partners. It is possible that your suppliers are more expensive than those at the neighboring pharmacy. It is also possible that, for some of your products, you have trouble finding suppliers at all! You will spend more time on this part of your ethical entrepreneurship creation. In addition, the financial charges assigned to this aspect of your business may be heavier.
It is therefore very useful to integrate these elements into your business plan. You must take into account your ethical requirements from the development phase of the project to avoid additional financial costs or having to rethink your entire internal organization afterwards.
You haven’t? Do not panic ! A business plan is not only useful for starting a business, it also helps you see things more clearly during the development or restructuring phase. Nothing is lost as long as you have the will and the will.
Establish a corporate charter
The ethical commitment of companies is often formalized in a document. You can write a charter, a code of good conduct and / or a guide to good practices for yourself and all your staff and employees. Internally, these documents remind everyone of the company’s ethical priorities. They are also useful when you are hiring. Ethics are part of the corporate culture. You can express your desire for diversity and parity and develop inclusive processes through these procedures.
You or your sales representatives can also use this charter or this guide to promote your brand image with partners and prospects.
And, precisely, since we are talking about communication …
Communicate around your values
Maybe you find it pompous to communicate your values. And you don’t dare. Get rid of your reservations: you are legitimate since you believe what you say.
Many brands and companies are talking about ethical communication. Some of them do not hesitate to make turns 180 ° compared to their past. The examples of ethical issues in large companies that the communicators try to patch up as many as they can (like Amazon, which has been accused of imposing extremely harsh working conditions on its employees).
That’s not your situation.
You need to talk about yourself, your ethical entrepreneurship, and what matters to you in your communications, whether on press kits, social networks, the blog, newsletters and, of course, the page “Who am I?” “Or” Who are we? Of your website. Your future customers want to know you and know if they can trust you. Reassure them and convince them! (You are good at it, don’t forget that!)
Stay focused on your business model
Don’t forget yourself along the way. Your values are your strength, they are the heart of your business model. They give you legitimacy and authenticity. You are building your corporate identity. It can take a long time, just like raising a child… but it is very rewarding!
In the early years of a business, we have to deal with a lot of different issues and sometimes we lose sight of our deepest aspirations and values. Maybe you think that is not the most important thing now and that your ethical demands are more compelling than beneficial. I hope this long article on ethically responsible entrepreneurship will have removed your doubts and convinced you that it is exactly the opposite and that you must think about it right away. It’s part of your business model!
But you still have to know where you are going to make ethics a force for your business. Maybe this is where the problem lies for you? In this case, contact me for a first free phone interview. I could help you see it more clearly in your entrepreneurial strategy !
1 Eccles, RG, Ioannou, I., Serafeim, G., “The Impact of Corporate Sustainability on Organizational Processes and Performance”, Management Science, flight. 60, n ° 11, November 2014, p. 2835–2857
Image credits: image 1 of bingngu93 — image 2 of Ryan mcguire — image 3 of Goumbik — image 4 of Lorraine Cormier | https://medium.com/@fabricecatan/ethics-added-value-for-your-business-4384dbec944b | ['Fabrice Catan'] | 2020-12-22 19:17:42.008000+00:00 | ['Business Intelligence', 'Business', 'Ethical', 'Ethics', 'Business Strategy'] |
17 Strategies for Dealing with Data, Big Data, and Even Bigger Data | Python is the most popular language for scientific and numerical computing. Pandas is the most popular for cleaning code and exploratory data analysis.
Using pandas with Python allows you to handle much more data than you could with Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets.
SQL databases are very popular for storing data, but the Python ecosystem has many advantages over SQL when it comes to expressiveness, testing, reproducibility, and the ability to quickly perform data analysis, statistics, and machine learning.
Unfortunately, if you are working locally, the amount of data that pandas can handle is limited by the amount of memory on your machine. And if you’re working in the cloud, more memory costs more money. 💵
Regardless of where you code is running you want operations to happen quickly so you can GSD (Get Stuff Done)! 😀
Things to always do
If you’ve ever heard or seen advice on speeding up code you’ve seen the warning. ⚠️ Don’t prematurely optimize! ⚠️
This is good advice. But it’s also smart to know techniques so you can write clean fast code the first time. 🚀
Getting after it! Source: pixabay.com
The following are three good coding practices for any size dataset.
Avoid nested loops whenever possible. Here’s a brief primer on Big-O notation and algorithm analysis. One for loop nested inside another for loop generally leads to polynomial time calculations. If you have more than a few items to search through, you’ll be waiting for a while. See a nice chart and explanation here. Use list comprehensions (and dict comprehensions) whenever possible in Python. Creating a list on demand is faster than repeatedly loading and appending attributes to a list — hat tip to the Stack Overflow answer here. However, in general, don’t sacrifice clarity for speed, so be careful with nesting list comprehensions. ⚠️ In pandas, use built-in vectorized functions. The principle is same as the one behind list and dict comprehensions. Applying a function to a whole data structure at once is much faster than repeatedly calling a function.
If you find yourself reaching for apply , think about whether you really need to. apply is looping over rows or columns. Vectorized methods are usually faster and less code, so they are a win on multiple fronts. 🚀
Likewise, avoid other pandas Series and DataFrame methods that loop over your data, such as applymap , itterrows , and ittertuples . If it makes sense, use the map or replace methods on a DataFrame instead of any of those other options to save lots of time.
Notice that these suggestions might not hold for very small amounts of data, but in that case, the stakes are low, so who cares. 😉
This brings us to our most important rule
If you can stay in pandas, stay in pandas. 🐼
It’s a happy place. 😀
Don’t worry about these speed and memory issues if you aren’t having problems and you don’t expect your data or memory footprint to balloon.
But at some point storm clouds will gather. ⛈ You’ll encounter a big dataset and then you’ll want to know what to do. Let’s see some tips.
Things to do with pretty big data (roughly millions of rows)
Like millions of grains of sand. Source: pixabay.com
Use a subset of your data to explore, clean, and make a baseline model if you’re doing machine learning. Solve 90% of your problems fast and save time and resources. This technique can help you get a good model so much faster! ⏳ Load only the columns that you need with the usecols argument when reading in your DataFrame. Less data in = win! Use dtypes efficiently. Downcast numeric columns to the smallest dtypes that makes sense with pd.to_numeric() . Convert columns with low cardinality (just a few values) to a categorical dtype. Here’s a pandas guide on efficient dtypes. Parallelize model training in scikit-learn to use more processing cores whenever possible. By default, scikit-learn uses just one of your machine’s cores. Many computers have 4 or more cores. You can use them all for parallelizable tasks by passing the keyword argument n_jobs=-1 . Save pandas DataFrames in feather or pickle formats for faster reading and writing. Hat tip to Martin Skarzynski, who links to evidence and code here. Use pd.eval to speed up pandas operations. Pass the function your usual code in a string. It does the operation much faster. Here’s a chart from tests with a 100 column DataFrame.
Image from this good article on the topic by Tirthajyoti Sarkar
df.query is basically same as pd.eval , but as a DataFrame method instead of a top-level pandas function.
See the docs because there are some gotchas. ⚠️
Pandas is using numexpr under the hood. Numexpr also works with NumPy. Hat tip to Chris Conlan in his book Fast Python for pointing me to @Numexpr. Chris’s book is an excellent read for learning how to speed up your Python code. 👍
Things do with really big data (roughly tens of millions of rows and up)
Even more data! Source: pixabay.com
Use numba. Numba gives you a big speed boost if you’re doing mathematical calcs. Install numba and import it. Then use the @numba.jit decorator function when you need to loop over NumPy arrays and can't use vectorized methods. It only works withNumPy arrays. Use .to_numpy() on a pandas DataFrame to convert it to a NumPy array. Use SciPy sparse matrices when it makes sense. Scikit-learn outputs sparse arrays automatically with some transformers, such as CountVectorizer. When your data is mostly 0s or missing values, you can convert columns to sparse dtypes in pandas. Read more here. Use Dask to parallelize the reading of datasets into pandas in chunks. Dask can also parallelize data operations across multiple machines. It mimics a subset of the pandas and NumPy APIs. Dask-ML is a sister package to parallelize machine learning algorithms across multiple machines. It mimics the scikit-learn API. Dask plays nicely with other popular machine learning libraries such as XGBoost, LightGBM, PyTorch, and TensorFlow. Use PyTorch with or without a GPU. You can get really big speedups by using PyTorch on a GPU, as I found in this article on sorting.
Things to keep an eye on/experiment with for dealing with big data in the future
Keep an eye on them! Source: pixabay.com
The following three packages are bleeding edge as of mid-2020. Expect configuration issues and API changes. If you are working locally on a CPU, these packages are unlikely to fit your needs. But they all look very promising and are worth keeping an eye on. 👀
Do you have access to lots of cpu cores? Does your data have more than 32 columns (necessary as of mid-2020)? Then consider Modin. It mimics a subset of the pandas library to speed up operations on large datasets. It uses Apache Arrow (via Ray) or Dask under the hood. The Dask backend is experimental. Some things weren’t fast in my tests — for example reading in data from NumPy arrays was slow and memory management was an issue. You can use jax in place of NumPy. Jax is an open source google product that’s bleeding edge. It speeds up operations by using five things under the hood: autograd, XLA, JIT, vectorizer, and parallelizer. Jax works on a CPU, GPU, or TPU and might be simpler than using PyTorch or TensorFlow to get speed boosts. Jax is good for deep learning, too. It works withNumPy version but not pandas as of mid-2020. However, you could convert a DataFrame to a TensorFlow or NumPy object and then use jax. Read more here. Rapids cuDF uses Apache Arrow on GPUs with a pandas-like API. It’s an open source Python package from NVIDIA. Rapids plays nicely with Dask, so you could get multiple GPUs processing data in parallel. For the biggest workloads, it should provide a nice boost.
Other stuff to know about code speed and big data
Timing operations
If you want to time an operation in a Jupyter notebook, you can use
%time or %%timeit magic commands. They both work on a single line or an entire code cell.
%time runs once and %%timeit runs the code multiple times (the default is seven). Do check out the docs to see some subtleties.
If you are working in a Python script or notebook you can import the time module, check the time before and after running code, and find the difference.
When testing for time, note that different machines and software versions can cause variation. Also, caching will sometimes mislead if you are doing repeated tests. As with all experimentation, hold everything you can constant. 👍
Storing big data
GitHub’s maximum file size is 100MB. You can use Git Large File Storage extension if you want to version large files with GitHub.
Also, make sure you aren’t auto-uploading files to Dropbox, iCloud, or some other auto-backup service, unless you want to be.
Want to learn more?
The pandas docs have sections on enhancing performance and scaling to large datasets. Some of my ideas are adapted from those sections.
Have other tips? I’d love to hear them over on Twitter. 🎉
Wrap
You’ve seen how to write faster code. You’ve also seen how to deal with big data and really big data. Finally, you saw some new libraries that will likely continue to become more popular for processing big data.
I hope you’ve found this guide to be helpful. If you did, please share it on your favorite social media so other folks can find it, too. 😀
I write about Python, SQL, Docker, and other tech topics. If any of that’s of interest to you, sign up for my mailing list of awesome data science resources and read more to help you grow your skills here. 👍 | https://towardsdatascience.com/17-strategies-for-dealing-with-data-big-data-and-even-bigger-data-283426c7d260 | ['Jeff Hale'] | 2020-10-08 21:26:22.977000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Python', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Technology', 'Data Science'] |
Make your Azure metric alerts stateless | By default, metric alert will not fire unless the last fired alert is resolved.
A fired metric alert gets resolved when the alert condition is not met for three consecutive periods. This is to reduce noise.
Snippet from documentation
Read more at View and resolution of fired alerts: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-monitor/platform/alerts-metric-overview#view-and-resolution-of-fired-alerts
But in any case you want your metric alert to fire continuously whenever a condition is met, you can turn off this auto resolution of metric alert by updating “auto-mitigate” property of metric alert rule to false.
In this case, auto resolution won’t work as per the documentation. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-monitor/platform/alerts-metric-overview#view-and-resolution-of-fired-alerts
Once “auto-mitigate” property of metric alert rule is set to false, whenever the condition in metric alert rule will meet doesn’t matter if last fired alert was resolved or not, an alert will be fired, making metric alert rules stateless. (Similar to log search alerts)
As of now, we can’t update turn off auto resolution from Azure portal but we can do that from Azure CLI.
Azure CLI: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/cli/azure/monitor/metrics/alert?view=azure-cli-latest#az-monitor-metrics-alert-update | https://medium.com/@sachpan/make-your-azure-metric-alerts-stateless-1db1fcfdbca1 | ['Sachin Panwar'] | 2020-12-15 14:42:26.219000+00:00 | ['Azure Metric Alerts', 'Azure Monitoring', 'Azure', 'Azure Monitor'] |
Real Estate Marketing Strategies to increase the lead generation | The real estate industry has witnessed major transformations in the past few decades and now the Covid pandemic has further changed the scenario and has created an improved and digitalized model of real estate operations. So as a real estate agent in this rapidly changing industry, you require the most creative online marketing strategies along with the traditional methods to stay on the top of your game.
While there can’t be a perfect real estate marketing strategy, it is advisable to use 3–4 methods of lead generation to maximize your reach. Listed below are the 10 most effective strategies for real estate marketing
Build a professional single property website: The first and the foremost thing you need to do is to develop a professional single property website. In these times when everyone is spending more & more time online, it is of paramount importance to have a virtual address. A single stop which will provide all the information you need to communicate to potential customers about the real estate property you want to sell. The website along with great pictures and videos of the property will be the most effective medium in getting you the right buyers in no time.
The first and the foremost thing you need to do is to develop a professional single property website. In these times when everyone is spending more & more time online, it is of paramount importance to have a virtual address. A single stop which will provide all the information you need to communicate to potential customers about the real estate property you want to sell. The website along with great pictures and videos of the property will be the most effective medium in getting you the right buyers in no time. Identify your target customer: Marketing always works best when its messaging is focused on a specific segment of your overall market. For example, your real estate marketing will need to speak one way to investors and an entirely different way if your target customers are first-time home buyers.
Marketing always works best when its messaging is focused on a specific segment of your overall market. For example, your real estate marketing will need to speak one way to investors and an entirely different way if your target customers are first-time home buyers. Hire a professional photographer: Investing in professional photography must be the first thing in your mind if you plan to have a faster home sale. You have to hire a professional photographer to capture high-quality listing photos with a DSLR camera and tripod.
Investing in professional photography must be the first thing in your mind if you plan to have a faster home sale. You have to hire a professional photographer to capture high-quality listing photos with a DSLR camera and tripod. Create video walkthroughs: Video Ads are more popular than text ads. Basically, 80% of people are spending their 75% Internet on watching videos on any social media platform. That’s why you can put your video ads simply on Facebook more than YouTube. Because the study tells us that people watch videos on Facebook more than YouTube.
Video Ads are more popular than text ads. Basically, 80% of people are spending their 75% Internet on watching videos on any social media platform. That’s why you can put your video ads simply on Facebook more than YouTube. Because the study tells us that people watch videos on Facebook more than YouTube. Create targeted social media ad campaigns: The influence of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram has made a huge impact on the real estate market. For many real estate agents, social media has turned out to be the best way to connect with potential buyers. In fact, according to NAR, 77% of realtors actively use social media for real estate.
The influence of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram has made a huge impact on the real estate market. For many real estate agents, social media has turned out to be the best way to connect with potential buyers. In fact, according to NAR, 77% of realtors actively use social media for real estate. Engage in content marketing: For real estate agents, content marketing helps to build trust and turn engagement into profits. Share content that buyers care about. Post new listings on your timeline or share useful blog posts about how to renovate or buy a home.
For real estate agents, content marketing helps to build trust and turn engagement into profits. Share content that buyers care about. Post new listings on your timeline or share useful blog posts about how to renovate or buy a home. Use email marketing campaigns: By email marketing, you can grab more attention from the audience. Create an email that contains all the information about your business, the property being sold, as well as its picture.
By email marketing, you can grab more attention from the audience. Create an email that contains all the information about your business, the property being sold, as well as its picture. Build a system for referrals: Referrals are free real estate buyer leads that are passed to you by others. Referrals often come from previous clients, which is why it’s so important to stay in touch with buyers after they’ve purchased their homes.
Referrals are free real estate buyer leads that are passed to you by others. Referrals often come from previous clients, which is why it’s so important to stay in touch with buyers after they’ve purchased their homes. Print advertising material: Create high quality flyers for the prospective buyers to take with them. When buyers are reviewing homes later a good quality brochure with attractive pictures triggers a positive emotional response.
For more information visit at https://starestatemarketing.com/ | https://medium.com/@ashutoshkalbande/real-estate-marketing-strategies-to-increase-the-lead-generation-7c4a2ce80e57 | ['Ashutosh Kalbande'] | 2021-12-31 11:59:11.916000+00:00 | ['Property', 'Real Estate News', 'Property Management', 'USA', 'Real Estate'] |
Simple classification problem with sklearn and iris flower data set | Classification problems
Let’s say your boss asks you to code an way to classify the customers of a store in some classes based on customer attributes(shopping rate, income, age, family size and etc…) or a school hire you to code something to help teachers to understand what kind of students they have based on student school attributes. All of this problems can be solved using Machine learning and neural networks.
Basically, we can create a machine learning model to classify something based on data.
As an example, we will try to identify the species of a plant based on it’s flower attributes(sepal length, sepal width, petal length and petal width), using this data we will create a model to discover what species the plant is.
The data
Usually used as the “Hello world” data set to start machine learning studies.
The data set consists of 50 samples from each of three species of Iris (Iris setosa, Iris virginica and Iris versicolor). Four features were measured from each sample: the length and the width of the sepals and petals, in centimeters. Based on the combination of these four features, Fisher developed a linear discriminant model to distinguish the species from each other. Wikipedia
Summary Statistics
It’s important to remember, this data set will be loaded from sklearn.datasets preloaded samples and because of that, we don’t need to clean or perform any kind of modeling on the data.
The target column that represents the plant species is in number format, so, we will use this dict as reference:
The model
There is several kinds of classification models we could use for this problem and probally, almost all of them would perform very well, but, after some tests, I realized the MLP classifier suits very very well to this case, so, we will be using it as our example.
But, what actually is the MLP classifier?
Accordingly to wikipedia “A multilayer perceptron (MLP) is a class of feedforward artificial neural network (ANN). The term MLP is used ambiguously, sometimes loosely to any feedforward ANN, sometimes strictly to refer to networks composed of multiple layers of perceptrons (with threshold activation); see § Terminology. Multilayer perceptrons are sometimes colloquially referred to as “vanilla” neural networks, especially when they have a single hidden layer.”
Okay, Okay. If we read something like this and have never studied about it, probably will be a little confusing, but, is not that hard if we explain in more simple words: A multilayer perceptron is supervisioned neural network that uses a technique called backpropagation for training and a nonlinear activation function. Usually used to solve classification problems.
See? Not that hard!!!!?! Take a look at the links for better understanding.
Ok, let’s code it
Code it is very easy when using sklearn, but, remember, the data we are using are already well fited and ready to go, in real world problems the data will need to be processed and hyperparameters calibrated. Data processing are one of the most important part when creating a ML model.
As you see, the code is very easy to write and actually easy to understand. Now we can guess the plant species, inputing the attributes we saw, let’s get a sample and try it:
Sample
And predict it using our model, we expect the result 1.
Sample predict
As we can see we got the correct result. Checking our reference we see the sample we got, is an Iris-Versicolour species. Other thing we can try is to check our model score using the test data we create previously, check it out:
Our model has an impressive accuracy score, but, the problem here is we used just data the model already knows and this don’t explain a lot to us, we need to use unknown data to really validate our model accuracy, that’s exactly why we did this previously:
This part of the code took 5 random samples from the data set, in order to use as a validation data, the reason we do things like this, is to see how te model performs with unkown data and really have an idea of his accuracy, so, let’s try it out:
Validation test
There we are, we got an excelent result with our validation data.
Conclusion
We saw a very summarized implementation of a neural network using sklearn with data preformated and ready to go, usually, the problems are never that easy to solve and demands hours of analysis and hard work.
The purpose of this article is just give a simple example about implementing your first neural network and present to you some concepts and links to search and narrow your studies. | https://medium.com/cafe-e-tech/simple-classification-problem-with-sklearn-and-iris-flower-data-set-85d7c8e0aeed | ['Victor Bona'] | 2020-09-17 00:07:37.928000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Data Science'] |
Why I Continue to Edit an Article After Publication/Curation | Why I Continue to Edit an Article After Publication/Curation
Because after some distance from your piece, you may see it differently.
Medium asks, as do all publications, that you edit your work before you publish.
Too many of us don’t bother, thinking ourselves such great writers that such slog work is beneath us.
That kind of thoughtless arrogance shows up in articles that are impossible to read due to poor grammar, lousy spelling, sentences that last an entire page.
Look, I can’t speak for anyone else but I can’t read that shit. I just can’t. A while back someone got an article curated, one that had some solid information it, but was so poorly written it was an agony to try to digest. The woman wrote sentences so long that I repeatedly lost the thread of what she was trying to say. And I wanted to read it.
Dear god woman, GET AN EDITOR. Take a class. Learn to write. Get serious.
Poor writing is a punishment to try to read.
When English is our second language, we can be particularly challenged. Dear Reader might give us a bit of leeway, which can end up as rope with which to hang ourselves if we’re not careful. If English isn’t our first language, and we are writing for the English-speaking market, it behooves us to get other eyes on our material before we publish.
If I were learning to write in Spanish, there is no way I’d push publish without ensuring that a native speaker had seen my stuff. A native speaker with excellent writing chops, that is.
That teaches us where we’re weak, and how to improve. Good writing makes for loyal fans. Lousy writing…well makes for loyal fools, but I digress.
The reasons I never stop editing my work even after publication/curation:
I make mistakes. I type 140 wpm even with a fractured finger. That kind of uber-swift production guarantees that I make mistakes like writing say say. My brain didn’t register the mistake. Going back after I have had time to read other stuff allows me to catch it. It’s live. Since it’s live, that means eyeballs are on it. For my part, that’s a huge motivator to make sure that what folks are reading doesn’t have a spare apostrophe like an errant flea where it doesn’t belong. I make mistakes, part II. Like so many of us, despite the fact that my grammar is usually spot-on, I will periodically, as do we all, mis-match a verb to a subject. Many of us will match the verb to a plural prepositional phrase as though that’s subject. This is what that looks like: A herd (singular subject) of elephants were (plural verb, matched to elephants, which is the object of the phrase and NOT the sentence subject). The proper writing is A herd of elephants was… I see this all the time, and it jars the eye. It’s poor grammar, sloppy, and easy to miss when your fingers fly as mine do. It startles the hell out of Dear Reader. This is because I am just evil by nature. Some poor Dear Reader is humming along nicely and all of a sudden the sentence she’s reading changes. WTF? What happened? That would be Evil Writer here, editing after said piece has gone public. I love startling people. Keeps Dear Reader on Dear Toes. It’s respectful and professional to keep improving. Even though I produce at least one or more articles a day, I still go back, and that includes much older articles. While you might find that odious and additional work, what that does for me and Dear Reader is ensure that if there is a fact that’s changed, or a change in how I see things, that tends to keep my work pretty evergreen. I can’t do it on all my work, but I do it on some. Dear Reader appreciates relevant (I am speaking for myself of course, but also those who care enough to poke me in the proverbial side every so often). I see with different eyes. Even just ten minutes after publishing a piece, I can find mistakes, typos, places where I mistakenly deleted an entire sentence (you’re not the only one who does that, Sparky, I think we all do). A little distancing goes a long way. In so many instances when I had the common sense to get out of the way to let my Muse do the speaking, I note that she doesn’t always get her syntax right. No matter. Ancient Goddess don’t much care about grammar. It’s my job to edit the Divine.
Holy shit. Did I just say that?
No, She did. We’re cool.
Photo by Soumik Dey on Unsplash
Sometimes my Muse speaks so swiftly that I can barely keep up. It’s my job to make sure what she has to say is palatable, professionally-presented, and makes Her look good.
My pleasure.
And because I am committed to ensuring that reading my stuff, those of you who can tolerate it that is, is pleasurable, I edit. Brutally, regularly, constantly.
Because my work will always be a work in progress, just like Life. | https://medium.com/age-of-awareness/why-i-continue-to-edit-an-article-after-publication-curation-8b762405ad8c | ['Julia E Hubbel'] | 2020-09-08 11:40:54.577000+00:00 | ['Writing', 'Muse', 'Editing', 'Writing Tips', 'Professional Development'] |
Famous restaurants in Amritsar | 1. Charming Chicken
Location:- Majitha Rd, Sehaj Avenue, Amritsar, Punjab 143001
2. Crystal Restaurant
Location:- Crystal Chowk, Queens Rd, Maharaja Ranjit Singh Nagar, Near, Company Bagh, Amritsar, Punjab 143001
3. Bharawan Da Dhaba
Location:- near Town Hall, Town Hall, Katra Ahluwalia, Amritsar, Punjab 143001
4. Ziva all-day dining
Location:- Ranjit Avenue, Amritsar
5. Haveli
Location:- Highway, Grand Trunk Rd, Amritsar, Punjab 143115
6. Bhai Kulwant Singh Kulchian Wale
Location:- Bazar Bikaneria, Near Golden Temple, Katra Ahluwalia, Amritsar, Punjab 143001
7. Kulcha Land
Location:- DISTT Shopping Complex, opposite M K Hotel, Center, B — Block, Ranjit Avenue, Amritsar, Punjab 143001
8. Bade Bhai Ka Brothers Dhaba
Location:- near Town Hall, Town Hall, Katra Ahluwalia, Amritsar, Punjab 143001
9. Shahi Qila
Location:- Wagah, Border, Wagah, Attari, Punjab 143108
10. Chatter Box Amritsar
Location:- DISTT Shopping Complex, Ground Floor, SCO No. B-113, Ranjit Avenue, Amritsar, Punjab 143001
11. Brother’s Amritsari Dhaba
Location:- Opp,Marwari Mandir,Chowk Phawara, Amritsar, Punjab 143001
12. Kesar da Dhaba
Location:- Chowk Passian, gali rajpura, near Telephone Exchange, Amritsar, Punjab 143001
13. Tavolo Mondo
Location:- Ajnala Road (Airport Road), 8th Mile Stone, Punjab 143001
14. Beera Chicken House
Location:- Shop — 100, Majitha Rd, opposite Bhandari hospital, Amritsar, Punjab 143001
15. Makhan Fish and Chicken Corner SINCE 1962
Location:- 21A, Near Madaan Hospital Makhan Chowk, Majitha Rd, Amritsar, Punjab 143001
16. The Yellow Chilli
Chhatwal Hotel & Resorts Sco-108, GRD Towers, District Shopping Center, Ranjit Avenue, Amritsar, Punjab 143001
17. Sarhad
Location:- Grand Trunk Rd, Attari, Punjab 143108
18. Ashok Kulche Wala
Location:- Shop №68, 69, Market, Near Park, A — Block, Ranjit Avenue, Amritsar, Punjab 143001
19. Brothers Dhaba
Location:- Grand Trunk Rd, near LIC Building, Khandwala, Amritsar, Punjab 143001
20. Barbeque Nations
Location:- Plot no. 77, SGK Tower, Mall Road, near Income Tax Office, Amritsar, Punjab 143001
21. Neelam’s
Location:- Golden Temple Way, Jallan Wala Bagh, Katra Ahluwalia , Amritsar , Punjab 143001
22. Kobe Sizzlers
Location :- SCO 109, B — Block, Ranjit Avenue, Amritsar, Punjab 143001
23. Astoria Food Pavilion (and Oka)
Location:- District Shopping Centre, Sco.-38, Basement, Ground & 1stFloor, B — Block, Ranjit Avenue, Amritsar, Punjab 143001
This is dummy text. It is not meant to be read. Accordingly, it is difficult to figure out when to end it. But then, this is dummy text. It is not meant to be read. Period. | https://medium.com/@riyarandhawaa/famous-restaurants-in-amritsar-45972f1d4771 | ['Riya Sachdeva'] | 2021-07-25 04:40:09.250000+00:00 | ['Travel', 'Food', 'Foodies', 'Travelling', 'World'] |
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The Unyielding Oak | 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/blueinsight/the-unyielding-oak-b15d1680d7e9 | ['Adam Ray Cronk'] | 2020-12-04 14:12:42.981000+00:00 | ['Haiku', 'Poetry', 'Blue Insights', 'Trees', 'Poetry On Medium'] |
Weird Programming Languages. There are more than thousands of… | More than a thousand programming languages have been invented and only about one hundred of them are commonly used. Among these, there are some weird ones, so labeled because of their syntax and the way it represents its code. In this article, we will look into some of these languages and syntax.
Legit
Have you ever landed on a Github project that prints “hello world” program, but without any visible code or any content. Check this link https://github.com/blinry/legit-hello and you will see nothing in this repository. But trust me, there is hidden code in this project.
If you see the commit section, you can reveal the magic. It’s storing the “hello world” code inside git commit history. If you clone this project and run the following command, then you can see the hidden code in this project.
git log --graph --oneline
Here are the supported instructions.
“[<tag>]”: jump to the specified Git tag. For example, [loop] will jump to the tag loop.
“quit”: stop the program.
“get”: read a char from standard input and place its ASCII value on the stack. On EOF, push a 0.
“put:’ pop top stack value and write it to standard output as a char. The value is always truncated to an unsigned byte.
“<Number>”: push the specified integer on the stack. For example, 42 will push the value 42.
“<Letters>”: unescape string, then push the individual ASCII characters on the stack. For example, “Hi
” will push the numbers 72, 105, and 10.
“dup”: duplicate top stack value
“pop”: pop top stack value and discard it
“add”: pop two topmost stack values, add them, push result on the stack
“sub”: pop two topmost stack values, subtract top one from bottom one, push result on the stack
“cmp”: pop two topmost stack values, pushes 1 if bottommost one is larger, 0 otherwise
“read”: place value of current tape cell on the stack
“write”: pop top stack value and write it to the current tape cell
“left”: pop top stack value, move tape head left for that many places
“right”: pop top stack value, move tape head right for that many places
Legit programming language source code hosted in Github and you can try out yourself. Read out more about Legit.
Folder
Here’s another one which does not maintain any code inside its repository. This language keeps its code as folders. Instructions are read according to the order of the folders. Inside these folders, there are three folders to represent Type, Command, and Expression. The number of folders in inside these folders represent relevant mapping with type, command or expression.
Read full description of this language in here
Befunge
This is another interesting programming language which represents its code in two-dimensional space. Take a look following code of infinite loop.
>v
^<
Did you get that? Execution starts with the first line “>” character. It means to execute the next instruction on the right side, and the right side instruction is “v”. This means to execute down instruction. This continues as an infinite loop. Here I added some of its instructions.
“+” Addition: Pop two values a and b, then push the result of a+b
“-” Subtraction: Pop two values a and b, then push the result of b-a
“*” Multiplication: Pop two values a and b, then push the result of ab
“/” Integer division: Pop two values a and b, then push the result of b/a, rounded down. According to the specifications, if a is zero, ask the user what result they want.
“%” Modulo: Pop two values a and b, then push the remainder of the integer division of b/a.
“!” Logical NOT: Pop a value. If the value is zero, push 1; otherwise, push zero.
“`” Greater than: Pop two values a and b, then push 1 if b>a, otherwise zero.
“>” PC direction right
“<” PC direction left
“^” PC direction up
“v” PC direction down
“?” Random PC direction
“_” Horizontal IF: pop a value; set direction to the right if value=0, set to left otherwise
Read complete language specifications here. 3D represented languages also built called “Suzy” based on this language. Here below an example of finding factorial with Befunge language
&>:1-:v v *_$.@
^ _$>\:^
Brainfuck
This language was invented in 1993, as an attempt to create the smallest possible compiler. This compiler allows only eight commands to write a program and operate based on memory cell which is also known as tapes. Here is the list of command Brainfuck supports.
“>” Move the pointer to the right
“<” Move the pointer to the left
“+” Increment the memory cell under the pointer
“-” Decrement the memory cell under the pointer
“.” Output the character signified by the cell at the pointer
“,” Input a character and store it in the cell at the pointer
“[“ Jump past the matching ] if the cell under the pointer is 0
“]” Jump back to the matching [ if the cell under the pointer is nonzero
Here below how hello world application implemented in Brainfuck language.
1 +++++ +++ Set Cell #0 to 8
2 [
3 >++++ Add 4 to Cell #1; this will always set Cell #1 to 4
4 [ as the cell will be cleared by the loop
5 >++ Add 4*2 to Cell #2
6 >+++ Add 4*3 to Cell #3
7 >+++ Add 4*3 to Cell #4
8 >+ Add 4 to Cell #5
9 <<<<- Decrement the loop counter in Cell #1
10 ] Loop till Cell #1 is zero
11 >+ Add 1 to Cell #2
12 >+ Add 1 to Cell #3
13 >- Subtract 1 from Cell #4
14 >>+ Add 1 to Cell #6
15 [<] Move back to the first zero cell you find; this will
16 be Cell #1 which was cleared by the previous loop
17 <- Decrement the loop Counter in Cell #0
18 ] Loop till Cell #0 is zero
19
20 The result of this is:
21 Cell No : 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
22 Contents: 0 0 72 104 88 32 8
23 Pointer : ^
24
25 >>. Cell #2 has value 72 which is 'H'
26 >---. Subtract 3 from Cell #3 to get 101 which is 'e'
27 +++++ ++..+++. Likewise for 'llo' from Cell #3
28 >>. Cell #5 is 32 for the space
29 <-. Subtract 1 from Cell #4 for 87 to give a 'W'
30 <. Cell #3 was set to 'o' from the end of 'Hello'
31 +++.----- -.----- ---. Cell #3 for 'rl' and 'd'
32 >>+. Add 1 to Cell #5 gives us an exclamation point
33 >++. And finally a newline from Cell #6
This can be represented in one line as follows.
++++++++[>++++[>++>+++>+++>+<<<<-]>+>+>->>+[<]<-]>>.>---.+++++++..+++.>>.<-.<.+++.------.--------.>>+.>++.
Piet
As you see it, it is a programming language where the programmer needs to color a grid instead of coding words. Pointer used to move around the bitmap image and execute command relevant to each color code. There are twenty colors used to represent command and white color does not represent any operation. when the pointer tries to enter a black region, the rules of choosing the next block are changed instead. Here below the sample program to print “Piet”.
Malbolge
Last but not least, this language is known as “Programming from hell”. The idea is that programming should be hard. Therefore, there is no point in discussing language syntax any further. An interesting fact of this language is that even the inventor of this language could not write a program by himself. However, Here an example program of hello world in Malbolge language.
(=<`#9]~6ZY32Vx/4Rs+0No-&Jk)"Fh}|Bcy?`=*z]Kw%oG4UUS0/@-ejc(:'8dc
Conclusion
I have listed down below other programming languages that I have found for further reading. An interesting fact about most of these languages was these are Turing complete, meaning you can implement any computer program that other programming languages can do. Even though these programming languages seem useless, it opens our minds to look at things differently.
Hope you enjoy reading this article. If you have any comment, you can find me on Twitter. Follow me for more interesting stories. Feel free to comment down your thoughts. See you in another article. Cheers :) | https://medium.com/hackernoon/weird-programming-languages-that-you-may-have-not-heard-8ddce12bab66 | ['Dhanushka Madushan'] | 2019-05-12 07:13:49.322000+00:00 | ['General Programming', 'Programming Languages', 'Programming'] |
Lashkar-e-Taiba | Lashkar-e-Taiba is one of the largest Islamist militant organizations in Pakistan. It was founded in 1987 by Hafiz Saeed, Abdullah Azzam and Zafar Iqbal with funding from Osama bin Laden.
In 1985 Hafiz Mohammed Saeed and Zafar Iqbal formed the Jamaat-ud-Dawa as a small missionary group dedicated to promoting an Ahl-e-Hadith version of Islam. The MDI had 17 founders originally, and notable among them was Abdullah Azzam. The LeT was formed in Afghanistan’s Kunar province in 1990 and gained prominence in the early 1990s as a military offshoot of MDI. According to Hafiz Saeed, “Islam propounds both dawa and jihad. Both are equally important and inseparable. Since our life revolves around Islam, therefore both dawa and jihad are essential; we cannot prefer one over the other.”
Lashkar-e-Taiba made its first incursions into Jammu and Kashmir in 1993. In the late 1990s it was alleged that Lashkar-e-Taiba received funding from agencies of the Pakistani government, an allegation the government denied. The group began operating in the Jammu region, which had large numbers of non-Muslims. Working in conjunction with Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, Lashkar-e-Taiba began a program of attacks against Hindus and Sikhs.
On 5 December 2001, the group was added to the Terrorist Exclusion List. In a notification dated 26 December 2001, United States Secretary of State Colin Powell, designated Lashkar-e-Taiba a Foreign Terrorist Organization. Lashkar-e-Taiba was banned in Pakistan on 12 January 2002. It is banned in India as a designated terrorist group under the Unlawful Activities Act.
Several people trained in Lashkar-e-Taiba camps were arrested or linked to terrorist attacks in Great Britain. David Headley, an American of Pakistani extraction, was arrested by U.S. authorities in October 2009 on charges that he had helped Lashkar-e-Taiba plan the 2008 Mumbai attacks. He pleaded guilty to a number of charges and in January 2013 was sentenced to 35 years in U.S. federal prison. In September 2015 a Mumbai court convicted 12 members of Lashkar-e-Taiba on charges connected with the 2006 train bombings. The charges included criminal conspiracy and membership in a terrorist group; 5 of the 12 were also convicted of murder. In 2019 a suicide bombing by Jaish-e-Mohammed in Jammu and Kashmir mounted international pressure on Pakistan to crack down on militants operating illegally within its borders. Saeed was arrested and charged later that year with involvement with a proscribed organization. He was sentenced to more than five years in prison in 2020 but planned to appeal his conviction.
Mumbai Attack 2008
Jamaat-ud-Dawa members on 7 August 2017 announced the creation of a political party called Milli Muslim League. Tabish Qayoum, a JuD activist working as the party spokesman, stated they had filed registration papers for a new party with Pakistan’s electoral commission. In February 2019, after the Pulwama attack, the Pakistan government placed the ban once again on Jamat-ud-Dawa and its charity organization Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation. The group conducts training camps and humanitarian work. Across Pakistan, the organization runs 16 Islamic institutions, 135 secondary schools, an ambulance service, mobile clinics, blood banks and seminaries according to the South Asia Terrorism Portal. The group actively carried out attacks on Indian Armed Forces in Jammu and Kashmir. | https://medium.com/@rehan-ali10228/lashkar-e-taiba-5383c589fca8 | ['Rehan Mushtaq'] | 2020-12-07 17:50:15.599000+00:00 | ['International Security', 'International Relations', 'Mumbai Attacks', 'Lashkar E Taiba', 'India Pakistan Conflict'] |
Colors of Street Photography from Reddit | Negative Space
ColorThief selects colors from the most dominant presence first. Therefore, observing white or black as the first tone in the color palette can translate well to the negative space of the photograph.
Of course this is not a perfect analysis as this requires the photo to contain significant and uniform negative spaces. Nonetheless, it was very interesting to be able to pick out the negative space using the palette as the guide.
Computer and human don’t see eye to eye
This part of the analysis had me scratching my head for awhile. Often, the color palette will contain colors that seem to be none existence or only exist in tiny details. I realized that this is due to the different perception in image interpretation between a computer and a person. We perceive images as a whole and we are able to analyze details like color within the context of the artform. However, a computer must do this by the pixels. This is actually one of the more challenging aspects of image classification in machine learning. Take the image below for an example.
From the photograph below, could you pick out the last 3 colors (grey-green, grey, and orange) of the palette?
The grey-green and grey color are mixed in with the asphalt color, which is very hard to perceive until very closely zoomed in. The orange is part of the detectible warning pavers (bumpy pavers for visually impaired) and the fading old paint. Us humans really wouldn’t think beyond that the asphalt is black (or shades of grey) and the pavers are yellow.
Let’s take a look at another example. When you look at the photo below what color seems to be the dominant photo? I would argue that it’s red accented by warm tones like yellow and beige and perhaps even green.
The code, however, seems to say that the dominant colors are from the colors of the buildings, black, beige, and red-brown. The red is ranked second lowest in this palette.
Overall, I hope you learned something from this unconventional data analysis. I certainly had a lot of fun developing this method and got to learn a lot about parts of my interest that I did not know before. If you would like to check out the reddit PRAW api or ColorThief, please feel free to check out my github repo for reference. Last, but not least please check out the embedded links on photograph credit to see more from the photographers! | https://medium.com/@yungh-jeong/colors-of-street-photography-from-reddit-d5f2f3253e3c | ['Yung Han Jeong'] | 2020-11-15 17:31:48.046000+00:00 | ['Analysis', 'Colors', 'Python', 'Reddit', 'Photography'] |
I gladly put away the Proud Rebel symbols of my Southern heritage because it's not hard to… | I gladly put away the Proud Rebel symbols of my Southern heritage because it's not hard to understand the discomfort they might cause to those who really don't understand them and, on occasion, feel the need to beat up on the South some more (the Civil War actually ended 150 years ago... please get over it sometime soon!).
My Black brothers and sisters have suffered enough and I don't need to add to that. But I still continue to gently remind the confused and angry about what they really mean to the vast majority of those who are qualified to know what they really mean. We remain as proudly ungovernable, defiant, self-reliant, outlaw, and too cool to rule as ever! Don't need a flag to remind you of that. If any of you know a Southerner... you already very well know what I mean.
That the uninformed have so readily surrendered all things Southern to the Dylan Roof's and other racist ilk of the world is as painful as if you had also surrendered the Stars and Stripes to the Republican Party. But your confusion is understandable and it's a small sacrifice to make for my fellow, long suffering, if slightly confused, citizens. Just because some demagogue wraps himself up in a popular symbol doesn't mean he owns it or defines it. Nor does it mean that kicking the South some more in any way addresses racism. But it's still not hard to understand where you're coming from... even if you remain so deeply confused and largely ineffective at addressing the real problem.
But when confronted with the kind of ignorant, intolerant, racist, myopic, diatribe that Ms. Ansar is slinging here... I feel compelled that in order to continue standing up to racism and ignorance I now need to go find a Rebel Flag to fly. I don't appreciate being put in this situation!
For that matter, I don't appreciate the glee with which so many have brought back the "N" word. The Rev. King is rolling in his grave! Not only has it been brought back, but it's been brought back, by those who should know better, to be used in a continued, if slightly altered... but not much, racist manner. There was a time when merely saying "no" to the "N" word could put one in harm's way and now it's been brought back to continue its racist utility. Imagine that!!! You're putting me in the position that in order to continue standing up to racism that I have to also start using that word again. I don't appreciate that either!!!
Here's a radical notion. How about, now that the doors of "entitlement" and "privilege" are swinging ever more widely,... we try something a little new and different? How about instead of this kind of: "Oh joy!! Now it's our turn to be racist back!!!" we try instead to put our minds together to conceive and articulate a new way of being besides this same old, tired feces? How about we conceive a new way of being beyond racism????
Try imagine that. | https://medium.com/@zopoid/i-gladly-put-away-the-proud-rebel-symbols-of-my-southern-heritage-because-its-not-hard-to-609741332d73 | [] | 2020-12-21 20:48:56.791000+00:00 | ['White Privilege', 'Culture', 'America', 'Equality', 'BlackLivesMatter'] |
Europe Aerosol Container Market Worth $1.37 Billion By 2022 | Europe aerosol container market is expected to reach USD 1.37 Billion by 2022, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. Europe aerosol container is expected to witness substantial growth over the forecast period owing to its widespread use in household, paint, and medical industries. Furthermore, growing demand for these products from food & beverage and automotive applications is expected to propel market growth over the projected period.
Increasing demand for cosmetic products in countries including UK, France, Germany and Italy is expected to have positive impact on market growth. Furthermore, rising demand from personal care sector owing to increasing use of deodorants, hair sprays, and shaving creams among young population is expected to be a key driver for aerosol container market growth.
To request a sample copy or view summary of this report, click the link below:
www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/europe-aerosol-container-market
Further key findings from the report suggest: | https://medium.com/cmfe-market-research-reports/europe-aerosol-container-market-worth-1-37-billion-by-2022-60407fa1bed9 | ['Rajesh Varma'] | 2020-12-24 05:57:36.916000+00:00 | ['Europe', 'Aerosol', 'Containers'] |
What’s Wrong with Blue Apron? | In the article that brought me to Gimlet Creative’s attention — and in others — two things are argued:
Today’s unsustainable agriculture is aggregated, centralized, and global; technology and global markets drive production with little concern for distribution or ecology.
Tomorrow’s sustainable agriculture should be distributed, decentralized, and micro-regional; ecology and local markets drive production, technology drives distribution.
Blue Apron has both feet in the former model.
via Blue Apron
This is a diagram Blue Apron uses to convince you that its devouring of the farm-to-table supply chain is somehow good for you. Let’s start on the left with “Farm & Producers.”
Blue Apron has “partnered” with some 150 farms and snapped up BN Ranch from serial rancher Bill Niman (of Niman Ranch, which is now owned by Perdue — because of course it is — albeit without Mr. Niman’s involvement, and is still carried by Whole Foods). Blue Apron is expanding the BN Ranch network as quickly as possible and sending its resident agroecologist to babysit the methods and practices of the farms it doesn’t own outright, all while setting the farms’ gate prices with an eye on its own profits.* In short, Blue Apron is setting itself up to either own or control the entire production end of the supply chain. This is exactly the way oft-maligned companies like Perdue and Tyson’s operate.
Then we get to the middle of the diagram: Wholesalers, Regional Grocery Warehouses, and Grocery Stores. Blue Apron owns this outright: they’re the wholesaler, paying rock bottom gate prices to the farmers. They’re the warehouse, with three big distribution centers in the continental United States. And they’re the end retailer, replacing the grocery store with a website and its army of meal preppers, packers, and delivery trucks.
In short, Blue Apron adopted the playbook of the conventional agricultural aggregator/integrator and extended it into the retail space with delivery trucks and meal prep. Despite this being little better than incremental progress, they go much farther and refer to it as “innovation.” It may be the single most offensive thing about Blue Apron.
Or this. Via A Slob Comes Clean
They’re not shy about being a vertical integrator, either. Co-founder and COO Matthew Wadiak (a former protege of the legendary Alice Waters, who herself speaks of Blue Apron with thinly veiled contempt) flat out stated:
“We can pay farmers more, while paying less for meat,” Wadiak says. “By vertically integrating, we’re going to be more lean, and that’s better for everyone.”
Pay farmers more than what, exactly? Anyway, this is where it’s important to mention that Blue Apron is a [terrible] publicly traded company whose sole legal obligation is to its shareholders. When the principles of sustainable agriculture collide with the purses of investors, the latter wins. Always.
*In Blue Apron’s Vision page, it claims “guaranteed markets for farmers,” which is a polite way of saying “we set the prices, we are 100% of your market, we own your ass,” effectively turning farmers into serfs who take on all the operational risk at whatever price their sole customer will offer. This is the model of commodity farming that dominates American agriculture today. Perdue is particularly famous for this crap. | https://medium.com/sylvanaquafarms/whats-wrong-with-blue-apron-60bd26f31676 | ['Chris Newman'] | 2018-06-11 19:31:08.948000+00:00 | ['Blue Apron', 'Sustainability', 'Business', 'Farming', 'Food'] |
How You Can Use 7 Simple Literary Techniques To Make Your Commercial Fiction Shine | The Unreliable Narrator
Using an unreliable narrator is a delightfully devious device, perhaps most famously exemplified in the controversial novel Lolita, by author Vladimir Nabokov.
Other examples of unreliable narrators would be Holden Caufield in Catcher in the Rye and the unnamed narrator in Edgar Allen Poe’s short story, The Tell-Tale Heart. What is the common theme in all of these classics? The narration is suspect.
By that, I mean that the narrator cannot be trusted — their character is biased to the point that everything they say and every view they hold is also biased.
The reader is only given the narrator’s dubious perspective, and any conclusions made outside of that perspective have to be reached through the events of the plot or through interactions with other characters.
In Lolita, the narrator is a pedophile named Humbert Humbert who kidnaps his stepdaughter and takes her across the country to abuse her — all this after he basically causes the death of her mother (and his wife).
But in the view of Humbert himself, his sick desires and evil motivations aren’t sick or evil at all. Take this assertion, for example:
“All at once we were madly, clumsily, shamelessly, agonizingly in love with each other; hopelessly, I should add, because that frenzy of mutual possession might have been assuaged only by our actually imbibing and assimilating every particle of each other’s soul and flesh.”
In Humbert’s view — and therefore the reader’s assumed view — a 12-year-old girl is madly in love with him, just as he is in love with her. In reality, he is a sociopathic, obsessive pedophile who has been grooming and abusing her since they first met.
Lolita, whose name is really Dolores, manages to give the readers clues as to the reality of her situation despite — and at times even through — Humbert’s unreliable narration. For example, you catch a glimpse of reality through Humbert’s reflections in this scene:
“I catch myself thinking today that our long journey had only defiled with a sinuous trail of slime the lovely, trustful, dreamy, enormous country that by then, in retrospect, was no more to us than a collection of dog-eared maps, ruined tour books, old tires, and her sobs in the night — every night, every night — the moment I feigned sleep.”
These clues are given by another character and mark the unreliable narrator as unreliable for readers, which consequently allows for a slower unfurling of the truths and twists that otherwise could be glaring.
Using this device in genre fiction means that you can keep the language simple, but still add an element of uncertainty that will keep readers on their toes.
This is especially powerful in commercial genres such as suspense, thrillers, and crime fiction. It also works well in mystery novels.
Ways you can use an Unreliable Narrator (UN) in your genre fiction: | https://betterhumans.pub/use-these-7-literary-techniques-to-make-your-commercial-fiction-shine-ee4668c9e23 | ['Emily Sinclair Montague'] | 2020-12-17 16:21:47.107000+00:00 | ['Fiction', 'Literature', 'Writing', 'Books', 'Novel'] |
5 Brilliant Books to Read in the Next 6 Months | It’s (finally) the end of the year. You’ve spent a lot of time inside, and you feel like you’ve watched all of YouTube. You’ve listened to every podcast there is. You’re waiting for an award from Netflix for ‘Most Time Spent Browsing’ yet you still haven’t made a dent in that bookshelf you spent a full day building at the start of lockdown.
Or maybe you have done nothing but read for the past six months and are looking for some new books to get stuck into over the next six. No matter which of these people you are, or if you are someone in between, I have a book for any taste below.
Some of these books I read myself over lockdown, and others I have fond memories of reading while lying by the pool on a Greek island when travelling wasn’t borderline illegal.
Hopefully you’ll find one of them to be suited to your own taste, or maybe one that makes you want to find a new taste altogether.
Let’s get stuck in. | https://baos.pub/5-brilliant-books-to-read-in-the-next-6-months-bdd92c551d1e | ['Christopher Hanna'] | 2020-12-24 09:18:03.084000+00:00 | ['Reading', 'Readinglist', 'Book Recommendations', 'Books', 'Book Review'] |
Time Series Analysis and Forecasting of Web Service Metrics | Getting Started…
What is Time series?
Time series is a collection of data points collected at constant time intervals. Examples of time series data can vary from application metrics like request rates in RPM to system metrics like Idle CPU % taken at constant time intervals.
In order to solve prediction problem with machine learning techniques, the data needs to be converted to time series format. Time series data have a natural temporal ordering. Time series analysis can be applied to real-valued, continuous data, discrete numeric data, or discrete symbolic data.
For the illustration I’ve used Python. Numpy, Pandas, Matpoltlib modules would be used for transformation & analysis, and Statsmodel would be used for the predictive model.
Statistics of Request Rate data
Few data points of time series
Time series graph representing request rates (in RPM) for a web service taken at every minute of interval.
Preprocessing Data Look at the graph for Request Rate in RPM above, do you see any challenges with the data? In the graph above you can observe that there are too many data points and spikes to work with. How to handle this? * Resampling : All the data points were taken at a minute interval. Resampling the data to hourly or daily or weekly can help reduce the number of data points to work with. In this example we will use average daily resampled values. * Transformation : Transformation like logarithm, square root or cube root can be applied to handle the spikes in the graph. In this example we will perform log transformation for the time series.
Observe that large number of data points have reduced and the graph looks smoother as a result of daily resampling.
Observe the values on the y-axis as a result of log transformation
Time series Basic
Univariate Vs. Mutli-variate Timeseries
Univariate Time series data consists of only one variable. Univariate analysis is the simplest form of data analysis where the data being analysed contains only one variable. Since it’s a single variable it doesn’t deal with causes or relationships. An example of this univariate time series could be request rate metrics.
When time series consists of two variables it is called Bivariate time series. The analysis of this type of data deals with causes and relationships and the analysis is done to find out the relationship among the two variables. Example of this could be % CPU Usage of a web service which depends on the request rate. These variables are often plotted on X and Y axis on the graph for better understanding of data and one of these variables is independent while the other is dependent.
Multivariate time series consists of three or more variables. Example of multi-variate time series could be stock prices which would depend on multiple variables.
Components of Time series
In order to come up with a suitable model for forecasting time series, it is important to understand the components of the time series data. Time series data mainly consists of the following components:
Trend
Trend shows the general tendency of the data to increase or decrease during a long period of time. A trend is a smooth, general, long-term, average tendency. It is not always necessary that the increase or decrease is in the same direction throughout the given period of time. The request rate for web service may show some kind of tendencies of movement over a long period of time.
Trend shows the general tendency of the data to increase or decrease during a long period of time. A trend is a smooth, general, long-term, average tendency. It is not always necessary that the increase or decrease is in the same direction throughout the given period of time. The request rate for web service may show some kind of tendencies of movement over a long period of time. Seasonality
These are short term movements occurring in data due to seasonal factors. The short term is generally considered as a period in which changes occur in a time series. Eg. an e-commerce web service may receive more traffic in certain months.
These are short term movements occurring in data due to seasonal factors. The short term is generally considered as a period in which changes occur in a time series. Eg. an e-commerce web service may receive more traffic in certain months. Cycle
These are long term oscillations occurring in a time series.
These are long term oscillations occurring in a time series. Error
These are the random or irregular movements in a time series. These are sudden changes occurring in a time series which are unlikely to be repeated.
Additive Vs. Multiplicative Model Simple decomposition model could be:
Additive model : Y[t] = T[t] + S[t] + e[t]
Multiplicative model : Y[t] = T[t] * S[t] * e[t] Where, Y[t] is the predicted value at time ‘t’, T[t], S[t] and e[t] are the trend component, seasonal component and error at time ‘t’ respectively.
Additive Decomposition Model for time series
Multiplicative Decomposition Model for time series
Stationary Series
Time series is said to be stationary if it has constant statistical properties over time, ie. the following:
constant mean
constant variance
an auto covariance that does not depend on time.
Most of the time series models require the time series to be stationary.
How to Check Stationarity of a Time Series?
Here are some ways to check the stationarity of a time series:
Rolling Statistics
We can plot the moving average or moving variance to check variation with time. Eg. Rolling average of requests per minute graph over period of 7 days. This is a visual technique.
We can to check variation with time. Eg. Rolling average of requests per minute graph over period of 7 days. This is a visual technique. Dickey-Fuller Test
This is one of the statistical tests for checking stationarity. It is a type of unit root test. The test results comprise of a Test Statistic and some Critical Values for difference confidence levels. If the ‘Test Statistic’ is less than the ‘Critical Value’, we can reject the null hypothesis and say that the series is stationary. Here the null hypothesis is that the time series is non-stationary.
Rolling Stats Plot and AD Fuller Test results for original time series
How to make a Time series Stationary?
There are multiple ways of making a time series stationary. Some of them are differencing, detrending, transformation, etc. | https://towardsdatascience.com/time-series-analysis-and-forecasting-of-web-service-metrics-1e15d7fb72c2 | ['Vaibhav Sethi'] | 2020-04-21 13:58:26.001000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Web Services', 'Time Series Analysis', 'Sarima', 'Time Series Forecasting'] |
Weather | Red silk and your amber touch,
Clouds my eyes in water like shape,
When the petals fall from the sky.
The moon sometimes trick me into thinking,
You’re somewhere still around,
When you’re just thought in and out.
Arching over me and smiling,
While the mist enters our space,
That’s when I know you’re around.
It’s like your voice is reaching,
But they’re instead hurting,
So come back around when you feel like I’m here.
Lost in the void, Lost in your weather. | https://medium.com/@quepayal/weather-de96264816c9 | [] | 2021-01-10 06:49:41.555000+00:00 | ['Nature', 'Weather', 'Poetry On Medium'] |
In My Fifties, I’m Finally Learning to Say ‘F*ck You’ | I’m blessed to have come to my salty mouth in these angry times. Bad words seem to be having a moment, and I’m in great company. Emma Byrne’s recent Swearing Is Good for You: The Amazing Science of Bad Language and Benjamin K. Bergen’s What the F: What Swearing Reveals About Our Language, Our Brains, and Ourselves both support the sport of swearing. Scientists and linguists seem to agree that there is therapy and humor, history and humanity in the art of profanity. Sarah Knight has built a thriving career on the sturdy back of the four-letter word with her No F*cks Given Guides. Saying the unsayable, breaking down a few tiny barriers of “polite” society, gives one a sense of agency. Plus, it’s fun.
I was eight years old in 1972 when George Carlin performed his infamous “seven dirty words” bit. It probably took a few years, given my age and the lack of internet, to become part of my consciousness, but it did.
Shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, and tits.
These were the dirty words, the dirtiest according to Carlin, and it was clear to my child self that I must never say them. My father said a few of them, sometimes, and I idolized him. I heard some of them in the music I loved. But my mother never, ever uttered any of them, and it was an unspoken expectation that this was my future. She was my example of womanhood, and we did not speak filth. It wasn’t “ladylike.”
The times, as they do, have changed.
I now use almost all of those words and am comfortably conversant in most filth in my middle age. It has broadened my vocabulary and my ability to express myself with appropriate emotion. The first three come up almost daily now, but I trip on the fourth. It’s why I’m referring to it as “the fourth” and why I will not write it again here. The “c” word. My best friend charged her college roommates a quarter for every time it was used, and we still call it the “25-cent word.” I can’t make friends with this word; there’s something violent and gendered about it that seems loaded with menace. It’s a word that wants to be spat out, a weapon thrown at another. My British friends assure me that it’s not nearly as loaded in the U.K., but my understanding is that it’s used there almost exclusively to refer to men. It causes an internal wince when I hear it. I know it’s just a word, but its power is like poison in the mouth.
We must rage at a raging world sometimes, or we feel powerless.
I find “dick” to be a much more effective word, and it didn’t even make Carlin’s list. I’ve known a few guys named Dick, and they seemed fine, but I felt bad for them. Using the word “dick” to describe someone is clear and incisive. No one likes a dick, and everyone knows to avoid them, but I’m sure plenty of people love guys named Dick.
“Motherfucker” is also a word that causes me some discomfort. I think it’s because of the mother part. I’m a mother, I love my mother — why must name-calling implicate the mother? I’m all for naming the fuckers, but let’s leave the mother out of it. “Fucker” does the job nicely, and I don’t hesitate to use it when appropriate. For instance, my meddlesome neighbor is a stupid fucker. I prefer “fucking asshole” for him, though. It captures his essence more effectively.
I am finally discovering the joy in bad words. I love saying, and writing, things like “fuckall” and “fuckery.” “What the actual fuck?” is an odd thing I find myself saying. The fuck sandwich is satisfying, as in “absofuckinglutely” or “fanfuckingtastic.” And, of course, “fuck” and “dick” can be combined with many words to put a finer point on your message: “fuckface,” “dickhead,” “clusterfuck,” etc. I’m a babe in the woods of creative cursing but am taking to it with gusto. The possibilities are endless and delightful, and I have new ways of saying almost everything. Just this morning, I said, “There’s a panfuckingdemic!” in response to a question about socializing. In the midst of a recent political rant, I said, “They’re just kissing the asses of the assholes.” I need practice. I’m sure I sound ridiculous, like a tween posturing at summer camp, but I don’t care. Caution has been thrown, and I’m a new, mouthy woman. The bad words are so very good.
It must be noted that I don’t generally hurl filth at others. I’m not a name-caller and have maintained a modicum of my learned social graces. My neighbor may be a fucking asshole, but I’ve never told him that and am not likely to. I smile and wave or thank him for whatever weaponized kindness he’s peddling. But standing on my porch watching him toss another wild animal corpse into the woods, I will tell anyone in the room exactly what I think with color and verve. It’s not pretty, but neither is he. | https://medium.com/@varaphillips5103259/in-my-fifties-im-finally-learning-to-say-f-ck-you-53fd758f59bc | ['Vera Phillips'] | 2020-11-21 16:09:23.828000+00:00 | ['Midlife', 'This Is Us', 'Personal Essay', 'Women', 'Language'] |
11 MOST UNDERRATED ATTRACTIONS IN NYC YOU MUST SEE | Sometimes the most underrated attractions in NYC are the most interesting. With all the options available to both the tourist and the native New Yorker, it is easy to miss gems hidden in plain sight. Come with me on a tour of some of the most underrated attractions in NYC and judge for yourself if it needs to be on your must-visit list.
11 Underrated Attractions in New York City You Must See
The Lower East Side Tenement Museum
Are you a descendant of immigrants? If you are, you will love The Tenement Museum. This museum is located in an actual tenement on the Lower East Side of New York City, ground zero for immigrant concentration for centuries.
The museum celebrates the immigrant experience through a series of ever-changing exhibits that take you into the tenement itself. The various immigrant experiences are recreated in different apartments and tell the story of the families that lived there.
One exhibit I recently enjoyed was “Under One Roof,” the story of three families: the Jewish Epsteins, the Puerto Rican Velez family and the Wongs from China, who lived in that tenement from the 1940s to the 1980s. Each apartment is recreated to match the furnishings and the period. The guided tour explains the immigrants’ lives through photos, letters and, in many cases, the recordings of the people that lived there. The tour is enlightening and interesting.
There are many other tours covering all aspects of immigrants’ lives. The museum also offers neighborhood walking tours. It’s a great way to experience the Lower East Side and learn about the immigrant experience first hand.
For a total immigrant experience, get to know the history and culture of the Lower East Side through food. New York City’s, Big Onion Walking Tours offers the Multi-ethnic Eating Tour where you sample the foods of the ethnic groups that help build the city. It is an incredibly informative experience led by knowledgeable tour guides. The best part is the food; everything from Italian pastries to Malaysian BBQ to Vietnamese spring rolls. Come hungry!!
Roosevelt Island
A trip to Roosevelt Island is one of the underrated attractions in NYC. The main reason is that when you’re on Roosevelt Island, you can look straight at NYC and appreciate the view from a unique perspective. But Roosevelt Island has a lot more to offer and makes for a nice day trip from Manhattan.
Named for Franklin Roosevelt, the island is 2 miles long, connects to midtown Manhattan and can be reached from Manhattan via the bridge, subway and the only commuter tram in the U.S. The tram can be boarded with a metro card and the 5-minute ride is a fun experience. You’ll see great views across the East River, the 59th Street bridge and, of course, Manhattan.
The island has a fascinating history. From 1921 to the early 1970s, the island was known as Welfare Island because it was used mainly for hospitals such as an insane asylum and a smallpox hospital. The insane asylum is now an apartment complex, and the smallpox hospital is abandoned and crumbling.
Today the island is a pleasant community of about 11,000. On the north end of the island is a lighthouse and on the southern tip is a park dedicated to Franklin Roosevelt. The walk on the riverside promenade is very pleasant. There is even a cat sanctuary on the south side!
“One belongs to New York instantly, one belongs to it as much in five minutes as in five years.” ― Tom Wolfe Click To Tweet
New York Conservatory Garden
Right on the outskirts of Central Park on 103rd Street is one of the prettiest gardens in Manhattan, The Conservatory Garden. It may be one of the most underrated attractions in the city because it is uptown far from the regular tourist routes. But it is definitely worth the trip. The entry to the garden is through the iron wrought gates that were rescued from the Vanderbilt mansion before it was torn down. The mansion once stood where Bergdorf Goodman stands today on 59th Street and 5th Avenue.
Inside the garden are three separate and distinct gardens: the Italian, the French and the English garden with beautiful statuary positioned throughout.
Each season has its own charm in the garden, but spring is especially dramatic with the blooming spring flowers and blossoms exploding across the gardens.
Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum
This is one of the most underrated attractions in NYC because it is just one of so many awe-inspiring museums. New York City has 113 museums. How can you possibly see them all, especially if you are just visiting?
The Cooper Hewitt sits uptown across the street from Central Park on 91 Street and 5th Avenue. It is the only museum in the U.S. dedicated exclusively to design. It is chock full of fascinating exhibits and stunning eye candy.
Built in the early 1900s, the museum itself is the former home of industrialist, Andrew Carnegie. With its 64 rooms, this Georgian mansion is a perfect example of the opulent lifestyle of the Gilded Age magnates. The mansion itself, with its expansive lawn and garden, is the main attraction of the museum. There is also a cafeteria. Get a sandwich or salad and eat it on the lawn imagining a Gilded Age lawn party in 1902.
“What’s the use of a great city having temptations if fellows don’t yield to them?” ― P.G. Wodehouse, Carry on, Jeeves Click To Tweet
Flushing, New York
Flushing is a neighborhood in the New York borough of Queens. It is one of the most underrated attractions in NYC due to its Chinatown, the largest and fastest growing in the United States. Visitors to NYC looking for a great Asian meal tend to head to the city’s Lower East Side Chinatown and miss Flushing, a delicious melting pot of Asian ethnicity.
Originally founded by the Dutch in 1645, Flushing was mainly farms for most of its life. As the city expanded, Flushing grew and attracted immigrants. Today the area is over 70% Asian-not just Chinese but Taiwanese, Vietnamese, Korean, Malaysian, Japanese and others.
It’s easy to get to Flushing. Take the subway’s #7 line and get off at the last stop, Main Street. You will feel like you are in the middle of downtown Hong Kong. Go and explore the neighborhood, which includes many historical locations like the John Bowne House, a center of religious tolerance in Dutch New Amsterdam and one of the oldest houses in New York.
The highlight of your time in Flushing will be deciding where to eat in this wonderland of Asian restaurant options. From high-end restaurants specializing in subtly flavored Cantonese seafood to underground malls with tiny hole-in-the-wall snack stands selling spicy Szechuan, Flushing has the finest collection of ethnic restaurants in NYC.
Flushing is also the site of the Uniglobe, iconic symbol of the 1964 World’s Fair and Flushing Meadow-Corona Park. This beautiful park with its tree-lined walkways, zoo and sports fields is an excellent place to walk off your meal.
“I regret profoundly that I was not an American and not born in Greenwich Village. It might be dying, and there might be a lot of dirt in the air you breathe, but this is where it’s happening.” ― John Lennon Click To Tweet
The Cloisters
Why would The Cloister s be on a list of underrated attractions in NYC when they are so glorious? Because they, like other destinations mentioned here, are far from the main tourist track.
This amazing collection of medieval artifacts and gardens form a part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art network, and they are no less stunning than the museum itself. The museum consists of four cloisters that were purchased in Europe, dismantled, transported to the U.S. and reassembled in Fort Tyrone Park in Washington Heights, New York in the 1930s.
The location, as well as the collection, was purchased by John Rockefeller and donated to the MET. The intention of the curators was to recreate French monasteries and abbeys in NYC exactly as they would have been in their original locations. They succeeded.
Although there are over 5000 works of art, the prize of the museum collection are the famous Unicorn Tapestries, an amazingly well-preserved collection of 7 tapestries dating from the early 1500s.
The High Line
The High Line is a public park built on an abandoned elevated train track. It runs from Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District north to West 30th Street. It is difficult to explain the concept of this park to people that have not seen it because the construction is so unusual. But it is, most definitely, a NYC park with hundreds of wildflowers and grasses growing between the tracks and around the walkways.
More interesting still are the views of the Hudson River and NYC skyline from this unusual perspective. You also can’t help but peek into the apartments that line both sides of the tracks on some sections. Some sections even run through buildings. Glass enclosures allow you to see directly into a NYC street from the track’s high perspective.
This unique park almost did not come into existence. It was slated for demolition after decades of neglect after the trains stopped running. A neighborhood group successfully fought for the park’s re-purposing.
Today, besides the beautiful plants and flowers, the park features artworks and snack stands. It is open year round although at different times depending on the season.
Harlem is one of my favorite neighborhoods in NYC. There is so much to do and see in this historic section of NYC.
Originally settled by the Dutch, Harlem has been home to many ethnic groups: Irish, Italian, Russian and Eastern European Jews, African -Americans and most recently Senegalese. Each group left a piece of their heritage in Harlem in the form of architecture, cuisine and music.
There are many excellent restaurants in Harlem, most notably Sylvia’s and Red Rooster which also has a jazz club.
One landmark Harlem institution is the Apollo Theater where Wednesday night the theater hosts Amateur Night at the Apollo, a performance competition featuring up and coming artists. This is a can’t miss event and definitely one of the most underrated activities in NYC. The audience selects the winners with their applause and the talent is amazing.
Nighttime is when Harlem really shines. Some of the best jazz clubs in the city are found in Harlem. Among them is Minton’s Playhouse, Smoke Jazz and Supper Club and Ginny’s Supper Club. Having an excellent meal while listening to some of the sweetest sounds in the city should be on everyone’s NYC checklist.
“As for New York City, it is a place apart. There is not its match in any other country in the world.” ― Pearl S. Buck Click To Tweet
The Frick Collection is a wonderful museum across the street from Central Park on 70th street and 5th Avenue. It was the former home of the industrialist Henry Clay Frick. I find it amazing that some of these massive mansions turned museums — some with interior gardens and fountains — were once private homes.
This museum has one of the best European art collections in New York including works by Renoir, Gainsborough, Rembrandt, Titian, El Greco, Manet and 3 paintings by Vermeer. It also houses my single favorite work of art, Sir Thomas More by Hans Holbein. The red velvet of the model’s sleeve is so realistic you can almost reach out and feel it between your fingers.
All this glorious, spiritually uplifting beauty is accessible for pay-what-you-wish on Wednesdays from 2 to 6 p.m. and is totally free on the first Friday of every month from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m., except during September and January. Regular admission is $22 for adults, $17 for 65+. During these free Fridays, the Frick museum sponsors chamber music performances by the fountain and offers free snacks and art supplies to encourage the budding artist.
It is worth going out of your way to visit the Frick.
The New York City Transit Museum
Think you’re not interested in the history of the construction of the New York City subway? Think again. Come to this wonderful museum, and you will be surprised at the number and variety of things you will find interesting.
The entrance to the museum is down the stairs into a subway. After you pay your $10 admission fee (less for children and seniors) you travel back in history to the subway’s origins. The displays and vintage photos tell the story of immigrant labor doing dangerous and often fatal tasks. You will marvel at what an amazing feat of engineering is was to construct these tunnels.
The exhibit goes on to show subway paraphernalia from the late 1800s to present day: what the first turnstiles looked like; how tokens, subway advertising and maps changed over the decades. The most interesting exhibit is one level down on the actual subway tracks. There sits a collection of retired trains from the first ever vehicles to the most recent additions lining the tracks. Visitors are welcome to walk through the trains and sit on the wicker seats from the 1930s.
If you know New York City for several decades, you will love the memory trip back through the trains of the past. If you’re a history buff, you will be engrossed and engaged throughout. Kids will love it too, especially when they can “drive a NYC bus.”
This quirky, unique museum is a delight and definitely ranks as one of the underrated attractions in NYC.
New York Marble Cemetery
I love cemeteries. They are full of history and offer an opportunity to learn about the area from a different perspective, and I really looked forward to visiting this one. This peaceful little slice of history is one of the most underrated attractions of NYC because it is only open a few times a year and few people know it exists.
Established in 1831 the New York Marble Cemetery is the first non-sectarian burial ground open to the public. The cemetery is located off 2nd Avenue between 2nd and 3rd Streets.
You access the cemetery through an alley off 2nd Avenue which opens up to a large patch of green grass in the middle of the bustling city. You can leave the city behind and relish the quiet of the lovely gardens, if only for a short time.
According to the cemetery’s information, “In response to fears about yellow fever outbreaks, recent legislation had outlawed earth graves, so marble vaults the size of small rooms were built ten feet underground in the excavated interior of the block bounded by Second Avenue, Second Street, Third Street, and the Bowery. Access to the 156 family vaults was by the removal of stone slabs set below the grade of the lawn. Vaults are in pairs; there are no catacombs or passages connecting them. Markers were never placed on the ground; instead, marble plaques set into the Cemetery’s long north and south walls give the names of the families interred nearby.”
The cemetery is no longer used as a burial place, but it is rented for special occasions and corporate events. It bills itself as a small cemetery in a big city and is a beautiful place to visit.
I cannot think of a more underrated activity in NYC than the New York Marble Cemetery.
“Every true New Yorker believes with all his heart that when a New Yorker is tired of New York, he is tired of life.” ― Robert Moses Click To Tweet
Make sure to bring guidebooks and maps with you to maximize your time in the Great Metropolis.
What do you think are the most underrated attractions in NYC? We’d like to know. | https://medium.com/@taleknantes/11-most-underrated-attractions-in-nyc-you-must-see-9898548a7354 | ['Talek Nantes'] | 2019-09-12 19:06:02.685000+00:00 | ['Travel', 'New York City', 'Travel Tips', 'NYC'] |
The State of Hate in the UK — December 2021 | In the week before Christmas 2021, former police officer Harry Miller won a three-year legal struggle at the Court of Appeal, arguing against the recording by police of nebulous ‘non-crime hate incidents’, which are defined by the College of Policing as an incident ‘where it is established that a criminal offence has not taken place, but the victim or any other person perceives that the incident was motivated wholly or partially by hostility, it should be recorded and flagged as a non-crime hate incident.’ In ruling, Judge Dame Victoria Sharp asserted that such incidents are more about the perceived intent rather than the actual motivations, suggested that the police do not have the resources or capacity to deal with the enormous volume of such complaints and warned of ‘the chilling effect which this may have on the legitimate exercise of freedom of expression.’
Harry Miller was visited by Humberside Police after several of his tweets were reported as ‘transphobic’, one of which was ‘I was assigned mammal at birth, but my orientation is fish. Don’t mis-species me’. The judge in this case proved that there remains a semblance of balance on the scales of justice.
The case in question highlighted the absurdity of such public-funded police use of time in the context of severe questions being asked of the policing institute in the wake of Wayne Couzen’s murder of Sarah Everard, allegations of sexist and unprofessional culture within police forces and Cressida Dick’s broader leadership of the Met amid a flurry of recent, damning inquests.
At the same time, we are told that the UK is systemically racist; that Brexit empowered bigots, little Englanders and white supremacists; that the Conservative party encourages Islamophobia; that anti-immigration and nativism is on the march. So delving into the statistics on actual hate crimes may be instructive as to the state of Britain’s cultural attitudes as we turn into the third year of the 2020’s — who are the victims, the perpetrators, what are the trends, motivations and what lessons can we learn? (Note- page numbers given below refer to the Parliamentary Briefing paper published November 2021 which summarises police-recorded and Crime Survey of England and Wales data)
Volume of Hate Crimes
The first point of note is that contrary to much media hysteria — and indeed the headline item from the 2020–2021 Hate Crime Bulletin indicating a continuous YoY increase in police-recorded hate crimes — such incidents are actually continuing their long-term decline. As is pointed out multiple times, these increases and the scary looking graph they create, ‘have been driven by improvements in crime recording and a better identification of what constitutes a hate crime…(and) have been mainly driven by improvements in crime recording by the police.’ By contrast, the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW), according to the ONS, ‘is a better indicator of long-term trends than police recorded crime. It is unaffected by changes in levels of reporting to the police or police recording practices’ and shows a significant decline since 2008/9 — ‘According to the CSEW, the estimated number of hate crime incidents experienced by adults aged 16 and over fell from 307,000 in the combined year ending March 2008/2009 surveys to 190,000 in the combined year ending March 2018/2019/2020 surveys, a fall of 38 per cent.’[1]
This declining trend is supported by CPS prosecution data which has declined significantly from both 2011/12 and 2015/16 peaks while the proportion of unsuccessful convictions also declines (see below). So to summarise the broad picture, more hate crimes are being reported to — and recorded by — the police every year, but actual victim and prosecution numbers from the CSEW and CPS suggest the real picture is one of declining hate crime incidents alongside an increasing proportion of successful convictions.
However, the police-recorded statistics do offer some interesting insights:
Religion — in 2016, the Home Office began collecting data on the religious affiliation of the victims. Two religions markedly stand out as victims — Islam constituting 45% of all religiously-motivated hate crimes and Judaism 22%. Perhaps this is not surprising given how often antisemitism and islamophobia are talked about, but when weighted for population (ONS’ 2018 figures suggest a Muslim population of 3,372,966, and a Jewish population of 336,965) — about 1 in 260 UK Jews experienced a hate crime in 2021 compared to 1 in 1250 Muslims, meaning a Jew is almost 5 times more likely to be a victim of a hate crime than a Muslim is. While neither makes for good reading, it does underline that Jews remain perhaps the most persecuted (certainly the most religiously persecuted) minority in the UK.
Annual Cycles — the Parliamentary Briefing paper monthly data shows the following (pg. 15): as noted, racially/religiously motivated hate crime tends towards a cyclical trend of peaking during summer months and fading over winter. Lines added to the graph to highlight notable events show a peak slightly before the EU referendum result after which it dropped, no seemingly clear relationship to the multiple terrorist incidents in 2017 and the highest recorded month of incidents during the BLM protests/vandalism over summer 2020 — an event which more than twice as many UK BAME citizens said did more harm than good for racial tension in an Opinium poll (a majority of every polled demographic agreed)
Victims — Profile
Race still consists of the bulk of hate crimes — despite ‘Antiblackness’ being touted as the predominant form of discrimination, the CSEW data shows that ‘Asian/British Asian’ and ‘Other’ ethnic groups (which includes Arabs) face the highest levels of racial hate crime victimisation. The Black ethnic grouping did see a modest increase in the most recent data available, likely driven by the spike during the 2020 BLM protests, as noted above. Still, the percentage of victims has fallen significantly for all non-white ethnic groups since 2007–2009.
In London, ‘those of Black ethnicity constituted the largest proportion (30%) of all victims to have suffered racist hate crime followed by those of Asian and White-North European ethnicity (25% each)’ (pg. 26)
The main characteristics that correlate with likelihood of being a victim of a hate crime are given in Appendix Table 11 of the 2019–20 Hate Crime Statistics. These are age (16–24), Gender (male), Ethnic group (‘Other’), Religion (Muslim, but Jewish not included in data), Marital status (Separated), Employment status (long-term sick or unemployed), Occupation (not classified or never worked/long-term unemployed) and Disabled.
The percentage of those worried about being a victim of a hate crime (Appendix Table 19 from above source) is highest for Asian and Black respondents (16% and 13% respectively). Interestingly, the ‘Other’ ethnic group has the second-lowest concern (5%) behind White respondents, despite figures above demonstrating they are most likely to be victims.
Islamophobia and Antisemitism in London
London data on religiously-motivated hate crimes suggest Islamophobic incidents peaked in 2017–18, coinciding with several terrorist incidents, and has been declining ever since:
By contrast, antisemitic incidents in London are increasing modestly (see above — London contains the vast majority of the UK’s Jewish population). The Community Security Trust (CST) who record anti-Jewish incidents in the UK show significant increases since 2015 (with a slight drop in 2020), while data from the first 6 months of 2021 were the highest ever recorded for a January-June period (1,308 incidents — which is almost 80% of 2020’s entire annual total above) — there is a clear correlation between the public salience of Israel-Palestine conflicts and antisemitic incidents.
‘The CST also notes the number of antisemitic incidents is likely to be significantly higher than those reported to the police and the CST. A 2018 survey of Jewish experiences and perceptions of antisemitism in the EU found that 76% of British Jews who experienced antisemitic harassment over the previous five years did not report it to the police or any other organisation.’ (pg. 33)
Offenders by Ethnicity
This data is particularly revealing and suggests a developing proportional change in who is perpetrating hate crime incidents (based on conviction data). As the chart below suggests, between 2013 and 2020, the convictions for racial/religiously aggravated hate crimes are increasing slightly YoY among the Black and Asian ethnic groupings, while Whites still make up the majority (80%) of hate crime perpetrators.
ONS population estimates of the UK’s ethnic demography from 2019 are White (84.8%), Asian (8%) Black (3.5%), Mixed (1.8%) and Other (1.9%). Despite the Black ethnic group not changing much as a proportion of population between the 2011 Census and 2019 estimates (3.3% to 3.5%), in 2020, they disproportionately committed religious/racial hate crimes at a rate more than 2.5 times that of their population, and despite having a population more than half the size of the Asian demographic, are convicted of more hate crimes. This could be spun as more evidence of a systemically racist justice system over-convicting the Black population, except the conviction rates (pg. 43) are lower than that for Whites and Asians in every year 2013–2020.
Scotland
Lastly, the data from Scotland reveals an interesting shift in type of hate crimes being committed. Over the last 6 years in England and Wales, the proportion of each type of hate crime (Race, religion, sexual orientation, disability, transgender) has remained relatively consistent, with a slight increase in homosexual hate crimes as a proportion of the total (12% in 2015/16 to 15% in 2020/21 — pg. 11)
In Scotland however, this trend is magnified at a much higher rate. Charged hate crimes centred on sexual orientation accounted for 8% of all hate crimes in 2010/11 and 29% in 2020/21 (see chart below). While actual incidents of race and religious hate crimes decreased over the period, the numbers for hate crimes involving disability and sexual orientation have increased massively (albeit from a lower base), from 48 to 448 and 452 to 1,580 respectively.
From a racial perspective, Pakistanis, closely followed by Blacks were the predominant victims of hate crimes recorded by police in Scotland, at 18% and 17% of total victims respectively.
Conclusion
So what summaries can be drawn from the data? Hate crimes are being reported more and more often every year to the police, but CSEW and CPS conviction data suggest actual hate crimes are falling YoY and are at much lower levels than in 2008/09. Perhaps this disconnect is linked to the flawed conflation of ‘microaggressions’ with hate or social media comments being increasingly reported to police. While the EU referendum correlated with a rise in hate crimes, it is not clear whether there is a direct link or whether the cyclical nature of hate crime spikes (peaking every summer) is an explanation — particularly as hate crimes had peaked just prior to the referendum result and continued their downward trajectory. Similarly, BLM protests occurred in summertime, but the peak was both higher and longer sustained than the annual cyclical norm, suggesting it may have exerted influence on an increase in hate crimes and supports a UK poll where all polled demographics responded that the BLM movement had done more to damage racial relations than help them.
On a per capita basis, Asians and the ‘Other’ ethnic group are the most likely to be victims of racial hate crimes, and Blacks are increasingly most likely to be convicted of perpetrating racial/religious hate crimes, at a rate 2.5 times that of their population size. Religious hate crimes target Muslims most often but when weighted for population, Jews are by far more likely (5x that of Muslims) to be victims, and while Islamophobic incidents are decreasing in London in recent years, incidents against Jews are increasing. This is particularly relevant, as Judaism is omitted as a category from most of the religious hate crime statistics given in other summaries (for example, last year’s summary here) without any seeming explanation.
Scotland witnesses a different trend, where increasingly hate crimes are constituted of attacks based on the victim’s sexual orientation and disability, incidents of which are going up in absolute terms for both types.
The data suggests that hate crime is still prevalent and disproportionately affects minorities, but continues to slowly decrease over time. More work should be done to understand the victim’s characteristics and associated likelihood of being attacked, to provide better support and focus on the socioeconomic and demographic conditions that seemingly make hate crime more likely in particular instances. More disaggregation to understand the ‘Other’ ethnic grouping more accurately would also be useful. Similar work should look at characteristics of perpetrators to identify the conditions (and can therefore offer more targeted mitigation strategies such as education) that make them more likely to commit hate crimes. Conviction data is available by ethnicity but beyond that there is nowhere near the same level of granular recorded criteria for perpetrators as exists for victims. In Scotland, work should be undertaken to understand why sexual-orientation/disability-motivated hate crimes are increasing; whether it is due to a change in police recording, or a more empowered atmosphere for reporting, or in the worst-case is being driven by increased homophobia/anti-disability sentiments.
[1] CSEW is produced every few years and so uses aggregates of multiple year-end data for its estimates | https://medium.com/@wallen1204/the-state-of-hate-in-the-uk-december-2021-27f511bf301f | ['Just William'] | 2021-12-30 13:30:01.055000+00:00 | ['Hate Crimes', 'UK Politics', 'Anti Semitism', 'Police', 'Racism'] |
How last-mile delivery is (also) driving the change of urban mobility. | Two major trends can be extracted from the research I did.
· Specific Hardware — Cargo bikes are definitively one of the winning sectors of the mobility space in 2020 with a 60% growth that is forecasted to last for 2021. But new transportation means are also being developed to enjoy new bike lane infrastructures while carrying relatively large load. Start-ups like K-Ryole, developing electric trailers, and Ono, that designed a pedal-assisted transporter, are partnering with leading companies like Monoprix in France and TIER Mobility in Germany, respectively.
I also think autonomous delivery is closer to become a reality than autonomous cars as the reduced speed of such vehicles coupled with the absence of passengers on board soften their regulation. In this domain, the Estonian team of Starship Technologies is really leading the way with many pilot programs running across Europe and the US.
· Lightning Fast — People want everything deliver to your door and they want it delivered faster and faster. With Gorillas, a German start-up founded in May 2020 and that recently raised a $44 million Series A, groceries are delivered “faster than you”, in 10 minutes on average. How? This is possible with what we called dark stores. Using the same idea than the today well-known ghost kitchens, dark-stores are basically mini-fulfillment centers localized as closely as possible to the end customers. Space in those warehouses being limited, companies require an extensive use of data and AI to smartly forecast what people will need and when.
With the growth of demand for quick delivery and the emergence of small electric vehicles to ensure those deliveries, new challenges appear for which start-ups in the route optimiser space are critical. Indeed smartly managing reloads of the vehicle to different dark stores and charging of batteries while limiting the number of riders necessary will have a critical impact on the unit economics of businesses that generally struggle to reach profitability.
The movement of goods now represents more than 20% of urban displacement in Europe, and it will keep growing over time. It is necessary then to include the constraints and opportunities of the last-mile delivery industry when building the city’s infrastructures of tomorrow. | https://medium.com/@julien-trost/how-last-mile-delivery-is-also-driving-the-change-of-urban-mobility-24b36d827148 | ['Julien Trost'] | 2020-12-23 12:46:47.706000+00:00 | ['Europe', 'Logistics', 'Delivery', 'Mobility', 'Startup'] |
Our Call For (Digital) Speakers Opens Today! | Our Call For (Digital) Speakers Opens Today!
Fatherhood on Friday: Speakers at Dad 2.0 Digital will be participating from all over the world. Here’s how to be one of them. Dad 2.0 Aug 7, 2020·4 min read
You may be surprised to learn that, while we were focused on other things, August has sneaked onto our wall calendars. This most august of months is traditionally when we launch our Call For Speakers for the upcoming summit, and in defiant defense of the Old Normal, we’re doing in again!
Naturally, since Dad 2.0 Digital is coming to you October 1–2–3 (just eight weeks from right now), we’ve made some minor timing adjustments. We’re opening the window for just ten days, August 7–16, and we’re planning to have most of the event staffed by the end of the month.
If you’ve pitched a panel or idea before, the process is exactly as it has been. Use the form at the bottom of our Speakers page (we’ll be emphasizing influencers and entrepreneurship, but all topics are welcome), await your confirmation email, and we’ll be in contact very soon.
If you’re a newbie who messaged us on Instagram, or subscribed to our newsletter, or downloaded our podcast, here are some resources to peruse as you craft your submission:
We’ll also be updating our Schedule and FAQ pages all this week. For now, it should suffice that all formats (keynotes, breakouts, workshops, roundtables, and 1.1 mentorships) are in play, and that we’ll be meeting from 11am to 5pm ET, to accommodate everyone who’ll be tuning in all over the world.
That’s the coolest bit to contemplate, isn’t it? All over the world.
ON THE PODCAST: The Answer to Everything
Since 42 is the Answer to Everything, we devote this episode to introducing the world to Dad 2.0 Digital. Much of the programming will be familiar — keynotes, breakouts, workshops, Spotlight readings, Sponsor networking, and Dad Voices, just like always — but with a bunch of new stuff, like viewing parties and meetups, 1:1 mentorship, and online activities with prizes.
IN THE NEWS
The Better Life Lab ‘s new report: Republicans and Democrats agree strongly that the main reason men do not take paid leave to care for others is because they simply can’t afford to.
Whatever organization(s) you belong to, here’s a list of strategies on how to engage the dads to get involved.
While they were waiting to be fished out of the water, the “Space Dads” lived up to their moniker with some prank phone calls.
Programs like these, which help new dads learn the ropes and expect the unexpected, are cropping up all over. They are welcome and long overdue.
After a near-death experience, broadcaster Steve Backshall said he “had thundered around the planet desperately doing all these crazy things to find out what I was put here for. And then I found it in something as simple as becoming a dad.”
The Drifter Dads Club started as a diversion from quarantine, and it has grown into a twice-weekly gathering that hits 5 million views on TikTok.
On his first day away from his wife and new baby, Mike Trout estimated he FaceTimed them about 30 times before gametime. Then he hit a home run in his first at-bat.
Ryan Bell created Black Father Family, a group to unite and educate Black fathers in the Roanoke Valley.
A great new support group for dads with kids with conditions including epilepsy, autism, spina bifida, cerebral palsy, and Down syndrome.
PORCHLIGHT POSTS
“I have always gone to my dad for life and career advice. While he was scared for me and the repercussions I would face, he knew this was something I needed to do.” — JT Brown, Why I Raised My Fist
“He was only six years younger than I am now when he met his third and final son, his ‘good luck charm’ as he would often say, his kid without a middle name, his oddball.” — Jeff Bogle, The Long and Winding Road Nears Its End
“I am not an emotional man, but now I cry a lot more than I used to. I’ve had to fight and coach myself into pulling it together — sometimes before I go on the air, sometimes while I’m on the air.” — Craig Melvin, I’m a Black Dad. I Fear for My Kids. But I Also Have Hope.
“In a moment I had become what I feared I would when I was young, a father who let anger control him.” — Christian Curet, Male Anger — A Moment in My Fatherhood and a Problem In Our Country
“Bro, this is hard. Because it exposes things about you that you don’t know about yourself. It exposes all of your insecurities, and it’s a huge emotional undertaking if you do it the right way.” — Kier Gaines, Instagram post
‘GRAM OF THE WEEK
Do you receive the Dad 2.0 Newsletter? You should! In it we share all kinds of information and news about the Dad 2.0 Summit. Add it to your inbox! It’s the perfect way to start planning for our tenth summit, our first-ever digital event delivered to you October 1–2–3, 2020.
Share your fatherhood news and/or stories with us on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Medium using the #FoF hashtag! | https://medium.com/@dad2summit/our-call-for-digital-speakers-opens-today-f715b628e8a8 | [] | 2020-08-07 17:32:22.276000+00:00 | ['Dads', 'Conference', 'Parenting', 'Fatherhood', 'Influencer Marketing'] |
Jenkins For Beginners — Part 06. Jenkins is a powerful application that… | Jenkins is a powerful application that allows continuous integration and continuous delivery of projects, regardless of the platform you are working on. So this article series for beginners who wish to start with Jenkins.
Jenkins Pipeline
What is Jenkins Pipeline?
In Jenkins, a pipeline is a group of events or jobs which are interlinked with one another in a sequence.
In simple words, Jenkins Pipeline is a combination of plugins that support the integration and implementation of continuous delivery pipelines using Jenkins. A pipeline has an extensible automation server for creating simple or complex delivery pipelines “as code,” via pipeline DSL (Domain-specific Language).
What is Continuous Delivery Pipelines? How does it work?
In a Jenkins pipeline, every job or event has some sort of dependency on at least one or more events.
The picture above represents a continuous delivery pipeline in Jenkins. It contains a group of states called to build, deploy, test, and release. These events are interlinked with each other. Every state has its events, which work in a sequence called a continuous delivery pipeline.
A continuous delivery pipeline is an automated expression to display your process for getting software for version control. Thus, every change made in your software goes through a number of complex processes on its way to being released. It also involves developing the software in a reliable and repeatable manner, and the progression of the built software through multiple stages of testing and deployment.
What is JenkinsFile?
Jenkins pipelines can be defined using a text file called JenkinsFile. You can implement the pipeline as code using JenkinsFile, and this can be defined by using a domain-specific language (DSL). With JenkinsFile, you can write the steps needed for running a Jenkins pipeline.
The benefits of using JenkinsFile are:
You can create pipelines automatically for all branches and execute pull requests with just one JenkinsFile.
You can review your code on the pipeline
You can audit your Jenkins pipeline
This is the singular source for your pipeline and can be modified by multiple users.
JenkinsFile can be defined by either Web UI or with a JenkinsFile.
Declarative versus Scripted pipeline syntax:
There are two types of syntax used for defining your JenkinsFile.
Declarative Scripted
Declarative:
Declarative pipeline syntax offers an easy way to create pipelines. It contains a predefined hierarchy to create Jenkins pipelines. It gives you the ability to control all aspects of a pipeline execution in a simple, straightforward manner.
Scripted:
Scripted Jenkins pipeline runs on the Jenkins master with the help of a lightweight executor. It uses very few resources to translate the pipeline into atomic commands. Both declarative and scripted syntax are different from each other and are defined totally differently.
Why Use Jenkin’s Pipeline?
Jenkins is an open continuous integration server that has the ability to support the automation of software development processes. You can create multiple automation jobs with the help of use cases, and run them as a Jenkins pipeline.
Here are the reasons why you use should use Jenkins pipeline:
Jenkins pipeline is implemented as a code that allows multiple users to edit and execute the pipeline process.
Pipelines are robust. So if your server undergoes an unforeseen restart, the pipeline will be automatically resumed.
You can pause the pipeline process and make it wait to resume until there is an input from the user.
Jenkins Pipelines support big projects. You can run multiple jobs, and even use pipelines in a loop.
Jenkins Pipeline Concepts
Term Description
Pipeline: The pipeline is a set of instructions given in the form of code for continuous delivery and consists of instructions needed for the entire build process. With the pipeline, you can build, test, and deliver the application.
Node: The machine on which Jenkins runs is called a node. A node block is mainly used in scripted pipeline syntax. stage block contains a series of steps in a pipeline. That is, the build, test, and deploy processes all come together in a stage. Generally, a stage block is used to visualize the Jenkins pipeline process. Step A step is nothing but a single task that executes a specific process at a defined time. A pipeline involves a series of steps.
Install Build Pipeline Plugin in Jenkins
With the build pipeline plugin, you can create a pipeline view of incoming and outgoing jobs, and create triggers that require manual intervention.
Here is how you can install the build pipeline plugin in your Jenkins:
Step 1) The settings for the plugin can be found under Manage Jenkins > Manage Plugins.
If you have already installed the plugin, it is shown under the installed tab.
Step 2) If you do not have the plugin previously installed, it shows up under the Available tab.
Once you have successfully installed the build pipeline plugin in your Jenkins, follow these steps to create your Jenkins pipeline:
How to Create a Jenkins Pipeline
Once you are logged in to your Jenkins dashboard:
Step 1) Click on the “+” button on the left-hand side of your Jenkins dashboard to create a pipeline.
Step 2)
You will be asked to give a name to the pipeline view. We shall call it “New Pipeline” for the duration of this demo. Select Build a pipeline view under options Click ok
Step 4) On the next page, you will be asked for some more details to configure your Jenkins pipeline. Just accept the default settings, and make sure you choose the first job under the settings.
Click on Apply and then OK.
This will show you the sample pipeline view of your item, as given below:
Running a pipeline build
Step 1) For running a pipeline build, you need to chain your jobs first. For this, go to your first job and click on configure.
Step 2) Now, under Build Triggers, check the Build after other projects are built option.
Thus, a chain for all your jobs has been created.
Step 3) Install the Build Pipeline view plugin if you don’t have it installed already.
Step 4) Go to your Jenkins dashboard and create a view by clicking on the “+” button. Select the Build Pipeline View option and click OK.
Step 5) Under the Pipeline view configuration, locate Pipeline Flow.
Under Pipeline flow, select the initial job to run. Now choose the job which has chains to other jobs, as shown in Step 1 and Step 2.
Here we have selected “New project Name” as the initial job, chained to other jobs. So, one by one, the jobs will run in the pipeline.
When the Jenkins pipeline is running, you can check its status with the help of Red and Green status symbols. Red means the pipeline has failed, while green indicates success.
In this example, we see that the button is green. Hence, the pipeline is successful.
Running Jenkins pipeline
Click on Run to run the Jenkins pipeline. It will look something like this:
In the example above, we are demonstrating a simple “helloworld.java” program. But in real-time projects, you will be responsible for creating and building complex pipelines in Jenkins. See below for a sample pipeline view.
Best Practices using Jenkins Pipeline:
Use the genuine Jenkins Pipeline
Develop your pipeline as code
Any non-setup work in your pipeline should occur within a stage block.
Any material work in a pipeline must be performed within a node block.
Don’t use input within a node block.
Never set environment variables with env global variable
Wrap your inputs in a timeout
So in the next episode, we discuss the CI/CD pipeline basics.
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Follow us on Twitter 🐦 and Facebook 👥 and Instagram 📷 and join our Facebook and Linkedin Groups 💬 | https://medium.com/faun/jenkins-for-beginners-part-06-62e16ed0759 | ['Ashan Lakmal'] | 2020-12-30 16:05:19.210000+00:00 | ['Jenkins Pipeline', 'Dev', 'Developer', 'Jenkins', 'DevOps'] |
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Please follow the author and Written Tales to continue to read more wonderful tales like this. Thank you for your kind support and don’t forget to subscribe to the Written Tales Weekly! | https://medium.com/written-tales/feelers-d9622f624a47 | ['Darryl Willis'] | 2017-09-06 04:15:55.673000+00:00 | ['Written Tales', 'Poetry', 'Horror', 'Poetry On Medium', 'Poem'] |
Monsters | Monsters
Submitted to Chalkboard as free-verse, part of the Write or Die Project
This poem was originally intended as lyrics for a song.
Photo from the web, signed. Thank you!
Temp or ary in san it y
Will not get the best of me
Now I know
The monsters I see
Are REAL!
REAL!
REAL! REAL! REAL!
I’m not seeking madness;
Like so many people are.
At least not with drugs or drinking;
These are not part of my thinking
This is not a pipe dream.
I’m in real distress
I am stone-cold sober.
And still I’m such a mess.
I’m on the edge of madness,
Adrenaline surging through my veins.
It saves me from the sightless Dark.
I have been there before;
The deep dark pit.
With sides slippery and smooth,
It was hard to climb out.
Not within my power.
I needed a miracle.
Of course
There was a price.
I had to give up
My children; my sons.
Hoping they would forgive.
My heart was broken,
Then I was nothing.
Stripped to my core.
To gain my sanity,
I had to have sobriety.
Something now
So dear to me,
Important as my heart
Beating.
Important as my lungs
Breathing.
I was no good for them
Or me.
Those many years ago.
If you hate
Your self
You can not love.
You’re a ghost.
Nothing more.
I may still
Sink into depressions,
Followed by the highest of
Highs.
Going
Round and
Round,
And back again
All in the blink of an eye.
I’m in a state of
Perpetual war;
Currently under a truce.
I must be ever vigilant
To keep the
Monsters from getting loose. | https://medium.com/@kebarneyogkristendagmarsdottir/monsters-70248a5b0974 | ['Kristenbarney Kristendagmarsdottir'] | 2020-11-15 01:13:43.069000+00:00 | ['Chalkboard', 'Free Verse Poetry', 'Lyrics', 'Addiction Recovery'] |
DESIGNER LIFTS IN NEW DELHI INDIA | DESIGNER LIFTS IN NEW DELHI INDIA
MAY 9, 2020
corian, designer lift
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DESIGNER LIFTS IN NEW DELHI INDIA
DESIGNER LIFTS IN NEW DELHI INDIA
ABOUT
As a designer my motto is to design back wall or center wall of lift according to interest of our client.Designer lifts in new Delhi India is not as common as normal lifts for designer lifts you have some basic knowledge about lifts without that you cannot help any lift manufacture in design cabin .In this cabin i designed back wall with corian marble on which lord shiva photo is engraved and back-lit by lights let me describe how i made lift in following points first of all let me describe little bit about lord shiva first.
In Hindu text there are three main gods named as lord Vishnu ,lord Brahma and lord Shiva. According to Hinduism cycle of worlds destroyed in every 216000000 years and destroyer of the worlds is lord Shiva where as creator of worlds is Brahma and lord Vishnu is sustained of worlds. Brahma Vishnu and Shiva is also consider as a trinity. vishnu and brahama has a good image in Hindu myths where as lord Shiva is a god of ghosts,vampires,evil souls,thieves,villains etc those who are abandoned in world are surrender themselves to lord Shiva i can write by lord shiva all day but i am here to describe how i engraved lord Shiva picture on corian marble as per you seen in above image let me describe in following points i am sure it helps you lets start it from material.
VISIT
Firstly we visit the site where we paste engraved corian . we check all dimensions in cabin walls cielings floor etc to clarify any technical issue which can come after or in between installtion of corian or temple after clear all of our confusion we go to next point which is designing.
DESIGNING
When we have exact dimensions of place we start to design it on software we start to make it from scratch or some time we use the reference images given by client usually artist like me look on current styles, estimating the price value of new style .which things are gaining access to the business. usually, when a new style is in we uses 3d softwares like artcam corel etc and start designing these latest things.this design made of 3d software give command into another software which make programme to use by cnc machines.firstly i searched high quality pics on google or another search engines like pintrest etc after that i choose one of the best picture in position or in quality.Then after enhancing picture quality on Photoshop i ll import that pic in 3d software to make 3d model. when we finalize the design we assure or send that design to client if any amendment is there we do it before going to next step.
Material corian marble
what is corian .Its mainly use is as a corian countertops(what is corian countertops) surface, now a days so many companies making solid surface.LG and samsung one of them.it has property to translucent light white corian originated by dupont mainly in different thickness.we can purchase 12mm and 6 mm from market it is easily available now a days and several corian color options are there too. corian cutting is hard task to do i can describe in following steps how to do it properly According to need of your home interior .for corian work you can contact us or you can google corian fabricators near me.
PROGRAMMING OR MACHINING
using #3d software to make program or g-code
when 3d model of lord shiva is ready with good finish. I start to make program file which read by cnc machine or we can say i make g-code for machine using cam software such as artcam powermill etc. In which we select tool or bit to use machine feed speed plunge speed in and out on stock material.how much depth of cut of tool and speed mention.we also calculate timing by simulation on software this photo size is approx 8feet long 2.5feet in width it will take minimum 21 hours to complete engraving on corian marble material (corian 12 mm).after corian cutting of 3d model we design border and exact size we want on machine.
Engraving
It is beautifully engraved in 12 mm corian marble by using of advance technology imagery in ways you’ve never seen before.we firstly clamp material on machine according to specifications then we install precise tool in spindle of machine which start engraving on corian cutting easily.spindle rpm set minimum 12000 for good result .after setting up material and origin of start point we execute program to start engraving on corian marble .it will take 13 hours to finish with one tool then we install second tool for border and outer size.it is an automatic process operator check and give sureity that engraving is going fine as per program or 3d model if any mistake happen while engraving it cant be undone .we have to start again with new material.one more designer lift link i am sharing herehttps://www.rmndeepg.com/724-2/
L.E.D LIGHTS
Back framing is done with different material and back-lit by l.e.d .We use warm color three chip module of samsung company to give grace to engraved corian as you can see in above image it is good for home interior and office interiors .it leave different impression on client if it is place in your office.
FOR PURCHASING
For purchasing of above mention creative corian art piece you can mail me or leave me your comment or you can also contact us just check mine contact page i feel glad if got some work by you or your links.you can also start trading of this type of item just feel free to contact me.
DROPING A LINK OF MY OTHER DESIGNER WORK I HOPE YOU LIKE IT KINDLY HAVE A LOOKhttps://youtu.be/x-ebRtmULZ8
i hope you got some good information from this article kindly share with others too.feel free to comment if any question raised you can drop message in comment section
thanks and warm regards
from rmndeep g | https://medium.com/home-interior/designer-lifts-in-new-delhi-india-83ea8dfbe74f | [] | 2020-05-09 07:31:26.558000+00:00 | ['3d Modeling', 'Art', 'Artist', 'Designer', 'Blog'] |
Books I’ve Read This Year That Have Changed My Life. | Three books that are changing my life slowly but surely.
(Olsztyn, poland, Unsplash)
The Salt Path — Raynor Winn
A non fiction autobiography of a middle aged couple who lose everything and become homeless just days after her husband is diagnosed with a terminal illness. A spontaneous decision leads them to pack essentials into a rucksack each and head out on the 630mile south west coast path in the U.K. It is a story of a couple fighting terminal illness and homelessness in an alternative way as their options are somewhat limited. It is a book about perseverance, positivity and hope.
What it taught me:
Statistics say most people are no more than three disasters away from homelessness. In this current climate with Corona I imagine that to be very true.
It has taught me to be grateful. I have taken for granted so many things such as fresh water, a bed with a mattress, a roof over my head and a toilet! It made me think deeply about all the stuff I have and I have more than I need. As humans we always feel we do not have enough. Reading this book has made me want to challenge some of my behaviors towards spending my money. I buy a lot of crap! I intend to spend next year not purchasing many clothes and beauty products and instead use them up and save money for more useful things such as experiences, courses or traveling.
Eat That Frog-Brian Tracey
For procrastinators everywhere this is a great book. Brian Tracey wrote the book to help you stop procrastinating and get things done with the phrase “eat that Frog" The book advises you to take the most pressing tasks and do those first. Do the tasks that are going to make a difference to your life and not the other way around. Writing lists is another task Brian Tracey asks you to do to get organized. Write out everything you want to do. Write out a monthly list a weekly list and a daily list. Tick off what you have accomplished. Eat those frogs first thing. Do the ugliest task first to get it out of the way. Getting organized helps you in advance. Brian Tracey recommends to spend time writing these lists as they will save time in the long run.
What it taught me:
It taught me to “eat that frog” I found myself really enjoying the book and making almost a game out of “eating that frog” I love the fact I bought this on audible first so I can listen as I am cleaning the house. I am a list maker and found myself wondering why I never thought of making daily, weekly, monthly and yearly lists. I just scribble away and hope for the best but not now! I am a person of bad habits and they are quite ingrained but I have come around with the help of this book. I am slowly getting to where I want to be.
Atomic Habits-James clear
A book about changing your habits and rethinking them altogether. This books is THE book for anyone wanting to understand their own habits and how to go about changing them. Instead of looking at the bigger picture James Clear asks you to focus on the smaller picture. The small things that can benefit your life. They are simple life hacks and they do work if and only if you are willing to work on your habits. The book really does a great job into breaking down why we have bad habits and how to go about changing them. The changes are quite remarkable from small tasks such as having your workout gear ready for that morning run. To using the 2 minute rule to get you into a new habit. It delves into the psychology behind habits, how and why we got those habits in the first place.The book looks at creating systems instead of focusing on goals only. It makes sense once you have achieved a goal you then create another goal to achieve. With systems once you have created them you carry on and they make your life easier as there is no aspiring goal to achieve at the end of it. It becomes a part of your daily routine.
What It Taught Me:
For me personally I loved his take on the “fake it till you make it" I could never get the hang of it firstly because I do not like fake people and I wouldn’t want people to think I am a fake person either. In Atomic habits he rephrases it from “I am a healthy person” to “How would a healthy person go about their day”? “what would they eat”?
Instead of saying “I am an entrepreneur” in hope of becoming an entrepreneur he rephrases it to “how would an entrepreneur go about their day”? This rephrasing was the ticket for me to start slowly changing my life around. I am more comfortable with this rephrasing so I can now start to become who I really do want to be. | https://medium.com/love-life-healing/books-ive-read-this-year-that-have-changed-my-life-dde1b897b814 | [] | 2020-12-21 20:51:04.383000+00:00 | ['Readinglist', 'Book Recommendations', 'Books', 'Books And Authors', 'Book Review'] |
Does Teachers’ Subject Knowledge Matter? | Beyond the issue of the physics-with-maths teacher training discussed in my previous post, there is a fundamental question underlying the teaching in schools of the three sciences by a same teacher up to GSCE (year 11), namely, How important is subject knowledge for a teacher? Andrew, my university mentor, mentioned during one science session at university that this question has been recently the object of a big debate within the education science community. He said he had no clear answer to this, but all he could say is that he had noticed that PGCE students holding a Ph.D. are the most difficult to train.
Let’s pause here for a minute to analyse Andrew’s statement, and let’s try to focus on one of the objectives of science education, namely the production of responsible citizens who can make informed decisions for themselves and critically read science articles — where ‘critically’ means that they won’t believe any ‘scientific’ claim and will be able, for instance, to distinguish between mere correlation and causation. A graph showing the world global temperature as a function of the number of pirates is a typical example used to illustrate the difference between both. The graph clearly shows a negative correlation between the number of pirates and the global temperature (the temperature increases when the number of pirates decreases). Does it mean that the progressive disappearance of pirates over time caused the global rise in temperature on our planet? Or that pirates disappeared because of the temperature rise? To see here a causation is obviously absurd. It is indeed important that people don’t confuse correlation and causation, otherwise they may misunderstand some ‘scientific’ claims. Imagine for example an article about a ‘scientific’ study claiming that e.g. if you vote for the Conservative Party, you live longer (I’ve just made it up, but it seems plausible to find a correlation here, because probably on average people who vote for the Conservative Party are wealthier and so have access to better life conditions and better health care, and so on average live longer). Some — uneducated — people may then decide to vote for the Conservative Party because ‘it makes you live longer’.
Let’s come back to Andrew’s statement. In the context of the ‘big debate’ on the importance (or not) of subject knowledge for a ‘good’ teacher, PGCE students who have a Ph.D. can be considered as the ones with stronger subject knowledge. The other part of the statement (that they are the most difficult to train) implies that they are not ‘naturally’ good teachers. So, according to Andrew, there would be a correlation between subject knowledge and easiness to be trained as a teacher. As Daniel Kahneman showed in his book “Thinking, fast and slow”[1], humans easily jump to conclusions without having robust evidence. In the present context, the correlation observed by Andrew would be easily interpreted as ‘someone with strong subject knowledge — e.g. with a Ph.D. — makes a less good teacher’. In that way, the alleged correlation has become causation. It is not what Andrew said, and I cannot pretend this is what he wanted to say, but I am pretty sure that this is the conclusion that many of us will have jumped to. For Andrew’s statement to be an objective contribution to the debate, he should have explored alternative explanations in relation to the observed correlation. For instance, the fact that PGCE students holding a Ph.D. are more difficult to train as teachers could be simply because they are older and have gathered work experience during their Ph.D., and so are less likely to do what they are told without questioning the soundness of it, or because their Ph.D. work taught them to think more critically… I don’t have the answer. I am just saying there is no scientific evidence that good subject knowledge is detrimental to becoming a good teacher.
Many science teachers seem to think that teaching the three sciences is not so bad after all. Some of them, as discussed in my previous post, even claim that they teach better their non-speciality subjects. It is interesting to note that, in private and grammar schools, science teachers generally teach only their specialist subject. After having discussed this with Andrew, it appears that a barrier in comprehensive schools to science teachers teaching only their speciality is that they would teach all their classes up to year 11 only one lesson per week. And this poses a behaviour issue in schools with challenging children, where teachers need to know their students well and see them often to have efficient behaviour routines. In private and grammar schools, children are usually better behaved and more motivated, so that behaviour issues don’t hinder subject teaching. Interestingly, nobody in private or grammar schools seems to claim that teaching subjects you have no idea of (and maybe don’t want to teach) is actually positive for your students. But wouldn’t it be possible, with some creativity and imagination, to find another way of organising science classes and solve this one-lesson-per-week issue?
Besides the debate shaking the education community, I have to mention that subject knowledge, along with pedagogy knowledge, is one of the teacher standards (number 4 — the teachers’ standards “set the minimum requirements for teachers’ practice and conduct”.[2]) So, reader, please be reassured, to become a qualified teacher, one has to bring evidence of one’s subject knowledge. It often starts with having a degree in the subject you want to teach. But not always — and as we’ve just seen, for science teachers there is at least one subject that they haven’t studied after A-level (or sometimes even after their GCSE). As a PGCE student, you could expect to go through the curriculum in the three sciences during the university sessions, study the common misconceptions you can expect from your students — and at the same time get rid of your own — and learn how to teach the three subjects properly. But, no. Regarding your own subject knowledge, you are expected to self-assess your shortcomings — and consequently study to remedy them. There are indeed a few sessions on how to teach some of the main topics of the curriculum — but in your speciality! So, at the end of the training you may have learned by yourself what you have to teach your students in your non-speciality subjects, but that’s it. However, as subject knowledge is one of the teacher standards, it is assessed when you are observed teaching. I must say that I was surprised to be praised for my subject knowledge after lessons where I didn’t have the feeling to have used my knowledge beyond the curriculum. I wondered whether it was because the observing teacher still could tell that I had the big picture and I knew what I was talking about, or whether it was just an easy way to say something positive.
Meanwhile, I soon realised that some of my non-physicist colleagues at university had serious shortcomings in physics. For instance, during one science session at university, I was in a group with Carissa, a young biologist, along with another physicist and a chemist. We had to go through some practical activities that were proposed to year 7 children in the framework of a project called “let’s think”[3]. One of the activities was to put several objects of different sizes in water and see whether they float or sink. Carissa exhibited childish excitement and surprise when she realised that some of the bigger objects would float while some of the smaller ones would sink. The other physicist and I looked at each other, aghast. This absence of knowledge and understanding of the basic concept of density and the explanation of why some objects float or sink surprised me even more because we had already had an ‘inquiry activity’ on floating in a previous session. For that inquiry, we had to put an orange in water, observe that the orange would float, then peel it little by little and observe that at some point the orange would sink. Of course, following the radical constructivism teaching theory, our teachers didn’t remind us of the theory behind the experiment, whether or not they expected that we knew about it — if not, I guess we were supposed to find out by ourselves. Jackie, Carissa’s tutor, had furthermore mentioned that she observed Carissa teach in her school this orange inquiry lesson. So, not only did she not know why an object floats or sinks, but she even taught a lesson on that very same topic without wondering what the explanation is. I would like to know what the children could possibly learn from their investigation if the teacher could not even guide them towards the right explanation. Maybe that’s the absolute dream of constructivists? Maybe we could even go a step further and leave the children to their own devices. If someone could definitively prove that children learn better without teachers, surely that would be the perfect solution to the current teacher shortage.
Carissa arrived in my first placement’s school for her second placement while I was in my second placement school, which lasted only 4 weeks for me. When I came back, my mentor explained to me that they had just hired Carissa. “We are a very strong science department,” he said, “but we always need good people”. It is not clear whether they had appreciated the scale of her deficiencies — I may give them the benefit of the doubt here. I hope this story is not representative of what happens in schools. However, I heard similar stories of young teachers being hired in spite of their obvious lack of subject knowledge uncovered during the interview lesson.
When you come from a country where the selection process of future teachers is essentially based on their subject knowledge, such stories sound incredible. While I think it is a mistake to believe that it is sufficient to be good at a subject to become a good teacher in this subject, it is simply another — and as big — mistake to consider this is not a necessary condition.
As Jerome Bruner said[4], “When we try to get a child to understand a concept, leaving aside now the question of whether he can ‘say’ it, the first and most important problem, obviously, is that we as expositors understand it ourselves. I apologise for making such a banal point, but I must do so, for I think that its implications are not well understood. To understand something well is to sense wherein it is simple, wherein it is an instance of a simpler, general case. In the main, to understand something is to sense the simpler structure that underlies a range of instances.”
[1] Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
[2] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/teachers-standards
[3] http://www.letsthink.org.uk/
[4] On learning mathematics, The Mathematics Teacher (1960) vol. 53, N 8 pp 610–619 | https://medium.com/dr-alice-g-on-education/does-teachers-subject-knowledge-matter-e5f11e2b0d1d | ['Alice Germain'] | 2019-11-14 13:01:03.239000+00:00 | ['Science Education', 'Education', 'Pgce'] |
Streamlit — use data apps to better test your model | Introduction
We use all kinds of techniques from creating a very reliable validation set to using k-fold cross-validation or coming up with all sorts of fancy metrics to determine how good our model performs. However, nothing beats looking at the raw output. When you look at sample output, you figure out things that none of the other methods can tell you.
For example, if you are performing object detection on crops, you might see that when the crop is aligned in a certain way because of the wind, our bounding boxes don’t encapsulate the crop properly.
However, looking at sample outputs is a tedious task. Say we want to test various NMS values, and we also want to test it on a bunch of images. We can always write a function for this, but running it, again and again, is boring.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have an app where we can upload an image and use a slider to adjust the NMS value? Welcome, Streamlit. | https://towardsdatascience.com/streamlit-use-data-apps-to-better-test-your-model-4a14dad235f5 | ['Dipam Vasani'] | 2020-08-25 02:19:12.527000+00:00 | ['Deep Learning', 'Machine Learning', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Python', 'Data Science'] |
Why I Chose to Become an American Citizen Now | Why I Chose to Become an American Citizen Now
Contentious elections, endless conflict — but a chance to become whole
Photo: pbombaert/Getty
When my parents told me we were moving to America, I pictured a carousel. Special, beguiling; a place where nothing bad ever happened. In my head, it was like a still photograph of something in motion. The lights were a warm streak of yellow, and the painted horses looked like they were dancing. I was nearly six, and the idea of flying across the world to a place like that was thrilling.
This was the spirited creation of a child, sure, but one that had roots somewhere. I don’t know exactly where it came from, but I suspect that the allure of this country — the mythical American dream — is so relentlessly propagated that it managed to worm its way into the unvarnished brain of a small child. It remained fixed in my mind for a long time. Mostly, I leaned on it when my friends disparaged the country they were born in. “You’re lucky,” I used to insist. “People give up everything to make it to America.”
And then I grew up, and the carousel broke down. It happened in fits, punctuated by national crises and a rising awareness of my own privilege here and all it afforded me and the position of others relative to me. It happened when I read books and essays, when I made friends, when I witnessed cruelty and did nothing to help. It happened as I filled in the lines of my own personhood, and I began to question what, exactly, personhood meant here in America and who was allowed to have it.
The country’s sins were now indistinguishable from my own.
The weight of how much the ideal had disintegrated settled itself between my shoulder blades on the day I became an American. My naturalization ceremony — held this past October, on a Friday too warm for the bright-red coat I wore — was ostensibly a salute to more than 140 immigrants. It was also an ominous celebration of nationalistic assimilation and vaguely funereal: I pledged my loyalty to America and left behind the place I came from. There would be no more slipping out of my Americanness when it suited me. The country’s sins were now indistinguishable from my own.
Perversely, becoming a citizen presented me with a sense of security. That was one of the reasons I chose this moment in time to become a citizen, after all — not out of some patriotic desire to submerge myself in the American swamp, but because the swamp offered more protection than the shore.
People often seem disappointed by this explanation. “That’s why you’re doing this now?” they’d ask, hoping, perhaps, that I was motivated by a sense of civic duty, or that I had gone crazy. But the simple answer, and the one I was loath to give, was that I wanted to feel safe. I wanted proof that I belonged here. I no longer wanted to be able to slip out of my Americanness — not because I considered it to be part of me, but because I didn’t want someone else to decide when it would happen next. Before I took this step, unease was at a constant simmer beneath the surface. My life was not entirely within my control; someone out there could make it hell if they wanted to.
Citizenship seemed like it would be a fundamental, irreparable transformation of my identity.
And yet the truth is that, growing up, I was always privileged enough to not worry about becoming an American citizen. It never felt like a necessity, and my parents waited almost as long as I did. We moved here because my father got a good job, which meant our immigration status was always relatively safe, and because I was a kid, my parents jumped through all the hoops for me. Until now, I never had to reckon with any of this.
It also became a point of secret, mulish pride. I didn’t want to give in. Doing so felt like letting go of some essential part of me — the part that wasn’t from here, that never felt wholly at home, that had always considered herself stuck between two worlds. Citizenship seemed like it would be a fundamental, irreparable transformation of my identity. Maybe I would welcome that someday, but I wanted to be sure about it. Instead, I did it because I felt like I had no other choice. I did it so that if I ever moved away, I had a way back. I did it out of a vague sense of unease, which is, bitterly, the most perfectly American thing of all.
It’s also ludicrous. I’m white. My accent is so neutral that I could be a virtual assistant. I’m fluent in Americana. My path to citizenship didn’t involve fleeing violence or persecution. I didn’t risk my life or my family’s life. I haven’t lived in fear of deportation. I don’t get stopped at airports, and on the street, and in my home, and asked why I’m here. I blend in. And so it feels fraudulent to say that I want to be safe. It feels callous to boil down the prodigious step of becoming a citizen to flinty practicality and curdled cynicism when other people give everything they have to make it through a naturalization ceremony.
A few weeks ago, a letter arrived in the mail from a county official — the same man who presided over my ceremony — congratulating me on becoming a citizen. He also took pains to castigate those who “take shortcuts,” as if that was a decision born out of laziness and duplicity rather than circumstance and necessity. I wanted to set the letter on fire. I know citizenship isn’t meaningless. I know it’s not just an empty token of appreciation from Uncle Sam. But it’s difficult to reconcile the practiced reverence with which it is treated with the feeling that I got lucky — because of where I came from, because of what I look like, because of what I sound like. | https://medium.com/s/story/why-i-chose-to-become-an-american-citizen-now-b1f5f9d9b77d | ['Sophie Kleeman'] | 2018-11-06 14:31:01.937000+00:00 | ['Immigration', 'Voting', 'Politics', 'Family'] |
Webdevelopment-How To Positively Fix DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN In Android-Free 8 Tips | MOHANMEKAP | Webdevelopment is the main criteria where we do find more and more difficulties in dealing with WordPress based self-hosted sites which works in two way manner is that of one it first needs to connect to a content management system and then it runs a website in yours web browser.
In the Chrome for android version 87.0.4280.101 I found a new feature from its Settings menu.Then go to P:rivacy and Security and then go to Secure DNS and click on the drop down and then select Google Public DNS. See the screen recorder.
I updated Google Chrome for android in my Android 10 device and then I browsed my website as this is my regular habit to see whether my website is live or not but I found this on the webdeveloment of chrome for android. I found the following error with Chrome of android.
Table of Contents:
Webdevelopment-DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN in Chrome Webdevelopment tutorials How to fix DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN on Android for Chrome
Webdevelopment is a difficult subject and here I found that my website is appearing in all the other web surfaces but not in this android for chrome. Now after changing above mentioned steps to change DNS now my website is showing the above expression and not rendering at all. This article is about this fact of webdevelopment where we have to solve this in order to make my website appear promptly and securely.
Then I check my website on weather it is down for me or for all in the web services and in this webdevelopment I found that my website is live but not showing on my web browser. This means the problem is with my device or web browser and I have to solve it out to know the status of my website any time I choose to see.
DNS is the short name of a domain name system. When there are difficulties in configuration or problem with DNS server then the above mentioned error comes to the webdevelopment point of view in chrome web browsers. DNS are nodes of websites and it connects to varieties of webs servers and then website appear on web browsers.
In this case DNS failed to connect with servers and provide the right kind of Name server which reality helps the website to run easily on user’s webbrowser. | https://medium.com/@freewarespace/webdevelopment-how-to-positively-fix-dns-probe-finished-nxdomain-in-android-free-8-tips-96d6ec0f999a | ['Mohan Manohar Mekap'] | 2020-12-22 09:46:58.121000+00:00 | ['Website', 'Web Development', 'Google', 'WordPress'] |
How to Add Clarity and Curiosity to Your Headlines | How to Add Clarity and Curiosity to Your Headlines
Without being a clickbaiter — my 10-point cheat sheet
Illustration by Cynthia Marinakos.
“Do you have a question about headlines?” I asked my friend and business accountability partner Tatyana recently. She told me she’s confused.
The common advice is that we’ve got to be really clear with our headline, we need to write attention-grabbing headlines, but we mustn’t write clickbait.
I agree. I’ve been researching and practicing headlines for many months. And I’ve come across plenty of confusing and contradictory information.
My head hurts!
Which headlines do you use and when? How do you write headlines with clarity that also attract curiosity? How do you steer clear of clickbait? And why should we care anyway — we write to get clicks, don’t we?
I dug through my research, reviewed lots of headlines, wrote lots more for practice, and gathered what I think will help us all sort out these headline shenanigans! I’ve included real headline examples to show you what I’m talking about.. Before we dive in, here’s my 10-point cheat sheet: | https://medium.com/better-marketing/how-to-add-clarity-and-curiosity-in-your-headlines-e31fae7f3525 | ['Cynthia Marinakos'] | 2020-09-12 09:15:51.657000+00:00 | ['Headline Hacks', 'Business', 'Writing', 'Psychology', 'Creativity'] |
10 Different Ways to Loop in Swift | Ten Ways to Loop
The humble loop
This does what you might expect it to do: print out the directions one at a time on different lines.
The humble loop, again
This of course does the same but uses a more Swiftish syntax, certainly one that will get you set up for thinking in coding in SwiftUI.
A sort of stacked loop
This is an interesting variation on the idea. Imagine I want to loop through my directions, not in nanoseconds as I have been doing, but on demand. Of course, this version will loop automatically (in nanoseconds) because I used a repeat/while — but I am sure you get the idea.
The recursive loop
This one loops through our directions using recursion. I cannot help being a little nervous about recursion. It uses more resources than a simple loop and should not be used unless it really makes sense.
Simple skipping loop
Of course, maybe you don’t want to print every direction out. Here is an unusual use of the guard statement to select even ones only.
One more simple loop I missed
This loop uses a while condition to check each time it prints out an element in our array. This one is special because, using it, you could change the contents of the directions array without worrying. In all the previous cases, that simply isn’t an option.
The indexed loop
OK, but what if you need the index too? This will do the trick.
The indexed loopII
Same again, but this one uses a Swift function to extract the index values.
The indexed loop, less code
Again, an arguably more Swiftish version. Of course, you don’t need the loop for enumerated ; you can simply use it on its own.
Another version of a loop with an index
This one, like the last, is a nice efficient, short piece of code.
One more I found on Stack Overflow
An interesting approach, although I am not sure how obvious its implementation is ultimately. | https://medium.com/better-programming/10-different-ways-to-loop-in-swift-20bd5a40c8f7 | ['Mark Lucking'] | 2020-12-21 15:33:10.901000+00:00 | ['Programming', 'iOS', 'Xcode', 'Mobile', 'Swift'] |
“You can’t even hit on a girl nowadays” | Photo by Eliott Reyna on Unsplash
(This is the translation of my article “non ci si può più provare con una in discoteca”, realized with the help of the translator DeepL)
It is maybe not my place, as a female, to write about males and feminism. For the same reason I get pissed off if a male tells females how to live their womanhood — such as the completely male-composed Italian government commission that last year included barber shops but not beauticians in the list of “economically essential activities”.
It might not be my place, but still I’ve listened to some friends (straight white cisgender males) and elaborated some thoughts about what I heard. I write in the hope that this will lead to a broader conversation, not to resolve a complex issue that it’s competence of said white, cisgender (and so on) to address.
Feminism gets pissed off. Claiming the right to anger and not having to perpetually explain yourself is part of what it means to be a feminist.
However.
In front of this rage many males feel cut off. If I, a male, dare to say at dinner that “when I go to the club I don’t feel comfortable hitting on a girl” my female friends attack me, calling me insensitive and maybe even ignorant. So I stop talking about it. But this doesn’t mean that I stop feeling like “I don’t know what’s right anymore, the fear of a complaint for a harassment that I didn’t even realize I did is weighing on me”. I have a feeling that I can’t talk about, except with white male (and so on) friends who feel the same way because they share it.
This feeling is legit.
There is a response consistent with feminist thought, arguing that this feeling should not create self-isolation, but rather lead to self-questioning in order to eventually make the world a more livable place for males, females, and others. But I’m not here to lecture anyone, so I won’t detail that response here.
Rather, I’m here to say that there is a lack of space to express these feelings without being attacked. A space where we can process male discomfort — which does exist — consistently with feminist thinking. I mean “feminist” in the most inclusive sense possible: the will to fight the rigid categories of “male” and “female”, and the hiding, mocking or despising what doesn’t fit into one of those categories — such as male pain or sensitivity. Within this feminist discourse, it can happen that a straight male (and so on) feels accused. Accused of treating women badly, of having some original sin behind him (centuries of history where men had many more rights than women) that would justify the revenge of women today, who call themselves victims of an internalized male bias that men don’t even consciously know about.
The unfortunate result is that the aforementioned straight male (and so on) often decides that feminism is not for him, doesn’t represent him, and leaves it to women, in the best of cases. At worst, he becomes explicitly anti-feminist. I think this is an unfortunate turn of tables, and honestly a pity.
A pity because the battle against male discomfort, what some would call “reverse discrimination”, is actually a feminist battle. So it’s a shame that a male turns away from feminism because he experiences uncomfortable feelings that a certain kind of feminism actually struggles to overcome.
I don’t have any solutions.
Because I’m not a male, I can try to understand but I can’t experience male discomfort. That’s probably why it’s not a problem that feminists who aren’t cis men can solve. As a feminist cis-gender woman I only feel like taking note of the fact that often what I say can sound aggressive and intimidate an outsider who knows nothing about feminism, making him refractory to the topic. That doesn’t have to stop me from speaking out. The solution is not to “be less aggressive when I do feminism,” because what is perceived as aggression is part of feminist claims.
I wanted to acknowledge this reality that I unfortunately don’t hear much about. To acknowledge that many white males (and so on) are in a difficult position, where they are intimidated by feminism to the point of feeling discriminated against and attacked, if they try to talk about this frustration. Dog biting its own tail.
I hope that from recognizing the problem we can move on to processing it and finding a solution. | https://medium.com/@sara-parton/you-cant-even-hit-on-a-girl-nowadays-4f19c20d594 | ['Sara Parton'] | 2021-05-26 08:36:24.280000+00:00 | ['Feminism', 'Dating', 'Men', 'Love', 'Sociology'] |
Queer in Istanbul | Editor’s note: Beldan Sezen is a visual storyteller. In 2011, she was awarded the Three-in-One Chapbook Contest Prize for her graphic short stories “Fear City,” “Girls,” and “Demons.” Her first graphic-murder mystery, Zakkum, was installed at the Frauenmuseum Wiesbaden. Institutional collectors of her recent books include The New York Public Library, Stanford University, and the Library of Congress. Watch Beldan’s animated short ‘From the Diaries of Two Breasts’ here, or visit her website for more. | https://medium.com/muslim-women-speak/queer-in-istanbul-3778c2d3bc1e | ['Beldan Sezen'] | 2018-06-03 14:38:38.666000+00:00 | ['Turkey', 'LGBTQ', 'Human Rights', 'Sex', 'Women'] |
3 Traits of the Most Successful People You Must Have | Everyone follows Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and thousands of other successful people. People see all the aura around their personality but neglect the things that were key in their growth. We want to be icons like them and idolize their current position, status, and reverence.
But did you ever think that what are the three key things in their lives?
Persistence
If you read biographies or life accounts of the most successful people, you’ll find that one of their most important habits is persistence.
No one gets fame, success, and honor in a day. All that glitters is not gold. There are lots of pains, struggles, and hardships behind that.
Victory comes with patience, persistence, and constant hard work. What they achieved today is the fruit of untiring efforts they have been putting for a long time.
In the modern world, it’s easy to lose focus. There are so many things happening around us. Some distractions are attractive enough to pull us towards them. It’s easier to lose focus nowadays.
That’s why it makes sense that persistence is one of the essential qualities of successful people in modern times.
Punctuality
Being punctual is a quality trait that will help you to stand out from your peers. It shows you are responsible, serious, and disciplined.
You might have also noticed that during your studies, disciplined students often get chances to lead the societies. The same rule applies to professional life.
If you are punctual, you’ll get more chances to execute and showcase your leadership skills. That’s where you can shine and jump up to more exciting roles in life.
Personality
Before letting the world believe in you, you need to believe in yourself. If you don’t, no one is going to take you seriously.
I often see many young talented people who are in the early stages of their careers. They miss this trait. They don’t believe in themselves despite being so gifted.
Successful people believe in themselves. They pave the way to their success by not only their hard skills but also their soft skills. Communication, posture, behavior — everything matters and shapes your personality.
Takeaway
Being successful in anything is not easy. It’s the reason a few people in the world are genuinely successful.
If you want to be successful, you need to follow these basic traits alongside working on other stuff. | https://medium.com/2-minute-madness/3-traits-of-successful-people-you-should-have-9dec5400c386 | ['Saeed Ahmad'] | 2020-10-30 19:17:45.532000+00:00 | ['Success', 'Personal Development', 'Life', 'Productivity', 'Life Lessons'] |
Nervos completes integration with Band Protocol to enable dApps to access oracle data | We’re pleased to announce our integration with cross-chain data oracle platform Band Protocol to bring third-party data to the Nervos ecosystem is complete! Nervos developers can now access price feeds and other real-world data in real time from external sources to power any type of decentralized application (dApp).
The integration, first started in August of this year, marks the culmination of a two-phase process to build a bridge from Nervos to Band Protocol. The bridge operates in a fully trustless and permissionless manner, covering all potential data needs on Nervos as developers are now able to leverage any open and premium data sources such as crypto price aggregators, exchanges, foreign exchange rate providers, sports and esports data reporters, and more through Band Protocol’s oracle technology.
How Nervos integrates Band Oracles
The completed Band Protocol integration brings significant improvements in the existing data availability, scalability, and flexibility in the Nervos ecosystem. Dapps on Nervos can now tap into selected crypto price feeds from BandChain, Band Protocol’s high performance blockchain for data oracles, which is particularly important for decentralized finance (DeFi). With Band Protocol’s built in-price oracle, Nervos developers can rest assured that their price feeds are manipulation resistant and up-to-date as they’re not susceptible to long update times or blockchain congestion.
Nervos developers can also connect dApps with any open APIs via a customizable Data Oracle Script, which is programmable in Rust and any language compatible with the WebAssembly standard.
The Nervos team have also developed a web application to visualize the oracle bridge including price feeds which are live on the Mainnet. Check it out here: https://oracle-bridge.ckbapp.dev/
Nervos co-founder Terry Tai said,
“The completion of our integration solidifies Band Protocol as one of the leading oracle solutions on Nervos and is an important milestone for our entire ecosystem but significantly DeFi developers, as they now have full access to a variety of secure, real-time data for their applications. We look forward to seeing how the Nervos community takes advantage of this opportunity and our ongoing collaboration with the Band Protocol team.”
Band Protocol CEO & Co-Founder Soravis Srinawakoon said,
“Working closely with the leading blockchain platforms such as Nervos in China and ICON Network in South Korea position Band Protocol in the strongest position to integrate and collaborate closely with the respective decentralized application ecosystems, bringing off-chain data on-chain in a seamless and highly secure manner.”
Looking Forward
Nervos and Band Protocol will continue to bring the highest reliability and security to Nervos developers and users of DeFi products through robust decentralized oracles provided by Band Protocol.
For more information on Band Protocol, visit bandprotocol.com. | https://medium.com/nervosnetwork/nervos-completes-integration-with-band-protocol-to-enable-dapps-to-access-oracle-data-a36e13888b01 | ['Nervos Network'] | 2020-12-18 13:02:30+00:00 | ['Oracles', 'Band Protocol', 'Defi', 'Dapps', 'Blockchain'] |
Grief, You’re Like A Sunflower | While yesterday may have been beautiful, it was also a sad day. Yesterday would have been my grandparent’s 55th wedding anniversary.
My grandpa passed away this past December after a very long and hard 2020. He did not die of COVID, but died during COVID times. I miss him every single day. My heart hurts as the hours and days go by without him. Over the last few months I have tried to find him; connect with him; feel his heavenly presence around me. I have been very lucky to find his gifts every once in a while.
I’ve noticed that my grandpa talks to me through music: songs I most likely would not have listened to on my own. When I hear one of those songs, I know it is him playing them. Yesterday was one of those days.
I went to Trader Joe’s to buy some flowers for my grandma and for my grandpa’s grave. As I stood in front of the fresh flowers, trying not to make eye contact with the succulents, music began playing from up above. Now for whatever reason Trader Joe’s always has the best music playing, something that every employee and shoppers happily sing along too. Bruce Channel’s “Hey Baby” began playing and my eyes surely welled with tears. The very first “heeeyyy babbyyyy” I could hear my grandpa singing it. Anyone who saw me must have thought I was crazy for standing with several bouquets of flowers in my arms, just crying. What’s funny is as I was combing through the different flowers I had asked my grandpa which flowers he liked the best; of course it was the sunflowers. I got one for him and one for my grandma.
Later on, I went to my grandma’s house and my mom was telling her the story about me hearing grandpa in Trader Joe’s. As I retold the story I started crying again with both my mom and grandma crying besides me. My grandma told me that “Hey Baby” was their song; the very first song my grandpa sung to her when they first started dating.
Grief is crazy and so unpredictable. I hate it, but then there are times like yesterday where I have to thank my grief for recognizing the blessings and gifts from my grandpa. I started to read Grief Day by Day by Jan Warner who talks about her own grief as a sunflower.
She writes:
“I often think of my grief as a sunflower. The center is always dark. My grief is dark and unchanging…the yellow petals surrounding the center are bright and numerous. At the beginning, my poor sunflower hardly had any petals. However by nurturing it and allowing it to grow, the sunflower’s dark center is now surrounded by many bright colored petals…”
Grief, you are my sunflower — but only the center. Out of my sadness a new bright yellow petal appeared. A tiny reminder that my best friend is here with me, every day.
Nicole xo | https://medium.com/@nicoleashley4/grief-youre-like-a-sunflower-374f11dc6740 | ["Nicole Rivera O'Donnell"] | 2021-07-30 13:09:46.219000+00:00 | ['Grief', 'Mental Health Awareness', 'Mental Health', 'Grief And Loss', 'Grief Counseling'] |
Annotating Bitcoin Data with D3.js and Enigma Public | “The annotation layer is the most important thing we do… otherwise it’s a case of here it is, you go figure it out.” - Amanda Cox, New York Times Graphics Editor
So, you came across something unusual in Enigma Public, the world’s broadest repository of public data, and want to share the results and process that led to your insights. What’s next?
On the Enigma Data Team, we use a variety of visualization tools to share findings with our users and one another. One such tool is d3-annotation. This open-source plugin for the d3.js visualization library makes this often overlooked process easy and fun.
In this first installment of a blog series on Javascript Data Visualization, I’ll use Observable Notebooks* to showcase two Javascript data visualization libraries, using both the Enigma Public and the Coindesk APIs to highlight some key portions of datasets relating to Bitcoin.
Click here to read my tutorial on adding annotations to charts made in D3.js!**
*Never heard of Observable Notebooks before? Read on!
Data scientists and journalists alike love using “notebook”-style tools such as Jupyter (in contrast to plain text editors) for many reasons, including —
Ability to present text, code, and graphics side-by-side
Ability to run and iterate on code one section at a time through “cells”
A better overall coding experience
Observablehq is a free, web-based notebook for data science, founded by a team of folks with roots in the open-source data visualization community (Mike Bostock, Tom MacWright). Unlike Jupyter, readers can view and run Observable notebooks without needing to install anything, making it an ideal tool for sharing reproducible and interactive analyses.
**Safari is not supported
_________________________________________________________________
Interested in solving complex, unique problems? We’re hiring. | https://medium.com/enigma-engineering/annotating-bitcoin-data-with-d3-js-and-enigma-public-d4e64bc0b0cc | ['Cameron Yick'] | 2018-03-28 14:59:25.733000+00:00 | ['Tutorial', 'D3js', 'Annotations', 'Data Visualization', 'Bitcoin'] |
Game & Watch Super Mario Bros: A Perfect Tribute to Gunpei Yokoi | Mario has been in the spotlight this year with Nintendo leaning into the 35th-anniversary festivities quite heavily. Part of this celebration brought the creation of Game & Watch: Super Mario Bros. A classic device that’s a callback to Nintendo’s video game history even before the Nintendo Entertainment System. This new rendition features a color screen, the first two Super Mario titles and an exclusive version of Game & Watch Ball; swapping the jugglers’ heads with Mario and Luigi’s. It also features a full clock that’s chock full of easter eggs and secrets for fans to enjoy. On the surface, it looks exactly like how it should be as it commemorates Mario’s decorated history. Yet, it’s also the truest homage and tribute to Gunpei Yokoi, a legendary video game designer.
One of Nintendo’s classic toys in the late 60s. Courtesy of Beforemario.com
Before its breakthrough in the gaming world, Nintendo looked very different in the 70s. While they still made toys and the focus was play, it was in more analog ways. From marble racers to building block tchotchkes, Nintendo’s influence was huge on the market. At the time, Yokoi was a maintenance man working at a hanafuda card factory. He had quite a knack for making little inventions in his spare time. President of Nintendo at the time, Hiroshi Yamauchi noticed Yokoi’s creativity when visiting the factory one day. He took great interest in making Yokoi’s extending arm gadget into a toy for the upcoming 1966 holiday rush. Thus, the Ultra Hand toy was created and so was Yokoi’s dream job as a toy designer. Working to make other goofy devices for kids, Nintendo’s transition to video games began with the arcade rush of the mid-70s. Working as one of Nintendo’s first video game designers alongside Genyo Takeda, Yokoi initially had trouble coming up with games for this burgeoning market.
Fascinated by the indistinct clicking of a calculator by a bored businessman on the bullet train gave him an excellent idea. Released in 1980, the pocket-sized “Game & Watch” populated markets both in Japan and overseas. At that time, Nintendo’s management knew very little about games in general and Yokoi was constantly working to create new versions and iterations of Game & Watch. There are over 60 different variations of old games and watch consoles, some even referencing other licensed works. Ranging from Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck appearances, Game & Watch was a popular medium for early handheld gaming. There’s even some based on Mario’s original inspiration, Popeye! Breaking onto the scene with their silver series, these games featured button controls to juggle balls, save people from a burning building and dive for treasure. While simple in nature, these games had a rhythm to them and were satisfying to pick up and play whenever in need of a distraction or waste of time.
A US Game & Watch commercial showcasing the games and styles of play. Courtesy of FuzzyMemories.tv
Made with only a 4-bit processing unit, a bit of RAM and button-style batteries; these devices were quite the fancy time teller and helped Nintendo reach greater heights. Made with parts incomparable to the sophisticated cabinets of the arcade, the Game & Watch stands as a testament to Yokoi’s methodology when making new ways to use old hardware. This philosophy is often reverberated by Yokoi explaining himself, “The Nintendo way of adapting technology is not to look for the state of the art but to utilize mature technology that can be mass-produced cheaply.” Lateral thinking with withered technology has long since been a part of Nintendo’s strategy when developing new hardware. A modern example of such an idea is none other than the NES and SNES mini. Effectively branding themselves as nostalgic devices, Nintendo has capitalized on this retro representation in the past. Yet, even the Nintendo Switch in many aspects can exemplify Yokoi’s ideology. With more memory and a more efficient graphics architecture, Nintendo’s next-gen console started at the same price as the WiiU and only 50$ more than the Wii at launch. Yet, business wouldn’t be the only thing Yokoi would influence during his time at Nintendo.
The first Nintendo handheld to ever implement a D-Pad seen in the bottom left. Courtesy of Nintendo
These tiny little screens were everywhere and kept improving with more iterations and game types to help differentiate the brand more. Yokoi had a knack for figuring out new ways to reinvent the machine, and with more properties and games to bring over, he started to create better and fancier devices. Devices that had multiple screens, two-player layouts and even extra controller schemes in an age where different controller styles just didn’t exist for portable consoles. The team worked on trying to retrofit arcade controls to little success until Yokoi designed a cross-shaped mold that raised one side when the opposite was pressed. This ingenious design gave the player the much-needed feeling pressing down in the desired direction. Yokoi fundamentally created the groundwork for Nintendo to consistently reuse and reintroduce this control style in most of their controllers since. This design of course was created for the arcade portable conversion of Donkey Kong. In fact, some could argue that this specific model of Donkey Kong Game & Watch contributed to many other Nintendo success stories.
Of course, Yokoi designed and worked to bring the GameBoy to life. Bringing over the control style of the NES and making it portable, Nintendo built an impressive handheld for the time, Yokoi wanted to ensure that the gaming experience wouldn’t sacrifice functionality for portability. Thus the device used a simple green lcd background, in contrast to other handhelds like the Sega Game Gear and Atari Lynx. This coupled with the battery power allows for longer periods of gameplay compared to both competitors which sacrificed playtime for color screens. Using only 4 batteries, the GameBoy dominated the handheld market because of its efficiency and relatively low manufacturing costs. Going further than the Gameboy, the dual-screen Game & Watch even influenced the design of the original DS which also used a horizontal clamshell design. His influence is seen in even the smallest of touches. The whole reason Mario can originally jump from high heights and iconically land unharmed is because Yokoi suggested it to a frustrated Miyamoto.
Over the years, every iteration takes a design element and incorporates it to create a new system.
Unfortunately, he also contributed to the idea of using revolutionary virtual experience to develop a new console, the eponymous and infamous Virtual Boy. Originally never intending to be released in the state it did, the Virtual Boy’s commercial failure did contribute to Yokoi’s reasoning for leaving Nintendo. Yet, even the Virtual Boy’s experimentation with 3D did eventually lead to Nintendo creating a 3DS. Going on to work for Bandai and their WonderSwan handheld, Yokoi tragically passed away in a traffic incident only a year later. Despite his growing disinterest in games with 3d graphics and modern hardware, Yokoi still wished to open a studio of his own one day. While he wasn’t what some might call a gaming enthusiast nowadays, but rather a simplest. Yokoi saw gaming as a weapon against boredom and wasted time.
The Yoshi’s come out at night!
At the end of the day, the value in a device like this is extremely niche. The games on the device can be played through Nintendo’s online service and Game and Watch Ball has been re released in the past as well. There’s almost no world where I would prefer to play Super Mario Bros. Lost Levels on a smaller screen with even smaller controls. I wouldn’t say that the novelty of a device like this is in the brand loyalty or “video game preservation” efforts; it’s more so as a testament to the roots of Nintendo’s past. It’s probably one of the more frivolous gaming paraphernalia available, with an exception for the 24K PlayStation 5 consoles that were sold recently. When it seems that all the spotlights are on what's over the horizon for gaming and graphics, the Game and Watch takes pride in it’s small offerings and tiny easter eggs.
Released for a fifth of the price of a new Xbox or PlayStation console, Even beyond the modding potentials of homebrew applications on the device, It’s emblematic of Nintendo’s oldest philosophy at it’s finest. Game & Watch is what propelled and allowed Nintendo to make the impact they did on gaming culture forever. He’s an unforgettable designer with such an esteemed legacy that will for outlast any gaming console. So while the flair and charm is to the service of Mario, it’s wrapped in this perfect Game and Watch package. While he may no longer be with us, I am grateful to see more reproduction Game and Watch units that will always pay tribute to Gunpei Yokoi’s creation. | https://adamalvernaz.medium.com/game-watch-super-mario-bros-a-perfect-tribute-to-gunpei-yokoi-c5b35f66675e | ['Adam Alvernaz'] | 2020-12-02 20:20:28.804000+00:00 | ['Game And Watch', 'Gaming', 'Super Mario Bros', 'Nintendo', 'Gunpei Yokoi'] |
Distance Learning: How TextNow Is Helping Teachers Stay Connected (Pt 2) | In this unprecedented time, educators across the country are asking themselves two major questions:
How do I ensure that virtual learning is equitable? How do I communicate effectively with students and families at this time?
Typically, giving out your personal phone number is considered a big no-no in my field as it is viewed as unprofessional and inappropriate. Except, during the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers are being asked — or, as in my case, required — to forget this rule. This new mandate made by my district led me to the TextNow app. Within seconds, my cell phone became a personal device and a professional one while still allowing me to maintain separation between these two parts of my quarantine life.
All I had to do was download the app and choose a number. With my new work number available, I began sharing it with my students via Google Classroom and their Gmail. That very day, multiple students reached out to me by phone call and text message seeking help with their virtual assignments. Additionally, I began making phone calls to the families of students who have not yet been online to do their virtual learning assignments. This was the greatest advantage of all. “Hello. This is Mrs. Malsbury from Passage Middle School. I wanted to reach out to see if there is anything your family needs right now.” Who would have thought that such a simple phrase would lead to huge sighs of relief, tears, and such an outpouring of appreciation?
I had multiple families share that they were in need of a laptop, internet access, and information about our meals-to-go program. Some days it is hard to feel like we are still making a difference, but every parent that I connected to the information and support they needed reminded me of that feeling we all have had in the classroom — and the one we are all desperate to feel again –when we are able to help a child finally understand a concept they have been struggling to grasp. This has led me to work towards providing a more equitable experience for my students and develop a strong line of communication for the remainder of the school year.
The silver lining to this whole experience of virtual learning is that I have discovered so many amazing digital tools that are not only valuable during this pandemic but going forward into the rest of my teaching career. Thanks TextNow, for allowing me to continue to be here for my students and their families. | https://medium.com/textnow/distance-learning-how-textnow-is-helping-teachers-stay-connected-pt-2-e59667e8c4de | ['Valeria K'] | 2020-04-23 15:37:07.559000+00:00 | ['Second Phone Number', 'Online Learning', 'Teachers', 'Distance Learning'] |
An Intuitive Explanation of Random Forest and Extra Trees Classifiers | A Single Stump vs 1000 Stumps
Suppose that we have a weak learner, a classifier whose accuracy is slightly better than a random decision, with a classification accuracy of 51 %. This could be a decision stump , a decision tree classifier with its depth set to one. At first instance, it would appear that one shouldn’t bother which such a weak classifier; however, what if we consider putting together 1000 slightly different decision stumps (an ensemble), each with 51 % accuracy to make our final prediction? Intuitively, we can see that in average, 510 of these classifiers would correctly classify a test case and that 490 would misclassify it. If we collect the hard votes of each classifier, we could see that on average there would be about 20 more correct predictions; consequently, our ensemble would tend to have an accuracy higher than 51 %. Let’s see this in practice.
Here we will build a decision stump and compare its predictive performance to an ensemble of 1000 of them. The ensemble of decision trees is created using the Scikit-learn BaggingClassifier. The decision stump and the ensemble will be trained on the Iris dataset which contains four features and three classes. The data is randomly split to create a training and test set.
Each decision stump will be built with the following criteria:
All the data available in the training set is used to build each stump. To form the root node or any node, the best split is determined by searching in all the available features. The maximum depth of the decision stump is one.
First we import all the libraries that we will use for this article.
Script 1 — Importing the libraries.
Then, we load the data, split it, and train and compare a single stump vs an ensemble. The results are printed to the console.
Script 2— Stump vs Ensemble of 1000 Stumps
The accuracy of the stump is 55.0 %
The accuracy of the ensemble is 55.0 %
The results show that the ensemble of 1000 decision stumps obtained an accuracy of 55 %, showing that they are no better than a single decision stump. So what happened? Why are we not getting better results? Well we basically created 1000 decision stumps that were exactly the same. It’s like we asked a single person what their favorite food was 1000 times and, not surprisingly, obtained the same answer 1000 times. | https://towardsdatascience.com/an-intuitive-explanation-of-random-forest-and-extra-trees-classifiers-8507ac21d54b | ['Frank Ceballos'] | 2020-04-06 03:36:45.595000+00:00 | ['Random Forest', 'Decision Tree', 'Python', 'Data Science', 'Machine Learning'] |
How to Access Data From the Beta Channel of Graph API | All the new features of the Microsoft Graph API are first available in the beta version. By using the beta version you can get early access to new features. Microsoft often adds new features as can be seen on their GitHub changelog here.
In this post we will do three things:
Create an Azure Active Directory application registration
Get the access token through the registered application
Call the Graph API on the beta version
This is all done by using the Azure portal and implementing the code to call the Graph API in C#.
Adding an Application to your Azure Active Directory
To get access to the Graph API we need to register an application in the Azure Active Directory (AAD). This application can be used to add permissions. An administrator of that AAD can then consent to the permissions selected by you. Let’s go through this step by step.
Open the Azure portal and go to the AAD that you want to add the application to. Now you can add the new application like this
When the application registration is created you can see 2 important id’s we need in a later stage. This is the Application (client) Id and the Directory (tenant) Id.
Next step is to add permissions to the application registration. These permissions give the application the ability to access resources. In our case, this is the Graph API. Let’s add the Directory.Read.All which gives us permission to read everything within this AAD but not change it.
As you might have seen there are 2 types of permissions:
Delegated Permissions — These permissions are used when there is a signed-in user. Typically used for portals or Azure functions that have AD authentication.
— These permissions are used when there is a signed-in user. Typically used for portals or Azure functions that have AD authentication. Application Permissions — Should only be used on background services. These permissions can only be granted by an administrator.
Now that the application registration has the permission we want, it is still not granted. To grant this permission on this AD we need an administrator account to give consent. This can be done on the ‘API Permissions’ page where we just added the new permission.
After giving consent to the permission there is only one thing left to do and that is adding a secret to the application. This is basically the same as a password that gives you access to use the application. Only in this case, you can have multiple secrets with each a different expiry time. You can also delete these secrets. To add a secret we need to go to the “Certificates & secret page”.
Do keep in mind that you can only see the secret once. Now that we finished this we have the following data that we need to use in the next step:
Tenant id: ‘5d1821a3-a004–4cc0–95d5-cb2e797ceaf1’
App Id or Client Id: ‘42903c50–6fc9–40db-a131–87f4522dcf56’
App Secret or Client Secret: ‘fe_?xg+VhSxe_iq4RSw9TE4AUlddktg8’
We only created an app registration for a single tenant with default settings mostly. If you want more detailed information on i.e. a multi-tenant application you can go to the Microsoft docs here.
Get the access token
In order to access the Graph API, we first need to acquire an access token. This token can be used as a bearer authorization header later on. To do this I used the NuGet package Microsoft.Identity.Client version 4.0.
private async Task<string> GetAccessToken( string tenantId, string clientId, string clientSecret) { var builder = ConfidentialClientApplicationBuilder .Create(clientId) .WithClientSecret(clientSecret) .WithTenantId(tenantId) .WithRedirectUri("http://localhost/") .Build(); var acquiredTokenResult = builder.AcquireTokenForClient( // Here we set the scope to https://graph.microsoft.com/.default new List<string> { "https://graph.microsoft.com/.default" }); var tokenResult = await acquiredTokenResult.ExecuteAsync(); return tokenResult.AccessToken; }
Call the Graph API
Normally you would just use the Graph API client SDK which is the NuGet Microsoft.Graph but even the preview versions do not have all the available calls. Therefore I am not using this NuGet. Instead by using a simple HttpClient we can achieve the same.
The code below will do the following:
Retrieve the access token
Set the version to beta
Set the endpoint and the action we want to execute
Create the HTTP client
Set the headers including the authorization bearer header
Sending the request which actually is an HTTP get
Read the result as a string, since the response will be in JSON format
private async Task CallGraphApiBetaChannel() { // Retrieve the access token var accessToken = await GetAccessToken( "5d1821a3-a004-4cc0-95d5-cb2e797ceaf1", "42903c50-6fc9-40db-a131-87f4522dcf56", "fe_?xg+VhSxe_iq4RSw9TE4AUlddktg8"); // Set the version to beta var graphApiVersion = "beta"; // 'beta' or 'v1.0' // Set the endpoint and the action we want to execute var endpoint = $"https://graph.microsoft.com/{graphApiVersion}"; var action = "/applications"; // Create the http client using (var client = new HttpClient()) using (var request = new HttpRequestMessage(HttpMethod.Get, endpoint + action)) { // Set the headers including the authorization bearer header request.Headers.Accept.Add(new MediaTypeWithQualityHeaderValue("application/json")); request.Headers.Authorization = new AuthenticationHeaderValue("Bearer", accessToken); // Sending the request which actually is a http get using (var response = await client.SendAsync(request)) { if (response.IsSuccessStatusCode) { // Read the result as string, since the response will be json var result = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync(); // Do something with the result } } } }
After you get the results you can parse the response how you like. Do keep in mind that if you generate a class model from the JSON it can be broken at any moment since they regularly push updates to the beta.
If all went right you should be able to retrieve all the available applications in your Azure Active Directory. It is in my opinion re[mark]ably easy to use this and you can change the action variable to any method you can find in the beta reference docs here. Also by using this, you have control over how to parse the responses.
The source can be found on my GitHub here
Thanks for reading! | https://medium.com/swlh/how-to-access-data-from-the-beta-channel-of-graph-api-d22d95d3f23a | ['Mark Foppen'] | 2019-10-02 14:01:01.290000+00:00 | ['Azure Active Directory', 'Azure', 'Microsoft', 'Security', 'Software Engineering'] |
Active Medium Publications About Poetry | — Casey Botticello
Thanks for reading this article! Leave a comment below if you have any questions. Be sure to sign up for the Active Publications, to get the latest updates on new Medium publications accepting writers!
If you liked this article, here are some other articles you may enjoy:
Casey Botticello is a partner at Black Edge Consulting. Black Edge Consulting is a strategic communications firm, specializing in online reputation management, digital marketing, and crisis management. Prior to founding Black Edge Consulting, he worked for BGR Group, a bipartisan lobbying and strategic communications firm.
Casey is the founder of the Cryptocurrency Alliance, a Super PAC dedicated to cryptocurrency and blockchain advocacy. He is a graduate of The University of Pennsylvania, where he received his B.A. in Urban Studies. | https://medium.com/active-publications/active-medium-publications-about-poetry-43ca90ad50e8 | ['Casey Botticello'] | 2020-02-28 06:29:24.659000+00:00 | ['Creative Writing', 'Poetry', 'Poem', 'Haiku', 'Writing'] |
I Am a Mom Whose Neighborhood Burned During the Protests. It’s Time to Defund the Police. | It was yesterday. I was scrolling Twitter on my phone, and my sweet toddler hit me in the leg. When he hit me, it did not matter that some days earlier he had said, “Pippy nice.” The fact was, he hit me. I have learned, through my training as a mental health therapist, to ask questions about behaviors like this. Behaviors, after all, are a kind of communication.
What was my son trying to tell me? Was he too tired? Did he get too much screen time? Did he need my attention? What was going on just before he hit me?
I have learned, as a mother to young children, that you have to answer behaviors the same way you answer language. This is the context from which I say: The behaviors of the police demand answers.
I do not know all of the reasons the police are not agents of safety in my own community and many others. There are many ideas from many people who have been more awake to the problems of policing much longer than me. But I do know that the police’s behaviors are communication. It is time to listen to what police officers’ actions are saying, to what they have been saying for years.
The police are not solving our crimes. The police hurt people and then hurt the people who ask them to stop hurting people. Police officers are telling us with their bodies that there is a very big problem with policing in the United States.
When my toddler hits me, I work to understand what he is saying with his body. At the same time, when he hits, I do something else. I gently and firmly hold his hands. I say, “I won’t let you hit me.” I do this because I love him. Calling to defund and demilitarize the police is not necessarily an aggressive call to action, though it can be. It is not a way to demonize all people in uniform. It is loving boundaries, which we can set with anyone. Especially those we love. These boundaries can keep our community — all of our community — truly safe. | https://medium.com/fearless-she-wrote/i-am-a-mom-whose-neighborhood-burned-during-the-protests-its-time-to-defund-the-police-423b2ae7ea4d | ['Emily Pg Erickson'] | 2020-06-08 14:54:06.583000+00:00 | ['Mental Health', 'Parenting', 'Politics', 'Equality', 'Racism'] |
A Photo Haiku of Motherhood | Kaia Tingley is a writer, artist, podcaster, digital strategy nerd, and sometimes hot-tempered supernova with a wild, free soul. You can find her on Instagram here or on LinkedIn here. | https://medium.com/poetry-palace/a-photo-haiku-of-motherhood-86c55f94ed8e | ['Kaia Maeve Tingley'] | 2020-10-04 16:07:55.113000+00:00 | ['Motherhood', 'Evolution', 'Caring', 'Self', 'Parenting'] |
Celebrate International Day of Women and Girls in Science: Profile of Five Women in STEM | WOMEN IN STEM
Science and gender equality are both vital for achieving a stable and prosperous world. We are joining the global community to celebrate women and girls in science and the impact they have on building a better future. We celebrate five women in STEM across Africa to learn more about their journeys in this field.
Francisca Nneka Okeke
Francisca Nneka Okeke is a Nigerian physicist. She is and Professor of Physics at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and first female head of a department in the University. She was the First female Dean, Faculty of Physical Sciences, UNN, 2008–2010. Read More Here: http://bit.ly/2w7OCfb
Quarraisha Abdool Karim
Quarraisha Abdool Karim (born 28 March 1960) is a South African epidemiologist, known for her many contributions to AIDS research. She is the Associate Scientific Director of the AIDS research center, CAPRISA, a professor in Clinical Epidemiology at the Columbia University, and an honorary professor in Public Health at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Read More Here: http://bit.ly/2SAMpR7
Segenet Kelemu
Segenet Kelemu (May 20, 1957) is an Ethiopian scientist, noted for her research as a molecular plant pathologist, and outstanding scientific leadership. For close to three decades, Kelemu and her team’s research has contributed to addressing agricultural constraints in Africa, Asia, Latin America and North America. Read More Here: http://bit.ly/2OMIwYl
Ozak-Obazi Oluwaseyi Esu
Ozak-Obazi Oluwaseyi Esu (born 23 April 1991) is a Nigerian electrical engineer who is the technical lead at the BRE Centre for Smart Homes and Buildings (CSHB)[2]. She previously worked at Cundall in Birmingham, designing the electrical services for buildings. Read More Here: http://bit.ly/3borYiO
Margaret Mungherera
Margaret Mungherera (25 October 1957–4 February 2017) was a senior consultant psychiatrist and medical administrator in Uganda. She served as the president of the Ugandan Medical Association re-elected five times and ultimately the World Medical Association from October 2013 until October 2014. Read More Here: http://bit.ly/38ijlV2 | https://medium.com/climatewed/celebrate-international-day-of-women-and-girls-in-science-profile-of-five-women-in-stem-e548fefae3b | ['Iccdi Africa'] | 2020-02-11 23:49:50.092000+00:00 | ['Women In Science', 'Women in STEM', 'Women', 'Climate Change', 'Professional Development'] |
Electric Cars | Did you all know that Electric Cars are very beneficial to our environment? It produces less lifecycle greenhouse gasses and over time it will be good for our economy also. Both Amazon and Uber are trying to transition to using Electric Cars. Amazon will soon use Electric Delivery Vans while Uber is offering customers to pay an extra $1 to ride an Electric Car. Soon a Tesla model will soon be more accessible for consumers who cannot afford the current models. | https://medium.com/@chibianimefreak/electric-cars-3d958d800e80 | ['Lois Alo'] | 2020-12-19 23:14:15.191000+00:00 | ['Tesla', 'Uber', 'Amazon', 'Electric Car'] |
J.P. Morgan Healthcare 2021: How to Make the Most of This Year’s Virtual Conference | Daniel Zahler, Founder, Picasso Health andGLG Council Member
The J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference is going virtual in 2021. The conference, which attracts upward of 20,000 people, is one of the biggest biotech deal-making events. It’s considered an essential event for industry executives, bankers, analysts, and private and public investors.
It’s been criticized as being too crowded, too expensive, and too busy. Some San Francisco hotels charge attendees $100 an hour to use their lobby for meetings. The event has been referred to as the healthcare Hunger Games.
Here’s what can you expect from the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference this year.
The Benefits of Going Virtual
The virtual J.P. Morgan conference could have some advantages:
Cost: No need to worry about booking flights or hotel rooms or reserving meeting space.
No need to worry about booking flights or hotel rooms or reserving meeting space. Convenience: Instead of racing through conference rooms, you can listen to multiple company presentations or be at multiple BYOD cocktail events, at the same time on multiple screens.
Instead of racing through conference rooms, you can listen to multiple company presentations or be at multiple BYOD cocktail events, at the same time on multiple screens. Coverage: New digital tools could facilitate increased activity around investor partnering meetings, due to attendees’ greater flexibility and willingness to host a full day of meetings from home.
The mechanics of the 2021 conference will remain relatively unchanged from prior years. Companies can still partake in corporate presentations, including live Q&A sessions. They’ll have access to one-on-one partnering meetings with investors and other companies in attendance.
BIO One-on-One Partnering is facilitating business development opportunities during JPM Week with its integrated videoconferencing system. It’s available to any qualified company that signs up, regardless of whether they are registered for a specific event during JPM Week. A curated, topic-driven networking series allows attendees to interact face-to-face via videoconferencing in small groups.
Attendees will be able to use Inova Software’s Private Scheduler to schedule virtual meetings at JPM 2021 to discuss partnership and collaboration opportunities.
Startup Health will host a virtual Health Transformer Week (January 11–15), with daily virtual programs to connect investors, customers, experts, and peers.
The Pandemic Will Drive New Innovation
Biotech: R&D and biotech innovation will take center stage given the major focus on vaccine and therapeutic development related to COVID. We’ll see many companies present new data on their COVID treatments and vaccines.
Digital health: The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated several trends in digital health. Investors poured $4 billion in Q3 2020 into 97 digital health companies (per Rock Health).
Telemedicine remains a major trend. It’s an avenue to deliver healthcare safely, and it’s also a potential mechanism to deliver it at a much lower cost, which is a big focus right now.
As a response to the pandemic, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services loosened its regulations on telehealth visits, which caused usage of remote-care platforms to spike significantly. Telehealth funding reached a record $2.8 billion in the third quarter of 2020 — a 73% increase from the previous quarter — across 162 deals.
While I expect more innovation in telemedicine, there are signs that its growth is slowing. Already we’re seeing the number of telehealth visits decline as a percent of all visits (now at about 6% overall), even with COVID-19 cases surging. Doctors I’ve spoken with caution me on the limits of telemedicine. Not all patient care will go virtual. In-person clinical exams aren’t going away.
Virtual care: Investors continue to pour money into home-based virtual care services like Medically Home, which just raised $40 million.
Other hot areas of digital health: prescription management and on-demand pharmacies, remote monitoring, patient triage, and advanced data analytics.
We’ll see new technologies to enable virtual collaboration for surgery. Avail just raised money for its platform that enables experts to collaborate virtually in real time, minimizing the number of people who have to be physically present in hospitals’ operating rooms.
Artificial intelligence (AI): More healthcare companies today incorporate AI into their products. Eko Health recently raised $65 million for its AI-powered tools to aid detection of heart conditions. The company uses sensors, telehealth, and machine-learning algorithms to help doctors spot conditions such as heart murmurs and heart-rhythm abnormalities.
AI will play an increased role in personalized medicine and genomics, transforming how we treat cancer, Alzheimer’s, and other disease.
More biopharma companies are relying on AI and machine learning to transform drug discovery (see Recursion Pharma). Healthcare AI companies received more than $2 billion in equity funding in Q3 2020 across 121 deals.
Women’s health is another hot area of investment. Funding in this category more than doubled in Q3 ’20, marking its second-strongest quarter since Q1 ’19. Investors are pouring money into femtech, software-powered solutions for period care, menstruation, infertility, and sexual and reproductive health.
A New Wave of Healthcare M&A
Healthcare M&A activity rebounded in Q3 2020 to historical levels after a drop in Q2. Some expect J.P. Morgan 2021 to be the beginning of a new wave of M&A.
The ongoing financial pressures of the pandemic and the global urgency to develop a COVID-19 vaccine could drive up pharmaceutical deal activity. Pharma companies under pressure to deliver high levels of growth will be looking to expand their pipeline of new drugs and technologies through M&A.
Several key themes will likely drive further consolidation: improved risk and compliance solutions, enhanced payer technologies, greater attention on post-acute models, and improved risk-bearing primary care services.
I expect to see pharma companies make more partnerships and acquisitions to bolster their data analysis and artificial intelligence capabilities. Consider last year’s partnerships between Novartis and Microsoft and Gilead and Glympse Bio.
Drug pricing and reimbursement will likely remain a big issue. There’s wide speculation about what the government under Joe Biden might do about drug pricing.
Digital health players will continue to attract strong M&A interest. August saw the year’s biggest health tech M&A deal, the Teladoc and Livongo merger ($18.3 billion).
I think we’ll see more deal activity from nontraditional healthcare players. Amazon just announced Amazon Pharmacy, a service that lets customers/patients purchase their prescriptions online, paying either in cash or with insurance. Apple and Google are making big investments in wearable health monitoring technology.
Hospitals and health systems: COVID has dealt severe financial challenges to hospitals and clinics, in particular specialty practices. There’s been a general aversion to accessing the healthcare system for elective procedures or even routine appointments.
Within healthcare services — hospitals, healthcare centers, physician groups, and outpatient surgical centers — companies are using M&A to increase size and scale to lower costs and to diversify so they aren’t crippled when reimbursement is cut for a particular service line.
More hospitals and health systems are partnering with market specialists to enhance value-based care and virtual health offerings.
Special-purpose acquisition companies (SPACs): Finally, expect continued interest in SPACs. These financial vehicles have surged in popularity as alternative means to an IPO. SPACs could heighten private equity investor interest in the healthcare space by providing more attractive exit opportunities. | https://smarter.glg.it/j-p-morgan-healthcare-2021-how-to-make-the-most-of-this-years-virtual-conference-7b0ef203772b | [] | 2020-12-07 20:39:20.659000+00:00 | ['Telemedicine', 'Biotechnology', 'Conference', 'Healthcare', 'Mergers And Acquisitions'] |
Time flies (Day 25) | Photo by Hu Chen on Unsplash
When you have a newborn. It is day twenty-five of our son’s life and it feels strangely that it has been longer. But on the other hand, each day flies by as we’re slowly settling in a baby-centric routine.
Today, we woke up (well, I have, as I’m the one with the boobs) at one thirty, four, seven and finally, nine thirty. It takes me from fifteen minutes to half an hour to get Otto changed and fed. We kinda got up at half past nine, I ate my breakfast, but we were back to breastfeeding at ten. And it lasted until little over noon. This marathon feeding was interrupted by Otto’s dozing off, but still, we were in bed by then. I read an interesting developmental book in between.
When he fell asleep, we wanted to make use of a wonderfully sunny autumn day and go for a walk. But some persuasion was needed to begin with and we were out just for some twenty minutes or so. Yesterday, my husband took our son out for hour and a half, which gave me time to wash my hair and rest a bit. But today, we weren’t in the mood for a stroll obviously.
Our little boy is nursing for many reasons, being hungry seems to be the least prominent one. So we went on and breastfed some more, while my husband made lunch. Kale and minced beef sufflé. He did it for the first time and it was yummy.
After rather late lunch, I managed to get Otto to sleep for over two hours. In the meantime my in-laws came, so my husband entertained them until Otto was ready to wake up.
He was really in a good mood and was quite bit of fun for his grandparents. He stays awake and is responsive longer, so he really is interested in interaction more and more.
After they left, we interchanged some breastfeeding and napping sessions and now, I’m breastfeeding him for the last time today. With Whisbear helping me lull my precious boy to sleep.
And so, another day passes. Quickly, far too quickly.
Motherhood in numbers: | https://medium.com/a-year-in-a-life/time-flies-day-25-a296d32ac015 | ['Sara Tomsic'] | 2019-10-12 21:44:18.340000+00:00 | ['Breastfeeding', 'Motherhood', 'Parenthood', 'Newborn', 'Baby'] |
How to implement Offline Mode in an Online-First React Native app | Hoist the sails!
Your PM comes to you with shocking news, you’re to deploy to a less well-connected market, and your beloved app needs to perform reliably in adverse network conditions. While you might be tempted to curse your past self for lack of foresight, you remember that hindsight is 20/20 and that it’s time to go on deck and hoist some sturdy storm-sails.
Let’s now examine the problem at hand. Our app’s primary function is for our users to insert new data to the system, and we do not support bulk activations. Due to the nature of the system, data needs to come in in real-time, and we can have no downtime. This means that if the user is offline, he must be able to continue inserting data at the usual rate. How can we let our users do so?
Our first intuition might be to implement a bulk-insertion feature on the backend. You will then let the user know there is no network connection and proceed to gather data, to be later sent in bulk to the new endpoint when the connection is regained. Alas, the backend team has other priorities, and they are not able to implement a bulk insert endpoint in any useful timeframe.
After some discussion with the team, an agreement is reached: The app will store new data locally in a queue and will proceed to send each item in the queue to the backend when the connection is regained. While somewhat hacky, this approach works and can let the team ship the new feature rather soon.
We now have the goal; let’s see what we need to do to accomplish it. | https://medium.com/dev-genius/how-to-implement-offline-mode-in-an-online-first-react-native-app-a28a1f1d9c07 | ['Emanuele Di Vizio'] | 2020-06-09 16:14:57.821000+00:00 | ['React Hook', 'React', 'Software Development', 'Offline First', 'React Native'] |
CyberDefenders challenges: Improving malware traffic analysis skills | Credit goes to cybersecurity professional and YouTube channel Simply Cyber content creator, Gerald Auger, for recommending CyberDefenders. They have a collection of various Blue Team (SOC Analyst, forensics-focused) challenges, including malware traffic analysis challenges using the widely-used packet and protocol analyzer, WireShark. I find it super interesting to utilize Wireshark to investigate network traffic, whether it’s been exploited or not. There’s so much information to sift through. I know that with time, practice, and education, I’ll become more efficient at using it.
Users download the packet capture files and work through a series of investigative questions, given only the slightest of hints, in order to document the indicators of compromise. Being a novice, it’s been a great opportunity to learn my way around WireShark, get more hands-on familiarity with the OSI model, and analyze real malware. If you’re interested in pursuing a career as a SOC Analyst, like I am, this seems to be an important professional skill. I’m grateful for all of the resources that are out there, which show me me how to better hone this particular skill set. | https://medium.com/@jacob-e-stickney/cyberdefenders-challenges-improving-malware-traffic-analysis-skills-ac2391bef3e8 | ['Jacob Stickney'] | 2021-01-18 15:01:05.397000+00:00 | ['Information Security', 'Cybersecurity'] |
Python Facebook Automation | A Selenium Script to share Facebook status in multiple groups Automatically
Hello Everyone, in this post we will see how to Automate sharing posts in different groups on Facebook using Python and Selenium.
we will be using selenium and the chrome web Driver to get a Facebook post and then share it on multiple Facebook groups with only a couple of steps.
if you have not used the chrome web Driver before it will be installed for the first time(will take only a few seconds), but then it will not be installed each time it’s executed … it will get the setup from the cache. we will provide the link to the post that we want to share, we also need to provide the password and email of the Facebook account that we are using to share.
first of all, we are gonna need to import the following packages
in this script, we will provide the necessary information needed to login and get the Facebook post that we are interested in, and also a text file that contains a list of the groups that we will be sharing our post in.
we will start the ChromeWebDriver and get the Facebook login page and sign in using the provided information.
user_name.send_keys(email)
password=driver.find_element_by_name("pass")
password.send_keys(motDePass)
password.submit()
time.sleep(10) driver.get(fb_post)
Then, we will go through our groups' file and share in each one of them using the following code:
with open(groups_file, 'r', encoding='utf-8') as file:
for group in file:
try:
share = WebDriverWait(driver, 10).until(
EC.presence_of_element_located((By.XPATH, '//div[normalize-space()="Partager"]/div'))
)
share.click()
except:
print(group)
driver.get(fb_post)
time.sleep(10)
continue try:
shareToGroup = WebDriverWait(driver, 10).until(
EC.presence_of_element_located((By.XPATH, '//div[normalize-space()="Partager dans un groupe"]/div'))
)
time.sleep(5)
shareToGroup.click()
except:
print(group)
driver.get(fb_post)
time.sleep(10)
continue
group_name = WebDriverWait(driver, 10).until(
EC.presence_of_element_located((By.XPATH , "//input[
)
group_name.send_keys(group)
time.sleep(5)
except:
print(group)
driver.get(fb_post)
time.sleep(10)
continue try:group_name = WebDriverWait(driver, 10).until(EC.presence_of_element_located((By.XPATH , "//input[ @role ='textbox']"))group_name.send_keys(group)time.sleep(5)except:print(group)driver.get(fb_post)time.sleep(10)continue
click_group = WebDriverWait(driver, 10).until(
EC.presence_of_element_located((By.XPATH , "//div[
)
click_group.click()
except:
print(group)
driver.get(fb_post)
time.sleep(10)
continue try:click_group = WebDriverWait(driver, 10).until(EC.presence_of_element_located((By.XPATH , "//div[ @class ='glvd648r']//div[ @role ='button']"))click_group.click()except:print(group)driver.get(fb_post)time.sleep(10)continue
publish = WebDriverWait(driver, 10).until(
EC.presence_of_element_located((By.XPATH , "//div[normalize-space()='Publier']//div[
)
time.sleep(3)
publish.click()
except:
print(group)
driver.get(fb_post)
time.sleep(10)
continue try:publish = WebDriverWait(driver, 10).until(EC.presence_of_element_located((By.XPATH , "//div[normalize-space()='Publier']//div[ @role ='button']"))time.sleep(3)publish.click()except:print(group)driver.get(fb_post)time.sleep(10)continue time.sleep(10)
in the previous code, I am using time.sleep(10) which might seem a lot and our code will take a long time to execute.. the reason behind that is that my internet connection is horrible and I want to make sure my page is fully loaded before the script starts clicking any buttons
Also, if your google chrome is in English you might get an error using this script because it uses a couple of french words when looking for buttons ( words such as Publier = Publish)… because the browser I use at work is in french.
This is not the perfect script, it’s a quick solution that can be further developed.
You can find the whole script in my Github profile.
thank you
https://github.com/Mohamed-Zeghlache/Python-Facebook-Automation | https://medium.com/@mohamed-zeghlache/python-facebook-automation-82d31366e6c4 | ['Mohamed Zeghlache'] | 2021-03-04 19:49:30.299000+00:00 | ['Python', 'Automation', 'Facebook', 'Selenium'] |
Chat-Bot. | “An Introduction to ChatBot.”
Chatbots are software tools that are use to simplify the interaction between humans and computers.
The Chatbot technology takes incoming speech or text, then looks for words it knows. It uses programming to settle on the best response.
Simple chatbots give answers from any organization's FAQ page. More advanced bots “go off script” with full AI interaction or machine learning technology.
Chatbots today aren’t so different from live agents. Think of it this way human support specialists can choose from a limited range of options, dictated by company policies and procedures. Chatbots work under the same guidelines, escalating tougher queries up the chain to human agents.
Uses for Chatbots.
The most forward-facing use of chatbots is to interact with customers. And many more like…
· Customer support
· Answer questions
· Book tickets
· Upsell and cross-sell
· Handle customer orders
· Make product suggestions
· Look for flights
There are the following chatbot benefits?
· Increase sales
· 24/7 access for your customers
· Work faster than live agents
· Scale up fast
· Time Saving
How Does A ChatBot work?
Chatbots are software applications that use artificial intelligence & natural language processing to understand what a human wants.
It is Use existing conversation data (if available) to understand the type of questions people ask.
And It is Analyze correct answers to those questions through a ‘training’ period.
It Use Machine learning & NLP to learn context and continually get better at answering those questions in the future.
There is the following type of chatbot.
· Rules-Based Chatbots — These chatbots follow pre-designed rules, often built using a graphical user interface where a bot builder will design paths using a decision tree.
· AI Chatbots — AI chatbots will automatically learn after an initial training period by a bot developer.
There are different ways to get chatbots to communicate with users. Flow-based and Intent-based.
Flow-based is one of the ‘unintelligent’ ways to get bots talking. The flow-based bot doesn’t need to rely on artificial intelligence. A flow-based chatbot is one that works by using a pre-defined (and reined in) conversational flow. In other words, they have their conversations already mapped out like a flowchart.
Intent-based chatbots work on a case-by-case basis. Each interaction plays out differently from the last. To offer this kind of scope, they need NLP This is an element in AI that allows machines to derive understanding from language as it is used in natural conversation
“Why use an intent-based bot?”
An intent-based chatbot offers several benefits in terms of the end-user experience.
· Natural conversation
The use of NLP means that users can talk to an intent-based chatbot in a similar way as they would a friend. They don’t need to provide specific terms or press buttons for the bot to understand them. This makes for a smoother and more engaging conversation experience.
· Flexible than other bots
Intent-based chatbots are less restricted than flow-based bots. It only follows a set conversation path. They can better adapt to a user changing their mind, for example. This means that they can more easily carry out a wider range of tasks and adapt to changing conversation topics.
“Implementation Steps for an intent-based bot.”
Define Intents.
Data Preparation.
Model Training.
Inference. | https://medium.com/@omrajkumar/chat-bot-118ba673c959 | ['Omraj Kumar'] | 2020-12-27 12:10:22.264000+00:00 | ['Chatbots', 'Chatbot Development', 'Machine Learning', 'NLP', 'AI'] |
An Extract of Numbing | We all do terrible things sometimes.
That’s expected;
It’s baked into us from the start.
The sun slowly hides behind the cloud, never to reappear.
You see the rays of sunshine, you feel the warmth of its glow.
Yet it is hidden, and however hard you try, you cannot see it.
The numbing of the sun, the numbing of the soul.
But it’s that feeling of remorse, that guilt, that terrible guilt;
Burning inside your chest.
That’s what distinguishes us in God’s eye.
None of us are blameless;
Except the soul that is not yet conceived or the animals.
They’re the only innocents.
What do you do when the sun does not come out.
The warmth slowly leaving, the numbing slowly arriving. | https://medium.com/@rajalot/an-extract-of-numbing-f0f23ecc8808 | ['Rajdeep Singh'] | 2020-12-09 05:04:11.659000+00:00 | ['Life', 'Depression', 'Emotions', 'Poetry', 'Sadness'] |
My Boss of 4 Years Ghosted Me When I Told Him I Had to Quit My Job | I used to be a big fan of social media marketing. Work from home! Set your own hours! Work in your PJs, put on Netflix, and keep your baby at home. So convenient! (And a little like online dating.)
Sadly, there’s also a dark side to the social media hustle of the gig economy. Writers often overlook it because we so desperately want to work from home. Flexible work hours are like the new American dream.
For nearly four years, I worked from home as a writer for a social media management agency. Talk about gig economy — I got paid a flat rate per task, regardless of the time it took to finish.
I began writing for the startup around the time they first launched, and my client load steadily increased so that in less than a year, I became one of two full-time writers.
For a long time, I thought it was a good job. But I gave it an awful lot of extra credit for being better than it really was. This seems to be a common problem for writers, and practically anyone who’s first dipping their toes into this new American dream.
Yes, the main benefit was that I got to work from home, so I didn’t have to worry about putting my daughter in daycare — which was very important to me. She was just an infant when I began the work, and today she’s almost 5.
At first, the perks seemed to outweigh the drawbacks. I could take the job with me wherever and whenever I moved. And of course, since some friends ran the company, it initially felt like they cared about me and my daughter personally. There was a feeling of job security as if somebody cared that I had a big enough workload to pay the bills. These were nice people, so I never doubted they’d treat me decently as long as I submitted good work.
Whenever a client quit, I could count on getting replacements as new ones signed up. That in itself was such a big perk that it overshadowed some of the downsides I experienced in those early days.
Like not getting paid for every task.
Businesses are using contract workers however it suits them.
I should have been wary about the self-employed nature of the job from the start. Under the gig economy, an increasing number of businesses are relying upon “independent contractors.”
In my experience, you get treated like an employee whenever it suits the business, but not when it suits you. That means you might perform all of the day-to-day work, like writing the social media content and seeking out appropriate articles for the company’s clients. But there will be no room for growth.
Despite my non-employee status, I still had managers whom I reported to. They were salaried. The writers, designers, and editors were all contractors. We All had weekly due dates and the tasks were much more commonly micromanaged than typical contract work.
Of course, we received none of the perks of an employee. No benefits. We were responsible for payroll taxes. There was no paid training. Emails and meetings could suck away your time, all for zero pay.
It was a lot like that online boyfriend or girlfriend who defines your relationship however it suits them. If you bring up possibly needing more, they claim, "You knew what this was. Don't ruin a good thing."
Content mills take advantage of creators hoping to earn a real living.
When I first began the job, our pay seemed pretty straightforward. Some of it was quite low, but I didn’t know any better. So I went along with it.
They paid out $1.25 per social media post, which meant finding an appropriate and recent article for the client and writing a brief blurb about it for Facebook or whatever platform(s) the customer used. Most clients had 5–7 of these a week. Eventually, the company took on franchise clients, and for every “sub-account” under a franchise, that $1.25 was reduced by half. Each sub-account had to use different copy in the post or blog, but the links could be the same.
In the beginning, we also got $25 per 300-word blog post. Not every client had a blog, but those who did got two each month. About a year into the work, compensation for a blog was reduced to $10 although the blog length and standards increased for better SEO performance.
Writers also received a $20 setup fee for a new client on each applicable social media platform. This task included creating the copy for profiles on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or LinkedIn. They later did away with this task which meant acquainting yourself with a new client was done on your time, and all unpaid.
Initially, every client with a blog also got a newsletter. That meant that I had to go into MailChimp every month to copy and paste content from the previous month into a newsletter, and send it out after an editor approved it. Although there was a $20 newsletter setup fee, there was no monthly recurring fee paid to me as a writer for creating a new newsletter every month or sending it.
At one point, I had 25 clients with blogs. That meant working on 25 monthly newsletters for zero pay. Management didn’t understand the problem because I wasn’t creating new content, it was just copying and pasting.
What a huge red flag. It took many conversations for anyone to understand what I was talking about when I said a writer shouldn’t have to do an unpaid task. Every newsletter took at least 10–20 minutes. Multiply that by 25 clients, and I was working for hours every month for free.
After much discussion, management begrudgingly announced that writers would get paid $7 per newsletter. It was hardly a win, however. They didn’t issue backpay, and they quit including newsletters in a client’s blog package. It became an add-on instead. And then a relic, since clients didn’t want to pay for it as an additional fee.
I never thought my Christian friends would run a content mill, until I actually worked for them.
To put the pay into perspective, a client with a “full package” was paying about $850 a month (plus a $700 setup fee) for daily posts on a few platforms, and two monthly blog posts. I received about $120 of that per month. And as time went on, most clients had smaller packages between $250 and $650 per month. Writers received a fraction of that pay despite doing the bulk of the actual day-to-day work.
Editors made even less. $0.25 (yes, cents) per post and $3 a blog.
Honestly? I never thought my Christian friends would run a content mill, until I actually worked for them.
And as it often goes in online dating, I realized that the company didn't care what was best for its people.
Independent contractors may suffer if they talk to startups about their pay.
While I stayed with the company for close to four years, this last year was particularly disconcerting. It all started when I dared to approach management about the fact that our compensation for a blog was cut from $25 down to $10.
As tactfully and diplomatically as possible, I tried to explain how the 60% pay cut had made it hard to research and write a quality piece. At every step along the way, I asked the other full-time writer what she felt, and if my tone was coming across alright before I sent any email. It turned out that she agreed, and enthusiastically asked for updates.
But she wouldn’t add her own two cents to management. I naively took on all of that risk myself.
Despite the fact that I repeatedly told my boss I knew a pay bump was unlikely, and that I was sorry to bring up something as awkward as pay, it seems that I really stepped in it, so to speak.
I began that conversation in the fall of 2017, and the topic basically fizzled out within a couple months. Unfortunately, my client load fizzled out right along with it.
They quit replacing clients for me, and my workload shrunk. I asked my manager if there was something I could improve to get more clients. He told me I was doing fine, and that they simply didn’t have enough clients to go around.
Oddly enough, they hired on six or seven new writers at that time. One of the writers began taking on new clients more quickly than anyone else. As my client list shrunk, hers grew exponentially. And then I found out that she was my manager’s sister.
The situation struck my editor as odd. No one could explain to me why I wasn’t being given new clients after years of devoted service. I began waking up with crushing anxiety that my daughter and I would wind up homeless again.
I decided to speak to my friend’s husband about the matter since he was one of the founders/owners and I’d lived in his attic one summer before I became a mom. I thought if anything, he would at least be honest with me about what was going on.
None of this would have gone over well with a real HR department.
According to the owner, I was performing just fine. He said my manager would have told him otherwise.
So why wasn’t I getting new clients?
The owner chalked it up to the idea that I wasn’t grateful for the work I got. He brought up the fact that I had gone to my manager about the blog pay reduction, and said, “People probably don’t feel like giving you more work when you don’t think we pay you enough.”
Even at the time, I couldn’t help but think of that conversation as an HR nightmare. The owner basically admitted I wasn’t getting new clients because I dared to offer feedback on the pay. He went onto tell me that my manager was a saint, and that I should apologize by email for the whole blog pay debacle.
I felt like I was trapped in a bad episode of The Twilight Zone. It was beyond weird. The rest of our conversation was essentially a lecture from the owner regarding social graces. Super great for an aspie like me. He said that I needed to remember I’d catch more flies with honey, and that I needed to change my tone if I was going to work in communications like social media.
I couldn’t help but think how misplaced his words would be if I were a man. He suggested that any misunderstanding regarding my intent was always my fault, because “it doesn’t matter how you intend it if one person misunderstands you.” I just wondered why the same damn thing didn’t apply to management.
To my shame, I was scared to death of losing my job, so I did everything the owner suggested. I apologized. Hell, I groveled. I didn’t say anything that could be misinterpreted as ungrateful. I was extra sweet.
All of it felt incredibly petty, like chatting with a potential date online who decides to punish you whenever you don't do exactly what they want.
When you’re an independent contractor, they don’t have to give you a reason for giving you less work.
None of my efforts to resolve the situation helped. The owner ended our call by promising to talk to my manager and getting me new clients.
What really happened?
I began to have clients taken away. All that groveling was useless. And despite being told I performed well, it suddenly seemed like I couldn’t do anything right. Ironically, the quality of my work was called into question after I went to the owner. And certain standards being applied to me were not applied to my coworkers.
Of course, when it came to the apology email, my manager told me he was never offended and never even thought I’d been ungrateful at all. No need to apologize, he said.
Funny how nothing anyone told me lined up.
The worst thing about the whole situation was that nobody would actually come out and tell me why they were cutting down my clients. At one point management accused me of linking to a client’s competitors. Knowing that I wasn’t doing that, I asked for an example of my error. They were never able to come up with one.
As a single mom who had depended upon this work for years, I felt deeply betrayed. I asked if I should start looking for another job. No answer.
I asked another manager what I could do better and explained that I wasn’t going to be able to afford preschool for my daughter as planned. She responded that it wasn’t appropriate to discuss pay. And again, gave no answer for what I was doing wrong.
By spring, my “saintly” manager’s sister had replaced me as one of the full-time writers. That’s when I realized the gig economy wasn’t as great as it once seemed. Being a contract worker, with employee treatment only when it benefits the company sucks.
Nobody deserves a toxic workplace.
Businesses within the big economy often forget that work culture matters even when it’s online. My old company became terribly toxic, and I wasn’t the only one to notice.
The other full-time writer quit talking to me once I confessed I was losing clients after bringing up the blog pay. I suppose she didn’t want to look guilty by association.
A newish manager was increasingly snippy to the point of being plain rude. Asking a question and then chastising me for my answer. Making mistakes but taking zero responsibility with qualms about putting errors all on me and my editor. Other people noticed problems too. They questioned how Christians could treat their workers so poorly, especially a single mom.
Were they trying to get me to quit? That was a common question asked by friends within and outside of the startup.
Within a year of bringing up the blog pay, I hated working there. It was miserable. I felt like I was on constant eggshells, and in a last ditch effort, I tried to talk to another owner. The first owner’s wife, and someone who was once my best friend in town. Or so I thought.
I asked for her advice on resolving the issue and she told me it was all in my head. It was one of the weirdest conversations of my life. Since she wasn’t actually working with the business anymore, she said she couldn’t give me advice on how to interpret the dynamic there. Yet she went onto tell me that any problem I thought I was having was nonsense, and that everyone else was trying to be professional. For the first time in ages, I stood up for myself and explained that I wasn’t the only person facing or observing issues in the company. And although I told her I didn’t want the situation to come between us and would have to agree to disagree, she quit speaking to me. Quit inviting me and my daughter over for the holidays.
Instead, she immediately vented to Facebook that she was such a nice and caring person but she didn’t have a magic wand to fix other people’s lives. Twenty+ people replied that she was the best and some people just didn’t want to help themselves.
Of course, I never wanted her to fix my life. I simply wanted advice as a woman with Asperger’s on what I could do to get new clients again because it felt like everything I said dug me further into a hole. I never understood why my questions were so taboo.
So I finally decided to call it quits.
The more I began to write here for myself, the more I knew I wanted to leave my social media marketing days behind.
I realized that I’d been breaking my back to write content I didn’t even like, and the money wasn’t that good. There were no opportunities for growth. No raises, no benefits, no appreciation. A writer like myself was entirely dispensable and clearly, I was vain to believe I deserved at least $25 for a single blog.
At the end of November, I developed pneumonia that went into December. I was exhausted and miserable. And for the first time, I genuinely couldn’t finish my social media work.
It was pretty damn frightening, but I realized that the time spent writing my own stories had become much more valuable than my contract work. Not to mention it was so much more fulfilling.
So I drafted an email resignation on December 16th. Of course, I thanked management for all of their help over the years and credited the job for getting me back on my feet after my crisis pregnancy.
Nothing says “thank you for your service” like the silent treatment.
To be fair, of the two managers I emailed, the newest one responded to ask if I would be willing to stay on in a lesser capacity. I declined. She was “nicer” than expected given her previous correspondence over the past year.
But my main manager, the one person at the company who worked with me the entire time I was there? He said nothing in response to my resignation.
Is it really so hard to wish someone well after four years of service?
He never once acknowledged my email. Never said thank you for my service, never wished me well… despite the fact that I thanked him and wished him well. And honestly? That stung enough for me to help affirm that the discord was never all in my head.
Maybe he really did want me to quit.
Then again, what do I know? I’ve basically been working since I was 14, and this is the first time a boss didn’t bother to thank me when I left. We were Facebook friends too, but he quit acknowledging me altogether.
Perhaps I’m just one more millennial expecting to be coddled, huh?
At any rate, I’ve learned to value my skills and not settle for peanuts when it comes to my writing goals. Plus, I can thank that experience in the gig economy for leading me to finally select a job that pays per reader engagement. I know, I know. Perhaps I’m just one more millennial expecting to be coddled, huh? Though technically I’m a “Zennial,” we might still be presumed an overly-entitled bunch.
Oh well. I still never want to sell myself short again. Let’s face it — I used to write blogs for small businesses that virtually nobody was going to read. For peanuts. These days, I get nearly 150,000 reads a month writing about whatever is on my mind, and make more than ever before. (Ahem. Knock on wood.)
It’s a helluva lot more satisfying if you ask me.
A lot of us have settled for shitty dates and shitty jobs with people who don't value our efforts. My advice?
Start valuing yourself. | https://medium.com/awkwardly-honest/my-boss-of-4-years-ghosted-me-when-i-told-him-i-had-to-quit-my-job-b974c998940c | ['Shannon Ashley'] | 2019-03-09 21:09:00.675000+00:00 | ['Entrepreneurship', 'Culture', 'Social Media', 'Freelancing', 'Writing'] |
A tribute to my dear (Dr.) mother | My mom deserves the title Dr. — just as Dr. Jill Biden deserves her title.
Title page of my mom’s dissertation
The opinion piece featured in the Wall Street Journal by American essayist Joseph Epstein, suggesting that Dr. Jill Biden remove the Dr. from her name because amongst many things — “she had not delivered babies”, is ludicrous and shows the perpetual misogyny within our society. This article made me instantly think of my late mother. I assume in Mr. Epstein’s deep-rooted patriarchal views, he forgot how the term Dr. is used in society.
So, here’s a quick reminder: the use of the title Dr. is both for someone who is qualified to treat ill patients (eg. a physician) or someone who holds the highest university-level degree. This term is to be assigned accordingly indiscriminate of gender. My late mom was a Dr. — just as Dr. Jill Biden.
Coming from a Nigerian family that emphasized the importance of education, we all understood that a Doctorate degree (Doctorate) symbolizes the pinnacle and the rubber stamp of your knowledge and contribution in your field of expertise. My mother understood this! It was not lost on her as to the challenges that she would face in reaching that summit. As someone who was at the forefront of gender equality in the church and Nigeria-at-large, she had her fair share of opposition and struggles on her academic and life journey.
Nevertheless, she persevered!
My mom completed her first degree in Nigeria. She was an “elder” and then an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church of Nigeria — at a time when women ministers were few and far between in the church. Following our family’s transition to South Africa, she went on to complete her post-graduate diploma in Theology — then her Master’s in Theology. And finally, completed her PhD in Theology in 2009. I remember the sense of pride that filled my family at the conclusion of her studies. She had summited that mountain to become the first female minister in the Presbyterian Church of Nigeria to hold a PhD degree. She had earned her right to be called Doctor! Sadly, she passed away in 2011 — two years after receiving her Doctorate degree.
The dissertation of her Doctoral degree is titled: “Gender stereotyping in church and community: A Nigerian feminine perspective”
My mother understood the privilege she had in getting that far and also the fact that many other women do not have that same privilege. She made it her life’s work to fight for the disenfranchised in the church and community — many of which were women and children. She left a legacy that transcends beyond the work she sought to accomplish. She pioneered the way for many other women within communities in Nigeria. She was a trendsetting academic, a loving mother, and a champion for gender equality. She had been fighting for gender equality well before gender equality became SDG 5.
I am proud to call her the late Dr. Ijeoma Esther Onwunta and I hope to continue her legacy. I would be glad if I were to become half the woman she was or achieve half of her accomplishments.
I live in peace with the knowledge that: My mother achieved what she wanted to achieve for herself — what she couldn’t finish is what she wanted to do for others.
Dr. Ijeoma Esther Onwunta — your legacy lives on!
You can request access to my mom’s thesis here:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/44138207_Gender_stereotyping_in_church_and_community_a_Nigerian_feminine_perspective | https://medium.com/@chinomnso/a-tribute-to-my-dear-dr-mother-1bfbc40e93d5 | ['Chinomnso Onwunta'] | 2020-12-15 23:14:15.536000+00:00 | ['Gender Equality', 'Motherhood', 'PhD', 'Africa', 'Feminism'] |
Conservative populism: Are we going to a less free world? | Politics, civil rights and Liberty
Conservative populism: Are we going to a less free world?
Foreign policies in XXI century.
Crises are characterized not only by the economic effects they have on societies, but they also known to be moments in which politicians far from the political center tend to rise. Since the 2008 crisis, we have observed the appearance of populist and conservative leaders that gained considerable ground in the political field, nowadays we see the marks left by those leaders and the new ones that followed. However, these populisms do not seem to be like those we observed in Latin America after the 2002 crisis and the commodity price boom. The Latin American regimes of that time were of a left-populist nature. The case of Néstor Kirchner in Argentina, Lula Da Silva in Brazil, Hugo Chávez in Venezuela, Rafael Correa in Ecuador and Evo Morales in Bolivia marked a period of time in which the populist movement had a strong ideological association with the left and based their speeches in “the inheritance that the Neo-liberals had left”.
Many of those governments are now obsolete or have been further radicalized, such as the case of Venezuela with Nicolás Maduro and Argentina with Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and currently — radicalized to a lesser degree- with the government of Alberto Fernández. However, the fall of those left-wing populisms was not necessarily a return to the political center. On the contrary, it has moved towards a new style of populism, which we call “conservative populism”.
Certainly, you may know who is part of this new club and what their perception of an ideal world is… Indeed, we are talking about Donald J. Trump in the United States, Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, Boris Johnson in the United Kingdom and Recep Erdogan in Turkey, among others. These countries and their leaders represent some of the most relevant examples of conservative populism on the international scene. Before we move forward with the analysis, it is necessary to keep in mind that populism does not respond to a particular ideology, but to a way of governing, so thinking that all these leaders govern ideologically similar is committing a serious error.
Perhaps one of the great differences with left-wing populisms of the beginning of the XXI century is the region in which they took place -Latin America- and the geopolitical influence and importance that these countries have in the international relations -mainly characterized as marginal players in the international arena with limited power. However, when the changes occur in countries with the power to influence and modify certain bases in the perception, persuasion, and relationship between countries and blocks, the status quo starts to be threatened by this new shift in the way those power countries behave.
The viewpoint of conservative populists has strongly affected the international political system. First, their disbelief in multilateralism and collaborative systems articulated by the presence of countries in international organizations such as the United Nations, WHO, WTO, NATO, begin to affect essential issues such as trade, health, and the balance of power. We have seen Jair Bolsonaro threaten to exit international agreements such as the Paris Climate Agreement. We also observed Donald Trump withdrawing from the Nuclear Agreement, the Paris Agreement, the constant questioning of NATO, re-negotiating the NAFTA in order to meet fairer commercial terms with its neighbors resulting in the new USMCA, halting funding to the WHO and making all kinds of trade resolutions and agreements outside the frameworks created and approved by the countries in the WTO.
The actions of these leaders show that conservative populism has a clear tendency towards protectionism and nationalism. One of the political realities that the world lives and one of the most delicate points that has grown with conservative populism is the immigration issue. We are seeing how countries are beginning to close to the world. The Brexit phenomenon served as an example of this, showing how of popular sentiment leaned towards conservative views, where one of the points that was questioned was immigration. These conservative-leaning citizens were easily captured by the populist leaders -and their rhetoric- who fueled their position towards conservatism.
Xenophobic comments seem to be more present in today’s world and the presence of Covid-19 seems to accelerate the deepening of protectionist and nationalist measures, serving as an excuse to impose immigration policies that a matter of months ago were politically incorrect and therefore unthinkable to be even brought up for discussion. Today the virus provides a window of opportunity for these leaders to pass these measures stating that are actions taken towards “fighting the virus.” In the article “Will the States return power to us after the health crisis is over?” we have addressed the issue of temporary measures that become indefinite. Immigration is also one of the issues that must be monitored, in particular those nationalist -and arbitrary- measures that are imposed in the name of the fight against the Coronavirus, which should not be indefinite once the virus is controlled.
Therefore, we can understand and reflect that conservative populisms seem to be guiding the world towards a less collaborative and more closed one. Where Covid-19 has accelerated and justified many decisions that decreased rights and freedoms. The impact on privacy and freedom if these decisions are expanded indefinitely can be of great magnitude. This forces us to review the policies imposed by conservative populists, which seem to be deeply divisive, so they must be examined once this crisis scenario is behind us. On the other hand, international organizations will have to review and re-set their roles in the light of the new normal the world is going through. It will be necessary that they promote the benefits they bring to the subscribing countries, and aim to achieve a greater balance between developed and developing countries, by avoiding the deepening in the gap between these two groups of countries. These multilateral organizations should provide predictability, clear rules and certainties to its members. But unfortunately, in the light of a less collaborative world, these organizations may not be as effective as they should. That leads to a deepen of the gap between those who are developed and those who try to achieve development. | https://medium.com/politically-speaking/conservative-populism-are-we-going-to-a-less-free-world-51047cb9f584 | ['Gui Bentley'] | 2020-05-04 08:25:55.333000+00:00 | ['Populism', 'Politics', 'Foreign Policy', 'Liberty', 'Conservatives'] |
Why should you support black owned businesses this festive period? | Why should you support black owned businesses this festive period?
Have you ever purchased from a black business before? Maybe you always do, maybe you never have or maybe you simply do not know! Whatever the case, it’s still clear that many people do not necessarily understand why it’s important / necessary that they make the effort to support black businesses
When it comes to personal and business finance, a person’s race can have a significant impact on their ability to build wealth, whether you’d like to acknowledge it or not. Today’s wealth gap has many roots, one of which can be rooted back to practices in the Jim Crow-era, such as job discrimination and red-lining, which dis-allowed black people (African-American’s) from having access to opportunities such as home-ownership, higher paying jobs and living, working and being educated in certain, more affluent areas of the States. This crippled their ability to build wealth in the same way that other communities were able to do so freely and trickled across the world like a plague, holding back generations of people in the black community and ensuring very few could actually thrive like those around them.
Years later and the impact can still be seen and felt globally and surprisingly these practices are still very much being used. A 2017 study by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition actually found that banks were twice as likely to provide business loans to white applicants than black ones, plus three times as likely to have follow-up meetings with white applicants than more qualified black ones.
Although many will argue that is not their problem to solve, if you are someone who sees themselves as an advocate for change or someone who simply, as a human being of any race, cares about and wants to see positive change for the black community, having been made aware of the above disparities, then you should know that simply adding purchases from black businesses to your weekly shopping routines could be a great first step towards change, with significant impact over time! It is a true fact that when small businesses start to do well, their communities will also begin to flourish.
It is also a fact that for many people of colour around the world, it is merely ‘second nature’ to buy from Caucasian / white owned businesses. This owing to them being wider promoted and spread across media, television channels, radio airwaves and the high street. Many black businesses also, again by default, purchase much of their wholesale goods from China and other parts of the world, just like everybody else. So it should be noted that black businesses asking the world to check out their brands and see what they have to offer too, is not them asking for a handout. On the contrary they are simply asking the world to return the favour and make it ‘the norm’ to buy from everyone, just as the black community have been doing themselves for many years.
Visibility has definitely been an issue for many black businesses, again connected to lack of finance to use the bigger channels available for promotion of their business services and this is where platforms for women in business and female entrepreneurs like She Inspired Her come in and save the day, pushing out the brands, businesses and services of people from all communities to a wider audience and ensuring that their efforts are seen and heard.
You may assume that a black owned business will not have products for you? I am sorry to say this would be a silly assumption! We all wear clothing, we all eat, we all like puzzles, games and toys and we all buy into fashion, beauty and wellness! All businesses of all colours sell all services! Get this into you head and next time you see a black owned business, why not take a look! You may just find something you love!
So there you have it! Lets GO!
Click here for some amazing black female owned brands you can support
Connect with them, buy from them, SHARE AND SUPPORT THEM!
Article by Crystal Emmanuel of She Inspired Her | https://medium.com/@crystalemmanuel/why-should-you-support-black-owned-businesses-this-festive-period-e8be7fd225d3 | ['Crystal Emmanuel'] | 2020-12-15 15:36:38.931000+00:00 | ['Women', 'Women In Business', 'Inspiration', 'BlackLivesMatter', 'Black Women'] |
Sugar: A Blissful Path You Should Tread With Carefulness | Even though sugary foods are thought to be safer compared to drug abuse or other unlawful substance, excess consumption of sweet things can trigger a lot of issues for a lot of us such as binge consuming, food cravings, excess weight gain, and a heart condition, out of many others.
Sugar addiction is a slippery slope that even though you talk about it, know about the damage it could cause and know that you have probably fallen victim already, you still somehow find yourself sliding down the slope, yet again.
At least, half of the sugar we take come from fruit drinks, soft drinks, and sports drinks. Others are most of the time, the uninvited guest that find their ways into our diets in the form of teriyaki sauce, ketchup, chocolate milk and the well-known sweets like ice-creams, cakes and cookies, cakes, ice cream and sometimes in our breakfast cereals.
Remarkably, some “healthy foods” such as yogurt and instantaneous flavored oatmeal can load in 20–30 grams (5–7 teaspoons) of unneeded included sugar.
The American Heart Association (AHA) suggests that we restrict our everyday sugar usage to 7 % or less of our everyday calorie consumption — that’s about 6 teaspoons (100 calories) for ladies and 9 teaspoons (150 calories) for males.
However, the truth is, that also adds up faster than we know. A can of soda consists of 130–150 calories and 8–10 teaspoons of sugar. One glazed donut includes 6 teaspoons, and a half cup ice cream (the requirement serving size, although many parts are much, much bigger) consists of 4 grams of included sugar!
Your frustrating yearnings for sugar make sense when you think about what some studies have revealed about getting hooked to sugar. Researchers have discovered that sugar is addictive and promotes the exact same satisfaction for the part of the brain, just like drug or heroin.
Just like those hard-core drugs, getting off sugar leads to withdrawal and cravings, requiring an actual detox process to wean off. It’s not unusual to discover yourself seeming like a mess few days into a sugar detox. Princeton scientists who fed rats sugar water found that they wound up bingeing on it.
“No one can apply cognitive restraint, self-control, over a biochemical drive that goes on every minute, of every day, of every year.” — Dr. Robert H. Lustig
You might have discovered how exceptionally hard it is if you’ve ever tried to cut back on sugar. In many cases, it might seem downright difficult. It appears clear that when it comes to foods like sugar and other processed food, the brain doesn’t really work like it’s expected to.
Sugar addiction is a serious issue that almost everyone is faced with and knowing how deadly excess intake of sugar could be to our health does not stop us from eating sweet things and enjoying the satisfactory rewards that come with it. Sugary foods just make you feel good.
It just seems to always be on your mind and you cannot get it off. You just find yourself keep coming back for it and wanting more. Even when you try to stay away from it, sugary foods still find a way to slip into your life virtually daily.
We have all been programmed to like sugar. New research study reveals some people are genetically a lot more susceptible to sugar and food dependency than others. What are you supposed to do?
The best way to restore hormone balance in your body, shrink your waistline and have a better mood, skin, and health is by getting rid of your sugar addiction. | https://medium.com/@xtianart2016/sugar-a-blissful-path-you-should-tread-with-carefulness-41c9ca5846dc | ['Wilson Christina'] | 2019-06-17 21:44:34.478000+00:00 | ['Sugar', 'Fitness Tips', 'Sugar Addiction', 'Fitness', 'Health'] |
Plotly Front to Back: Scatter Charts and Bubble Charts | Scatter Charts
Now, the basic idea behind the scatter plot is to visualize the relationship between a set of variables. By relationship, we mean the dependence between variables — or movement — what happens to the second variable if the first one moves by some amount — or correlation to say it in the simplest way.
Scatter plots are utterly simple to make with Plotly — well almost anything is (except maps, those can be a pain in the bottom, but more on that in a couple of articles) — as we need to define well known data and layout options.
Just like with the line plots, we’ll use go.Scatter() for our data, but we’ll need to specify mode='markers' for everything to work properly.
Here’s how you’d go about visualizing attributes hp (horsepower) on the x-axis, and mpg (miles per gallon) on the y-axis:
fig = go.Figure(
data=[
go.Scatter(
x=df[‘hp’],
y=df[‘mpg’],
mode=’markers’,
)
],
layout=go.Layout(
title=dict(
text=’Horsepower vs. MPG’,
font=dict(size=20)
),
hovermode=’closest’
)
) pyo.plot(fig)
Not too many lines of code, but let’s see what it results in:
I know what you’re thinking about right now:
Basic dots are too boring
Color is awful
Markers are way too small
Well, let’s fix those issues:
fig = go.Figure(
data=[
go.Scatter(
x=df[‘hp’],
y=df[‘mpg’],
mode=’markers’,
marker=dict(
size=16,
symbol=’x-dot’,
color=’#d35400'
)
)
],
layout=go.Layout(
title=dict(
text=’Horsepower vs. MPG’,
font=dict(size=20)
),
hovermode=’closest’
)
) pyo.plot(fig)
Every issue we had previously can be fixed by tweaking the marker params, via the marker argument. Here’s how our chart looks now:
Still, not the prettiest, but will do for now. Let’s now explore the bigger brother of scatter charts — bubble charts — to see how easy it is to display additional information and set the sizing to be dynamic. | https://towardsdatascience.com/plotly-front-to-back-scatter-charts-and-bubble-charts-8e6dc5f77b54 | ['Dario Radečić'] | 2020-04-01 18:00:01.084000+00:00 | ['Programming', 'Machine Learning', 'Python', 'Data Science', 'Data Visualization'] |
Bypassing XSS filter and Stealing User Payment Data | So here is another writeup about how I bypassed XSS filter and created a payload to get user credit card data. It was a private program on bugcrowd, let’s just say it was named Redact.
Here is the URL https://www.redact.com/us/en/my-account/quotes?searchCriteria=QuoteID&amountOperator=equal&searchValue=XSS The parameter searchValue was reflected inside an input feild.
So by putting an “ I was able to break out of the input field, after that, I tried the most basic payload “><script>alert(1)</script>, but unfortunately my request was blocked by WAF. so I tried another payload “onmouseover=alert(1) and again my request was blocked by WAF.
After some playing around, I found out that anything between <> was being removed, so if type something like this “o<x>nmouseover=alert<x> 1 // <x> will be removed leaving it only with “onmouseover=alert(1)// and finally i was able to pop up a XSS.
Now there was a page which allows the user to view their payment Data https://www.redact.com/us/en/smbpro/my-account/payment-details, so I thought it would be a good idea to include this in my report that how I can get users credit card data with this XSS.
So the Payload for stealing user credit card data was this “o<x>nmouseover=$.get<x>(‘https://www.redact.com/us/en/my-account/payment-details',function<x>(res){$.post<x>('https://osamaavvan.000webhostapp.com/r.php',{res})})//
As the page was using jQuery, I requested the whole payment data page with $.get() and posted the page content to my server with $.post(), so now with this payload, I was able to get users payment data: | https://medium.com/@osamaavvan/bypassing-xss-filter-and-stealing-user-credit-card-data-100f247ed5eb | ['Osama Avvan'] | 2019-06-17 05:07:01.964000+00:00 | ['Security Researchers', 'Bugcrowd', 'Xss Attack', 'Bug Hunting', 'Bug Bounty'] |
Germany: A Tale of Greenginering Country | Article by: Jerni Tania
Our world is a fantastic place! Can you imagine that it has already sustained everything living on it for a million years? Although, if we look closer, our presence brings more damages to its existence before, it does not mean there is no hope of making it a better place to live. Nowadays, some sustainable traveling platforms promote this idea: traveling while preserving nature, such as B’n’Tree.
Personally, as someone who comes from Indonesia, where the environment system is not as advanced as some other country, often time I feel tortured. I can not contain the feeling of being hopeless to see trashes everywhere, broke environmental systems that caused natural disasters, like FLOOD! Especially in the capital city, Jakarta. I wrote it in italic because I do believe there are some solutions to prevent this, the so-called: natural disaster from happening. Elaborating all the possibilities and solutions, then pointing out a finger finding somebody to blame will not automatically solve the problems itself.
Living in Germany for almost three years has changed a lot of the way I behave and think about the environment. I won’t say it is always fun and easy; there are some of the moments where I do want to give up being in this country. For example, the complexity of the system, but to adopt the idea of making this world a better place to live in, and to sustain its availability a little bit longer for our offsprings seems like a stable system other countries need to reflect on.
Environmental Policy helps me do it!
“The state of the environment in Germany has improved markedly since 1990. Nevertheless, considerable further efforts are needed. Priorities in environmental policies are set on climate protection, sustainable use of energy and resources, a further reduction of substance inputs to the environment and promoting the transition to a green economy”, as I quote directly from the European Environmental Agency website. Germany is one of the countries that take environmental issues at any stake to a severe level. For example, Germany is known among ex-pats for its complicated recycling system, and the dirty looks from your neighbor if you are not recycling correctly. The first time, I arrived here, and I have to sort out every trash I had, it took me literally half an hour stood in front of the colorful garbage can, tried so hard not to mess things up by accidentally put the wrong materials of waste into the wrong bin. It sounds exaggerating, but taking waste management seriously is an essential part of Energiewende (energy system transformation).
One thing that I pay attention to is alternative transportation here, especially during summer. Extensive public and bicycle transportation encourage fossil fuel independence. There are 200 long-distance bicycle paths cross the country in 70,000 km of well-maintained trails, and some cities, for example like Freiburg, have made bike-friendly traffic improvements as a part of environmental policy. When it comes to public transportation, the German system is relatively efficient, with 88 percent of inhabitants live near a bus or train stop, or so to say the distance is within walk distance. I, myself, live across the tram station with no complaint of having no car, because it is so convenient to access public transportation, and it’s only 1-minute walking distance to the nearest tram station plus 10 minutes to the city.
Hike, hike up to the Green Hills
Those two things I mentioned above only small examples of how Germany trying to the maximum limit on how to improve its environmental system. The awareness of environmental policy also being a natural part of the people who live in the country. It is clearly stated on European Climate Law point number 12, which established together by WWF and Green Peace, that given the scale and pace climate action required across society, which is meant the whole EU citizen and non-citizen living inside EU.
The dirty look from your neighbor like I mentioned above, is one of the minor attitude ex-pats will receive if trying to ignore the environmental policy itself. But, by this saying, the result is truly incredible. I have a lot of ultimate delightful experiences exploring the nature surrounding. I have never been a hiking woman before and made me want to climb up the hills and the mountain, and seeing the wildlife. So far, my most unforgettable experience with nature was in the zoo, SeaWorld, or even museum as I am coming from the big city. I did not have any authentic experience on how animals live in their natural habitat unless I read it on books and wildlife series on TV. Being in Germany, participating in some of the small hikes surroundings, make me appreciate the nature and environment even more.
Here and now, I realize that this earth is worth fighting for, maybe we can not prevent it from getting degenerated by ages, but surely we could help it to suffer less or helping it to sustain a bit longer. If you take a walk to the forest, seeing the different types of trees and small insects — even if you are lucky to spot a deer run across — your whole being existence knows instantly that this universe is truly a beautiful place to live. If we can make a small impact on changing the situation, would you not like to be a part of it? Sometimes small acts seem like nothing, but simultaneously we will see the difference after some years. Are you up for this challenge?
Keyword: sustainable, earth, green
Data source: WWF, EU
More Pictures IG: @mimpikreatiff | https://medium.com/@jernitania/germany-a-tale-of-greenginering-country-6ddb598e192a | ['Jerni Tania'] | 2020-02-04 19:00:47.691000+00:00 | ['Germany', 'Sustainable Travel', 'Earth', 'Hiking', 'Green Energy'] |
What To Expect After Trump Is Impeached | What To Expect After Trump Is Impeached
Photo via The Daily Beast
There are mere hours left until historic headlines flood phones and electronic devices everywhere. Those headlines will read, Trump Impeached. Or some variation thereof. No matter what stance the publication takes, every single one will be forced to admit this is historic.
And Trump being impeached is inevitable. Even he realizes that at this point. There is no getting out of it. So what will happen once the vote comes in and the articles of impeachment are approved by the House of Representatives?
Hillary Hillary Hillary
Come on. You didn’t think something historic was going to happen to this administration without their old foil being blamed, did you? Already, the White House is leaking a conspiracy that Hillary lost the election in 2016 on purpose. Why would she do that? Because she wanted Trump to be impeached!
No, seriously. They actually said that. In a non-ironic, non-satirical, no kidding way. Just when you think this administration has tapped the lowest level of stupid, they go and find a layer underneath to surprise us all. Maybe next they’ll tell us, Hillary is really Obama in drag.
Never count anything out.
No Removal
Let’s clear this up right now. There’s more of a chance of me having sex with Zac Efron than there is of Republicans growing a pair of balls and removing Trump from office. Mitch McConnell has already said Senate Republicans are working with him on the kind of trial he wants.
But more than the flagrant brush off of constitutional duties, no President has ever been removed from office. There is no way it was going to start with Trump. If and only if enough Republicans grow a conscience and decided to vote for removal, would he consider resigning. As of press time, he’s safe.
That is until next year.
Election 2020
If 2016 was a fight for America’s soul, 2020 will be life or death for the poor gal. It should be noted that life and death candidates can vary depending on party affiliation and IQ score.
Whoever goes against Trump in the 2020 election will be gifted with a historic first. Trump will be the first incumbent to run for re-election with impeachment on his record. A fact that will surely play into a lot of debates and advertisements.
Trump will continue to call it a hoax and a witch hunt. Mostly because he doesn’t know what those words mean. He is also starting to have to pay for his lifetime of hate and crime. Poor little rich boy doesn’t know how to handle it. His supporters will back him but as we’ve seen, Independents are moving away from old Trump boy.
Tick tock goes the impeachment clock. | https://harshlightnews.com/what-to-expect-after-trump-is-impeached-7ba194beb0de | ['Edward Anderson'] | 2019-12-18 20:08:09.719000+00:00 | ['Impeachment', '2020 Presidential Race', '2016 Election', 'Donald Trump', 'Politics'] |
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