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The Color Spectrum | Red is a burning ember
In the middle of the night
Orange is the morning sun
That drapes the world in light
Yellow is like summer
Butterflies and lemonade
Green is a garden of wonder
But turns sunshine back to shade
Blue is an ocean cave
A place to think things through
In preparation for an evening fire
An ember, bright and new
The darkness falls to indigo
It’s not always clear which way to go
But the hazy glow of a purple dawn
Carries the story on and on
You see, you can’t choose
A single favorite color
Each hue has it’s role
No greater or less than another | https://medium.com/@jessejet/the-color-spectrum-34bb4a6a273b | ['Jesse Jet'] | 2020-11-19 15:08:55.224000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'Storytelling', 'Rhymes', 'Poem', 'Colors'] |
#IamaGDE: Homing Tam | #IamaGDE series presents: Google Maps
Welcome to #IamaGDE — a series of spotlights presenting Google Developer Experts (GDEs) from across the globe. Discover their stories, passions, and highlights of their community work.
Homing Tam, Maps Google Developer Expert
Homing Tam is a product manager at Lalamove, an on-demand logistics company. He started at the company as a product manager focusing on location-based systems, talking with developers and business users to enhance the company’s mapping solutions, before moving into product management. Now, Homing handles corporate solutions; takes care of people who want to integrate with his company’s systems; handles the API side of things to help make integration easier; and provides recommendations for developers and other technical teammates.
Becoming a Maps developer
Homing studied geomatics and computing at university, and his 2009 thesis was based on Google’s API backend. His dissertation focused on using the Google Maps API to perform mapping and overlay. His first full-time job was as a GIS analyst at Esri, the largest private software company in the world. A year and a half later, he became a solutions consultant for a different company, helping customers interested in integrating Google Maps with their software.
Getting involved in the developer community
After Homing got involved in the Google Technology User Group (now known as Google Developer Groups), his boss at the time told him about the Google Developer Experts program. For his interview, Homing presented a product using the Google Maps APIs. When he became a GDE, he gave presentations and talks in the greater China region as a surrogate for the Google Maps Platform team. Homing is currently one of the organizers for GDG Hong Kong, organizing and giving community talks.
Favorite Maps features and current projects
Homing says the Maps Styling Wizard, the precursor to the newer Cloud-based Maps Styling features, is one of his favorite features.
“Cartography, which I studied in college, matters a lot, especially to a simple black and white schematic map, or when matching the theme of a map to a site,” he says. “I like that feature a lot.”
In 2020, Homing gave one talk on Android in the Android 11 Meetup and another talk on Maps at the first-ever virtual Hong Kong Devfest, and he’s ready to do more speaking.
“It had been a while since I gave a talk on maps, and the launch of Cloud-based Maps Styling is so exciting that I feel like it’s time to do some presentations and let the community know more about it. Beyond knowing how to use the API, you need to know how you can make the most of the API.”
Homing notes that this year, in particular, more small business owners need to know how to collect customer addresses, allow customers to place on-demand delivery orders, and update customers.
In 2021, in addition to giving more talks, Homing hopes to work with the GDG organizers in Hong Kong to plan a hackathon or otherwise teach community members more about the new Maps features.
“Can we make an MVP or a really initial stage cycling app to use as a base to explore the new features and use different Google components?’
As his career continues, Homing says he has two priorities: progressing as a product manager and leveraging technology, including maps, to improve lives.
“This year was a year for everyone to become digitally literate,” he says. “With the extra time we spend on technology, we should make good use of technology to make life better.”
For more information on Google Maps Platform, visit our website.
For more information on Google Developer Experts, visit our website. | https://medium.com/google-developer-experts/iamagde-homing-tam-76d7927261f1 | ['Alicja Heisig'] | 2021-07-02 18:26:47.444000+00:00 | ['Gde', 'Expert', 'Maps'] |
Die Zukunft von Hotels | in In Fitness And In Health | https://medium.com/workersonthefield/die-zukunft-von-hotels-4380d2731ff8 | ['Reinhard Lanner'] | 2016-06-26 08:31:40.001000+00:00 | ['Hotelmarketing', 'Future Of Hotel', 'Tourism', 'Tourismus', 'Hotel'] |
JavaScript Async Await: Promisify the future to callback never again! | JavaScript Async Await: Promisify the future to callback never again!
Callbacks to Promises up to Async Await
Intro
Having a C# background? Then you are familiar with async-await. JavaScript introduced these keywords in 2017 into the language. They help to get rid of problems you had back then whenever it came to asynchronous code.
Asynchronous code, known for using callbacks so far, that are mostly nested and lead to hardly comprehensible code. Here is a picture of a callback hell or also known as the pyramid of doom [2], [1].
author: summary so far (All rights reserved)
There are plenty of options to solve this problem, but none of them came out big and became the method to go along. All of them bring their own problems to the table. Be it promises or generator functions or even modules like Async.JS [3].
Yesterday’s code
Although async and await is a significant change, we should not throw away old concepts. Async await is based internally on generator functions and promises. And on what do promises rely on? Right! Callbacks. New abstraction levels bring better ways to encapsulate old concepts but also keep the same problems. Joel on Software did a great job about that circumstance [4].
Concrete speaking: Async-Await is only usable with functions that already rely on promises. If you have methods that aren’t, you have to convert them in order to use async-await. A good way to do so is to use a technique so-called wrapping. Wrap your existent callback-based function into another function that uses a promise. Here is an example of the usage of a readFile to show you what I mean.
The wrapper function is clearly visible, calling the promise constructor. The body exposes the origin function, based on the callback mechanism.
Now imagine you are doing this the whole day and for different projects. This is a hideous task and will bring you only pain and suffering. Fortunately, there is hope. If you are working in a Node.JS based environment, you can fasten this up. There is a guideline where the callback is the last parameter of a function. Returning an error is mostly the first parameter of this function. When your code aligns with those guidelines, you can just use the utility-function of Node.JS promisify [5].
We can profit massively from the spread operator here.
This snippet is pretty confusing. Take your time and inspect this abstract diagram with the execution order of the lines and the explanations right beside:
“Promisify the future”-explained, Author: Arnold Abraham
Nowadays
With version 8.0 Node.JS introduced a built-in utility [5] for you to use the promisify easier and make it able to use the async-await keywords. You can get rich source code easy to comprehend and very compact.
Look at this code, does it read like a synchronous one? Yes, definitively, but it is not going to be executed synchronously. The function after the await is getting split up into a co-routine. Technically a generator function and while waiting, asynchronous code can continue to run.
In order to use await, the function itself has to be marked with the keyword async. Calling the function processFile can be also awaited as long as the caller method is also an async marked one. The caller can also be awaited as long as the caller of the caller is an async method.
Remembering the part where I mentioned the pyramid of doom. Can be constructed here as well. New technics, old problems. Furthermore, even nested if statements can be constructed as a pyramid of doom.
First Order Await?
The pyramid of doom problem brings up some questions. What has to be the first order of this chain? Shouldn’t then be the main function of a program or for JavaScript the entry function to be asynchronous as well? Technically yes, but it is synchronous. What to do also?
First aid could be a self calling async function:
Only to mention, in this StackOverflow-answer are listed separate ways to invoke an async inside your entry point. [6]
Async is also usable with lambdas and of course as you saw in the example with try-catch (03_AsyncAwait.js). This is not possible with pure promises or callbacks. A try-catch would syntactically break the synchronous program execution.
Because of the look-alike to a synchronous one, the control structures for synchronous programming can be included easily. Especially for loops, async-await turned out to be very useful. It lets the reader of your code comprehend the loop without an asynchronous mindset, although it is.
Did you ever try to make a loop with a pure callback or promise-based code? Then you know what I am talking about.
Conclusion
When you want to insult, dig deeper and you will find something. Here you could argue async-await does not solve fundamental problems of development. JavaScript does not get more skills, it had before and lastly, also no new technical problems are solved with those two keywords. And you are right, but for readability and the time, that is consumed by understanding and also by writing code, there is an enormous difference made up by async-await.
Addressing easier life while coding, faster comprehensibility, and maintainability, less error-prone are things, where I would say, async-await has made its position more than just clear and brings JavaScript a lot. | https://medium.com/javascript-in-plain-english/javascript-async-await-promisify-the-future-to-callback-never-again-6762707e18e5 | ['Arnold Abraham'] | 2020-12-10 07:11:26.476000+00:00 | ['JavaScript', 'Web Development', 'Technology', 'Self Improvement', 'Programming'] |
Stand for something — break down the Wall! | Music is life, it is beauty. It is fuelled by imagination. It flows, unconstrained and free. It starts where human comprehension ends. But music is also a form of protest — a refusal to accept the limitations of being human. A call to stand up for something. A plea to rise above the noise.
And therefore, music comes with a responsibility. A responsibility to continually stretch the limits of our acceptance and imagination — directly and indirectly.
In 1824 in Vienna, Ludwig van Beethoven premiered his 9th Symphony before a packed house. Composed after the complete loss of his hearing, it is widely regarded as his greatest work. Till this day, and indeed for all time to come, Ode to Joy elevates us and will continue to free us from the tyranny and monotony of our everyday lives. A lasting reminder that one can overcome any limitation to create something everlasting and more, of great beauty.
On the other hand, in 1979, a British rock band sang what is regarded as one of the great anthems of protest. Pink Floyd recorded “Another Brick in the Wall”, protesting the rigidity and rigor of schooling as they chanted “we don’t need no education.” The song went on to inspire millions of schoolchildren (including me) to shed the shackles imposed by thoughtless, unimaginative and uninspiring educators and to think freely, challenge the ordinary and stand up to authority.
Whatever be your chosen field — music or math, accounting or art — will you have the courage to stand for what you believe in?
If you haven’t listened to Ode to Joy: Flashmob Flash Mob — Ode an die Freude ( Ode to Joy ) Beethoven Symphony №9 classical music — YouTube
If you subscribe to the Floyd model of education: Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2) — Pink Floyd — YouTube | https://medium.com/@en-dwarak/stand-for-something-break-down-the-wall-cbeb03e25f66 | ['Dwarak Narasimhan'] | 2020-12-20 12:33:25.790000+00:00 | ['Leadership', 'Creativity', 'Culture', 'Music', 'Protest'] |
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How to Save at HostGator | https://medium.com/@habibur542902/web-hosting-special-offer-hostgator-reliable-and-secure-hosting-d146c0faa4d0 | [] | 2021-11-18 11:13:31.334000+00:00 | ['Web Hosting Services', 'Web Hosting', 'Hostgator', 'Hostgator Review', 'Best Host Services'] |
Building Cucumber BDD API Testing Framework from scratch: Part 1 | Before we deep dive into it, let me give you a brief description of how we will approach it. I will give you a step by step guidelines for developing the framework and it might be a three-part series where part 1 will be about setting up the project and make the code work, part 2 will be about optimizing the code, and finally, in part 3 we will develop an end to end framework.
Below given a list of the APIs which we will be using in this framework for your practice:
Library API : BaseURI : http://216.10.245.166 1. Resource : Library/Addbook.php Method : POST Input Payload : Json: { “name”:”Learn Appium Automation with Java”, “isbn”:”bcd”, “aisle”:”227", “author”:”John foe” } Output Json { “Msg”: “successfully added”, “ID”: “bcd227” } 1. Resource : /Library/GetBook.php?AuthorName=somename Method : GET Output Json : Output the array of Json object books with all below details { Name : “bookname” ( String) Isbn : “A2fdsf” (String) Aisle : 32 (Integer) } 1. Resource : Library/GetBook.php?ID=3389 — Method : GET Output Json : { “book_name”: “Selenium automation using Java”, “isbn”: “a23hd738”, “aisle”: “1223” } 1. Resource :/Library/DeleteBook.php Method : POST Input Payload : Json: { “ID” : “a23h345122332” } Output Response : { msg : book is successfully deleted” }
Step 1: We need to create a maven project in eclipse as shown in the images below
In eclipse go to File and select New project
Select maven project and click on next
Now on the very next window click on the next one more time
Select maven-quickstart-archetype and click on next
Now provide the Group ID and Artifact ID of your project and click on the finish button
And under package explorer, you will see your project
Step 2: Now we need to provide dependencies in our pom.xml file, for now just provide the below dependencies. Note: I have given the artifact id which you search in the Maven repository and download from there.
<artifactId>cucumber-java</artifactId>, <artifactId>cucumber-junit</artifactId>, <artifactId>rest-assured</artifactId>, <artifactId>jackson-databind</artifactId>, <artifactId>junit</artifactId>.
Note: Make sure the group id is io.cucumber for cucumber-related dependencies.
Step 3: Create all three main folders: Features folder, Step Definition folder, and Test Runner folder.
Create a package called features
Create a feature file under the features package which we have just created
Create a Step Definition file under the step definitions package 📦
Now create a Test Runner file under cucumber.options package
Step 4: Now we need to start writing code
Your feature file will look like this:
# can be provided if we are not considering that step
Your Step Definition file will look like below:
and your TestRunner files will look something like this:
Step 5: Run your code with TestRunner class
Once you run the file you will see a green bar under the Junit tab, which means that your code got executed successfully without any error
So, that was about setting up API Testing Framework and running your code for the first time. In the second part, we will look into how we can optimize our code to make it more user-friendly.
Here is the link to the GitHub repository to download the code
Cheers 🍻 | https://medium.com/@prathore28647/building-cucumber-bdd-api-testing-framework-from-scratch-part-1-add657f9c290 | ['Prem Singh Rathore'] | 2021-08-08 11:03:48.678000+00:00 | ['Java', 'Test Automation', 'Cucumber', 'Framework', 'API'] |
A Story Never Heard | www.pixabay.com
Let me tell you a story.
There was once a kingdom of mutes. If you ever visited there, all you could hear was the scream of silence. No songs to be heard. No words to be said. No one ever made a sound there. And no one ever dared to imagine the possibility of the existence of any kind of tune existing. People went to get groceries without making a sound; they ate without letting out a tune. They did not talk — ever. Even when they slept their breathing had no sound as if they were gone forever when they slept.
It was a kingdom of silence.
But there was something unique about that place. There, the silence screamed louder than anything. So loud that ignoring it was not a possibility for anyone.
But that scream existed only inside of them. It was hidden behind their shut face.
But everyone knew what that scream was, and how it cried inside of them. The sad thing was that no one had any courage to claim the existence of that everlasting scary tune. They lived their life questioning if they were crazy for hearing that sound. The irony of inside scream is that you never hear a single tune outside of your own territory.
So, they buried the ones who mentioned the possibility of melody because they were scared. They buried them under the ground so that those who mentioned melody would be kept in silence by the quietness of the soil under the ground.
The last one who was buried, however, she invented letters and ink from the dirt. She grasped soil and carved. She let the silence be silence by describing the melody through something that is silent; writing. That is how the writing was invented, the old man sitting near the bonfire continued his tale. He shifted his eyes to the burning bonfire as if he was remembering that time.
People invented writing so that they could describe the scream inside of them by not disturbing the silence, he said. Then, why are you letting out a tune, talking and disturbing my silence I asked, changing my position, getting closer to the burning fire.
He replied, “How are you so sure I am breaking the silence, after all, I only exist inside of you”, he said.
That still means you disturb the silence inside of me, I replied.
He did not reply, but got up and left. I will be back, he said. And I sat there, looking as he left, wondering “When will you be back?”. | https://medium.com/written-tales/a-story-never-heard-989ae2364209 | ['Arty Altanzaya'] | 2019-05-10 01:00:22.475000+00:00 | ['Self Improvement', 'Storytelling', 'Fiction', 'Poem', 'Short Story'] |
How to declutter your Python 3 virtual environments, from possible version conflicts! | In this short article, we shall focus on how to install virtualenv and the virtualenvwrapper and tweak bashrc file so that we can easily activate and deactivate the environment without being overly verbose on the command line. <Pay attention, if you love being ‘lazy’ on the command line />
Ideally, a virtual environment makes it possible for you to work on a project, focus on the solution, than worrying too much about the possible conflict on dependencies.
NB: You may refer to the below sites for reference and learn about the virtual environment but I have tried to pick the simplest approach to this problem:
*STEP PROCESS*
First, let us check the Python version. The beauty about Ubuntu is, Python comes pre-installed.
$ python3 —-version
Now is time to do the updates and upgrade the packages
$ sudo apt-get update $ sudo apt-get -y upgrade
We need a package management tool to install our software and we shall be using pip 3. Install using below command
$ sudo apt-get install -y python3-pip
Please note when installing any package you will be using: $ pip3 install the_package_name
We need to take care of the debian package compilations and have a way to compile python extension modules.
$ sudo apt-get install build-essential libssl-dev libffi-dev python3-dev
Phewks! We are now finally ready to push in our virtual environment. I presume you have the permission to do so, otherwise, use sudo with -H flag if you get stuck with access
$ pip3 install virtualenv
Now confirm you have virtualenv installed
$ virtualenv —-version
Power unto us; lets us now install the virtualenvwrapper
$ sudo pip3 install virtualenvwrapper
~This is where you can do some pushups because it is about to get awesome!
$ mkdir ~/.virtualenvs $ mkdir Projects
This directory is the /path/where/you/want/your/Projects and you can change if you like. I like naming Projects, for readability and ease of access
Now Open ~/.bashrc file. It is intentionally hidden in the Home directory and can not be easily found, but you can use the below magic command to check that it exists.
$ ls -la ~/ | more
Now the easy way to edit that .bashrc file is to either use gedit or vim. Some people may find it difficult to use vim, but pick what works for you. If you have weirdly setup your Ubuntu, you may get issues trying to access and editing this file.
CAUTION: Please create a backup of your .bashrc file or forever hold your peace!! cp ~/.bashrc ~/.bashrc.bak You can always revert back to original bashrc cp -i ~/.bashrc.bak ~/.bashrc
Back to our step process, let us now gedit the bashrc file
$ gedit ~./bashrc
Now paste the below 5 lines of code inside the bash file, preferable on top of the bashrc so that you don’t mess up! Remember am using $HOME/Projects and presume you have set up in that path.
VIRTUALENVWRAPPER_PYTHON=’/usr/bin/python3' export WORKON_HOME=~/.virtualenvs export PROJECT_HOME=$HOME/Projects export VIRTUALENVWRAPPER_SCRIPT=/usr/local/bin/virtualenvwrapper.sh source /usr/local/bin/virtualenvwrapper_lazy.sh
Now save the bash file and please don’t mess up this file. Let your creativity in tweaking stuff be saved for development, not within this file!!
Now still on the command line, continue as below. We need to source the bashrc
$ source ~./bashrc
Congratulations you are now done!
The neat way to create a virtual environment can now be done as below
$ mkproject my_project $ workon my_project
You will see something like (my_project) proving you have activated the virtual environment. You must see those parentheses.
To deactivate and get out of env
$ deactivate
Always ensure you activate the environment when installing things like Django... otherwise, versions may mess you up! GOOD LUCK!
Feel free to create a pull request to make this post 100% accurate
I hope this was very helpful!
*If you felt inspired by this article, please applaud with a clap 👏 to make this article reach others. | https://medium.com/@iambonface/how-to-declutter-your-python-3-virtual-environments-from-possible-version-conflicts-d9eed4998775 | ['Bonface Mudiri'] | 2019-02-04 03:17:13.015000+00:00 | ['Virtual Environment', 'Coding', 'Programming', 'Ubuntu', 'Python'] |
GridDB on ARM, Time Series Database for your Raspberry Pi! | GridDB: Open Source Time Series Database for IoT | GridDB on ARM, Time Series Database for your Raspberry Pi! | GridDB: Open Source Time Series Database for IoT Israel Imru Follow Jul 16 · 2 min read
In this blog post, we’ll demonstrate how to build GridDB for 64-bit ARM and run it on a Raspberry Pi 3 or 4 running Ubuntu Server 18.04. In many use cases, it makes sense to store time series data in a NoSQL database at the edge of an IoT solution. Low-cost, low-power ARM devices are an excellent method of achieving this.
First, why Ubuntu Server 18.04? Well, Ubuntu Server 18.04 is the only Linux distribution for Pi 3 or Pi 4 that was 64-bit and had GCC 4.8 packages, two things GridDB needs. It can be downloaded from here Raspberry Pi Imager as a custom image.
Build the Server on Raspberry Pi
Next, with Ubuntu 18.04 installed and running on your Pi, we can install the build dependencies:
$ apt-get -y install gcc-4.8 g++-4.8 build-essential git tcl tk ant libz-dev autoconf automake
There are fixes for ARM not in the main GridDB git repository that are in the griddbnet/griddb_arm fork.
Now, we can can build the server:
$ cd griddb_arm
$ ./bootstrap.sh
$ CC=gcc-4.8 CXX=g++-4.8 ./configure
$ make
Start GridDB, Build and Run the Java Sample
With the build complete, we simply follow the README to start GridDB and run the Java sample.
Configure the server:
$ export GS_HOME=$PWD
$ export GS_LOG=$PWD/log
$ export PATH=${PATH}:$GS_HOME/bin
Start the server:
$ bin/gs_passwd admin -p admin
$ sed sed -i -e s/\"\"/\"defaultCluster\"/ conf/gs_cluster.json
Build and run the sample program:
$ export CLASSPATH=${CLASSPATH}:$GS_HOME/bin/gridstore.jar
$ mkdir gsSample
$ cp $GS_HOME/docs/sample/program/Sample1.java gsSample/.
$ javac gsSample/Sample1.java
$ java gsSample/Sample1 239.0.0.1 31999 defaultCluster admin admin
--> Person: name=name02 status=false count=2 lob=[65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74]
Build the C Client
Like the server, the C client requires a few small fixes to run on ARM and we build and install it using the instructions in the README:
$ git clone https://github.com/griddbnet/c_client_arm.git
$ cd client/c
$ ./bootstrap.sh
$ ./configure
$ make
$ sudo make install
With that complete, you have GridDB running on your ARM-based Raspberry Pi 3 or 4. It’s also easy to build Python, NodeJS or other GridDB clients following the instructions to further enhance your experience. | https://medium.com/griddb/griddb-on-arm-time-series-database-for-your-raspberry-pi-64b22aa5a59c | ['Israel Imru'] | 2020-08-12 23:49:40.775000+00:00 | ['Time Series Database', 'Internet of Things', 'Griddb'] |
A mother’s second chance | Tough Times
Abuk Kiir, a South Sudanese mother from Aweil, remembers when she and her children had to survive off a simple diet of sorghum and flour with broth. That was all the widow could afford from the meager salary she made by selling groundnut paste at the market.
“I did not have money to buy her better food,” said Abuk Kiir pointing at her daughter, an emaciated-two-year-old with a bloated stomach and very dry, scaly skin.“She was very sick and couldn’t hold down any food in her stomach. Constantly vomiting whatever she ate along with mucus and saliva, she barely had any energy.”
As the sole breadwinner of her family, Abuk has constantly struggled to feed her four children because food is very hard to come by. The resourceful mother tried to supplement her children’s diet by cultivating a small garden, only to have it washed away by the floods that swept across the country.
Prompted by her brother, Abuk took her sickly daughter to the nearest health care center in Aweil Town. A journey that took half a day on foot.
A Lifeline of Nutritional
Once screened, the mother was referred to a Nutrition Center where she received Plumpy’Sup, a Ready-to-Use Supplementary Food (RUSF). It consists of a high-energy peanut/chickpea-based paste enriched with micro-nutrients. Support also included the provision of routine medications and de-worming tablets.
She was also counselled on complementary feeding practices, proper hygiene and the correct use and storage of Plumpy’Sup. It’s all part of the package of assistance that The World Food Programme in South Sudan provides to thousands of children.
How it works
A child gets weighed by a health worker. Photo: WFP/Gabriela Vivacqua
WFP’s partner implements the Targeted Supplementary Feeding Programme (TSFP) to treat children who are screened through a Mid-Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC) screening process carried out within local communities are then referred to the nearest nutrition center.
Moderately malnourished children under five and pregnant and lactating women are enrolled in the TSFP programme and receive Ready-to-Use Supplementary Food (RUSF) which is distributed either once a month or every two weeks. Counselling and behavioral change communication messages are also administered. To reap maximum results, regular follow-ups are common and those receiving assistance are only discharged upon recovery. The average length of stay in the TSFP programme is three months.
WFP Response
A child eating. Photo:WFP/Gabriela Vivacqua
With support from the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and the European Union, WFP partners with non-governmental organisations, the Ministry of Health and other UN agencies to reach the most vulnerable through interventions that aim to prevent and treat under nutrition.
Apart from providing specialized nutritious foods, WFP engages in raising nutritional awareness among South Sudanese mothers and families through providing key messages to strengthen nutrition information management systems for a more sustainable impact.
A hopeful future
More than anything, Aduk wishes for health services in her community. So much so, she hopes her daughter will one day be a doctor.
“I want my little girl to go to school and become a medical doctor. Our children are suffering in the villages without good doctors and I want my daughter to save the lives of our people,” she explained. For now, she is relieved that her daughter is in good health. “I made the right decision by coming to the nutrition center. Thank you WFP for your support.” | https://medium.com/world-food-programme-insight/a-mothers-second-chance-cb6d4a8a32db | [] | 2020-11-17 07:51:28.458000+00:00 | ['South Sudan', 'Mothers', 'Nutrition', 'Children'] |
Axial — New Medicines #30. Get these analyses to your inbox —… | Get these analyses to your inbox — https://axialobservations.substack.com/ This is a newsletter for rough-around-the-edges ideas. More well thought out work can be found at — https://axial.substack.com/
Axial partners with great founders and inventors. We invest in early-stage life sciences companies often when they are no more than an idea. We are fanatical about helping the rare inventor who is compelled to build their own enduring business. If you or someone you know has a great idea or company in life sciences, Axial would be excited to get to know you and possibly invest in your vision and company . We are excited to be in business with you — email us at [email protected]
New medicines #30 — November 28, 2020 — December 4, 2020
A weekly overview of the development of new medicines.
- Enlivex Therapeutics released interim data from its phase 2 clinical trial evaluating Allocetra in severe and critical COVID-19 patients, which showed all seven patients recovered from their respective severe/critical condition and were discharged after an average of 4.7 days following administration of Allocetra.
- Histogen announced preliminary data from its phase 1b/2a clinical trial of HST-001 in male patients with androgenic alopecia did not meet the primary endpoint of a statistically significant change from baseline versus week 18 in total hairs in the target area.
- Moderna announced that primary efficacy analysis of its COVID-19 vaccine phase 3 trial of mRNA-1273 conducted on 196 cases confirmed the high efficacy observed at the first interim analysis, indicating a vaccine efficacy of 94.1%:
The data also showed that all 30 severe cases of COVID-19 in the trial occurred in the placebo group with none occurring in the mRNA-1273 vaccinated group
The company also announced the submission to the FDA of a Emergency Use Authorization, which will be reviewed by the FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) on Thursday, December 17, 2020
- Ovid Therapeutics announced after hours that its phase 3 Neptune trial of OV101 (gaboxadol) for the treatment of Angelman syndrome did not meet the primary endpoint.
- Sutro Biopharma announced updated data from its phase 1 trial of STRO-002 in patients with ovarian cancer:
Of the 31 evaluable patients, 1 patient achieved a complete response (CR) and 9 patients achieved a partial response (PR) — 3 confirmed and 6 unconfirmed
Twenty-three patients (74%) achieved disease control at 12 weeks, while 18 patients (58%) achieved disease control at 16 weeks
- Vanda Pharmaceuticals announced after hours that the FDA has approved Hetlioz (tasimelteon) capsule and liquid formulations for the treatment of adults and children, respectively, with night-time sleep disturbances associated with Smith-Magenis Syndrome (SMS).
Source: BPC (reformatted), SY, Bioworld | https://medium.com/@axialxyz/axial-new-medicines-30-9e538f98c448 | [] | 2020-12-04 04:23:09.037000+00:00 | ['Venture Capital', 'Biotechnology', 'Investing', 'Healthcare', 'Medicine'] |
Why I Quit Breastfeeding | Why I Quit Breastfeeding
Breast is best. We all know that, we all hear it.
And on one hand I would agree. But on the other hand, is it best when it affects your mental health? Takes time away from your precious little human, just to pump like a milking machine?
I spent my whole pregnancy determined that I was gonna breastfeed, after all I was a Stroud bird born & bred, and that’s what we do in Stroud right? Well apparently not.
You read all these stories about how difficult it can be & how much it hurts but I still persuaded myself that I would do it, because it was best for my baby.
As soon as he was born, Dexter latched on and I thought to myself ‘wayhay away we go, this is easier than I thought’. And that was about all of this breastfeeding game he wanted to play. He was too sleepy to care for the first couple of days, but I wasn’t afraid to ask for help. I had multiple midwives at my beck and call, night & day, whenever I attempted to feed him, trying to get him to stay attached and nobody could master it.
Nobody wanted me to give up though, and I spent the first few days squeezing colostrum out of my nipples into a 1ml (!) syringe to feed to my increasingly starving newborn. Finally a midwife suggested maybe my nipples were a bit flat and Dexter was struggling to get a latch on…
FLAT nipples?
Really?!
All my life I’ve never noticed I had odd nipples.. they’re perfectly normal to me and not particularly ‘flat’. And there she was, stood in front of a new mother full of hormones, telling her she had FLAT nipples. Well, that didn’t go down well. I may as well quit now, was all I could think.
However, I persisted.
I mean, what did they do back in the day before formula was invented? They fed them somehow surely? Or did the babies just die from starvation? (One for Google!)
The midwife suggested nipple shields- Big. Fake. Plastic. Nipples. But not to try until my milk came in because colostrum would clog them up- meaning I had to spend the next few days syringing the f**k out of my nips. (It got tedious).
Fast forward a few days.. Massive (first time in my entire life), rock hard, milk filled tits. And finally the nipple shields arrive in the post, so we give it a go and BINGO – the boy’s attached! Woohoo.
I even got so ahead of myself that I treated myself to a very expensive breast pump- I told the husband that if I couldn’t feed properly then at least I could pump and feed him a bottle. With this ridiculous, fantastic image in my head of a bottle FULL of breast milk- (HA HA fucking HA.)
We’ll come back to that….
The next day, I’m on it with the nipple shields, and away we go, for a full day of breastfeeding.
Yes. A FULL. BLOODY. DAY.
Nobody told me about the cluster feeding….. in other words, turning into a full on milking machine.
He was on the boob ALL day & would not settle unless he was attached. I was miserable. I was on the edge. Wishing that breastfeeding just came naturally. By 11pm, when I’m totally and utterly exhausted, sleep deprived and sucked dry, I gave in & fed him a bottle of formula, just so I could get a few valuable hours of sleep. And that night, he slept like MY HUSBAND. (In case you’re wondering- that’s extremely well.)
It was that moment when I realised I couldn’t do it full time. I didn’t have it in me. I decided that I’d do combination feeding, and then express to keep the supply up & feed him bottles of breast milk when I could.
But could I express much? No I damn well couldn’t.
Next hurdle- trying to produce some bloody milk. 30ml was about the most I got. No wonder the baby was constantly on the boob and miserable- he was bloody STARVING!
I missed those valuable first few days of breastfeeding, where my baby magically tells my boobies how much milk he wants. Instead it was hurdle after hurdle. I wanted to cuddle my baby, show him off, enjoy the time with my friends and family and this new bundle of gorgeousness. But I couldn’t, because I was worrying about when I would express next and whether it would be a faff to feed him next. Gradually the formula feeds took over the breastfeeds and I mostly just expressed. And gradually that dwindled off because we all know breastfeeding is supply and demand, and if there’s no demand then it will eventually get less & less. So I was expressing a measly 10ml and it was utterly pointless. One day I sat down and asked myself why I was doing it- and my answer to myself was, because I don’t want to lose my milk, because that’ll be the end. It was all too final. And the guilt was horrific.
Not to mention, I had an image in my head of my little baby feeding from me, looking up at me & grabbing my finger whilst he fed, and I couldn’t shake it, I couldn’t help feeling like the worst person in the world for just giving up. But I had to remind myself that actually he does all of that whilst feeding from a bottle too, it was just the guilt taking over.
That was the day I gave up, I decided to call it a day. Could I have tried harder? Absolutely yes I could have. But what was more important? My baby getting breastmilk (when really he probably doesn’t give a shit either way) or my mental health? If you know me well, then you’ll know I’m an organisational freak. So having to plan in expressing & breastfeeding times where I could feed in private without the risk someone might see those Big. Plastic. Nips of mine and think WTF – was stressful. I genuinely thought that I would never be able to leave the house again if breastfeeding was all about cluster feeding- if only I had known it would only last a day or 2. And having to top up every breastfeed with formula- that was just a pain in the ass.
When all I wanted to do was enjoy those first few weeks, get through those bleak baby blues days, take care of my newborn baby & take care of myself and my sore LADY BITS that were stitched up like a designer vagina. (that nobody warns you about either).
It took me weeks to forgive myself for just giving up breastfeeding, but finally, once me & my boy were settled into a routine, he was happy & content, I was getting some sleep & enjoying motherhood- that’s when I realised I’d made the right decision and the happiness & contentment that me & my boy shared was the reason I did it. I wasn’t stressed anymore & neither was he.
He was fed & that’s the only thing that mattered.
Nobody should feel guilty for not breastfeeding, sometimes the bond between mum & baby is more important.. do I think we would have such a good bond if I’d have struggled on? I’m not sure, but I do know that stress is a problem. A problem that can spiral out of control, especially when you’re a fragile, hormonal new mum and if I hadn’t fixed that problem, I wouldn’t be embracing and loving motherhood like I do now.
And finally, to all you breastfeeding Moms out there.. I salute you. What you’re doing is amazing & you should be proud of yourselves for making it work for you & your little humans. | https://medium.com/@sallyhursthouse/breast-is-best-we-all-know-that-we-all-hear-it-7fd0e81a1377 | ['Sally Dyer'] | 2019-02-19 14:36:26.384000+00:00 | ['Breastfeeding Journey', 'Baby', 'First Time Mom', 'Baby Formula', 'Breastfeeding'] |
8 Amazing Applications of Artificial Intelligence! | We usually talk about applications of artificial intelligence in significant fields like business, and security. No one can underestimate the applications of AI in education and automobile sector. Today let’s talk about AI’s unusual use cases that are less commonly discussed but still are of great significance. Let’s enjoy the disruptive force of artificial intelligence that will lead us towards interesting excellence.
Artificial Intelligence helping humans / Chatbots
You all must have heard of chatbots right?
Chatbots are computer programs that are commonly used to interact with customers by audio or text and helps to engage clients with instant response to their queries. With enhanced technology, now chatbots are helping businesses in dealing with customers.
For example, One artificial intelligence chatbot named “Conversica” is a virtual sales assistant that communicates persistently and politely with prospective sales leads. It uses email to engage, qualify, and follow-up with leads, allowing the sales team to focus their efforts on closing deals.
Artificial Intelligence in Education Sector / Voice Assistant
One of the application of artificial intelligence is that of being a voice assistant. All of us use voice assistants for several purpose like scheduling appointments shopping , searching the web for information, and many other things.
The voice assistants are extensively being used in the education sector also. Traditional methods of learning are slowly losing their effectiveness in the case of higher education environments, with various universities and colleges offering students voice assistants rather than the traditionally printed or websites for assistance with their campus-related informational needs. These voice assistants allow the students to go through the educational materials without the involvement of a teacher.
One good example of this disruptive technology could be Amazon’s Alexa which has already made a good position in the market. Built with a conversational artificial intelligence platform, Alexa reacts and responds to human questions and queries more naturally. What differentiates Amazon’s Alexa from other voice assistants is the fact that it is an open-source AI application, which is easily accessible to developers across the globe. In the near future, Amazon is planning to give this AI platform a more directed approach along with human touch.
The employment of these voice assistant breaks the monotony and fetches exciting prospects for the students. The employment of this emerging technology is expected to escalate in years to come.
Beer for better brewing
Today the applications of Artificial Intelligence is helping in predicting the taste that consumers love and will prefer to taste again.
The company “Intelligent X” in London launched four beers, each of them with a new idea to share a unique taste with the customers. The four flavours were amber, black, golden, and pale. After tasting the brews, the customers were asked to share their feedback via Facebook Messenger bot. Thus, it helped in gathering feedback from a variety of clients for sharing it with the brewer.
It is basically a three step process. Firstly consumers create their profile and select their preferences for the perfect brewing experience. Then the algorithm efficiently tells the brewer about the customer’s taste. Lastly it allows the customers to enjoy their desired beer that is specially prepared for them.
Artificial Intelligence in Automobile Sector / Autonomous Cars
Have you ever heard of cars that drive can without a driver or that are only guided by artificial intelligence technologies and automatic learning?
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.
.
No right?
Lately, autonomous vehicles are gaining a lot of attraction . In this application, artificial intelligence is harnessed to build a neural network which is a system of data, sensors, CPUs, hardware and software that processes information and adapts like an actual human being.
These technologies are used in different capacities and each of them collects different pieces of information. The information is of no use unless it is processed and any form of insights cannot be derived.
This is where artificial intelligence is used and where it can be compared to the human brain.
Did you know?
Tesla was one of the first automotive brands to launch a self-driving vehicle. Moreover Audi, Cadillac, and Volvo are already developing their own models. Tesla’s Auto Pilot feature powered by self-predictive capabilities makes it stand out from the other self-driving tech manufacturers. Tesla’s self-driving system is one of the most important applications of artificial intelligence.
Furthermore a lot of advancements are being made in the autonomous vehicle segment.
Artificial Intelligence in Music Industry / Music Streaming
Today there are artificial intelligence applications like Pandora that gains insights into the consumers preferences and choices to provide them with the content based on their likes.
Through a variety of traits and characteristics, each piece of music on the platform gets examined by a group of musicians and audiophiles. Then, it gets custom tags and thereby it delivers recommendations using the Artificial Intelligence application. The application Pandora calls this technology as their musical DNA.
Furthermore do you know that artificial intelligence could help you to create hit songs?
.
.
.
Yes you heard that right!
The single “Not Easy” by Ambassadors, Elle King, and Wiz Khalifa reached number 4 on iTunes “Hot Tracks” list. Now you must be wondering that where was AI used?
Well, the single was composed based on findings of big data. Artificial intelligence searched through millions of conversations, newspaper titles, and lectures based on the main theme of the song: heartbreak.
Then, after they defined the theme, machine learning algorithms programmed to create music found different musical elements, which gave them ideas on how this piece should sound.
Crazy right?
Artificial Intelligence in Food Industry
If that last point shocked you, now imagine having a virtual chef by your side next time you cook which can guide you through each step of the recipe to prepare that culinary delight you never thought possible.
Today artificial intelligence helps you create a recipe based on the ingredients you already have or on something you’re craving. Its algorithms will go through which dishes can be prepared with your ingredients and then give you several options so you can choose the dish you want, along with instructions on how to prepare it.
Nothing seems impossible right?
Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare Industry
Applications of artificial intelligence in healthcare is helping the doctors and frontline clinicians to become more productive and efficient.
Healthcare has a countless number of applications ranging from discovering links between genetic codes to powering surgical robots. It helps the doctors with diagnostic imaging interpretation.
The complexities of deciphering images and conducting analysis resulting in the efficient AI-based applications.
With deep learning programs and technology categorization, AI-based imaging systems are equipped with algorithms having quick image reading.
This further includes MRIs and CT scans. The system not only helps a doctor to improve performance with better diagnostics but it also proves to be a vital tool in combating the shortage of radiologists in the hospital.
One of the popular AI-based diagnose checkers Buoy Health, uses an algorithm that helps in treating the illness.
Here is how it works: The chatbot understands the symptoms of the patient and the health concerns. Then it guides him towards required care as per the diagnosis.
Photographs That Become Purchases
How many times have you seen something you like, so you take a photo of to find it or something similar in stores?
It isn’t complicated anymore. Amazon has already incorporated a visual search option.You are just required to take a photo of the item you want, and it will show you something very similar or identical. Then you can buy it right away and it will already be in your hands.
Thanks to AI, the time lag between those “moments of inspiration” and the eventual purchase will be eliminated, making the transition between seeing a product and buying it happen without any complications.
Conclusion
So Did these applications of artificial intelligence surprised you
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They did right?
In the nutshell, Artificial Intelligence will occupy an integral place in all sectors .It will be amazing to see how this emerging technology will empower and enhance overall learning outcomes for all.
Enjoyed reading it?
Let us know what you think about is in the comments below. | https://medium.com/@disruptedtechnologies/8-amazing-applications-of-artificial-intelligence-e7e314e76257 | ['Disrupted Technologies'] | 2020-12-24 17:07:09.480000+00:00 | ['Chatbots', 'Applicationsofai', 'Artificial Intelligence'] |
Best smart smoke detector to keep your home safe | Best smart smoke detector to keep your home safe Elizabeth Jan 15·6 min read
The concept is simple: A smoke alarm that tells you there’s a fire nearby is a great, but a smoke alarm that tells you there’s a fire no matter where you are is even better. Smart smoke and carbon monoxide (CO) detectors are one of the most useful categories of smart home gear on the market, mainly because they offer a clear advantage over “dumb” versions of the same product. And if you have a second home or travel frequently, the additional peace of mind they can provide is invaluable.
Once installed and powered up, you download the relevant app and connect to the device wirelessly. Then, when the alarm goes off, not only do you receive an audio alert—many include helpful voice instructions instead of just a siren—your smart phone also tells you what the problem is (whether it’s smoke or CO, which alarm was activated, and sometimes even the severity of the smoke). Many smart smoke detectors hook into additional smart home gear and IFTTT, so you can get even more clever by having the lights start flashing if smoke has been detected, for example. Perhaps the biggest benefit of a smart smoke detector: No more hunting down midnight chirps, since you’ll also get phone-based notifications about dying batteries.
Here are our picks for the best options on the market today.
Best smart smoke detector Nest Labs Nest Protect Read TechHive's reviewMSRP $119.00Learn moreon Google StoreWhether you’re integrating it into a Nest ecosystem or not, the Nest Protect should be at the top of your smart smoke-detector list.
The Nest Protect is one of the most mature smart smoke alarms on the market, and it’s a no-brainer of a choice if you want one of the most sophisticated and reliable smart smoke detectors out there. Alarms are varied, integrated lighting is color-coded based on the type of threat, and the product includes helpful voice alerts when activated. In testing, our phone was alerted almost immediately, and the app couldn’t be simpler to master. If you have additional Nest gear at home--such as a Nest thermostat--things get even savvier, as you can configure the Protect to shut off your ventilation system if it detects smoke, a potential life saver.
At $119, the Nest Protect isn’t cheap, but pricier options are out there. In this case, though, the outlay is worth it.
Best smart listener Mentioned in this article Roost Smart Battery (2nd Generation) Read TechHive's reviewMSRP $34.99Learn moreon RoostThe upfront cost is higher than an ordinary lithium smoke-detector battery, but the Wi-Fi module is reusable and replacement batteries are only slightly more expensive than ordinary ones. It’s money well spent to protect your home.
Leeo has turned off the servers for its Leeo Smart Alert Nightlight, so the second-generation Roost Smart Battery wins this category by default. Install this battery in your conventional smoke detector, and it will send a push notification to the contact list you set up in its app, so you can take action even if you're away from home.
What you should know about smart smoke detectorsFor the most part, smart smoke alarms tend to work almost identically. The device installs on the ceiling or high on the wall (typically replacing an old-school smoke alarm in the same location), either using batteries or in-wall power. Most of the smart smoke alarms we evaluated are available in either format and cost the same. When shopping, pay close attention so you don’t end up with the wrong type.
If you’re upgrading a hardwired model, it’s important that you replace all the detectors in the chain with the same make and model. One of the reasons for hardwiring a smoke detector is that if one detects a dangerous condition, it can trigger all the others to go off. But there’s no guarantee that feature will work if you have a mix of devices from different manufacturers wired together.
Roost Replacing hardwired smoke detectors? Make sure you replace all of them with the same make and model.
While the overall number of competitors in this space is small, the category is already quite fragmented. The bulk of the category consists of straightforward smoke detectors as described above, but some outliers exist to complicate your buying decision.
First is the concept of the smart battery: Rather than replace the entire alarm, a smart battery simply replaces the 9-volt cell inside your smoke detector. The battery contains a Wi-Fi radio that can communicate with your home network and a companion smartphone app. The battery also includes a microphone that listens for the smoke alarm into which it has been installed. When the alarm goes off, the battery leaps into action and handles the “smart” side of things, working much like a standalone detector. At present, there is only one smart battery on the market: the Roost Smart Battery. It’s not a perfect solution, but at just $35, it’s much more affordable than a standalone smart smoke detector. If your budget is limited, it’s definitely worth a look.
LeeoA similar idea comes in the form of the smart listener. Again, the idea here is that you don’t rip out your existing smoke detectors, you just install an extra piece of hardware that can listen for an alarm going off and alert your phone if it hears one, turning a traditional alarm system into a smart one. This is different from the Roost battery because the alerter simply plugs into a power outlet (there’s no battery backup, however, so if the power goes out, the device won’t be able to hear the siren). The Leeo Smart Alert Nightlight, at $50, is currently the best option on the market. It’s another great choice if you don’t want to replace the gear you already have.
What to look for when shopping Smoke and CO: Today, you want a detector that handles both smoke and carbon monoxide in a single device. There’s simply no point in forgoing carbon monoxide detection in any smoke alarm you install today, and all the alarms we tested support both types. Note that, as discussed above, smart batteries and smart listeners do not actually detect smoke or CO directly, so you’ll need to ensure the actual alarms in your house do support types of detection if you decide to go that route.
Detector sensitivity and accuracy: It’s very difficult to scientifically test how well a smoke/CO detector does its primary job without actually burning your house down. That said, simulating smoky conditions can reveal a little about how sensitive a detector is. As well, you can consider the general consensus about the underlying technology in a smoke detector. The Nest Protect, for example, uses a photoelectric split-spectrum sensor that is considered superior to the ionization sensor used in many older devices and which is more prone to false alarms.
Notification variety: A loud siren is expected, but voice alerts are quite handy: They not only tell you what type of hazard has been detected, but also alert you to its location and can even tell you how to respond (whether that’s opening a window or calling 911). Color-coded lights on the alarm itself are another plus. And, of course, speedy push notifications to your phone are a must in the smart alarm space.
Christopher Null The light ring on the (since discontinued) Halo+ glows amber if it detects a little smoke, red if it picks up a lot of smoke, and blue for severe weather events.
Multiple users: Obviously you’re safest if more than one person receives a push alert that there’s a fire in the house. Look for a system that supports multiple users through an invitation system.
Interconnectivity: Some devices support an interconnectivity feature, so if one alarm goes off, all the other alarms in the house will go off as well. This can be a big benefit if you have a very large home and fear you might not hear an alarm going off elsewhere in the house. We didn’t test interconnectivity features in our review since we tested single alarms individually, so check specifications when shopping if this feature sounds useful.
Smart home hub support: If you want to integrate your smoke alarm with the rest of your home, consider whether it is supported by a major smart home hub. The Nest Protect is obviously tied to the Nest ecosystem, but Alexa, SmartThings, and HomeKit options are also available. Note that we had lackluster results with several of these hooks—and even if you do connect the alarm to your smart home hub, the ultimate usefulness of this connection can be limited.
That said, when paired with a smart thermostat, some smart smoke alarms can trigger the thermostat to shut down your HVAC system, so that smoke isn’t pulled into your ventilation system and circulated all around your home.
Our smart smoke detector reviews Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details. | https://medium.com/@elizabe16088509/best-smart-smoke-detector-to-keep-your-home-safe-f845aeb0ec79 | [] | 2021-01-15 09:16:38.876000+00:00 | ['Streaming', 'Connected Home', 'Mobile Accessories', 'Tvs'] |
Should I Give Us Another Chance?. There can be no growth without some… | Dear Olive,
I met my wife 20 years ago, in high school, and we have two kids. Five years ago while I was more focused on my work than I was on her, she met someone and has been cheating on me with this man since. I discovered this three years ago. First I wanted to leave, but I didn’t feel able. She didn’t want to leave either, she just wanted to live with me as a roommate and keep seeing that man.
I have never accepted this. At the time I didn’t know that she’d been in love with him for two years, and I thought it would end. I thought that by being more present and patient that I would win her back. After two years of enduring her relationship with him and seeing no progress, I decided it was time for me to try to forget about her.
But as soon as I met someone with whom things could get serious and asked her to leave, she began to show interest for me. Twice I left the woman I met for her, and twice my wife finally was not able to end things, on her side, with her lover. A few times she tried, but each time she’s gone back to him after a few weeks.
I know I should open my eyes, see that she doesn’t love me, and leave. Sometimes we seem to decide that it is over, but neither of us seems able to act.
This time I tried to be strong, and I did start to act — I started to separate our accounts and find a new place — but I’m not sure that I’ll be able to do it completely. Her sadness touches me, and I don’t want to hurt her. Should I leave or should I give us another chance?
Sincerely,
Unable to Decide | https://medium.com/spiralbound/ask-olive-should-i-give-us-another-chance-f097b9ef5648 | ['Ask Olive'] | 2019-02-13 14:50:28.925000+00:00 | ['Relationships', 'Ask Olive', 'Advice', 'Marriage', 'Love'] |
Navigating SXSW via Cognitive Chatbot | Navigating SXSW via Cognitive Chatbot
How we built the demo app using cognitive services on the IBM Cloud
Last week, Mark Watson and I represented the Watson Developer Cloud in IBM’s installation at South by Southwest. IBM built a terrific space, inviting visitors to explore how IBM is making essential aspects of life more engaging, creative, and personal. In that spirit, we demonstrated a chat-driven app to help event attendees find interesting events at SXSW. We call it Cognitive Event Finder.
Looking for SXSW events on augmented reality? Just ask our chatbot.
How it works
Cognitive Event Finder works by either interacting with our chatbot via SMS (Twilio, ftw!), or by using a single-page web app. We used the Watson Conversation service to implement a natural-feeling user interaction that takes attendees through the process of searching for SXSW Interactive (tech) talks, music gigs, or film screenings.
The actual search queries relied on IBM Cloudant, a JSON database service based on Apache CouchDB™. All our data on SXSW events is stored in here.
The architecture of our Cognitive Event Finder app, running on IBM Bluemix.
While Cloudant has a number of options for implementing search, we used Cloudant Search, the Lucene-based indexing engine built into the database service. It allowed us to combine text, time, and location data in user searches. For example, if someone were interested in virtual reality, we could not only search for sessions related to the subject, but also rank results by those happening soon and nearby. That’s a much more relevant response than a plain old database query.
Finally, we used Mapbox’s JavaScript client to visualize search results on a highly customizable map. We also used Mapbox underlay a nice street map using their basemap API.
Results in the field
The turnout was great. We gave the app to about 500 festival-goers, and they all felt it was going to help them more easily navigate the event.
The backlit Mark Watson gets SXSW attendees set up with our event-finder chatbot.
Our primary goal, however, wasn’t to build the best event concierge app, but to illustrate the type of thing you could build with the cognitive services on the IBM Cloud. We’re glad people put it to use.
If you’re interested in building something similar, you can fork the GitHub repo. There’s also a YouTube video of the GIF above, in case that’s handy for sharing. Get in touch and let us know what you build, and please ♡ this article to share it on Medium. Thanks! | https://medium.com/codait/navigating-sxsw-via-cognitive-chatbot-28a2e1f7a456 | ['Raj Singh'] | 2017-09-14 15:26:16.611000+00:00 | ['Nodejs', 'Cognitive Computing', 'Chatbots', 'Cloudant', 'Sxsw Interactive'] |
A reflection on: Gestalt Organisation & System Development (OSD) | Session 4 – 12/11/20
Gestalt emphasises the whole rather than being the sum of different parts
Does your current mindset serve you to make the change that you want to see? How important are these beliefs with what is happening in reality?
How can I honour who I am? My wants my needs my values
My wants my needs my values How do you centre and ground yourself — what is your ritual?
How did you see the process of Gestalt bring change to a system? — Pay attention to how you are making meaning, everyone is already practising gestalt, how do you empower them to grow in their awareness? Pay attention to your own world view — Meet them where they are at , don’t impose your own language or terminology that gets in their way
, don’t impose your own language or terminology that gets in their way How do you know if it is my work to do in inviting change to a system? Is it my projection that change should happen?
There was a resonant theme of journey back to ourselves, why is this not intuitive to us? And why do we resist so much or do we just forget?
Meaning making after — Journey back to self
A question that arose from the session, was this resonant theme from everyone was on this journey and quest back to rediscovering ourselves. It seems that many of our habits and dysfunctions stem from this longing of a relationship back to ourselves and how we can find the space for self love and care.
And unpacking a bit of that last night for myself was touching onto the questions of
What is my usual pattern?
What do I need to pay attention to?
My usual pattern in life is always the question of: what does life or the people or the systems need from me? Whenever I enter a social setting my natural tendency is to live outwards, sensing the world around me and trying to be relevant by meeting these needs. And this function has always served me in being a people pleaser and to have meaning in my life by knowing that I have helped to meet someone else’s needs. But also in this journey back to self it was for me to extract the flip side of that, what am I giving up in living my life for others? I think the void that I needed to confront was on the question of what do I need? And how can I serve the needs of myself?
I think this conversation of relationship with self has always been a difficult space to sit with, and I am not really sure where that stems from. But it just feels like the really hard question to ask myself is: why am I so hard on myself? Why do I expect so much? And why do I need to be always more? Im just curious where this comes from, and in a sense this guilt of privilege that I need to earn my place in the world and solve everything for everyone. I think in sitting with it, I don’t blame myself for this narrative, it has gotten me to where I am and has made me a better person in some ways. But I guess this phase in my life is an acknowledgement that I should live differently too. And a powerful quote that really stuck with my from last night was “How can I honour who I am?” And to understand that this current habit is not doing justice to who I am, and I don’t serve the needs of others without my own agenda clouding the relationship
Who am I? This brings me to the second question of “What do I need to pay attention to?”. I think for me is really to pull the brakes on my autopilot when I am in presence with others, to not jump out of my body and into the needs of others. And to find the boundaries and permission to actually tune into what I need in the moment. I haven’t quite got a hang of the process yet as I jump into the needs and emotions so instantaneously that I can only catch myself after it has happened. But the awareness and intentions are there, and the practice for me is to find compassion for myself to try again and acknowledge when progress is happening.
The vision would be for me to look in the mirror and know that I have the courage and the dreams to be more, but right now I am also enough. And to embody the phrase: I am at home with the world, and I have found a home with myself.
Overall the Gestalt OSD programme has been a great journey and community to revisit these themes of Gestalt and a reminder that the place to start our work in changing external systems, is the work of self mastery. I guess in going back into “the real world” I kinda get swept away with the global narrative of problem solving and fixing things, but these 8 weeks have given me the space to rediscover the importance in our journey back to self | https://medium.com/the-kickstarter/gestalt-organisation-system-development-osd-d92e8b35a82d | ['Qing Ping'] | 2020-11-13 13:04:13.900000+00:00 | ['Systems Thinking', 'Gestalt', 'Organisation Development', 'Reflections', 'Hope'] |
In-Wallet EOS Registration Is Now Live In Exodus | Disclaimer
Every two weeks, without fail, we uncage the latest version of Exodus from the frigid heights of our mountain-summit castle (the cold keeps our servers running in tip-top shape). This week was no different, and it is my distinct pleasure to announce the addition of a feature we’ve been developing, calibrating, and refining diligently since it was first requested by many of you. Alongside this landmark upgrade, we have also moved an asset to a new home and bestowed your wallet with some cosmetic upgrades for both utility and aesthetic pleasure. These are our extended feature release notes, and I hope that you enjoy reading about them as much as we enjoyed making them.
EOS Registration Just Got An Easy Button
If you are a fan of EOS you might already know that you are currently holding them as ERC-20 tokens on your Exodus ethereum wallet. These tokens are placeholders for real EOS assets that will reside in a proper EOS public address/private key combination when a mainnet blockchain is launched later this year, in June 2018. You need to register your Exodus ethereum address so that the EOS mainnet can “see” any tokens you hold on launch day and credit them to an address that you can access on the new blockchain.
Up until now, this registration process involved exporting your ethereum private key and using it to access MyEtherWallet. We feel that this is a security risk, as you should not have to expose your private key unless it is absolutely necessary. Additionally, the process of registering through MyEtherWallet has many steps and we saw many of you struggle to complete them successfully.
As a wallet that strives to make cryptocurrency intuitive and easy, we feel that a difficult EOS registration process is deterring and we hope that adding this function relieves some stress from blockchain banking.
To read more about how the EOS registration feature works and view important information on how we plan on handling the swap from EOS ERC-20 tokens to mainnet assets, please check out this comprehensive article from our Knowledge Board.
Firstblood Removed From Exchange
With a heavy heart, we must announce that 1ST will not be returning to the exchange platform in Exodus. This is due to that fact that it has been delisted from major exchanges like Bittrex. Firstblood will now live in the Ethereum Assets tab of your wallet:
If you have a 1ST balance in your wallet you will still see your wallet active in Exodus after the upgrade. For more information on how to exchange 1ST now that it was been delisted, please read this article from our Knowledge Base: How Do I Exchange Ethereum Assets?
FUN Has New Logo
Funfair has a new logo in your wallet!
Make sure you show it off to all of your friends, who will be so jealous because they are still using the old Funfair logo.
We’ve Added A Subtraction Feature
Exodus currently supports over 80 asset wallets, which is a whole bunch of wallets when you open them all together at the same time. If you have all possible asset wallets active, you will now see a subtract icon instead of an add icon, representing the fact that you can no longer add wallets. You’ve exhausted all of our options!
Eye Wide Shut
The “reveal password” icon now opens and shuts its one good eye depending on whether you’d like to view or hide your secret password. The eye is open when clicking it and will allow you to see your password. The eye appears with a slash through it when clicking it will hide your password from sight.
If you are having trouble entering your password, click on the open eye to make sure you’ve got it right. If you’re in a public place and don’t want nosey people snooping, click on the closed eye to put it to sleep and enter your password on the sly like a secret agent. Well done, 007!
Losing Your Exchange History Is Now Ancient History
Remember when restoring with your 12 word phrase meant losing all of your exchange history? Fear not! This has been fixed and Exodus now keeps your history for you, no matter how you restore your wallet, all the while allowing you to control your private keys.
We actually added this feature back in version 1.45.0 but I forgot to let you know, dear reader. One-thousand apologies!
Next Release: April 12th, 2018
That’s all I have for you this release. As always, stay tuned to our releases page in case we add any patches. See you in two weeks!
Please reserve the Medium comments section for lively and honest discussion about the article! If you have technical issues with Exodus, our Community Support team will be happy to speedily assist you if you send a descriptive email to: [email protected] | https://medium.com/exodus-movement/in-wallet-eos-registration-is-now-live-in-exodus-87d3d2c9fea0 | [] | 2018-04-20 19:12:24.735000+00:00 | ['Finance', 'Bitcoin', 'Exodus', 'Blockchain', 'Eos'] |
Broken English | by Claire Liu, Naperville North High School
Contrary to what most would believe, my first language was Chinese. Spending the first couple years of my life under the wings of my lao lao (grandmother) and lao ye (grandfather), it was almost inevitable that I picked up Chinese first. My parents used to joke, with pride, that two-year-old Claire Liu had the best Chinese in the family.
Now my parents use the same joke with a hue of shame. “Had.” “Was.” These days, I can barely speak three lines of Mandarin before I sound foreign even to my own ears and I need to force myself to stop, close my eyes, take a breath, and start again.
What goes unseen are the one too many experiences of being admonished by classmates and teachers alike for using Chinese in the classroom. Years of being renamed as “Ching Chong” and “Ling Ling” took their effect and the 2 languages I knew became more like 1 ½.
Being silent wasn’t enough. Year after year, I watched as fellow Asian Americans in the news were villainized for speaking their language. Specifically, during the fall of 2020, Professor Greg Patton was removed from his position as a business professor at the University of Southern California (USC) after teaching the word “nei ge” (那个, “that one”) in one of his classes. In all honesty, when I saw this on the news, I wasn’t very surprised. For fluent Chinese speakers, “na ge” is a common filler, much like the sounds of “um,” “er,” or “like” in English. As the pronunciation is similar to the n-word in English, I have a trained anxiety to speak over my relatives whenever they slip into this habit in an English-speaking country. Without context, I know the possible consequences of using the word. However, Professor Patton’s context of teaching Chinese filler words during a communications lecture at USC failed to adequately resolve the issue and he lost his job.
This isn’t the first time the use of “那个” was misconstrued in America. In 2016, two men came to blows over a GuangZhou man’s use of the words. It is a common communicative error that remains unresolved in the US. Nevertheless, each time the issue appears in the media, I see continuous streams of comments from well-meaning, ignorant (at least I would argue) viewers asking why Chinese people simply don’t use the word. They “respectfully” request Chinese immigrants to stop using their language, a language that has been developed over the course of 5,000 years. Yet we are unable to question why English speakers can’t “kindly” break all their habits of constant “y’knows” or “uhs.” That would be a ridiculous request to make.
Without our language, we are effectively silenced. The voices of the Asian-American community are not only being suppressed, but it is done so under the guise of “privilege.” In November of 2020, the North Thurston Public School district in Washington separated Asian-American students from other students of color in their performance report. Not only were Asian-American students not listed with students of color, but they were grouped into a category with white students. The identity of Asian-American students are manipulated on the whims of a school district’s goals. Similar to the model-minority stereotype, Asian-Americans are consistently isolated and oppressed from the rest of Americans. Our language and our culture are effectively weapons to be used against us.
This past year I began the journey of reclaiming my pride as an Asian-American. As frightful as 2020 has been, it began with a hopeful charge. Early in 2020, the film “Parasite” drew massive attention as the first non-English film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards. After 92 years, it had finally happened. As a film enthusiast, I had talked about “Parasite” with my father months before the awards, despite little hope for its deserved recognition in the U.S. As a child that dreamed of becoming a film director, I had already resigned myself to the exclusive success of English-only films for over a decade.
So obviously my emotional eruption when I saw director Bong Joon-ho stand on the stage of the Academy Awards and deliver his acceptance speech in Korean resulted in an enormous mess of tears, tissues, and snot. I am well aware that Korean and Chinese are two very different languages from two very different countries and cultures, but I had never felt that kind of pride before. The pride of looking at someone with the success I had always dreamed of for doing something I had never dared to do. Someone, who despite our different countries of origin, at least looked a little bit more like me.
The fight for linguistic equality is still ongoing. As an ARMY (BTS fan) myself, I was overwhelmingly enthusiastic and happy this year when the K-pop group BTS earned their first Grammy nomination. Still, I could not help the hint of disappointment and resignation when learning that it was awarded for their first (and only) English single, “Dynamite.” As catchy and impressive each of their performances of “Dynamite” are, the complexities of their majority-Korean songs this year such as “Black Swan” and “ON” have been ignored in American media due to the language barrier. No matter how many translation videos are put onto the internet, the easy excuse of non-English lyrics is thrown as a figurative glass ceiling.
By limiting success in the media and discriminating based on language, the U.S. has essentially stripped minorities of their identities and limited the condoned diversity of our country. From our daily lives to popular culture, Asian-Americans are continuously separated from both white Americans and other BIPOC Americans at our own expense. We cannot speak up in our own languages without increased threats of discrimination and the violation of our livelihoods. Speaking English without an accent is the only way to be rewarded. We are both literally and figuratively silenced from an artificial superiority of English. However, just as the eventual successes of “Parasite” and BTS have come with 2020, I choose to remain optimistic about the future. Through increasing awareness and education, split-second discrimination against Asian-Americans can decrease. As enormous as it is, judgemental ignorance can be defeated with time and effort. The world does not revolve around English. It is a conglomerate of diverse cultures, people, and languages. It is time that we grow to celebrate that. | https://medium.com/@crimsoncardinal/broken-english-c56615023034 | ['The Crimson Cardinal - Midwest Jsa Publication'] | 2020-12-26 17:32:40.859000+00:00 | ['Reflections', 'American', 'Diversity'] |
I had a pregnancy loss. This is my story. | Long read. TW: Pregnancy Loss. Ectopic Pregnancy. Grief.
I had a pregnancy loss. It was (is) one of the most painful experiences of my life — physically and emotionally. And as hard as it is, I want to share this experience with everyone, because a. the journey to parenthood is not always sunshine and roses — it is bloody hard, b. I know I am not alone in this, I know many, many women suffer through this and c. there shouldn’t be any shame and stigma around this — everyone needs to know about what women, their bodies and their minds go through.
Chin and I had been trying to get pregnant for over a year. Initially, it was very exciting, everyone around us kept telling us how they tried once and got pregnant, or didn’t try at all. We thought, we’ll be as lucky. We weren’t. Month after month, my period came, and disappointment increased. In April 2020, I got tests done, and turns out, my eggs are weak. Can you imagine my anger? I was 34, still young in my opinion, and have old eggs?! What the heck?! So my doctor put me on medications to strengthen my eggs. Yet, three months later, no luck.
We went back to the doctor, and this time, in August, she ordered an HSG test, to check if my fallopian tubes were in order. This is a painful test. They give you injections beforehand (one of which blurred my vision entirely for a few hours), and then insert dye into the uterus via the vagina. They then take an X-ray — if the tubes are fine, the dye just flows through the tubes into your uterine cavity. However, if your tubes are blocked, the dye doesn’t pass through, and the pressure it creates inside your uterus is very painful. As luck (or the lack of it) would have it, not one, but both my fallopian tubes were blocked. This meant, that the sperm doesn’t reach the egg so obviously, you can’t get pregnant.
I had two options, drink turmeric and ginger teas and apply castor oil packs and other natural remedies, which by the way work for many women, or go in for a laparoscopic surgery to unblock the tubes. We discussed, thought about it, and while I was drinking my ginger and turmeric teas, we also decided that I’ll have the surgery. I had the surgery on Oct 3, and it took me about 10 days to recover full strength. The doctor said all went well, and now we truly had a fair shot at getting pregnant.
Come December, and nothing had happened. We went back to the doctor, and she recommended we go in for a couple of rounds of IUI. IUI, or intrauterine insemination, is when they artificially inject treated semen inside your uterus with the help of a catheter, to reduce sperm’s travel distance and give it the best shot at fertilizing the egg. We decided to go ahead with it. This meant more injections — to make sure my eggs were plump, healthy and numerous, and then to make sure I ovulate on time. At the clinic, I checked the vial with Chin’s sample at least 6 times to make sure I am not impregnated by someone else’s sperm (the paranoia is real when you’ve watched too many movies — remember The Switch, or Good Newzz?)
Anyway, the procedure happened, and the doctor was quite hopeful. I was put on additional medication (progesterone, to support a pregnancy if it has happened), and had to take two more injections. I was supposed to go about my life as usual, and to avoid breaking my head for two weeks, I decided to go to Gurgaon to meet my sister and family and friends. First travel since Feb, best three weeks ever. I ate (A LOT), drank, met my loved ones, slept and basically chilled max.
On January 8 2021, I took a test. I almost didn’t want to take a test because I was so so scared that it would come negative. Chin was in Gurgaon for the weekend, and I woke up at 6 am in proper Delhi winter to go pee on a stick. If someone had checked my pulse then, I am sure it would have been 100 plus. Anyway, I peed on the stick, and as two lines appeared, I stared at it in disbelief. I was pregnant. WHAT?! This can’t be real. I was convinced this was a false positive, possibly because of the HCG injection I had taken on Dec 26. I whatsapped my doctor. She asked me to get a Beta-HCG test to confirm. Early morning hugs and kisses with husband, sister and brother in law, followed by a call to my parents. Got a beta HCG test and it was amazing and the pregnancy was confirmed. We were all elated, but of course, decided to keep it under wraps for the first trimester. The only other person I told was my best friend.
The following week, I didn’t even know what I was feeling. It was surreal. I wanted to tell the world — but decided to wait till I got my first scan. I came back to Bangalore on January 13, and while I was scheduled to see the doctor on the 16th, impatience took the better of me, and we went to see her on the 14th itself. She congratulated me, and then proceeded with a scan. The scan went on for a while, because she couldn’t find anything in my uterus. And then she turned the scope left. And there it was. An embryo in my left fallopian tube. Small, but there.
I had what is called an ectopic pregnancy, or a tubal pregnancy. This is when the embryo attaches itself to the fallopian tube, instead of coming down and implanting in the uterus. Ectopic pregnancies are rare (between .2% to 2% of all pregnancies), and life threatening to women. An embryo cannot survive in a tube, and because these are not usually detected this early, they keep growing till the tube ruptures and women collapse in pain and bleeding and have to be taken for emergency surgeries to get the tube removed, and sometimes the entire uterus. In India 3.5% to 7% maternal deaths happen because of ectopic pregnancies.
As the doctor delivered us this news, I was numb. I didn’t know what to feel. There was no way they could transfer the embryo into the uterus (I checked, apparently medical science is advanced enough to make babies in test tubes but not enough to transfer embryos from one part of the female reproductive system to another), and I had to terminate it if I wanted to live. I would either have to go through what’s called medical management, or surgery. Chin and I drove home in complete silence. I didn’t cry, or say a word. I didn’t know, WE didn’t how to process any of this. In one week, everything changed.
My ectopic pregnancy was detected very early, which meant I didn’t need surgery, and I could go for medical management of an ectopic pregnancy. In this, they give you one (in my case, 3) doses (injections) of a drug called Methotrexate, which is essentially a chemotherapy drug. The drug works by attacking and arresting growth of the embryo, which eventually dissolves into your bloodstream in about 3–4 weeks. The injections have side effects — extreme fatigue, site pain and nausea among others. I took my first injection on Jan 15th, and I was told to go to the ER in case I felt extreme pain (that is usually a sign of rupture.)
On 16th morning, I woke up with severe, debilitating pain on the left side of my uterus. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t walk, and couldn’t sit. Chin drove me to the hospital immediately, and I was hospitalized. There wasn’t any rupture, but turns out the drug attacking the embryo causes extreme pain. I was given intravenous painkillers, enough to make the pain bearable, but not for it to go away completely, because painkillers mask symptoms of a rupture. I was kept in the hospital for 36 hours under observation, and I came back home on 18th evening.
Let’s talk about the physical pain. I had to take three Methotrexate injections on alternate days (and 3 other injections to reduce side effects on the other days, so 6 injections in all) and following each, I was in severe, crippling pain. I couldn’t sit. I couldn’t even walk to the loo without help. For a week, I was practically bedridden. Even now, I am easily exhausted (kept clothes in the shelf and needed to lie down), my liver enzyme levels are shot (side effect), and keep getting intense cramps. I have to get Beta HCG tests done every 2 days to make sure the levels are going down — these are blood tests so I have a needle stuck inside me pretty much every other day. It’s a slow process — imagine being pregnant but not really, imagine having an embryo inside you but not really, imagine knowing what could have been your child is dead inside, but not gone entirely.
I don’t even know how to begin talking about the emotional pain. For my family, including my husband, there’s pain, but there’s relief because I am safe, because it was caught early. I am glad too for not being dead. But how do I describe this pain of losing what could have been my child? I have been so angry. So bloody angry at the unfairness of it all. Why is this happening to me? How will I ever feel normal again? How could I be given something I have wanted so badly, only to be taken away so cruelly? At times, I am completely fine. I think, ok, onwards and upwards. All will be well. Most times though, I am a ball of tears, snot, and mess. I can’t look at pregnant women. I can’t look at infants. I went to the supermarket yesterday and I broke down at the sight of baby food. My grief is bigger than any other emotion I have ever experienced. I am crying as I am writing this, because I don’t know how else to cope.
I have to say though, I am just so incredibly lucky to have the best family ever — my parents flew down to be with me and it has been a huge support, I speak to my sister every day, and Chin holds my hand and puts his arms around me every time he sees me sulk or cry. I texted my close friends and let them know, my parents told the family. I also have an incredibly amazing doctor — empathetic, non-judgemental, practical and patient.
I have a long, long road to emotional recovery, and I don’t know if I will ever be ok. I can’t even think of getting pregnant again right now (not that I can — Methotrexate stays in the body for 3 months and is harmful to any fetus thus formed during that time.) I have never felt so angry, so helpless, so bloody sad ever in my entire life.
I think the last thing I want to say to everyone out there — STOP ASKING WOMEN AROUND YOU WHEN THEY ARE GIVING YOU “GOOD NEWS.” It is cruel and invasive and hurtful, and NONE OF YOUR BLOODY BUSINESS. The journey to motherhood is really hard for many, many women out there — physically and emotionally. Imagine having to manage home and perform well at work while going through everything I have gone through in the past year — through medicines and needles and surgeries. It is not easy. And you asking me about good news only makes things worse. I had good news, till it wasn’t good news anymore.
To all women who are going through difficult fertility, pregnancy and loss journeys, you are not alone. I know it feels like that, hell, it feels like that to me right now, but I am hoping youwill get through this. I will too, fingers crossed. | https://medium.com/@padhee-anisha/i-had-a-pregnancy-loss-this-is-my-story-1f4bcb4260c8 | ['Anisha Padhee'] | 2021-01-25 08:35:58.458000+00:00 | ['Grief', 'Pregnancy Loss', 'Ectopic Pregnancy', 'Fertility', 'Grief And Loss'] |
LeBron James and the Hustle Bustle of 2020 | LeBron James and the Hustle Bustle of 2020
Celebrating 36 years of basketball greatness in a form of a kid from Akron.
Artwork by Pradipta Alessandro.
More than three decades ago, LeBron James was born from the womb of a 16-year-old mom with no father figure in his life. No one knew what the future holds for him. Yet, since joining the NBA in 2003, James believes his talent will not just make an impact on the court but also off it. He felt he could carry it throughout the boundaries. 2020 itself is a tumultuous year for the United States. Besides dealing with COVID-19, American citizens like James must face at least two big agendas, the protests for equality and the presidential election.
That cacophony pushed James to become something more than just an athlete, proving the belief that had been in his mind for a long time. He realized he could be contributing for the benefit of society. One of the examples was establishing the non-profit movement More Than a Vote alongside fellow black athletes and artists. More Than a Vote activities were focusing on inviting more people to be involved in the election. For example, by encouraging sports arenas to become a safe voting site. More Than a Vote wanted those places to accommodate large numbers of people while exercising the social distancing protocol asCOVID-19 is still a problem for most countries around the world, including the United States.
More Than a Vote itself began from a virtual meeting in response to the Black Lives Matter movement which reverberated back in May 2020, after the death of a black man named George Floyd in the hands of police officers. Sean Gregory from TIME reported that James attended the meeting from his home in Los Angeles, Calif., on June 8. He even moderated the meeting so the conversations attended by more than 20 celebrities could go smoothly. James wanted the momentum that occurred last May to not stop. He hoped people like him can come up with ideas to push society to take more actions against racial injustice and create systemic change at the same time. James stated he was ready to open up the way. “That was my initial actions”, James told TIME in late November, “to let people know what my mission was, what my passion was, and how we were going to deliver.”
On June 23, James and his associates officially launched More Than a Vote. Half a month later, several groups joined in as members of the movement, some of them being active and former NBA players. Ben Simmons, Damian Lillard, Draymond Green, Jalen Rose, Jaylen Brown, Kendrick Perkins, Kyle Lowry, Ray Allen, Trae Young, and Udonis Haslem were some who became part of the movement. James utilized multiple platforms to promote More Than a Vote to his millions of followers. He even looked like a walking billboard when wearing a Vote or Die! shirt, which was part of the More Than a Vote campaign, during practice. James understood the media’s attraction to him and used it as a platform to bring the issue he was raising to become national attention. “We didn’t tell you who to go vote for. We didn’t pick one side versus the other side.” Said James as quoted by USA Today. “We just wanted to educate you, enlighten you, and empower you. And let you know how important your right is.”
More Than a Vote, in collaboration with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, then successfully recruited more than 40,000 people to keep an eye on the general election. They managed the queues and opened access to the election locations. More Than a Vote also recruited young generations to replace older people who are at more risk to be infected by COVID-19. More Than a Vote’s efforts were ultimately worth it. Several media outlets stated that voters growth in 2020 will break the US general election record. Michael Donald, a political observer who was involved in the US election and a lecturer at the University of Florida, had even predicted the growth. Eyewitnesses also witnessed long lines at election venues. Ballot papers were arriving from all over.
***
For his efforts to create change, Lebron James was given at least two awards in 2020. TIME rewarded him as Athlete of the Year, while Sports Illustrated named him as Sportsman of the Year. Those awards added more to an already highly decorated cabinet of achievements. James again reminded many people that he could never just “shut up and dribble”, as once asked by Laura Ingraham, a conservative television host at Fox News because the player nicknamed the King knows his big name can be useful for many people. He understands very well that his voice had value. It’s not enough to just focus on his basketball career. He has to keep speaking.
For a long time, James indeed often expressed opinions and was involved in activities off the court. For example, by opening the I Promise School in 2018. The school has helped families in Akron, Ohio, get their children to access better education while offering free transportation, lunch, uniforms, and bicycles. In July 2020, James continued his efforts to help those families by launching I Promise Village. He built a residence so they could have a place to live in. Michelle Campbell, executive director of the LeBron James Family Foundation, explained that the foundation has an interconnected program to help families in the United States. “It’s more than just taking the kids to school. It’s about keeping them alive. We see families struggling every day with very real and often unexpected problems that turn their worlds upside down. This will give the family time and opportunity to grow without worrying about them being homeless,” said Campbell in an official statement on the homepage of the LeBron James Family Foundation website.
James’ efforts seemed easy at first glance, considering his name and nearly $ 40 million per year salary from the Los Angeles Lakers. Not to mention his collaborations with big brands. Forbes put him on the list of the richest athletes in the world. However, it’s still such a challenge for him to help people.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, an NBA legend and previous Sportsperson of the Year winner agreed with that. He felt that a successful athlete is not always able to do everything easily, especially with regard to matters which are relatively sensitive. Abdul-Jabbar gave an example of several athletes who experienced difficulties, such as Muhammad Ali who lost his boxing title and license was in prison for refusing to fight in the Vietnam War and later, an outspoken objector to the military campaign. Also Colin Kaepernick, who drew controversy after kneeling while the national anthem was played before his NFL game. Abdul-Jabbar knew those who made bold statements could end up trapped in an uncomfortable life. “Success gave LeBron the opportunity to speak out, but it was his own courage that made him seize that opportunity, knowing that discussion hot-button issues like systemic racism and police brutality risked his life and the lives of his family,” said Abdul-Jabbar in his tribute to James, as quoted by Sports Illustrated. | https://medium.com/the-amateurs/lebron-james-and-the-hustle-bustle-of-2020-28ca11961475 | ['The Amateurs.'] | 2020-12-30 02:12:17.142000+00:00 | ['Basketball', 'Lakers', 'Opinion', 'NBA', 'LeBron James'] |
Top 10 Freelancing Content Writer Websites | Working from the blissful, soothing environs of your own home is a dream for many. Though it is hard to get a high paying freelancing jobs easily, there are chances, if you are sincere and committed, that you will get one that meets your needs. Who won’t like sitting in the confines of your home, sipping cool coffee and making thousands of dollars every month?
Content writing is a field that has been growing exponentially. Almost every company needs a content writer. If you are adept at the tactics of SEO and could write articles, blogs, SEO content, grants, white papers etc. chances are high that you will land up on the right job.
But finding the right website is the key. We are living in a complicated world, where sometimes scams can hamper our upward strides. So be careful and cautious, and select the best websites where you can enjoy the much-needed freedom and will not get nagging, grumpy clients.
This article will speak about 10 websites that will guarantee success if you are that much into them.
Let us begin.
Founded as Odesk, by an MIT graduate and a Wall Street veteran, in 1998, Upwork has seen exponential growth through the years. Now it is a global platform for creatives all over the world, where they can select various niches. This is an example of one of the best-paying websites for freelancing writers.
Positives of Upwork-:
1. Chances of finding high paying gigs, only if you have the necessary patience and perseverance
2. If you are a recruiter, finding the best freelancer can always be the bane. On Upwork, you can describe your project, and connect with the best talent. They have an improvised AI Technology, which makes this possible, in connecting and scouring the best talent. Also, the payments are very much secure, which minimizes the fears.
3. An important feature of Upwork is its Projects are thoroughly reviewed. You do not have to worry about authenticity. They have professionals to do that.
4. They have people with relevant expertise in the fields who can recruit the right people for your project if you are a recruiter. They will also connect freelancers, according to their skillsets, with the right kind of recruiters.
5. You can work anywhere you want and this is one of the biggest plus points of Upwork. You can sit in your home, in your own comfort, and enjoy the job.
6. You will get hired almost immediately, which makes Upwork very much different from other freelancing websites. If you can convince the client, you can pretty easily establish a strong client- freelancer relationship.
Some Cons -:
1. It can be extremely difficult to find your first client. But once you find them, things can be better.
2. Upwork charges a hefty fee from you in return for the projects they give.
Despite the cons, Upwork remains one of the top freelance websites today. Trust me, with the right strategy, you can make truckloads of money.
You can start by setting your hourly rate and updating your profile. It is sure that if you have the right skill sets, you will enjoy the experience.
Fiverr, started in 2010, is renowned as one of the biggest marketplaces for freelancers. This can be described as one of the best paying websites for freelance writers. On Fiverr, you can offer or sell your capabilities directly. By listing your gigs, you can easily sell. You can work on particularly everything under the sun, from SEO content writing to grant writing.
Your gig’s success depends upon the correct optimization you do on it. This is why you have to do a bit of SEO there. The main constraint the freelancers face here is that the pay is a bit less. Let us check some of the pros and cons of Fiverr.
Pros-:
1. To the buyers, Fiverr might seem like an affordable market place. That is a boon for them, as works could be done skillfully by paying an affordable fee.
2. There are large amounts of freelancers, with many of them offering High-quality services. This is also a good sign for the buyers, as quality matters a lot.
3. Fiverr has a good team of customer service, who will solve your issues efficiently.
4. This interface is mostly easy to use.
5. To the freelancers, this would seem like they have enough opportunities floating there, in various, diverse fields, which can be motivating.
6. Fiverr also offers negative reviews of the freelancers, so that the buyers can select them wisely.
7. Fiverr scrutinizes each of the freelancers to an extent, so there are fewer scammers.
Now, let us look at some of its Cons as well-:
1. Deadlines are more, as many of the sellers take many projects at a time. This would amount to lots of work stress as well.
2. This platform is not much beginner-friendly, as it was before. To a beginner, the whole website would appear very confusing. Thankfully, we have lots of DIY tutorials on the internet.
3. You cannot depend upon Fiverr all the time to make constant money if that is your intention. It’s better to try at other websites as well, and for this, you would need good planning.
Irrespective of the cons, this website enjoys immense popularity, and if you would like to have a sneak peek, let’s try it.
Contena can be described as a job board, which offers a bunch of opportunities for freelancers. One of the most impressive thing about this website is its higher pay scale. Designed mostly for freelancers who are in to writing, this is one of the best paying websites for freelance writers. Launched in 2017, within three years it has created ripples all over the freelancing world. They have a considerably huge database of companies for whom you can work remotely, thus increasing your chances. They also have certain filters in place, so that you can find your dream job with ease. The only thing you must keep in mind is that you have to meet their requirements.
They offer a sheer variety of jobs, which can be exciting for a budding freelancer. Some of the most popular categories on Contena are-:
1. Finance
2. Entertainment
3. Education
4. Technology
5. Health etc.
If you are a good writer with impeccable grammar, chances are that you will land upon a good job. They also guide you towards the horizons of freelancing.
Let us check some of the pros of Contena now-:
Pros-:
1. If you believe in your capabilities and can convince your client(s), you will get paid a decent amount of money.
2. They offer a variety of jobs to choose from
3. They will train the beginning freelancers, which could help you in understanding the nuances of freelancing.
4. They have a mediation system in place as well, if disputes exist between the client and the employer.
5. Advanced Customer Service system is in place
There are some Cons too which are-:
1. No one can guarantee you will get your dream job. You have to struggle a bit to land upon a well- paying gig.
2. The membership fee is quite high.
So, despite the cons, this website is worth a try. Mix your creativity with innovation and expand your horizons. This is one of the best websites for freelance writing if you have passion.
A behemoth in the freelancing world, spreading its wings all over the world, freelancer offers a wide range of opportunities. Launched in 2009, it is catering to different kinds of customers. This Australian website, one of the best websites for freelance writing, can put a smile on your face as there are enough opportunities for you to choose from. Some of the pros include-:
1. Mostly easy to navigate. The website is designed in that way.
2. Beginner-friendly
3. They have made it possible that the mutual interaction between the client and the freelancer is smooth.
4. They support multiple money withdrawal options, like PayPal and others. Payments will be secure.
5. It is mostly easy, if you are an employer, to find high-quality freelancers within a short time.
That means this is a great platform, to begin with. There are some cons too, which are-:
1. Like every freelancing website, Freelancer also has its own list of low-quality freelancers and projects. You have to wade through with caution to find the best.
2. Fees are high sometimes, making it difficult for freelancing scouts.
3. People have also complained about some technical issues.
Overall, this is a great website, to begin with. Study and read articles about this website, and then take the plunge.
Surely one of the major contenders for glory in the freelancing world, this British website has established itself as one of the best websites for freelance writing. Started in 2007, this is an online platform where freelancers from all over the world converge to get better payments. As the name suggests, the pay is calculated for hours. Their headquarters is in London.
Like every website, People per hour also have its pros and cons. Let’s check the pros first-:
1. The database is large and offers a variety
2. The freelancer can fix his/ her own rates
3. It is safer in the context of payments, as the money will come from the buyers to an escrow account
4. You can have both seller and buyer accounts, which is the core feature
5. They have an approval system in place so that only the worthy people will be able to access the system and enjoy the benefits
6. Excellent Customer support
7. Good rating is the key for freelancers, and the buyers will select them based on that.
Cons-:
1. Huge numbers of freelancers are there, so the competition is fierce
2. Getting approved doesn’t guarantee you jobs. For that, you have to strive hard.
3. It is seen that many freelancers are working for a small amount of money, which is detrimental to the quality of work.
Still, this is one of the best websites for freelancing writing. If you get a decent opening, chances are there that you will thrive.
Founded in 1998 in the United States, this a very popular online market place. It is also one of the best websites for freelance writing. If you are a freelancer with adequate knowledge of the industry and talent, you can easily make money from it.
Let us check some of the Pros first-:
1. Unlike many of the other freelancing websites, Guru takes only a small fee for payments done on its platform.
2. You can make payments through various channels, which makes the job easier for both buyers and the freelancers.
3. You can feature your project on Guru for a small fee.
4. The hiring process is very simple
5. Very user friendly especially you are a beginner.
Now, some of the cons-:
1. Some of the users have said in forums that they wish the site was a bit more organized
2. They also spoke about the easy ways of inserting images
3. Jobs like writing and translation are a bit less compared to other niches
Still, this is an excellent platform if you like to take freelancing to the next level.
Started in 2010, as a platform for democratizing the investment process, this website offers a plethora of opportunities especially if you are a talented, creative freelancer. The headquarters is in the United States. Most of the companies listed on its jobs are startups, who will definitely hire high-quality freelancers. Let us check some of the Pros first-:
1. As mentioned earlier, this is a start-up based platform. The companies will be in an experimental mode, and chances are there that they will hire you if you meet their criteria.
2. They have a long successful track record
3. It is possible to have a better relationship with the leading men of the company which has hired you.
Cons-:
1. Working for startups is a bit risky and you have to accustom yourself with this environment
2. You have to do some real sifting to find the perfect job that suits you
3. It is noticed that some of the startups do not fill the necessary information, which would make you confused about whether to work for them.
Still, this is a wonderful platform, if you can find the startup that matches your skill sets.
Founded in 2003, this is designed as a business and employment-oriented online platform. This website is made in such a way that you can search for jobs and also interact with other people through posting content and commenting on other’s posts, thus fostering healthy professional relationships. As of today, there are almost 706 million active users on Linked In. It has been proved many times that people were able to find the perfect launchpad for their dream jobs. If you are freelancer with the much-needed writing skills, it is worth a try. People will notice you through your posts and you can thus develop a good relationship with other likeminded people. Also if you can use the groups wisely you can turn it into your favour.
If you can use a little bit of SEO, if you can properly optimize your profile, people will start noticing you. You can contact or receive messages from other people, which is also an amazing feature. You can follow a company or companies to get updates about the developments, which will keep you up-to-date.
Let us check some of the pros of this amazing platform-:
1. Firstly, this platform is like an ocean. There are lots and lots of jobs waiting for you, and you just need to sift through them. And you have to do this wisely.
2. As mentioned above, if you were able to create a bond with others on this platform, you can use it to your own advantage.
3. There is also a search tool, which will be beneficial for your job search
4. If you are starting a start-up or a business, you can create a page, and make it popular by safely optimizing it.
5. This can be defined as a nice place for networking.
Now some of the cons as well-:
1. Even linked in cannot guarantee a job. You have to scour thousands and thousands of job profiles to find yours.
2. Some people have complained that there is little engagement on LinkedIn. Many people do not log in for days, and this can be detrimental to the job search.
3. LinkedIn recruiting is a bit expensive.
4. The competition is huge, and you have to take your steps with caution.
Overall, if you can use this platform appropriately, you will find a great job.
This is an interesting option if you are into content writing. They have been in business in 2015. They are located in the United States. They have developed some interesting time tracking activities as well, useful for the freelancers. The most impressive thing about this site is that there is no membership fee and you can bid as much as you want. They have a secure payment system as well. Some of the areas that are popular on Golance are-:
1. Web Development
2. Graphic Design
3. Copywriting
4. Marketing etc
Some of the Pros-:
1. Efficient customer service
2. There is no limitation on bidding. You can bid as much as you want.
3. There are some fine jobs available, and you need patience and perseverance
4. You can set your own hourly rate
Some of the Cons-:
1. This is a lesser-known platform as compared to others. We can safely say it is still evolving.
2. No one can guarantee you that you will get a job fast, as like every freelancing website you need to filter.
This is the Indian alternative to the other global platforms. Here people can post jobs and find freelancers who are Content writers, Designers, Virtual assistants and Mobile app developers. As a relatively new website, this site gives you a lot of options.
Pros-:
1. Easy to create an account and access it
2. Very much beginner-friendly
Cons-:
1. Pretty much in the case of every freelance writing website, you have to find a reliable client after lots of scrutinizing. For this, you need to be patient.
Conclusion-:
Freelancing, when done on a full-time basis can be risky if you are not equipped with enough information. You must know the route you are taking and proceed with caution. Study the industry, do proper research and analysis, and then take the first step. If you are a freelancer who is not groping in the dark and is talented, you will find the dream job without much hassle. These ten websites are good options, to begin with, especially if you are a beginner. | https://medium.com/@rakeshdivakaran/top-10-freelancing-content-writer-websites-84e2521c6e08 | [] | 2020-12-26 16:20:45.404000+00:00 | ['Freelancing', 'Copywriting', 'Content Creation', 'Content Writing', 'SEO'] |
Stadia: A Quick Review | For being a YouTube Premium member, Google sent me their Stadia bundle for free, along with a month’s free trial to their Pro service.
Stadia is a cloud-based gaming platform. Instead of owning a physical console and plugging it in, you use your wifi to connect to the console. The console being a server somewhere in the world.
Home page of Stadia site.
It’s not a new concept, but it’s certainly innovative and intriguing. Google are the first big company to take a risk in trying this out. There are a lot of mixed reviews out there, so I’m glad that I’m able to give it a try myself. Here’s my quick, impartial review, to help you decide if Stadia is worth your investment.
The Goof Stuff
There’s an extremely premium feel to this product. The unboxing is a delight. The chargers and wires included feel expensive and well-made. The controller is weighty and comfortable to hold. It’s a truly well-made product that’s had a lot of thought and effort put into it.
The setting-up process is extremely easy but can be a bit a fiddly if it’s your first time using a Chromecast. But once everything is set up, it’s easy to just pick up and play.
Screenshot from Destiny 2.
I played mine on the living room TV. Although, Stadia supports a lot of phones and tablets, and almost any laptop or PC. All you need is a strong wifi connection.
The concept is not only clever but it works, and work well. When you play a game on Stadia, you really feel like you’re getting crisp graphics and exciting gameplay. I enjoyed playing popular titles like Destiny 2 and Sniper Elite 4, as well as arcade games like Bomberman and UNO.
The extremely low price is tempting to say the least. You can get the Stadia bundle for just £62.99. When you compare that to the cost of gaming console, it’s a no-brainer.
The Bad Stuff
Quite frankly, cloud gaming doesn’t cut the mustard. No matter how fast your internet is, or how advanced your tools are, it’ll never be quite as good as having a gaming console.
This was evident to me while using Stadia. There’s an ever so slight latency. As any gamer knows, reaction time is crucial; arguably the most important factor in gaming.
If you play games that don’t rely on this factor, cloud gaming is fine. The delay isn’t noticeable and this factor can be discarded. But if you’re playing fast online multiplayers, like Call of Duty, you’ll lose out.
Latency of PC and Stadia. Source: PC Gamer.
Though, Call of Duty isn’t actually available on Stadia, which brings on to my biggest dislike: lack of selection. There’s a small library of games, with only a handful of big titles. These include Red Dead Redemption 2, Assasin’s Creed, Far Cry, DOOM, Hitman and PUBG.
The vast majority of titles are small, indie, arcade or family-friendly games. These include Monopoly, UNO, Little Nightmares, Pac-Man and Just Dance.
Lastly, I don’t like how strict this service is about having a strong wifi-connection. I believe users should have the option to play using mobile data when they’re out and about, or to play in their bedroom, where the wifi may be weaker. This would, of course, come at the cost of lower graphics and frame rate, but I want to have that option.
The Cost
There are 3 things you need to buy before you can play Satdia: controller, Chromecast and a monitor.
You can use any controller you like, including an Xbox or Playstation one, but you have to have a Chromecast from Google.
The controller is £44.25, which is about the same as an Xbox One or PS4 controller. The Chromecast is £30.
Stadia bundle.
You can pay for a Pro subscription, but that’s completely optional. If you choose to stick with the free tier, you can game in 1080p and play on many platforms. This includes laptops, TVs (with the Chromecast), certain smartphones and certain tablets. However, if you do pay the £8.99, you get a bunch of free games and can stream in 4K HDR.
While I’m not a fan of the subscription business model, I think it’s the best option for this particular product. This is because consoles are so expensive these days. When you buy a PS4 or Xbox One, you’re paying a few hundred upfront. That’s quite a commitment. But with a monthly cost of just £8.99, you can stop your subscription at any point. If you want to take a break from gaming for a bit, you can simply cancel your direct debit, going back to it when the mood strikes.
If you do decide to buy more games for Stadia, it comes at a high price. But again, it’s about the same as Xbox One or PS4. For big game titles, you can expect to pay around £40, while bundles can go up to £80. For smaller titles, you’ll pay around £20. You can’t buy pre-owned versions of a game from a store or website. You’re restricted to only buying from Stadia.
Conclusion
My housemate and I have enjoyed playing on the Stadia, but the excitement quickly wore off. I sometimes play Bomberman if I’m waiting for the kettle to boil, or during my lunch break. It’s not at the point where it can replace your console.
It’s reminds me of the Nintendo Wii. It’s something to have in the living room, which any of the family can pick up and play. If Google can add bigger titles, Stadia will have more appeal to a wider market. But until then, I consider it to still be in its early stages.
Will this be yet another project Google bails on, or will they strive to make it a competitor? | https://medium.com/the-shadow/stadia-a-quick-review-a2ff2ebcde7f | ['Gareth Willey'] | 2020-12-12 13:05:37.563000+00:00 | ['Google', 'Stadia', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Gaming', 'Tech'] |
4 Must-Read Articles for Medium Authors by Medium Employees | Are There Secrets for Success on Medium?
I think what I like about those articles so much is that they unveil the behind-the-scenes process by the people in charge of the platform. They call the shots on what gets distributed on some level, even if indirectly, so it’s great to hear it straight from the horse’s mouth.
My main takeaways from those 4 articles are:
Headlines are that important
SEO drives traffic to your blog
Don’t write clickbait
I would share that in my personal experience on Medium, I’ve found these points to be mostly true.
That said, SEO isn’t necessarily great for earnings from the Medium Partner Program — those readers aren’t likely to be Medium members.
Plus, who can possibly argue against clickbait for online writing? I don’t want to see Medium to be a place full of BuzzFeed-style listicles either, but your title *has* to bait a click to get read.
That’s by definition, right? If someone doesn’t click on your headline, they don’t read you.
So there’s nothing wrong with using the best title you can come up with, even if it has a “huge curiosity gap” or whatever.
I mean, is this awesome piece by Sean Kernan clickbait or something “just so interesting I had to click and read it”?
I’d say clickbait is more a, “don’t get caught” typo of situation, but your headlines are really most important of all.
Intros are probably more important now than they used to be, if someone is scrolling down your profile page, but I think the homepage and emails still drive most of the traffic to Medium.
I turned off the email digest (shame!) but still use the homepage and sometimes the topics to find articles. Plus, I’ll occasionally check the app on my phone, which shows a curated selection of 5 articles.
On the phone app, all users will see of an article is your title & the featured image, so your headline better be good AF. | https://medium.com/derek-develops/4-must-read-articles-for-medium-authors-by-medium-employees-8e1c1c880921 | ['Dr. Derek Austin'] | 2020-12-23 18:32:20.070000+00:00 | ['Writers On Writing', 'Blogging', 'Writing Tips', 'Writing', 'Medium'] |
Bite me Pt.1 — How to take the leap and sort of set up a graphic design venture | Well, I guess this is it then. A venture that has begun quite well really (and currently still is for the time being) but no doubt will descend into madness and lots of ‘Why did I think this was a good idea?!’ statements.
Like the legend that is Dave Buonaguidi once said “If you are thinking about running a company or starting your own business… To get through it, you will have to be prepared to [among other things]: Piss off your partner/family/friends on a regular basis, do a lot of worrying everywhere, think about work everywhere, question your sanity often, start smoking again, drink vodka in the morning and travel down to south London to punch dogs up the arse”. (You can see the full post on his instagram @therealhackneydave)
With this being said I think I am fully prepared to experience these scenarios and more if it means I can have a crack at building something I can look back on when I’m old and stinky and say ‘Yeah that was alright, that’.
Let me start at the beginning. My name is Max Lilley. I’ve recently moved to a place called Lindridge in Worcestershire in the UK — look it up if you want, it’s in the middle of nowhere — to set up a graphic design agency because I had a little feeling I might not be completely shite at it.
This feeling was only made possible by my lifelong friends Remi and Dani Harris who are extremely talented in their own rights. Their business is called www.yardbirdarts.com. Look it up!
During an annual end of year visit to theirs in 2018 they mentioned that an apartment would be opening up on the countryside property they also live on and would I potentially be interested. Now my first thought was ‘No chance, I’ll need a job and I’m not sure about living all the way out in middle earth’ but thinking about how much it would cost (luckily a LOT less than any flat in any number of cities I’ve lived in) and the potential of not needing a job if I saved up enough cash over the next 12 months, swung me round.
This 12 month window would also afford me the luxury of doing the research and planning into how to get set up as a lone graphic design do-er. I’ll talk about a lot of what I’ve learnt in upcoming blog posts if anyone is bothered so stay locked!
Once pushing through the 12 months of saving and researching, I am finally here. As a side note, if anyone is thinking of doing the same thing and taking the leap into self-employment, I found the best way to save money was to:
1. Stick a chunk in an account as soon as I was paid.
2. Resist as hard as I could to not spend what was remaining on anything I didn’t need i.e clothes and other shit.
That’s it, it genuinely works. Even for someone like me who enjoys spending cash like he’s in the rock and roll hall of fame.
Now I’ve landed in the countryside, I am extremely lucky to live in such an amazing environment. There’s views in just about every other direction and going for walks to get some air is not a problem!
Check this monumental gaff out -
That’s about as far as I’ve got, but for now I’m looking forward to living and learning, serving my current clients as well as finding new client relationships and businesses I can help succeed with the power of good design.
This Purple Ronnie cartoon sums it all up pretty well -
Zen Dog by Purple Ronnie
If you’ve got this far, big ups for reading my initial grammatically incorrect ramblings, there will be additional nonsense to come. And I promise it will be mostly related to design and getting the business off the ground…mostly.
And If you would like to get in contact with me, I would genuinely love to talk about any goals you may have for you and your business or any other thing on your mind so please feel free to get in touch.
Much love!
Max
I also want to also say a huge thank you to Mr. Robin Salmon who’s generosity in letting me live within his property is extremely appreciated! | https://medium.com/@bite_max/bite-me-pt-1-how-to-take-the-leap-and-sort-of-set-up-a-graphic-design-venture-fa2c529f37c5 | ['Max Lilley'] | 2020-01-14 16:16:02.215000+00:00 | ['Graphic Design', 'Saving Money', 'Life Lessons', 'Self Employment', 'Design Process'] |
Best smart thermostat: Reviews and buying advice | The best smart thermostat will have an outsize impact not only how comfortable you are in your home, but also on your household budget. Heating and cooling your home accounts for nearly half of the average home’s utility bills, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
To save money on your holiday shopping, see our roundup of the best deals on TVs, soundbars, media streamers, and more.A programmable thermostat can help reduce those costs by turning your HVAC system on when you anticipate being home, and off when you don’t think you’ll need indoor climate control. A smart thermostat goes far beyond relying on a simple schedule. It will not only enable you to create more sophisticated schedules for every day of the week, and give you complete control over your HVAC system, even when you’re away from home. We continually test and evaluate smart thermostats and can help you find the right one for your home.
Updated December 4, 2020 to add our Wyze Thermostat review, which—by virtue of its stronger feature set and much lower price—ends the Google Nest Thermostat’s short reign as our top pick in the budget category.
[ Further reading: A smart home guide for beginners ]Best smart thermostat Ecobee SmartThermostat with voice control Read TechHive's reviewSee itEcobee tops itself before anyone else can: The Ecobee SmartThermostat with voice control is our number-one pick in this category.
Nest usually gets all the attention—and the company deserves credit for shaking up a once sleepy market—but Ecobee’s latest smart thermostat is the best you can buy today. The new model builds on the model that preceded it, which was itself very well executed. Many other smart thermostats rely on measuring a home’s temperature in just one spot: Where the thermostat is located. Trouble is, that spot is usually in a hallway or somewhere else that you never spend any time in. Ecobee lets you place multi-purpose sensors in various rooms in your home, so that the rooms you’re in are the ones that the thermostat instructs your HVAC system to heat or cool to keep you comfortable.
Runner-up Nest Learning Thermostat (3rd generation) Read TechHive's review$249.00MSRP $249.00See iton Google Play StoreThe Nest is still the best for users who don’t want to think about their thermostat, but it's no longer our top pick.
Don’t count Nest out of the thermostat game. The Google division has worked harder than anyone to build out a comprehensive smart home ecosystem with its own products—the Nest Cam security camera series and the Nest Protect smoke and carbon-monoxide detectors—as well as a wide array of third-party products: Everything from ceiling fans to lighting controls and even smart appliances. The recent addition of the Nest Temperature Sensor makes this device even smarter.
So why does it garner runner-up status here? Nest counts on your buying other Nest products to help determine when you’re home and away, for starters. And anyone investing—or planning to invest—in Apple’s up-and-coming HomeKit ecosystem should steer clear of Nest products.
Best budget smart thermostat Wyze Thermostat Read TechHive's review$49.99MSRP $49.99See iton Wyze LabsBy far the best budget-priced thermostat we’ve tested to date.
Wyze Labs is the market leader when it comes to offering inexpensive smart home products, and its new Wyze Thermostat is certainly no exception. It’s not the prettiest or most elegant device we’ve seen, but it offers more features and supports more types of HVAC systems than the Nest Thermostat, our runner-up in this category, and it costs just $50. If Wyze delivers on its promise to offer remote room sensors, it will be an even stronger value.
Runner-up Nest Thermostat Read TechHive's reviewSee itThe all-new and budget-priced Nest Thermostat is easy to recommend, but it would be an even better value if it supported Nest’s remote sensors.
It’s hard to beat the Nest team when it comes to attractive industrial design, and the Nest Thermostat is an elegant device if you don’t need to support more sophisticated HVAC systems or you don’t care that it doesn’t support remote sensors that can eliminate hot and cold spots in your home. But its $130 price tag is a significant premium for design.
Best smart thermostat for high-voltage heaters Mysa Smart Thermostat Read TechHive's reviewMSRP $129.00See itA stylish and high-tech choice for making dumb high-voltage heaters a whole lot smarter.
These types of thermostats are designed for baseboard, radiant, fan-forced convector, and similar types of heaters, as opposed to the more common central HVAC systems. As such, there are far fewer choices in this category. So far, the Mysa Smart Thermostat is our top pick, due to its elegant industrial design and its broad support for other smart home devices, including Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple HomeKit.
Best controller for a stand-alone air conditioner Sensibo Air $179.00MSRP $199.00See iton SensiboThe Sensibo Air’s killer feature is a remote sensor that detects motion as well as temperature and humidity, ensuring you get the most comfortable environment in the exact area of the room you’re occupying, and saving you money by turning your air conditioner off when you’re not in the room to need it.
If you don’t have a central HVAC system, or if your supplement one with one or more stand-alone air conditioners, the Sensibo Air will make those units smarter and more efficient. It’s expensive, but very much worth the cash.
Runner-up Cielo Breez Plus Read TechHive's reviewSee itWhile this isn’t the most attractive air-conditioner controller we’ve seen, it is the most versatile and the easiest to set up and use. It's also compatible with more air conditioner models than its competitors.
The Cielo Breez Plus doesn’t have the slick discrete room sensor that comes with the Sensibo Air, but it will still greatly improve the performance of your stand-alone air conditioner, and it’s less expensive than its more sophisticated competitor.
What to look for when shoppingC-wire requirement Most smart thermostats require more electrical power than a set of batteries can provide. Fortunately, they don’t require so much power than they need to be plugged into the wall. They rely instead on low-voltage power provided by your HVAC system. Many smart thermostats require the presence of a dedicated C (common) wire for this purpose, while others can siphon electricity from another source, typically the R (power) wire. But the latter practice is known to cause problems with some HVAC systems, including permanent damage. If you pull out your existing thermostat to install a smart model and find no C wire connected to it, look inside the wall to see if there’s one that hasn’t been connected. If there’s no C wire, our advice is to have one installed. Only a couple of the thermostats reviewed here require a C wire, but all the manufacturers highly recommend using one.
Ease of installation A thermostat shouldn’t be difficult to install, even if you’re only moderately handy. The manufacturer should provide comprehensive, yet easy-to-understand instructions with plenty of photographs or illustrations to guide you through the process. The thermostat itself should be clearly indicate which wires go where, and most companies provide labels that you can attach to the wires coming out of the wall as you disconnect and remove your old model. The wires themselves should be color coded, but a good practice is to photograph your old thermostat for reference before you take it down.
HoneywellGeofencing This feature uses the thermostat’s app and your smartphone’s GPS chip to establish a perimeter around your home. When you leave the perimeter, you presumably no longer need to heat and cool your home, or you can at least have the thermostat adjust the temperature so that it’s not running unnecessarily. When you cross the perimeter again as you come home, your HVAC system can kick into action so your house is comfortable when you walk in the door.
High-voltage heater support Most smart thermostats are designed to work with central HVAC systems. If your home is heated by high-voltage heaters (baseboard, radiant, and fan-forced convector, for example), you’ll need a thermostat that’s specifically designed to work with that type of heater.
Remote Access Remote access enables you to control your thermostat from afar, so that you can check in and adjust the temperature from wherever you have a connection to the internet.
Sensors Geofencing is great—provided everyone who lives in the home has a smartphone. Motion and proximity sensors offer an alternative means of determining if your home is occupied and therefor in need of climate control. The original Nest thermostat was often criticized for relying too much on its motion sensor. If no one walked past it often enough, it would decide that the house was empty and it would stop heating or cooling. Some smart thermostats can also tap into door and window sensors as well as the motion sensors for your home security system. And proximity sensors on the thermostat itself can trigger a thermostat’s display to turn on when you walk past it, making the screens a handy feature in their own right, even if for no other reason than providing a nighttime pathway light.
Samsung The best smart thermostats can be integrated into broader smart home systems, such as Samsung’s SmartThings.
Smart-home system integration Every smart thermostat comes with an app so you can control it with your smartphone or tablet, but the best models can also be integrated with other smart-home devices and broader smart-home systems. This can range from being able to adjust the temperature with a voice command via an Amazon Echo or Google Home digital assistant, to linking to your smoke detector so that your fan automatically turns off when fire is detected, preventing smoke from being circulated throughout your home. Other options to consider include IFTTT and Stringify support, Apple HomeKit compatibility, smart-vent connectivity, and tie-ins with home security systems.
System complexity Each of the thermostats we tested support multi-stage heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, as well as heat pump systems. If your home is divided into zones that are heated and cooled independently of each other, you’ll probably need one thermostat for each zone. A single app should be able to control multiple zones.
User interface Long gone are the days when a thermostat’s user interface consisted of numbers on a dial. The more sophisticated a device becomes, the more difficult it can be to learn to use. The last thing you want to be doing is staring at inscrutable hieroglyphics on the wall when all you really want is to be warmer or cooler. A smart thermostat should convey important information at a glance and should easily adapt to your specific needs.
How we test smart thermostatsWe install thermostats in a single-family home with a conventional HVAC system and use each one for a week or more to determine how effective it is at maintaining a comfortable environment. The home’s existing thermostat was wired with G, R, W, and Y wires. There was also a C wire in the wall that was connected to the furnace, but that had not been previously used.
While there is no regulated standard for color-coding HVAC wires, industry practice has the G wire connecting the thermostat to the fan. This wire is typically green. The R wire, typically red, is for power. Some systems have separate power wires for heating and cooling and are labeled RH and RC respectively. The typically white W wire is for auxiliary heat; i.e., a second source of heat. The Y wire, which is typically yellow, connects the thermostat to your air conditioner. Finally, the C or “common” wire is used to carry power and is typically blue (think cerulean if you need a mnemonic).
Our smart thermostat reviews Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details. | https://medium.com/@jeremy96869857/best-smart-thermostat-reviews-and-buying-advice-986a777ba20f | [] | 2020-12-17 00:13:38.871000+00:00 | ['Cutting', 'Music', 'Entertainment', 'Deals'] |
Adding a Scrollbar to a scrollable widget (Flutter Tutorials) | Want a simple way to add a scrollbar to any scrollable widget? ScrollBar makes that very easy to implement!
Watch the tutorial here!
For this tutorial we are going to start off with a ListView (please keep in mind you can use any scrollable widget) like this:
Now all you have to do is wrap the ListView in a ScrollBar widget and this will add a scroll bar to your lists:
That was pretty easy! However this basic implementation only gives us a scrollbar that is visible while scrolling. If we want it to be always visible then we pass the value true to the isAlwaysShown argument:
You will notice that just passing this argument will cause an error and that is because we are missing a ScrollController. Adding a ScrollController consists of a few steps:
- Creating a ScrollController variable
- Instantiating the controller in our initState method
- Disposing of the controller in our dispose method
- Linking the controller to the ScrollBar and the ListView
Here in the full code implementation you can see these implemented:
Great job! You are now a certified pro in using ScrollBars. If you like us enough go check out some of our other content! | https://medium.com/@dev.bros.official/adding-a-scrollbar-to-a-scrollable-widget-flutter-tutorials-ef9d57e3ba5e | ['Dev Bros'] | 2020-08-26 14:33:00.081000+00:00 | ['App Development', 'Scroll', 'UI', 'Flutter', 'Dart'] |
Junior vs. Senior vs. Staff Engineer | Career progression is an evergreen topic for software engineers because it directly impacts income. In this note, I am going to share my personal perspective on the differences between Junior(E3–4), Senior(E5), and Staff(E6) engineers.
Junior Engineer
At this level, engineers focus mostly on demonstrating the coding capability and get familiar with engineering practices.
On the technical side, this level’s engineer should be able to:
Understand codebase and drive assigned request to improve it, such as migrating it to modern frameworks and adding missing tests
Design well-organized code
Independently complete medium to large features
On the “People Skill” side, there are not many requirements. The most important thing to demonstrate the capability of accomplishing tasks with other disciplines(design, PM, analyst).
Img from levels.fyi
Senior Engineer
The senior engineer also called SDEIII at Amazon and L5 at Google. At this level, the engineer should establish him/herself as “an owner of a feature or system” with an expert end-to-end understanding of it.
On the technical side, a senior engineer should:
Be able to design, breakdown, and complete a project of a large scope with high-level productivity
Proactively find problems of existing system/product without guidance and offer solutions
Be able to lead a project with a small group of people, such as hosting weekly meetings, communicate with other partners in written forms
On the “People Skill” side,
Make contributions to improve the engineering team. For example, activities like interviewing, or mentoring
Be able to give on-point and actionable feedback to peers
Be able to build X-teams and XFN relationships which will facilitate ongoing projects
Staff Engineer
Usually, each engineering team will have 1–2 staff-level engineers, they are considered as the “Tech Lead”. He/she co-owns the success of the team with its engineering manager.
On the technical side, the biggest difference is a staff engineer is able to identify and solve a technical problem that few others can. Specifically:
Be able to implement the hardest part of a system/product
Be able to ship high-quality work with best practices, like proper testing, well-planned rollout, and monitoring
Be able to lead the effort of setting the direction for the team, like new season roadmapping
Be able to spot the biggest pain point of the system/product/org and propose solutions. A solution with a clear deliverable and milestones and could take multiple years to implement.
Most importantly, in addition to demonstrate the capability of leverage XFN’s colleagues(DS/design/PM/etc..). Staff Engineer also should be able to assess & validate their outputs.
On the “People Skill” side, a staff engineer should:
Be a strong communicator, in both oral and written form
Be able to leverage resources that are not assigned to the team
Be able to recruit and onboarding new team member, both junior and senior
Be able to influence org’s engineering culture, like adopt latest/best coding practice
In Short
Companies use levels because it provides structure. Although companies’ leveling systems could be slightly different, the basic idea will remain the same. You can develop your best strategy to advance your career by understanding it.
Next read: What does a Principal Engineer do? | https://blog.devgenius.io/junior-vs-senior-vs-staff-engineer-eaecea01440c | ['Bobi Pu'] | 2021-07-18 12:04:08.375000+00:00 | ['Facebook', 'Silicon Valley', 'Career Development'] |
Losing it in Illinois | O kay. I think I’m officially f*cked-up. (Notice how I used the asterisk so as not to hurt my chances of curation?)
I realize I’m not being very helpful here, but I’m going through a bit of a “thing,” and I hope my wonderful Medium friends can give me an assist, mainly by letting me know that I’m not the only one who is feeling shaky.
Yesterday, I was in “We can do this” mode. Today, I feel my brain spinning out of control. I wanted to take this one day at a time, but, the thought of our having to deal with the Cornovirus and its horrific fallout for months, is kicking my ass, emotionally and mentally.
Of course, the most impactful thing we can do is to stay home and stay well, but that is not without its own set of challenges. (Addendum: I just found out that we may be FORCED to stay home. They’re already doing this in San Francisco and the mayor of New York is “considering it.”)
As I wrote in my most recent story, this is a powerful community and given that, I know we can help one another through the storm. I’m going to need that help and, if you do, too, I implore you to speak up.
Admittedly, as I suffer from OCD and anxiety, I have to work harder to maintain my sanity. That’s not high drama, merely the truth. And I know many of you get this.
In a little while, I will get my ass out of this seat and exercise. And then, I will start cleaning our basement, a task that I committed to, yet haven’t started, weeks ago. Now’s my chance, right?
I’ve started a newsletter on Substack. Why? Who the hell knows. Just one more place to share my thoughts on a myriad of topics. When I figure out how to use the platform, I will link to my stories here in the unlikely event that someone will want to subscribe.
This latest endeavor might turn out to be a total bust, but it’s just one more distraction to keep me busy and engaged. And relatively sane. And hell knows, I have the time.
An aside: Who the hell is Ira Bowman and why do I keep getting Twitter alerts that he’s “live?” Am I supposed to give a damn?
So. “Strange Days,” indeed.
Oddly, I can’t say why I’m having such a tough time today, as opposed to yesterday. Perhaps it’s due to “information overload.”
That, or I’m definitely overdue for an orgasm.
Because I want to walk the walk and not wimp out on you people, I’m going to take a break here to see what I can do to calm myself down. I’ll come back and report what I think is working the best. | https://medium.com/rogues-gallery/losing-it-in-illinois-3a89a23d4316 | ['Sherry Mcguinn'] | 2020-03-17 20:19:19.710000+00:00 | ['Current Events', 'Mental Health', 'Community', 'Quarantine', 'Medium Writers'] |
What is ISO and how do I use it for my Photography? | BASIC PHOTOGRAPHY SERIES: EXPOSURE TRIANGLE PART III
What is ISO and how do I use it for my Photography? Frithjof Moritzen Follow Nov 23 · 10 min read
Make some noise!
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
If you are as old as I am and grew up in Germany (as I did), then you would come across something called DIN, which film manufacturer used to describe how light sensitive their films were. Other countries used ASA (American Standards Association) and other, now extinct, measurements for light sensitivity of films.
ISO is the common successor, and, who would have guessed that, is a single world-wide used standard for describing … well, what exactly? That’s what I am going to explore with you in this article. You will learn about
what does ISO stand for
what is ISO measuring?
what is the native ISO setting?
how do I use ISO in my photography?
where do I find the ISO settings
what is auto-ISO
find out how far you can go with high-ISO settings on your camera
ISO as part of the exposure triangle
That is a lot of stuff to cover, let’s dig right in! As this is an article for mostly beginners in photography, I will not cover the more advanced scenarios where your camera ISO settings play a role, e.g. in flash photography. Also note that for the sake of simplicity I’ll cover ISO used for digital cameras, not for film cameras. They are very similar, but not the same.
What does ISO stand for?
ISO is short for “International Organization for Standards”. That’s odd. Should be IOS, but for convenience you could see ISO as ‘International Standards Organisation). That fits better, so we stick with that.
Knowing what it stands for does not give us any sign about what that setting does, as the International Organization for Standards is publishing a LOT of other standards not even closely related to photography. So why did the camera manufacturers use ‘ISO’ as the term to describe this camera setting? It is not completely unrelated to what the ISO setting does.
ISO gives the camera manufactures a standardized way of measuring how sensitive a camera sensor is to the incoming light. That’s the simple way to describe what that ISO setting means for a camera. It is important that the camera manufacturers all use the same way to measure that, to make sure that a camera with the same settings of aperture, shutter speed and ISO setting, using the same focal length lens, sensor size and illuminated scene all produce the same ‘output’, e.g. a jpg image with the same brightness. Independent of camera models.
So what does an ISO setting of 100 or 200 mean? I think it is best to think about these numbers as a relative measurement of how light sensitive a sensor is set to. A setting of 200 means the sensor is now twice as sensitive to light as setting 100. It is a linear scale. 400 is double as sensitive as 200. 50 is half as sensitive as 100.
Lowest and highest ISO settings
Most cameras have the lowest ISO setting of 50, or 100. On the other end of the scale it can be a lot more diverse from one camera model to the next, and that has something to do with the side effects high ISO settings have. The side effect (spoiler alert: image noise) can make it impractical to use with very high settings, as the image quality is not usable anymore. Expensive cameras with a larger sensor might provide high ISO settings without degrading the image quality too much. Common highest ISO settings are 25600, but there are cameras which can be set to e.g. 3280000. Not sure how usable that is, my camera is not very good at high ISO settings in a low light setting, so I rarely use ISO 3200 or higher as that gets too noisy for my taste. But you have to test that with your camera. It also depends on how good you are with post-processing (getting rid of noise), and how tolerant you are about seeing noise in an image. Some people don’t bother, some are very sensitive (pun intended) to the higher sensitivity settings.
Native ISO setting
Each camera has a native ISO setting. Most often that is the lowest ISO setting, but not always. The native ISO setting is the setting where the voltage to the sensor is not increased to boost or reduce the sensitivity level, and that setting is the one with the least amount of image noise produced. Most cameras have a native ISO 100 setting.
How do I use ISO in my photography?
That is probably the only important thing to know. Knowing how the technology works might tickle your brain, but if you can’t translate that knowledge into your photography, then it does not help you much.
If we leave out all the technical details, we are interested in ISO settings because it offers another way to increase or decrease the brightness of the exposure. Besides the aperture (controls the brightness by increasing or decreasing the size of the hole in your lens) and the shutter speed (controls the brightness by setting how long the light from that hole can expose the sensor), the ISO setting gives us a third method to control the exposure. The benefit of having a third method is that you have another tool to avoid the pitfalls or side effects of the other two methods. An example:
Your image might be correctly exposed with an aperture of f/2.8 and 1/15s shutter speed, ISO at 100 . You decide that 1/15s is too slow for your subject, maybe it is something that moves and you want it frozen in your frame. So you want a faster shutter speed. What do you do? Well, you can let more light in by opening up the aperture, but wait, f/2.8 is already the maximum your lens can do! ISO to the rescue, you just crank up the ISO setting, and your shutter speed drops to a faster setting (if you are in aperture priority mode, having set f/2.8). Basically, you have now three tools to juggle in the air to keep your exposure correct, but each of these three balls has their own side effect. Changing Aperture changes the depth of field. Changing shutter speed changes the capture of movement. And changing ISO? Changes the amount of digital noise in your image. Juggling these three parameters of exposure is discussed in the exposure triangle. There will be a separate article to put a spotlight on that, as it might take a little longer to give it justice. For now it is enough to know that with the ISO setting you have a third tool to increase the brightness of your resulting image, but at the cost of having noisier images. There is always a trade-off in photography. If you are a person who finds it difficult to decide between options, then photography is the ideal training ground.
Where do I find the ISO settings?
Each camera manufacturer has its own way to place the controls for ISO. Some have a dedicated knob for that, but as real estate on the tiny camera bodies is precious, most cameras will have that as a setting you control by pressing a button, and then turning a general multi-function knob to increase or decrease the setting. Some have touch screens to set it, some have programmable function buttons which can be set to control ISO. This is just something you have to learn how it works with your own camera. Sorry, can’t help with that.
What is auto-ISO?
Auto-ISO is something your camera might have, or not. It means that it allows the camera to choose an ISO setting it believes is best for a specific scenario. They might hide it in some kind of program mode, where the camera chooses some settings for you. It might also be something you can select actively, e.g. you can tell the camera to have the freedom to select between ISO 100–800 as it finds fit, but not above that (to protect you from getting too noisy images). I tend to not use auto ISO, but try to keep ISO as low as possible, and juggle only between aperture and shutter speed. That is enough complexity for my simple brain. I most often increase ISO to get faster shutter speeds when I take images of something fast-moving (like birds), and the light is not enough to get the fast shutter speed I need. I get noisier images, and as a punishment I have to deal with that in post-processing. That leads to the next point.
Find out how far you can go with high-ISO settings on your camera
Before you select a higher ISO setting to increase the brightness, it would be good to know if the result is something you would consider as acceptable. Every camera is different with how well they can handle noise with higher ISO settings, so just test it. Put your camera on a tripod (or plant it on something stable to remove camera movement). Set your camera to aperture priority setting and set it to f/8. Does not matter too much, just leave it constant. The camera will then select a suitable shutter speed, but as the camera is on a tripod, you get sharp images regardless of shutter speed, and the depth of field is constant. Now start with the lowest ISO setting and take an image. Increase the ISO setting and take images until you reached the highest setting. Make sure you get a properly exposed image each time. If you started in a too bright environment, your camera might not select a short enough shutter speed to compensate, in that case just go somewhere dimly lit and repeat.
Back at your computer, load your raw files (I forgot to mention, set your camera to capture raw files) into your favorite image processor, and inspect the images at 100% magnification, to make sure that one pixel on the screen relates to one pixel of your sensor. When do you see noticeable image noise? ISO 400? 800? 1600? Even better? Just make a mental or written note about that. Now use your image processor to reduce the noise to something you find acceptable. Note down the ISO setting where you can still use post-processing noise reduction to get an acceptable result. These two ISO settings are now your guideline in what maximum settings you should normally not exceed. Let’s have a look at an example. These two are at the opposite sides of the range I can shoot with my camera, ISO 100 and ISO 25600: | https://medium.com/the-global-photo-club/what-is-iso-and-how-do-i-use-it-for-my-photography-f1682efd6a8b | ['Frithjof Moritzen'] | 2020-11-23 08:28:10.125000+00:00 | ['Post Processing', 'Photography', 'Exposure Triangle', 'Iso', 'Exposure'] |
Building an End to End Search Engine Chatbot for the website using Amazon Lex, Google Knowledge Graph, and CloudFront | Building an End to End Search Engine Chatbot for the website using Amazon Lex, Google Knowledge Graph, and CloudFront anuragbisht Follow Oct 1, 2020 · 8 min read
Image Courtesy: AWS
Chabot term was coined from the original term “ChatterBot” created back in 1994, the term itself says a machine that can do human conversations. Although it's interesting to learn about chatbot the actual power lies in solving actual business world use-cases where you can automate most of the manual labor done physically by human beings.
Imagine you interacting with a smart speaker today booking a flight or ordering food for you, nobody would have thought doing these things with the same convenience a decade back. Imagine the customer support today with automated chatbots handling customers with automated replies. How much time and money would it require humans doing the same work. That’s the power of conversation AI whether it’s a voice-based system or chat-based system.
Amazon provides a powerful service, Amazon Lex that can create conversation AI chatbot, now Amazon Lex uses the same conversational engine that powers Amazon Alexa (voice-based system).
Today we will create a Search Bot using Amazon Lex that can find information for us from the web and deploy it using web-based UI with web application hosted over AWS CloudFront.
Before we dive deep into building the conversation AI chatbot, let’s first understand the important terminologies used in conversation AI space.
Important terminologies:
Intent: Action user wants to perform. Eg Booking a flight, we call this as Book-flight intent. Utterance: To act on that intent, what all ways can the conversation take place by the user, eg. I would like to book a flight, can you help me with flight booking, etc. Slot: These are the parameters in any conversation when the user is uttering to perform the intent. Eg. Book a flight at 10 am between New York and Paris. Here we have 3 slots: time, source, and destination. Slot types: Each slot needs to have a data type, eg 10 am is the date, source and destination are cities. Score Card: Response card generated by Bot with information in card UI format with buttons at the bottom. The card provides a context in a visual format using images. Eg. Query on the products ordered returns a photo of the product. Knowledge Graph: This terminology is not specific to chatbots but is more close to entity-relationship modeling which involves the collection or network of interconnected entities. Cloud Formation: Not specific to conversational AI, but this AWS service allows the creation of the whole infrastructure as a code (eg web application) that can be deployed anywhere in minutes. CloudFront: Don’t confuse it with cloud formation, it’s a content delivery network service that caches the static data(images, videos, or pages) at the edge location nearest to the user making the applications load fast.
We will follow the following steps to create an end to end solution.
We will start by building our chatbot blueprint. Then we will set up the knowledge graph service Add the AWS lambda function to fulfill the response Deploying website using Cloudformation stack for Bot UI
Let’s start with the first step:
Building the chatbot blueprint:
If you are new to AWS, then you can register for an AWS account, otherwise, AWS users can search for Amazon Lex under Machine Learning services within the AWS console.
screenshot1
You can either choose predefined templates, but for our use case, we will create a custom bot.
Screenshot2
For other information, I have kept them as default.
screenshot3
The first step is to create an intent for specific actions users can perform. In this case, we will create WelcomeIntent for greeting users.
screenshot4
Now we will note all the possible utterances that user can ask to call this intent (greeting in our case)
screenshot5
Once you have recorded all the utterances, you will add the responses that you want your chatbot to give using the response option:
screenshot6
Let’s test the chatbot’s first intent. For this, you have to build the bot and use the test bot section.
screenshot7
Now we have a simple bot base ready, let’s go one step further adding new intent: SearchCountry. This intent allows the users to ask the chatbot to search for information about the country.
2. Setup Google Knowledge Graph service:
Now we also need a search engine that can search for information about countries for us. We will use the Google Knowledge Graph API service.
For this google has put up a well-documented section on how to start with google knowledge graph search API service.
Essentially we will obtain an API key to use the knowledge graph service API and use any programming language to send the HTTP requests with query string parameters(the same mechanism works when to search for anything on google search, observer the address URL bar).
screenshot8: courtesy google
3. Add the AWS lambda function to fulfill the response
Once we have access to the service, we will add a new intent and link that intent with the google service.
For this, we will create a new intent for user search action: SearchQuery
screenshot9
Now we have to identify slot(entity) in the user query, in this case, the intent is about searching the country information, hence we can conclude that country is one of the slots. We will add a slot named country and select the type as AMAZON.country.
screenshot10
Now we will add utterances but this time we will replace the actual query word with the slot placeholder, the country in our case.
screenshot11
So far we have created a mechanism to capture country value, but how will we return the search results. For that, we will use the AWS lambda function to get the relevant information by calling the knowledge graph API service.
We will head over to the search console and under computing services, we will select AWS lambda.
screenshot12
We will create a new AWS Lambda function using the create function button at the top right.
screenshot13
From the predefined templates, let's select one template programmed in python as shown below:
screenshot14
Next, we will fill the relevant information to create our function
screenshot15
Once the function is created, let's add the following code and comment existing function definition.
def search_query(intent_request):
query = get_slots(intent_request)[“Country”]
params = {
‘query’: query,
‘limit’: 10,
‘indent’: True,
‘key’: api_key,
}
# url = service_url + ‘?’ + urllib.parse.urlencode(params)
# response = json.loads(urllib.request.urlopen(url).read())
# response=json.loads(requests.get(url))
url = service_url
response=json.loads(requests.get(url,params=params).content)
try:
information=response[‘itemListElement’][0][‘result’][‘detailedDescription’][‘articleBody’] except:
information=’Sorry could not find what you are looking for.’
return close(intent_request[‘sessionAttributes’],
‘Fulfilled’,
{‘contentType’: ‘PlainText’,
‘content’: information}) def dispatch(intent_request):
“””
Called when the user specifies an intent for this bot.
“”” logger.debug(‘dispatch userId={}, intentName={}’.format(intent_request[‘userId’], intent_request[‘currentIntent’][‘name’])) intent_name = intent_request[‘currentIntent’][‘name’] # Dispatch to your bot’s intent handlers
if intent_name == ‘SearchQuery’:
return search_query(intent_request) raise Exception(‘Intent with name ‘ + intent_name + ‘ not supported’) “”” — — Main handler — — “”” def lambda_handler(event, context):
“””
Route the incoming request based on intent.
The JSON body of the request is provided in the event slot.
“””
# By default, treat the user request as coming from the America/New_York time zone.
os.environ[‘TZ’] = ‘America/New_York’
time.tzset()
logger.debug(‘event.bot.name={}’.format(event[‘bot’][‘name’])) return dispatch(event)
You can find the full lambda function here.
Once the function is ready, click the deploy button to deploy the lambda function.
After deployment of the lambda function, we can select that particular lambda function to fulfill the response by the chatbot.
screenshot16
Now let’s build the bot again and now is the time to test whether our bot can search for any country-related information or not.
screenshot17
4. Deploying website using Cloudformation stack for Bot UI
Now we have the Search bot ready, but we have to think about hosting the user interface of this bot, the easiest way is to use a predefined template as a reference from the amazon link.
For this activity, we will create an AWS cloud formation stack that allows the deployment of the whole web application with just a few clicks. This type of deployment methodology is termed as infrastructure as a code.
Make sure you the region selected is the same as that of our bot:
Northern Virginia: Link
Oregon: Link
Ireland: Link
Sydney: Link
You will also have to fill some details for the bot as mentioned below:
screenshot18
screenshot19
screenshot20
Clicking the create button will create a stack for us. Once the stack has been created and deployed, we will see the following entries as mentioned in the screenshot.
screenshot21
Now let’s head over to the domain name of the deployed CloudFront endpoint(it's a service that hosts static data at the nearest edge locations to the user).
screenshot22
Now let’s play around with our deployed search bot. Open the URL in a new tab and you will see your chatbot deployed as a full page.
screenshot23
Congratulations. You have a baseline working search bot ready, now you can further enhance it by using Iframe as UI and restricting with a small dialog screen than full screen. You can check out more at SnippetUrl for the code snippet. Also, you can enable the AWS Incognito service for providing a security layer on who can access web application but that’s beyond scope of this post. Let me know your thoughts in the response section if you would like to know more.
If you really enjoyed this post, stay tuned for more tutorials on AI/machine learning, data analytics, and BI.
Check me out on LinkedIn | https://medium.com/towards-artificial-intelligence/building-end-to-end-search-engine-chatbot-for-the-website-using-amazon-lex-google-knowledge-graph-60b001c7d2fb | [] | 2020-10-01 15:46:17.843000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Chatbots', 'Aws Lex', 'Cloud Computing', 'AWS'] |
Introducing completely free datasets for data-driven deep reinforcement learning | In this blog post, I’m introducing the new datasets for data-driven deep reinforcement learning, which are available for completely free!
What is data-driven deep reinforcement learning?
Data-driven reinforcement learning (RL) is a paradigm that RL algorithms achieve policies to maximize rewards within the offline data, unlike online RL that optimizes its policy through exploration and exploitation trials. This data-driven RL is getting attention for its practicality and potential impacts on machine learning systems. Data-driven RL is also called “offline” RL and “batch” RL. There are very nice articles explaining this.
Datasets for benchmarking data-driven RL
It is important that we share a standard dataset to evaluate our new algorithms. For example, in the visual processing domain, there are many datasets including ImageNet, which have been pushing machine learning researches.
In data-driven deep RL, there is the d4rl dataset, which is the first standardized dataset for this domain.
The dataset consists of several tasks.
Figure 1 from https://arxiv.org/abs/2004.07219
The dataset is actually great because this dataset already made researchers compare their algorithms in a standardized way. Almost all recently published data-driven RL papers use this dataset.
Discussion on the use of MuJoCo
The d4rl is great, however, there was a discussion on the use of MuJoCo simulator in OpenReview for ICLR2021.
One of the reviewers criticized that most of the d4rl datasets are collected with tasks in the MuJoCo simulator, which prevents many people from joining this domain due to its expensive license. So, even if you train your algorithms with d4rl, you need to get the license of MuJoCo to evaluate your models.
In my opinion, this sort of benchmark should be available with ease of access for reproducibility and openness of the research. I believe that the MuJoCo license is one of the barriers that make it hard for people to work on deep RL. And, many people still need more accessible ones.
Completely free datasets for benchmarking
Therefore, I’ve released d4rl-pybullet, the completely free version of the d4rl.
The dataset is collected with PyBullet, which provides the suits of reproductions of MuJoCo tasks. This means that you can train your data-driven RL algorithms with d4rl-pybullet, and directly evaluate them on PyBullet tasks.
Here is the use of this dataset.
import gym
import d4rl_pybullet
# dataset will be automatically downloaded into ~/.d4rl/datasets
env = gym.make('hopper-bullet-mixed-v0')
# interaction with its environment
env.reset()
env.step(env.action_space.sample())
# access to the dataset
dataset = env.get_dataset()
dataset['observations'] # observation data in N x dim_observation
dataset['actions'] # action data in N x dim_action
dataset['rewards'] # reward data in N x 1
dataset['terminals'] # terminal flags in N x 1
The API is compatible with the original d4rl that is very simple and intuitive.
The dataset consists of the 3 categories as d4rl does:
random: the dataset is collected with the random policy.
mixed: the dataset is collected through the Soft Actor-Critic training.
medium: the dataset is collected with the medium-level trained policy.
And, there are 4 tasks in each category:
HopperBulletEnv-v0
AntBulletEnv-v0
Walker2DBulletEnv-v0
HalfCheetahBulletEnv-v0
Overall, there 12 datasets and you can see more details here.
This is an example benchmark result.
The evaluation result on hopper-bullet-mixed-v0
As you can see above, the SAC, an online algorithm, does not learn well due to the overestimation problem. The CQL, a state-of-the-art data-driven RL algorithm, successfully achieves better performance than the best episode in the dataset.
Appendix: d4rl-atari
I’ve also released a useful wrapper for Atari datasets released by Google.
The Atari dataset is also often used to evaluate data-driven algorithms for discrete-action space. However, you’ll notice that you need to manually download the dataset, and it’s designed for the dopamine framework.
Thus, I’ve made this. d4rl-atari provides d4rl-style API, and you can start your experiments without any effort. Here is the use of d4rl-atari.
import gym
import d4rl_atari
env = gym.make('breakout-mixed-v0', stack=False) # -v{0, 1, 2, 3, 4} for datasets with the other random seeds
# interaction with its environment through dopamine-style Atari wrapper
env.reset() # observation is resized to 1x84x84
env.step(env.action_space.sample())
# dataset will be automatically downloaded into ~/.d4rl/datasets/[GAME]/[INDEX]/[EPOCH]
dataset = env.get_dataset()
dataset['observations'] # observation data in 1000000x1x84x84
dataset['actions'] # action data in 1M
dataset['rewards'] # reward data in 1M
dataset['terminals'] # terminal flags in 1M
The greatest thing is that the dataset is automatically downloaded from the Google repository, and if it does already exist, it will be loaded from local storage. Also, it’s extremely easy to use and it’s designed in a framework-agnostic way.
Finally, d4rl-atari provides a useful Atari wrapper that does frame skipping , random initialization and termination on loss of life , which are standardized procedures across deep RL researches.
This is an example benchmark result with the data consisting of the last 1M steps of Breakout. The CQL achieves much better performance than the QR-DDQN.
The evaluation result on breakout-expert-v0.
Conclusion
I’ve introduced the 2 dataset libraries, d4rl-pybullet and d4rl-atari. Both of them have very simple and intuitive API, which enables you to become a data-driven researcher today even if you’re not affodable to MuJoCo license. Also, I share the sample benchmark result with the state-of-the-art algorithm in each library to show how good they are on the offline training scheme.
It is still unclear if the deep RL researches rely on MuJoCo benchmarking. But, I believe these works can help many people to join this exciting domain and push the research forward. If you have any questions and requests, please contact me on GitHub. Thank you! | https://towardsdatascience.com/introducing-completely-free-datasets-for-data-driven-deep-reinforcement-learning-a51e9bed85f9 | ['Takuma Seno'] | 2020-11-18 14:48:06.001000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Reinforcement Learning', 'Deep Learning'] |
Being a Programmer Is More Than a Profession, It’s a Way of Life | Being a Programmer Is More Than a Profession, It’s a Way of Life
Solving problems and learning forever
Rubik cube image
If you’re a programmer, you’re a problem solver and not only issues related to programming but problems in general. Programming teaches you to think in a particular way and to always look for the best solution possible.
The main thing is not how many programming languages or frameworks you know, the important thing is your problem-solving skills and your ability to learn continuously.
It’s not a profession for everyone. If you want to be a programmer, you always have to be willing to spend time improving and learning new things. When you’re young, this is easy, but what will happen when we get older? This is something I always wonder. Are we willing to pay the price of still keeping up? I want to keep learning forever, I think it’s a good thing and that it will always keep me active, but time will tell.
In this article, I am going to write about the way of thinking that I have developed these years when it comes to solving software problems and finishing projects successfully.
Thinking like a programmer
So, What can you do when you encounter a problem?
Understand the problem
This step, although obvious, is not always done, especially when you start developing software.
I remember when I started programming and had problems to solve. Many times I made things without knowing very well what I had to do, so I ended up wasting a lot of time.
If you’re facing a complex problem, try to explain the problem to someone, and you will realize many times that you have not understood it correctly.
“If you can’t explain something in simple terms, you don’t understand it.” Richard Feynman.
You can try the following steps; it works for me:
If you were doing something else before, clear your mind before you start.
Close all browser tabs and unnecessary programs and leave only the essentials.
Write down your problem.
Talk to the client as much as you need. Receiving continuous feedback is usually one of the most important things to solve a problem correctly.
Doodle a diagram or build a scheme.
Look for the critical points of the problem.
Split, if necessary, the problem into little parts to make them easier to solve.
Search if exists a solution for it and search how others have solved similar problems, but understand it, not only copy && paste the answer.
Another handy thing that can help you is to use a rubber duck. You only need a rubber duck and debug the code by forcing yourself to explain it, line-by-line, to the duck. And I swear it works! Because when you force yourself to explain something, you realize whether you understand it or not.
Get on with it
Once we have understood the problem, we can move on to designing the solution.
For this you need:
Organize your thoughts and develop strategies to tackle the problem.
Write the steps to solve the problem.
Think about what do you need to solve the problem.
Choose the technology (Framework, language, Database) to solve the problem but don’t get too committed to it.
Is there a design pattern that solves the problem?
Is there a lib that solves the problem?
There are any special functional or safety requirements?
Be persistent and not give up. Many times you will find problems that seem impossible to solve, or you will spend several days looking for a solution, but in the end, you will always find a solution one way or another.
Test your solution
This may seem abrupt at first, but if it’s something you get used to, you’ll see it as something natural, and it will give you other views on the problem you’re trying to solve.
Resolving the problem
Once you have decided which language or framework to use and you are clear about what you want to solve, you can start implementing the solution.
Do you know Test-driven development or TDD? This is an excellent time to start with it.
Create a test case for the problem to solve, but don’t write code yet.
TDD:
Write some code to solve a part of the problem.
Run the test until the code past the test.
Refactor the code.
Run the test.
Repeat
The purpose of this method is to make the code clearer, simple, bug-free, and facilitate the refactor of the code at any moment.
Final steps
Extract conclusions.
Refactor, always refactor the solution.
Conclusion
Learn, learn always. Read about software and other technological things: Medium, for example, is a good place for it. Read books about the software or design principles but also books that have nothing to do with development.
Solving problems is the main skill of a programmer, and learn from each problem is essential if you want to progress quickly.
Many times the problems we encounter in the software world are very similar to real-life problems, and without you realizing it, you end up applying the same techniques to the rest of the real-life problems. Being practical and not getting complicated in the end is the best.
And be patient, sometimes in real life, I take engineering to the extreme and apply it to the people I am with, and this is not good ;)
Thank you very much for reading me, it makes me very excited because my passion for writing is combined with my passion for software engineering, and that makes me very happy. Also, if the things I’ve learned during my years developing software are useful for you, I can’t ask for more. | https://medium.com/swlh/being-a-programmer-is-more-than-a-profession-its-a-way-of-life-f9b6473167e5 | ['Kesk - -'] | 2020-07-28 12:30:51.244000+00:00 | ['Programmers Life', 'Programmer', 'Software Engineering', 'Software Development', 'Problem Solving'] |
Express Entry Draw: 5000 Invitations | Canada Immigration division has now surpassed the mark of 100,000 ITAs for the year 2020.
On the draw held on 9 December 2020, Canada has welcomed 5000 new foreigners for the utilization of permanent residency in the Express Entry draw.
The base Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score expected to get a greeting was 469.
With this draw, the total number of Invitations to Apply (ITA) issued arrives at the sign of 102,350. This denotes the most noteworthy number of ITAs gave till now.
As we all know that the Express Entry Program is an application management program significantly for three Federal monetary class programs specifically:
Government Skilled Worker Program
Government Skilled Trades Program
Canadian Experience Class
Candidates in these projects, just as the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP), have their profiles assessed dependent on the CRS score. The elements associated with the entire assessment measure are given underneath:
Age
Educational Qualification
Language Proficiency (French or English)
Working Experience
After the assessment, the candidate with the most noteworthy CRS score at that point gets an ITA to apply for a Permanent Residency (PR) Visa.
The ITAs given have been the most noteworthy to date. Canada Immigration Department has additionally surpassed the ITAs focus on the draw held on November 18. This draw presently has taken the ITAs number to cross 100,000 out of a single year which at first was never done too.
This huge number of ITAs means that Canada is clearing their way towards its responsibility of having 400,000 settlers for the year 2021 through the Express Entry Program.
IRCC likewise consolidates a sudden death round guideline for choosing applicants with similar CRS scores. As in this draw, the CRS score was at least 469. So for the CRS score of 469, the sudden death round standard was that the competitors are more likely than not presented their Express Entry profile before June 4 at 22:26:05 UTC, for the profile to get a greeting.
This is the second time when the CRS score has seen a plunge in a constant way. It has seen that for the year 2020, the CRS score has floated around a score of 470 for practically all projects. The least CRS score was for the Federal Skilled Trades Program with a score of 415 while the Canadian Experience Class has a score of 440 as it were.
PNP is a program that requires a higher CRS score in view of the 600 extra focuses added to the CRS score for getting a selection from one of the regions. PNPs offer an elective pathway for applicants who are having a low CRS and need to move to Canada too. | https://medium.com/@pioverseas/express-entry-draw-5000-invitations-7cb4349d9d77 | ['Pi Overseas Pvt. Ltd.'] | 2020-12-19 07:58:18.781000+00:00 | ['Crs', 'Express Entry Draw', 'Pnp', 'Canada Immigration', 'Canada'] |
The Dark Prince of Disasters | The Dark Prince of Disasters
Pragma — A poem
Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash
The Dark Prince of Disasters has a smile like a loaded gun and his kisses, they are bullets with my name on them. To look upon him is to never know whether or not he is the storm growing over the tumultuous seas, or the lighthouse to harbor the weary sailors.
And no one ever warns the little girls about the boys with pretty eyes who smell like smoke and tastes like scotch. No one ever tells them that these boys are gonna be wild days of bliss and saturnine nights of tear soaked pillows.
Girls like us, we have to learn on our own, because we’re just moths to the flame; mesmerized and haunted by what could be. I knew better, but all I could do was inch closer to the fire until I burned.
He and I, we have always been parallel lines. Running side by side, but never crossing paths. And I have wanted for so long to kiss the living hell out of him. But not in the way of warm and drenched desires, but to exorcise the devils out of his weary soul. | https://medium.com/an-injustice/the-dark-prince-of-disasters-6d8d6e614ceb | ['Ariel Lee'] | 2019-10-30 22:24:43.380000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'Aninjusticeprompt', 'Love', 'Relationships', 'Life'] |
A Step-By-Step Approach to Choosing an ICO | Over the past few months we’ve seen many cryptocurrencies skyrocketed which led to many investors flocking towards the next booming ICO. However, due to the unregulated nature of the cryptocurrency space, a number of hoax ICOs now exist on the blockchain. This unfortunately becomes a risky business when choosing an ICO to invest in.
Therefore as a potential investor, you would need to conduct thorough research, which also identifies the legitimacy and quality of an ICO. The team at Mo Works have crafted a step-by-step approach to choosing an ICO that will go the distance.
1.Consider the Team and Their Experience
Do they look like professional team? Do they have experience? What is the track record of the leadership team? Review and scrutinise the team to ensure that they are real personas and have the necessary skills required for a successful ICO.
2. Understand the Tokenomics Behind the ICO
Find out the role, features and purpose of the token. Understand the utility of the token within the business model. If the token usage is obscure, not well explained, or not defensible, there is weakness in that model. Is the token tied to a product usage, i.e. does it give the user exclusive access to it, or provide interaction rights to the product?
3. ICO Model And Market
Is an ICO release the right option for the product or enterprise? Does a crowdfunding model suit the business venture? Is the blockchain audience the right market for the product or enterprise?
Participating in an ICO launch an be a risky business! Be sure to review whether the product or enterprise has been modelled for successful market capitalisation. The business model should also have long term value — it should be a valuable asset for the market and have purpose in order to retain its success over time … Make sure that the ICO business model is suited to the cryptocurrency space with an appropriate product and a fitting marketing campaign to save yourself from making some risky investments!
4. Review Their Online Presence
Does the business have a strong online presence? Do they have an established following base? What is being said about them on cryptocurrency forums? This step can help you gauge whether an ICO is likely to succeed or fail before its launch …
Businesses that have larger follower bases are more likely to have a substantial number of people participating in their token sale. A strong online presence is also a good indicator that the enterprise is legitimate — with all the scammers on the blockchain you can never be too careful!
5. Whitepaper
Do they have a well-constructed whitepaper and does it have all the relevant information?
The importance of transparency when you are choosing an ICO cannot be overstated! Be sure to only invest in business ventures that are open and honest about their strengths and their weaknesses — you want to be informed and confident about the project.
The whitepaper should also inform you about the current state and strategies of the company ie. does it have a minimum viable product? Participating in an ICO which already has a working product can help remove a number of major concerns.
If you don’t have access to important information it’s impossible judge the quality of a business model! Be sure not to participate in anything that isn’t upfront about their business or provides conflicting or limited information.
Consider these factors before participating in an ICO. These steps for assessing quality may help you determine the level of risk — and hopefully save you from making poor investment decisions.
Educate Yourself
The more information that you seek-out about ICOs (and about cryptocurrencies in general), the more success you will have when investing in an ICO.
Any additional information that you can find about the company, team, product, and/or business model will give you the confidence in your decision to invest in an ICO.
Scammers are becoming increasingly common in the cryptocurrency space, so watch-out and report anything suspicious, and never invest in anything that makes you feel uncomfortable or apprehensive.
Keep a lookout for inconsistencies or anything else that may seem suspicious throughout the whitepaper/posts/emails etc. being released — to be certain that the ICO is not a scam.
Always remember, however, to only invest what you are willing to lose.
—
Mo Works is a full service marketing agency for upcoming ICOs and emerging tech. To get in touch about our ICO services please email us at [email protected] | https://medium.com/moworks/a-step-by-step-approach-to-choosing-an-ico-1aff267f3254 | ['Mo Works'] | 2018-05-25 04:13:40.430000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'ICO', 'Marketing', 'Business', 'Startup'] |
Living in Two Cities with the Same Name | Living in Two Cities with the Same Name
Photo by Osman Rana on Unsplash
I live in two cities with the same name.
The first city is beautiful
like you are, when you get off the plane.
In it live all the explanations of all the generations of dreamers
of artists and thinkers.
The first city has a taste to it,
like the brave parts of everywhere
that everywhere brought with them when they came
bites of culture smuggled over in seasonings
and grandmothers recipe book stains.
The first city is an almost empty train
with no delays, and you two stops away.
It’s only the clean cabs
and only the time square tourist cops.
Its kisses so slow the entire city stops.
It’s a lot,
but it spits you out smiling.
Unlike the second city.
The second city bites
deep like freezing rain, and pitch black nights.
Millions hiding in their homes, or behind glassy eyes,
—the second city is twisted steel and shiny lies.
Like “ everyone can make it”
Like “ you don’t really hate it”
Like “ stay busy, stay high, and if not you can fake it”
It only has expensive schools
pretentious art
and cardboard signs next to shopping carts.
The second city is only ever hard
never laughs or smiles back
always defensive and on the attack.
It’s so hallow I can hear it ring when it rains.
It’s not looking at homelessness
then getting mad when it stinks up your train.
It drives you sad
or insane.
But it changed
back the moment you came.
The streets filling with dreamers who refuse to wake up
like they always do when they see you.
And I was back
in the place where my love lives.
And where your love let’s me live too. | https://medium.com/illumination/living-in-two-cities-with-the-same-name-c7aa3dfae0bd | [] | 2020-12-18 18:44:04.756000+00:00 | ['Art', 'New York', 'Poetry', 'Free Verse'] |
Mixing Realities to Form Our Reality | Emerging Tech Roundup — December 11
The Quantious team’s top picks for timely trending news in the tech world.
This week in tech: Facebook faces antitrust lawsuits, a new remote office app is released, genetic engineering creates liver tissue, PepsiCo uses VR to redesign their bottle, Nreal launches a new product in Europe, VR is used in a sensory study, and VR helps to measure stress levels.
Facebook Must Be Broken up, the US Government Says in a Groundbreaking Lawsuit
(CNN, December 10)
Facebook is being sued by dozens of states, as well as the federal government, in twin antitrust lawsuits that claim the company abused its power in the digital marketplace by engaging in anticompetitive behavior. Parties bothered by Facebook’s “power,” including the Federal Trade Commission, want the social media giant to divert their assets in order to level out the playing field. Facebook currently owns both Whatsapp and Instagram, two major social media players in the industry. According to Ian Conner, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition, the maintenance of this monopoly denies “consumers the benefits of competition,” which is why many are calling for the company to be broken up, if necessary.
Arthur Is a New Enterprise-Focused VR Meeting and Remote Office App
(UploadVR, December 08)
Arthur, a new remote office app, has launched in beta and is now available for companies to test out the virtual services. With Arthur, company employees can use the app to meet virtually, hold events, give presentations, and more. Arthur is focused on enterprise clients, and the app is usable through VR headsets and private PC web browsers. Soon, it will become available across iOS and Google.
Genetic Engineering Transformed Stem Cells Into Working Mini-Livers That Extended the Life of Mice With Liver Disease
(The Conversation, December 07)
Lab-grown livers were successfully created and transplanted into mice by medical researchers at the University of Pittsburgh. Using a computational analysis, researchers are looking to apply their findings to similar organ research in order to create better and more mature tissues. The learning system’s replacement liver extends the lives of the mice, and it can also reverse engineer genes required for human liver maturation.
Pepsico Designers Reimagined the Classic 2-Liter Bottle Working From Home Using 3D Printers and VR Headsets
(Business Insider, December 05)
PepsiCo redesigned their two-liter soda bottle using virtual reality and 3D printing. The Oculus VR headset provided creators with an opportunity to meet virtually to share sketches and other ideas. From their homes, company designers were able to create physical molds of the prototypes using 3D printers. The company then used VR to product test the new bottles with consumers. After studying their reactions, PepsiCo is thinking about releasing their new design in the U.S. over the next few years.
Nreal Partners With Vodafone to Launch Mixed Reality Glasses in Europe
(Tech Spot, December 03)
Telecommunications company, Vodafone, announced that it will be providing Nreal’s Light glasses to European consumers around the spring of 2021. The glasses feature new additions that include updates to the visual field. Prices for the European market are still unknown, but a 3D system will become available to those interested by January of next year.
A Dash of Virtual Milk: Altering Product Color in Virtual Reality Influences Flavor Perception of Cold-Brew Coffee
(Frontiers, December 03)
Research from a new study suggests that changing the color of food or beverages in virtual reality can change the way users perceive the flavor. That said, VR could possibly enhance sensory eating experiences and improve how things taste, despite dietary differences like lower sugar and fat. The study evaluated 32 volunteers, providing them with two different cups of cold brew coffee served black in real life. In VR, users had two cups of coffee that were two different shades of brown, indicating that the coffees had different levels of creamer. As they were drinking the black coffee in real life, some perceived it as tasting creamier instead of just black, suggesting that VR can alter our senses.
A New Virtual Reality Test Can Measure Your Vulnerability to Stress
(Forbes, December 02)
Virtual reality is now being used to measure people’s stress levels. Behavioral scientists developed a VR test that studies people’s reactions to sudden loud noises or flashes of light, which indicates the individual’s susceptibility to stressors. The study tested 135 individuals, exposing them to three kinds of VR scenarios. The findings show that heart rate variability (HRV) has a strong connection to an individual’s physiological stress vulnerability. Researchers believe a tool like this could be beneficial for identifying and preventing the development of cardiovascular problems or mental health issues in those at risk in high-stress jobs. | https://medium.com/@wearequantious/mixing-realities-to-form-our-reality-6bc8eb238b8 | ['Quantious Team'] | 2020-12-11 18:51:10.836000+00:00 | ['Mixed Reality', 'Tech Marketing', 'AR', 'Emerging Technology', 'Vr Experiences'] |
2020 Give A Gift: Twice The Blessing | Every year, the Abuja Global Shapers makes a call to its friends, partners, supporters and members to make donations, in kind and in cash towards its annual Give A Gift Celebration.
As little as N2,000 to N25,000, to N50,000 in cash is donated during the period donations are open.
We collate these donations, buy food items and distribute them to Orphanages and families in need
The year 2020 came with a pandemic that made life rough and tough for many. But that was no barrier to our Give A Gift Celebration.
We received over a 100,000 in donations: we bought food items and donated them to the Mother Theresa Orphanage, Gwarimpa. And also made a cash donation to widows in Gwagwalada.
We are thankful to all that made this happen.
Like someone said: "In these hard times, a gift given comes with twice the blessing!
We would continue to do more! #ShaperLove #ShapingAbuja | https://medium.com/@abujaglobalshapers/2020-give-a-gift-twice-the-blessing-5f3ba105b801 | ['Abuja Global Shapers Hub'] | 2020-12-23 18:19:19.607000+00:00 | ['2020', 'Abuja Global Shapers', 'Charity', 'Give A Gift', 'Wef'] |
AAA Tree Service | Tip for taking care of the trees in summer | Taking care of the trees is necessary as the different seasons come. Different seasons have different impacts on the trees and you have to be ready for everything otherwise will face the consequences. For example, you cannot provide excess water to the trees in winter at the same time, water is the utmost priority in summer as they grow greener and the scorching heat let the trees become thirstier. This is the reason why trees need some special care depending on the seasons as well. If you need your trees to be well enough then can get the quality tree maintenance program from AAA Tree Service.
Now take a look at these tips step by step to take care of the trees in summer.
Start with the mulching
Mulching is very important mostly in summer. Making a layer of wooden chips, straws will maintain the temperature and will keep it cool in the hot summer. So that they will not get dry and according to that you can provide the watering as well. A thick layer of mulch around 3 to 4 inches is the ideal one. Too much mulching can destroy the stem even can rotten them as well. So be careful with that as well.
Watering
Another most important thing you need to focus on is watering. In the summer the soil dries up soon, so you must ready a watering plan beforehand till the summer knocks on the door. So better you stay prepared and water the trees as per the schedule and regularly.
Pruning and trimming
Next is about tree pruning and trimming which another necessity in summer. If you planning for the flower plants or trees that will bloom in spring, then you must prune them in early summer to get the bunch of buds. First, find out the dead leaves, branches, and other damaged or diseases areas and trim them nicely. It will help to boost your tree health. Get help from expert arborists for tree trimming services from AAA Tree Service.
The fertilization
One of the important tips to take care of the trees is fertilization. Never do any experiment with the types of fertilization on the trees without knowing because; they can be harmful to them. Always go for the organic fertilizers which are available in the market. In fact, you can go for the homemade fertilizers
as well. Provide a quality amount of fertilizer, quality means the right amount. Excess fertilizer can damage the inbuilt nutrients in the soil and will increase the level of salt as well which not good for the trees.
Connect with AAA Tree Service and get the plant services, cutting, pruning, replanting budget in Ipswich, Goodna, Shailer Park, Mount Gravatt, Mount Cotton, Springwood, and Gold Coast areas. | https://medium.com/@aaatreeservice/aaa-tree-service-tip-for-taking-care-of-the-trees-in-summer-258c45323970 | ['Aaa Tree Service'] | 2020-12-14 11:22:21.496000+00:00 | ['Tree Care', 'Tree Service', 'Tree Trimming', 'Tree Removal', 'Trees'] |
Sharia Goldbugs: How ISIS Created a Currency for World Domination | Article by Coindesk: Rachel Rose O’Leary
As Islamic State (ISIS) sought to dominate large parts of Syria and Iraq, it used a subtle weapon to go with the car bombs and suicide attacks: money.
The self-declared caliphate aimed to unify the world under a militant interpretation of Islam. It created a highly efficient, hyper-violent society inside Iraq and Syria, coupled with an economic experiment — what I call “ISIS-coin.”
Consisting of 10 coins ranging in value from nearly a thousand dollars to pennies, ISIS sought to replace U.S., Iraqi and Syrian banknotes with purpose-built coins backed by the gold, silver and copper standard.
At the time, ISIS was sitting on 34,000 square miles of oil-rich territory. By trading oil using its own currency, the dinar, ISIS planned to destabilize the U.S. economy by forcibly decoupling the dollar from the oil business (the petro-dollar system, which ISIS refers to as America’s “Achilles heel”).
The dinar was modeled on coinage from a medieval Islamic empire named the Umayyad Caliphate, the leader of which — a man named Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan — issued coins to economically connect Muslims who were scattered across the Middle East.
Silver dinars in 1 in 5 denominations, Qamishli, North Syria.
In 2015, the dinar was made compulsory for civilians living under ISIS control. At its peak, ISIS controlled 10 million people across Iraq and Syria — making the ISIS dinar among the most ambitious economic experiments in modern history.
While living in the autonomous Rojava, in northern Syria, I met with an ISIS prisoner, Mohammed Najjar, in a facility operated by the Syrian Democratic Forces in Northern Syria. Najjar refused to be photographed or filmed. He was nervous about my sound recorder, and asked me not to publish his name for fear of repercussions from the jihadist group (Mohammed Najjar is a pseudonym).
Najjar worked in oil: ISIS’s most lucrative export and the heart of the dinar experiment. He laughed as I placed a silver dirham down on the table in front of him. It’s a wide coin, about a centimeter in diameter. It is decorated with Arabic calligraphy — a verse from the Hadith that praises hard work and charity.
“In Islamic State, this was a failure,” he said, grinning, “It didn’t work.”
In a 2015 propaganda film announcing its release, called The Return of the Gold Dinar, ISIS’s monetary experiment is described as a sequel to the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center — and a new weapon in an all-out war against the US economy.
“You’ve seen the documentary, right?” Najjar asks with a twinkle in his eye, adding:
“The plan was to destroy the global economy.”
The sales pitch
Najjar joined ISIS in October 2013, months after its formation.
With a background in petroleum studies, he spent his days working among oil fields, the heart of ISIS’s economic strategy.
Controlling many oil-rich areas in Iraq and Syria, ISIS had a lucrative business in selling oil to neighboring clients, including Damascus, the Iraqi government, and Turkish-backed rebels, which, according to my source, would then smuggle the oil into Turkey.
“It was the boom,” Najjar said, “Islamic State was making about $60 million a month.”
The problem for ISIS was that all that trade was executed in U.S. dollars. So in spite of the group’s declared war on U.S. hegemony, its economy was actually facilitating U.S. dollar dominance.
Enter the dinar — or, as ISIS propaganda describes it: “The return of the ultimate measure of wealth for the world: gold — as the [caliphate] surges into the financial sphere.”
First, it was introduced in the oil sector — ISIS’s most lucrative export. To buy oil from ISIS, countries had to exchange their dollars for dinar.
ISIS then introduced the dinar to civilians within the Islamic State, slowly at first, with merchants giving change in the new dinar as opposed to banknotes.
By late 2015, the currency became compulsory. Said Najjar:
“It was prohibited to use the Syrian government currency. It was prohibited to use anything other than the ISIS dinar in all the Islamic State areas.”
The Islamic State was littered with exchanges, he explained, which would swap ISIS dinar for dollars and other currencies, allowing people and businesses to trade with one another.
This came with other advantages for the Islamic State.
While the market price for a 4.25-gram gold dinar was around $160, according to Najjar, it could retail locally at $190. That meant a profit of $30 per dinar for ISIS: a colossal sum when its oil trade was peaking at 150,000 barrels a day.
ISIS member shows gold dinar to a shopkeeper.
Goldbugs
The ISIS dinar wasn’t just a money grab.
It was also an attempt to create an economy based on Islamic principles. And that’s because, in Sharia law — the religious legal code underpinning Islam — certain kinds of economic practices are forbidden.
Sharia puts a ban on interest — what is called riba — which, according to some interpretations, rules out many conventional banking practices. Certain kinds of debt are also forbidden, because transactions must be backed by an underlying asset, like gold.
The dinar experiment had its roots in the teachings of Islamic scholars such as Sayyid Abdil A’la Mawdudi, who proposed a middle-ground alternative to capitalism and communism and emphasized the importance of zakat, or charity. ISIS’s unique interpretation of zakat allowed the group to fund much of its state-building efforts through the contributions of civilians.
The New York Times reported that this tax formed the basis of the ISIS economy, stating that profit from zakat far outweighed oil sales.
But Najjar vehemently denied this point, calling it “lies” and stating that the people in ISIS-occupied territories were too poor to contribute in any meaningful way.
That’s notable because, in propaganda, ISIS describes conventional banking practices as “satanic,” and proposes the dinar as an antidote to the “fraudulent and riba-based financial system of enslavement orchestrated by the Federal Reserve in America.”
U.S. thinkers, such as noted goldbug Mike Maloney, conspiracy theorist Edward Griffin and libertarian politician Ron Paul are quoted directly in ISIS propaganda. In rhetoric not unfamiliar to bitcoin enthusiasts, the thinkers criticize the inflation of the U.S. dollar, the abandonment of the gold standard, and the dominance of the dollar globally.
“The U.S. is playing a game in controlling the world by using the dollars,” Najjar said, adding:
“Oil you have to buy using dollars. Internationally you have to buy everything using dollars. The dinar was more Islamic. Dinar has a real value, gold has a real value.”
Why it failed
Despite the successful launch of the dinar, ISIS remained vulnerable to economic attacks. When, in 2016, the U.S. began a bombing campaign against ISIS’s oil fields, the so-called state began to crumble because it was cut off from its most lucrative resources.
Najjar says the dinar worked better as a means of exchange in the oil industry than an everyday currency for ISIS residents and businesses.
“We used to get it in dollars. Then they changed it to the dinar and that’s when the problems started,” he said. “Traders stopped bringing in products because they noticed the dinar was not working, so they started retreating from it.”
With demand non-existent outside of the Islamic State, the currency began to exchange for less than it cost to produce.
“The problem was always in buying products. The value of the silver dinar, in particular, was so low. So when you go to a trader to buy anything they won’t accept this, they say, ‘Ah, we’re not accepting this.’ Or he put the price higher,” Najjar said.
Because of its weight — the largest coin is worth nearly a thousand dollars at the time of writing — the gold dinar was coveted by traders and was often melted down or resold on the market, effectively draining out the gold-based economy.
Gold dinars.
Not quite bitcoin
Given the restrictions of a Sharia-compliant financial system, including the prohibition on riba, cryptocurrencies have been touted as potential alternatives.
CoinDesk recently reported that the Ethereum Foundation, the non-profit that oversees the management of the ethereum platform, was courting investors from Wahhabist Saudi Arabia, for example.
But Najjar said that, while he had “heard of bitcoin,” he never heard of it being used by ISIS.
An SDF intelligence official confirmed that ISIS was dependent on the U.S. dollar for international trade. Other terror organizations have experimented extensively with crypto.
ISIS lost its last territory to U.S.-backed SDF forces in May. At the time, U.S. forces are said to have collected some $2.1 billion worth of gold — and intelligence officials are hoping to discover more.
“Whenever I go to an interview like this they ask me, ‘Where is the gold? Where is ISIS hiding it?’” Najjar laughed.
In North Syria, the dinar has fallen out of circulation. Some are passed around between SDF fighters as war trophies. These are mostly copper and silver — the more expensive currencies like the gold dinar have largely been melted down. Reselling the currency is illegal and those in circulation are seized by authorities, aside from a handful kept as souvenirs.
According to Najjar, the failure of the dinar — and Islamic State more broadly — was because it failed to implement Sharia correctly.
“Islam says take from the rich and give it to the poor,” he said, adding:
“It was not properly done. It was not implemented properly, it wouldn’t fall. I see it like this.”
Dinar images via “Return of the Gold Dinar” propaganda video | https://medium.com/@gte.io/sharia-goldbugs-how-isis-created-a-currency-for-world-domination-f5e55c92267 | ['Gte Io'] | 2019-10-08 02:25:49.558000+00:00 | ['Iraq', 'Gold', 'Syria', 'ISIS'] |
Anand Uncle overnight star - Exposing the Herd Mentality and Lack of Scientic Temperment in Indian Population. | Anand Uncle overnight star - Exposing the Herd Mentality and Lack of Scientic Temperment in Indian Population.
747 Doctors, 8000 Paramedic Staff, Thousands of Sanitation staff, Scientists/Virologists at the Laboratories across the nation sacrificed their lives to save the people, another grey side 100’s of them committed suicides due to workload and depression. Pavan Kumar Galiveeti May 22·2 min read
Literally no major posts from Whatsapp University, breaking news from senseless 24x7 rubbish media channels lauding their sacrifice.
Now one Anand uncle came out of the box with a magic concoction mixing some herbs, flowers, fruits and domestic edibles/non-edibles . Indians love this kind of instant solutions like Maggie in 2 minutes, Coffee in 30 seconds likewise Cancer cure in 24 days, COVID negative in 48 hrs. Yes Anand uncle and his magic concoction became overnight star due to this nature and herd mentality of Indians compelling chief minister, Vice President to involve because it's democracy, major voice will prevail even though it's illogical, no-scientific evidence.
This debate is not about Allopathy vs Ayurveda vs Homeopathy Infact AYUSH medicine is also science provided backed with rational reason and scientific backing it's all about foolishness/instant relief/miracles Indians expect from schools of medicine. Hence people like Ramdev with name of Ayurveda are making fools out of people with building a company of 5000 crores. It's the same foolishness/Instant relief making people like Anand uncle over night stars not the Doctors/Nurses/Virologists/Scientists/Sanitation staff who literally spent months saving lives infact sacrificing themselves despite heavy Physical and Mental Toll on them.
Salute to you front line warriors who are working relentlessly from months despite inefficiency, lack of medical infrastructure, opportunist politicians, last but not the least the herd mentality Indian people who never trusts the doctor untill they reach the ICU. | https://medium.com/@gpavancitizen/anand-uncle-overnight-star-exposing-the-herd-mentality-and-lack-of-scientic-temperment-in-indian-adbf47a9eb2 | ['Pavan Kumar Galiveeti'] | 2021-05-22 15:52:31.161000+00:00 | ['Covid 19', 'Herd Mentality', 'Frontline Worker', 'Scientific Temper', 'Doctors'] |
The Evolution Of The Land Business — If Only We Knew Then | Knowing what they know now, the team dives deep into what they wish they would have done differently when they were first starting out in this business, if only they knew then.
Joining Mark are:
Scott Bossman
Mike Zaino
Erik Peterson
Tate Litchfield
Scott Todd
It’s A Good Time To Be A Land Investor!
With an abundance of resources and knowledge available to land investors today, find out how the team would approach this business differently in order to grow their businesses more quickly and efficiently. Some of the things mentioned are:
Utilizing VA’s
Marketing
Organization
Different ways to make your money work for you
Starting with less capital
If you have a full-time job and you’re not relying on income from this business take advantage of selling notes early and you can grow this business a lot faster. -Erik
Mark simply wishes that he had the team and their mentorship when he first started.
This can’t miss episode is sure to smart cut the journey for new land investors!
The Bonus Material — Are you a dog or cat person? Or maybe you prefer a pet that’s a little less demanding, like a tortoise or hamster?
Find out the team’s perfect pet preference and why they end this episode in the toilet… all on this week’s episode of The Land Geek Round Table!
Listen in now… | https://medium.com/@thelandgeek/the-evolution-of-the-land-business-if-only-we-knew-then-2fc323ed8fb0 | ['Mark Podolsky'] | 2020-03-06 16:01:01.322000+00:00 | ['Real Estate Investments', 'Passive Income Streams', 'Passive Income', 'Land Investing', 'Entrepreneurship'] |
Kevin Hart Still Doesn’t Get It | Well… the dust has fallen from yet another internet controversy from our most defensive yet unapologetic comedian.
Kevin Hart received backlash from Black women over a joke he made in his Netflix special Zero F**** Given about his 15-year-old daughter.
He explains that she likes several boys at a time and changes her mind about her crushes often. He then says that she exhibits “hoe activity”…
I admittedly enjoy risky humor and generally give comedians a lot of room to make jokes that people may think are not politically correct, or even meanspirited. However, I’ll never find humor in a grown man publicly referencing his daughter’s sexuality for laughs… ever.
On the social app Clubhouse, these comments pushed Hart’s critics to ask this question: Is Kevin Hart funny?
Short answer: Not really. But, Hart decided to enter this platform and face the criticism head-on (while also promoting his special). He failed to meaningfully engage with the concerns of the Black women in the discussion and also gaslights them in the process as he fails to acknowledge the greater context of his joke. For this reason, a continued dive into Kevin Hart’s humor is warranted.
The end of 2018 marked the first of Kevin Hart’s controversies. After he was announced as the host of the upcoming Oscars celebration, old homophobic tweets resurfaced and one comment in particular raised eyebrows from one of his early comedy specials. In the special, Hart jokes about breaking his daughter’s dollhouse over his son’s head if he saw his son ever play with it because he doesn’t want his son to be gay.
Instead of being an adult and offering a simple apology for the comments, Hart chose to defend himself. He claimed that he’d evolved since those comments as they were years ago but ultimately chooses to turn down his dream job because he’d rather not admit wrongdoing and acknowledge that his words were harmful. Later, he quotes MLK in an even stranger attempt to position himself as a victim of censorship by the sensitive, radicalized, woke internet minority.
Almost a year later, he sat across from a then 20-year-old Lil Nas X on HBO’s The Shop: Uninterrupted. The rap star speaks candidly about making the bold decision to come out as a member of the LGBT community at the start of his career. Kevin Hart then interrupts him with feigned confusion: “Why? So what, you’re gay?”
The man who jokes about using corporal punishment on his son for playing with girl toys now doesn’t understand the cultural significance and sheer bravery of a young, successful Black man in hip hop coming out in front of millions of people.
My purpose in bringing up these controversies is not to single out Kevin Hart as some avatar for everything wrong with Black masculinity in America. After all, he is just an entertainer whose content none of us have to tune into. He also has the difficult job of being a comedian, one of the riskiest art forms in the era of viral videos and Twitter commentary. Many Black male celebrities have faced similar backlash, for instance, T.I. when choosing to speak about his daughter’s hymen on a podcast.
The landscape of Kevin Hart’s comments however reveals many truths of toxic masculinity. Of course, this is not by coincidence. Whether Hart does this intentionally or not, Black masculinity has often been a central joke in his act as a short Black man. Especially early in his career, he would mimic a kid’s voice and lean heavily into short jokes. Portraying himself as a small and completely unserious man is humorous in its opposition to ideals of hypermasculine Black manhood.
Many comedians use self-deprecation. When executed well, it can help the audience get comfortable and relate to the comedian. When Black men watch Kevin Hart they understand the truth that Black men in the real world are not perceived as harmless as Hart presents, and that the childish profile that Hart invites you to laugh at is not one that you aspire to be like. (Hart’s wit and talent in hitting these notes in his act have made him rich and famous off stage which of course outweighs any perceived lack of manliness.)
Kevin Hart’s humor leans into homophobia and misogyny because, well, these themes are natural tie-ins for the people who think “little man” jokes are funny. When we watch Hart, we also see someone who does not fit into the ideals of toxic Black masculinity ultimately reinforcing them by pointing to its biggest victims: Black women and Black LGBT people.
And here lies the problem. We all understand that these are jokes. We aren’t critiquing Hart because we are “offended”, we do because the truths that these jokes point to are very real and not very funny. We know that Kevin didn’t make the joke about hitting his son over the head with a dollhouse because that’s what he does at home, he said it because he knows the rhetoric within Black communities about gay and effeminate men will allow people to find the joke funny. Black LGBT folks are far too familiar with the heartbreaking and violent consequences of homophobic and transphobic rhetoric.
We also understand that Hart didn’t say that his daughter was exhibiting “hoe activity” because he intends to embarrass her or because he thinks that she is in fact a hoe. He said it because he (and his audience) is aware of the man’s role in defining and policing female sexuality. Women from puberty onward are shown the consequences of our culture’s failure to promote healthy and equitable gender socialization around sex, as well as the social pressure (and confusion) of the “good girl or hoe” dichotomy that is presented in the culture.
Kevin Hart and his supporters don’t get that critics aren’t fighting for a world where no one can tell a joke and everything must be tailored to the most “sensitive” liberal audience. What we really want is a culture that no longer finds these harmful and regressive perspectives of gender and sexuality funny. Because they’re actually poisonous.
In response to the backlash over the comments and appearance on Clubhouse, Hart posted a video on Instagram, offering a defense with the following caption:
…..THIS IS NOT AN APOLOGY….this is common sense…..also THIS IS WHY I MADE THIS SPECIAL!!!! This is why….now go stream that bitch!!!!! Let’s goooooo #ItsComedyNotPolitics
Obviously, no one who really “gives zero f****” would need to explain and defend themselves as much as Kevin Hart does. But what we really need to highlight here is the closer: #ItsComedyNotPolitics. Is hard to tell if Hart is being dishonest, or he really doesn’t get that comedy is a commentary on society and politics inform what our society is and the direction in which it’s going. After years of backlash over his jokes, Kevin just doesn’t get it. He needs to face the fact that he either needs to evolve or live up to his aspirations and actually give no f****. | https://medium.com/@marqwilson/kevin-hart-still-doesnt-get-it-9f1e373c97dc | ['Marques Wilson'] | 2020-12-02 04:10:28.910000+00:00 | ['Kevin Hart', 'Masculinity', 'Feminism', 'LGBT', 'Black'] |
The Trials of Magnus : Chapter 10 | Chapter 10: A Familiar Place
Something is calling me in there. I can feel it. This brand Hesh gave me burns at the sight of this place, dragging me closer and closer. I haven’t felt anything this powerful since the forest Ahnkiin found me in. I think I’m…afraid. Where is this coming from? I know the only way forward is through here. I know that I’ll find it here, this vault Ialdin selfishly hoards, pretending to provide a service to all when all he cares about is preventing the truth from being known.
They’re all selfish. Even Hesh.
Curse them all.
* * *
Magnus stood silent before the library again. Ahnkiin and Palvar were behind, the three of them shadowed in an alley between two towering buildings. The two traded looks as they watched Magnus in front of them, stoic and stationary. Palvar was the first to speak up.
“What are ya thinkin’, Mag?”
“I’ve been trying to see inside, see what I can gather from people coming or going. It doesn’t seem like there’s anyone there to greet you when you enter, or an information desk. At least from what I can see.” Magnus responded.
“That makes it easier.” Ahnkiin said.
“Maybe. It doesn’t mean there won’t be anybody there, though. Even if the public area is free of guards there will definitely be some in the lower levels.”
“So what’s the plan?” Palvar responded.
“Fortunately, the cloak will help Ahnkiin and I get in there undetected and stop people from paying too much attention to us.”
“A bit of a tight fit under there, eh?” Palvar chuckled. “How will I be running decoy, then?”
“I think the easiest part is actually going to be getting to the restricted section. Most likely, it’ll just be a few enchanted doors that I can take care of quite simply. The issue is that the moment we enter the library, our mana signatures are going to be tracked in some way. They’ll know when the enchantments break on the doors, and they’ll immediately try to track down who did it.” Magnus explained.
“So you need me ta be close enough ta ya ta be a suspect, but able ta get away, basically.”
“Exactly. Though there is one little hiccup.” Magnus hesitantly offered. Palvar shook his head in annoyance.
“Being?”
“Well, the book I’m looking for will definitely be on the lowest level. So you’re going to have to follow us down the first floor and stay with us until I can get us into the second floor. At that point you’ll have to get back out and escape.”
“Yer gonna get me in a world of trouble, there, Mag.”
“We appreciate your sacrifice.” Ahnkiin joked as he tapped Palvar on the shoulder reassuringly.
“Bah!” Palvar threw his hands up, “Yer lucky I like you.” he said, jabbing a finger at Ahnkiin’s chest.
“In any case I’ll give you some time to get out of the library, and then I’ll get out from under the cloak. That should cause some confusion and take the heat off of you, Palvar.” Magnus said.
“Would ya like me ta go scout it out first?”
“No time. You were right this morning, I think we are about to overstay our welcome here in Amshire.” Magnus glanced at his companions, saying, “Thank you, both of you, for helping.” Ahnkiin and Palvar both nodded sharply in response, determination on their faces. The three gathered their wits, and walked out of the shadowed street they hid in towards the gargantuan library. As they crossed the street, Magnus stopped well short of the building’s doors, looking down the walkways on both sides.
“Another step and we will be inside its field; they’ll see us.” Magnus informed them. Ahnkiin then lifted the back of his cloak up and Magnus tried to crawl inside. After a few moments of struggling, much to Palvar’s enjoyment, he got out from behind Ahnkiin.
“Maybe we should have tried to figure this out first.” Magnus joked. In response Ahnkiin undid the cord that kept the cloak tight around his shoulders and stretched out the right side. Once again Magnus attempted to get underneath the cloak’s enchanted threads and managed to fit in by standing shoulder to shoulder with Ahnkiin, his left arm wrapped around his friend’s back.
“Well, guess we just hope that’s gonna work.” Palvar noted.
The three then walked firmly into the observation field that surrounded the library, walking up the ornate marble steps and to the beautifully decorated front doors, the green patina of its copper intricately embossed with motifs of books, animals, and humans. It seemed to tell a story of a time long past. Above the stone lintel of the frame lay a large eyeball with three pupils, arranged in a triangular fashion, the symbol of Ialdin and his followers.
Palvar moved side to side for a moment, visibly disturbed.
“Is it me or is that thing looking right at me?” Palvar asked.
Magnus rolled his eyes and pulled on the handle of one of the doors, surprised by its apparent lack of weight despite being wrought of solid metal. It glided open on its hinges and the splendor of the interior washed over him as the party walked inside.
There were few others nearby that Magnus could see, he and Ahnkiin choosing instead to stay closer to the walls, hiding in the wake of large columns that pierced upwards, holding balconies aloft at impossible heights. The entire center of the room was open straight towards the ceiling; a marvelous stained glass facade allowing natural light to filter down, illuminating the majority of the library’s many levels. The glass was fashioned in much the same style as the doors had been; a story immortalized in art. Towering shelves held books of all sizes, colors, and ages; even delicately inscribed scrolls were safely kept. Desks and other lounging areas dotted the main floor that Magnus could see, and other alcoves were hinted at on the upper floors. Unlike The Gold Feather, Magnus thought this place to be tastefully extravagant.
True to his hunch, Magnus could not see any kind of living guard keeping an eye on the floor. There had to be some nearby, in the building at least, but for now, he felt safe from prying eyes. He looked over at Ahnkiin, who’s eyes sparkled with a hunger Magnus couldn’t relate to. He could feel his companion’s desire to explore and pour over the books palpably, the touch of it putting Magnus on edge.
“Ahnkiin, focus.” he reprimanded his friend, trying to steady the objective in Ahnkiin’s mind. Palvar, for his part, seemed nonplussed and at ease. He, too, seemed impressed by the magnificence on display.
“Palvar, let’s go that way,” Magnus began, pointing towards the right side of the building, “we’ve got to find that entrance down.”
Palvar stayed a good distance away from Magnus and Ahnkiin as they slinked around the edges of the library. Magnus held his hand out and felt along the wall as they moved, searching for hidden doors or enchantments. Twice as they made their way around did someone pass by them, looking for books of their own. Both had taken a look right at Palvar, exchanged curt greetings, and moved on, completely disregarding Ahnkiin and Magnus.
Around the time they passed the wall farthest from the entrance Magnus’ brand began to burn, its purple glow slowly emerging from under the fur. Ahnkiin noticed Magnus’ short breath when the pain came on, looking over in concern.
“Is everything okay?” Ahnkiin whispered. Magnus lifted his hand from the cool stone of the wall and showed the top of it to Ahnkiin, the brand visible.
“We’re close. She’s showing me the way.”
“The Goddess?” Ahnkiin asked, Magnus affirming. Magnus then looked over towards Palvar and waited a few moments until he looked back to check on them. Magnus lifted a finger and swirled it in a circular pattern, indicating they were near to the entrance to the restricted levels. Shortly after, in a small section encased by shelves one wall appeared, a small symbol embossed in the marble.
The mark of Ialdin, Magnus realized. “Here!”
Ahnkiin paused to allow Magnus a moment to inspect the wall. There were no obvious marks of a door; no seam in the wall, handle, nor scores in the flooring where the door would swing. Magnus focused intently on every little aspect, running his hand over the wall and around it. When he placed his palm on the symbol, however, something changed. He could feel threads of mana emanating from it.
“There’s an enchantment nearby that acts on the wall here.” Magnus relayed to Ahnkiin.
“Break it and let’s get in there already. I’ve seen this same man four times already; I think he’s watching me.” Palvar whispered back.
Magnus focused on the feeling of the faint lines of mana being transferred along the stone. It wasn’t a unique form of mana, like elemental mana, but rather just neutral mana that naturally existed everywhere. He could barely discern it from the rest of the mana in the stone, save for an almost imperceptible sense of movement snaking into the symbol. Following the hidden signs, Magnus traced the line into the bookshelf to the left of the wall and onto an inconspicuous book on a middle shelf. The moment his hand touched the book he could feel the enchantment inside. He opened it to a page halfway through and a large circle of gold inscribed it. Inside that was lettering of a style Magnus realized as the enchanter’s language; a secret script created by Ialdin that allowed him to store mana and set parameters for it to be used.
Magnus was taught long ago that the enchanter’s script was an awesome power; able to set in motion things sorcerers couldn’t ordinarily do. As such, only Ialdin knew the total scope of it, and his chosen few were the only to receive the blessing of being taught it. Despite it being a guarded secret, there have been many sorcerers who have used existing enchantments to try and recreate them in new objects, but have all failed. The script, as he was told, requires absolute understanding of the meaning and context of its lettering for it to be able to harness mana. This knowledge was also a large part of why Ahnkiin’s cloak was so astounding to Magnus; enchanted items were among the most rare in all of Liuwrend.
“Let’s hope the door opens and stays that way.” Magnus said hesitantly.
“What does that mean?” Palvar exclaimed, shock punctuating his question.
“Well… I’m breaking the door, basically. If it closes; I’m not sure there will be another way to open it.”
“Maybe we should reconsider, aye?” Palvar asked. A beat later and Magnus tore the mana apart with his own, ripping it from the pages of the book and absorbing it into his own body.
“Too late.” Magnus grinned.
A second later, the wall in front of them fell into the ground, a loud thud piercing the silence the library solemnly held.
“Time to run, we have to move as fast as possible down to the second door!” Magnus yelled, nearly lifting Ahnkiin up as he dashed into the dimly lit corridor in front of him. Palvar followed on his tail.
The hall they were in quickly turned into stairs down what seemed to be one of the towers on the edge of the library. Sconces were affixed to the wall, a magically lit flame hovering in a glass cylinder above it. The marbled stone quickly gave way to granite blocks and a cold air permeated the path. Eventually the stairs morphed into a long hall with doors nearly equidistant from each other; no books in sight. The scene was eerily familiar to the prison Magnus had first met Ahnkiin, and he could see the fear in his friend’s eyes at the sight.
“I’ve got you.” Magnus tried to reassure Ahnkiin, and he softened slightly at Magnus’ words. Palvar was running next to the two, scanning each door as they passed, gleaning what he could from the small porthole openings in the doors. The smell was nearly overwhelming in this hall; death, rot, mold, and waste permeated it.
“Mag! Company!”
Magnus turned his head slightly to see a ball of light beginning to exit the stairway turning into torches as four men entered the hall. As he looked forward again he could see a single door on the far wall; an exit.
“Palvar, can you break through that door?” Magnus asked.
“Isn’t it enchanted?” Palvar hollered back.
“We don’t have much other choice. If I have to waste time looking for another enchantment we won’t get out of here.” Magnus responded, before turning to Ahnkiin and whispering, “Are you okay?”
“Fine, Magnus. This is just… a familiar place.” Ahnkiin responded coldly. “Let us find this book and get out of here.” Magnus nodded as Palvar barreled past, his skin turning into a black metal and he collided with all of his force against the door.
The door itself buckled under the immense pressure Palvar hit it with but did not break. Palvar stepped back, pulling his arms back as he tensed his muscles and forced both of his palms into the metal door. After a few seconds of straining he managed to push the door completely off the hinges and toss it to the floor in front of him. Magnus and Ahnkiin leaped through the opening and dashed down the stairs in front of them.
“Get the hell out of here Palvar! Stay safe!” Magnus yelled up at him.
“Aye! Ya better have that damned book when I see ya next!” Palvar then lifted the thick metal door in front of him like a shield, and took off down the hallway back to its entrance, his battlecry reverberating and rumbling all the way down the stairwell.
Despite the cloak’s disguising ability, Magnus and Ahnkiin continued in haste forward. Ahnkiin seemed to almost run desperately, and Magnus struggled to maintain his footing with him. I’ll have to ask him about his time in the prison, later. Something is terribly wrong.
This stairwell seemed to be at least twice as tall as the previous one, winding down in a spiral even further into the ground than Magnus thought possible. Several minutes passed before they found the landing and entered a slim doorway into a cavernous room.
The spherical room was encased by stalactites and stalagmites, devoid of any trimmings or paraphernalia such as chairs and displays. Instead, the center of the room was dominated by an enormous circle, with countless enchantments engraved in the stone floor. Swirling circles of blue domed the center, many stories high, its undulating mass casting brilliant light in all directions. The field surrounded a single podium in the exact center of the room, a book softly turning as it floated above. Magnus looked around and saw even more enchantments burned into the cave walls as the light bouncing from the center splashed over them.
“This is dangerous.” Ahnkiin fretted, his psyche already in a dangerous state.
“I know. I’m sorry.” Magnus replied, sadness tinged his words. Then, he slid out from under Ahnkiin’s cloak. “It’s about time we gave our friend a fighting chance.”
Wordlessly, Magnus proceeded forward, Ahnkiin starting behind him. Magnus held out his hand to stop him, and shook his head.
“Don’t. I don’t want you to get hurt because of me.” Magnus confided.
Magnus stalked forward, flaring his mana to cover his body in a sea of void. Slowly, he reached an arm out and placed it on the blue wall in front of him. The mana within buckling and breaking away before it could contact Magnus. With a deep breath, he pushed on, walking straight through. That obstacle down, Magnus high-tailed it towards the center and snatched the floating book from its seat and looked down at it. The cover simply read ‘The Nine’.
Magnus was nearly overwhelmed by emotion for finally finding it. He had searched for so long, and now he can finally move forward in his quest. He looked back towards Ahnkiin and flashed his toothy smile, and he saw his friend smiling back; grateful at their fortune. Magnus’ eye was drawn to the entrance, however, and he saw a shadowed figure standing in wait.
“Ahnkiin! Move!” Magnus hollered, unsure if his voice would reach him. He dashed forward furiously, but knew he wouldn’t be able to make it in time. Thankfully, Ahnkiin turned, seeing the intruder, then teleported to another side of the room just as the figure slashed an eerie sword through the black mist Ahnkiin left as a parting gift.
Magnus burst through the cerulean dome and came out, looking at Ahnkiin, then at the stranger. The sword he carried was crystalline, an unusual off-white glow emanating from it’s beige blade. The man stepped forward just as a beam of light passed by, illuminating him and his sleek smile. He was Eirskottir.
“Magnus. Fancy meeting the failure here.” he spoke smoothly.
Without responding, Magnus ran to Ahnkiin and crashed into him with the book, shoving it towards his chest.
“Ahnkiin, get out of here! As fast as you can!” Magnus yelled as Ahnkiin nodded and disappeared. Magnus looked down to see one of his hands covered in a small amount of blood. Where…? He slowly turned an eye over his shoulder towards his enemy, then summoned his own violet blade, his bloodlust exploding outwards. | https://medium.com/@jcharlesramirezwrites/the-trials-of-magnus-chapter-10-8ed8c5815fd9 | ['J. Charles Ramirez'] | 2020-12-12 23:22:57.200000+00:00 | ['Serial Fiction', 'Epic', 'Litrpg', 'Fantasy', 'Novel'] |
This Is What Makes Logistic Regression A Classification Algorithm | This Is What Makes Logistic Regression A Classification Algorithm
Logistic Regression is an extension of Linear regression, except that, here, the dependent variable is categorical and not continuous. It predicts the probability of the outcome variable.
So, Logistic Regression in one of the machine learning algorithm to solve a binary classification problem.
Some real-life classification examples would be :
to classify the mail as spam or not spam
to classify the transaction as fraudulent or genuine
whether a person will buy insurance or not
In the above examples, Logistic Regression estimates the probability of an event occurring i.e either mail is spam (1) or not spam (0).
Although scikit learn library of machine learning makes our job easy but having an understanding about how the algorithms work, helps us in better optimization.
Importing Libraries
#import libraries
import pandas as pd
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
%matplotlib inline
Reading dataset
Suppose we have a dataset of whether a person will buy insurance or not. In the dependent variable(bought_insurance), 1 means he will buy insurance i.e a positive class and 0 means he will not buy insurance i.e a negative class
If we plot this dataset, we can see that all the points lie on 0 and 1
Seeing the plot we find that there is nothing special about the dependent variable aside from being binary. So we use Linear Regression by assuming the threshold value as 0.5. Which means that if the probability(yes) >= 0.5, the person will buy the insurance and if probability(yes) < 0.5, the person will not buy the insurance.
Implementing Linear Regression
Problem in using Linear Regression
Problem 1.
On the best fit line, if we try to find whether the person with age=15 and age=75 will buy the insurance or not, we are getting the probability as negative and greater than 1 respectively.
And since the probability always lies between 0 and 1, it can never be negative or >1, Linear Regression cannot be used here.
Problem 2.
In case the dataset contains outliers.
Here, you can see that index 27 have new entries with age = 120 and bought_insurance=1, indicating an outlier.
# fitting linear regression model on the new dataset with outlier reg2= LinearRegression()
reg2.fit(data2[["age"]], data2[["bought_insurance"]])
From the plot, we can see that because of the outlier, both the intercept and the coefficient is changed resulting in the shift of regression line.
Now some datapoints which were in positive class (probability(yes)>= 0.5) comes in negative class (probability(yes)< 0.5), giving the incorrect prediction.
print("probability(yes=40) without outlier was {}. This person was buying the insurance.".format(reg.predict([[40]])))
probability(yes=40) without outlier was [[0.52641316]]. This person was buying the insurance.
print("probability(yes=40) with outlier is {}. Now this person will not buy the insurance.".format(reg2.predict([[40]])))
probability(yes=40) with outlier is [[0.49769262]]. Now this person will not buy the insurance.
In short: probability (p)= f(x), a linear function where x is an independent variables.
But we need to constrain probability (p) such that 0<= p <=1.
Solving the above problems of using Linear Regression
Let’s consider y as a linear function in the above univariate regression model, where x = independent variable and y = dependent variable.
To make probability(p) >= 0
The exponential of any number always gives a positive value. Now the probability (p) becomes
To make probability(p) < 1
Dividing any number by a number which is slightly greater than it gives a value less than 1. Now the probability (p) becomes
This Sigmoid Function will also take care of Outliers
On solving the Sigmoid Function we get
here, p / (1-p) = probability of odds
log( probability of odds) = logit transformation of probability
From the above equation,
The LOGIT of probability gives the LINEAR REGRESSION and hence the name LOGISTIC REGRESSION
Link to dataset
Hope you found this article useful and interesting. | https://medium.com/@rashmi-690r/mathematics-behind-logistic-regression-26a1673bbf23 | ['Rashmi Ranu'] | 2020-11-20 21:09:21.201000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Classification', 'Data Science', 'Logistic Regression'] |
Some Pretty Weird Prototypes Preceded the P90 Submachine Gun | Some Pretty Weird Prototypes Preceded the P90 Submachine Gun
The Belgians threw away the rule book
by MATTHEW MOSS
In the mid-1980s, Belgian firearms-maker Fabrique Nationale began working on a new personal-defense weapon. In time, it evolved into the iconic P90.
But not before producing several rather bizarre prototypes.
In 1989, NATO issued a specification for two personal-defense weapons — one a pistol and the other a shoulder-fired compact submachine gun. The pistol was to weigh less than one kilogram while the shoulder-fired weapon would weigh less than three kilograms.
Both weapons would fire a cartridge with improved range, accuracy and terminal ballistic performance compared to guns firing the nine-by-19-millimeter round.
NATO planned to equip rear-echelon troops — personnel who couldn’t carry or didn’t need a standard-issue rifle — with these new weapons. NATO believed that, in the event of war, Soviet special forces would attempt to disrupt Western lines of communication and logistics, so it was important to arm support troops with a weapon firing a round that could penetrate Soviet body armor at close range. | https://medium.com/war-is-boring/some-pretty-weird-prototypes-preceded-the-p90-submachine-gun-e57181055cea | ['War Is Boring'] | 2017-03-28 09:37:00.489000+00:00 | ['Guns', 'Wib Land', 'Submachine Gun'] |
Foods to Nourish Your Skin and Hair: Understanding Outer Nutrition | Nutrition is all about nourishing the body with the right foods and nutrients. Some people, however, tend to forget that our skin and hair also need nourishment and that they play important roles in our overall health and wellness.
The skin is the body’s largest organ; it serves as the primary barrier against pathogens in the environment. Our skin also serves as protection from a loss of fluid from inside the body, which is why we should keep our skin healthy and protected from ultraviolet light. Similarly, our hair provides heat insulation and cooling and protects us from ultraviolet radiation.
What Is Outer Nutrition and Why Is It Important?
In my role, I have the pleasure of training and educating independent distributors around the world about our company’s holistic approach to health and wellness. We teach our members about the importance of nourishing the body inside and out.
What we call “Outer Nutrition” is simply about achieving and maintaining healthy skin and hair. Just as your heart, brain, and muscles need proper nutrition for long-term health, your skin and hair require the right nourishment to be able to perform their functions: protection, thermoregulation, sensory perception, secretion, and excretion.
This might not come as a surprise, but inner and outer nutrition are deeply connected.
What You Eat Affects the Health of Your Skin and Hair
The condition of your skin and hair is affected by your diet, age, and environmental conditions. You can’t control some of these factors — like aging or climate — but you can manage what you eat, so it supports your skin and hair.
A variety of nutrients, including protein, antioxidants, vitamins, and collagen can help improve the health of your skin and hair. People with good-looking skin and hair tend to have daily healthy habits!
Here are my recommended foods and nutrients for healthy, glowing skin and hair:
Eat Protein-rich Foods to Repair Your Cells.
Every cell needs protein to maintain its life. Protein is also the primary material used to “replace” worn-out or dead cells. Your muscles, hair, nails, skin, and eyes are made of protein. A diet low in protein, over the course of many months, can cause a loss in skin tone, thinning hair, and wrinkles beyond what would be reasonable for chronological age.
Including protein in your diet from sources like chicken, meat, fish, soy or tofu will help you solve that concern. Meal replacement protein shakesare also great options for protein consumption.
Get Your Vitamins A, C, and E.
While protein is essential to achieving healthy skin and hair, vitamins with antioxidant properties — such as vitamin A, C, and E — are also crucial.
Deficiencies in any of these micronutrients can affect the health of your skin. The skin easily shows the effects of oxidative damage, and antioxidants have been shown to be potent in protecting the skin from oxidative damage.
Here’s how vitamin A, C, and E support outer nutrition:
Vitamin A
There are two types of vitamin A: retinoids (preformed vitamin A) and carotenoids (preformed vitamin A). The liver converts both types into retinol, which stimulates the production of new skin cells and prevents hair loss.
Good sources of vitamin A are fruits and vegetables rich in yellow to red pigments, as well as green leafy vegetables.
Vitamin C
Vitamin C is crucial for the body to be able to naturally create its own collagen. When there is a Vitamin C deficiency, unstable collagen is produced, which provides a weak structural framework for tissue repair. Vitamin C is also involved in the formation of certain lipids that help reconstruct the epidermis — the outermost layer of skin — when damaged.
Good sources of vitamin C are citrus fruit, such as oranges and lemons, peppers, strawberries, broccoli, and kale.
Vitamin E
Vitamin E functions as a chain-breaking antioxidant due to its ability to rapidly expel radicals before they can react with other lipids, thereby ending the propagation of oxidative processes in membranes. Additionally, vitamin E helps to strengthen skin barrier function.
Good sources of vitamin E are sunflower seeds, almonds, peanuts, pumpkins, and red bell peppers.
Taking a daily multivitamin is also an excellent way to ensure you are providing your skin with the micronutrients it needs to look healthy.
Try Collagen-rich Foods and Supplements.
During the aging process, which starts in your mid-20s, the skin suffers from a progressive loss of moisture and becomes increasingly dry. When this happens, the dermis becomes thinner; the connective tissue loses its firmness and elasticity, and wrinkles and sagging start to occur.
The human body’s collagen accounts for 25 percent to 30 percent of its total protein, of which about 75 percent is skin collagen. Collagen is located primarily in the connective tissue, and it’s responsible for giving the dermis its firm structure.
Some examples of collagen-rich foods include leafy greens, red and yellow vegetables, berries, citrus fruits, fish, chicken, egg whites, avocados, soy, beans, and white tea.
Collagen is also available as a nutritional supplement. Hydrolyzed collagen — a type of collagen that can be easily absorbed into the bloodstream when used as a supplement — can increase skin elasticity, skin density, reduce wrinkles, and support a smooth skin.
Finally, Don’t Forget to Stay Hydrated!
Did you know that a significant amount of skin tissue is made up of water? About 25 to 30 percent. For this reason, it’s important to drink lots of fluids to avoid dry and dehydrated skin.
As you can see, nutrition plays a vital role in having healthy skin and hair. It’s the best path to looking and feeling great. When you nourish your body from the inside out, with the proper food and nutrients, your body will thank you with youthful and radiant skin and hair, ultimately promoting better wellness and greater confidence.
For more on Healthy Aging and other related topics, visit Herbalife Nutrition. | https://medium.com/herbalife-nutrition/foods-to-nourish-your-skin-and-hair-understanding-outer-nutrition-d7ac349ab983 | ['Herbalife Nutrition'] | 2021-07-06 15:03:21.475000+00:00 | ['Hair Care', 'Nutrition', 'Skincare', 'Water', 'Vitamin'] |
What is the best way to build a UX design portfolio? | A UX design portfolio can help you get your foot in the door. A portfolio can land an interview for you. So, what is the best way to build a UX design portfolio?
Create a website with Squarespace or Wordpress.
The best way to build a UX design portfolio is to build a website through Squarespace, Webflow, or Wordpress. When I first started building a portfolio, I needed something quick. It needed to be something that I could update and set things live instantly. So I chose Squarespace.
Squarespace was like a set of training wheels. I used it for 2 years before I graduated to WordPress. It was only a few months ago that I moved all of my work to Wordpress.
Wordpress lets you publish portfolio pieces and blog posts in a cheaper, faster, and more flexible way. The downside of Wordpress is that it’s really hard to set-up. There’s a steep learning curve. I gave-up three times on WordPress.
How did you setup your portfolio?
Choose a theme that is clean and simple.
After you set-up a website with your own domain and hosting service, you’ll need to choose a theme. Your portfolio represents you. It represents your work. It represents your personal brand. Your portfolio needs to prove how great of a communicator you are.
Treat your design portfolio like any other project. Your portfolio needs to be:
Dead simple
Easy to scan
Aesthetically pleasing
Not too long
To the point
If you build your own website, make sure that it highlights your strengths.
Some designers choose to build their own portfolios with HTML and CSS to show their technical chops. I usually advise against this if you are just starting out in front-end development. Because you are just starting out, there is an opportunity cost. The time you spend building your site can be better spent towards the design of your portfolio.
You’ll need to gather deliverables. You’ll need to write a strong narrative. You’ll need to format your site. A lot of work goes time goes into an impressive portfolio.
Curate 5–6 portfolio pieces.
Your portfolio pieces need to be related to highlight your UX and UI design chops. A common mistake is to put up case studies of branding projects or graphic design work. Instead of a project on school poster, show a project about how you designed a cross-platform app.
Show up to 5–6 projects:
At least 2 case studies that are deep dives into a project from your current company or a freelance project
1 — 2 passion projects (i.e. Lean UX exercises, thought experiments)
0 — 2 older projects that showcase stellar work that demonstrates a skill that isn’t represented in the case studies or thought experiments.
A hiring manager will most likely not look at all of your projects.
Your portfolio pieces need to be related to highlight your UX and UI design chops. A common mistake is to put up case studies of branding projects or graphic design work. Instead of a project on school poster, show a project about how you designed a cross-platform app.
How many pieces do you like to showcase in your portfolio?
Your portfolio pieces need to be related to highlight your UX and UI design chops. A common mistake is to put up case studies of branding projects or graphic design work. Instead of a project on school poster, show a project about how you designed a cross-platform app.
Get feedback on your work.
After you have created your portfolio, ask experienced designers and hiring managers in your network to go through your portfolio.
Do NOT ask your friends and family. They are NOT your target audience. They are NOT going to hire you.
You need to make sure whoever reads your portfolio represents your audience.
If you set-up a strong feedback loop for your work, you’ll iterate and start to perfect your art.
Your portfolio is your best opportunity to make a strong first impression, show your skills, and stand out from the 400+ applicants. Having a portfolio that showcases your skills will get you your next job. | https://medium.com/@jessicatiao/what-is-the-best-way-to-build-a-ux-design-portfolio-d949f8c29792 | ['Jessica Tiao'] | 2021-01-08 22:21:22.086000+00:00 | ['Job Interview', 'Design', 'Portfolio', 'Product Design', 'Resources'] |
In the sea, On the sky | FREE VERSE
In the sea, On the sky
Created by the author using Canva
As I frantically searched the entire skies, looking for you,
you vanished into the depths of the sea.
As I plunged deep in the sea, wishing to see you,
you appeared in the sky, in your full entirety.
You left me wondering, wandering in the star-spangled forest,
my sense of self, all lost, I remain in a daze,
this ain’t right, it ain’t fair.
Those quests for sound ends in silences,
those quests for silence ends in wisdom,
but when I try to seek you, draped in a cluster of clouds,
you drift away, far, far away.
O beautiful moon, this ain’t right,
O beautiful midnight, this ain’t fair. | https://medium.com/paper-poetry/in-the-sea-on-the-sky-bd5e659cc663 | ['Somsubhra Banerjee'] | 2020-12-15 21:09:20.536000+00:00 | ['Sky', 'Poetry', 'Paper Poetry', 'Moon', 'Thoughts'] |
Castified: Charles Grandin | This week’s #castified winner is Charles Grandin! Following his appearance on Seal Team’s episode 2x15, he uploaded a picture of himself (on national TV!) to social media, earning her some Castifi Swag and a few other goodies!
Charles is a Veteran by trade and in the acting world. His military experience made him the perfect choice to be a Seal Team regular and gave him the opportunity to reconnect with the film industry.
Command Master Chief Charles Grandin
Where are you from?
I currently live in Temecula, California and I am originally from Western NY. During my 30 year Navy career, I had the fortunate opportunity to live all over the world.
What made you sign up for Castifi?
Years ago my daughter used to do Background and I would travel with her to the set. I always enjoyed being on set and always found it fascinating. I learned of Castifi through VME (Veterans in Media & Entertainment) and I was excited to sign up now that I have the time and the opportunity.
Can you tell me about the experience of working with Castifi?
I remember the challenges of casting via a pager system (and also not having GPS). Castifi truly makes the process easy and enjoyable! Directions, Information, and any specific requirements are always clear and timely.
Can you tell me about the shoot with Seal Team?
I have been Background on SEAL TEAM five times. Always a fun day meeting other veterans and working and learning from such true professionals. Each time I am on set I have been fortunate to meet amazing veterans from every branch of military service both young and old they all have so much to bring to the table and share. Advice, Tips, and Good ol’ military stories are always prevalent. Everyone is extremely friendly and helpful and they always seem to listen to my endless Sea Stories!
What are you most excited about for this specific series?
I can’t wait to see how Toni Trucks does at OCS (Officer Candidate School)! While in the Navy I witnessed the transition from Officer to enlisted being smooth but it can also bring about positional confusion, drama, and new leadership challenges! I‘m excited to see if she makes it how the Bravo team reacts!
What advice would you give to aspiring models and actors?
Have fun and enjoy yourself. Reach out and meet others on the set. Ask questions, so many folks with seasoned experience, tips, and advice. | https://medium.com/@Castifi/castified-charles-grandin-58339b584b85 | ['Castifi Inc.'] | 2019-04-10 23:57:30.812000+00:00 | ['Tech', 'Veterans', 'Mobile App Development', 'Acting', 'Military'] |
10 Practical Tips for Effective Cross-Team Collaboration | 10 Practical Tips for Effective Cross-Team Collaboration
Actionable tips that you can apply to your multi-team projects
Photo by Marvin Meyer on Unsplash
It is not easy to be part of a project requiring multiple teams to work together to complete. If mismanaged, it can cost you and your organization valuable manhours and resources.
Throughout my career as a senior software engineer and engineering manager, I’ve had the privilege to lead the development of medium- to large-scale software that needs coordination between multiple teams and stakeholders. The ups and downs that I’ve experienced along the way have taught me a lot about leading cross-team initiatives — and I took notes and journaled about what I’ve learned. I thought it would good to share the common themes and what we did to minimize the chances of project delays and failures.
The tips here are not limited to teams within the same company. They could also apply to working with third-party teams; for example, your team needs to work on API integration with a team from a software service provider.
You don’t need to follow all the tips here. Pick and choose what you will need depending on the nature of your project. By the way, in this article, the word “project” could refer to a new product feature, a third-party integration, or any large piece of work that multiple teams in a company need to complete within a specific timeframe. Let’s get started. | https://medium.com/better-programming/10-practical-tips-for-an-effective-cross-team-collaboration-600fcd4e4143 | ['Ardy Dedase'] | 2020-11-11 18:09:13.408000+00:00 | ['Startup', 'Technology', 'Leadership', 'Productivity', 'Programming'] |
Factories Are STILL Better Than Classes In JavaScript | Public properties on class instances present a security concern (and how to avoid it)
Codepen 1.
I originally proposed that JS class instances were vulnerable to properties being changed from the outside, and considered this a disadvantage.
For example, given a class, Car , we create an instance with new , and call the drive method.
class Car {
constructor(maxSpeed){
this.maxSpeed = maxSpeed;
}
drive(){
console.log(`driving ${this.maxSpeed} mph!`)
}
honk(){
console.log(`honk!!!`)
}
} const car1 = new Car(120)
car1.drive()
#=> "driving 120 mph!"
It’s “driving 120 mph!” . So far so good.
Public properties and functions can be changed after initialization
Not only can object properties be changed, those changes also affect the output of methods.
car1.maxSpeed = 300
car1.drive()
#=> "driving 300 mph!"
Even whole methods can be overwritten.
car1.drive = function(){console.log('parked')}
car1.drive()
#=> "parked"
Editing properties and methods from the outside seems like undesirable behaviour in most cases.
To be fair, this is how JavaScript was intended to behave. But that said, intended behaviour doesn’t always equal “great” or ideal behaviour.
There are strategies to prevent changing properties
Codepen 2.
One suggestion was to prevent changing values by using a “getter” function.
class Car {
constructor(maxSpeed){
this.defMaxSpeed = maxSpeed;
}
get maxSpeed(){
return this.defMaxSpeed
}
drive(){
console.log(`driving ${this.maxSpeed} mph!`)
}
honk(){
console.log(`honk!!!`)
}
}
Notice we’ve added get maxSpeed() . The object will now be initialized with a this.defMaxSpeed property rather than a this.maxSpeed property.
This prevents an altered maxSpeed from affecting the drive() method.
const car1 = new Car(120)
car1.drive()
#=> "driving 120 mph!" car1.maxSpeed = 300
car1.drive()
#=> "driving 120 mph!"
That said, we can hack around this by updating defMaxSpeed from the outside.
car1.defMaxSpeed = 300
car1.drive()
#=> "driving 300 mph!"
I suppose we could come up with a complicated property name that isn’t guessable, but that would also make coding less fun. | https://medium.com/javascript-in-plain-english/factories-are-still-better-than-classes-in-javascript-47f15071904e | ['Chris I.'] | 2020-11-24 20:51:22.170000+00:00 | ['Coding', 'JavaScript', 'Software Development', 'Frontend', 'Web Development'] |
The Why and How of MapReduce | Hadoop’s MapReduce In General
Hadoop MapReduce is a framework to write applications that process enormous amounts of data (multi-terabyte) in-parallel on large clusters (thousands of nodes) of commodity hardware in a reliable, fault-tolerant manner.
A typical MapReduce job:
splits the input data-set into independent data sets
each individual dataset is processed in parallel by the map tasks
by the then the framework sorts the outputs of maps,
the outputs of maps, this output is then used as input to the reduce tasks
In general, both the input and the output of the job are stored in a file-system.
The Hadoop MapReduce framework takes care of scheduling tasks, monitoring them, and re-execution of the failed tasks.
Generally, the Hadoop’s MapReduce framework and Hadoop Distribution File System (HDFS) run on the same nodes, which means that each node is used for computing and storage both. The benefit of such a configuration is that tasks can be scheduled on the nodes where data resides and thus results in high aggregated bandwidth across the cluster.
The MapReduce framework consists of:
a single master ResourceManager (Hadoop YARN),
(Hadoop YARN), one worker NodeManager per cluster-node, and
per cluster-node, and MRAppMaster per application
The resource manager keeps track of compute resources, assigns them to specific tasks, and schedules jobs across the cluster.
In order to configure a MapReduce job, at minimum, an application specifies:
input source and output destination
map and reduce function
A job along with its configuration is then submitted by the Hadoop’s job client to YARN, which is then responsible for distributing it across the cluster, schedules tasks, monitors them, and provides their status back to the job client. | https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor/the-why-and-how-of-mapreduce-17c3d99fa900 | ['Munish Goyal'] | 2020-08-12 19:02:34.210000+00:00 | ['Mapreduce', 'Hadoop', 'Data Engineering', 'Data Science', 'Big Data'] |
When SHOULD You Sell Your Business? | When SHOULD You Sell Your Business?
Photo by Elena Koycheva on Unsplash
When you build a business, you’re going to reach a crossroads at some point.
Whether your business is your baby or it’s just a side hustle, the idea of letting it go will have at least crossed your mind once.
As far as the market is concerned, there isn’t a right time to sell. The market is liquid year-round, so you’re not going to be greatly affecting your exit by cherry-picking a specific month. What matters far more is what’s going on in your life.
After brokering over 1,300 deals at Empire Flippers, we’ve seen all kinds of reasons for wanting to sell, but it usually boils down to two main reasons: personal or business. First, we’ll talk about why personal reasons might affect your decision to sell your online business.
The Hamster’s Wheel
The idea of the passive income lifestyle gets shouted about a lot with owning and creating an online business. “Earn more for working less,” we’re always told by so-called gurus on Instagram and YouTube.
Passive income is the reason why many people start online businesses, and this lifestyle is something that many people have achieved through building and buying online businesses.
However, it’s not all sipping cocktails in a beach bar; real work needs to be done and hours need to be spent in front of a laptop.
There are many people looking to get into the same position you’re in, and it might be that they’re hungrier and willing to put more work in. The constant battle against competitors means you might feel like you’re forever on a hamster’s wheel when it comes to running your business. This leads to many entrepreneurs feeling burnout, which pushes them to sell their business while they’re still on top of the game.
The Curveball
Sometimes life throws a situation at us that forces our hand. This was the case with the COVID-19 pandemic and will continue to be the case with life events that we don’t always foresee.
We’ve seen people sell their business to pay for medical care or to help out a family member in need. Whatever the case may be, being able to sell and receive a lump sum of capital is certainly one of the positive aspects of owning an online business. It’s also pretty common to see people sell their business before the birth of a child. This gives them much needed free time and extra money to spend time with their newborn, something many people would say is priceless.
This can be an emotional one for sellers, especially if they were reluctant to sell. But it should come with an immense sense of achievement knowing that you’ve sold a business and are allowing someone else to experience all the benefits of owning an online business. Plus, the skills you leave with are incredibly valuable, you can put them to use to create another business when you see fit.
To Fund a Life-Changing Event
This is perhaps the most common personal reason why someone will want to sell their business.
Selling your business means you now have a bunch of capital to put towards whatever you want. You could buy a new house and, depending on the size of your business, it might even allow you to pay for it in cash.
We’ve also seen a business sold to help a couple adopt a child, as well as a business sold to help someone be able to pursue their dream of becoming a fireman. What all of these personal reasons come down to is that you should sell when you feel the time is right. A lot of doors open up when you have the money to do so, and you should use the opportunity to achieve the lifestyle that you want.
Strategic Reasons: The Asset Flywheel
If running online businesses is your full-time gig, or you want it to be, then you can use the asset flywheel to build your wealth quicker.
This is the idea of selling one business and taking all the capital earned and buying two or more businesses. You then look to improve them and you now have two high-performing online businesses instead of one. This process can be repeated until you reach your desired level of income. We’ve seen entrepreneurs build up an attractive portfolio of assets this way.
Not All Assets Are Built the Same
People who own online businesses tend to have more than one on the go.
How these businesses scale-up can be widely different from one another, but when you find one that’s hot, it’s time to double down. Unfortunately, this normally requires an influx of cash to really make the most of the opportunity.
If this is the case, then it might be time to sell one of your assets to boost the efforts of another.
It’s Time to Move On
Sometimes, when you’re running a business, it pays to step back and take an honest look at where you’re heading.
Online businesses can be very competitive, and it might be that the market is moving against you, that there is an increase in businesses in your niche, or it could be as simple as you not seeing the opportunities you once did.
That doesn’t mean they aren’t there; a buyer could come in who has loads of ideas for your business, but if you’re struggling, then it could be time to sell, collect the money, and move on.
If You Know You Know
There are tons of reasons why you should consider selling your online business. The fact of the matter is that you have to ask yourself the question of when the right time to sell is.
In a personal sense, this question can allow you to open the doors to opportunities you never thought possible. On the business side, thinking about selling can help you build your wealth even further if you go about selling your business the right way.
This is all thanks to the fact that selling creates a huge windfall that earns you two to four years of profit upfront.
Planning Your Next Venture
If your situation allows it, then take an hour to plan out your next move. Where do you want to be in a year’s time?
Write out a plan of action on how your online business is going to get you there. This will be the best indicator of when you should sell.
To get a sense of where you are, it helps to get a valuation. This can show you what the next steps are. Perhaps you need to spend more time building your business before you can sell, or perhaps you need to sell and buy more businesses.
Use our free valuation tool to see how much capital you can expect to receive should you decide to list on the open market. It’s built using the latest sales data and will only take a few minutes to fill out. From there, you can decide whether to begin the exciting process of selling your online business. | https://medium.com/digital-investor/when-should-you-sell-your-business-1f49078b81e7 | ['Max Lapit'] | 2020-12-18 12:07:11.004000+00:00 | ['Digital Nomads', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Online Business', 'Digital Asset', 'Amazon Fba'] |
A beginner’s guide to cryptocurrency mining | In a world full of different modern technologies such as smart devices, smart vehicles, robots, etc. we are facing the modern technology trend for online raising funds and blockchain projects provided by cryptocurrencies. In the past few years, much has been discussed about cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or Ethereum, ICO, blockchain, crowdfunding, etc.
But, what is cryptocurrency? It’s a form of digital money designed to enable online purchases and transfers. Cryptocurrencies allow users to make payments without banks, governments, or another party, and these payments are safe and secure.
This trend is revolutionizing the world we live in. There is almost no person who haven’t heard about Bitcoin. When Satoshi Nakamoto founded Bitcoin in 2009, a new area in the technology world was created. Today, we are looking at the biggest and most popular peer-to-peer decentralized network and digital asset software platform known as Blockchain. Blockchain enables these cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin to be online traded without need of a third party. It’s a public register of every transaction performed in a particular cryptocurrency. These transactions are created into so-called “blocks”.
As it seems, cryptocurrencies have been rapidly growing in the technology world, and the number of people who buy and sell them is constantly increasing. More and more people are looking forward to join this revolutionizing trend and to learn more about the cryptocurrencies,
Have you ever wondered how Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are actually made?
The production of cryptocurrencies is nothing like the production of money. There are no governments, banks, or any other third party that has to issue the production. The cryptocurrencies are produced through a process called “mining”.
What is cryptocurrency mining?
It is the process through which the cryptocurrencies are made. It is called “mining” because it’s similar to the “gold mining”. Some particular cryptocurrency exist into the protocol (like the gold exist into the underground), and the “miners” bring it into the light. The miners create blocks of transactions, include them in the blockchain network, and receive new cryptocurrency as a reward. So, cryptocurrency mining has two functions: 1. it adds transactions to the blockchain network; 2. it releases new cryptocurrency.
How the cryptocurrency mining works?
For successful cryptocurrency mining you have to have a computer with huge resources and special program that allows miners to compete in solving mathematical problems. There is a hash value that uniquely identifies data, and miners use their computers to zero in on a hash value less than the target. The miner who is the first to break the correct block, is the one who mined the block and he/she gets reward.
What do you need to mine cryptocurrency?
a coin wallet, private database;
free mining software package;
membership in an online mining pool;
full-time internet connection (2 megabits per second or faster);
hardware setup location;
desktop computer designed for mining with powerful processor;
a house fan for cool air across your computer;
specialized processing device.
Is it worth to mine cryptocurrencies?
Yes! As the time passes, cryptocurrency mining has become very popular and the value of Bitcoin has become huge. Today, this type of mining is considered as a business. There are many people and companies that are investing in resources in order to mine cryptocurrencies.
Energy Premier is joining this technology world by introducing its presale and crowdsale. Energy Premier is a blockchain-based electricity trading platform intended for electricity suppliers and consumers. Through our platform, electricity suppliers are provided with direct and fair access to the energy market, and electricity consumers are provided with best electricity prices. We have also released a Bounty Program to reward our participants. Don’t miss it and join our energy revolution! | https://medium.com/hackernoon/a-beginners-guide-to-cryptocurrency-mining-fee20b18e36c | ['Energy Premier'] | 2018-03-23 12:39:42.376000+00:00 | ['Ethereum', 'Blockchain', 'Bitcoin', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Mining'] |
NestJS and Dependency Injection | For the last decade JS is getting popular not only for FrontEnd development, but for BackEnd either. JS isn’t a toy language anymore and it should be ready adjusted for any entreprise projects. The good news here is that we have a big inheritance from such mature technologies like Java which already passed the particular path and have a lot of features which just needed to be adjusted in JS land. One of such patterns is Dependency Inversion and it’s a D letter in acronym SOLID which I guess should be familiar each JS BackEnd Developer now.
The Dependency Inversion principle tells us that the most flexible system are those in which source code dependencies refer only to abstractions, not concrete implementation. Well, this definition is straightforward for statically typed languages like Java and may be vague or even confusion for dynamically typed languages like JavaScript. We will explore those differences a little bit later comparing how DI implemented in both Spring framework (Java) and NestJS (NodeJS).
Let’s have a look where we would need to apply this pattern and how it may be useful. Any well-designed BackEnd application has strictly defined layers (see picture 1):
controllers — usually responsible for getting http requests from the particular route and invocation of domain specific services and preparation http responses
— usually responsible for getting http requests from the particular route and invocation of domain specific services and preparation http responses services — the main business unit and it’s intermediate layer between controllers and repositories.
— the main business unit and it’s intermediate layer between controllers and repositories. repositories — responsible for communication with any persistent layer, it may be either any relational DB (Postgres, MySQL) or NoSQL DB (MongoDB, Redis)
Picture 1
The first requirement for the project is that we need to implement User domain and for persistent layer should be used MySQL DB. First of all, User class entity should be defined with all necessary properties (fields). Let’s also declare TS interface for UserRepository and the first its implementation which is supposed to work with MySQL — UserMySQLRepository. UserService is the intermediate layer between controller and repository, which needs to have dependency from UserRepository:
Listing 1
The project is growing, but in one moment for bunch of reasons application architect has decided to change persistence layer and instead of using MySQL we need to use MongoDB.
Well, the first step is to implement UserRepository interface which would work with MongoDB:
Linsting 2
The next question is how we’re going to change UserRepository dependency in UserService. Of course, the first which may come in mind is just change it in constructor:
Linsting 3
But let’s imagine, that our UserRepository is used for other services as well, for example in ProfileService. Actually in a real project it may look like that:
Picture 2
The larger app the higher probability that our UserRepository is a dependency for N services and in this case with our naive way we would need to change in each service implementation of UserRepository. It would be tedious and error-prone process.
Initializing UserRepository in constructor has also another drawback. How would we create unit test for UserService? We need a way to mock UserRepository implementation. Of course, it’s possible to implement using diverse tools which jest may provide to us and it would look like that:
Listing 4
Again, as soon as we need to change implementation for UserRepository, we need to change path to file which we’re trying to mock.
Let’s refactor UserService and decouple it with UserRepository implementation, we just ask to initialize needed UserRepository outside of UserService and it will be passed in constructor:
Listing 5
This straightforward step to refactor brings one benefit for test, let’s have a look:
Listing 6
Since we decoupled UserService and UserRepository implementation, right now we don’t take care in unit test which implementation is used, we just need to follow UserRepository interface.
Let’s depict what we have done, it allows to get intuitive grasp of total picture and in which direction we’re trying to move:
Picture 3
But in writhing test we created mocked version of UserRepository, but who should be responsible for managing UserRepository in application? Well, there should be any factory pattern applied. Here such frameworks like Spring and NestJS have their role and provide container which will be responsible for initializing all dependencies and injecting them where it’s needed. The benefits here that we just implement out components without any acknowledge about the concrete implementation and we need to work only against interfaces of any outside needed components.
Let’s have a look how it works in NestJS. But before divining deeper just remind you one thing which we all need to keep in mind. When we defined UserRepository as TypeScript interface we need to know that it will be erased in transpilation phase and won’t be available in runtime, it’s the main difference between statically typed languages and dynamically typed ones. TypeScript here is just like a syntax sugar which make feel us more confident about what we’ writing and fix a lot of bugs before runtime. Well, NestJS has several ways to configure our dependencies and since we’re using UserRepository as TypeScript interface we have only one way to define our dependency — non-class-based provider tokens:
Listing 7
We defined AppModule with two providers/dependencies and some of them may depend on each other, in our case UserService is expected to get UserRepository implementation. Pay attention, how we set up UserRepository dependency, since it defined as TypeScript interface and it’s gonna to be erased we need to define any unique token which would help lookup mechanism define dependency in runtime. Let’s inject this dependency in UserService then:
Listing 8
First of all, we put decorator @Injectable, which say that this component is gonna to be used as dependency in application, and in constructor we used @Inject decorator and passes which exact dependency we’re interested in, lookup mechanism by Symbol or it may be any unique string without any problem may match needed component associated and registered in container.
Pay attention, that in listing 7, UserService set up in container as a dependency in a different way. UserService is defined as a JS class and therefore this information is available in runtime, therefore it’s not difficult for lookup mechanism to find needed dependency by class, framework just uses JS operator instanceOf.
Right now in any time when we would like to change one implementation into another — we just need to make changes in one places and NestJS just propagate it across all components of application. It will look like that:
I would also recommend you to review the following links: | https://medium.com/geekculture/nestjs-and-dependency-injection-3ce0886148c4 | ['Vladimir Topolev'] | 2021-07-06 16:47:29.234000+00:00 | ['Decorators', 'JavaScript', 'Nestjs', 'Dependency Injection'] |
#FigmaTip Roundup 7.0 | Welcome to our #FigmaTip Roundup where we pull our favorite Figma mini-lessons from the design community. If you’d like a refresher on past installations, click these links for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.
Paste SVG code into Figma and watch it transform automatically into the graphic
Easily create unique symmetrical shapes by using components
Pressing spacebar freezes your selection bounds
Zoom in with precision by hitting “Keyboard Zooms Into Selection”
🎶 You can see clearly now, the “Frame Outlines” have come 🎶
A huge thanks to everyone who has submitted a #FigmaTip! And a special shout-out to Kuldar Kalvik, Alena Deleña, Gerrit Halfmann, Mirko Santangelo and Rasmus Andersson whose tweets are featured in this #FigmaTip Roundup. | https://medium.com/figma-design/figmatip-roundup-7-0-ecc2127503 | ['Valerie Veteto'] | 2018-04-16 04:19:52.925000+00:00 | ['UI', 'Product', 'Design', 'UX', 'Tech'] |
House Impeachment Managers Request Former President Trump Testify Under Oath Next Week | Washington, D.C. — Today, Lead Impeachment Manager Jamie Raskin sent a letter to former President Donald Trump requesting that he provide testimony under oath, either before or during the Senate impeachment trial, about his conduct on January 6. The letter comes after former President Trump’s legal team filed an answer to the Article of Impeachment, denying incontrovertible facts about the President’s conduct on and leading up to January 6 and asserting that “[…] the 45th President of the United States performed admirably in his role as president, at all times doing what he thought was in the best interests of the American people.”
In the letter, Lead Manager Raskin wrote, “Two days ago, you filed an Answer in which you denied many factual allegations set forth in the article of impeachment. You have thus attempted to put critical facts at issue notwithstanding the clear and overwhelming evidence of your constitutional offense. In light of your disputing these factual allegations, I write to invite you to provide testimony under oath, either before or during the Senate impeachment trial, concerning your conduct on January 6, 2021. We would propose that you provide your testimony (of course including cross-examination) as early as Monday, February 8, 2021, and not later than Thursday, February 11, 2021. We would be pleased to arrange such testimony at a mutually convenient time and place.”
“If you decline this invitation, we reserve any and all rights, including the right to establish at trial that your refusal to testify supports a strong adverse inference regarding your actions (and inaction) on January 6, 2021,” Lead Manager Raskin continued. “I would request that you respond to this letter by no later than Friday, February 5, 2021 at 5pm.”
Below is the full text of the letter to former President Trump. | https://medium.com/housejudiciary/house-impeachment-managers-request-former-president-trump-testify-under-oath-next-week-666081cb99f5 | ['House Judiciary Dems'] | 2021-02-04 18:10:34.763000+00:00 | ['Trump', 'Impeachment'] |
18558553456 How to Change the Windows 10 Lock Screen Timeout | By default, Windows 10’s lock screen times out and switches off your monitor after one minute. If you’d like it to stick around longer than that–say, if you have background picture you like looking at or you enjoy having Cortana handy–there’s a simple Registry hack that will add the setting to your power options.
First, you’ll need to tackle the Registry to add the timeout setting to your PC’s power options. You can do that by editing the Registry manually or downloading our one-click hacks. After adding the setting, you’ll then set your timeout using the standard Power Options applet in the Control Panel. Here’s how to get it all done.
Add Timeout Setting to Power Options by Editing the Registry Manually [18558553456]
To add the timeout setting to power options, you just need to make an adjustment to one setting in the Windows Registry.
Standard warning: Registry Editor is a powerful tool and misusing it can render your system unstable or even inoperable. This is a pretty simple hack and as long as you stick to the instructions, you shouldn’t have any problems. That said, if you’ve never worked with it before, consider reading about how to use the Registry Editor before you get started. And definitely back up the Registry (and your computer!) before making changes.
Open the Registry Editor by hitting Start and typing “regedit.” Press Enter to open Registry Editor and give it permission to make changes to your PC.
In the Registry Editor, use the left sidebar to navigate to the following key:
HKEYLOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings\7516b95f-f776-4464-8c53-06167f40cc99\8EC4B3A5-6868-48c2-BE75-4F3044BE88A7
In the right-hand pane, double-click the Attributes value to open its properties window.
Change the value in the “Value data” box from 1 to 2, and then click OK.
That’s all you have to do in the Registry. Your next step will be changing the timeout setting using Power Options. Should you ever want to remove that setting from Power Options, just go back and change the Attributes value from 2 back to 1[18558553456].
Download Our One-Click Hack
If you don’t feel like diving into the Registry yourself, we’ve created some a couple of registry hacks you can use. The “Add Lock Screen Timeout Setting to Power Options” hack creates the changes the Attributes value from 1 to 2. The “Remove Lock Screen Timeout Setting from Power Options (Default)” hack changes the Attributes value from 2 back to 1, restoring its default setting. Both hacks are included in the following ZIP file. Double-click the one you want to use and click through the prompts. When you’ve applied the hack you want, the changes will take place immediately.
Lock Screen Timeout Hacks
These hacks are really just the 8EC4B3A5-6868-48c2-BE75-4F3044BE88A7 key, stripped down to the Attributes value we talked about in the previous section and then exported to a .REG file. Running either of the enable sets that value to the appropriate number. And if you enjoy fiddling with the Registry, it’s worth taking the time to learn how to make your own Registry hacks.
Change the Timeout Setting in Power Options
Now that you’ve enabled the timeout setting, it’s time to fire up Power Options and put it to work. Hit Start, type “Power Options,” and then hit Enter to open Power Options.
In the Power Options window, click the “Change plan settings” link next to whatever power plan you’re using.
In the Edit Plan Settings window, click the “Change advanced power settings” link.
In the Power Options dialog, expand the “Display” item and you’ll see the new setting you added listed as “Console lock display off timeout.” Expand that and you can then set the timeout for however many minutes you want.
It’s a bit of a hassle having to deal with the Registry just to make this setting available, but at least it’s there. And if you have a desktop PC or a laptop plugged into a power source, it’s nice knowing you can leave that lock screen up for longer than a minute if you want to.
For Further More Visit Call On This Number : 18558553456
Source : https://www.howtogeek.com/267893/how-to-change-the-windows-10-lock-screen-timeout/ | https://medium.com/@andyjames799/18558553456-how-to-change-the-windows-10-lock-screen-timeout-1ae75d346cf9 | [] | 2020-02-22 23:44:35.828000+00:00 | ['Lock Screen', 'Windows 10'] |
Ep67 — Saved by Sobriety: The House Fire Cheryl Survived | Have you ever cheated death? Have you ever had too much to drink, and put yourself in a dangerous situation? Have you ever passed out unable to protect yourself should the need arise? Have you ever left your children in the care of a spouse so drunk he couldn’t possibly answer the call should they need him? Have you gotten away with it despite flirting with disaster so many times?
Cheryl Kuechler had flirted with drunken disaster. And had she not chosen sobriety two years ago, she would surely have died in early December 2020. Please listen to her story, and consider donating to the fund to help her put her life back together.
Click here to Donate to Cheryl’s Restoration Fund
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 52:12–47.8MB) | Embed | https://medium.com/@mattsalis/ep67-saved-by-sobriety-the-house-fire-cheryl-survived-c45dd15a542c | ['Matt Salis'] | 2020-12-22 14:14:19.140000+00:00 | ['Addiction', 'Recovery', 'Health', 'Mental Health', 'Alcoholism'] |
Job Opening : Community Banking Specialist I — ACNB BANK, Taneytown, MD | OVERVIEW:
Reporting to the Community Banking Manager, this position is responsible for providing the bank’s new and existing customers with quality service by assessing their financial needs and providing appropriate solutions.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:
Identifying cross sales opportunities for products and other lines of business;
Establishing deposit and loan account relationships and solving related problems;
Attaining sales goals and assisting in the achievement of office sales and service goals;
Performing Community Banking Associate duties, as needed.
QUALIFICATIONS:
Required:
A high school diploma or GED is required;
Proficient reading, writing, and grammar skills; proficient analytical and mathematics skills;
Visual and auditory skills;
Detail-orientated:
The ability to lift approximately fifty (50) pounds; and,
A valid driver’s license is required.
Preferred:
A minimum of one (1) year banking, retail sales or cash handling experience;
Knowledge of the features and benefits of banking products and services;
Proven experience in a sales and marketing function achieving either weekly, monthly or annual sales goals;
Proficient interpersonal relations, communicative, customer service and sales skills.
Proficient eye-hand coordination;
Basic computer skills, including a working knowledge of Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook, and the Internet; and,
Demonstrated leadership and decision making skills.
ACNB Bank is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, genetic information or any other characteristic protected by law.
APPLY NOW : https://needhired.com/community-banking-specialist-i-acnb-bank-d9ef2cbafba2757e/ | https://medium.com/@needhired/job-opening-community-banking-specialist-i-acnb-bank-taneytown-md-ecb93de1ac8a | ['Need Hired'] | 2019-06-17 12:23:02.247000+00:00 | ['Jobs', 'Job Hunting', 'Job Search', 'Job Interview', 'Banking'] |
#251 (經濟學人導讀 — 每日新聞). #每日一經濟學人 #英文學習 #國際時事… | #每日一經濟學人 #英文學習 #國際時事 #謝謝志工AmyAndyJackyShane
👍11/28 (六) 經典單元、名額有限 (至多10人)！第四場全英文導讀專班
報名至11月13日截止，邀請各位用英文來討論經濟學人：https://reurl.cc/e8kyDx
Friday November 13th 2020
2020年11月13日星期五
🌏Espresso — The world in brief
每日濃縮 — 世界概況
1️⃣Sony’s new PlayStation 5: keeping you busy
第五代 Sony PlayStation：讓你/妳一直玩一直玩
Several retailers quickly sold out of the Sony PlayStation 5 shortly after the new video-game console was released. In-person sales were restricted by covid-19 lockdowns, but pre-orders and online sales quickly revealed intense interest. The shortage of other entertainment has been a boon for the video-game industry. This week Microsoft also launched the Xbox Series X.
在其新款電動遊戲機發佈後不久，零售商們很快就將索尼 (Sony) 的 PlayStation 5 銷售一空。實體店銷售受到了新冠病毒的封鎖措施，但預購和線上購物很快就展現出 (消費者) 強烈的興趣。其他休閒娛樂的短缺對電動遊戲業來說是一個福音。本週微軟 (Microsoft) 也推出了其 Xbox 的 X系列。
2️⃣LGBT rights in Europe: some are doing otherwise…
LGBT 權利在歐洲：有人唱的是反調…
The European Commission launched a strategy to protect LGBT people, setting it on a likely course for conflict with some eastern member states. The proposals, which member states must agree to, include minimum penalties for anti-LGBT hate crimes. But Hungary has recently proposed a constitutional amendment that would keep gay couples from adopting, and many Polish towns have declared “LGBT-free zones”.
歐盟執委會 (European Commission) 發表了一項旨在保護 LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender; 泛指「女同性戀者、男同性戀者、雙性戀者與跨性別者) 族群的策略計畫。由於該提案須經 (歐盟) 會員國同意才能實施，而且內容包含了針對「反 LGBT 族群」仇恨言論的最低罰款，因此可能與東歐某些會員國 (的法令/價值) 相衝突。例如：匈牙利 (Hungary) 最近提出了一項憲法修正案，禁止同性戀夫婦收養小孩，而許多在波蘭的城鎮亦宣佈其為「無 LGBT 區 (不歡迎 LGBT)」。
3️⃣Biden’s chief of staff: the person for the job
拜登的白宮幕僚長：身經百戰
President-elect Joe Biden named Ron Klain as his White House chief of staff. Mr Klain performed a similar role for Mr Biden when he was vice-president. Mr Klain was appointed “Ebola tsar” in 2014, when that disease briefly threatened America. (He was portrayed by Kevin Spacey in “Recount”, a Hollywood film about the contested presidential election of 2000.)
美國 (新任) 總統當選人拜登任命 Ron Klain 為 (新一任) 白宮幕僚長。Ron Klain 在拜登擔任副總統時期就曾擔綱類似職務。Ron Klain 於 2014年被任命為「伊波拉沙皇 (描述其對抗伊波拉病毒的強硬手腕)」，而當時該病毒曾短暫威脅美國。(好萊塢 (Hollywood) 影星凱文史貝西 (Kevin Spacey) 在講述美國 2000年總統大選的電影《鹿死誰手 (Recount)》中所扮演的角色即現實生活的 Ron Klain。)
🔱Espresso — Today’s agenda
每日濃縮 — 今日頭條
💰2️⃣0️⃣💰Light relief: the G20 and debt restructuring
二十國集團以及債務重組：不無小補
Today G20 finance ministers will try to devise a way of helping the world’s neediest countries, many of which have been crushed both by the pandemic and by heavy debt burdens. The Institute of International Finance, an industry group, calculates that 35 of the poorest African countries will have an average public-debt-to-GDP ratio of a whopping 480% this year. Some of this debt will need to be written off. Securing relief requires co-ordination among different creditors, in particular China, which are due to receive more than 40% of global debt-service payments in 2021. So the G20 is trying to create a framework that treats creditors equally and ensures that none need worry that their generosity is in effect lining others’ pockets. If it proves successful, some hope the framework might eventually apply also to richer countries in need of relief. But not yet: creditors will be asked to accept their haircuts one snip at a time.
二十國集團 (G20，ㄧ國際經濟合作論壇) 的財政部長們今日將試圖設計一種方法來協助世界上最需要幫助的國家，受疫情和沈重的債務負擔所影響，其中許多國家遭受了重創。國際金融協會 (The Institute of International Finance，IIF，一全球金融服務業的協會或貿易組織) 今年計算出 35個最貧窮的非洲國家之平均公債與國內生產總值 (GDP) 的比率將達到驚人的 480%。其中部分債務需被ㄧ筆勾銷，但要獲得減免需要不同債權國之間的協調，特別是中國。中國在 2021年將獲得全球 40%以上的債務償還，因此 G20 正試圖創建一個平等對待債權人的架構，確保沒有人需要擔心他們 (中國) 的慷慨實際上 (在背後) 是中飽私囊的。如果此方法被證明是成功的，一些人也希望此架構最後能適用於其他需要救濟的富裕國家；但現在還不是時候：債權人將先被要求接受一次 (債券價格下跌) 的財務損失。
⚜️Daily takeaway⚜️
每日單字精選
✅Similar (adj.): 相似的 (形)
✅Appoint (v.): 任命、委派 (動)
✅Disease (n.): 疾病 (名)
✅Briefly (adv.): 簡短地 (副)
✅Contested (adj.): 有爭議的 (形)
✅Video-game console (n.): 電動遊戲機 (名)
✅Pre-order (n.): 預購 (名)
✅Intense (adj.): 激烈的、緊繃的 (形)
✅Shortage (n.): 短缺、不足 (名)
✅Entertainment (n.): 娛樂 (名)
✅Strategy (n.): 策略 (名)
✅LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) (n.): 女同性戀者、男同性戀者、雙性戀者與跨性別者的英文首字母縮略字 (名)
✅Conflict (n.): 衝突 (名)
✅Constitutional (adj.): 憲法、憲政的 (形)
✅Amendment (n.): 修正案、修正版 (名)
✅Debt (n.): 債務 (名)
✅Burden (n.): 負擔 (名)
✅Calculate (v.): 計算 (動)
✅Write off (v.): 註銷、報銷、銷帳 (動)
✅Framework (n.): 架構 (名)
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✔︎ 閱讀【每日一經濟學人】Medium 平台：https://reurl.cc/k00WZr | https://medium.com/@leontheeconomist/251-%E7%B6%93%E6%BF%9F%E5%AD%B8%E4%BA%BA%E5%B0%8E%E8%AE%80-%E6%AF%8F%E6%97%A5%E6%96%B0%E8%81%9E-5138f7d7ac54 | ['Leon X The Economist'] | 2020-11-13 15:20:35.117000+00:00 | ['Debt Relief', 'G20', 'LGBT', 'Chief Of Staff', 'PlayStation'] |
Why Choose LambdaTest for Selenium Automation? | Automation testing is a web application testing technique that uses special software to execute several tests on a website, and then compare the actual test results with the expected outcome. In automation testing, a tester writes the test scripts once and uses an automation testing tool to perform repetitive tasks which are not easy to perform manually. In simple words, we can say that automation testing is a wholly automatic technique that requires minimal manual involvement to perform tests across a website.
Now, there are multiple automation testing tools, such as Ranorex, TestComplete, Testingwhiz, and many more. But, Selenium is considered the best automation testing tool for web application testing.
So, in this article, we will discuss about selenium automation testing and how LambdaTest is the best platform for selenium automation.
What is Selenium?
Selenium is an open-source testing framework that is used to perform web application testing across multiple browsers and operating systems like Windows, Mac, and Linux. It helps testers to write test scripts in numerous programming languages, such as Java, C#, Ruby, Groovy, Perl, PHP, and Python. However, it is not a single tool; it’s a software suite consisting of four major components.
Selenium IDE
Selenium Remote Control (RC)
Selenium WebDriver
Selenium Grid
Each of these components caters to different testing needs of an organization. Also, being an open-source framework, it doesn’t involve any licensing cost, which is a great advantage over other testing tools.
Benefits of Using Selenium for Automation Testing
1. Support across multiple browsers
Selenium proud itself by providing support to the most recognized browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari, and many others. Having support across these browsers makes it highly resourceful for testers while performing browser compatibility testing.
2. Portability across Platforms
We all know testing is a repetitive process, even the smallest variations in the code are thoroughly tested to meet the intended functionality. Selenium has high levels of portability, which allow it to run across various platform and browsers. It helps testers to write code quickly without laying much emphasis on the platform.
3. Support Multiple Programming Languages and Frameworks
Selenium supports multiple coding languages like Java, C#, Python, and many more. Also, it integrates with various frameworks very well. For example, it can integrate with Maven and ANT type of framework for source code compilation. Moreover, it combines with TestNG testing framework in an organized manner to test web applications and create test reports.
4. Flexibility
One great advantage of selenium is that it offers regrouping and refactoring of test cases, which makes test management much simpler and more efficient. Selenium allows testers to keep the testing process self-contained and within the program itself.
5. Easy to Implement
Selenium provides an intuitive and user-friendly interface that allows testers to create and execute tests quickly and effectively. With open-source features, testers and developers can script their own extensions to develop customize actions and even operate at an advanced level.
6. Remote Control/Selenium Grid
One of the essential ingredients of website testing is test infrastructure and its quality. And selenium remote control server can be used to create test infrastructure that is potentially spanned over several locations (including the cloud) to drive scripts on a massive browser set.
7. Continuous Updates
Selenium is a community-based testing framework, and the active community support allows constant updates and upgrades for this framework. Every upgrade in selenium is available instantly and does not require any specialized training to use it. Ongoing updates in selenium make it a capable and cost-effective testing framework.
8. Reusablity
Using Selenium test automation framework, testers can efficiently utilize test scripts and apply it directly over different programs. For example, if you to want to perform cross browser testing across multiple browsers, then it can be achieved with one test script by modifying it accordingly.
Why need LambdaTest for Selenium Automation?
Well, if this is one question that is making you curious about why will you even need a tool for the same then answer a question first.
What if you have to test on different browser versions of the same browser? Like you have to test on Chrome 54 and 72 both. How will you do it on your local machine? Installing and reinstalling? Argh! No!
It will be really tiresome and frustrating as you don’t have to test just these two versions but for cross browser testing it will be like hundreds and thousands of use cases like this. Here’s where you’ll need a platform which can provide you all the browsers, operating systems, and devices on cloud. LambdaTest is one such platform where you can run automated cross browser tests using online Selenium grid across thousands of browsers, browser versions, operating systems combinations on cloud.
How Can LambdaTest help you with selenium automation?
So, when it comes to automating website testing with selenium, you need an experienced platform that can perform website testing across all platforms.
That’s where LambdaTest comes to rescue you. LambdaTest provides you a scalable and cloud-based testing platform that enables you to execute Selenium tests thoroughly with their Selenium grid. The Selenium grid gives you access to perform browser compatibility testing for your website across multiple browsers and ensure that your site is rendered perfectly across all platforms including their previous versions.
Apart from that, you can also test your web application across multiple operating systems and devices. With LambdaTest, you don’t have to install any additional virtual machines or browsers to perform cross browser testing. You just need an active internet connection with a free account on LambdaTest, and you can begin with automated testing for your web application.
Now, you might want to know what makes LambdaTest different from its competitors. So, have a look at the automation features that LambdaTest has to offer.
Automation Features Offered by LambdaTest
LambdaTest builds automation testing infrastructure on a scalable selenium grid that allows you to focus on what you do best. Below are some extensive features of LambdaTest automation that make it stand out from the crowd.
Support Parallel Execution — You can perform parallel testing across browsers using LambdaTest Selenium Grid.
Requirement-based Testing — With LambdaTest, you can test your web application according to your requirements.
Automated Screenshot — LambdaTest Automation generates screenshot automatically while executing test cases.
Watch Live Browser Testing — You can watch the entire live testing process with LambdaTest automation in a video format as it is being performed.
Support 2000+ Browsers — LambdaTest provides support across more than 2000 browsers for Selenium automation testing.
Pre-installed Debugging tools– With LambdaTest, you get pre-installed developer and debugging tools in all remote browsers.
Cloud-Based — LambdaTest is a cloud-based cross-browser compatibility testing platform so that you can perform testing without any worries anywhere, anytime.
Bug Tracking Tools — LambdaTest easily integrates with bug tracking tools like Asana, Trello, Bitbucket, Jira, Slack, GitHub, and many other in a single click.
Analysis — LambdaTest also provides you a detailed analysis report. You can get information like tests run, errors encountered, screenshots and videos taken during the tests and a lot more.
Conclusion
To run your online business smoothly and earn a good revenue, it’s vital to test your web application for compatibility so that visitors don’t face any issues while browsing your website. Now, you cannot perform all the tests on your local machine. Also, manual testing is a long process that can even frustrate people. So, it’s better to choose an automation tool that can relieve you from all your cross-browser testing problems. LambdaTest will make the entire testing process easier as well as comfortable for you. | https://medium.com/@samim-67781/why-choose-lambdatest-for-selenium-automation-2d706ab7b035 | [] | 2020-09-03 11:58:48.964000+00:00 | ['Selenium', 'Automation Testing', 'Cross Browser Testing', 'Selenium Test Automation', 'Selenium Grid'] |
INVEST WITH US, ONE TREE AT A TIME | The global carbon credit industry is a billion-dollar industry having crossed a sum total of financial transactions of over $48 billion in 2017. Despite this advancing industry, environment experts and agencies have questioned the emission trading in prohibiting the emission of greenhouse gases. This industry is filled with obstacles and errors causing a hindrance to its efficient advancement.
In light of the problems prevalent in the current carbon credit industry, Forest Foundation offers a platform to release carbon credits that have real underlying forests. The foundation will purchase real forests around the world and issue carbon offset tokens against them. Additionally, Forest Foundation offers a Proof-of-Forest protocol for public use. The Proof-of-Forest protocol makes real-time tracking of forests and plantations feasible by using satellite imagery, title records to prove ownership, and annual taxes to ensure continuous maintenance of forests.
Their one of a kind and progressive blockchain technology enables this. Forest Foundation will list FRST tokens on FreedomDex, allowing traders as well as emitters to purchase tokens efficiently. FRST tokens will be available against all the major cryptocurrencies listed on FreedomDex Exchange including BTC, ETH, LTC, DOGE, XRP, and fiat currencies.
Forest Foundation is introducing an extraordinary ecosystem that issues private carbon offset tokens that are backed by real forests. This Initial Coin Offering will help the Foundation raise funds to purchase forests around the world.
The mission of this distinctive project is unlike any project out there, aiming to contribute to the health of the Earth by preserving and maintaining forests around the globe . The Forest Foundation is creating reliable carbon credits through their efficient blockchain technology that are guaranteed to have a truly positive environmental impact.
Forest Foundation uses blockchain technology to hold data pertaining to the ownership of forests, which includes forest ownership records, annual tax records, and satellite images to prove its existence.
Forest Foundation also offers its investors a chance to give back to our planet earth and help make a difference and bring about a change. By investing in the Forest ICO, one is helping repopulate the current depleting forests around the world and helping save our plane. By being a part and investing in this ICO, you too can now help save our planet one tree at a time.
For more information, visit https://forest.io/.
You can also connect with the team on Telegram, Twitter, Reddit and Facebook. And be sure to subscribe to our newsletter below for important updates! | https://medium.com/forest-io/invest-with-us-one-tree-at-a-time-3c80d04bded6 | [] | 2018-08-10 15:38:13.451000+00:00 | ['Carbon Emissions', 'Forest', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Carbon Footprint', 'Bitcoin'] |
How to Do the Next Right Thing | Life
How to Do the Next Right Thing
Navigating the Dilemma of Decision Making
Photo by Kyle Broad on Unsplash
Nothing gets our attention quite like an unmade decision! Whether we like to admit or not, unmade or pending decisions are often at the center of a lot of turmoil and stress in our lives. If you have ever wondered about decision fatigue — you know what I am talking about.
Perhaps, you have wondered :
Why do some decisions feel so overwhelming?
What if the choice is between two equal (excellent or terrible) options?
How does one move forward with regular tasks amid a looming un-made decision?
The Art of Decision Making
It can sometimes appear as though we are almost addicted to clarity or even certitude — wanting to be sure of all details before moving forward. Or perhaps, we seek approval above all, often leading to a desire to seek everyone’s perspective before understanding your own, leaving ourselves susceptible to finding a lack of confidence and struggling with a chronic case of hesitation.
Or maybe you have a strong aversion to making a decision, so you either delegate them or settle with the quickest choice. Or perhaps you are addicted to busyness, to the fast pace of our uber connected-lives, leaving very little time, let alone energy and space, to consider what might be best, much less what you want.
If any of this sounds like you — read on!
“It’s the mights and maybes of our lives that keep us awake at night — Emily Freeman”
So Many Decisions and So Little Time…
I recently read a book, “The Next Right Thing,” by Emily Freeman. According to the author, an average American makes over 35,000 decisions each day, including about 200 decisions on food choices alone! Many of these are mindless, and often, we aren’t even aware that we have a choice. We almost always have an opportunity, and even when we elect not to choose, we are making a choice.
Photo by Andrej Lišakov on Unsplash
Freeman proposes a person-focused approach to decision making. In reading the book, it is clear that she does not tell her readers what to decide; instead, she offers a direction — to live in the moment.
To decide just what the next right step should be rather than trying to figure out precisely the wheres, whos, whys, and so on. The latter approach is overwhelming, to say the least.
She provides new insights into how to turn overwhelming decision making into a simple, soulful practice. Each suggested practice in the book comprises a short reflection, suggested actions, and a prayer to help you create some “space for your soul to breathe.” Her approach has a religious viewpoint, but I find that parts of her message would resonate with a broader range of readers.
Based on the book, The Next Right Thing, developing daily practices can make decision making easier. Such methods can include: decluttering your life by adding daily reflection, naming things, and making lists of things that enhance life energy. Let me explain.
“Minimalism is not that you should own nothing, but that nothing should own you,” — Joshua Becker
Becoming a soul minimalist
Stillness is to soul as de-cluttering is to a home. It helps simplify our lives, and it can start with developing habits that can help cut down clutter from our lives. Freeman suggests that there is too much noise coming into our lives every day and that daily reflection can help take some of the clutter out.
Take a few minutes each day to quiet the outside noises and reflect on what is vital for your unique version of happiness. It can help to picture a higher power walking with you in this task, helping you, guiding you, assisting you, and issuing a kind invitation to release the burden of hard decisions.
Practice: Notice the Silence Take a moment each day to notice the silent spaces in your day. For example, Notice the first light of the morning, your walk to the mailbox in the middle of the day, your home before your kids wake up in the morning, or apartment before your roommates return from work, or your drive to the grocery store. Make effort to not fill the silence with any sound or with the inner mind chatter of past conversations or future possibilities. Decide instead to experience the quiet inside and make an active effort to connect with your higher self or universe or god.
Naming Things
Once we start to declutter and find out what is important to us, it helps naming one’s priorities. Freeman suggests that allowing things to remain unnamed and unacknowledged impacts decision making.
Naming is a powerful process of acknowledging things that are important to us, and Once we name things, they carry weight, importance, and a sense of intimacy with the object.
Just like to know a person’s name is to know something about them. Naming is important for other things as well. In failing to name precisely what we are deciding, our minds can feel clouded with generalities and a vague sense of anxiety. When facing a decision, name the things that are involved. Clearly, state the choices that exist.
Practice: Name the Narrative Take the time to name the unnamed things. Whatever it is that is coming up for you, name them for what they are — grief, sadness, worry, excitement, joy, envy, desire, exhaustion or hope. Listen to what is coming up with curiosity, even if you are afraid you won’t like what you hear. Listen with assurance that you are not listening alone, the divine being is always there with youm supporting you and holding you with kindness. Asking yourself the following questions can help the unnamed realities rise to the surface: Is there a hurt you haven’t quite let go? A regret that’s been following you for so long you think it’s normal? An excitement you haven’t given yourself permission to explore? A dream might be hanging out in the wings, kicking at rocks or standing on tiptoe? Are you in the middle of a major life transition — did one of your child leave kindergarten, or go off to college? or Did your spouse or you start a new job? Is there someone in your family with a recent diagnosis? Is a friend celebrating a success you wish was yours?
Photo by André Noboa on Unsplash
Make a Life Energy List
In trying to make a decision, a piece of standard advice is often to make a list of pros and cons. Freeman does not favor making a pro-con list. Instead, she suggests making a life energy list. A life energy list is a preemptive list. It will not eliminate decision making, but it can serve as a helpful filter. Using this information in the future, you can decide with actual data from experience rather than frantic speculation.
One way to do this is to choose a category of your life and then a specific time frame. For example, let us choose the category, Relationships, and the time frame of the past three months.
For this life energy list, reflect on any community, group, or volunteer activity that you might have engaged in the past three months, time spent with friends and family, time spent with other families, or any traveling with other friends.
Once you have listed down the events, you can reflect on whether they go into the life-draining or life-giving category. If, for example, you realize that a fall- camping trip with friends was at the top of your life-giving list, you might want to include more of these in your life.
Practice: Make the Most Important List Daily A simpler daily practice to include daily reflection, such as one inspired by The Daily Examen is a technique of prayerful reflection on the events of the day in order to detect God’s presence and discern his direction for us. Each day, practice the following prayerful reflection: Step 1: Affirm the presence of Grace in your life.
Step 2: Review the day with gratitude.
Step 3: Pay attention to your emotions.
Step 4: Choose one highlight of the day and pray on it.
Step 5: Look toward tomorrow. It’s easier to engage in making a life energy list once you have developed the practice of daily reflection.
Photo by Lubo Minar on Unsplash
The Next Right Thing
In essence, her book has a piece of simple advice: when faced with a decision, do the next right thing now — not the Next Big Thing. Not the Next Impressive Thing — just the right thing in front of you.
Freeman recommends that when facing a big decision in your life, perhaps your next right thing is to ask a single question:
In this decision, am I being pushed by fear or led by love?
The answer to this question alone can often offer all the insight you might need to take the next right step.
“There might be many good reasons to act or not to act, dont let fear be one of them “ — Shaun Groves
Here, I describe only a summary of my main inspired takeaways. The full booklists several practical strategies for decision making, such as becoming a soul minimalist, don’t rush clarity, choose your absence, naming things, and making a life energy list, and practicing feeling gratitude every day.
She offers so many other workable tips for decision making that I believe in reading “The Next Right Thing” may be your next right decision! | https://medium.com/science-soul/how-to-do-the-next-right-thing-e57b7e768588 | ['R. Rangan Phd'] | 2020-11-29 04:34:00.244000+00:00 | ['Mindfulness', 'Psychology', 'Productivity', 'Inspiration', 'Decision Making'] |
ONLINE MOTHER’S DAY GIFT IDEAS | HERBAL GOODNESS | Mother’s Day is such a fun, relaxing holiday filled with family, busy restaurant meals, and sweet memories. It’s your chance to shine, openly express your love for your mom through words, time, and gifts. Unique Mother’s Day gifts reveal just how much you know about your mom and other women in your life.
Of course, you could purchase traditional gifts like flowers, jewelry or a box of chocolates that you spot at a Mother’s Day sale. But, traditional Mother’s Day present ideas may not send the message that you want to convey. So, before you open your pocketbook or wallet, take the time to think about the mothers in your life.
FOCUS ON MOM FOR BEST MOTHER’S DAY CELEBRATION IDEAS
For example, are the moms in your life natural hair advocates? Are they passionate vegans, vegetarians, or meat-eating nature lovers? Or are these amazing women fitness buffs, busy entrepreneurs, or avid world travelers? If you’re short on time, here’s a quick tip. These and other moms may absolutely love a Herbal Goodness gift card.
This gift card offers a unique personal touch that makes it easy for moms to nourish their bodies with safe, healthy food products like Bamboo Leaf Tea, Graviola Leaf Extract, Guava Leaves, or Papaya Leaf Tea. In addition to supporting their bodies, moms may love a Herbal Goodness gift card because Herbal Goodness donates 10% of its profits to support education for Africa’s girls and women. There may be no better way to give a mother a gift that keeps on giving.
As you think about the passions, hobbies, and personal goals of the moms in your life, you might be surprised to discover that the best online Happy Mother’s Day gifts are simple and inexpensive. Looking for Mother’s Day present ideas? Check out these ideas for Mother’s Day gifts.
SIMPLE MOTHERS DAY GIFTS
Lightweight handbag (These are great Mother’s Day gifts for Nan and great Mother’s Day gifts for new moms). Choose the mom’s favorite color. Want an added personal touch? Get the handbag engraved with the mom’s first name or her initials.
Books in the genre that moms love to read
T-shirt or sweater that’s designed with a 3D family picture on the front
Homemade dessert like a cake, pie, or prepare healthy meals that last mom a week. Pump up the healthiness in the food by adding papaya leaves, guava leaves, or bamboo leaves from Herbal Goodness to the recipe.
Spa day
Her favorite cologne
Cozy pair of house slippers (What mom doesn’t love having her feet pampered while she’s relaxing?)
MORE GREAT IDEAS FOR MOTHER’S DAY GIFTS
Thanks to the fact that Mother’s Day is a holiday that’s celebrated in different parts of the world, you can get a gift for your mom, your partner’s mom, or a friend in moments, especially if you shop and buy the gift online. For instance, Mother’s Day gift basket ideas range from fruit baskets to floral arrangements to custom made gift baskets with a mix of colorful dried flowers, Herbal Goodness non-GMO products, scented candles, and a Herbal Goodness gift card.
It’s also easy to find Mother’s Day gift ideas from kids. For starters, kids could get mom a necklace with a gold or silver loop that has each kid’s name engraved on a loop. Fingerprinted canvases, homemade Mother’s Day cards, a decorative journal, and breakfast in bed with an inviting cup of Herbal Goodness Graviola Leaf Tea are other great Mother’s Day gift ideas from kids.
New moms might appreciate a weekend alone or the chance to treat themselves to an hour at a sports event, spa, live play, or cool restaurant while you stay back and look after their children. You really can’t go wrong when it comes to homemade Mother’s Day gift ideas, especially if you take the time to think about what the mothers in your life appreciate and are passionate about.
FIRST MOTHER’S DAY GIFT IDEAS
This is the one time when it’s smart to think about “mom”. For instance, keep moms in mind whether you buy them flowers or cards, simple Mother’s Day gifts that moms have been receiving since the holiday officially kicked off in the United States in 1914.1 On the other hand, you could return to lavish Mother’s Day celebrations of the ancient Greeks or ancient Romans, two areas where historic Mother’s Day festivals were held.
Depending on the part of the world you’re in, you could be celebrating Mother’s Day in May or you could celebrate the holiday in August, the time when Thailand celebrates the holiday. Fortunately, wherever you are in the world, you can express your love and gift a mother close to you a Herbal Goodness Gift Card.
References: | https://medium.com/@herbal-goodness/online-mothers-day-gift-ideas-herbal-goodness-313c610d25a2 | ['Herbal Goodness'] | 2020-05-06 13:57:18.862000+00:00 | ['Herbal Goodness', 'Celebration', 'Mothers', 'Mothers Day', 'Gift Card'] |
What are we supposed to do with our bodies now? | How the whiplash of the past year — from “Eat whatever you want!” to “Lose the COVID weight!”— can affect someone with binge eating disorder.
Photo by Lana Soosar on Unsplash
Note: Contains discussion of disordered eating behaviors.
The body panic began before March 2020 ended. Once it dawned on us that we’d be confined to our living rooms for more than a weekend — or a week, or two weeks — many of us feared not only that we might get sick, but that we might gain weight.
People memed about putting on “the quarantine 15” or “the COVID-19,” or that they were “fattening the curve.” Chain emails (inexplicably back on the scene) offered “lockdown jokes” like, “Will the producers of My 600-Lb Life come find me, or do I find them?”
Then came the blowback. People wrote that worrying about weight during a public health crisis was asinine or propagated body shaming. Some writers expressed outrage — “There’s a Global Pandemic and You Chucklefucks Are Still Being Fatphobic” — and other writers and tweeters tried to soothe: “Don’t Be Ashamed of Those Extra Pounds” or “Just logged on to say that pandemic weight gain looks good af on you!”
During this pandemic, our daily habits and how they’ve changed became, for once, compelling conversation fodder. Naturally, then, much of the discourse has revolved around how and what we eat. An idea borne from that discourse has been evinced in booming sales of “junk food” and that restaurants all over the world pivoted to comfort food: We should just eat whatever we want.
“Just eat the damn pasta,” Cosmopolitan implored in March 2020. “Eat a homemade slice of bread or three.”
“Let’s stress-eat some chips together,” The New York Times Magazine nudged in January 2021. “A bag of chips is a way to defeat time.”
Celebrities — they’re just like us! — are on board, too: “Before all of this eating healthy made me feel good, and now I just eat whatever brings me joy,” Gabrielle Union told Katie Couric in May 2020.
It’s unsurprising and somewhat heartening that during this agonizing time, we’ve collectively scoffed, “Whatever, I’m getting cheese fries.” We’ve been Lucille Bluth eating a sheet cake with bare hands. For many of us, this shift toward more relaxed attitudes is constructive. That we might release ourselves from any guilt we usually harbor about food is a beautiful thing.
But while business boomed for “junk food” companies and comfort food-focused restaurants early in the pandemic, now “business has jumped for companies that sell plans to lose weight.” We’re bombarded once more with ads for weight loss services or “detox” programs. We’re seeing gyms and boutique fitness studios tout “Lose the Quarantine 15!” specials. We’re hearing people talk about getting their “post-vax beach body” with unprecedented fervor. As ever, we’re encountering a lot of noise about whatever we’re apparently supposed to be doing with our bodies, shouted at us by those who want to sell us something or who have decided that any one way to interact with your body is the “right,” “normal,” or “healthy” one.
I’m certainly not alone in having grown frustrated with the suggestions of what’s “right” to do with my body. For my whole life, these suggestions (or outright demands) have flown at me from family members, friends, doctors, and a culture that values thinness as next to godliness.
I’ve long been captive to the breakneck-speed changes of whatever I was “supposed” to be doing for “health,” for aesthetics, or to just be considered “normal” with regard to how I eat. Fat is bad; no, wait, fat is good, carbs are bad; no, hang on, carbs are fine but you have to eat only those that were consumed in the Paleolithic era; actually, just track your macronutrients and you can eat whatever so long as it “fits your macros”…Are you exercising? Running is the best way to get “in shape!” Actually, Pilates is; no, CrossFit is; no, Barry’s, no, Peloton…and on and on.
These things aren’t presented as mere options — because of marketing, general hype, some random study, or impassioned testimonials from your friend’s coworker’s friend, we’re led to believe that one way is “the best,” the new breakthrough way to eat or move that’s going to finally work. For anyone who just isn’t sure what’s best for them — and it requires a tremendous amount of time and attention to really figure that out — it’s easy to chase whatever the “it” thing is, without considering if that thing will work for your life, your experiences, your needs, and your sanity.
Following a certain prescribed diet doesn’t work for my life, experiences, needs, or sanity. Neither does only doing one type of exercise. But just as those don’t work for me, the directive to just eat “whatever I want” doesn’t either, because of my personal history with disordered eating.
For many years of my life, I was a habitual binge eater. My disordered relationship with food — how I routinely ate to the point of physical pain because it temporarily muted the anxiety, insecurity, and anger ravaging my mind — was eroding my overall well-being, and it wasn’t until I was in my mid-20s that I began to truly confront it and work to move past it. My experience with this kind of disordered eating, and what I’ve done to recover from it, has fundamentally changed how I interact with and think about food, what foods I want versus what foods I crave, and how what I eat and how I move affect my mind.
The directives to eat whatever we want assumes that what we all want is the same, that we’re all constantly holding ourselves back from eating ice cream for dinner but the pandemic has given us carte blanche to do so. Of course, there are people who regularly hold themselves back from eating what they truly want to eat for any number of reasons — not least of them the fear of gaining weight, no matter how potentially destructive that fear might be.
But there’s a growing assumption in our culture that if a person isn’t eating what they really want at any given moment — a foundational concept in intuitive eating, which has become increasingly popular over the years — it’s because they’re miserably restricting themselves, dieting, or have an eating disorder. This is an oversimplification, a misunderstanding of how eating disorders can be for those who have them, and for me, feels like the same kind of food surveillance and judgment levied against me when I was a bigger person and a teenager developing her eating disorder. It was a problem when I ate “too much,” now it’s a problem that I don’t eat in the “right way.” The fingers point in different directions, but the finger-pointing is stressful all the same.
***
Lately on Twitter and other social media communities, I’ve seen proclamations that the following are disordered: Eating a bowl of fruit for breakfast. The concept of “eating in moderation.” Waking up early to run before work.
Any of these things could be driven by a harmful preoccupation or obsession with forcing one’s body into thinness or “fitness”; they could be habits that cause a person distress and affect their physical, psychological and social function; they could be the behaviors and habits of someone with an eating disorder. Or, they could not be.
If someone eats only three strawberries for breakfast and starves themselves for the rest of the day, that’s one issue. But someone could eat only a fruit salad for breakfast — because that’s what they want to eat, i.e., they’re eating intuitively — then go on to eat multiple more meals full of protein, fat, and carbohydrates, never feeling starved or deprived. We cannot and should not make diagnoses based on only the smallest snapshot of a person’s overall lifestyle and habits, but I understand why we do: We’re on high alert for any behaviors that strike us as suggestive of a problem, because the most restrictive or insidious elements of what we call diet culture (the grapefruit diets; the relentless number tracking and counting, and guilt if we exceed the “right” numbers; the compensatory cardio) have maintained a vice grip around our necks. As many of us work to call attention to that suffocation or start to break free of it altogether, we’re compelled to point at the starvation diets, the exercise-as-punishment-for-eating, and say: “This? We don’t have to — and probably shouldn’t — do this.”
That urge is not a bad thing. Many of us, including me, aim to advocate for a way of living that doesn’t require us to offer penance in the kitchen and gym. I believe these call-outs are well-intentioned, but they far too often are accusatory, generalized, and lacking a full understanding of how another person lives. We’re not going to “solve” eating disorders or erode diet culture by suggesting that people are victim to these issues if they aren’t eating or moving in a way we decide is right or “healthy” for everyone. As with all things body and mind, how people reach a state of personal harmony with their bodies is just more complicated and nuanced than that.
Like so much else, eating disorders got worse during the pandemic. More than 60% of Americans with anorexia had worse symptoms since the pandemic began. Almost a third of people with binge eating disorder (BED) had an increase in episodes, and BED is three times more common than anorexia and bulimia combined. Eating disorders in general are widely misunderstood, and BED might be most misunderstood of all — it was only included as a formal diagnosis in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (the DSM) in 2013; anorexia made it into the DSM in 1952, and bulimia in 1980.
BED goes beyond some of the pandemic eating behaviors many people (including me) have engaged in, like eating more than usual or adding a host of favorite snacks to the shopping cart. It goes beyond “emotional eating,” beyond kicking back with ice cream and wine after a bad day. People with BED frantically eat to the point of great discomfort even when they’re not hungry, usually alone because of shame and embarrassment, and feel utterly anguished afterward. They feel as though they’ve lost control during these binges, which happen at least weekly.
At age 32, I can say this: from around eighth grade through my early 20s, the way I ate fit this criteria. At some points I’d binge several times a week. I gained weight quickly. During my sophomore year of college, I also had recurring anxiety and panic attacks; my heart randomly raced out of control and I had to wear a heart monitor overnight for several months. My bingeing (an anxiety coping mechanism) was at its worst then. I had also become pre-diabetic and pre-hypertensive before my 21st birthday.
In the deepest throes of my disordered eating routine, I’d eat — in secret, always in secret — to the point of physical pain and emotional catastrophe. I’d hurriedly eat a McDonald’s drive-through meal (extra fries, milkshake) in my car on the way to CVS where I’d buy multiple packaged sugary things and a whole family-sized box of cereal I’d eat for dessert. Eat whatever you want if it makes you happy and feels good, I say, but these foods did not make me happy. I barely even tasted them, and so my binge foods didn’t have to be tasty. I’d eat a package of cold, dry sandwich wraps or sleeves of plain Saltines if that’s all I had. I ate not for pleasure or enjoyment, but to anesthetize myself. I’d be in a kind of blackout, a single-minded vortex where the volume of food served only to snuff out my anxiety. It wasn’t emotional eating. It was obliteration eating.
There are foods I associate with my bingeing state of mind that can be triggers for me now. When I lived alone a block away from a jumbo-slice pizza place, I’d often get three torso-sized pieces to hurriedly eat before falling into a post-binge stupor. Pizza is still hard for me, because for years I never felt OK in body and mind after I ate it. I’ve had to re-train my brain to understand that this and other foods can be neutral or delightful, not a means of self-destruction.
Some trigger foods are curiously specific because they’re foods that were in my parents’ house when I was younger and my disordered eating was taking shape. While my mom was usually on some diet or another, her grocery haul included the foods my brother and dad would eat freely: Pop-Tarts (brown sugar cinnamon), Breyers mint chocolate chip ice cream (my dad’s weird favorite, it has to be Breyers), Triscuits (I’d eat an entire box in one sitting, causing my mom to yell that she “Just bought the fucking things, what happened?”), rubbery white American cheese slices specifically from the Acme supermarket deli. How I think of these foods recalls the way my dad, a recovering alcoholic nearly two decades sober, has described a nice pour of whiskey: “Damn, that’s good stuff. I just can’t have it. I can’t only have Just. That. One.”
I’ve sometimes felt like people assume that the way I eat is an unspoken pronouncement of how a person should eat, that I’m judging their food choices by making my own. Someone’s eyed my lunch and sneered, “Oh, are you being good?” or “You’re making me feel bad!” I want to shake them and hiss: I don’t give a shit what you eat. You shouldn’t feel bad! I’m just not in the frame of mind right now where I can eat certain things without fearing I’ll harm myself.
If I’m not in the right frame of mind to enjoy — to truly savor and delight in — the kinds of foods I know are not “bad,” but that I have been taught are, and if my mind is not feeling calm and just OK enough to interact with the kinds of foods I used to binge on, I will harm myself with food.
Now, I have to consider what I’m about to eat, remind myself that there’s nothing wrong with it, and focus on the fact that I’m eating it because I want to enjoy food and it’s OK to enjoy food. I certainly wish this kind of thinking was second-nature, but old habits die hard — I grew up in a home with dozens of diet books on the shelves; with a mother who nudged me into doing Atkins with her in eighth grade; around a grandmother who constantly told me that she prayed that I’d lose weight; in a culture where I saw in a teen magazine that Britney Spears does 1,000 crunches a day, right next to an “Eat This, Not That” spread.
***
No surprise: I had increased binge eating episodes during the pandemic. Like everyone, I was often distressed, despondent, and overwhelmed — the perfect conditions for disordered eating to rear its head.
Within the past year, my partner and I decided to get takeout from a place nearby that serves great Southeast Asian food. The meal we wanted felt special because it included things we wouldn’t make for ourselves or eat often: fragrant bowls of pho, pillowy fried curry puffs, sweet taro milk tea. If I was feeling calm about this meal, I’d look forward to eating it and being satisfied by it; I’d have no guilt about it, because I shouldn’t.
But due to a thousand worries large and small, I was agitated and anxious when I offered to go pick up this meal. It feels impossible when I’m in this state to shake off the indoctrination of food guilt, that I was about to go eat bad things, and so the wheels came off the bus. Why not really go ham? I felt myself sucked into that vortex, looking desperately for a volume of food that would soothe the anxiety about everything else and that I was about to eat the pho, the puffs, the tea. It makes no sense, but I had to eat more to deal with the stress I was feeling about letting myself eat something it’s been taught to me is “bad.”
So I ran into the market next door first and bought a mini single-serving cheesecake and also a slice of cake for us to share (he only knew about this slice of cake I bought back, I ate everything else in secret). I got a pack of sushi I ate in the car with my fingers like a madwoman. I got a container of mozzarella cheese balls. I got chips and rammed them down in berserk handfuls. I felt panicked about getting the right amount of the right things: my binge had to include something sweet, something savory, things that felt especially egregious. I was about to do something “bad,” I thought, and so I had to punish myself. That’s what’s so twisted about this disorder: food can be at once a coping mechanism, a stupefacient, and a punitive measure.
It’s all unhinged, deranged, sad, not to mention grotesquely privileged and wasteful. Who blows like $40 on a bunch of stuff to eat in a clandestine fit, and not even enjoy, in addition to a full takeout meal? I would have felt fine, happy, satisfied if I’d just eaten the takeout — because there’s nothing fucking wrong with eating takeout. But since I bookended that meal with almost two more meals, I felt nauseated, ashamed, and sick in so, so many ways.
***
By going to therapy, painfully excavating the emotions behind my binges, and discovering how exercise helped soothe my anxiety and panic attacks, I cultivated different eating and moving habits and lost a significant amount of weight over a couple years. I won’t share the specific numbers associated with my body here, as I know that can be harmful to people with eating disorders. I’ll say this: At my largest, I experienced random harassment because of my size (men have screamed “You’re fat!” at me from across the street and in a bar); now, people ask me questions about exercise and I don’t expect my doctors will bring up my weight at every visit. Simply: My body has changed enough to completely alter my lived experience.
My aforementioned health problems also resolved themselves when I lost weight, but that’s not a result of only weight loss itself. Someone could lose a lot of weight very quickly by various means and still be the most distressed, hypertensive, hyperglycemic person in the room. Many people who aren’t fat have health problems, and many people who are fat don’t. I lost body mass, yes, but everything else about how I live and think — my true, whole health — changed too.
Weight loss for weight loss’ sake does not matter to me. I don’t see a simple reduction of poundage as my greatest accomplishment, even though some people treat it that way. It’s what’s behind the change — that I confronted my eating issue and sought to fix it, that I learned more about myself in the process, that I discovered new things that bring me peace — that’s meaningful. The way I changed how I live, and so in turn lost weight, is inextricably connected to my recovery from habitual disordered eating. It has also affected what kinds of foods I want versus what kinds of foods I crave.
I’ve learned that there are foods I don’t want to eat most of the time at this point in my life, because they are binge triggers or simply make my body physically feel unwell. If I don’t usually eat foods with a ton of sodium and then I do, I’ll get a headache. If I don’t usually eat foods that have a lot of added sugar and then I do, I’ll soon feel a hangover-like crash. Pointing out these personal realities isn’t a condemnation of eating salt and sugar. Some foods just have side effects. This is the case for lots of foods, not just “junk” food — I used to be able to eat chickpeas, for instance, and now they tear my guts up (truly a bummer for me). The microbiome is complex and weird. I’ve spent a great deal of time familiarizing myself, for better or worse, with how food affects me. That doesn’t mean I get a gold star. I just had to do it, because the way I used to eat was ruining my life — not because I was a bigger person, but because I was punishing and abusing myself with food.
In tandem with how I was starting to rewire my brain, I stopped eating, I don’t know, five or six thousand calories a day a few times a week. I replaced the foods and food sensations — incredibly salty, incredibly sugary — that I knew triggered me with other foods that literally nourished me. So I lost weight as a result. I broke myself from what felt like an addiction to certain foods and food sensations. That doesn’t mean I’ll never eat pizza again, or anything incredibly sugary again. It just means I don’t relentlessly crave these things all the time.
I crave foods because I’m stressed and want comfort, or because I’m tired or dehydrated, or accidentally went too long without eating and so any food you could name sounds delicious, or am in a certain context (like my parents’ house, where I find myself longing for the Triscuits et al). But giving in to these cravings absolutely any time I have them isn’t what I want for myself, because for too long food ruled my life in the sense that I’d immediately eat what I craved plus a dozen other things anytime I felt emotionally overwhelmed, which was almost all the time.
This association, that a craving will necessarily equal a binge, is one I’m still trying to break. In the meantime, I’ve come to want food differently. Ultimately what I want from food is to feel satisfied, or delighted, or fueled, or simply like I’ve treated myself well by eating that food, whatever “well” means to me. Sometimes I can treat myself well by going out and ordering a huge plate of ravioli (another longtime trigger, pasta). Sometimes I can’t. If these foods I crave don’t actually satisfy what I ultimately want, I might choose not to eat them.
I know how it all sounds — take to the internet to explain that you don’t even really want junk food most of the time, and everyone thinks you’re a smug asshole. It’s like saying you don’t own a TV and spend your evenings reading Proust. I get it. I hesitate to admit what I usually eat because I’m certain I’ll come off like a rigid health-scold — or just a delusional liar. Oh yes, what I crave most is steamed kale, you might imagine me saying as your eyes roll right out of your head. There’s nothing quite like unwinding with a skinless chicken breast, you might think I’m suggesting.
But I don’t think the opposite of “junk food” is “diet food.” I don’t think the opposite of “eat whatever you want” is “restrict your food intake in accordance with whatever diet plan is scamming the most Americans out of their money, and if you’re miserable, it’s working!” I think there’s another place to live and I think it’s difficult to reach, let alone describe to other people. I think this place is called something like “the thing that makes you truly feel neutral, OK, or even great most of the time, because of a million specific, personal reasons and after a lot of trial and error.” How gauche. How unmarketable. But there it is.
I don’t think people should only eat steamed kale and chicken. That’s not, in fact, how I eat. I don’t “diet.” I eat a lot. I’m a weight lifter and cycling instructor and easily eat more than 2,000 calories (I don’t actually know) every day to sustain the movement I do. I basically eat every two or three hours and rarely feel hungry. That’s how I eat intuitively.
I’ve said it before: Being taught that some foods are “bad” and others “good,” and internalizing that having an appetite was a personality flaw and gaining weight was a moral failing has damaged me in ways I’ll be unpacking forever. I hope other people find ways to push back against these ideas. Many already have, and so that push has given way to movements and philosophies like fat acceptance, Health at Any Size, or intuitive eating, which are positive for so many people. I’m only wary of any suggestion that if you don’t fully give yourself over to every element of these movements or philosophies, you are problematic or disordered. People have their reasons, besides fatphobia or an unrelenting desire to be as thin as possible, for being unable or unwilling to fully lean into them — just as people have always had their reasons for being unable or unwilling to participate in diet culture.
***
I’ve spent years working to understand why I binge. Part of the reason is that I have control freak tendencies and can be very rigid, single-minded, and obsessive; if I’ve in the past (like when I was younger, trying to diet) set my mind to eating only food I’ve deemed “healthy” — a loaded, vague term — I’ll eat that way without fail for a while, then inevitably feel too restricted and “lash out” with a binge. If eating only “healthy” meals has felt punishing and sucked any potential joy from the experience of eating food, I seek the thrill (it’s not joy, but it’s drama) of a kind of food bender. The binge also feels like a rip-roaring act of rebellion against the idea that I’m not supposed to eat something; I regress to the 13-year-old me whose food intake was constantly sized up, remarked upon, and condemned for being too much.
I have to think about some meals entirely differently now: I plan to have them, I eat them in contexts where I can pay attention to their taste and savor them. I’ve had to practice, for years, being OK with food, and I still haven’t perfected this and probably never will. This all sounds tedious, I know. The mental gymnastics required to simply allow myself to eat food are borne from a lifetime of feeling like I could not. I wish sometimes I could just eat the pizza without making it a whole thing in my head. The whole thing is goddamn exhausting sometimes, but it exhausts me far less than my binge eating and emotional repression did.
Many of us seem to be continually on a quest to find a way of being in our bodies and a way of relating to them that is simply not exhausting. Some of us are exhausted by the suggestion that we should always love our bodies, and choose to focus on “body neutrality” instead. Some of us are exhausted by the idea of “meal prepping” or a ClassPass membership, while others relish in structure and accountability. Any option is utterly fine so long as it’s undertaken because of a genuine belief that it makes your life easier, more joyful, better.
We’ve had perhaps the most emotionally exhausting past year of our lives, and the pandemic is still not over. We’ve thought relentlessly about the body: how to protect it, where to put it, how to move it through a suddenly more threatening world safely, what was happening to it as we kept it home. There will be no reprieve — as businesses open up, more people get vaccinated, employers call us back to the office to operate at the height of our productivity — we’re expected back out in the world where it feels like perfection is demanded, especially when it comes to our physical selves. Out in that world, we might be trying to offer grace to bodies that have changed while simultaneously being told it’s time to put down the COVID snacks, slap our step trackers back on, and hit the gym.
I try to remember that perfection is not, in fact, mandatory or attainable in the post-vaccination era or ever. I’m not perfectly recovered from my disordered eating behaviors and my eating and moving strategies aren’t the best. They’re merely better for me now than what I did before. We need to create a conversation around bodies in which no one presumes to know what’s best for anyone else. I don’t see “eat whatever you want all the time” as the answer for me any more than I see “eat 1,300 calories a day and follow this diet forever, which is essentially impossible” as the answer for me. Somewhere in the middle, there should be room for people to figure something else out, to find harmony with their bodies and habits however they might, without their choices being lambasted for not hewing to a standard someone else has set. If we all ultimately seek to feel free in our bodies, what could be more freeing than that? | https://medium.com/@mikala-jamison/what-are-we-supposed-to-do-with-our-bodies-now-bce76c3f38b6 | ['Mikala Jamison'] | 2021-06-02 12:05:06.458000+00:00 | ['Mental Health', 'Body Image', 'Weight Loss', 'Binge Eating', 'Eating Disorders'] |
on earth will ever make you feel happy and fulfilled. And the next, you’re perfectly in flow, writing the most important book of your entire career. | on earth will ever make you feel happy and fulfilled. And the next, you’re perfectly in flow, writing the most important book of your entire career. McKee vs Caldwell Live Tv Nov 19, 2020·5 min read
Life is a journey of twists and turns, peaks and valleys, mountains to climb and oceans to explore.
Good times and bad times. Happy times and sad times.
But always, life is a movement forward.
No matter where you are on the journey, in some way, you are continuing on — and that’s what makes it so magnificent. One day, you’re questioning what on earth will ever make you feel happy and fulfilled. And the next, you’re perfectly in flow, writing the most important book of your entire career.
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What nobody ever tells you, though, when you are a wide-eyed child, are all the little things that come along with “growing up.”
1. Most people are scared of using their imagination.
They’ve disconnected with their inner child.
They don’t feel they are “creative.”
They like things “just the way they are.”
2. Your dream doesn’t really matter to anyone else.
Some people might take interest. Some may support you in your quest. But at the end of the day, nobody cares, or will ever care about your dream as much as you.
3. Friends are relative to where you are in your life.
Most friends only stay for a period of time — usually in reference to your current interest. But when you move on, or your priorities change, so too do the majority of your friends.
4. Your potential increases with age.
As people get older, they tend to think that they can do less and less — when in reality, they should be able to do more and more, because they have had time to soak up more knowledge. Being great at something is a daily habit. You aren’t just “born” that way.
5. Spontaneity is the sister of creativity.
If all you do is follow the exact same routine every day, you will never leave yourself open to moments of sudden discovery. Do you remember how spontaneous you were as a child? Anything could happen, at any moment!
6. You forget the value of “touch” later on.
When was the last time you played in the rain?
When was the last time you sat on a sidewalk and looked closely at the cracks, the rocks, the dirt, the one weed growing between the concrete and the grass nearby.
Do that again.
You will feel so connected to the playfulness of life.
7. Most people don’t do what they love.
It’s true.
The “masses” are not the ones who live the lives they dreamed of living. And the reason is because they didn’t fight hard enough. They didn’t make it happen for themselves. And the older you get, and the more you look around, the easier it becomes to believe that you’ll end up the same.
Don’t fall for the trap.
8. Many stop reading after college.
Ask anyone you know the last good book they read, and I’ll bet most of them respond with, “Wow, I haven’t read a book in a long time.”
9. People talk more than they listen.
There is nothing more ridiculous to me than hearing two people talk “at” each other, neither one listening, but waiting for the other person to stop talking so they can start up again.
10. Creativity takes practice.
It’s funny how much we as a society praise and value creativity, and yet seem to do as much as we can to prohibit and control creative expression unless it is in some way profitable.
If you want to keep your creative muscle pumped and active, you have to practice it on your own.
11. “Success” is a relative term.
As kids, we’re taught to “reach for success.”
What does that really mean? Success to one person could mean the opposite for someone else.
Define your own Success.
12. You can’t change your parents.
A sad and difficult truth to face as you get older: You can’t change your parents.
They are who they are.
Whether they approve of what you do or not, at some point, no longer matters. Love them for bringing you into this world, and leave the rest at the door.
13. The only person you have to face in the morning is yourself.
When you’re younger, it feels like you have to please the entire world.
You don’t.
Do what makes you happy, and create the life you want to live for yourself. You’ll see someone you truly love staring back at you every morning if you can do that.
14. Nothing feels as good as something you do from the heart.
No amount of money or achievement or external validation will ever take the place of what you do out of pure love.
Follow your heart, and the rest will follow.
15. Your potential is directly correlated to how well you know yourself.
Those who know themselves and maximize their strengths are the ones who go where they want to go.
Those who don’t know themselves, and avoid the hard work of looking inward, live life by default. They lack the ability to create for themselves their own future.
16. Everyone who doubts you will always come back around.
That kid who used to bully you will come asking for a job.
The girl who didn’t want to date you will call you back once she sees where you’re headed. It always happens that way.
Just focus on you, stay true to what you believe in, and all the doubters will eventually come asking for help.
17. You are a reflection of the 5 people you spend the most time with.
Nobody creates themselves, by themselves.
We are all mirror images, sculpted through the reflections we see in other people. This isn’t a game you play by yourself. Work to be surrounded by those you wish to be like, and in time, you too will carry the very things you admire in them.
18. Beliefs are relative to what you pursue.
Wherever you are in life, and based on who is around you, and based on your current aspirations, those are the things that shape your beliefs.
Nobody explains, though, that “beliefs” then are not “fixed.” There is no “right and wrong.” It is all relative.
Find what works for you.
19. Anything can be a vice.
Be wary.
Again, there is no “right” and “wrong” as you get older. A coping mechanism to one could be a way to relax on a Sunday to another. Just remain aware of your habits and how you spend your time, and what habits start to increase in frequency — and then question where they are coming from in you and why you feel compelled to repeat them.
Never mistakes, always lessons.
As I said, know yourself.
20. Your purpose is to be YOU.
What is the meaning of life?
To be you, all of you, always, in everything you do — whatever that means to you. You are your own creator. You are your own evolving masterpiece.
Growing up is the realization that you are both the sculpture and the sculptor, the painter and the portrait. Paint yourself however you wish. | https://medium.com/@mckeevscaldwellliveon/on-earth-will-ever-make-you-feel-happy-and-fulfilled-a33fdd5c2b35 | ['Mckee Vs Caldwell Live Tv'] | 2020-11-19 23:30:34.975000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Sports', 'Social Media', 'News', 'Live Streaming'] |
An Overview of AANES Women’s Institutions in Manbij | While the applicability of the Kurdish movement’s feminist principles to non-Kurdish communities in Syria has been debated by analysts and observers, few serious attempts to understand how women from these communities view these principles in practice have been made.
The case of Manbij, liberated from ISIS by the SDF in August 2016, shows how women in a multi-ethnic Syrian city used AANES frameworks to build institutions, take on leadership roles, and organize in their communities to change discriminatory attitudes.
The success of women’s political and military structures in Manbij over time suggests that the AANES system can be a true model for women’s empowerment across Syria.
Military Institutions
By 2016, women in North and East Syria had been fighting on the front lines for several years. Images of civilians embracing YPJ fighters were shared in international media coverage of the liberation of Manbij, becoming symbolic of the broader fight against ISIS.
By the end of the operation, local women had already begun to join the Manbij Military Council (MMC), which was set up in April 2016 before the SDF effort to take the city. One female commander, Xaliya Nîmet, said that more than 150 women had joined the MMC by early August of that year.
In February 2017, the Martyr Roxan Academy was established as the first women’s military academy in the region. 30 fighters, mostly young Arab women, completed its first two-month training course. Many of the women who joined were motivated to do so because of the injustices they suffered under ISIS—and the example set by the Kurdish women of the YPJ.
Women complete the first training course at the Martyr Roxan Academy in Manbij, Syria.
In September, 42 women completed a course at the academy named for Amara Jarablus, an SDF fighter from Manbij who lost her life in Raqqa. In December, 48 more women completed a course named after Sakine Eseliye, another female SDF martyr from Manbij. In total, more than 100 women joined the SDF through this academy in its first year of existence.
A video published in September 2017 showing daily life for women training to join the SDF at the Martry Roxan Academy.
The Manbij Military Council has published the stories of several female fighters who joined SDF structures in Manbij after the city’s liberation. All of them faced brutal oppression under ISIS rule, and many came from conservative families that restricted their rights even before the group came to power.
One fighter named Parvin was forced to leave school when extremist groups took control of the region. ISIS murdered her father, disappeared her uncle, and kidnapped her brother for ransom. Another fighter, Sabah Ibrahim, was arrested and tortured by ISIS before Manbij was liberated. Another, named Heba, was displaced to Manbij from Tadif. Her first husband was killed fighting ISIS as a member of the SDF, and she joined herself months after her family forced her to remarry.
Political Institutions and Civil Society
While women’s participation in the YPJ and SDF has attracted international attention, the role of women in civilian institutions in the AANES is no less important. These institutions have been largely responsible for the day-to-day efforts to change discriminatory social attitudes and empower Syrian women in their communities.
Manbij was one of the first places where AANES political structures and social policies were implemented in an area without a Kurdish demographic majority. Yekitiya Star, the confederation of women’s organizations in North and East Syria, was active in Manbij as early as 2013, establishing a Women’s Knowledge and Education Center there in March of that year.
Since its liberation from ISIS, women from all of the different ethnic and religious groups in the region have participated actively in women’s political institutions and civil society organizations.
Women in the Democratic Civil Administration
In 2017, when the Manbij Democratic Civil Administration was formally created, it was established with a co-chair system and the 40% quota for women’s representation that is mandatory across North and East Syria.
Its leaders noted the initial difficulty of finding non-Kurdish women who were willing to participate:
“The greatest challenge was to win enough women among the non-Kurds for this function in accordance with the gender quota of 40% as agreed. This was due to the fact that among them, so far very few women had been active in the public-political sphere and the question of women’s rights had hardly been posed in a serious manner. For several weeks we struggled for a sufficient number of women to be represented in the legislative. Only because 50% of the Kurds in the legislative of the Manbij Democratic Administration were women, was it possible to observe the quota.”
Some early female leaders in the civil administration included Zeyneb Qenber, co-chair of the Executive Council of the Manbij Democratic Civil Administration; Jamila Ahmed, deputy co-chair of the Administration; Nufa Suleiman, co-chair of the Defense Committee; and Hanan Mohammed, co-chair of the Economy Committee.
Qenber was considered prominent enough to meet directly with Coalition officials and U.S. diplomats in her capacity as Co-Chair, suggesting that she held real authority.
Zeyneb Qenber meeting with military officials from the Global Coalition against ISIS in April 2018.
Zeyneb Qenber meeting with officials from the U.S. Department of State in March 2018.
Today, Nazifa Khalo serves as co-chair of the Executive Council of the Administration. She previously served on the Legislative Council. Noura al-Hamid serves as deputy co-chair of the Executive Council. Zozan Hussein is Co-Chair of the Legislative Council.
A 2018 meeting of the Executive Council of the Democratic Civil Administration in Manbij.
Female co-chairs and deputies on the Executive Council of the Civil Administration meet to discuss women’s concerns.
Women’s Houses
A women’s house in Manbij (Photo: Kongreya Star)
The first women’s institution established in liberated Manbij was a mala jin, or women’s house, which was opened in the city in November 2016.
Women’s houses are unique institutions in North and East Syria that protect victims of gender-based violence, resolve domestic disputes, and intervene to prevent women from being exploited and oppressed.
Within a month of the first women’s house being opened in Manbij, local media reported that it had accepted 25 cases, of which seven had been resolved and 18 were still under investigation. 15 Arab and Kurdish women had been working in the house during that time period, and efforts were underway to involve Turkmen and Circassian women.
In May 2017, another women’s house was opened in Abu Qalqal, in the countryside south of the city. Six women in total worked there, including the administrator of the house.
Iman Hamsho, who works with the women’s houses in the region, stated that this house had received the most serious cases and the highest volume of cases as of 2019.
In September 2017, a third house was established in Al Hayya, east of Manbij. It had one administrator, Amani al-Nana, and three other members when it was opened.
Celebrations at the opening of the women’s house in Al Hayya.
Celebrations at the opening of the women’s house in Al Hayya.
In August 2018, a fourth was opened in Al Farat neighborhood.
In total, by 2019, women’s houses in Manbij had taken on over 3,000 cases. Less than 10% of these cases had been referred to the formal legal system, while the majority had either been resolved by the houses or referred to the social justice and reconciliation committees for resolution.
One notable aspect of the work of women’s houses in Manbij was their role in helping women who had suffered from gender-based violence and other oppression under ISIS. Some of the early work carried out by the region’s first women’s house included the formation of a Research Committee, which documented the testimonies of women who were harmed by the terror group.
Women’s Assemblies
Under the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, women’s assemblies are supposed to exist in parallel to mixed-gender institutions at every level of governance. This policy reinforces women’s influence in government, in addition to the quotas and co-chairs systems that ensure their representation in mixed institutions.
The Women’s Assembly in Manbij was established in March 2017. Women from the city’s mixed-gender governing bodies participated in the meeting, as well as representatives of the Revolutionary Arab Youth Movement and the Syrian Democratic Council also attended. Ultimately, 35 women were elected to the Assembly.
The Assembly has coordinated with local women to create smaller women’s assemblies and communes in villages and towns across the region. By May 2019, they had helped establish 43 of these assemblies.
Today, the Women’s Assembly collaborates with other institutions to supervise a variety of projects. Recent efforts of theirs have included a demonstration condemning increasing domestic violence rates under COVID-19 lockdowns and literacy courses for adult women who had not been able to complete their formal education.
Women’s Economic Empowerment
In June 2017, women from Manbij participated in the first Women’s Economy Conference in North and East Syria, which was held in Derik.
The first women’s cooperative in Manbij, the Beit Al Baraka Association, was established in September 2017, with the support of the People’s Municipality of Manbij and the Economic Committee.
Sare Ibrahim, an administrator of the Beit Al Baraka Association, discusses the work of the cooperative.
This cooperative employed 10 women to grow and prepare vegetables and other food products.
In November 2017, a Women’s Economy Center was opened in the city. The center had three members when it was founded, according to its administrator, Sabah Mohammed.
The Women’s Economy Center in Manbij. The sign is printed in Arabic, Kurdish, Turkish, and Circassian. (Photo: ANHA)
Celebrations at the opening of the Women’s Economy Center.
Today, multiple women’s cooperatives exist in Manbij, providing women with quality employment and working to meet local economic needs. In March 2018, a cooperatively run restaurant was opened. A cooperatively run chicken farm cooperative has also been established.
The Al Rabeeh Restaurant, a cooperative restaurant run by women (Photo: ANHA)
In a timely example of the role that women’s cooperatives can play in meeting the needs of the communities where they operate, the Martyr Sakine Eseliye Workshop—a textile cooperative that employed almost 28 women when it was founded in 2018—is now producing face masks to help Manbij prepare for the COVID-19 pandemic.
The production of face masks at the Martyr Sakine Eseliye Workshop in Manbij.
Different women’s institutions work to empower women working in different fields. In one example, ANHA reported in 2017 that women on the Executive Council of the Democratic Civil Administration had met with female staff at Al Furat Hospital, helping them organize a committee for managing women’s concerns in their workplace.
The Women’s Committee of the Democratic Civil Administration meets with members of the Economy Committee to discuss the concerns of working women.
The Women’s Laws in Manbij
Due to conservative attitudes among some segments of the population, the AANES Women’s Laws, adopted in Kobane, Jazira, and Afrin Cantons in 2014, are not applied in full there.
However, women’s institutions do campaign to enforce many of the protections that these laws provide elsewhere. One local report from January 2017 describes a typical case addressed by a local women’s house—a family attempting to force their daughter to get married against her will. The house was able to convince the family to stop the marriage by explaining how it would harm all parties involved. The case did not have to be brought to the formal legal system to be resolved in a way that protected a vulnerable woman’s rights.
Members of women’s organizations in Manbij also meet directly with women in their homes and villages in order to make them aware of their rights and educate them about social problems. In October 2018, the Manbij Women’s Assembly claimed to have met with more than 3,000 women to discuss these issues.
Manbij Women’s Assembly Spokesperson Ibtisam Abdul Qader discusses the Assembly’s meetings with local women in Manbij.
There is evidence that some women in Manbij oppose the lack of formal legal protections that their counterparts in other regions enjoy. In January 2020, the Young Women’s Union in the city demanded laws to protect young women and further efforts to oppose underage marriages.
Jineoloji in Manbij
A jineoloji research center was opened in Manbij on January 2nd, 2018. The opening ceremony was attended by both male and female commanders in the Manbij Military Council, as well as local activists and political figures.
Jineoloji, the Kurdish women’s movement’s “science of women,” is controversial among some conservative populations in North and East Syria. In Deir Ezzor, Arab leaders protested the inclusion of the subject in school textbooks, leading to its removal.
In Manbij, however, the research center has remained open and active for over two years. In July 2019, it held its first training course for young women. In June 2020, it held meetings for both men and women on the importance of respecting women’s rights within families.
Women from Manbij in the AANES
A 2019 survey of the Executive Council of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria conducted by the Rojava Information Center revealed that three members of the 54-person council were women from Manbij.
Alaa Ahmed, an Arab woman, served as Co-Chair of the Health and Environment Commission.
Another Arab woman, Maha Ali, was a deputy leader of the Women’s Commission. Ali had previously been a spokesperson for the Women’s Assembly in Manbij. The selection of an Arab woman from a mixed city to serve in a region-wide political role related to women’s rights shows that the AANES does not want to confine its revolutionary social policies to Kurdish communities.
Maha Ali in 2017.
The most prominent woman from Manbij on the AANES Executive Council was Amal Dada, a member of the region’s Turkmen community. Representing the Syria Future Party, Dada had previously served in the Legislative Assembly in Manbij, and had worked as a teacher prior to the Syrian war. She is now the Co-Chair of the AANES External Relations Commission.
Amal Dada in 2018.
In a 2017 interview with ANF, she described how women’s lives changed after the city’s liberation from ISIS:
Women lived a life of imprisonment inside the house after ISIS came. We could not ever leave the house. Pressures on women increased and we were tortured with the smallest of excuses. They interfered in what we would wear and when we could go out to the street. There was no such thing as private life. First they interfered in schools and later closed them all. Now, women have taken a great initiative and are progressing towards where they should be. It was women to experience the greatest freedom after Manbij was liberated from ISIS. Women now take part in efforts to make the city more beautiful and fraternal. Women from all peoples living in Manbij participate in this reconstruction equally and with their own will.
In 2018, also speaking to ANF, she described the diversity of the region’s government under the Autonomous Administration:
“We have a co-presidency system, we have established our democratic administration under this system, and women are 50 percent of the administration members (in total we are 132). All the peoples in Manbij are represented in a proportionally way…the Administration is made up of 71 representatives for the Arab people, 41 for the Kurdish people, 10 for the Turkmen, 8 for the Circassian and 1 for the Armenian.”
Dada was also actively involved in the promotion of Turkmen cultural identity in Manbij. She suggested in 2018 that a Turkmen cultural association there would be important not only because it would help her community connect with its traditions, but because it would allow Arabs and Kurds to learn about their culture as well, bringing the peoples of Manbij together.
Her role in the AANES Executive Council also suggests that advances in women’s rights in North and East Syria are intended for all communities— even those that opponents of the AANES often seek to co-opt.
Implications
This brief overview of what the revolutionary social policies of the AANES have done over time in a multi-ethnic city that suffered greatly under ISIS rule shows that there was no “foreign” or “imposed” ideology. Rather, women used the opportunities that were presented to them to gain more rights, take on leadership roles, and become active in their communities. What the AANES and SDF did was set an example and open political and social space for women to choose to organize. | https://medium.com/@mjbodette/an-overview-of-aanes-womens-institutions-in-manbij-5089c450c24b | ['Meghan Bodette'] | 2020-08-16 17:48:00.566000+00:00 | ['Women', 'Syria', 'Manbij', 'Politics'] |
The Last True Paradise is an Old Remnant of the British Empire | The History of the Overseas Territory
The British Indian Ocean Territory is just a fancy term for an archipelago called the Chagos Islands. Located halfway between Africa and India, it’s made up of 55 tiny islands and surrounded by 60,000km² of coral reefs.
Due to its isolation, it has some of the cleanest seawater in the world and contains a huge abundance of marine species, including fish, sharks, rays and dolphins.
First discovered in the early sixteenth century by the Portuguese, it became a pit stop for merchants travelling to Indonesia. However, the islands remained uninhabited until the late 18th century as they were too far from the Maldives or Mauritius to make settling there worth it.
But in 1793, the French lay claim and established the first colony on the main island, Diego Garcia. Coconut plantations were set up, and slaves from Mozambique and Madagascar were sent to work them. These slaves formed a unique society using French and East African traditions and spoke a hybrid Creole language.
In 1814, with the end of the Napoleonic wars, France ceded the Chagos islands along with Mauritius and Seychelles to Great Britain through the Paris treaty. For convenience, the islands were administered from Mauritius, which in turn was administered by Great Britain.
When slavery was abolished in 1835, labourers from India were brought to work on the plantations, and they integrated with the burgeoning Chagossian society.
By the mid-twentieth century, there were villages, schools, a hospital, and the Chagossians lived a peaceful, undisturbed life on the islands. But all of that would change in the 1960s.
In 1968, Mauritius was granted independence and given £3 million in recognition of the detachment of the Chagos Archipelago, which essentially allowed the UK to continue administering the islands. However, Mauritius argued that it was forced to accept these terms, or it wouldn’t have become independent at all.
The UK had always maintained that it would return the islands when they were no longer needed for security purposes. The problem is, between 1968 and 1974, Britain removed the entire population, which included thousands of people, from their homes and resettled them in Mauritius and Seychelles.
Although the UK government has repeatedly apologised for the forced evictions, it has made no effort to bring these people back. Coconut plantations were already in decline, so when the final ones were closed in 1971, the UK made it unlawful for anyone to reenter the islands without a permit.
In a secret agreement, the UK and US jointly developed a site for operations in the Middle East at the cost of $3 billion, and for the last few decades, the main island of Diego Garcia has been used as a key US military base.
Today, the islands are still difficult to access without a permit, but the main island is home to 5,000 service members and civilian contractors.
The UK has an agreement where it leases the island, and in 2016, the lease was extended until the end of 2036, making it difficult for any return of the former Chagossians. | https://historyofyesterday.com/the-last-true-paradise-is-an-old-remnant-of-the-british-empire-d926eb9c4be | ['Sajjad Choudhury'] | 2021-08-28 14:03:03.256000+00:00 | ['Indian Ocean', 'Geography', 'Politics', 'History', 'Ecology'] |
Natural Language Processing, or NLP, and What it Does | “Order food!” “Okay! What would you like?” This simple exchange could take up an entire hour’s discussion about NLP. Natural Language Processing is an area of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. It is mushrooming in importance. Understanding NLP and how it works is what Sam Wigglesworth specializes in. Her presentation on the Business School of AI’s “WeeklyWed” webinar takes us on a wild ride that includes everything from intent to sarcasm, chatbots to WhatsApp. Feast on this for a minute. You’ll understand how AI is changing our world.
First we’ll want to remember how quick computing is. Count how many times you’ve turned to a calculator rather than trying to figure out the problem in your head and you’ll see what I mean. Now consider language. Once the computer understands what’s being said, you’ll get an idea of how AI can do in a very short time what it might take a human a very long time to do. Now it has become possible to feed an entire manual on a complex issue and with NLP the process of finding what you want done becomes a lot more simple.
Intent is at the forefront of the discussion. What you want to do comes first. Ordering food will obviously involve a product, a size, and probably a brand or type. Think cheese. What kind? How much, etc. Once intent is defined then we can get into semantics. This is where the algorithms come in, mathematical formulas trained to find patterns and make decisions. Incorporate them into neural networks that are modeled to work like the human brain and you get to an important part of AI, Machine Learning. NLP is driven in large party by Machine Learning, a subset of AI.
“Blow my mind”
Machine learning focuses on building apps. These applications within ML learn from data over time. Imagine how much data a language contains. Blow my mind. The idiom “blow my mind” represents just a smidgeon of what would need to be understood. Think of the many linguistic and semantic features of language. This amounts to a ton of data. This is where NLP learns in weeks what takes a human many years.
With advances in NLP come big money. The market for Chatbot as an example is expected to be worth around $1.25-billion in a few years. Chatbot tools in themselves are designed to make your life easier, enabling a better customer experience and improving productivity. Do that in the 23 languages spoken by more than half the world and you get an idea of the market for NLP, and why you should position yourself in the technology changing our world.
Note: Sam Wigglesorth is the founder of The Language School and Girls and Boys In Tech from Oxford who is the NLP instructor at Business School of AI, the brainchild of Sudha Jamthe
The Author: Henry Mulak is a journalist and teacher in Silicon Valley covering the technology sector, specializing in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. | https://medium.com/businessschoolofai/natural-language-processing-or-nlp-and-what-it-does-de2df7c69b55 | ['Henry Mulak'] | 2021-09-06 03:59:51.954000+00:00 | ['Natural Language Processi', 'NLP', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Machine Learning', 'Future Technology'] |
Categories of COVID Project | How we describe coronavirus patients matters
This research inspired an award-winning poem, i Am A.I. and Thou.
Open data sets are vital for assessing the pandemic’s threat to local communities. Given the particularly decentralized response to the virus in the United States, individual, family, business, or institutional decisions drive the overall risk. While open science efforts compile authoritative data for medical professionals, we wondered what was available to the general public. Many non-medical professional may turn to local open data as sources of information.
New York University’s Digital Interests Lab investigated what coronavirus information governments made available to the general public as open data. Principal investigator, Dr. Anne L. Washington completed the work with NYU students Nicole Contaxis, Hope Muller, and Joshua Arrayales who have essays in this collection. Other researchers included Molly Nystrom and Dr. Rachel Kuo.
W ho has COVID-19? This deceptively simple question was difficult to answer across jurisdictions in the open data sets available.
A central question for risk assesment during a pandemic is the rate of infection and the number fatalities. Some businesses and organizations will need to compare between jurisdictions. Many U.S. regionals hubs run cross state borders, such as the tri-state region around New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. In June 2020 we collected and analyzed open data sets related to COVID-19 patients in 50 states.
We found few consistencies in race, gender, and even in age reporting. We found outdated categories that excluded as much as organized. Respiratory diseases make older people particularly vulnerable so not being able to consistently track age is an immediate alarm. People from non-white categories are highly likely to work in essential businesses yet we have poor classification schemes for these identities. While there may be some impact on different hormonal and reproductive bodies, we are not tracking those characteristics well enough to differentiate risk.
The Digital Interests Lab research team members each explore a demographic characteristic to understand how the breadth of variation across our collection of open data sets. The first essay is a reflection on dual or non-binary identities with reference to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The second essay tackles how age is treated across these data sets particularly in comparison to clasification standards that organize medical publications. The third essay explores which populations have no choice than “other” which renders their unique identity invisible.
Our findings point to open data variation across jurisdictions, however we identified several nationwide summer 2020 projects that reported demographic statistics: CDC Weekly Updates • Johns Hopkins University Racial Data Transparency • APM Research Lab and The Atlantic COVID Racial Data Tracker.
While we applaud efforts in national reporting, there is still a need to understand localized impacts for all populations.
Our preliminary evidence suggests that demographic categories need to be normalized for crisis reporting in future. Furthermore, outdated categories could compromise advanced data analysis. We argue for consistent data reporting standards and updated categorization of contemporary body identities.
These improvements may support the confidence of populations currently rendered invisible in the data. Together these efforts would improve the resuse of open data. | https://medium.com/digitalinterests/categories-of-covid-584521069a8a | ['Digital Interests'] | 2020-11-10 04:14:14.733000+00:00 | ['Libraries', 'Open Data', 'Data Science', 'Covid 19', 'Government'] |
Women Of The C-Suite: Inna Tuler of Maintco Corp On The Five Things You Need To Succeed As A Senior Executive | Thank you for joining us in this interview series. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
Growth through challenge has been a major component of my life. The discipline and dedication of being a concert pianist gave me a strong foundation for all my future stages in life. As the mother of three girls, it was my goal to raise them to be strong and independent women. New experiences in property management provided a foundation for the service industry. Eventually joining my husband in building a successful business was a next level in personal growth. Continued education and added certifications all along the way have allowed me to be a successful woman entrepreneur in a very challenging industry.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
To bring me to an upper level, I needed to lead my team & I had to experience a great deal of personal growth. Beginning in a an apartment building leasing office in the early 1990’s, I started at an hourly rate of $7.00 per hour. In a 2 ½ year period I worked hard to improve myself and my knowledge to move upward to a supervisory position managing as many as 40 apartment building of various sizes.. As a measuring tool, I was able to grow my income from $7.00 per hour to $60,000.00 annually in 2 1/2 years. This drive is the basis of how I help my team understand they are capable of large personal growth.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Understanding what steps should be taken before making a major financial decision was a lesson learned early in my career. I made a major purchase without knowing all the details of the purchase. I was responsible for the purchase of our family home and didn’t know about the surrounding area until I woke up the morning after our first night. I was awakened by the sounds of horses and chickens. Apparently I purchased a home in a ranch type area. I would call it a pleasant mistake. It was my first step in real estate purchasing.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
The basis of Maintco Corp is found in the company motto: “Simple solutions for difficult problems.” We focus on the needs of the customer and understanding their goals. Providing alternatives for specific situations and allowing the customer to make a solid business decision based on information. This has built a solid basis of trust with our customers.
In our business, it is very common for issues to occur after normal business hours. In one particular situation, a customer called with an emergency. A vehicle lost control and ended up crashing through the front windows of the retail convenience store. With panic on site, the store operator called for help. Within an hour of the call we had a our first responder group on site to calm the situation down, and secure the location from any safety concern. Once the urgency was removed, the process in correcting any damage was less stressful for the store personnel and we were able to get the store back up and running 100% in less than 24 hours. This story may have been an extreme but is the common process Maintco provides our customers.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
With the current pandemic having a great effect on many businesses, Maintco has developed a program to provide a high touch sanitation and disinfecting in order to help customers reopen their locations safely. A secondary part of the program is to provide Plexiglas barriers to isolate certain areas and work stations. The program provides a safer environment for the store personnel as well as their customers.
What advice would you give to other female leaders to help their team to thrive?
Be a person of significance. Don’t wait for someone to recognize the value you bring. Make your voice heard. Don’t be silent when your input is needed and when you speak, speak with confidence. Don’t be a pleaser. Often times women in business take on the role of a pleaser. It is important to rely on your strengths and skill set — continued education will help increase your skill set to meet your goals and beyond. Learn and practice dealing with conflict in a controlled and decisive manner. As a leader, it is critical to resolve conflict and issues while all the time projecting a calm manner. Build relationships with others in similar roles and industries. Being a woman in a traditionally male driven industry will lead to those that will reject, but also those that will assist in your education. Learn the difference and how to take advantage of both opportunities.
What advice would you give to other female leaders about the best way to manage a large team?
Lead by example. Teach those who will manage your teams how to manage with company goals in mind and provide examples of expectations. Caring about the people in the team at every level sometimes takes the experience of being a mom. Using that insight can help by providing the empathy required to support the needs of the team, and allow for everyone to succeed in their respective job assignments.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
The partnership forged with my late husband provided for both the growth and expansion of the business as well as my own personal growth. Together we built a business with a solid foundation in cooperation, trust and creativity.
In 1997 I left Maintco for a job as an underwriter. The purpose was to assist in generating income for the family while the business was in transition. I was out of the Maintco system for 3 years. My husband was able to persuade me to return after a deep conversation based on a reorganization of the business processes. He basically gave in to my demands for new office furniture and better technology.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
Initially, Maintco was a small family run business where my husband and I, along with talented staff, worked together to make every job successful. As the company grew, the same togetherness found the employees growing their lives along with the entire company. As the company became successful, the education and training for all personnel became a way for the team to advance in the industry and grow their personal lives as well. We have seen individuals and families grow and flourish over the decades.
What are your “5 Leadership Lessons I Learned From My Experience” and why. (Please share a story or example for each.)
Set the right kind of expectations. It is important to have the right conversations about expectations. Do not spend all conversation time discussing deliverables without discussing broader success. Including everyone’s holistic role, from leadership to the customer request, to the invoice process. Never underestimate the need for solid performance management. It is a major mistake not to check in with the team and provide feedback, direction and goals. Expectations of direct reports should not be a mirror. You are not your direct reports therefore understanding the needs of the team will help the leader provide the correct input and support to make the team successful and reduce frustration on both sides. Share the wins and losses. Don’t give yourself too much credit when things go right and don’t beat yourself up too much when things don’t go as expected. Stick to your values. Be consistent in the guidelines for decision making but flexible enough to adjust with the times and technology.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
I work hard to present a caring and harmonious environment. I believe in community and helping in my community. I promote philanthropic activity through multiple board memberships, however I know the value of individual kindness and the importance of being involved.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“Perfect Planning Prevents Poor Performance.”
This concept of putting the greatest effort into the planning portion of a project or any program, allows for a most successful outcome. Using the same process in life will result in the best possible outcome
Some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them :-)
There are two people I would add to the list of those with which I would love to have a private breakfast of lunch.
Simon Sinek — Author and motivational speaker — His optimistic beliefs and his concept of “WHY” resonates in me.
Jordan Peterson — Clinical psychologist — For his views on Human Social Evolution and various cultural issues
How can our readers connect with you on social media?
Primarily on Facebook, LinkedIn
https://www.facebook.com/inna.tuler
https://maintco.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Maintco-Corp-350778698271735
https://www.linkedin.com/in/inna-tuler-cpm-leed-ap%C2%AE-6sigma-green-belt-1a3b76/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCY80b0RLvLDgk78gtS7ZSgw | https://medium.com/authority-magazine/inna-tuler-of-maintco-corp-9ad0d264e7d5 | ['Alexandra Spirer'] | 2020-12-24 22:51:31.793000+00:00 | ['Home Improvement', 'Entrepreneur', 'Sheroes', 'Women In Business'] |
1966 Game of the Year: Jets 38, Patriots 28 | THE AFL 1960–69: A RETROSPECTIVE
1966 Game of the Year: Jets 38, Patriots 28
Joe Namath had a big day, and the Jets victory opened the door for the Bills win their third straight East Division title
Matt Snell and the Jets shocked the Patriots in the 1966 season finale which cost Boston the East Division title.
Ralph Wilson, the owner of the Buffalo Bills, flew to New York City on the next-to-last day of the regular season to watch the Joe Namath Jets take on the Boston Patriots.
Ordinarily, Wilson wouldn’t travel to games that did not involve his team, but this was a special case, and the one-hour flight didn’t seem like much of an inconvenience.
Wilson’s Bills were locked in a spirited duel with Boston for the Eastern Division championship. Entering the final weekend, Buffalo was 8–4–1, the Patriots 8–3–2. Very simply, the Bills had no chance to win the division if the Patriots defeated the Jets at Shea Stadium because even a Buffalo victory the next day over the woeful Denver Broncos would leave the Bills a half-game short and send Boston into the AFL Championship Game against Kansas City.
Wilson felt the need to cheer on the Jets, and by the time the game ended, Wilson’s voice must have been hoarse. With Namath torching the Patriots for 287 passing yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions, the Jets pulled off a surprising 38–28 victory in front of 58,921 energized fans.
“You fellows want some champagne sent in here?” Wilson asked afterward in the locker room, where he had been invited by Jets owner Sonny Werblin.
Of course, there was still another piece of the puzzle to be put in place by the Bills. They had to beat Denver the next day at War Memorial Stadium to clinch their third straight division title, and they did so, 38–21.
The Jets had been knocked out of division contention weeks ago, but Weeb Ewbank’s troops still had designs on a .500 season, and the Jets came out on fire and were never doused. They rolled up a team-record 528 yards including 241 on the ground with Matt Snell gaining 124 and Emerson Boozer 117. And just as important was the fact that Namath — who threw 27 interceptions in his second season — played turnover-free.
“Joe learned, at last,” said Ewbank after the game. “He learned when to throw and when not to throw. When Joe’s going like that, we’re really rolling.”
After Gino Cappelletti caught an 18-yard TD pass from Babe Parilli in the first quarter, the Jets exploded for 24 points in a row. Boozer began the onslaught with a 54-yard run after the kickoff and three plays later, Namath zipped a TD pass to Don Maynard to tie the game at 7–7.
The Jets followed up with a pair of 80-yard drives and a 75-yarder that resulted in Boozer’s one-yard TD plunge, a Jim Turner 12-yard field goal, and Namath’s second TD pass to Maynard from eight yards out.
Boston came to life briefly in the third quarter when Parilli fired an 18-yard TD pass to Jim Whalen and then had the Patriots on the move again in Jets territory. But New York safety Bill Baird picked off Parilli at the New York 9, and three plays hence, Namath beat a blitz and lofted a 77-yard TD pass to George Sauer that blew the game open at 31–13.
“All kinds of terrible things happened to us,” said Boston coach Mike Holovak. “Dropped passes, penalties, men falling down in the open. That’s not football.”
Two minutes later Baird intercepted another Parilli pass at the Jets 22 to kill another drive and it was obvious Wilson would be flying back to Buffalo a happy man.
Boston scored twice in the fourth on Jim Nance’s one-yard plunge and Parilli’s TD pass to Art Graham, but in between, Snell ripped off a 25-yard TD run to keep the Jets comfortably in front.
“That’s the kind of football we should have been playing all year,” said Ewbank. “We’re a much better team than a lot of people think.” | https://medium.com/sportsraid/1966-game-of-the-year-jets-38-patriots-28-79c750f769b7 | ['Sal Maiorana'] | 2020-12-23 11:47:43.954000+00:00 | ['Sports', 'American Football League', 'Pro Football', 'Joe Namath', 'New York Jets'] |
Secret 3Cs Formula For Successful Parenting | successful parenting
Successful parenting is not only defined as having high grades achiever kids or having most A++ or achieving top class colleges and universities but the actual success for parents must be a little bit different. This success is the core of achieving a superb adult.
Here I would like to mold the success formula for each of those parents concerned about the way they are bringing up their kids and on and off keep on judging there way towards successful parenting.
So the success formula is actually
C+C+C=(Confidence+Creativity +Character)CHILD= SUCCESSFUL PARENTING
The first C is very critical and must keep in mind being the parenting process. Here C stands for confidence. For the actual success and to raise a confident child we need a superb combination of good parenting and good education. But the question is how to have a confident child. A happy and emotionally strong child is a confident child.
Confidence building in kids
Remember a child brought up with happy parents is more likely to grow up with a strong emotional attitude.They are well equipped with their positive thoughts, they are well trained for how to behave and when. They have great self-control ability. An educated parent can educate his child but a happy parent brought up a genius.
An emotionally weak child will behave abnormally in tough situations. He will not be able to face difficulties in life. He searches people to share his feeling in the outside world and most probably will be attracted to poor addictions.
So are you a happy parent? ask yourself, when did you last, laughed together. Don't remember??? In a small interview with a school going kid, it was being asked when did you saw your mom laughed last time? He replied, "mmmm when she was talking to one of my friends".
Be happy to your kids as happiness has its tremendous benefits, the more you're happy means the road to better communication is clear. Better communication is one of the major prerequisites for the training session. If you want to be a parent of a successful child you must be the winner of yourself first. Self winning is an amazing journey to have a team of winners, work on your own first.
When did you last compliant your child for speaking lies, I am sure we all play a blame game without any proofs as such? Here, we spoil a child's character and personality. Never try to promote your character weakness towards your kids.As Thomas Paine said “Character is much easier kept than recovered”.
Remember every child is born creative. It is our way of treating kids and the way we are educating them, that they lose their creative nature. Bring them up in pure air with sources of life and light, let them closer to nature.
Always trust them to show your full intentions towards their plus points and ignore the minus ones as this boosts their creativity and helps in character building. Whenever we regret them we are damaging their self-esteem and as a result, they tend towards atrocious. We must be conscious of our responses towards these immature humans.
A healthy couple will have a healthy family. Be successful within yourself to have a mentally and emotionally strong family. Works towards better communication skills and strong mutual bonding to have a high scale for your coming generations. | https://medium.com/@binteaaziz3/secret-3cs-formula-for-successful-parenting-2615640a5e77 | ['Sarah Muhammad'] | 2020-01-14 20:44:59.606000+00:00 | ['Parenting Tips', 'Children Rights', 'Children', 'Parenting Advice', 'Parenting'] |
Your Pregnancy Week-by-Week (week 37) · Dr Dad | At the 37 thweek of your pregnancy, your baby’s head will start looking a lot like a Roman Lettuce. The weight will somewhere be around 6.3 pounds and your baby will be measuring somewhat 19.1 inches. At this phase, your little angel is gaining small inches every day and getting ready to come out and see the world’s light.
How many months are you pregnant in the 37thweek?
When you are on the 37 thweek you are 9 months pregnant. You are very near your due date and fully prepared to welcome your baby into this world. On the 37 thweek, you are just three weeks away from your delivery.
Pregnancy symptoms of the 37thweek.
On the 37 thweek of your pregnancy, your body is fully prepared to push your baby out, you are just three weeks away from seeing the beautiful face of your baby. During this time the symptoms can be a bit confusing and you will experience labor as well at this time. here are some of the symptoms you can experience.
Spotting. During this time spotting might happen especially if you are engaging in penetrative sex. This is because the cervix is being quite sensitive now and sex can irritate it causing a bit of bleeding. Also, vaginal bleeding without any cause can be problematic as it can be associated with your placenta, hence if this is happening do not delay consulting your doctor soon. If your bleeding is happening for more than a day do not hesitate from connecting your doctor as well.
Heartburn. As your baby increases in size, it starts putting pressure on your digestive system hence try to avoid spicy food as it will undoubtedly cause heartburns.
Troubled sleep. During this time your sleep patterns will be changing. You will be finding it difficult to have a complete sleep due to the movements of your baby and this is absolutely normal. You just need to hold tight because your baby is ready to see the world’s light and the excitement is costing your sleep for few weeks.
Evident stretch marks. On the 37 thweek, your stretch marks will be quite evident on your belly. During this time for the increasing size of your baby, your skin will stretch to a huge extent as a result the marks will be vividly visible. Keep yourself hydrated during this time and keep slathering oil or moisturizer on your belly often.
Nausea. On the 37 thweek of your pregnancy you will be very close to your due date and as a result, feeling nauseous is absolutely normal. Your digestive system will be under pressure and as a result, vomiting will be a sign.
Signs of labor in your 37thweek of pregnancy.
During this week your body is almost prepared to push your baby out and hence the signs of labor will be severe so it is better you keep things organized and stay cautious to rush to the hospital immediately when you see yourself going into labor.
Signs of labor will be frequent contractions along with the discharge of your mucus plug as well. Contractions will take place when your body will stretch your cervix to make way for the baby. The mucus plug is a blob of mucus that was protecting the cervix, when your body will be getting ready it will be passed down via your vagina, so if you see a big mucus blob with a tinge of blood you are going into labor. Other signs will be nausea and severe back and abdominal pain. If your water breaks then do not delay, rush to your doctor immediately.
Can the baby be delivered in the 37thweek?
If it is an urgent requirement advised by your doctor then delivering the baby on the 37 thweek is fine, but normally do not become impatient and schedule an early delivery. Some last moment preparations are happening in your body naturally during this time, so let your baby and your body do it. If your body is going into labor naturally then it is fine or else does not rush into pushing your baby out.
Ultrasound in the 37thweek of pregnancy.
As a part of a biophysical profile, the 37 th-week ultrasound will be performed. The profile will be analyzed to know the baby’s condition and an ultrasound and a non-stress testing procedure will be utilized to analyze the following.
During this time your baby will be doing new things like blinking, inhaling, exhaling and will try to grip things all these will excite you to see your baby/babies as soon as you can. But hold tight and wait for a while until your body and baby are fully ready.
Tips to follow in the 37thweek of pregnancy.
Hydration is extremely important for your body especially when you are a few weeks away from your due date. Keep drinking water, juices anything that soothes you and keeps you well hydrated. Even if you have to run to urinate often make sure you do not restrict yourself from drinking water.
You can consume ginger tea or any other tonics to help cure your nausea. If it is going out of your control make sure you contact your doctor to get medicines.
Your belly skin will be stretched to a huge extent at this point and to make sure your stretch marks do not persist you need to massage your skin. Make sure you use some thick oil like almond or olive oil on your belly to massage well. Otherwise, you can use a thick moisturizer to keep your skin plumped and moisturized.
Since this is the crucial time when your baby will be ready to come out you need to prepare yourself. Hence keep your hospital bag ready, get the car seat, keep your essentials near, and most importantly make sure your partner is around you or whoever is helping you in this pregnancy is always around you because you will need a lot of help and emotional support during this time.
To-do list for the 37thweek of pregnancy | https://medium.com/@parenthood7/your-pregnancy-week-by-week-week-37-dr-dad-c5ea45ac66d3 | [] | 2021-07-02 09:58:02.664000+00:00 | ['Kids', 'Baby', 'Moms', 'Pregnancy', 'Dads'] |
Meet 2 Sisters Turning Cocoa Beans into Chocolate Bars in Ghana | Priscilla and Kimberly Addison, two Ghanaian sisters, have launched a start-up that offers tasty, artisanal, made-in-Africa chocolate products.
Even though Ghana is the world’s second largest exporter of cocoa, the West African nation — along with the rest of the major cocoa producers from Africa — only gets to enjoy a measly 2 percent of the world’s $100 billion chocolate market.
This, economic experts say, is due to the fact that African countries have remained at the bottom of the product’s value chain, exporting cocoa mainly as a raw material without adding value to the final product.
According to the Addisons, though, that old narrative is about to change with their ’57 Chocolate.
As young entrepreneurs, they say they are determined to use widely available home grown resources to create delightful and whimsical treats and bring manufacturing back to Ghana.
“Our mission is to revive the 1957 ‘can do spirit’ by adding value to the cocoa bean and cocoa farmer — on a local scale,” the Sisters state.
“Our passion is to inspire the people of Ghana, especially the youth to not be satisfied at merely selling and trading the country’s natural resources or other items in their ‘natural’ state, but to use their minds and creative geniuses to transform these resources and items by creating and developing made-in-Ghana products of premium value.
As the name suggests, ’57 Chocolate is a throwback to the year 1957, when Ghana became the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to attain independence from colonial rule.
While the idea for ’57 Chocolate was born in 2014, production did not go in to full swing until 2016. Kim, the youngest sister, first considered the possibility of making chocolate when she visited a chocolate factory in Switzerland.
Today, the sisters have pioneered the artisanal conversion of cocoa beans to chocolate bars in Ghana.
Their chocolate products come uniquely packaged in Adrinka symbols, cultural symbols and aphorisms from the Ashanti people of Ghana, offering a variety of flavors and colors, including mocha latte and bissap flavors.
In recognition of their passion for excellence, the Addisons were awarded the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme for Manufacturing in 2016.
Read the original article on Face2Face Africa | https://medium.com/passionafrica/meet-2-sisters-turning-cocoa-beans-into-chocolate-bars-in-ghana-a41787ce39ea | ['Passion Africa'] | 2017-05-14 02:28:33.601000+00:00 | ['Chocolate', 'Entrepreneur', 'Features', 'Africa', 'Ghanaian'] |
Next Year You Should Absolutely Adopt a Mentee in Data Science | Your Path and Lessons Learned
My first few sessions of mentoring were anxiety-riddled. The program paired me with a business intern interested in STEM, but I had never mentored anyone before. This internship was her first job in college, and she had started taking computer science courses. Going into this engagement, I didn’t know what to say or how to say it. Before meeting her, I reached out to my mentors for advice as I started this journey and received valuable feedback:
Your career is your journey. You have had failures and successes; you have traversed different situations and worked with various people. When you are mentoring, this is your time to share your unique perspective. As they bring up topics to discuss or problems, they are facing, you can share how you have handled similar situations. Your experiences, both good and bad, can help them as they are navigating these areas.
I took that advice and scheduled our first 1:1. She came to the meeting and discussed with me an issue she was struggling with. She had been with the company for a few weeks now, and she felt that she was not being given enough work to do in her internship, so she had a lot of free time. The first thing I did was listen. I wanted to understand how she felt about the situation, what steps she had taken to resolve this, and anything else she wanted to discuss. Listening is the best place you can start to allow your mentee the freedom to express their thoughts on the situation.
When she was done, I offered her my perspective on the situation. I shared my own experiences in feeling like I did not have enough work to do in past jobs that I held. We discussed how I tackled the problem and ways to approach her manager or other teammates to resolve the matter. When I faced this issue, I went to my manager and other teammates. I asked to become involved in more projects that I was interested in and advocated for myself to be put into more leadership roles when possible. In sharing my experiences with her and providing advice on how she can handle the problem, she was able to go back to her team and manager to ask for more things to work on that would help her feel like she was providing value to the team.
As we continued meeting, her Summer internship turned into a co-op, and we kept our mentor-mentee relationship into the Fall. Continuing these meetings, I developed a useful pattern for our discussions:
Ask what do you need from me this week. Did she want to discuss a specific topic, go over a problem she was having, or ask any questions? I wanted her to feel comfortable asking or talking about the challenges she was facing both at work and school Actively listen. At this point, she has chosen a topic to discuss, and I want to hear what she has to say. I would stay quiet and let her have her time to flow down the information. If I had any questions to clarify, I would ask and then let her continue. Share experiences and lessons learned. After listening to her and making sure I understood the topic of discussion, this is where I would begin to talk. I would share with her lessons I have learned in my career, discuss how I would approach a particular situation, or open a discussion to problem solve with her as she thought through the issue. Recap. Recap what you discussed, write down any next steps that came out of the engagement, and plan the next session.
This is a format I have continued to hold with my mentee discussions and have started to implement in meetings with my mentors. For myself, it has allowed me to have targeted, focused talks with individuals during steps 1 and 2, listen to their feedback while taking down notes to reference later in step 3, and reflect on the overall conversation at the end and later on in step 4. Not only has mentoring provided value to my mentee, but it has taught me a lot about myself and how I approach different situations. | https://towardsdatascience.com/next-year-you-should-absolutely-adopt-a-mentee-in-data-science-9a2358cf49b | ['Rose Day'] | 2020-12-10 19:13:53.256000+00:00 | ['Leadership', 'Mentorship', 'Leading Women In Data', 'Women In Tech', 'Data Science'] |
Sight and Sound | Sight and Sound
The Purest Art, The Most Exquisite Music
“person playing violin” by Madelon 🇫🇷 on Unsplash
Circles and swirling spirals across skin, a never ending panoply of invisible pictures. Fingertips trailing shivers, lips painting kisses, bodies crafting passion, hearts creating ecstasy.
John’s eyes drift shut as he dips his head over the richly polished wood of his violin, the nimble fingers of his left hand flickering over its slim neck. He draws the bow across the strings, shaping a pure clear melody that rings out into the quiet room and trembles in Erik’s bones where he lolls across the rumpled sheets. The notes flow through Erik like liquid, like light, and he sees past the walls of their tiny flat into infinity.
Colours blend and fuse, creating new shades and shapes upon the canvas. Erik tilts his head and chews his lip, fingers gripping the brush’s metal ferrule as the soft bristles move almost without thought, quickly filling in a depiction of John bent over his violin. It is an image that is permanently etched upon Erik’s soul, and he has pencilled and inked and painted it many times, but never to his own satisfaction. He cannot capture the euphoria in oils or charcoal, cannot delineate the exaltation in watercolours. Still, he tries.
A rhythm, a pulse within the blood, hearts keeping time with a primal beat. Bodies moving as one, dancing to a music old as time. Breath and voice join together, singing a deep chant of rapturous bliss.
The sun rises. Golden light sneaks through the frosted glass to creep across the blankets, gilding faces. John’s green eyes flutter open first, then Erik’s browns, and they smile into each other. This is the purest art, the most exquisite music — this is riches.
♥
This piece is part of the short fiction challenge of the LGBTQ Fiction Project, hosted on Crossin(G)enres. This week’s theme is “Work of Art.”
Other Stories: | https://medium.com/prismnpen/sight-and-sound-769192585990 | ['Esther Spurrill-Jones'] | 2018-11-18 00:34:24.586000+00:00 | ['Flash Fiction', 'Art', 'Fiction', 'LGBTQ', 'Music'] |
COVID-19: The Cockblock of Closure | 50 WORDS
COVID-19: The Cockblock of Closure
Thrifty Words Theme Challenge #18: Closure
Image by Klaus Hausmann from Pixabay
Humans crave closure. Graduation ceremonies, retirements, and weddings are shared closure events in our lives. Funerals are the ultimate forms of closure. COVID-19 has blocked us from these forms of closure.
And how many long-distance relationships have ended during the COVID-19 quarantine without an opportunity for a final closure fuck? | https://medium.com/the-bad-influence/covid-19-the-cockblock-of-closure-80e1cdd948fb | ['James Knight'] | 2020-12-30 10:01:34.557000+00:00 | ['Thrifty Words Challenge', 'Writing Prompts', 'Closure', 'Covid 19', 'The Bad Influence'] |
W3.CSS Advanced Tutorial | 4. Modal
W3.CSS framework has its own w3-modal class to create a popup modal without any JavaScript code. Let’s create a button that will open up a modal when clicked. You can create it right below the accordion component. We will assign the onclick event with a simple JavaScript to show the content.
<button onclick="document.getElementById('id01').style.display='block'" class="w3-button w3-green w3-large">Login</button>
We need to create a div element with id01 as the id and w3-modal as the class. Inside the div, we will need another div element with w3-modal-content as class. You can nest any other elements inside according to your own needs.
<div id="id01" class="w3-modal">
<div class="w3-modal-content w3-card-4 w3-animate-zoom" style="max-width:600px"> <div class="w3-center"><br>
<span onclick="document.getElementById('id01').style.display='none'" class="w3-button w3-xlarge w3-hover-red w3-display-topright" title="Close Modal">×</span> </div> <p>Content here!</p> </div>
</div>
I’ve created one modal for the user to login. Your final html file should look something like this:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<title>Modal</title>
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://www.w3schools.com/w3css/4/w3.css">
<style>
.mySlides {display:none}
.w3-left, .w3-right, .w3-badge {cursor:pointer}
.w3-badge {height:13px;width:13px;padding:0}
</style>
<body>
<div class="w3-container">
<button onclick="toggle_accordion('Demo1')" class="w3-button w3-block w3-black w3-left-align">Filter</button>
<div id="Demo1" class="w3-hide w3-container">
<p>Search for a name in the input field.</p>
<input class="w3-input w3-border w3-padding" type="text" placeholder="Search for names.." id="myInput" onkeyup="filter_list()">
<ul class="w3-ul w3-margin-top" id="myUL">
<li><a href="https://medium.com/better-programming/getting-started-with-w3-css-379ff93463d1" target="_blank">Getting Started with W3.CSS<a/></li>
<li><a href="https://towardsdatascience.com/data-science-made-easy-interactive-data-visualization-using-orange-de8d5f6b7f2b" target="_blank">Data Science Made Easy: Interactive Data Visualization using Orange<a/></li>
<li><a href="https://medium.com/better-programming/a-beginners-guide-to-botui-framework-for-chatbot-ui-a4e6d9a4a74" target="_blank">A Beginner’s Guide to Botui Framework for Chatbot UI<a/></li>
<li><a href="https://medium.com/better-programming/emoji-are-the-future-of-effective-web-design-a9bf98b18616" target="_blank">Emoji Are the Future of Effective Web Design 😃<a/></li>
<li><a href="https://towardsdatascience.com/a-beginners-guide-to-rasa-nlu-for-intent-classification-and-named-entity-recognition-a4f0f76b2a96" target="_blank">A Beginner’s Guide to Rasa NLU for Intent Classification and Named-entity Recognition<a/></li>
<li><a href="https://towardsdatascience.com/beginners-guide-to-sentiment-analysis-for-simplified-chinese-using-snownlp-ce88a8407efb" target="_blank">Beginner’s Guide to Sentiment Analysis for Simplified Chinese using SnowNLP<a/></li>
<li><a href="https://towardsdatascience.com/beginners-guide-to-bert-for-multi-classification-task-92f5445c2d7c" target="_blank">Beginner’s Guide to BERT for Multi-classification Task<a/></li>
</ul>
</div>
<button onclick="toggle_accordion('Demo2')" class="w3-button w3-block w3-black w3-left-align">Slideshow</button>
<div id="Demo2" class="w3-hide w3-container">
<div class="w3-content w3-display-container" style="max-width:800px">
<img class="mySlides" src="img_nature_wide.jpg" style="width:100%">
<img class="mySlides" src="img_snow_wide.jpg" style="width:100%">
<img class="mySlides" src="img_mountains_wide.jpg" style="width:100%">
<div class="w3-center w3-container w3-section w3-large w3-text-white w3-display-bottommiddle" style="width:100%">
<div class="w3-left w3-hover-text-khaki" onclick="plusDivs(-1)">❮</div>
<div class="w3-right w3-hover-text-khaki" onclick="plusDivs(1)">❯</div>
<span class="w3-badge demo w3-border w3-transparent w3-hover-white" onclick="currentDiv(1)"></span>
<span class="w3-badge demo w3-border w3-transparent w3-hover-white" onclick="currentDiv(2)"></span>
<span class="w3-badge demo w3-border w3-transparent w3-hover-white" onclick="currentDiv(3)"></span>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<button onclick="document.getElementById('id01').style.display='block'" class="w3-button w3-green w3-large">Login</button>
<div id="id01" class="w3-modal">
<div class="w3-modal-content w3-card-4 w3-animate-zoom" style="max-width:600px">
<div class="w3-center"><br>
<span onclick="document.getElementById('id01').style.display='none'" class="w3-button w3-xlarge w3-hover-red w3-display-topright" title="Close Modal">×</span>
</div>
<form class="w3-container" action="/action_page.php">
<div class="w3-section">
<label><b>Username</b></label>
<input class="w3-input w3-border w3-margin-bottom" type="text" placeholder="Enter Username" name="usrname" required>
<label><b>Password</b></label>
<input class="w3-input w3-border" type="password" placeholder="Enter Password" name="psw" required>
<button class="w3-button w3-block w3-green w3-section w3-padding" type="submit">Login</button>
</div>
</form>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<script>
function toggle_accordion(id) {
let x = document.getElementById(id);
let highlight_color = "w3-red";
let base_color = "w3-black";
if (x.className.indexOf("w3-show") == -1) {
x.className += " w3-show";
x.previousElementSibling.className =
x.previousElementSibling.className.replace(base_color, highlight_color);
} else {
x.className = x.className.replace(" w3-show", "");
x.previousElementSibling.className =
x.previousElementSibling.className.replace(highlight_color, base_color);
}
}
function filter_list() {
var input, filter, ul, li, a, i;
input = document.getElementById("myInput");
filter = input.value.toUpperCase();
ul = document.getElementById("myUL");
li = ul.getElementsByTagName("li");
for (i = 0; i < li.length; i++) {
txtValue = li[i].textContent || li[i].innerText;
if (txtValue.toUpperCase().indexOf(filter) > -1) {
li[i].style.display = "";
} else {
li[i].style.display = "none";
}
}
}
var slideIndex = 1;
showDivs(slideIndex);
function plusDivs(n) {
showDivs(slideIndex += n);
}
function currentDiv(n) {
showDivs(slideIndex = n);
}
function showDivs(n) {
var i;
var x = document.getElementsByClassName("mySlides");
var dots = document.getElementsByClassName("demo");
if (n > x.length) {slideIndex = 1}
if (n < 1) {slideIndex = x.length}
for (i = 0; i < x.length; i++) {
x[i].style.display = "none";
}
for (i = 0; i < dots.length; i++) {
dots[i].className = dots[i].className.replace(" w3-white", "");
}
x[slideIndex-1].style.display = "block";
dots[slideIndex-1].className += " w3-white";
}
</script>
</body>
</html>
Click the Login button to test it out. You can see the popup modal — you can cancel it by clicking the X button at the top right. | https://medium.com/better-programming/w3-css-advanced-tutorial-168fcf3fde8f | ['Ng Wai Foong'] | 2020-11-09 05:15:51.763000+00:00 | ['CSS', 'Lightweight', 'Programming', 'HTML', 'Web Development'] |
Data Visualization Advice for UX Designers | Not too long ago, I was the lead UX designer on a project that involved some robust reporting features. The system would aggregate data from multiple sources to show teachers how they were performing compared to their colleagues in their building and in their school district.
I designed one of the report screens that listed all the indicators that the teachers were compared on. For each indicator, there was a chart. Since the charts were going to be generated dynamically with Highcharts and I was never great at math and analytics, I decided to leave them to the engineers. This is what they came up with:
I later learned that this is called a Box Plot chart
When I first saw it, I felt dumb — I had no idea of what was going on. Once the engineers broke it down for me, it made sense, yet I still found it to be overly complicated. “Can’t we just use a bar chart?”, I asked. They replied saying that this is the standard chart type for showing a position within a range. Being completely out of my depth, I shrugged and agreed to roll it out and show it to the client.
To my surprise, the client was as confused as I was. They asked if we could keep this version as an “advanced view”, but default to a simple… bar chart. Facepalm. So this was the final result:
The “Alternate View” flips the chart to show the first version (the box plot chart)
It seems pretty obvious now: our end users were school teachers. Unless they were math teachers, their ability to understand charts was probably not a lot better than mine. Which leads me to the first advice…
Know Your Audience (The Who)
This is one of the pillars of UX (we normally replace audience with users, but it’s the same thing) yet I failed to apply it because I doubted myself. Had our users been financial traders, the box plot chart would have worked perfectly fine with them, but that was not the case.
It might seem obvious but the first step is to always use research to understand who your users are and what their needs are.
Know Your Data (The What)
Mean? Median? Index? This threw me back to my high school math classes. Not a fan. Yet after my experience with the teachers application, I knew I had to step up my data viz game. Bill Shander does an amazing job explaining all of this on his Data Visualization Fundamentals course on Lynda.com
Basically, you need to understand what it is that you are trying to represent before you can make a decision on how to represent it.
Choose Wisely (The How)
Now that you have all the background information you need, it’s time to pick a type of chart to represent your data. And this is where us designers can become our own worst enemy. Because the sexiest, coolest-looking chart is not always the best chart. There, I said it.
Ask a designer to design a dashboard just for fun, without any regards for actual data. The result will probably be a beautiful combination of a line chart, a bar chart, a pie chart and/or a few donut charts, and maybe a couple of “big number” widgets as well. Most real-life dashboards, however, will end up being a set of bar charts and perhaps a line chart. And this is okay because the data should drive the type of chart we use and not the other way around.
Bar charts and line charts might be boring, but they are very effective. Pie charts and donut charts should be used with caution, because no matter how good they look, it turns out our brains are not great at comparing slices of a circle. (Tip: search for “pie charts bad” on Google and you’ll see what I’m talking about)
Sometimes the best way to go might be not using a chart at all and use a grid, a map, or a single number. It all comes down to what brings the most value to the end user, not what looks better. | https://medium.com/headspring-ux-team/data-visualization-advice-for-ux-designers-4a5e5ccbd875 | ['Claudia Love'] | 2016-04-13 18:33:22.931000+00:00 | ['Design', 'Data Visualization', 'UX'] |
P5 JS | The Absolute Beginning to Programming World | Any of them can be a good option to start with, but I didn’t find any of them interesting immediately until I get to a point where I can actually make something with it and not just adding some numbers or finding length of a given string.
From defining a variable to creating a function or a class there a long journey in which students gets to learn lot of concepts of programming and if that’s gets interesting and fun is involved around the learning process the journey gets even more exciting. The journey gets a kick and learnings become fun once the fundamentals are solid and clear.
Suppose you want to teach a 14 year old kid the concepts of programming and you start with telling how do we declare a variable, how do we create function which adds 2 numbers. This may work but it doesn’t seems much interesting.
How about teaching the concepts with a tool which will make the learning fun and gives output on the screen with colours whenever you try something and learn new concept of programming? Also if it can help to create visualisation of some maths shapes on screen by adding some numbers in code? And more?
P5 JS can help you with this!!
What is P5 JS?
p5.js is a JavaScript library for creative coding, with a focus on making coding accessible and inclusive for artists, designers, educators, beginners, and anyone else! p5.js is free and open-source because we believe software, and the tools to learn it, should be accessible to everyone. — https://p5js.org/
I don’t remember how did I get to know about P5 but initially I didn’t find it much interesting until the point where I stared watching video tutorials of The Coding Train The way he explains the things and use P5 to introduce the concepts made me think that why not use it as the first for beginners. Apparently the creator of the channel is also creator of P5.
I’ll highly recommend watching his videos on P5 where he explains about variable, functions and object.
Let’s create something with P5
P5 JS gives an online editor where you can code and try things: https://editor.p5js.org/
P5 has 2 functions which are used in all of it’s programs and those are
setup()
draw()
setup() is where you set your whiteboard where you can start creating something. In this function you can decide how big you want to create your whiteboard and what colour and shape you want it to be.
draw() is where you can specify what you want to draw on your whiteboard whether a circle or a line or an ellipse. And remember this is a digital whiteboard so yes you can also move your things around here and there.
https://editor.p5js.org/ default code
Usually we don’t explain functions as the first thing in the programming in start and there are 4 functions here. Explain them as blackbox if you want or skip till the variable comes in picture.
Now let’s create a circle using which we can start the concept of variable.
On a canvas of 400x400 we have created a circle of radius 150 with it’s centre laying on 200,200 this is simple maths one can relate to, and changing the centre or the radius will change something on the screen.
How cool is that for a new one in the programming world. They hardly have written anything but they can see the output on screen and that’s huge.
Not let’s make it fun and add some colours to the existing circle.
This is just a demo of the simple thing which we can do with P5 and get interest of the learner. Ofcourse there’s a lot more in there with P5 to explain like loops, condition, arrays, objects and classes which are backbone programming concepts.
An example of list of circle can be good to demonstrate the concept of array, show the circle only if it’s bigger than some radius can be example of condition, or combination of both?
These are static example using which you can draw things on screen. These are interesting but to make them even more interesting we need some movement on the screen, humans are always attracted towards movement.
let speed;
let x;
let y; function setup() {
speed = 1;
x = width/2;
y = height/2;
createCanvas(500, 500);
} function draw() {
background(220);
x = x + speed;
y = y + speed;
if (x > 400) {
x = 0;
y = 0;
}
let c = color("yellow");
fill(c);
circle(x, y, 150);
}
I definitely cannot show all the things which P5 can do but it’s lot about the creativity after knowing the framework to a certain limit. Now it’s on you or the learner how they want to use it.
Even if you don’t want to use it for teaching it’s worth a framework or a tool to play with. It’s very similar to quil in Clojure.
Links
P5 JS
The Coding Train
Quil | https://medium.com/swlh/p5-js-the-absolute-beginning-to-programming-world-f4913ed02b3 | ['Chandan Kumar'] | 2020-11-02 14:30:39.388000+00:00 | ['Nodejs', 'Programming', 'Teaching', 'P5js'] |
Swytch Co-Founder Evan Caron Selected as Top Social Entrepreneur for The Block Talk Awards | Evan Caron, co-founder and managing director of Swytch, has been selected as a winner of the 2018 Block Talk Award for Top Social Entrepreneur.
The Block Talk Awards recognize the innovators and influencers who push the blockchain industry forward through cutting edge ideas, technology and analysis. The awards are hosted by The Block Talk, a news website that focuses on blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies.
“Our team of judges had a great time learning all about the new projects and individuals that are building a foundation for our future with blockchain technology,” said Tina Mulqueen, founder of The Block Talk. “Blockchain is about much more than tokens and Evan’s work with Swytch really impressed us. Swytch is solving significant issues related to the mass adoption of renewable energy and bringing the world one step closer to a clean and healthy future.”
Swytch incentivizes governments, cities, corporations and individuals to take a more active role in accelerating the adoption of renewable energy and sustainability programs. Swytch creates an improved and more accountable energy grid where stakeholders can contribute, monetize their data and invest in sustainable infrastructure projects, thus encouraging people, cities and countries to cooperate in the transition to clean energy.
“I am honored to be recognized by The Block Talk Awards,” said Caron. “Greenhouse gases produced by the burning of fossil fuels are a global problem and therefore need a global solution. We created Swytch to be a worldwide incentive to reward and evaluate pro-social behavior while creating a unified community to tackle one of the most pressing issues facing the future of our planet.” | https://medium.com/swytch/swytch-co-founder-evan-caron-selected-as-top-social-entrepreneur-for-the-block-talk-awards-31c4fb1ab4b | ['Dwight Sproull'] | 2018-10-10 16:31:16.178000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency', 'Sustainability', 'Blockchain Technology', 'Blockchain', 'Climate Change'] |
Trade Deadline | May 8, 2019 — MakeMine Minute | By Landon Hinote
On Friday, May 10 at 12:01 AM, the United States will place a 25% tariff on nearly all goods imported from China. US importers will be responsible for paying the 25% tax to the US government.
If US companies determine that the 25% tariff is too high, they may be faced with a decision to take their manufacturing operations elsewhere. Companies could look to South East Asia as an alternative. However, China represents a large share of global production capacity. South East Asia cannot be the solution for all product manufacturing. The reason being, these countries can only support a portion of China’s current production due to their limited factory and port infrastructure.
In the end, what China would pay for the tariffs going into effect on Friday is the potential for lost business and revenue. US companies and consumers will end up paying the 25% tax in the long run.
Bottom Line | There is still hope for an agreement to reverse the tariff in the coming weeks if the US and China fail to reach a deal by Friday. Either way, companies should contemplate a “China plus one” strategy. The goal is to have a secondary factory option outside of China as a backup plan if trade negotiations continue to sour. | https://medium.com/@landon_14022/trade-deadline-20d3a658b2da | ['Landon Hinote'] | 2019-06-17 19:10:20.105000+00:00 | ['Trade', 'Trump Administration', 'Xi Jinping', 'Trump', 'China'] |
Riesgo | 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/el-circulo/riesgo-c68e960bd7c6 | ['Pablo Pereyra'] | 2020-11-18 17:03:27.528000+00:00 | ['Castellano', 'Español', 'El Circulo', 'Poesía En Español', 'Poesia'] |
The psychology of colors in marketing | The psychology of colors in marketing
Different colors can have strong psychological impacts on our mood, thought processes, and even elicit various physical responses. For instance, strong blue colors can have calm and relaxing effects on the mind while red attracts us to food and stimulates sexual arousal.
Photo from Wallpaper Safari
Weird right? But what does that have to do with marketing you ask?
Couple it with the fact that 92.6% buyers tend to focus on visual appearance when deciding whether or not to purchase a product and you’re on to something.
Thirsty yet? You get the idea. Various colors and color schemes have been used in marketing practices for a long time to make products and services more appealing to consumers. You can find countless examples of this practice on your own but we’ll go over some of them here.
Warm colors
Warm colors include red, orange, and yellow. They can invoke an array of emotions from comfort all the way up to hostility. As I mentioned before, the color red induces appetite and sexual arousal but it has other properties as well. Red is frequently used for clearance sales because the color quickly pulls focus. Red also causes changes in the physical body such as increased blood pressure and heart rate.
Orange and yellow stimulate the logic center in the brain while promoting enthusiasm. Yellow also indicates caution which in some cases creates feelings of anxiety. Speaking of enthusiasm, remember how I said that the color red induces appetite? If you are a restaurant, and you want your customers to feel enthusiastic about eating at your establishment, you might build a marketing scheme around these two colors.
Photo from Wallpaper Cave
Maybe you can throw some blue in there too.
Photo from Wallpaper Cave
Cool colors
Cool colors include colors like, blue, purple, and green. We’ve already talked about blue a little bit but aside from promoting calmness it also creates trust in a brand and stimulates productivity. I don’t see the point in adding their logos here but just think about Facebook and Twitter.
Moving on, did you know that purple represents royalty?
Photo from Wallpaper Cave
Yeah. When you start to think about it, it really is that obvious. Purple has been shown to stimulate the problem solving area of the brain while too much of it can promote depression in some individuals. Purple is also a romantic color.
Quick thought experiment, I want you to look at that picture of Crown Royal again and ask yourself if alcohol should be the answer to someone’s problems. I guess that depends on whether or not you work in marketing.
Now, my personal favorite, the color green. Green is representative of the natural world and the natural way of things. Health, tranquility, and nature all come to mind with the color green. The color green also causes a ‘wake up’ effect and can stimulate the release of cortisol in the brain. No wonder it’s used in health advertising!
Photo from Global Healing Center
One more just for fun,
Photo from iSpot.tv
Other colors
Lets not forget about black or grey.
Black can be used to represent strength, stability, luxury, elegance and intelligence. If it wasn’t already obvious, it’s also used to trim down the appearance of things. As for how it affects our brains, the color black is capable of inducing aggression and feelings of power.
Photo from Wallpaper Cave
As for grey, old age, depression, and death can be some of the first things that come to mind, either consciously or subliminally, but it can also be used to represent practicality and content. It really depends on the usage but if used too much, it can cause depression or feelings of detachment.
There are many more examples but these are the basics. Colors are a powerful marketing tool that can be used to sway people in a number of ways. | https://medium.com/the-alt-perspective/the-psychology-of-colors-in-marketing-fe9c378eb68b | ['Mr. Anonymous'] | 2020-11-29 19:05:27.564000+00:00 | ['Products And Services', 'Marketing', 'Advertising And Marketing', 'Psychology', 'Colors'] |
A New Way to Handle Back Press in Fragments | A New Way to Handle Back Press in Fragments
Using the new ’OnBackPressedDispatcher’ in Android fragments
If you’ve been an Android developer for a while, the chances are you’ve handled back-press events using the onBackPressed function in activities. That was fine until the introduction of architectural components and a single source of truth patterns.
In this modern Android development era, developers adapt to single-activity patterns, and the rest of the screens are implemented using fragments. This approach brings many advantages — one that I especially appreciate is that every outsource interaction should be done through that particular activity.
With such high-quality development ideas, developers tend to move from traditional activities to effective fragments. This puts many developers in a tricky position (myself included in some cases) regarding the usage of back press in fragments. | https://medium.com/better-programming/a-new-way-to-handle-back-press-in-fragments-8a67cdcda75e | ['Siva Ganesh Kantamani'] | 2020-10-15 04:00:45.276000+00:00 | ['Software Development', 'AndroidDev', 'Android', 'Programming', 'Mobile'] |
The New Covid-19 Strain in Britain, Explained | Image by PIRO4D from Pixabay
December 14th, and Health Secretary Matt Hancock was on his feet in the House of Commons, delivering some sobering news about the ongoing pandemic: the virus had mutated, and the mutated strain was thought to be spreading faster, driving the rise in cases in London and the South-East. London and many parts of the South-East were to be upgraded to Tier 3 restrictions, with all restaurants, pubs, and bars all closed.
He explained that he was first briefed on the new strain on Friday, December 11th, and was given more information over the weekend between then and his announcement in the House of Commons.
But then, late on the following Friday, December 18th, NERVTAG, the expert committee responsible for identifying and analysing new and emerging respiratory virus threats, delivered their findings to the government, and the report was bleak: the virus was between 65% and 75% more transmissible than the other Sars-CoV-2 variants, and had become the dominant strain in the capital by the end of the November month-long lockdown.
The government acted swiftly, for once at least, agreeing on Saturday morning and announcing in the evening that London and all parts of the South East previously upgraded to Tier 3 would now be upgraded to a new Tier 4 of restrictions, which is very similar to the November lockdown restrictions. They also announced that in these areas, the “Christmas bubbles” plan would be abandoned entirely, with no households allowed to mix indoor at any time, and that the bubbles in the rest of the country would be limited to 3 households for just the 25th itself, not for the 5 day period initially planned and announced on December 2nd, when the lockdown ended.
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Much about this mutated strain, which has been memorably named VUI-202012/01, is not yet known. There is no known effect on the efficacy of the various vaccines, nor on the severity of the illnesses which those infected suffer on average, though it is thought that the variant causes an increased viral load, thereby making the infected more infectious. The settled view of epidemiologists and virologists is that higher viral loads worsen the illness, but that has to be confirmed with this new variant before we can be sure of that.
NERVTAG will reconvene again, following further analysis of the possible complications regarding severity, vaccine efficacy, transmissibility, and testing efficacy (both lateral flow and PCR), to advise the government in more detail about the situation and the possible responses to it.
The response will almost certainly involve drastic measures not seen since the severe and lengthy first lockdown from March through to June, such as partially shutting schools, potentially stopping students returning to universities physically, and a full national lockdown until late February or March, to give time for the vaccines to be distributed to the priority list drawn up in late November.
But there are much wider political questions that have to be answered here, both domestic and international.
Firstly, there has been concern and consternation about the UK government’s handling of this, though much of that has been misplaced. It has emerged that scientists knew of this mutation in September, and so many people have asked why we couldn’t have acted much sooner. But this is a misunderstanding of the situation — not helped by the media’s epidemiological illiteracy — as viruses mutate all the time, but it often takes a long time for any significant effects to be known. Epidemiologically or medically significant variations are rare. And, as I explained, the Health Secretary only became aware of this 2 days before introducing new restrictions, and 8 days before the further restrictions.
However, that is not to totally exonerate the government. Some have correctly pointed out that virus mutations don’t occur if there is no virus, and so many proponents of the suppression strategy, used by New Zealand to great effect both epidemiologically and economically, have used this to further their conviction, which is increasingly being vindicated, that the first lockdown was eased too soon, and that all countries, including the UK, should’ve attempted to eliminate the virus and then prevent re-entry — and, as an island, the UK would’ve had a particular advantage in this regard.
There is also an interesting point about the public health response to make here: the November lockdown appears to have driven forward the dominance of the new strain, as it brought down the R rate of the original variant to below 1, meaning its levels declined in the population, while the new variant’s R rate stayed above 1, leading to a curious pattern, unexplained at the time, of increased transmission in some affected cities such as Milton Keynes.
That is not to say that lockdowns are bad, but more that this particular lockdown suffered from bad luck. The government will now hope that the effective lockdown imposed on the hubs for the new variant will be enough to get the R down, though that seems unlikely.
And if there are still remaining questions about why it took the scientists from the obvious continued upward trend in some areas during the lockdown to December 11th to brief the Health Secretary, that delay can be explained by the combination of the natural incubation period of the virus, the short delay in information caused by the need for testing, and the additional delay caused by the need for sequencing the genetic material of the virus samples from which arose a positive PCR test, to reveal which of the variants each was. As soon as scientists had the worrying data on this at their disposal, the Health Secretary was immediately briefed.
And what does all this mean for the international community and ties with the UK?
In short, chaos. Most European nations have now temporarily shut borders with Britain, including France, which has imposed a 48-hour ban on travel from Britain, except for some limited cargo arrivals. The UK government today held a COBRA meeting, a forum for emergencies, on the possible effects of the new variant and travel bans on food supply.
It is probable, though, that the new variant is already in many other countries, given the timescales we are dealing with: the variant became prevalent enough to make international spread probable in October, and skyrocketed in November and December, with the period between the 2nd and 14th of December likely seeing significant outward international travel from the UK, and particularly from the capital, which is the main hub for the new variant.
France will probably acquiesce upon realising this, but the world is naturally worrying about the spread of this new strain. The sensible move for other countries to make is not to try to prevent the variant entering, because it already has done, but to suppress the new variant with test, trace, and isolate systems, aggressively using backwards tracing methods to find the first few infections before tracing forward. The lesson from the dichotomous levels of success between East Asia and the West is that early testing and tracing of a newly-entered virus is the only effective way of preventing the need for hefty restrictions. That remains the case with this mutated strain.
As for the public health message, it remains the same, but with greater importance and renewed purpose attached:
Wear a mask. Stay at home. Wash your hands. Practise physical distancing. And, if you have symptoms, or you are contacted by contact tracers, get a test and self-isolate yourself. | https://medium.com/@pgo508947/image-by-piro4d-from-pixabay-b2c741629b91 | ['Panda Go'] | 2020-12-22 13:01:00.438000+00:00 | ['Coronavirus', 'Politics', 'UK', 'Pandemic', 'Covid 19'] |
The ISW Newsletter: NFL Power Ratings 2021 | September 9, 2021
Volume 1 Issue #1
Greetings Intelligent Sports Wagerers!
Thank you very much for signing up for our newsletter. I am John Culver, founding editor of The Intelligent Sports Wagerer (The ISW) blog and co-founder and CEO of the Fanvest Wagering Exchange, Inc.
Our mission at the ISW is to make us all better sports bettors.
We believe that value investing principles offer us the best roadmap to navigating the wagering marketplace. Namely that a security (e.g. stock, bond or fund) and a wager each have intrinsic value that can be estimated with a replicable systematic framework — when that value is greater than the market price, we’re typically buyers. Like investing, successful sports betting is a long-term game. We hope to show you ways to generate positive ROI.
In time, we hope to build a community whereby we all get smarter as group through the dissemination of ideas, concepts, and discussions. So please do not be a stranger and reach out!
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @jvculver88
LinkedIn: The Intelligent Sports Wagerer
Given that I am wearing a few hats, I will be doing my best to provide you all with links to my weekly articles and NFL picks.
Checkout our NFL 2021 Preseason Power Ratings article and stay tuned for our NFL 2021 W1 Preview!
***
May the odds be ever in your favor.
Sincerely,
John | https://medium.com/the-intelligent-sports-wagerer/the-isw-newsletter-nfl-power-ratings-2021-2828219d7cd5 | ['John Culver'] | 2021-09-09 13:31:51.733000+00:00 | ['Sports Betting', 'Investing', 'Systems Thinking', 'NFL', 'Lean Startup'] |
How Darwin’s evolution theory is doing its lab test with Corona. | ‘Survival of the fittest’ would have looked like just another concept that has been passed on to us through learning. Over time, we had our own ideas and adapts to the phrase and even justifications, whichever side we took. Books upheld it, text books drummed it in, while the medical fraternity would love to muse on it over high tea in those revelation seminars.
The virus that tried to play a bacteria: But then, a seemingly invisible enemy, call it by any name, it definitely knows the meaning of the word viral. So a virus decides to bring the whole world down to its knees. By first scaring that it can kill. Then by sharing itself faster than the rumours against it can travel. All this, not before posing as a bacteria for some time till antibiotics got numb and Doctors had to call its bluff and declare the Corona what it is, a damn virus! Deadly or not, only Darwin could then tell.
The Human Makeover with Corona Lock System :)
The strain of Corona and its many strains: So they said it could break down your immunity in more ways than one. But before the lungs could get a hang of it, the stomach experienced a different corona. Then before the stomach could get its colon together, it claimed to affect the kidneys. As the confusion prevailed, and the medical fraternity tries to put the corona virus back in its place, it doesn’t cease to surprise the frailty in its next patient. The word was then out, that it mostly effects people with co-morbidities, meaning other illnesses that are looking for a cure, not corona.
Slowly the survivors of Corona knew that if they are healthy, they will continue to be healthy. Maybe, in Darwin’s mind, Corona would be just a mediocre glitch.
Old wine in new doses: The books were out, and so were the stories. The tests were checked, and so were the loopholes. Corona hacks became commonplace from vitamins, supplements to even kitchen miracles that would promise a shield. Would Doctors rule out that virus trap or just declare you sick, if the possibilities were on the borderline. Corona and Darwin were enjoying this merry-go-round, till the Doctors took the Oxford dictionary guys by surprise and they declared the magic word: Asymptomatic. You have it, you have it not, gave way to you may have had it. Period.
The temperature controlled enigma: Low temperature, High temperature, Body temperature, Hot or Humid temperature, suddenly weather forecasting would now go in tandem with predictive analysis of Corona manifesting. Sometimes the media channels would also wait for the Doctor’s suggestion before waiting to end their prophecies on weather tantrums with a Corona wave warning. No longer did Tsunami enjoy the position of a headline buster. Darwin was monitoring the beatification of Corona with rapt attention to get an insider view of the Survival theory getting its due.
Isolation and social distance geometry: Comfortable it was for people who had the option to stay at home. But duty is was for the army of Doctors, Sanitary workers, Health and allied workers, Nursing staff, Police and Security Services, Government agencies and an army of volunteers. The world woke up to the concepts of isolation to end the Corona run, while the distances between people became the topic to keep a tab on. 1 meter said some, 6 feet said many, before the size of the droplets with its athletic mobility to jump on people nearby, kept all theories on.
Is Corona a lesson in hygiene of not to get too close to people or respect their right to privacy in public, keeping our auras from unwanted mingling.
The bat on the mat to bell the cat :)
The source and the remorse: The wet markets of China got all the attention as videos of people trading in live animals, live tasting, customers buying them like toffees and savage conditions of display hit the mobile screens. The emotions had a broad range. Ghastly to the most unsuspecting ones, maybe a tad mischievous to the cookery show enthusiasts, brownies for the Ripley’s story hunters, shocking to the environmentalists who believe that the selfish man is doing enough damage to this world already. Just before the epicentre of the Corona nuke surfaced, it also made the world sit up and decide the aftermath of diplomatic repercussions of this behaviour.
Declared a pandemic for a masked world: Most viruses threaten and scare. Here, Corona wreaks havoc on seniors or those with other illnesses they say. But a weakened system is by no means an excuse to give way to a hungry virus. So the world now has masks for all, clean hands advisory and social distancing to be safe. Schools that work from home, work that has made many hunt for some, motivation gone online, new ideas get a pre-mature birth, governments supporting citizens, citizens supporting citizens, and many new lessons to be learnt for a world that was in a hurry. Fitness was always a fad, but now recaptured everyone’s imagination as an antidote to lifelessness, thereby becoming a new normal. Darwin didn’t see this one coming :)
Soon Corona will just be another ordinary virus: Medical science will catch up. Scientists will corner it. Doctors will wipe it out. Pharma companies will mop it up. Governments will dole it out. Citizens of the world will have a new anti-virus to note for their medical history. Countries will famously check your medical passport. Parents will feel safe while children will continue to have more grand-parents braving it and brandishing a victory sign. One dose at a time. Survival of the fittest may have been a Darwin theory, but it has seen its practical avatar in the form of a virus called Corona. This too shall pass. | https://medium.com/@prativadi/how-darwins-evolution-theory-is-doing-its-lab-practice-with-corona-8cf380b63c68 | ['V S Prativadi'] | 2020-11-29 07:01:10.001000+00:00 | ['Evolution', 'Thought Leadership', 'Coronavirus Alarm', 'Medical', 'Corona'] |
Time to Shine, A Career Change Story… | Another challenging day of my life, I was told by my employer by having one-to-one, probably thinking of NOT hurting with his words, This job is not suited with your educational background and skills, we are unfortunately unable to continue our journey together. We are sorry, but you have to go.
Worried, how am I going to survive with my family in UK, as I had no such provision for this sort of situation. Lucky, that I never lose hope and kept struggling, finally thought of moving towards I.T as my career change. I joined a course in London, and within couple of months, I got my first role as “Desktop Engineer” as a trainee and then got another offer from a big organization “Fujitsu”, where I dreamt of working, couple of years back.
Don’t feel entitled to anything you didn’t sweat and struggle for. — Marian Wright Edelman
Photo by Frederik Löwer on Unsplash
Cutting a long story short, I’m stepping up and growing to be an experienced “IT Systems Engineer”, and will continue to pursue career in I.T. as long as I can… | https://medium.com/@qamarzeeshan/time-to-shine-a-career-change-story-f4ecb4b984bc | ['Qamar Zeeshan'] | 2020-12-27 14:17:30.947000+00:00 | ['Hope', 'Career Change', 'First Post', 'Struggles In Life'] |
Intervention\Image\Exception\NotWritableException Can’t write image data to path | Intervention\Image\Exception\NotWritableException Can't write image data to path
Thanks for contributing an answer to Stack Overflow! Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share… | https://medium.com/@melisafebriani/intervention-image-exception-notwritableexception-cant-write-image-data-to-path-599f6b03b5d6 | [] | 2020-12-24 15:55:00.613000+00:00 | ['PHP', 'Backend', 'Laravel'] |
RAPE — loss of “Honor”?. India, a land of many languages… | India, a land of many languages, cultures, and religions is also the country that is most dangerous for women https://poll2018.trust.org/.
According to the 2019 annual report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), 32033 rape cases were registered across the country, or an average of 88 cases daily.
According to India’s National Family Health Survey, 80% of women who have experienced sexual violence never tell anyone about it. Why is there hesitation in reporting sexual offenses when any other offenses, don’t face the same hesitation?
In all crimes, the perpetrator is put to shame and punishment, but in a sexual offense, the victim faces shame and punishment. This article will be revolving around the reason why it is so.
Gods are not crazy, we are:
India, a country that boasts about worshiping women as gods is also the most dangerous for women in the world. I was constantly hit by this paradox. How is it that a country that treats its women as gods is the unsafest place on earth for women? After a long battle inside my head, I arrived at something which dumbstruck me.
The very reason women are treated as gods is the very same reason they are facing such hardships. I am sure this would instigate anger in many.
Gods in India are meant to be pristine. Only the priests are supposed to enter Garba Griha and touch the idol and anyone else enter and touches the idol, the idol loses its worth of your worship. It is exactly what women go through in the country. Women are expected to be pristine throughout their life. They are expected to save it for their husband. If lost, they lose their honor and their family’s honor.
Virginity:
From the day a girl attains puberty till her menopause she is constantly reminded about a myth, Virginity. The reminder comes in various forms and various sources. Family, school, relatives, movies, TV, and many more.
Virginity is seen as a minimum qualification for marriage. They are expected to be a virgin before marriage and those who are not are shamed and discriminated against. Virginity is a visa for every woman to live in this society without which, her visa will be rejected and deported to the land of shame.
The Attached Family:
In the case when the god’s idol is assumed to have lost the worth of worship, all the other idols in the temple lose their worth of worship. The entire temple is closed. Similarly, apart from the victim being shamed, the entire family is also shamed. If the victim has a brother or sister, their marriage chances get gloomy.
Despite the cons:
Despite these cons, very few women muster the courage beyond all this struggle to come forward and complain. When she does so, society questions her character, integrity, and social nature and she is made to justify herself and her actions. Even if a prostitute is sexually offended, it is a crime. The nature of her job does not give anyone the freedom to violate her. The victim is humiliated so much that it intimidates the next woman who was to raise her voice. All the mustered courage is ripped apart.
I am not saying we should blindly believe the women’s complaint and shame the accused. Even if we can’t empathize with the victim they should be treated with compassion.
Conclusion:
We as a society have put so many obstacles before a woman and we whine every time we see a sexual offense in news. The most disturbing fact is that our four pillars(Administrative, elected, judiciary, and media) have failed them. They are the ones to whom the victim reaches out for help and justice. Be it the police, the judiciary, and the media, they all approach the offense as a loss of honor for the victim and the family rather than a violation against her. This makes the women fall into a vicious cycle where they are intimidated to report which empowers the perpetrators and continue to do the same without fear or guilt.
I believe this will change once we stop seeing women as a god or we change our opinion about gods. Until either of these changes happens, an increase in rapes will continue and it will go unreported.
Rape is not a loss of “Honor” but a violation of consent. | https://medium.com/@asariri/rape-loss-of-honor-5de40a892afa | [] | 2020-12-27 19:12:40.227000+00:00 | ['Rape', 'Culture', 'Women', 'Womens Rights', 'India'] |
The priority slide | It is a no brainer, people that work towards their ideals to make them reality can make great impacts on society. They can change things. There is proof of this from left to right. Unfortunately, we are sometimes forced to opt for the practical instead of the ideal. It would be nice if we had unlimited power to change things, but we don’t have total control over life.
This is because what one needs to do in a given situation may not always be what one wants to do. We have to have some level headed people that live in reality. This view recognises that often we are not helpless victims.
So it begs the question… is it OK then to put pursuing your dream job on hold?
A Harvard Business Review article calls this “the priority slide”, which means pausing higher-level aspirations to focus on the basics. And, Good news, this does not mean being a failure.
Here’s how you can approach it: | https://medium.com/@semosem/the-priority-slide-eeb5f5dff1d9 | ['Sem Gebresilassie', 'Semosem'] | 2020-12-11 22:16:25.708000+00:00 | ['Prioritization', 'Inspiration', 'Life Lessons', 'Journey'] |
Serving Humanity | At the age of 41, fresh after retiring from a 22-year career in the Air Force, I decided to go back to school and earn a graduate degree.
The main reason was that I had seen other people in executive positions who made it a point to tell everybody that they had one of these degrees and claimed that it was very important to make sure to have one myself so I had the best chances to advance.
I joined Antioch University because they offered programs after work hours and extended weekend seminars.
I ended up completing a Master’s Degree in Organizational Management and a Ph.D. in Leadership & Change. Talk about a slow learner. There is some truth to learning while your brain is fresh. It took me 7 years to get through this while having a full-time job and starting a business.
What does that have to do with Serving Humanity, you ask?
Besides many things from the courses I took, the mantra of the founder and first president of the university, Horace Mann always inspired me.
During my studies, our cohort was wearing t-shirts every time we came together that had the mantra printed on them, and I still wear them and live by the goal:
“Be ashamed to die before you have won some victory for humanity”
So how do you create some of those victories?
The short answer is: “…by serving”.
What my team and I are doing is serving humanity by providing high-quality housing. We invest in nice 3 bedrooms, 2 bathroom single-family houses, ideally with a garage, a garden, or yard in stable neighborhoods.
With this service, we are addressing the second tier in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
The need is Safety and one way to provide it is to have shelter/housing.
It is also a service because in our modern world it is very hard to reach any of the other levels of need if the cost for Safety is very high, as it is in places like San Francisco. So offering a nice, well-maintained house for an affordable price is one of our ways to win victories.
Another one that is not very different is to educate people who also want to provide these services on how to do it.
Sadly, financial literacy is massively lacking in the school system. This leads to graduates with challenging employment chances, credit card, and student loan debt and have no idea how to ever get out of the rat race and into a situation where they can actually fully apply their talents and live their passion.
To help close that gap and improve the opportunity to reach economic and financial independence, we work every day to educate people.
How to fill out a personal balance sheet
How to establish a disciplined approach to saving so the accumulation account keeps growing
How to search for suitable investment properties that perform well and provide positive cash flow
How to work with TK providers that fit the requirements in the virtuous triangle
How to work best with insurance providers, nationwide lenders, title companies, and develop a warranty strategy that reduces the need for maintenance reserves in the first 1–2 years after purchase.
The result is a degree of understanding and knowledge that allows people to develop a portfolio of assets that will to esteem.
Photo by Maximillian Conacher on Unsplash
In the best cases, it will provide so much cash flow each month that our students can do what they really want, have a passion for, and love to do. That’s probably pretty close to what Maslow called “self-actualization”.
You can do what you love. You can apply your talents, you don’t need to worry about money or paying your bills. And in turn by being in that position:
You can also join us in winning victories for humanity. | https://medium.com/the-ideal-wealth-grower/serving-humanity-e52af7ce13a0 | ['Dr. Axel Meierhoefer'] | 2020-12-22 17:07:54.523000+00:00 | ['Passive Income', 'Real Estate Investments', 'Money', 'Real Estate', 'Humanity'] |
Why has real-time marketing become so important in the COVID era? | Why has real-time marketing become so important in the COVID era?
COVID era
Confirmed the need to meet United States’ annual Super Bowl requirements , starting with the end of Power to run the 11 million kWh game. The snack brand Oreo has been waiting for about two years for a power outage after 11 years of not being able to run all 11 kWh of electricity. Branding is the time for them to execute their punchline.
Fortunately, several years ago, a power outage at the Cookie Company Stadium in Super Bowl XLVII eventually resulted in a power outage. Oreo sent a tweet on their setup and they are watching for interactions and interactions.
On Sunday evening, Oreo’s Twitter account received about 8,000 followers and was reposted nearly 15,000 times. Their Instagram account has over 2,200 followers. Received 36,000 Facebook and nearly 20,000 likes. Finally, Oreo’s strategy was successful and showed a unique approach to real-time marketing.
Marketing within COVID-19
Businesses have many ways to promote and sell their products and services. One way to consider this is to market yourself in real time. In particular, it is a clever way for marketers to react to coronavirus.
By providing an in-depth explanation of the above example, Real-time marketing is about a company’s visibility, Visibility by comment or action; It is a quick response to get traffic or sales.
Reports show that real-time data is one of the top 3 markets that refined their strategies and added value. With COVID-19 in Our Lives for the Future, COVID-XNUMX now enhances the marketing relationship between your brand and your followers and enhances the reputation of your company.
Particularly because of the fact that real-time marketing has reaped the benefits of large companies, they already own the digital world. When such a business releases a message in response to a current event or crisis, The audience has the ability to share the news with their followers. Custom
In response, small businesses should learn to stick to their big companies’ strategies. It’s a way to get people to comment on their posts or share their content on your own platforms.
Real-Time Marketing Tips
Larger companies are generally easier to create to achieve real -time marketing strategies Small businesses need to take on a different approach to help promote themselves, expanding their reach with an existing audience. Along with learning and learning about creative approaches from established businesses, Here are some things to keep in mind when designing your own small business’s real-time marketing strategy:
Beware : an event can have potential in a minute. Your company needs to be very careful if it wants to successfully market itself over time. This may include setting up Google Alerts or other alert platforms for content that your business wants to display. This will help your brand be the first to be notified of new situations and events. Another option is to follow influencers or other companies in your field that cover topics that are similar to your business. If you can not read the latest news, then someone may be following you. You still have the opportunity to act quickly with your own marketing strategy. Resources Available: Your company is good at preparing resources while marketing within COVID-19. It can be very difficult because the behavior of consumers is constantly changing these problems. But being ready to go, as Oreo mentioned earlier, will help you achieve your real-time marketing strategy. Interaction : If your company decides to get involved in real-time marketing, you should be ready to reach out to your potential audience to respond to your content. for example, If your business decides to make a post about how to deal with current proliferation and security precautions, you should be ready to answer your customers’ questions to build trust between your brand and your customers. Get Creative : Although effective when COVID-19 eCommerce was launched, it is time for businesses to innovate and develop new strategies to engage video content distributors . Companies now have the opportunity to show their personality and take their customers to the next level. Whether it is a clever joke or not. Whether it’s a problem or a show of sympathy. Creating a sound for your brand can connect with your audience.
Businesses need to take these ideas into account when formulating their own business strategies. Within COVID-19, real-time marketing enables fast response, They should also be aware of the challenges that come with this approach, as it is difficult to do without the available information and knowledge of a topic.
As a result, consumers lose trust and loyalty to brands that produce inaccurate content for large issues. If you want their brand to succeed, your brand needs to do specific research on what it produces quickly.
Real-time data is essential
New statistics and new information about COVID-19 provide opportunities for everyday businesses to apply real-time marketing strategies. Companies with these effects can last a long time as the effects that should not be ignored to build relationships with their audiences gradually pass. In conclusion Properly covered, it will withstand a great deal of adverse conditions.
If you liked this piece why not check out some of my other pieces here. | https://medium.com/@everythingcj/why-has-real-time-marketing-become-so-important-in-the-covid-era-3b1de5c15a3 | ['Everything Cj'] | 2021-02-07 13:46:26.963000+00:00 | ['Marketing', '2020', 'Covid 19', 'Real Time Analytics', 'Twitter'] |
4 Ways You Can Help in the Fight Against COVID-19 | The novel coronavirus that causes an upper respiratory disease known as COVID-19 has sent the world into a tailspin since it first appeared in late 2019. Outbreaks grow rapidly because it takes just one infected person to spread the virus to five or six others. Do you want to join the fight against COVID-19 and stop this devastating virus in its tracks? Here are four ways you can help.
Assist Vulnerable Populations
While COVID-19 is only a mild illness in most people, the elderly and immunocompromised are at high risk of developing severe complications. You can help protect them by offering to run errands and drop off groceries for your friends, family and neighbors who are at increased risk or work with volunteer organizations that provide assistance to high-risk individuals.
Design a Mask Prototype
Do you have a talent for design or engineering? Stop the Drop is a non-profit initiative to create a mass-produced face mask to address the shortage of personal protective equipment. Join the competition and submit your prototype for a chance to win valuable prizes and help the world fight COVID-19. The organization even provides free files on their website to help you get started.
Donate Blood or Plasma
One of the most promising treatments for COVID-19 is using antibodies collected from the blood plasma of donors who have recovered from the disease. If you were previously diagnosed with the virus and have been symptom-free for at least 14 days, you may be eligible to donate convalescent plasma. Do you want to help even though you haven’t had COVID-19? Consider donating blood. Many blood drives have been canceled due to the pandemic, which means that supplies in some areas are critically low.
Give Money to Research
The fight against COVID-19 won’t end until a vaccine is found and the novel coronavirus that causes the disease has been eradicated. You can help researchers discover and develop this vaccine faster by donating money to help fund their work. Make sure you donate only to trustworthy organizations like the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or a reputable university’s research program.
Don’t forget that the best thing you can do to fight COVID-19 is to stay at home whenever possible and exercise caution when going out in public. Wear a face mask or covering, use hand sanitizer and wash your hands often. Choose slow times for shopping and dining out or consider getting your meal to-go instead. | https://medium.com/@lizzieweakley/two-4-ways-you-can-help-in-the-fight-against-covid-19-2e30451f40b0 | ['Lizzie Weakley'] | 2020-06-23 18:41:51.010000+00:00 | ['Covid 19', 'Helping Others', 'Coronavirus', 'Research'] |
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