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Getting acquainted with XDG(freedesktop) on Linux

Getting acquainted with XDG(freedesktop) on Linux Photo by Umberto on Unsplash I stumbled upon XDG while working on an issue for a CLI tool in the past. It required a background on what XDG is and it’s specification. With a little bit of “googling” I was able to find the specification but I was still a bit confused as to what the hell XDG is and was frustrated that there is no concise article for it. Somewhere, someone had said, “If there is something that you want to read and it doesn’t exist, write it yourself.” So here goes. What is XDG ? Quoting from the freedesktop.org wikipedia page, freedesktop.org was formerly known as the X Desktop Group, and the abbreviation “XDG” remains common in their work. Now we know that XDG is just another name for the freedesktop.org. But what is freedesktop.org ? freedesktop.org hosts the development of free and open source software, focused on interoperability and shared technology for open-source graphical and desktop systems. We do not ourselves produce a desktop, but we aim to help others to do so. — https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/ So, it is a collaboration zone for “interoperability and shared technology for open-source graphical and desktop systems”. Some of the more popular projects hosted by XDG are Wayland, PulseAudio and systemd. The Portland Project Apart from sounding like a great name for a highschool garage band, The Portland Project was an initiative aimed at portable application software between desktop environments and kernels and hence strengthen the appeal of Linux as a Desktop Environment and not just for basement dwellers like some of us who refuse to deal with the capitalist technocrat folks of the Operating Systems world. xdg-utils is the more well known name for the project and it is basically a set of tools that allows applications to easily integrate with the desktop environment of the user, regardless of the specific desktop environment that the user runs. Relevant Specifications by XDG These specifications are important as they form the base for tools in xdg-utils and are a staple of Linux distributions today. Some specifications one can start with are the Base Directory and the Desktop Entry Specifications. We are only covering the Base Directory Specification as it helps a ton to understand it while creating consistent applications across Linux Environments (great to know while building Command Line Interfaces for Linux). XDG Base Directory Specification Defines the Configuration for Base Directories and the defaulted location of files based on their usage so that not everything is stored in the same place by default. This specification outlines that the user-specific data, the configuration files and cache files for a particular application need to be segregated and each of their locations need to be defined by an environment variable. User Specific Data should be in $XDG_DATA_HOME (default to $HOME/.local/share ) Configuration files should be in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME (default to $HOME/.config ) Cache files in $XDG_CACHE_HOME (default $HOME/.cache ) Then there are other environment variables which are more of aggregators which help for searching the locations in different places.

https://medium.com/@waveywaves/getting-acquainted-with-xdg-freedesktop-on-linux-18e63b5ed120

['Vibhav Bobade']

2021-01-05 19:05:21.541000+00:00

['Xdg', 'Linux', 'Freedesktop']

Merry F@&$ing Christmas

Welcome Back Burnt Out Passengers: It’s December 23rd and I am not in the holiday spirit. We’ve had our tree since the day after Thanksgiving and we’ve watched a few holiday movies since then but I’ve hardly listened to any Christmas carols and am just not feeling it. My 16 year old Rei wanted to keep the holiday cheer to a minimum to avoid burning out too early and has been limiting anything remotely Christmas related. As a result, don’t think I ever really got into the mood. I know, bah humbug! It hasn’t helped that I’ve had some pretty big client deadlines, last minute projects, and am working with Adam to get him into a new college and out of SDSU. Oh the joys of dealing with a surly, depressed and anxious 19 year old? Is Calgon still a thing? I thought that if we made a gingerbread house today while listening to Christmas carols that we can could capture some of the elusive Christmas spirit and then realized at 6:58 AM that Rei has an appointment at SFO for their Global Entry application. I thought it was a good idea at the time and now I am not so sure (it’s 7:21 AM and I haven’t finished the In-Flight newsletter…yikes!). Check out my mask! Another one made by my fabulous mom. Update: we were in and out of the appointment at SFO in 7 minutes and were gone for a little over an hour in total. Rei is now making us breakfast and we are getting the list together for the gingerbread house and Christmas Eve dinner. Christmas carols have been playing since we got in the car at 7:25 AM. It’s 46 degrees outside and crystal clear. Now quite Christmas weather but definitely winter. We’ve got the spirit, yes we do. We’ve got the spirit, how about you? (yes, this was a high school cheer song and yes I was a cheerleader/song girl) So cheers to you this holiday season. I hope you are enjoying some time off to practice some self-care and recharge before 2021. Something tells me we are going to need the extra energy. Oh, and if you are a mom and haven’t seen the SNL Christmas Morning skit about Mom’s robe, well, you need to. YouTube: Terri Mead YouTube: Ideas for the Holiday Break: Books, Puzzles, Podcasts, Shows In 2020 I’ve needed the ‘comfort food’ of entertainment and distraction which means no stress and no anxiety and pretty much, not much of anything new. In yesterday’s video, Rei and I shared our favorite distractions for 2020 including books, puzzles, podcasts, apps, shows, and some movies. Enjoy them over the holidays! YouTube: Video 100: I made a terrible mistake Ok, so the label on the thumbnail is a bit click-baity and you have to watch the video to get what I am referring to with the question. What’s my challenge for you today? If you have a few days off, enjoy them. Savor them. Take time for you. Use that facial or hair or foot mask you’ve been putting off. For me, it’s going to be the under-eye mask thingys…whatever they are called. Cheers! With much love and gratitude, Terri P.S. Take the controls and be the pilot in your own life. It’s a beautiful day to fly, and you are cleared for takeoff. Song: Have a Holly Jolly Christmas by Burl Ives terrihansonmead.com Piloting Your Life (the book) Terri Mead YouTube Channel Piloting Your Life (the podcast) Twitter: @PilotingLife Instagram: @PilotingYourLife Facebook Group: Piloting Your Life (the book) Facebook Page: Piloting Your Life

https://medium.com/terri-hanson-mead/merry-f-ing-christmas-bbc9d16c2f91

['Terri Mead']

2020-12-23 17:08:56.994000+00:00

['Bah Humbug', 'Christmas Spirit', 'Piloting Your Life', 'Midlife Mom', 'Gingerbread Houses']

The number of COVID-19 vaccinated in Chicago.

The total number of vaccinations per day and the cumulative number of vaccinations in Chicago, as well as the total number of first dose vaccinations per day and the cumulative number of first dose vaccinations in Chicago. With the improvement of people’s awareness of protection, the number of people vaccinated also increases. As shown in the figure, the total number of vaccinations has been rising, except for the data from April 1 to April 9. The total number of people vaccinated every day is uneven, which may be related to the reserves of vaccine stations or holidays. In general, the number of people vaccinated is on the rise. Every day, local residents or non local residents, such as travelers and international students, are vaccinated. Because the global novel coronavirus pneumonia is complicated and uncertain, although the effectiveness of the protection has been achieved, the risk of transmission is still there. Novel coronavirus pneumonia is the most effective way to prevent the disease and can reduce the morbidity and mortality. In particular, people who contact many people every day, such as doctors and nurses, subway station staff, bus drivers, etc., should be vaccinated in time.

https://medium.com/@hwang315/the-number-of-covid-19-vaccinated-in-chicago-3fb365f1e032

['Huimei Wang']

2021-06-08 13:51:31.970000+00:00

['Google', 'Chicago', 'Daily Vaccinations']

5 Steps to Planning Your Overnight Rafting Trips in Upper Colorado River for Summer 2021

5 Steps to Planning Your Overnight Rafting Trips in Upper Colorado River for Summer 2021 Mad Adventures Apr 13·3 min read Overnight Rafting Trips Planning a trip is all fun and exciting to do. Especially when this includes planning with your group of friends. But, hold up! You need to keep in mind the risks you will encounter, because of which planning more about your safety is vital. Trips in the beautiful Upper Colorado River is the best trip for you to devour this summer, but before that let’s talk more about the 5 steps towards your planning process. We’re here to help you with it, and hope for you to have a fun and safe trip! What should I be taking care of? What are the things I need to carry? Should I wear this for the trip? What are the important safety tools? Well, the list has just started and I bet you have no clue about the other mandatory things to ponder on. Overnight rafting trips are sure the most overlooked and magical summer activity for us all to devour, but it sure needs a proper understanding of how, when, and where? Hence, before you depart on an overnight trip, the following things will help you. 1. Who are your group members? Ask yourself the multi-dollar question. What works best for your group? Depending on the crew members, the decision on choosing the sort of trip is the best to talk about. If it’s a friendly crew, then choosing a class III rafting trip could be the best option. 2. What’s your destination? Choosing from Idaho valley or maybe the upper colorado river trip? What are your choices and how do you accordingly have these trips inculcated the right way is the most important task to do. Many of us, rather waste our time choosing the most expensive one thinking if it’s costly, then it’s good. Or choosing the cheap one, cause of course should be a budget trip. But, understanding that more than money, it’s about a safe- fun trip! 3. Itinerary is a must What restaurant are you going to halt at? would this be your only destination or are you heading to different locations? Lodging, camping bookings are on-point? Well, there are so many things to do, but if it’s not in your life. You’re most probably going to miss it out. 4. Early Bookings Don’t wait for the entire team to have a voting round on which destination is the best. Instead, research your trip and have a safe booking done. Has the needed enquiry done so you know where you’re going? 5. Prepare!! Your sleeping bag, safety kit, food & supplies, your tools. Are they all packed well? If not, then you ain’t going to get any shopping spree to devour at the trip. Prepare your bag before it’s too late. Wish to know more about how can you and your group, be all ready for an adventurous overnight rafting trip? Have your To Do’s ready with Mad Adventures Today!

https://medium.com/@madadventures84/5-steps-to-planning-your-overnight-rafting-trips-in-upper-colorado-river-for-summer-2021-ce7f9384ffb0

['Mad Adventures']

2021-04-13 10:08:23.669000+00:00

['Summer', 'Rafting', 'Night Trip', 'Mmadadventures', 'Upper Colorado']

remember when håkan geijer called drawing attention to white supremacy “racism”?

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: in this twitter screenshots, håkan geijer bemoans the reaction to a white teacher who wore an anatomical bodysuit to class as a teaching aid, denouncing "Body shaming, racism, and a general lack of worldliness". asked for clarification about their use of the term racism, geijer writes: "there were people specifically commenting on how much worse it would be if she was a black woman. That's racism" no? what about the time they said it was wrong to describe a self-appointed “security” force at CHOP/CHAZ as white supremacists after they shot and threatened to pistol-whip two Black teenagers, killing one of them and putting the other in the hospital?

https://medium.com/@descentrealizer/remember-when-h%C3%A5kan-geijer-called-drawing-attention-to-white-supremacy-racism-f1efec543399

['Genders Black Communisms']

2020-12-14 16:46:56.335000+00:00

['Håkan Geijer', 'Chaz', 'Chop', 'White Supremacy', 'Antiblackness']

Three Different Things: November 14, 2019

Three Different Things: November 14, 2019 What Makes AI So Weird, AWS Data Exchange, and 2 & 20 1. What Makes AI So Weird, Good, and Evil We sometimes find out that AI algorithms aren’t optimizing what we hoped they would. An AI algorithm might figure out that it can increase human levels of engagement on social media by recommending polarizing content that gets them into a conspiracy theory rabbit hole. YouTube has had trouble over this. They want to maximize viewing time, but the algorithm’s way of maximizing viewing time isn’t quite what they want. We’d get all kinds of examples of AI glomming into things they’re not supposed to know about. One of the tricky parts about trying to build an algorithm that doesn’t pick up on human racial bias is, even if you don’t give it information on race or gender in its training data, it’s good at working out the details by clues in zip code, college, and figuring out how to imitate this really strong bias signal that it sees in its training data. When you see companies say, “Don’t worry, we didn’t give our algorithm any information about race, so it can’t be racially biased,” that’s the first sign that you have to worry. They probably haven’t figured out whether, nevertheless, the algorithm has figured out a shortcut. It doesn’t know not to do this because it’s not as smart as a human. It doesn’t understand the context of what it’s being asked to do. This is what it means to have bias inherent in the data. It’s not whether an attribute will directly inform an algorithm about someone’s race, sex, etc…. it’s that many other attributes combined will. 2. AWS Data Exchange — Find, Subscribe To, and Use Data Products If you are a data subscriber, you can quickly find, procure, and start using these products. If you are a data provider, you can easily package, license, and deliver products of your own. Let’s take a look at Data Exchange from both vantage points, and then review some important details. As someone put it on Hacker News put it, “Selling shovels in a gold rush.” 3. How VCs Make Money The catch that many people outside of venture miss is that the management fee is charged every year of the fund’s life (which is usually around 10 years long). That means that a standard fund will charge 20% of the fund’s total raised capital in guaranteed fees and can only use the remaining 80% to actually invest in companies. A good rule of thumb is that for every $1 a LP provides, only about $0.80-$0.85 will be invested. Every time you hear about a new fund that raised a billion dollars, keep in mind that around two hundred million dollars will go to the firm for “operational expenses and compensation”. Most funds are only actively making new investments for two to three years and for the rest of the time the fund is in maintenance mode. Do you need $200M to operate a twenty person firm for four years and to keep the lights on to make follow on investments for the next six years? Not really. I now understand why they have such beautiful live edge tables.

https://medium.com/early-hours/three-different-things-november-14-2019-b35c641117d6

["Sean O'Brien"]

2019-11-14 12:46:29.085000+00:00

['Venture Capital', 'AI', 'Data Science']

Josh.ai at CEDIA 2019 – Focus on Privacy, Integrations, New Features

DENVER — September 4, 2019 — Josh.ai, the fast-growing choice for voice and AI in the custom channel, has introduced new features at CEDIA 2019 designed to protect end-client user data and enhance user security. New partner integrations, including Ketra, Comcast, and Samsung, continue to extend Josh.ai’s vision of a natural and elegant control experience in the home. “Our powerful intuitive interface and elegant experience have always been, and will continue to be, big selling points for Josh. With the rise of big tech AIs listening and gathering data, concern around data privacy has now become one of the biggest issues on clients’ minds. This has also become one of Josh’s greatest strengths, and a huge selling point for our integrators. Our continued focus on privacy, along with new exciting integrations and features, demonstrates our commitment to delivering exceptional experiences to the custom channel.” — CEO Josh.ai, Alex Capecelatro. Josh.ai Goes All — In With Data Privacy and User Security With its emphasis on local processing, Josh.ai has always been a company focused on a secure user experience. The company does not gather data for marketing purposes, and will never sell data to third-parties for advertising; all the data that Josh.ai gathers is used to make the user experience better. That said, users have the option to disable all data gathering and / or delete specific logs if they choose. Josh.ai has also announced new features around permissioning, allowing clients and integrators to specify more granular user roles throughout the Josh environment. New Josh Features — iOS TV Remote, Concise Mode Josh takes one more big step forward into AV control with the announcement of a TV remote built directly into the iPhone and iPad apps. Clients will now be able to control their TV via the Josh UI thanks to a new update with the Josh app. New TV features in the app, such as channel control and source selection, offer the client a natural and intuitive touch experience for control. Josh is also happy to announce a new feature called concise mode. When activated, Josh will respond with shorter (one-word) confirmations when controlling certain devices in the home. For example, if you’re in the living room and ask for the lights to go on, instead of the response, “Your living room lights are now on,” Josh will simply reply “Ok.” New AV Integrations & Features — Comcast, Samsung In addition to existing integrations such as Sony, Dish, and LG, Josh has partnered with Comcast and Samsung on new native control. The Comcast integration offers control of live TV using both voice and the Josh app. Clients can ask for channels by name or number, which, when combined with Josh’s ability to do compound commands, offers an unparalleled experience. For example, Josh clients with Comcast can now say, “OK Josh, stop the music, close the shades halfway, dim the lights, and watch ESPN.” Functionality also includes the ability to navigate the Comcast guide and menu, play, pause, fast-forward, rewind, and select television content. Josh also now integrates with Samsung IP TVs, offering the ability to toggle power, control volume, and change sources. New Lighting Integration — Ketra Josh.ai is announcing native integration with Lutron’s innovative Ketra lighting system. In addition to on / off commands and adjusting brightness, clients will be able to adjust the color temperature and the hue of the lights via voice commands or the Josh app. Enhanced Integrations & Features — Crestron SIMPL Thermostats, Sonos Favorites Josh.ai has also released enhanced functionality with established partners. While Josh was already controlling Pyng/OS 3 thermostats, a new module now allows integrators to program Crestron thermostats into Josh via SIMPL as well. Additionally, Josh now auto-discovers and controls favorites from Sonos, making it easier than ever to voice command or tap to run your pre-defined playlists. Learn More About Josh at CEDIA 2019

https://medium.com/@joshdotai/josh-ai-at-cedia-2019-focus-on-privacy-integrations-new-features-d51688e4ad0d

[]

2019-09-04 16:33:04.520000+00:00

['Internet of Things', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'AI', 'IoT', 'Smart Home']

33 Giddy Compliments of the First Trump-Biden Debate

33 Giddy Compliments of the First Trump-Biden Debate The Political Positivity Fairy makes her debut Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash Hello, my name is Phoenix the Political Positivity Fairy! I am here to give 33 compliments to all involved in the First Presidential Debate that occurred on September 29, 2020 in Cleveland. Look, my sweet papaya, I know it was a rough debate. The candidates insulted each other. Trump talked over both Biden and the moderator. It became so hard to hear, my Facebook friend jokingly wished the debate were hosted in a Zoom meeting so they’d have a ‘mute’ button. My analysis? Interrupting, namecalling, and negativity tend to lead to more of the same. At a time like this, we could use a little compliment fest to get our dialogues moving in a more productive direction. Like the Mean Girls girl who doesn’t even go here, I wish I could freeze a giant popsicle made of sunshine and heart emojis… and we’d all lick and be happy. Wait, am I remembering that quote wrong? It’s like I have CNN or something. My butt cellulite can tell when my article is already tanking! Before I misquote any more movies, let’s go ahead and sprinkle-sprinkle those compliments! Enjoy these 33 heartfelt paragraphs of appreciation for Joe Biden, Donald Trump, the moderator Chris Wallace, and other dear ones involved in that first debate we saw.

https://medium.com/love-everyone/33-giddy-compliments-of-the-first-trump-biden-debate-e0d4e296eaf0

['Phoenix Huber']

2020-10-01 11:22:35.482000+00:00

['Humor', 'Leadership', 'Politics', 'Government', 'Love']

Generating Leads for your Pet Industry Business

Photo by Jametlene Reskp on Unsplash Do you think Generating Leads for your B2B Pet Industry Business is Difficult? Then the Sales Funnel is your best friend! What is a Sales Funnel, you ask? Let’s talk about that… A Sales Funnel is the process a company, especially a B2B company, goes through to: · Generate leads · Collect email addresses of potential customers · Follows up with those customers to turn them into buyers · Use content to push the sales process forward · And, lastly, makes the sale with the new customer These steps seem pretty simple, broken down into bullet points, but there is a bit more of an involved process to each step. First, generating leads. One big way of generating leads is through a social media ad. Facebook (or Instagram) ads have exploded in popularity in the last several years. An invitation to join a webinar or download a report or white paper sparks a potential customer's interest, and they tap on the ‘Click here’ button in the Facebook ad. This brings the customer to the company’s landing page, where they can ‘opt-in’ with their email address. This is a fantastic way for your B2B company to collect email addresses to build their email list. After the customer ‘opts-in’, they can download the report/white paper or schedule a time to view the webinar they were interested in. Other types of content to help generate leads can be: · Online ads (other than social media) · Printed material from a trade show · Blog posts · Articles placed in trade magazines or journals · E-books · Explainer videos And the list goes on… Generating leads is tremendously important to any B2B company! Once a B2B company has a potential customer’s email address, how do they follow up? Using email campaigns, e-newsletters, training videos, and sell sheets are a few ways to nurture a relationship with interested new buyers. Case studies are another effective way… a case study is used to show new customers all the different ways your B2B company’s product has helped and served customers that have already benefited from the product (or service). All of this type of content is a powerful way is to push the sales process forward. If new buyers can imagine improving themselves (or those around them) from using your B2B company’s product or service by reading a case study of how other people benefited or by viewing a webinar on how best to use the product or service, then that new buyer is already thinking about how the product or service can fit into their lives and how their lives can be bigger, fuller, and richer by having your product.

https://medium.com/@yourcopywritingsolution-81705/generating-leads-for-your-pet-industry-business-15a11a5757b1

['Claudia Cesarotti']

2020-12-24 16:37:02.247000+00:00

['Pets', 'Marketing', 'Marketing Strategies', 'Email Marketing', 'Dogs']

The Complete Guide to State Management in SwiftUI

@Observable and @Observed Most apps fetch their data from an outside source, mainly using the JSON Web API. Once the data is downloaded it is populated in a DTO object and later mapped to the view models and, finally, displayed on the screen. One common issue with consuming asynchronous requests is to how to notify the user interface that data has been downloaded and the view must refresh to display the fresh data. SwiftUI solves this problem by introducing Observable and Observed property wrappers. Before jumping into Observable and Observed we must find a way to perform an async request to fetch data. For the sake of simplicity, we’re going to make a fake request and get a list of posts in an async manner. In the code above you can see that the Webservice simply waits for two seconds and then sends achardcoded list of posts back to the user in the completion handler. The Webservice class is used by PostListViewModel to perform the request. The implementation of PostListViewModel is shown below: The PostListViewModel represents the data, which will be displayed on the post listing screen. The most important thing to notice is the use of the ObservableObject protocol which allows the class to publish events. The posts property is decorated with @Published property wrapper, which means it acts like a publisher. Anytime a value is assigned to the posts property, it publishes an event indicating that it has been changed. Finally, the PostListView uses the PostListViewModel to fetch and display the posts in a view as implemented below: If you run the application, PostListView will going use PostListViewModel and populate the list of posts in a List view. The MVVM design pattern along with the ability to publish and notify the changes makes syncing the view with the view model much easier. At present we have only discussed local state, which represents the state maintained and available to a particular view. If you need to change the state of the view from another view, you can pass it as an argument and use the @Binding property wrapper. This works well if you’re passing the state between only a few views, but quickly becomes a hassle when several views are involved. In the next section, we’ll look at global state, which can be accessed from any SwiftUI view.

https://medium.com/better-programming/the-complete-guide-to-state-management-in-swiftui-8759add64bcf

['Mohammad Azam']

2020-04-26 12:48:27.326000+00:00

['Programming', 'Swift Programming', 'iOS', 'Swiftui', 'iOS App Development']

What if you could define your ideal audience based on current Internet data without marketing losses by guesswork?

Well now you can! Introducing Facebook Audience Research Tool! The revolutionary new online tool to define your ideal audience that makes it easy and fast to quickly define your audience / prospects / customers! So much faster and easier than having to use your imagination to target your ideal audience. Let me show you why Facebook Audience Research Tool is so amazing: · Type in your product / service topic. · Click the Perform Facebook Audience Research button. · 16 links based on your topic are created. · Click on each link and review the results. · Save your insights in the Facebook Audience Notes textarea. · Export your ideal audience description. · Create better offers / value propositions / ads / product descriptions using your audience’s language (As you demonstrate, show, or explain, make sure to eliminate the alternatives to using your product or service) With Facebook Audience Research Tool you don’t need to: · Waste money by correctly targeting a too general audience · Guess your audience in terms of desires, results, problems, questions, roadblocks · Miss where your competition is found online · Guess at designing product description without the audience’s favourite phrases Now the great news is Facebook Audience Research Tool is just Free. That’s less than save money from the first Facebook ad you run and you’ll see results in 1 day! Grab this now because you are wasting money on marketing until you define your ideal audience. Oh, and you’re fully protected with our free tool providing real-time information about your audience. So act now! Go ahead and visit https://onlinetransformstar.com/facebook/ to take the next step!

https://medium.com/@matthew-bulat/what-if-you-could-define-your-ideal-audience-based-on-current-internet-data-without-marketing-59caeb8da3e9

['Matthew Bulat']

2020-12-24 06:03:51.425000+00:00

['Digital Marketing', 'Marketing Strategies', 'Audience', 'Facebook Marketing', 'Facebook']

Andreas Antonopoulos Calls Dash ChainLocks “a Smart Way of” Preventing 51% Attacks

According to cryptocurrency influencer and educator Andreas Antonopoulos, Dash’s ChainLocks is “a smart way of” securing a blockchain network against 51% attacks. Q. Are #Dash LLMQ #ChainLocks ⛓️🔐 just hype or something interesting? 🤔 Watch @aantonop 👨‍💻 answer in his most recent Q&A video. I’m very impressed with how well-versed Andreas is with @Dashpay. 🏆👏 Make sure to watch full video 🙂👍 📽️ Full video: https://t.co/LcnZ6PfPny 👀 pic.twitter.com/43Bwfxtuxe - Mark Mason (@StayDashy) August 22, 2019 During a recent question and answer session released earlier this week on his YouTube channel, Antonopoulos was asked about Dash’s recent implementation of ChainLocks for advanced network security. He responded with an in-depth description, and called the solution “a novel and interesting way to” approach network security by combining the benefits of proof-of-work (PoW) and proof-of-stake (PoS) systems: “Essentially what that does is it creates a hybrid proof-of-work/proof-of-stake system. You can’t attack the proof-of-work with a 51% attack because the masternodes are checkpointing with a vote using threshold signatures, and once 60% agree on the current state of the chain, that locks in that chain with a checkpoint. It’s a novel and interesting way to do a hybrid proof-of-work/proof-of-stake system, and yes, it will make 51% attacks much harder on that particular chain. In fact, if you want to do a 51% attack, you actually have to do a 60% attack where you either compromise the code running on the masternodes, or you put enough stake, which probably wouldn’t be possible, to run 60% of the masternodes yourself. I think at current rates that would be like $300 million, so that’s not feasible.” While technically proof-of-service (PoSe) due to its emphasis on performance standards for nodes rather than staking units of the currency, Dash nevertheless leverages the requirement of ownership of 1,000 Dash in order to run a masternode, making the network resistant to sybil attacks in the form of spinning up a host of attacking nodes. ChainLocks was activated at the beginning of July this year, and Dash Core CEO Ryan Taylor has hailed the innovation as making Dash more secure than Bitcoin. In addition to security benefits, ChainLocks may also remove many more minor issues facing PoW networks. The low hashrate PoW problem According to Antonopoulos, PoW currencies are inherently vulnerable to attack before becoming sufficiently established due to the low amount of hashrate on the network: “The primary reason Dash and Zcoin are doing it is that we’ve seen again and again and again that systems that have proof-of-work that have enormous hashrates and use ASICs, like Bitcoin, are very difficult and expensive to attack with a 51% attack, so they’re not attacked. But systems with lower hashrate, or have hashrate that depends on GPUs, not ASIC-based mining, then people can switch GPU mining from other chains, and attack a chain that’s a bit weaker in its hashing power quite effectively. We’ve seen 51% attacks against Ethereum Classic, I believe Zcoin had a 51% at some point.” He emphasized that this was not a critique of the projects themselves, only an exploration of the game theory system and its effects on chains where a relatively low amount of effort can net potentially higher gains: “I’m not attacking these chains by saying this, it just means that proof-of-work systems are indeed vulnerable when they are brand new and they don’t have enough hashing power to make it prohibitively expensive. A chain can only be secure with proof-of-work if the cost of attacking it far, far exceeds the potential benefits of attacking it. It’s a game theory system. So if the cost of attacking it doesn’t exceed the potential gains, then it will, and does, get attacked, and we’ve seen this happen again and again on weaker chains. We haven’t seen it happen in Bitcoin.” Worthy of note is that coins sharing an algorithm with a more established project, such as the case of Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin SV, have an inherent vulnerability in that entities potentially without a vested interest in those particular projects possess the power to significantly disrupt their networks. In the case of a currency like Bitcoin or Dash, each one represents the significant majority of the hashpower directed at their respective mining algorithms, SHA256 and X11. This makes an attack attempt much less likely due to the incentives inherent in protecting the value of an investment in mining equipment which would likely become obsolete in the case of the network collapsing, providing robust security even before ChainLocks was introduced. A solution that combines the best of PoW and PoS models Finally, Antonopoulos focused in on why ChainLocks makes sense for protecting coins with less than Bitcoin’s hashrate by leveraging the best of both PoW and PoS systems, avoiding either one’s individual vulnerabilities, calling it “a smart way of doing it”:

https://medium.com/@DashNews/andreas-antonopoulos-calls-dash-chainlocks-a-smart-way-of-preventing-51-attacks-5a9758a46a6e

['Dash News']

2019-08-22 21:45:21.829000+00:00

['Bitcoin', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Fintech', 'Dash', 'Blockchain']

TryHackMe — Advent of Cyber 2 — Day 13

Good afternoon all, Today we will tackling day 13. This is a special box by John Hammond. It looks like this is a complete scan, enumerate, foothold, escalate machine. This is about the only intro we get from the machine: “Prove these sysadmins deserve coal for Christmas!” Anyhow, lets get after it. We will start off with a quick nmap. nmap -sC -sV 10.10.14.48 We see that telnet is open, lets give that a go. Immediate upon login, we get some creds. And it works.. With the initial ls -al, we get a few files. Looks like the Grinch was here before us, below his note was some C code. Running the christmas.sh file, we get a little Easter egg/gift from Mr. John Hammond. Anyhow, back to the C code(cookies_and_milk.txt) Copied a small bit into the google machine with some quotes and the first result was the old DirtyCow exploit. Take’s take a look at what version of Linux we are running to see if we can use DirtyCow. $ uname -a Linux christmas 3.2.0-23-generic #36-Ubuntu SMP Tue Apr 10 20:39:51 UTC 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux $ cat etc/release cat: etc/release: No such file or directory $ cat /etc/*release DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu DISTRIB_RELEASE=12.04 DISTRIB_CODENAME=precise DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 12.04 LTS" Here is the Exploit-DB information on DirtyCow: Exploit: Linux Kernel 2.6.22 < 3.9 (x86/x64) - 'Dirty COW /proc/self/mem' Race Condition Privilege Escalation (SUID Method) URL: Path: /usr/share/exploitdb/exploits/linux/local/40616.c File Type: C source, ASCII text, with CRLF line terminators root@kali:/mnt/hgfs/shared_folder/tryhackme# searchsploit -x 40616Exploit: Linux Kernel 2.6.22 < 3.9 (x86/x64) - 'Dirty COW /proc/self/mem' Race Condition Privilege Escalation (SUID Method)URL: https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/40616 Path: /usr/share/exploitdb/exploits/linux/local/40616.cFile Type: C source, ASCII text, with CRLF line terminators Because we fall within that kernel version range(3.2.0–23) we should be able to build it and use it. All we need to do is copy the file to the machine, compile, and run. Then we can SSH into the machine with the firefart credentials. Since the machine has wget I just started the simple Python http server and moved the file, compiled and ran it. SSH’d into the machine with the new credentials without any issue. Inside /root there is a message_from_the_grinch.txt (John Hammond). As a verification that you finished the machine, you need to create a file named coal and create an md5 hash of the tree command. I’ll leave that last portion up to you. As always, best of luck. If you enjoy my content, feel free to add me on LinkedIn and let me know you saw the blog. Until next time, -3lduderino

https://medium.com/@3lduderino/tryhackme-advent-of-cyber-2-day-13-1b168bc961aa

['Trent Darrow']

2020-12-19 08:44:23.465000+00:00

['Beginner', 'Walkthrough', 'Tryhackme', 'Linux', 'Dirty Cow']

Gradient Descent, the key for ML algorithms?

Views expressed by the author are his own and done in his personal capacity. These are no way representative and/or reflective of the organization he is associated with. Background As part of the machine learning journey, we typically start with linear regression and gradually get onto the concept of the cost function, and the challenge starts from here to get the cost function optimized. Though we can do a trial and error for a small set of data elements, it becomes unviable as we start increasing the data. To address this optimization problem, we have a technique and theory associated called “Gradient Descent” which will come in handy in getting the cost function minimized. Gradient Descent is not limited to linear regression but can be extended to logistic regression and further to neural networks also. You may be wondering on why we need to learn all these stuff when we can find built-in function to deal with it directly? Good question, and it is always good to have some insights into the internal workings of it as it may help in visualizing the problems better and thus can help in our modeling for all the complex problems or scenarios tomorrow. Also, this gives an opportunity to peep into the libraries used such that the same can be leveraged for other problems at hand. So having a solid foundation on how things work is always a recommended approach in dealing with complex topics. Another point to remember is the built-in functions are limited to some specific languages but it is not consistently available in all. With the ground set now on the background, let’s jump onto the details. Gradient Descent — Overview As the problem is to optimize the cost function, let’s start from there For a given hypothesis The cost function can be written as i=1 to m where m is the no. of sample data points. This is also called as Mean square Error. Let’s initialize some values to theta0 and theta1 and start computing J(ɵ0, ɵ1), we can arrive at the convergence (with J, the cost function getting to minimum) after some iterations of trial and error, and it can turn out to be an inefficient approach as we start increasing the no. of data points, also this may lead to higher costs overall. What are the alternatives to get to the minimum value of our cost function with limited steps? The Gradient Descent algorithm comes to the rescue here and helps us in arriving at the optimum value of cost function with minimal steps, thus it helps in concluding on the best fit for a given equation from the many possible opportunities. To get a better intuition on this, let’s plot a graph with all the data points, assuming that the graph plotted has many troughs, there can be multiple local minimums possible but there can be always only one global minimum. Can we ever reach the global minimum or do we need to settle down with local minimum is something we can review in the subsequent paragraphs, okay? If the data when plotted transforms into a convex shape, like a bowl shape, with small ridges sideways and a big trough, then we can make incremental improvements progressing step by step. Every step takes us closer to the bottom of the trough, and when we come to a stage where there is no further improvement possible, then we can conclude that the global minimum has arrived. Though we have an interim local minimum, they being very small and not have any impact on the overall direction of the curve, we are bound to reach the global minimum. To keep it simple, the graph is plotted with only one value If the data is not getting us a pure convex shape, then it can have a lot of ups and downs which are more or close to equal in their depth leaving the options open for arriving at the global minimum. How is that we can conclude that we arrived at the global minimum? We can either take a brute force approach trying all such possibilities to arrive at the final one, or we can restrict the trials to a few random ones prior to finalizing on the global minimum. Keeping in view of the costs associated, in majority cases, it will be concluded at the first encounter of the global minimum. In the diagram shown below, we may need to compromise on the global minimum which is easily accessible or has to go through the tedious process of getting to the actual one. To keep it simple, the graph is plotted with only one theta value Though we can easily explain this visually picking a graph, the real challenge will be to understand the logic behind the scenes. Let’s get to that by going through the flow step by step. Implementation First thing we need to understand on this journey is about finding Slope, this can be easy for a line picking two points and putting it in the formula (y2-y1)/(x2-x1) but how can we find the slope of a curve where we may need to work with a single point instead of two. On a side note, the slope will help in identifying the rate at which the value of y changes with respect to each change in x. There are multiple ways of handling this like assuming a couple of points closer to the point in the subject and going with the regular formula in calculating the slope, keep in mind that this may not be accurate but can come close to the actual. The other way or the preferred way to approach this is to find the derivative of the function and substitute the point in context. We may need to adopt partial derivatives if working with multiple features. In the function mentioned above, there are two variables ɵ0, ɵ1 hence we need to use partial derivatives approach keeping one of them as constant while dealing with the other. α is the learning rate, it helps in deciding the size of the steps to be taken in transitioning towards the convergence. Fixed size steps may overshoot the global minimum hence the steps have to be gradually brought down as we start approaching the minimum, this can be easily achieved by the slope which can be computed at every step, thus the steps can be adjusted based on the slope hence it gets minimized as we reach close to the convergence. There may be some questions on where to start with respect to the learning rate and the number of iterations. We typically can start small say 10 or 50 iterations with a learning rate of 0.01. Play around with the learning rate first by increasing, decreasing it. We can stop playing around with this as soon as we see a constant decreasing trend which is leading to a minimum cost. From here, we can fix the learning rate and play around with no. of iterations to arrive at the minimum cost possible. The other way to arrive at the minimum cost is to get to the point where the slope becomes zero or comes close to zero. Programming Logic Coming to the programming language implementation, there is no standard built-in function in Python but Tensorflow has one which abstract the complete implementation details from the user. To keep it neutral, let’s put some pseudo code which can be translated into any programming language based on the user choice. Review the cost value adjusting the values of learning rate and no. of iterations until the convergence has arrived. Challenges This algorithm has a couple of issues to be careful while working on it. The algorithm may never converge, this is quite possible if the incremental steps taken are big such that it crosses the global minimum without getting onto the convergence path If the steps are slow, it may get converged but will take more steps so this is either not advisable What we need is a balanced approach in picking the learning rate such that it will neither take more time nor gets us into a non-converged state. Variants of Gradient Descent The Gradient Descent will be arrived considering all the training data available, however, this is going to be time-consuming as the computation in each step has to include all the data set resulting in higher costs. There are some variants in the form of Stochastic and Mini Batch versions which takes a subset of the data than working on the full training set. The difference between the two is that the Stochastic picks only a single data point whereas Mini batch version takes a subset of data points. In both cases, the global minimum can be achieved but the path it takes may look little rough and ad-hoc. Final Comments As learned from the above details, Gradient Descent is one of the key concepts in Machine learning and is applicable to various algorithms. As ML is spreading its wings into all the important aspects of our day to day to lives, the precision is going to be the key, and if we don’t get the things right, the impact will be high on some of these sensitive applications — be it self-driving cars or medical diagnosis, etc. Overall Gradient Descent will not only help in optimizing the costs but helps in ensuring better accuracy which is the need of the hour with machines taking over the control. Agree?

https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor/gradient-descent-the-key-for-ml-algorithms-d84ad511937e

['Sharath T']

2019-01-22 14:00:40.053000+00:00

['Machine Learning', 'Cost Function', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Optimization', 'Gradient Descent']

C Estates’ Chief Technology Officer

“Leadership is not about a title or a designation. It’s about impact, influence and inspiration. Impact involves getting results. Influence is about spreading the passion you have for your work, and you have to inspire teammates and customer” — Robin S. Sharma This was Gerald’s objective and then achievement after 26 years of career in Financial Software Industry, and today, strong of his past experience, he is leading the innovative and high potential C Estates Technology Team. It doesn’t stop here; Gerald also provides Agile Training and Coaching, either onsite or remotely, helping companies around the world to implement and perform better using Agile Methodology! Gerald graduated from Université du Havre France with the course Technology and Accounting Bachelors Degree. He started his career working for a Financial IT Consulting firm in 1992 at Apside SA as a Programmer Analyst. Joined AtosEuronext in 1995 as Trading Business Analyst, where he served in this capacity for over 10 years. His responsibilities included advising exchanges on market models based on the features and functionalities of the Euronext Trading System. He subsequently joined Bursa Malaysia Bhd as the Head of Infrastructure Planning in the Global Market Strategy and Program Director. He was responsible for improving market access and the implementation of new trading technologies in line with market trends. In 2015, he then joined Standard Chartered Bank as the Program Manager for Wealth Management and led the global implementation of a new Bancassurance Platform across 9 countries. He then left Standard Chartered Bank mid of 2017 to provided companies and start-ups the following services: CTO as a service Agile Coach Atlassian Suites Consultant Gerald was also the Chief Technology Officer and co-founder of Swoop Inc, Philippines from 2018 to 2019.

https://medium.com/@cestates/c-estates-chief-technology-officer-1caecb9ac2e1

['C Estates Inc']

2020-02-20 07:04:34.474000+00:00

['Cto', 'Chief Technology Officer', 'C Estates', 'Tokenization', 'Blockchain']

Callbacks in JavaScript

As the name suggests, callback could mean which is called back again, so, to understand we can say function which executes after another function has finished executing is called a callback. In JavaScript, functions are objects. Because of this, functions can take functions as arguments, and can be returned by other functions. Functions that do this are called higher-order functions. Any function that is passed as an argument is called a callback function. But, what is the need of callbacks? Many actions in JavaScript are asynchronous. In other words, we initiate them now, but they finish later. In simple terms, we can say when a function contains some sort of code which can’t be executed immediately like waiting for an api response, fetching a file from network or accessing database and returning data from it. And JavaScript didn’t wait for such responses before moving on to execute another function. So, callbacks are a way to make sure certain code doesn’t execute until other code has already finished execution. To understand callback better, let’s try a simple code. function callApi(name, callback) { alert(`Calling ${name} api.`); callback(); } callApi('user list', function() { alert('Fetched api result'); }); From the above mentioned code, you’ll get two alerts back to back — Calling user list api and then Fetched api result. But callback functions don’t always have to be defined in our function call. They can be defined elsewhere in our code like this: function callApi(name, callback) { alert(`Calling ${name} api.`); callback(); } function alertResult(){ alert('Fetched api result'); } callApi('user list', alertResult); So, now you have understood what a callback is and how it works. You can try writing callbacks in your asynchronous operations. Hope this article helped you in getting the basic gist of callback!

https://medium.com/@udgeeth.aggarwal/callbacks-in-javascript-db6085c93568

['Udgeeth Aggarwal']

2020-02-20 08:07:30.486000+00:00

['Callback', 'JavaScript', 'Asynchronous']

Data Deduplication Software- Eliminate Duplicates Data Fast

Merge/Purge Software — MatchUp is powerful, but easy-to-use deduplication software so you can eliminate duplicate records from your lists and databases quickly and confidently. Melissa is the most powerful and accurate matching and deduping solution on the market to combat the problem of duplicate records. What sets it apart from the rest is its intelligent parsing capability to understand and parse the various components of domestic and international addresses. By combining deep domain knowledge of international address formats and advanced fuzzy matching techniques, MatchUp gives you the ability to identify and merge/purge even the most difficult-to-spot duplicate records.

https://medium.com/@arunaadoor-r/data-deduplication-software-eliminate-duplicates-data-fast-83a5c3085c62

['Aruna Adoor']

2020-12-14 09:26:17.151000+00:00

['Data Deduplication', 'Address', 'List', 'Data', 'Email']

5 Tools To Decode Your Target Audience

You can’t build your audience by accident. When there are hundreds and millions of people out there, finding the right one is the biggest challenge. You need dedicated efforts and a methodical approach to find the right audience who will be interested in your products and services. When you are planning to build high value content that can generate interest from your audience, knowing your audience is the first and the only thing that you should care about. Chances are that you already know something about your target audience, but do you know enough? Ask yourself some key questions such as who is the user of your product? Which age group is more likely to use your product? Who are they following on social media? Who is their hero on social media? When are they most active on social media? Without answering these questions you are unlikely to find the right audience, thereby failing in your attempt to market your product to the potential customers. Marketers are constantly on the lookout for new techniques and tools to identify and engage with their target customers so that they can offer them something valuable. Related: How to Increase Twitter Engagement With the advent of technology, variety of tools has made it possible and easy for the marketers to conduct the search for their right audience with much more ease and perfection. Here are 5 tools that can help you to decode your target audience. Google analytics is a tool that helps you to find out the interests of your audience. You can extract data relating to your audience demographics that includes age, location, gender, behavior, device used, interests, language and much more. With the details extracted by Google analytics, it’s easy to find the context thereby helping to find exactly the audience who is interested in your products and services. This is a list of people who have higher likelihood to become your customers. The data provided by Google analytics will offer your opportunity to connect well by planning the perfect campaigns that are most suitable for your audience. You can share the right type of content that will be useful and informative with help of this audience data. 2. Cloohawk Cloohawk is an intelligent social media assistant that will assist you to grow the right audience for your products and services. The tool has the ability to dig up and generate a list of people who are most aligned to your interests. These are your potential followers. Cloohawk can locate your target audience. It looks for people who are active and who relate to your niche. The list of people is derived from Twitter based on their profile, their areas of interests and their recent activities. You can generate a list of potential audience who are taking about your interest. Furthermore, Cloohawk offers automation features that allow you to automatically follow people based on their interests and behavior. Knowing your target audience’s interest is the key to your products and services, as well as to design your marketing efforts to meet their needs. 3. Audiense Audiense is yet another social media management tool that is designed to identify the right audience that is most relevant to your business. This tool is capable of finding large audience that is perfectly matched to your brand. Audiense will assist you to not just identify the audience, but also to personalize the messages and deliver it effectively to your audience. With the help of the social data available, the tool will analyze the interests and behavior to understand and shortlist the audience most suitable for your brand. The filter options in the tools will allow you to create a report that is most relevant and thereby enable you to focus on the most important audience segments. The tools will analyse all connections between people with the help of machine learning and will instantly give your target audience. 4. AgoraPulse AgoraPulse is a social media management tool that enables you to understand your audience. From a single platform, AgoraPulse enables you to engage with your audience and followers. This tool gives you the capability to segment your audience based on age, gender, interest, location, industry , spend or whatever that matters the most for your business. AgoraPulse allows you to consolidated information regarding your audience who is viewing and engaging with your business. This information can be used to reach out and serve your target audience better. The tool helps you to customize messages and texts based on earlier conversations so that you can reach out to the potential customers with useful information based on their past conversations. 5. QuickSprout A successful social media marketer knows how to clearly identify the target audience. QuickSprout is a social media management tool to help marketers to identify the target audience. This tool can be used to conduct research on various factors thereby coming up with a customer persona. Unique and individual profiles of your customers based on their likes and behavior is called as a customer persona. QuickSprout can help you to build a personas that will represent the ideal audience that any marketer would wish to have. The tool will prepare the personas based on based on demographics such as interest, language, age, location, gender, education, spending habits, etc. With the help of the unique personas of your audience, you can design and optimize the content that has to be shared with your audience. You can also build audience specific marketing campaigns based on the personas. Conclusion When it comes to picking the right audience, there’s only one rule — Choose the audience that you care about. You may get swayed towards more than one audience that could work for your brand, but stay focused and pick the relevant one at the end. Marketers generally tend to do the mistake of trying to please many people. But that will not work. Don’t build an audience who don’t want to buy your product. Social media management tools help you to find customers based on interests, geographic distribution, gender, age ranges, purchasing power and habits, behavior and many other insights. The more specific and targeted you are, better are your chances of finding the right audience.

https://medium.com/cloohawk/5-tools-to-decode-your-target-audience-4b0d199ce313

['Uma Bhat']

2018-05-04 06:01:32.459000+00:00

['Marketing', 'Social Media Marketing', 'Marketers', 'Target Audience', 'Tools']

“A Call to Action”

“A Call to Action” The month and year have been lost through the passage of time, but I remember the moment quite vividly. I was in the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles at the end of the tour viewing a short video. The video depicted the US Army liberating one of the concentration camps in Germany. My exact thoughts while viewing this were “I have the opportunity to a be a part of something greater. An opportunity to help those that cannot help themselves.” It was a deep, emotional, and introspective moment. I believe it represents who I am at my core — a person who will defend those that cannot defend themselves and it is the primary reason I joined the US Army as an officer. On July 19th, 2019, I saw clips of a campaign rally with the crowd chanting “Send her back.” I looked down, shook my head, and thought to myself “Is this what has become of our country?” For an entire week, I mulled over this question and others. Is this really the country I risked my life for while deployed to Baghdad, Iraq? I knew 17 US Army soldiers who were killed while deployed. What would they think at this critical moment in our country’s history? I thought about one of my West Point classmates and fellow math major. We worked on a few math projects together and I considered him one of the most gregarious persons one could meet. What would he think at this moment? What would he think of the divisiveness in our country today? What would he think of the chants “send her back” directed at those that sought a better life for themselves and their children? I wish I could ask him; he lost his life on May 25th, 2006 during the War in Iraq. I asked myself, how can I honor his and the 16 others’ sacrifice to our country? After a week of contemplating these questions, I came to this final conclusion: I could no longer sit on the sidelines. It was time to prematurely end my two-year sabbatical and take action. I asked myself, what group of people can I help and make the most positive impact from a humanitarian perspective? The answer I came up with was refugees. I am now committed to finding and working with an organization whose primary focus is to help refugees. Having said that, on July 29th I formally requested to withdraw from the photography program I had been a part of over the last academic year at SMC. To my fellow veterans, ask yourself the following questions: Is the current state of our country the one you took an oath to defend? For those that deployed in a combat zone, is our country one that you would still be willing to risk your life for? We each need to look within to answer these questions and I by no means have all the answers. I would just ask if there is any doubt in your mind to the answers above, that you look around your communities and look for areas you can make a positive impact by helping those that need help. To my family and friends who have known about this decision for several weeks and have told me “They are proud of me”, I truly appreciate it. I would ask this of you though, don’t be proud of me, stand with me and look for places you can have a positive impact whether big or small. We all have the ability to make our country better in the smallest and biggest ways possible. Over the past month, the following quote has given me faith that I am making the right decision: “Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.” ― Robert F. Kennedy

https://medium.com/@marcortiz_98945/a-call-to-action-5be1e32e6d74

['Marc Ortiz']

2019-08-22 20:36:45.175000+00:00

['Military', 'Refugees', 'Veterans']

Using Reddit to explore the mental health effects of the COVID-19 era.

Using Reddit to explore the mental health effects of the COVID-19 era. Photo by Andraz Lazic on Unsplash Preliminary research by the CDC has indicated that the COVID-19 pandemic has affected our health, both physically and mentally. Anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, and substance abuse disorders appear to be on the increase. Because I have mined and analyzed reddit data before (to study emoji use, check it out here if you’re interested!), I thought it might be interesting to look at subreddits specific to mental health issues and see what topics people are discussing the most and to see if there is increased engagement with these communities now that more people are distanced from physical sources of support and information. I was also really interested in the lived experience of people with mental health challenges during COVID-19. My goal in this project was to get more experience with using Tableau since we had started using it at Upptic. I was also really interested in the lived experience of people with mental health challenges during COVID-19. I think that a good dashboard is worth a thousand words, so I’d invite you to check out what I made here! In the meantime, here are some insights I learned from this exploration (and a bit about how to visualize those insights in Tableau). /r/depression is a weird outlier The visualization you see below didn’t always tell the truth, which is that in general people are posting more on this subset of 11 subreddits than they did in 2019. All Subreddits: Slow, stable increase from year to year, but overall higher post volume in 2020. Even this isn’t the complete truth. Depending on which subreddit you look at, you might get a completely different story. /r/SuicideWatch for example has an extremely strong positive trend for this year, much stronger than 2019. Posts per week for /r/suicidewatch And certainly, this is a very different, and more grim picture than the previous trendlines indicate! The issue here is that engagement with /r/depression has been flatlining in 2020 instead of increasing even compared to 2019. Posts per week on /r/depression There are a couple of insights we can derive here. First, is that user behavior on /r/depression and /r/SuicideWatch is very different. This is a call to action to segment data by subreddit, as you will notice that all visualizations in the dash all have the ability to do that. Next, is that we have an unbalanced dataset. It’s clear that /r/depression simply has more activity, and therefore it has an outsized effect on the result when we view everything in aggregate. Count of posts in each subreddit I learned how not to check for anonymous accounts Using a “throwaway” account, in reddit parlance refers to the act of creating an anonymous account simply for the purposes of making a one-time post. So, one thing I thought might be interesting is to check for any usernames which contain the string ‘throwaway’. Since all accounts on reddit are pretty anonymous already (well, as anonymous as you want them to be), this turned out to be not especially useful. Percent of ‘throwaway’ posts by subreddit. What I would suggest in this kind of situation and what would need to be done for this kind of analysis is to go directly to each individual user(which involves a different API call) and see how many posts they have made. This information would especially be very interesting as you can see that certain subreddits tend to contain more throwaway users (Domestic Violence and Suicide Watch stand out in particular). People aren’t really talking about COVID that much The insight for this section is pretty light. When comparing discussion topics for 2019 and 2020, it seems people are talking about pretty much the same issues in 2019 and 2020. (though /r/HealthAnxiety is a notable outlier in multiple ways). The red section is COVID-19 related posts The interesting part here is how I was able to assign these topics. My first impulse as a data scientist is to build a language model and try to cluster it and initially I did try this, but the results were generally pretty bad and I wasn’t really looking at whether people were talking about the pandemic, which was one of the key questions this project was asking and seeking to answer. Instead, I took an approach that used keywords and the substring matching function in pandas to assign topics in a quick and dirty way. covid = ['virus', 'COVID', 'pandemic', 'quarantine'] health = ['hospital', 'insurance', 'illness', 'medication'] events = ['death', 'dying', 'divorce', 'breakup', 'moving'] family = ['sibling', 'brother', 'sister', 'mom', 'dad', 'parent', 'daughter', 'son', 'spouse', 'husband', 'wife'] social_life = ['friend', 'concert', 'parties', 'bar', 'restaurant', 'date', 'boyfriend', 'girlfriend'] career = ['work', 'fired', 'interview', 'co-worker', 'manager', 'boss', 'career'] money = ['bills', 'debt', 'money', 'broke', 'poor'] def generate_topic_col(keyword_list, dataframe, posts_column, new_column_name = 'topic_present'): #Takes a list of keywords, and the dataframe where post data is and writes a new column with #boolean indicating if the keyword is present or not regstr = '|'.join(keyword_list) df[new_column_name] = df[posts_column].str.contains(regstr,flags=re.IGNORECASE, regex=True) print('New column {} written to dataframe'.format(new_column_name)) This approach in my opinion ended up fitting the situation better and gave me some pretty good results. I am curious and very interested in hearing what others have done in terms of quick and dirty text analytics! In general, people are understandably less positive in 2020 One of the theories I had upon learning that the /r/depression had reduced user activity was that perhaps people were actually in better moods. This was something I at least remember being told often during the initial phases of quarantine. People had more free time, less social obligations, perhaps less stress if they are able to work from home. I was doubtful this was the case, but the only way to check is to look at sentiment analysis. I used NLTK’s VADER for this, but with a twist. Since most posts in these subreddits tend to be from individuals who are at a minimum struggling and worst case in a crisis situation the overall sentiment tends to be very negative. Therefore, I elected to look at the overall positive sentiment expressed instead of compound and see if there was a significant difference between 2019 and 2020. Bar graph of Mean Postive Sentiment between 2019 (blue) and 2020 (orange) I also found that people generally aren’t using more positive language to describe their experiences with mental illness. However, /r/DomesticViolence is a notable exception. I wanted to look at the posts in question and see if they generally were more positive. Positive sentiment for 2019’s top posts (top) and 2020’s top posts(bottom) in r/DomesticViolence Looking at the posts in 2019 and 2020 with the most upvotes in this particular subreddit, we can see that the most upvoted posts tended to be more positive in 2019. My guess is that looking at the median may be more appropriate for analysis here as some very positive posts in 2020 might be shouting over the posts that are less positive. Please reach out for help if you need it I do want to finish up this piece by saying that it’s completely understandable to be struggling with your mental health right now. Personally, my spirit hasn’t always been the best through this year, therefore it was very comforting to see that I wasn’t alone. If you or someone you know are having suicidal thoughts, you can find a list of hotlines through the list maintained on /r/SuicideWatch: There’s also a bunch of other resources on the subreddit, so please do have a look! It’s more important than ever to prioritize your mental health in 2020, and we will only get through this by helping each other.

https://towardsdatascience.com/using-reddit-to-explore-the-mental-health-effects-of-the-covid-19-era-142188ed3c2a

['Chelan Patton']

2020-11-19 20:19:22.130000+00:00

['Tableau', 'Covid 19', 'Mental Health', 'Social Media', 'Data Analysis']

My Favorite Analog Notebooks and Notepads

Yesterday, I shared my favorite writing utensils. Today, I’d like to share my favorite notebooks and paper products with you. I’m a seriously analog girl. I really like to write on paper. I use a computer for blogging and writing novels, of course, but for taking notes, planning, and just getting lost in doodling? Paper, all the way. My favorite notebooks either have blank pages or faint dot grid. I’m not big on lined paper. I like paper that feels nice — smooth, but with a little tooth to it. Oddly, I appreciate both thick paper that nothing will bleed through, and very thin paper that feels used. I know that’s weird — feels used. But I like when my notebooks have that texture of paper that’s been flipped through. Like it’s meant to be used. Not too precious. Here are my favorites. My Go To Cheap Notebook I love a composition book. I pick them up at Wal-Mart in August, during the back-to-school sales, and I always have a box of them around. But — they’re lined. And lined paper isn’t my favorite. And they don’t lay flat enough, either. I’ve found these blank, unlined notebooks with a kraft paper cover that I like a lot. The paper is creamy, the books are small — A5 size, which is my favorite, but only 24 sheets inside, or 48 pages. They also cost less than a dollar a piece. They’re perfect for taking notes on a single book as I write it. Which is exactly what I use them for. The book’s working title goes in the front. I do my plotting work in it, then I keep the notebook with me as I write, in case I need to make notes about future revisions. Screenshot: Author My Favorite Next-Level Notebook I came across Rhodia notebooks at Powell’s books in Portland a few years ago, when I was visiting my daughter. They are — magical. I love them so much. They’re much higher-end than the little kraft-paper notebooks I use to keep my notes on books as I write them. They’re also more expensive. But oh — worth it. The paper is smooth and just the right weight. I really like this memo pad style. These notebooks cost $5 to $7 a piece, come in lined, grid, or dot-grid paper. And the paper, though. My goodness. It’s magical. This is a great intro to really high-quality paper if you’ve only been writing in cheap spiral-bound notebooks all your life. Trust me. Screenshot: Author My Current Favorite Bullet-Journal Style Notebook I’ve gone through Lechturnm 1917 notebooks, which are the standard bullet journals. They’re pretty — super colorful, good quality. They have a built in Index and numbered pages. Kind of pricey at $20 to $25 a piece, but I only use one a year. Kind of boring. Everyone uses them. I also find myself not actually using them. I’m not sure why. They don’t open as flat as I’d like. They feel a little too precious — like I’m afraid to mess up in them. This year I bought a Hustle Co. A5 hard-cover notebook to use as a bullet journal. It costs 25 percent less than a Lechturnm and it has a neat pen-holder situation on the spine that I like. (Actually, that’s what made me buy it.) The paper is relatively thick, feels nice to write on. The book lays nicely flat. And for whatever reason, I haven’t had the problem actually writing in it like I do with my Lechturnm. Screenshot: Author My Every Day Notebook for 2021 I changed up my Every Day Notebook for 2021 for the first time in four or five years. I’ve used a Miquelrius 600-page notebook forever. But I have a couple of struggles with it. The first, and worst, being that it’s so thick, it’s hard to write in until you’re about 25 percent of the way through the book. It really doesn’t lay flat. This year, I bought a Stalogy 365 notebook. It’s got a date thing happening at the top — where you can circle the day of the week, the month, and the day. But that’s so teeny tiny, I can’t actually see it well enough for it to be useful. So I ignore it. The paper in this notebook is super thin. Ink doesn’t bleed through, but it ‘ghosts.’ In other words, you can see the shadow of what you wrote on the other side of the page. For me, the ghosting is worth having so many pages in such a slender notebook. The Miquelrius notebook is so, so thick. Like three times as thick as this one. For me, this paper is really nice to write on. Smooth, with that used feeling that I like a lot. Screenshot: Author My Resuable Goals Notebook I seriously adore my executive-size Rocketbook. I’ve used a black Sharpie to turn the blank pages into layouts that I can write on and erase over and over. I use mine as an editorial planner and to track my OKRs. If you use Frixion pens on your pages, those pen marks erase with water. Super cool. The Sharpie lines stay, so you can create your layouts and then fill them in with erasable ink. Paper Adjacent Products I Love I keep my Rocketbook in this pretty canvas notebook cover. I can store the special pens and the microfiber eraser in it. Screenshot: Author My husband gave me this La Vent notebook cover for Christmas. I’m not using the notebooks that came with it — there’s nothing wrong with them, they’re just kind of meh. The paper is on the rough side and not what I like. But the cover itself? Gorgeous. It fits my Stalogy Every Day Notebook perfectly. Screenshot: Author I’m a sticky note junkie. I have them in all shapes and sizes and I use them — a lot. These clear flags are my favorite for marking pages so I can find them later. I use them like bookmarks. They’re removable and can be repositioned, so you can reuse them at least a few times. Screenshot: Author I also like these smallish sticky notes. The 2X2 size is my favorite. It’s big enough to take a substantial note on, but not so big that it feels unwieldy. Screenshot: Author I write on index cards . . . a lot. My favorites are index cards that are nice and thick and sturdy. Not 3X5 pieces of paper. I want my cards to be cards, you know? Anyway, Amazon’s Basic Heavy White Index Cards are my go-to. They’re thick enough, sturdy, and cheap. Screenshot: Author Another Christmas gift my husband gave me was a pack of Rocketbook Cloud Cards — erasable, resuable index cards. I’m seriously excited about them.

https://medium.com/the-write-brain/my-favorite-analog-notebooks-and-notepads-ffa6f0b83d93

['Shaunta Grimes']

2020-12-29 00:53:44.323000+00:00

['Life', 'Creativity', 'Work', 'Writing', 'Productivity']

The easy way to predict stock prices using machine learning

The easy way to predict stock prices using machine learning The step by step you need to predict the stock price of companies, and please read the disclaimer. In this post, I show the step-by-step method of making stock price predictions using the R language ,and the H2o.ai Framework. Please understand that this article is only a simple demonstration on how to get start using the H2O.ai Framework. It’s not a financial advise. Don’t take any financial decision based on this post. The Framework is also available in Python, however, as I am more familiar with R, I will present the tutorial in that language. You may have already asked yourself: how to predict the stock price using artificial intelligence? Here are the steps to do it: Collect the data Import the data Clean and manipulate the data Split test and training observations Choose a model Train the model Apply the model to the test data Evaluate the results Enhance the model if necessary Repeat step 5 to ten until you are satisfied with the result. In the last post, I showed how to plot high-frequency data using the Plotly library, and I explained how to collect the data to perform the analysis. Let’s skip straight to step 3 on our list, if you want to know how to do steps 1 and 2, visit the previous publication. Our research problem is this: “What will be the closing value of the asset in the next hour?” Data cleaning After we have imported the asset data that we want to make the predictions using MetaTrader, we need to change some variables. First, we define the names of the variables: #seting the name of variables col_names <- c("Date", "Open", "High", "Low", "Close", "Tick", "Volume") colnames(data) <- col_names head(data) Our data will take the following form: Data — Image by Author We will only use some of the available variables: Open, High, Low, Close and Volume. That way, we will eliminate the others. data$Date <- NULL data$Tick <- NULL Since we want to know the closing price for the next observation, we need to shift the following values to a row above. To do this, we create a function and create a variable in the original dataset with the new data: #shifting n rows up of a given variable shift <- function(x, n) { c(x[-(seq(n))], rep(NA, n)) } data$shifted <- shift(data$Close, 1) tail(data) Data — Image by Author Notice that we have the values of the variable, Close, allocated one row above. With that, we have a NA in the last line, we use the na.omit () function to omit that line: #remove NA observations data <- na.omit(data) write.csv(data, "data.csv") Perfect, we have our data ready to start modeling. Splitting the data In this problem, we will use a package called H2O.ai, which offers us a complete solution for analyzing and training artificial intelligence models. Its user-friendly structure allows people without a data science background to solve complex problems. Let’s start by loading the library into our environment: #Installing the package install.packages("h2o") #loading the library library(h2o) Once installed and loaded, we start our virtual machine that will serve as a basis for building our model. When starting the virtual machine, we must set the desired number of cores and memory parameters: #Initializing the Virtual Machine using all the threads (-1) and 16gb of memory h2o.init(nthreads = -1, max_mem_size = "16g") Importing the data: h2o.importFile("data.csv") h2o.describe(data) Data into h2o — Image by Author We now define which variable we want to predict in our data set and those that will serve to “teach” our model. y <- "shifted" #variable we want to forecast x <- setdiff(names(data), y) Then, we split the data into training and testing at a proportion of 80% for the training data. parts <- h2o.splitFrame(data, .80) train <- parts[[1]] test <- parts[[2]] Having the data divided, we go to the part where the magic of the H2O.ai package happens. There is an important trick here on splitting the data (The method shown here is biased), however we will get to this issue on the next article. Choosing the model One of the tasks that every data scientist needs to perform when creating his Machine Learning projects is identifying the best model or set of models to make his predictions. This requires a lot of knowledge, especially from a strong mathematical base, to decide the best ones for specific tasks. Thanks to the H2O.ai package, we can ask it to choose the best model for us while taking care of anything else. This is called Automodeling. Obviously, this magic may not be the most robust solution to problems, but it is a good start. Train the model To create our model, we call the automl function and pass the necessary parameters as follows: automodel <- h2o.automl(x, y, train, test, max_runtime_secs = 120) After a few minutes, we obtain a list of models in order of performance. To learn more about them just call: automodel@leader Model Description — Image by Author Apply the model Now that we have our leader let’s apply it to the test data !! This is the coolest part, as we will use data not yet observed by the model to evaluate performance. We call the predict function with the model and test data as parameters! predictions <- h2o.predict(automodel@leader, test) Conclusion In this post, we saw how to handle and manipulate the financial data of an asset and easily create a machine learning model to make predictions of closing prices in the hour following the analysed data. On the next article we’ll see how bad this model performed on the test data. See you next week! Disclaimer: This article is not an investment recommendation or anything like that. Forecasting stock prices is not a trivial task and this post is simply a demonstration on how easy is using the H2O.ai framework to start solving machine learning problems. It’s easy to make predictions, however it doesn’t mean that they are correct or accurate. And no, I don't have any connection with the company.

https://pedrolealdino.medium.com/the-stupidly-easy-way-to-predict-stock-prices-using-machine-learning-dbb65873cac8

['Pedro Lealdino Filho']

2020-07-06 14:28:33.007000+00:00

['Stocks', 'Towards Data Science', 'Data Science', 'Machine', 'Programming']

React context API (Part 2) — Updating state through a Consumer

Hi and welcome back to part 2 of the React context API series. For part one, we talked about how to leverage React’s context API to pass state values to child components. Now, in part 2, we’re gonna look at how do we update the state through Consumers? Photo by Émile Perron on Unsplash The repo for this project can be found here. If you want to learn more about what context is I highly suggest reading my first post. I explain a little more about why context is useful as well. What you will make Let’s take a look at what you’ll make. Check out the picture below. Child Component Does this look familiar? It’s the same Child component from part one! But wait… There’s a button? Why, yes. Yes there is. Let’s see what it does! Toggled GrandChild Component Awesome. We are now able to toggle the Grandchild component. We’ll see how to do that later. But wait… There’s another button. Why, yes. Yes there is. Can you guess what this button does? Toggled Name If you guessed that it toggled a name, you would be correct. It toggles the first name of each component between Bob and Mark. Guess what? This is all done through context! Let’s take a look how. Tutorial Create the context. First, Let’s create a Context.js file again that will create the Provider and Consumer that we need. Context.js Import createContext from react. This lets us create our Context object. Then, create the Provider and Consumer. const { Provider, Consumer } = createContext() Just a quick reminder. This step is important. Creating the Provider and Consumer is what allows us to subscribe to state changes outside of the Parent component that holds the state. The Parent. Okay, so we’ve created our context object. We’ve created the Provider and the Consumer. Let’s create the Parent component that will hold the state. Parent.js Okay, there’s a lot going on here. Let’s take a look at the state items first. state = { toggleGrandChild: false, toggleName: false, people: [ { id: 0, name: “Bob”, age: 24 }, { id: 1, name: “Jack”, age: 22 }, { id: 2, name: “Jill”, age: 26 }, ], } The first item is toggleGrandChild . This lets us know if the GrandChild component is toggled or not. The value starts off as false. Here's the function that changes the state. toggleComponent = () => { this.setState({ toggleGrandChild: !this.state.toggleGrandChild, }) } toggleComponent changes the state of toggleGrandChild to the opposite of its current value. So, if its current value is false and the toggleComponent is called, then the value will change to true. This function will serve to toggle the GrandChild component. Next, we have the toggleName state value. You guessed it. It is used to toggle the name. toggleName also starts at the value of false. Let's look at its corresponding function. switchNameHandler = newName => { this.setState({ toggleName: !this.state.toggleName, people: [ { id: 0, name: newName, age: 24 }, { id: 1, name: “Jack”, age: 22 }, { id: 2, name: “Jill”, age: 26 }, ], }) } A newName is being passed into the switchNameHandler . This handler handles changing the name of the first person. First, it toggles the toggleName value. Next, it inserts the new name into the name value of the first people object. Notice that the other names stay the same. This is to show that the other people objects will remain the same. Technically though, you are updating the objects with the same initial values. Lastly, we have the people object. People holds the object of each person. Bob is the name that gets switched later on. people: [ { id: 0, name: "Bob", age: 24 }, { id: 1, name: "Jack", age: 22 }, { id: 2, name: "Jill", age: 26 }, ] The Provider. Let’s move into the Provider. Remember, the Provider will wrap components that contain consumers. <Provider value={{ state: this.state, toggleComponent: this.toggleComponent, switchNameHandler: e => this.switchNameHandler(e) }}> <Child /> </Provider> In this case, the component that is wrapped is the Child component. The Child component also contains the GrandChild component within it. More on that later. Let’s look at the value within the Provider. value={{ state: this.state, toggleComponent: this.toggleComponent, switchNameHandler: e => this.switchNameHandler(e) }} This looks familiar. However, it’s a little different than part one of the tutorial. The original Provider value from part one looked like this. value={this.state} So why is this one different? We talked a little about it in part one but let’s look at it again. If we want to pass in a function to our context Consumers, we have to pass in variables that contain the functions needed. This is why we have items like switchNameHandler: e => this.switchNameHandler(e) . Let's look at the Child component to see how we utilize this. The Child Component Child.js Notice, once again, the entire component is wrapped with the Consumer context object. Within the Consumer is {context => (...)} . This connects the items in the consumer to the value= ... items from the Provider. This is because the Consumer has subscribed to the values in the Provider. Note: 'context' is an arbitrary name that could be any name. It does NOT have to be 'context'. Let’s look at the Consumer. <Consumer> {context => ( <div> <h1>Child Component</h1> {context.state.people.map(person => { return ( <p key={person.id}> Hi, I am {person.name} and I am {person.age} years old. </p> ) })} <button onClick={() => context.toggleComponent()}> Toggle Component </button> {context.state.toggleGrandChild ? <GrandChild /> : null} </div> )} </Consumer> First, we map through the people object that is contained in the state of the Parent component. How do we access people? Easy. We use context.state.people . Remember in the Parent component value we set state: this.state ? That's why we have access to context.state . If we wrote context.state.toggleGrandChild then we would have access to the toggleGrandChild state value. Back to mapping through the people object. We map through the object just like part one and return Hi, I am {person.name} and I am {person.age} years old. But, now there is a button below it. Let's take a look. <button onClick={() => context.toggleComponent()}>Toggle Component</button> Can you guess what this does? It calls the function toggleComponent that is in the Parent component. Remember what this function does? toggleComponent = () => { this.setState({ toggleGrandChild: !this.state.toggleGrandChild, }) } It toggles the state value of toggleGrandChild . Let's look a little bit below the button. context.state.toggleGrandChild ? <GrandChild /> : null If this looks unfamiliar to you, don’t worry. It’s just a fancy shorthand way of writing an if else statement. It could easily be written like this. if context.state.toggleGrandChild === true { <GrandChild /> } else { null } The shorthand notation just saves some space but the standard if else statement will work just fine. So, what is this part doing? It’s grabbing the value of toggleGrandChild from the Parent Component state. If the value is true, then it will render the GrandChild component. If the value is false, it will render nothing. When you press the button, it will call the toggleComponent function in the Parent component. This is because you passed toggleComponent: this.toggleComponent in the value section of the Provider in the Parent component. What does that function do again? Oh, right. It changes the value of toggleGrandChild . Wow! That's amazing. You just changed the state from a Child component. Congrats, my friend. GrandChild Component. Okay, we are on the home stretch. We’ve already learned how to update the state through our Child component. But, we’ve just toggled a value true or false. That’s not very fun or exciting. Let’s move on to updating a string value. First, we’ll look at the GrandChild component. GrandChild.js There’s a lot going on in this component as well. At first glance, it looks pretty similar to the Child component. It’s mapping through the people object and printing the same Hi, I am {person.name} and I am {person.age} years old. . And there's a button. But, the button seems to be doing something different? Let's take a look. <button onClick={ context.state.toggleName ? e => context.switchNameHandler("Bob") : e => context.switchNameHandler("Mark") }> Toggle Name </button> Now, instead of just calling a function to toggle true or false, we’re actually passing a value to a function. Let’s look back at the switchNameHandler that was passed as a value in the Provider of the Parent Component. value={{ state: this.state, toggleComponent: this.toggleComponent, switchNameHandler: e => this.switchNameHandler(e) }} So, we assigned the value switchNameHandler to e => this.switchNameHandler(e) . This lets us use context.switchNameHandler({value}) within a context Consumer. Currently, we're passing a name. Let's look at the switchNameHandler function again. switchNameHandler = newName => { this.setState({ toggleName: !this.state.toggleName, people: [ { id: 0, name: newName, age: 24 }, { id: 1, name: "Jack", age: 22 }, { id: 2, name: "Jill", age: 26 }, ], }) } First, we’re toggling the value of toggleName to either true or false. Next, we are assigning the id, name, and age to each people object again. But, this time, for the first people object we are passing in the value newName . This is the value that is passed from the function. Let's jump back to the GrandChild component where we call this function. onClick={ context.state.toggleName ? e => context.switchNameHandler(“Bob”) : e => context.switchNameHandler(“Mark”) } Remember, this is just a fancy if else statement. It could easily be written like this. if context.state.toggleName === true { e => context.switchNameHandler("Bob") } else { e => context.switchNameHandler("Mark") } This checks the value of toggleName from the state within the Parent Component. If it is true, then it will pass Bob to the switchNameHandler function. This then updates the name of the first people object to Bob . Then, it will update the toggleName to false. Notice, if you press the Toggle Component button, it will still toggle the GrandChild component. But, it does not change the state value for toggleName . So, the name will stay regardless of the GrandChild component being visible or not. Conclusion So, we’ve learned how to use React’s context API not only to read the state of a Parent component from a Child component, but also to update the state of the Parent from a Child. The Consumers within the Child components subscribe to the values being passed from the Provider within the Parent component. Now you can leverage context to read and update the state. Go make something great!

https://medium.com/javascript-in-plain-english/react-context-api-part-2-updating-state-through-a-consumer-7be723b54d7b

['Alex Valdez']

2019-09-20 19:03:33.041000+00:00

['JavaScript', 'Context Api', 'Web Development', 'React', 'Programming']

>|+𝐿𝐼𝒱𝐸’’• •“ World Junior Championship 2021”(Livestream) — IIHF World Juniors Live HOCKEY FREE, TV channel 2021

Live Now:: https://tinyurl.com/y783azuc Live Now:: https://tinyurl.com/y783azuc Watch IIHF World Junior Championship 2021 — Live Online Coverege Click here for the latest Q&A: · IIHF World Junior Championship 2021 Live Stream In 4K TV. Watch World Juniors 2020 Live Stream Online. World Junior Championship 2021: Time, TV channel, livestream, where, when, schedule The 2020 IIHF World Junior Championship in Ostrava and Trinec, Czech Republic, is taking place from Dec. 26 to Jan. 5, 2020. The United States and Canada are in Group B and will play their round-robin games at Ostravar Arena in Ostrava, along with Russia, Czech Republic and Germany. Finland, the 2019 tournament winner, will be in Group A, along with Switzerland, Sweden, Slovakia and Kazakhstan. It will play its round-robin games at Werk Arena in Trinec. The top four teams in each group will play in the quarterfinals Jan. 2. The semifinals are Jan. 4, and the championship and third-place games are Jan. 5. The semifinals and finals will be played at Ostravar Arena. NHL Network will broadcast 20 games live, including the United States playing Canada on Dec. 26 (1 p.m. ET), the first day of the tournament, as well as the semifinals, consolation game and final. The other three U.S. games in the round-robin portion of the tournament will be carried live on NHL Network, including games against Germany on Dec. 27 (1 p.m. ET), Russia on Dec. 29 (1 p.m. ET) and Czech Republic on Dec. 30 (1 p.m. ET). Fireworks are guaranteed when Russia and USA meet in ice hockey. The Cold War, and the countries’ respective superpower status in the East and the West, no doubt plays its part in the rivalry. And while Russia — including the Soviet Union, Unified Team and Olympic Athletes from Russia — share the record tally of nine golds in Olympic men’s competition with Canada, there is a special frisson when they face off against the USA. After three comprehensive victories so far, Russia go into Wednesday’s Winter Youth Olympic Games final as firm favourites with Matvei Michkov scoring seven goals. But Isaac Howard has also found the net seven times at Lausanne 2020, and he will be hoping to lead USA to a famous win. You can watch the clash live here on Olympic Channel at 15:00 CET and keep up to date with all the action from Lausanne on our live daily blog. Among the players to watch for the United States is goalie Spencer Knight, who was the third goalie on the 2019 WJC team. He was chosen by the Florida Panthers with the №13 pick of the 2019 NHL Draft. The United States finished second at the 2019 WJC, losing 3–2 against Finland in the championship game at Rogers Arena in Vancouver. The United States is looking for a fifth straight top-three finish at the event after winning it in 2017, finishing second in 2019 and third in 2016 and 2018. Prior to its current streak, the United States had consecutive top-three finishes once, in 2010 (first) and 2011 (third). NHL Network also will provide live coverage of Canada’s round-robin games. After opening against the U.S., Canada plays Russia on Dec. 28 (1 p.m. ET), Germany on Dec. 30 (9 a.m. ET) and Czech Republic on Dec. 31 (1 p.m. ET). Canada finished sixth at the 2019 WJC but could have the top two prospects for the 2020 NHL Draft on its roster: left wing Alexei Lafreniere of Rimouski of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, and center Quinton Byfield of Sudbury of the Ontario Hockey League. Lafreniere had one goal in five games for Canada at the 2019 tournament. WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP SCHEDULE Thursday, Dec. 26 Russia vs. Czech Republic, 9 a.m. ET, NHLN Switzerland vs. Kazakhstan, 9 a.m. ET U.S. vs. Canada, 1 p.m. ET, NHLN Sweden vs. Finland, 1 p.m. ET Friday, Dec. 27 Kazakhstan vs. Slovakia, 9 a.m. ET, NHLN U.S. vs. Germany, 1 p.m. ET, NHLN Saturday, Dec. 28 Slovakia vs. Finland, 9 a.m. ET, NHLN Czech Republic vs. Germany, 9 a.m. ET Canada vs. Russia, 1 p.m. ET, NHLN Switzerland vs. Sweden, 1 p.m. ET Sunday, Dec. 29 Finland vs. Kazakhstan, 9 a.m. ET, NHLN Russia vs. U.S., 1 p.m. ET, NHLN Monday, Dec. 30 Canada vs. Germany, 9 a.m. ET, NHLN Kazakhstan vs. Sweden, 9 a.m. ET Czech Republic vs. U.S., 1 p.m. ET, NHLN Slovakia vs. Switzerland, 1 p.m. ET Tuesday, Dec. 31 Slovakia vs. Sweden, 9 a.m. ET, NHLN Russia vs. Germany, 9 a.m. ET Czech Republic vs. Canada, 1 p.m. ET, NHLN Finland vs. Switzerland, 1 p.m. ET Thursday, Jan. 2 Relegation Game 1, 4 a.m. ET Quarterfinal 1, 6:30 a.m. ET, NHLN Quarterfinal 2, 9 a.m. ET, NHLN Quarterfinal 3, 11:30 a.m. ET, NHLN Quarterfinal 4, 2 p.m. ET, NHLN Saturday, Jan. 4 Relegation, Game 2 5 a.m. ET Semifinal 1, 9 a.m. ET, NHLN Semifinal 2, 1 p.m. ET, NHLN Sunday, Jan. 5 Relegation, Game 3 (if needed), 5 a.m. ET Third-place game, 9 a.m. ET, NHLN Championship game, 1 p.m. ET, NHLN It’s the most wonderful time of the year. The IIHF World Junior Championship is here. Once again, the best under-20 hockey players from around the globe will convene to determine which nation has the best crop of juniors. This time the setting is Canada, where the hometown team is aiming for back-to-back gold. The odds-on favorite entering the 12-day event boasts a roster jam-packed with NHL first-round draft picks — 20 of 25 — and NHL-caliber talent, including team captain and Blackhawks forward Kirby Dach. Don’t expect this to be a cakewalk, however; Team Canada will face stiff competition from Russia, which it defeated in the gold-medal game last year; a highly skilled American squad; and a Swedish roster that sports an Oilers prospect, Philip Broberg, as captain. WORLD JUNIORS: Breakdown of every NHL team’s prospects playing As always, the World Juniors are expected to be packed with big goals, big saves and ever bigger wins. With national pride on the line, the battle for gold will be fierce. Here’s all you need to know about the tournament. Where is the 2021 World Junior Championship? The 2021 World Junior Championship will take place in Edmonton, Alta. This year’s tournament originally was scheduled to be held in Edmonton and Red Deer, Alta., but the need for a secure bubble led Hockey Canada to move the entire event to where the NHL played summer hockey. The WJC is set to hit the ice in both cities, with fans — fingers crossed — in 2022. This year marks the third time Edmonton will host World Juniors games. In 1995, Canada topped the podium; in 2012, Sweden won and the Canadians finished third in Alberta’s capital. When will the 2021 World Junior Championship take place? Because teams are playing on just one rink at Rogers Place, this year’s tournament includes an extra day of competition. The tournament will begin Christmas Day with a tripleheader. The group stage, with two groups of five teams each, will span the first seven days of competition and end on New Year’s Eve. The eight surviving teams will have New Year’s Day off before returning to action for the quarterfinals on Jan. 2. The winners of those games will advance to the semifinals two days later. The bronze-medal and gold-medal games will take place Sunday, Jan. 5. How has COVID-19 impacted the tournament? From the jump, the tournament has felt the pandemic. The location was changed to a bubble in Edmonton. Then came the positive cases. Canada spent 14 days in quarantine during its selection camp before sending a handful of players home. Team USA lost two key players, John Beecher and Thomas Bordeleau. Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Sweden were impacted as well. MORE: In-depth coverage of COVID-19’s impact What channel is the World Junior Championship being aired on? TV channel (U.S.): NHL Network Live stream (U.S.): fuboTV (7-day free trial) TV channel (Canada): TSN Live stream (Canada): TSN Direct In an unprecedented move, every World Juniors game will be aired live on NHL Network and TSN. Which teams are in the 2021 World Junior Championship? Ten teams, divided into two groups of five, are participating. When is Canada vs. USA? For now, this year’s tournament will not see a Battle of North America. With the two countries in different groups, fingers and toes will have to be crossed that they’ll square off in a do-or-die matchup. WORLD JUNIORS TEAM GUIDES: Canada | USA Full schedule for the 2021 World Junior Championship Participating teams are each guaranteed four group-stage games. Teams that advance to the final day of competition (bronze-medal or gold-medal game) will play seven contests total. The 2021 IIHF World Junior Championships will be held in Edmonton starting Dec. 25, 2020, and concluding with the Gold Medal game on Jan. 5, 2021. The tournament involves the best young under-20 hockey prospects from 10 countries. This tournament is also a terrific opportunity for hockey fans to see several promising NHL draft picks in action. Except for the St. Louis Blues, every NHL team will have at least one prospect in this competition. For many of these youngsters, the World Juniors is a time to shine on the world stage. It can become a significant stepping stone on their paths toward big league professional careers. It also provides many NHL fans with a first glimpse of future stars. Here are 10 NHL prospects to keep an eye on in the upcoming 2021 World Junior Championships. The only goaltender selected in the first round of the 2020 NHL draft, Yaroslav Askarov was taken 11th overall by the Nashville Predators. He made his full-time debut in Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League this season with St. Petersburg SKA, sporting a record of 4 wins and 3 losses in seven games with a 0.96 goals-against average, a .962 save percentage and one shutout. Askarov, 18, is the top candidate to become Russia’s starting goaltender in this upcoming tournament. This will be his second appearance in the World Juniors. Quant Hockey indicates he appeared in five games in last year’s competition, though his stats (2.71 GAA, .877 SP) were below his usual standard. Now a year older and more experienced, the 6'4” Askarov should have a much better performance this time around. This will also provide the Predators with a good look at the young goalie who could become a starter for their club in a few years. Backstopping Russia to World Junior gold would make a terrific first impression. Selected by the Los Angeles Kings’ second overall in the 2020 NHL draft, Quinton Byfield spent the last two seasons with the Ontario Hockey League’s Sudbury Wolves. The 6'4”, 214-pound center tallied a team-leading 82 points in just 45 games in 2019–20. Byfield is among six players returning for Canada this year. He tallied one assist in seven games as Canada won the 2020 World Junior Championship. On Dec. 11, NHL.com’s Adam Kimelman reported the 18-year-old is hoping to use that experience to his advantage. With first-overall pick Alexis Lafreniere not participating in this year’s tournament, Byfield will garner considerable attention. A big, skilled forward, he will be expected to play a major role for Canada. A strong performance against the world’s best prospects could prove the springboard toward joining the Kings in 2021. Appearing in his second straight World Junior Championship for Canada, Bowen Byram was selected fourth overall by the Colorado Avalanche in the 2019 NHL draft. On Nov. 23, SI.COM/The Hockey News’ Steven Ellis suggested the 19-year-old defenseman was well ahead of his peers entering this tournament. The 6'1”, 190 Byram is a superb, all-around blueliner who was outstanding for Canada during their gold-medal run in last year’s championship. He had 71 points in 67 games with the Western Hockey League’s Vancouver Giants in 2018–19 and 52 points in 50 games before COVID-19 prematurely ended the 2019–20 schedule. Byram’s skills, experience and leadership made him one of Canada’s alternate captains in this tournament. He’s projected to become a significant part of the Avalanche’s defense corps. Leading Canada to their third gold medal in four years would only burnish his reputation and perhaps vault him into the Avalanche roster next season. The Columbus Blue Jackets raised eyebrows by selecting Yegor Chinakhov 21st overall in the 2020 NHL draft. Many pundits didn’t even have him on their list of last season’s top 100 prospects. This tournament will be the first opportunity for NHL followers to see this previously unheralded young Russian winger in action. Chinakhov caught the Blue Jackets’ attention last season by tallying 27 goals and 69 points in 56 games in Russia’s junior league. He also netted seven points in 12 games with the KHL’s Avangard Omsk. Now in his first full season with his KHL team, the 19-year-old winger has 15 points in 27 games. On Dec. 1, Kimelman cited Blue Jackets European player development coach Jarkko Ruutu singing Chinakhov’s praises. His experience playing on Avangard Omsk’s top line with professional players could give the young Russian a competitive edge in this tournament. The Florida Panthers’ first-round pick (13th overall) in the 2019 NHL draft, Spencer Knight is expected to be the starting goaltender for Team USA in this tournament. This year will be the 19-year-old’s third straight World Junior Championship. At 6'3” and 197 pounds, Knight is a big, athletic goalie currently in his second season with Boston College. NHL.com’s Mike G. Morreale observed he was a finalist last season for the Mike Richter Award, given to the NCAA’s top goalie. He’s off to a good start this season, winning all four of his starts with a 1.50 goals-against average and .955 save percentage. Two of those victories were by shutout. This will be Knight’s final appearance in the World Juniors and his last chance to win gold for his country. He could become a contender as the tournament’s top goaltender. A solid performance on his part could further his path to the NHL. The Florida Panthers selected Anton Lundell with the 12th overall pick in the 2020 NHL draft. He enters this tournament with 12 goals and 20 points in 17 games this season with HIFK Helsinki of Finland’s Elite League. The 19-year-old center is on pace to exceed last season’s career-best 28-point performance. Lundell has previous experience at this level, having helped Finland win gold at the 2019 World Junior Championship. A skilled two-way center, the 6'1”, 185-pounder is expected to play a lead role for Finland in this competition. On Dec. 8, Morreale reported Lundell could be playing with the Panthers sooner rather than later. Gregory Campbell, their vice president of player personnel and development, told Morreale he’s impressed with the youngster’s overall performance in Finland this season. If that carries over into this tournament, Lundell could move closer to achieving his NHL dream. Lucas Raymond heads a list of seven Detroit Red Wings prospects participating in the 2021 World Junior Championship. The Wings selected the 18-year-old left winger from Sweden’s Frolunda HC with the fourth-overall pick in the 2020 NHL draft. Raymond is taking part in his second World Juniors. He tallied two goals and two assists for four points in seven games as Sweden took bronze in the 2020 tournament. Now in his third season with Frolunda HC, he has five goals and 12 points in 22 games. A strong skating, competitive two-way player, the 5'10", 161-pound Raymond could have a bright future with the rebuilding Red Wings. He’s not expected to make the jump to the NHL this season as the Wings tend to take their time developing their young talent. Nevertheless, Raymond could move quickly up their prospect depth chart with a solid effort in this tournament. Selected ninth overall by the Minnesota Wild in the 2020 NHL draft, Marco Rossi enjoyed a stellar performance last season with the Ontario Hockey League’s Ottawa 67’s. Tallying 120 points in just 56 games, he was the leading scorer in the Canadian Hockey League and the OHL’s most outstanding player. At 5'9” and 187 pounds, the 19-year-old Rossi may be small by NHL standards, but he’s blessed with tremendous hockey skills. In addition to his eye-catching offensive skills, the young Austrian is a versatile forward who can also skate on the wing and plays a responsible defensive game. The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler reported last month Rossi had tested positive for COVID-19. He has since overcome the illness and is medically cleared to play in this tournament. The underdog Austrians need him at his best for a shot at winning a medal. The second player selected in the first round by the Ottawa Senators (fifth overall) in the 2020 NHL draft, Jake Sanderson is the son of former NHL forward Geoff Sanderson. The 18-year-old was also the top defenseman selected in this year’s draft. It’s his first appearance in the under-20 World Junior Championship. A freshman at the University of North Dakota, the 6'2”, 185-pound Sanderson can log big minutes and play in every game situation. He tallied three points in as many games for UND before joining Team USA for this tournament. He’ll be a solid addition to the American defense corps. Sanderson won’t be making the jump to the Senators this season, but their scouts will likely be closely following him in this tournament. Ottawa fans will also be watching to catch their first look at the blueliner they hope will become a key part of their defense in the near future. The Ottawa Senators selected Tim Stuetzle with the third overall pick in the 2020 NHL draft. He plays for the Mannheim Eagles of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL). On Dec. 3, Sportsnet’s Wayne Scanlan reported the 18-year-old center recently resumed skating with the club after recovering from surgery on Oct. 15 to repair a broken hand. Stuetzle enjoyed a solid debut with Mannheim last season with 34 points in 41 games. A versatile forward who can skate at center or on the wing, he has tremendous speed and playmaking skills. He played well for Germany in the 2020 World Juniors, collecting five assists in as many games, and will be expected to provide his squad with leadership and experience. It’ll be interesting to see if Stuetzle feels any lingering effects from his injury and the long layoff from playing. On Dec. 12, the Ottawa Sun’s Bruce Garrioch reported the youngster will likely join the Senators following this tournament. That could become a certainty if Stuetzle plays a starring role for Germany. Canada is bringing one of their deepest rosters in years to the World Juniors. All 14 forwards and six of eight defencemen are NHL first-rounders, led by 2019 third overall selection Kirby Dach, who missed last year’s World Juniors while playing with the Chicago Blackhawks, and 2020 second overall selection Quinton Byfield, who was part of Canada’s gold medal-winning squad a year ago. Byfield is one of six returning players this year alongside fellow forwards Dylan Cozens, Connor McMichael and Dawson Mercer, and defencemen Bowen Byram and Jamie Drysdale. Cozens finished tied for sixth in points in last year’s tournament with two goals and seven assists while McMichael was tied for fourth in goals with five. A number of prospects are tied to Canadian teams, as well. The Calgary Flames lead the way with two in forwards Connor Zary and Jakob Pelletier. Also up front are Cole Perfetti, who was drafted 10th overall by the Winnipeg Jets in 2020, and Dylan Holloway, who went 14th overall to the Edmonton Oilers in the same draft. On defence is Montreal Canadiens prospect Kaiden Guhle, selected 16th overall in the most recent NHL Draft. There is still a question mark in net for Team Canada where the competition for starting goalie is wide open ahead of the tournament according to TSN analyst Ray Ferraro. A pair of 2020 draft picks, Dylan Garand and Devon Levi, and 2021 draft-eligible Taylor Gauthier are vying for minutes between the pipes for Team Canada. There will be no such question for Russia, who will be led by top goalie prospect Yaroslav Askarov, who was selected 11th overall in the 2020 NHL Draft by the Nashville Predators.

https://medium.com/@englishpremierleaguelivehd/world-junior-championship-2021-livestream-iihf-world-juniors-live-hockey-d27911a83103

[]

2020-12-26 18:34:03.115000+00:00

['Hockey', 'NHL Draft', 'Live Streaming', 'Canada', 'Hockey Ice']

Best smart bulbs for your connected home

I am thankful for all of those who said NO to me. It’s because of them I’m doing it myself (Albert Einstein)

https://medium.com/@susan09241033/best-smart-bulbs-for-your-connected-home-ca3e1ce54bcd

[]

2020-12-20 15:07:35.822000+00:00

['Internet', 'Surveillance', 'Lighting', 'Security Cameras']

CLASSIFYING SPOTIFY MUSIC PREFERENCES: A COMPARISON OF ALGORITHMS

The second classification algorithm used is binary logistic regression with stochastic gradient descent. In logistic regression, we model the relationship between two qualitative variables using a logistic model to perform classification between two classes (0 and 1). We define: where x^i is an augmented feature vector. Unlike K-nearest neighbors, the logistic model outputs the probability that a test example belongs to class 1. For a feature vector xi, we call its predicted probability f(xi) and define it to be: σ(u) is our logistic function used for converting a scalar into a probability. We hope f(xi) is consistent with the ground truth probability yi for i = 1, 2,…, N. In order to do so, we must find β for which is smallest. (We use the cross-entropy loss function to measure the difference between our predicted probability and our ground truth probability.) In this case, we minimize L(β) using stochastic gradient descent, which incrementally moves β towards the direction of steepest descent (the opposite direction of the gradient of L(β)). Stochastic gradient descent starts by initializing a value for β called β0 . Then, for every sweep through the training dataset, or epoch, we randomly select an i at random and update β to be: for t = 1, 2, 3,… up to however many epochs we’d like to perform. Here, α is our learning rate and the gradient of Li(β) is just the gradient of l(yi,f(xi)). Using ∇Li(β) instead of ∇L(β) is less taxing on our algorithm compared to normal gradient descent, and introduces randomness to the model. This helps to prevent overfitting since it inhibits the model’s ability too follow the noise in our training data too closely. When we have reached our final β value, we can now classify our test data as follows: for each test example xi, if our predicted probability f(xi) ≥ 12 then we classify it as class 1, otherwise we classify xi to class 0. In the code, I use scikit-learn’s implementation for logistic regression using both normal and stochastic gradient descent, as well as my own implementation from scratch. β is initialized to be all zeros, alpha to be 0.001, and the number of epochs to be 150. The code also computes the cost function at every iteration, and plots the resulting values. To compare differences in accuracy over the number of epochs, I test the algorithm using anywhere from 50 to 500 epochs, and plot each accuracy score versus the number of iterations. In my comparison of the accuracy versus number of iterations of SGD, you can see how more iterations caused lower accuracy in Figure 1 below. The decrease in accuracy is a sign of overfitting — with more iterations, our model was more prone to following errors, thus creating a fit only desirable for the training data and not the test data. To curb this, the model stops after 150 iterations, since it seems to be both the point of convergence in Figure 2, and a high accuracy point in Figure 1. Figure 1. Observing Overfitting Through Accuracy Figure 2. Convergence of the Cost Function Value with SGD Unexpectedly, both scikit-learn’s implementation and my own did not beat the score of K-nearest neighbors. My SGD implementation also received a higher score than scikit-learn’s implementation (😊). Sci-kit learn’s regular logistic regression algorithm yielded 53.8% accuracy, their SGD algorithm produced 51.2% accuracy, and mine got 58.5% accuracy.

https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/classifying-spotify-music-preferences-a-comparison-of-algorithms-4a33fa7b1d59

['Safya Osman']

2020-09-05 16:56:08.258000+00:00

['Python', 'Classification Algorithms', 'Machine Learning', 'Spotify', 'Scikit Learn']

Mnuchin’s Requirements for Transactions Involving Cryptocurrency

Secretary Mnuchin’s Crypto Wallet Legislation Regulation 1506-AB47 requires financial institutions to verify the identities of recipients and senders for transactions involving self-hosted crypto wallets or wallets that are not provided by a financial institution or service. Examples of such wallets include hardware wallets or a wallet running on a user’s computer. Brian Armstrong, CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, had tweeted about the regulation last week. He stated that it could have “unintended side effects” and that it would “kill many of the emerging use cases” for cryptocurrencies. Four US congressmen urged the Treasury Department to consult with Congress stating: “Before Treasury issues midnight rules on the regulation of self-hosted wallets, Secretary Mnuchin should come to the Peoples’ House and speak to representatives about what his regulations would do. Over-regulating self-hosted wallets will crush a nascent industry and leave the Unites States behind the rest of the world when it comes to harnessing the power of blockchain and cryptocurrency. “The wrong regulations will violate the financial privacy of users and send a message to the world that you shouldn’t build businesses or try new use cases for blockchain in the United States. I hope Treasury will carefully consider any action it takes on self-hosted wallets. I look forward to working with Secretary Mnuchin on this important issue for U.S. financial technology.” My comment on the proposed legislation to regulate self-hosted wallets Concerning the effect of expanding the scope on the definition of “monetary instruments” in the BSA, FinCEN requests comment on the following question from financial institutions and members of the public. I’d like to focus on just one of their questions in this post: (18) Describe the costs from complying with the proposed recordkeeping and verification requirements. The potential cost of complying with the proposed recordkeeping requirement is equivalent to nothing less than America giving up the dominant lead in the blockchain technology space. The 2008 financial crisis had its foundations in opaque financial institutions that had tremendous counterparty risk on their balance sheets. Blockchains, on the contrary, promote a transparent financial system. Such a system seeks to eliminate counterparty risk by eliminating the need to rely on third-party custodians to hold funds. This regulation would effectively seek to prevent funds from moving between exchanges like Coinbase to smart contracts. Smart contracts, which are free from third-party custodians, are the key technological innovation that would allow America to maintain its dominance in the blockchain space. Smart contracts have no physical address or location. They are lines of code that effectively function as a means to escrow funds that are released at a future time contingent on receiving appropriate instructions. These instructions are usually tied to the fulfillment of predetermined contractual obligations. If this regulation requires that recipients of funds have a physical name and address, then this regulation would effectively prohibit Coinbase account holders from purchasing cryptocurrency for the express purpose of sending funds directly to a smart contract address. This would completely prohibit Coinbase customers from participating in peer-to-peer insurance smart contract communities. Applications that use smart contract mutuals that were previously designed to be fully compliant with state and local insurance laws would now be out of compliance. This regulation would criminalize the intent behind eliminating third-party custodians of funds, which have been the driving force of innovation in the blockchain space. The impact that such a change would have is likely to be profound. Participation in peer-to-peer insurance mutuals would be virtually criminalized. This rule is effectively the government telling the citizens how they should spend their money. If peer-to-peer mutuals in other countries effectively outcompete traditional insurance providers, then those citizens will benefit from a regulatory regime that permitted greater innovation. Americans will be forced to pay an effective obsolescence tax as innovation drives down the cost of financial products for other countries. In the future Americans should know that higher insurance premiums came as a result of a regulatory regime that stifled innovation. This would tragically result in American consumers having fewer choices and less freedom when seeking competitive providers for financial products such as insurance. If you want to understand how peer-to-peer insurance works you can read any of these articles: If you want to understand how smart contracts retain regulatory compliance you can read more here: This technology allows for new types of financial products described here: In closing, I hope you have carefully considered the costs of complying with the proposed recordkeeping and verification requirements. The costs are nothing less than our ability to compete with other nations in blockchain markets for financial products such as insurance. This regulation would effectively erode our first-mover advantage. It would allow countries such as China to out-innovate American companies with financial applications such as WeChat and AliPay. In this way, it would undermine US fintech developers and allow China to overtake the United States in the market for decentralized financial products and services. Also, Read

https://medium.com/coinmonks/mnuchins-requirements-for-certain-transactions-involving-convertible-virtual-currency-or-digital-619896881f0e

['Joshua Davis']

2020-12-28 13:02:51.766000+00:00

['Self Hosted Wallets', 'Fincen', 'Regulation', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Steve Mnuchin']

Founders announces first Mothership Series release of 2021

Founders Brewing Company announced Maple Barrel-Aged Frangelic Mountain Brown will be the 16th release in the taproom-only Mothership Series and the first release of 2021. Frangelic Mountain Brown is aged in bourbon barrels that previously housed maple syrup, adding complexity to the existing sweet and nutty coffee notes of this brown ale. Courtesy Founders Brewing Co. Frangelic Mountain Brown is aged in bourbon barrels that previously housed maple syrup, adding complexity to the existing sweet and nutty coffee notes of this brown ale, according to Founders. “Brown ales aren’t usually considered a flashy beer style, but this one certainly has some flair,” said Jeremy Kosmicki, Founders brewmaster. “In fact, it’s pretty jam-packed with amazing flavors like hazelnut, coffee, maple, oak and bourbon — all perfectly balanced into a solid brown ale base.” Maple Barrel-Aged Frangelic Mountain Brown will be available in six-packs of 12-ounce bottles and on draft beginning Jan. 27, exclusively in both the Grand Rapids and Detroit taprooms. The Mothership Series features ultra-limited, brew team favorite beers only found in bottles at Founders’ taproom locations. Previous Mothership Series beers have included: Frootwood, Passion Fruit Gose, Blushing Padre, Detroit Double IPA, Devil Dancer, French Toast Bastard, Oktoberfest, Pale Joe and Mucho Lupu. Posted By: Grand Rapids Magazine on December 27, 2020. For more information, please click here to read the source article.

https://medium.com/@thedrakeharper/founders-announces-first-mothership-series-release-of-2021-8ec1b9dc91

['Drake V. Harper']

2020-12-27 19:45:20.753000+00:00

['Food And Beverage', 'Spirit', 'Drinking', 'Founders', 'Releases']

On Time: One Year’s Diary Part Six

On Time: One Year’s Diary of Small Truths Part Six by Jasmina Tesanovic 50. 4.9.1017 I dreamt of my father, my dad, who appeared to me as a child, nine years old. He was dressed as a lad of the distant nineteen-twenties, when young boys wore the clothing of men, except with short trousers. He appeared to me in black and white of course, like a period photograph. He had a playmate, too, a slightly older kid. My father looked rather devilish, full of wicked bad-boy charm, but the other boy was calm and gently smiling. I found myself catapulted into this situation, for I had to take care of them. I wasn’t certain that the young boy was my dad, until someone in the dream assured me that he was. So I looked them over carefully, being responsible, and sure enough, the little boy simply felt like my dad. I knew that it had to be him, though he had no awareness that I was his daughter from the future. Since I was a grown-up and he wasn’t, he didn’t even care. But I did care, I looked after him, and enjoyed minute of it. We talked, we even played. I found that I didn’t understand his old-fashioned regional accent, for his accent was almost a hundred years old. Quite a lot of things happened during my dad’s extensive lifespan. I had remembered his birthday before I had this dream, and it struck me he would have strongly that he would have been 94. That’s where my dream came from; my awareness that he hadn’t always been old. He lost his youth, but I was dreaming of it. I was trying to remember him from times when I couldn’t possibly remember him. And, he was lovable; such a charming, clever, lively little boy. 51. 5.9.2017 While delivering my one and only baby, after reading Thomas Mann through nine months of pregnancy, mostly to stay aloof from my primordial fear, I had my strongest experience of abstract time versus real time. During labor I hallucinated, gigantic mermaids floating all around me in the delivery room. But the room also featured an outsized hospital clock and I was watching its hands move, for was nothing else to do but breathe, suffer and wait. I started following the motion of the clock hands at exactly 3 pm, and at 8.10 pm my baby came out of me. I was wide awake and made careful note of the time. However, those five hours of labor passed through me in an half an hour, at most. Why, how? Well, my busy body and mind were in some other space of temporal apprehension. I can vividly remember the clock-hands moving as time whipped by. I could see that the clock’s behavior was normal, but not my experience. I always rather wanted to see that happen again, though the experience would have required another baby. That wouldn’t have been so much a price, as a gift. It was a major privilege to learn that time could feel so different, that a baby arrived in my world wrapped in a kind of time-capsule. It was a direct experience of the nature of time in the cosmos. What a privilege to be a woman. 52. 14.9. What about calendar reform, or daylight savings time — so arbitrary. If we were willing to pass the laws, we could do anything we wanted with the measurement of time. Instead of tiresome years, months, days, we could shatter time into ever-smaller units — live by seconds if we liked, or milliseconds, nanoseconds, picoseconds, battering time into dust until we feel cosy. No more dread of long, unwieldy time-spans, such as prison sentences and golden wedding anniversaries. After all, we are just humans, and with short attention spans. Why not break time into bite-sized pieces we can mentally handle, and set ourselves free? 53. 19.9.2017 Seeing time run on a digital display while I exercise on a gym machine. The first seven minutes of treadmill walking feel long, hard, nerve wracking, a waste of time… Until I catch my breath and find the machine’s groove, and then I feel like I could march the entire Earth without ever moving from this spot. I walk without moving anywhere, so I could destroy my material being, my body, my shell, the only vehicle I’ve got on the planet earth, and just keep walking, straight to nowhere. Each rubbery treadmill step is like a drop in an ocean, purifying, beautiful edifying, repetitious like the surf waves. No pain, no heights or depths, no stumbling, it’s a walk so plastic and mechanical that it feels like a taxiing aircraft. But then I stop, because the digital clock tells me that I have to stop. This is serious exercise, I have to get down off the too-smooth machine, so as to not overdo it. Otherwise, tomorrow I’ll feel sore and I’ll regret this, my gym encounter with this clock-like no-place, where there is no dirt or dust, and the air is conditioned, and I can never write, in rude graffiti, “Jasmina was here.” 54. 24.9.2017 Some small small talk for big big fear, I had a nightmare encounter with eternity, images came in the depths of night that were unthinkably vast, endless, timeless… If I choose not to write about these abysses of darkness, will I feel better? Or maybe the act of writing about these phantoms will chase them away from me. 55. 26.9.2017 Why does everything remind me of something, or someone? I cannot break away from my dead mother. It is as if she were here, present, alive, eighteen years after her death. Time does not touch her because she is an aspect of me My mom used to tell me: when your mother appears in your dream, it is always a good sign… Your mother in your dream is always good for something, so don’t worry… So, I won’t. Why should I fret, why worry about the dead and the living spending time in my bed of slumber? I am safe in my own bed, I will cheerfully go to sleep again, cover myself like a baby in warm blankets and dream. Dreams are necessary, they feel good, they are edifying, dignifying, sometimes prophetic. I cannot avoid seeing more, and feeling more, than my waking mind can tolerate… I am a Cassandra, and always was, even as a child. I must learn how to live with nightmares without suffering. But still, why does everything remind me of something, something different but the same, from the past… or the past that is still within me, as I grown blind to the lost details, smart now that I have the big picture, wise in my senility, shrewd in my sentimentality, timeless in my aching nostalgia — I know the answer. Each memory of time is different because it is me who is changing. The devil is in the details and I am that devil. 56. Sometimes it is better to avoid writing about time. 57. 29.9.2017 Approaching Belgrade, dreams like Breughel’s wasp nests. I must toughen it out and take it like a natural Belgrade girl, for this city is part of my life. 58. 30.9.2017 How many parallel cities, how many parallel lives do I want to live? Can I even imagine all of them? I had a nightmare of losing all my travel gear, my core valuables, my passport, my glasses, my clothes. I was nude, drenching wet and on the verge of some abyss, literally and metaphorically. But I was not frantic, instead I was briskly surviving, like nobody’s business. I was once again the Balkan woman, ready to haul my ox-cart from the mud; to adjust again just took me a couple of days, a couple of nightmares. Now my soul aches for all those lost things in the past, lost days ago or even centuries ago. It’s only the loss itself that matters, not the time. It’s like that antique table clock that I took this morning to the grumpy clock repairman, who didn’t even look at its clockwork entrails, but simply barked: get rid of that rubbish, it’s a hundred years old. Can’t they see that something a hundred years old is not rubbish. Well, not here, not exactly. In Balkan village life, if you’re a hundred years old and therefore useless and burdensome they take you out to the mountains and place a final round loaf of bread on our bald and spotty head, and then slice off both your head and the loaf with one quick swipe of a scimitar. You get the bread loaf as a formal courtesy, since you are longer the bread winner. They perform this act out of love, your own sons and daughters approve, and, since you’re not required to do it to yourself, you feel grateful for it. You have to meet death sometime, and since death is taking his time-out it, you go to the mountains to meet him in a brave and responsible way. It’s an act of sturdy virtue, really; I am trying to learn the merit of it by writing this. Now we in the Balkan can also measure out time in a more pleasant and palatable way: you drink 40 year old brandy, and to compensate, you distill a similar brandy that someone else will drink in 40 years. My father gave me, for my fortieth birthday a whiskey he bought when i was born. It was already 12 years old when he bought it. He included a handwritten note stating: this whiskey is older than you, it is your birthday today and I hope you will find the right moment to enjoy it. I kept the old bottle on my piano, as a trophy of time and love…expecting the right moment to arrive. And then the moment came, my mother died. I was hollowed out with grief, but also in a strange elation, so I decided to guzzle down that bottle… So I went to snatch it off its treasured place on my piano, and my treasure was gone. Somebody, at a party maybe, had simply appropriated it and chugged it down. I was stunned and amazed at the loss of my bottle, in denial about it, like the loss of my mother. I was forty-seven. Many years later i realized that I had never carefully checked the date on the bottle. So maybe dad had stretched the truth about the age of that whiskey. After his death I found a locked drawer where he’d stored quite of few other identical bottles, with no particular care for their age and rarity. When it came to the hushed sanctity of totems like vintage whiskey, my father knew a lot about the power of suggestion. When handling items like whiskey, my father was a very bright guy. 59. 2.10.2017 Okay I confess, I have never fully understood the fable of the turtle and the rabbit. I can’t understand the nature of this senseless competition and who we are supposed to cheer to victory, or why. Maybe that’s why I love writing about it so much. When the moral of the story simply dashes past you, or entirely fails to arrive, you can enjoy the tale as pure fantasy. The turtle and the rabbit: maybe they can give up that undignified racing, and devote their precious time to discovery and exploration.

https://medium.com/@bruces/on-time-one-years-diary-part-six-2129a7ea7fc

['Bruce Sterling']

2019-02-26 09:10:43.705000+00:00

['Diary', 'Experience', 'Time', 'Jasmina Tesanovic', 'Temporality']

Doordash’s 3 laws of deception

A lot of debate has recently taken place on the pricing model of Doordash and its payout to drivers. If you think the debate is over with their new pay model, it’s a far cry, for Doordash is far more deceptive and apt at fooling customers and dashers than just making their tips irrelevant. In this post, I’ll detail how Doordash makes money and how it has taken everyone — drivers, restaurants, and customers included — for a ride. I list out three blatant deceptions and ask you to implore, if you’re a Doordash customer or dasher, how you’ve been fooled. First, I’ll list out the components that collectively comprise Doordash’s business model: Delivery fees. Doordash charges customers a delivery fee. This is explicitly listed when you place an order. Delivery fee is $0 if you have a Dashpass, but you can safely assume that Dashpass’s subscription fee is amortized over 5–10 orders so there is a fee, no matter what. Service fee, aka. Doordash’s first law of deception. Doordash charges customers a flat 11% service fee. Yep, you heard it right. This is different from the delivery fees and has always existed. Never seen it before? If you look at the receipt below, notice how Doordash has an item for fees and taxes, as if the fee is imposed by the government. Never ever had I previously seen a receipt in which the government imposed fees or taxes are combined with the merchant, aka. Doordash, imposed fees. Merchants who do not want to deceive customers are very open about it. Take Taskrabbit for instance which clearly declares its 15% fee. Get the jist? Restaurant fee. Doordash charges restaurants between 20–30% of the order amount. By the way, they charge this even if you pickup the order. It is what they call a business fees, or a lead gen fees, telling the restaurant they wouldn’t have gotten the order had it not been for Doordash. Sure, we believe you Doordash. Customer tip. Customers tip dashers, or at least they believe they do. Customer tip varies quite a bit and was one of the big reasons why Doordash jumped to the new pay model. Arguably, as I show below, they now make a bigger mockery of customer tips. Dasher payout. Doordash pays dashers a certain amount. In the old model, this was the maximum of either $6.00 or $1.00 plus customer tip. In the new model, this is $2.00 plus customer tip, which Doordash claims is much higher than the old pay :-) Next, let’s do some calculations on how much Doordash makes on the old pay model. For starters, you should know that Doordash in its first pay model sort of tried to replicate the restaurant-server pay model, in which a server is paid less than government imposed minimum wage, aka. guaranteed wage, which is supplemented using tips; and if it the total payout falls below the guaranteed wage, the restaurant tops it up to make sure that the server still makes at least the guaranteed minimum wage. In the world of Doordash’s old pay model, the dasher is paid $1.00 per delivery, and the guaranteed wage for is $6.00 per delivery. So if $1.00 plus customer tip falls below $6.00, Doordash would top it up to ensure that the dasher makes $6.00. Take an order worth $15.00. Typically Doordash would charge customers a higher delivery fees for orders below this amount, so for now let us assume $15.00 to be the average order size on Doordash. Let us run through how much Doordash makes on this order. +$0.00 Delivery fee +$1.65 Service fee +$3.75 Restaurant fee 25% +$0.00 Customer tip - $6.00 Dasher payout - $0.60 To Doordash When both the delivery fee and customer tip are below 60c, only then does Doordash really loose money. Of course this is relatively rare, especially given the fact that we used the most conservative numbers on restaurant fee, delivery fee, and tip. Given that most restaurants we’ve talked to said they’ve been coaxed into a 30% fee, and given that most of the times there is a delivery fee, the numbers in normal course of business look more like the following: +$0.99 Delivery fee +$1.65 Service fee +$4.50 Restaurant fee 30% +$1.50 Customer tip 10% - $6.00 Driver payout + $2.64 To Doordash The “we take the risk argument”, aka. Doordash’s second law of deception. $2.64 on a $15.00 order. This number is freakin insane, especially given that the risk for Doordash was capped at $0.60, while the normal case earns them $2.64. Notice that had they passed the entire tip to the customer in the old pay model, they would have still made ($0.99+$1.65+$4.50-$6.00) = $1.14 on the order, so their entire argument that they “cover up” when tips are low pretty much falls flat on its face. Had a customer tipped $5.00, Doordash would have made $5.14 on a $15.00 order, while the dasher would have still only made $6.00. I believe customers started to see through some of this, although not numerically but because they felt deceived, and demanded a change. In my surveys with both customers and drivers, it was pretty obvious that the new pay model was mostly driven by customers and not drivers. But this is where Doordash decided to make an even bigger fool of the customers, and to a large extent, also drivers. Let’s run through the numbers above again, with the new pay model. Take the same $15.00 order in the conservative scenario. +$0.00 Delivery fee +$1.65 Service fee +$3.75 Restaurant fee 25% +$0.00 Customer tip - $2.00 Driver payout +$3.40 To Doordash When a customer does not tip, there is a high probability that no dasher would accept that order. But according to this interview by Tony Xu, he says that customers MUST tip if they want their food delivered. So basically Doordash is asking its customers to pay a delivery fee, a service fee, an extortion fee aka. tip. If a customer refuses to pay the extortion fee and if by some stroke of (bad?) luck a dasher does accept such an order for the base $2.00 payout, Doordash stands to make way more than the dasher. “We give the tip to the dasher in the new pay model”, aka. Doordash’s third law of deception. Doordash is sort of forcing the customers to tip for a dasher to accept their order — making it not a tip, but an “extortion” fees, or a bid, or a bribe to get their food delivered. Disguising this as tip is the 3rd deception that Doordash commits. In the more realistic case with the new model, a customer, to have any shot at getting the food, has to shell out about 27% tip for an order. Numbers, in the normal case, they look amazing: +$0.99 Delivery fee +$1.65 Service fee +$4.50 Restaurant fee 30% +$3.00 Customer tip - $5.00 Driver payout + tip payout +$5.14 To Doordash Doordash again made more than the dasher. Effectively, by introducing the new pay model, Doordash just pushed all its liability to the customers, while trying to make them feel “good” that their tips made it to the dashers. They also managed to make a fool out of the dashers, by claiming that customers are paying a low amount while customers continue to pay exorbitant amounts in delivery fee and service fee. On average, these two fees are already 18% of the order amount. For dashers to make the same amount as the previous model, customers will now have to give an average of 27% tip on top of the 18% fees that they already paid, all while Doordash makes it a merry day. Customers, here is where your money goes, when food costs $15.00, and you tip say $3.00. $20.64 You pay (not including tax) $10.50 Restaurant gets $5.00 Dasher gets $5.14 Doordash gets Dashers, the customers think that they are already paying a heavy overhead. Expecting them to tip on top of the delivery fee and service fee is simply impractical. Still want to order and/or work for Doordash?

https://medium.com/@rahulga/doordashs-3-laws-of-deception-384207ac4c38

['Rahul G']

2019-09-25 06:36:53.050000+00:00

['Business Strategy', 'Fool', 'Delivery', 'DoorDash', 'On Demand']

$ 20,000 is just the beginning — Bitcoin’s historic uptrend

Bitcoin is currently unstoppable. Why digital currency is well on the way to trading beyond $ 100,000 in 2021. On Wednesday, December 16 of this year, the time had come: Bitcoin exceeded the 20,000 US dollar (USD) mark for the first time in its history. This means that everyone who has invested in BTC was in the green without exception. Accordingly, there were high spirits on the short message service Twitter. Even Edward Snowden is now on board. The number 1 cryptocurrency has been up 186 percent since the beginning of the year. Those who follow the crypto market less closely are inclined to dismiss the latest price developments as pure bubbles similar to the 2017 crypto hype. In contrast to 2017, the current price developments are fundamentally justified. Take a look at Google Search Trends, for example. Bitcoin-related search queries soared at the end of 2017 when BTC in similar spheres was trading in a very short space of time. All media reported that the market, as we know in retrospect, was overheated and could not bear the onslaught of crypto adventurers. Today: emptiness. In addition, the 2017 rally was even more exorbitant than this year. In 2017, the “Orange Coin” rose from around USD 1,000 to just under USD 20,000 — a gain of 2,000 percent. It is not surprising that this was too much of a good thing even for the volatile cryptocurrency. Where is the journey going ? In fact, Bitcoin behaves amazingly predictably. If you use the stock-to-flow model, for example, you almost get scared. Because the precision with which PlanB predicts the rise of new money is almost unbelievable. The current course activity is, therefore, most comparable to 2016. Because even then, the Bitcoin inflation rate halved, and the price moved slowly but surely towards the all-time high established in December 2013 at 1,100 US dollars. If you continue to apply the template from previous cycles, we should see a bull market next year that dwarfs everything. Because although the №1 cryptocurrency repeatedly corrects sharply, the long-term trend is as clear as day: it goes northwards. Let’s assume that Bitcoin grows at the same rate as a year after the last halving, i.e., 2017, the price would be 400,000 US dollars at the end of 2021. That sounds hair-dusting. But if you consider that Bitcoin has already experienced such price jumps twice in its history, this idea seems a bit more realistic. PlanB predicts USD 288,000 per bitcoin PlanB itself predicts a rate of at least USD 288,000 with its S2F model. The Winklevoss brothers also see Bitcoin on a par with gold. If BTC reaches the gold market capitalization of around USD 9 trillion, the price would be beyond USD 500,000. But it is also clear that Bitcoin always needs more fresh capital for further growth. Because with 900 BTC that are emitted every day, it only takes a purchase pressure of 18 million USD just to maintain the current price level. On the other hand, if you consider that more and more Bitcoiners are withdrawing their coins from exchanges and companies are now running into debt in order to buy new BTC, the shortage in the market could provide new price highlights. These are all staggering numbers that have the potential to help individual actors achieve sheer incredible wealth. Nothing is guaranteed. But if you do not recognize that Bitcoin is in a historical upward trend, which can certainly lead to adventurous courses, you are not looking properly. One thing is clear, however: 2021 will be a wild ride. Support me for FREE through these Referral Links: CRYPTO PUBLISHING PLATFORMS Publish0x Referral https://www.publish0x.com?a=open5lPd7A Read.Cash Referral https://read.cash/r/Zeal LBRY https://lbry.tv/$/invite/4UXpY59QUDG5oKaXgdmPCpZkasWRgxjB CRYPTO EXCHANGES/ WALLETS: Coinbase Referral https://bit.ly/373aUPH Binance Referral https://www.binance.com/en/register?ref=SGBV6KOX Disclaimer: These lines are not a substitute for investment advice, investments in the crypto market are made at your own risk. Invest only as much as you are willing to lose. I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

https://medium.com/the-capital/20-000-is-just-the-beginning-bitcoins-historic-uptrend-df4e3e347192

[]

2020-12-20 02:03:59.434000+00:00

['Bitcoin', 'Blockchain', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Btc', 'Finance']

[25-Nov-2020] Amazon Kinesis Outage — What Can We Learn?

My Key Takeaways #1. Identify The Fire Before Picking The Right Fire Extinguisher It’s quite a common tendency for engineers to dive into action of putting out the fire when systems fail and pagers go off. But, it’s critical to know the type of fire before dealing with it. In the paragraph starting “At 5:15 AM PST, the first alarms began firing for errors on putting and getting Kinesis records…..”, there are multiple probable options mentioned which could have caused the issue, and hence there were multiple options to mitigate/resolve the issue. AWS mentioned — While the leading candidate (an issue that seemed to be creating memory pressure) looked promising, if we were wrong, we would double the recovery time as we would need to apply a second fix and restart again. It’s at the crossroads like these when we need deeper understanding of the root cause to pick the right path of resolution. Once the root cause was identified to the thread capacity issue and not related to memory pressure as was initially thought of, the resolution path became quite clear. AWS’s ability to add additional configuration to the fleet of front-end servers to gather additional insights quickly and in the middle of a crisis is exemplary. This is a system-state we should strive for when designing our systems. Without such precise insights we would risk much longer outages and recovery times. It’s critical to know the type of fire before picking the right fire extinguisher for the job. #2. Rollback Plan Does Not Always Go As Planned Based on the fact that the root cause was identified to be related to thread capacity limits, I would assume such cases would not have been considered as part of the rollback plan scenarios. I could be wrong though! Nonetheless, during an incident rollback plans may not work out as planned. It’s critical that we remain nimble to innovate and devise alternate plans on the fly. This requires deep understanding of the systems we manage and run. Point is, expect all that is unexpected during a service disruption and be prepared to handle it quickly and effectively. #3. Keep An Open Mind For Anti-Patterns One of the design principles that we come across regarding compute (read EC2) scaling capacity is to have a larger fleet of EC2 instances with smaller configurations (as feasible) than having a smaller fleet with larger configurations. This is primarily to minimize the blast radius and the impact on available capacity in case of disasters. As part of the resolution strategy during the Kinesis outage the below anti-pattern was adopted in the short term, which helped control the chaos. In the very short term, we will be moving to larger CPU and memory servers, reducing the total number of servers and, hence, threads required by each server to communicate across the fleet. Although this looks like an anti-pattern, the point is, we need to adapt and be open to implement strategies that work well given a particular situation at hand. #4. The Importance of Cell-Based Architectures Cell-based architecture is a key design strategy to minimize blast radius. Citing from the report — We are moving the front-end server cache to a dedicated fleet. We will also move a few large AWS services, like CloudWatch, to a separate, partitioned front- end fleet. In the medium term, we will greatly accelerate the cellularization of the front-end fleet to match what we’ve done with the back-end. Cellularization is an approach we use to isolate the effects of failure within a service, and to keep the components of the service (in this case, the shard-map cache) operating within a previously tested and operated range. This had been under way for the front-end fleet in Kinesis, but unfortunately the work is significant and had not yet been completed. In addition to allowing us to operate the front-end in a consistent and well-tested range of total threads consumed, cellularization will provide better protection against any future unknown scaling limit. This was a bit surprising to see AWS was still working on cellularizing the architecture considering the advocacy around cell-based architectures. But, the good news is, changes are already in-flight. If you are into distributed system architectures, listen to Peter Vosshall’s re:Invent 2018 talk if you have not already done so. I am sure you’ll love it! This talk provides insights into how AWS uses cell-based architectures to contain blast radius of failure. Another interesting related topic is ‘shuffle sharding’. I would highly recommend going through this post https://aws.amazon.com/builders-library/workload-isolation-using-shuffle-sharding/. #5. Multi-Cloud Is NOT Answer 42 Whenever there is a cloud service disruption, the concern around putting all the eggs in one basket grows; tweets and posts pop up everywhere advocating multi-cloud strategy. While it can help address a lot of other concerns, but would it really help in scenarios like the Kinesis outage? Most likely, it won’t. Even if it does in some cases, it may not be cost-effective to manage such an architecture. Imagine multi-cloud failover in case there is a Kinesis or S3 outage. Now, let’s say we want to fail over and have Google Cloud Pub/Sub or Azure Event Hub start taking in the data when Kinesis goes out of service. What does it take to achieve it? I’ll leave it to your imagination the complexity of implementation, starting from the compatibility issues, data lakes, capacity, throughput differences, and so on. And, this is just one of the services! #6. Try Best To Avoid Cascading Failures This outage impacted multiple AWS services — CloudWatch, Cognito, AutoScaling, Lambda, EventBridge,Elastic Container Service (ECS) and Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS), and Service Health Dashboard. Cascading failures can quickly go out of control in distributed systems where there are multiple upstream/downstream dependencies. Cascading failures can bring down distributed systems to a grinding halt unless they are designed to withstand such failures. To exacerbate an outage situation, unforeseen issues can crop up, like latent bugs coming to life, tuning configurations not being good enough, thresholds becoming bane than boon, so on and so forth. We need to be wary of such potential risks when designing our systems and do the best to incorporate all the possible best practices. Some of them can be circuit breakers, jitters, exponential back-off, rate limits, etc. #7. Keep All The Fail-Safes Functional Another interesting citation from the report is as below — While this worked as expected, we encountered several delays during the earlier part of the event in posting to the Service Health Dashboard with this tool, as it is a more manual and less familiar tool for our support operators. This shows the importance of drills even for the seemingly trivial exercises. In this case, Service Health Dashboard status update delays might not have been critical compared to the overall outage. But, it is crucial to have all the manual steps documented in runbooks and exercised at regular intervals. Albeit manual, it’s necessary to keep the skills sharp and not get rusty. It’s imperative that we keep all the fail-safes functional!

https://itnext.io/amazon-kinesis-outage-what-can-we-learn-1f0aec6cac7b

['Bideep Bezbaruah']

2020-12-04 21:05:10.292000+00:00

['Outage', 'Cloud', 'Amazon Web Services', 'Distributed Systems', 'AWS']

Drone Planting for Moonhack

Drone Planting Game Scratch, it’ll always be our fave! It’s the easiest place to start for newbies of any age, it gives immediate success (no grammatical errors to stop your project from working) and it’s intuitive and accessible (available in a bunch of different languages!) This Scratch project is one of our favourite too! This past summer has been one of the most traumatic for our community in Australia; bushfires, hail, floods. Our natural environment has taken a beating! We created this game to simplify the tech around deforestation into a gamified and kid-friendly solution. And, what’s better — this product is real! US company Droneseed does exactly this! Check out their video below: Here in Australia, a lot of Australian natives actually regenerate on their own after fire. So, while some of this tech wouldn’t be necessary, it’s a great example of how we could bring tech into the real world and build opportunities beyond just bush regeneration. What about communities that have been victims of dust-storms that have removed all trace of native grasses? Or if introduced species have destroyed native flora? Perhaps there are ways to add these extra ideas into your game? The great thing about Scratch (and any coding) is that these lessons are just the building blocks to build something bigger, better and all about you! Getting Started This Scratch project is the perfect start for new coders. It’s not too complicated, and it’s GREAT fun! This game is perfect for beginner and intermediate Scratch users. The project instructions are available at Moonhack.com/projects If you’re an offline Scratch user, you can download the Starter Project first, or add your own sprites — just the drone, and then a tree sprite with multiple costumes. If you’re a teacher, this is a great one to get kids started on coding in your classroom. For more info check out our curriculum blog post. What’s next? How could you extend this project? Every project has challenges to help extend students beyond the existing lesson. But there are other ways you could build on this too. Maybe once the ground is full of seeds you need to fertilise them to make them grow? And then water them? Register your participation in Moonhack at moonhack.com. Don’t miss out on being counted!

https://medium.com/code-club-australia/drone-planting-for-moonhack-a45ccb8f1346

['Code Club Australia']

2020-05-06 03:48:49.389000+00:00

['Moonhack', 'Teachers', 'Coding', 'Schools', 'Kids']

Homeless Halloween

For a period of time in about the second grade, my father and I lived in a homeless shelter in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This was during a transition after he had graduated law school but before he was able to get his law licence. He had moved there for a job opportunity that ultimately did not pan out. The name of the shelter was Joy Junction, which my classmates in school lovingly called “junkyard junction”. The Shelter had a large main room with lots of pullout couches lined up in long lines, a kitchen on one wall, and private rooms on another for families. The couches were all single men, and the private rooms were families with fathers, and the kitchen held day all Long John Silvers. There was another facility that women and children stayed in. Do to the oddity of my father being a homeless single father and me being an adorable boy straight out of a Judy Blume novel, we had to stay on a pullout couch in the main room. I remember longing so hard to be in the facility with all the other kids, at least in the private room, and for god sakes would Long John Silver donate something other than popcorn shrimp. It was delicious but a Judy Blume Boy needed a salad once in a while. My best friend at the time was Javed, and he had a large Muslim family and they started out in a private room in the main facility. When room opened up in the women and children's facility Javed’s father stayed behind so his family could move. They didn’t allow any males over a certain age to be there. Javed would sneak me in so we could hangout and I could use the showers there. It was a lot less terrifying. It was Halloween time and the local church had handed out flyers for Halloween party they were having. They were going to bring a bus to come pick up the kids and their chaperones and take them to the party. I was in desperate need of a party. They were going to have punch, candy, bobbing for apples, and nowhere was popcorn shrimp mentioned. My father had now found a job and had repeated the phrase “We’re out of here soon” to me everyday daily as we pushed the mattress back into the couch. He was going to buy me a costume and take me to the church party. We went to K-Mart and I picked out my dream costume. Batman. I was going to be Batman. Javed and I played in our costumes for days leading up to the party. He was plastic faced Superman and I was plastic faced Batman. We practiced our bobbing skills on popcorn shrimp, and colored paper bags from the grocery store to bring home all the candy we could. The day came for the Halloween party and I was with Javed and his parents getting ready after school. My dad would get home from work and we would get on the bus to go to the party. My father though had not arrived back from work and it was getting late. They lined everyone up and were preparing to get on the bus. My father was nowhere to be seen. I started to panic in my plastic Batman mask. Javed’s dad asked the Church bus attendant if he could chaperone me and the church attendant said “No, only parents or legal guardians.” This statement would ruin organized religion for me forever. I was furious. Where was my father? Why would he ruin the most important event of my life? Why didn’t Javed’s dad play it fucking cool and just all walk on the bus together? That’s what would have happened in a Judy Bloom book! I asked him if he could just tell them he was my daddy. He said it was too late. The bus drove away as I cried under my Batman mask and Javed’s Superman face was pressed up against the window. He said he would bring back as much as he could for me. My father showed up shortly after and claimed his car had been on fire. He was covered in soot and did arrive in a tow truck so his story checked out. Two major takeaways came from this.

https://medium.com/@jessesuphan/homeless-halloween-8b82c3dbb906

['Jesse Suphan']

2020-01-06 00:13:44.758000+00:00

['Homeless', 'Comedy', 'Childhood', 'Gay', 'Halloween']

Apache Airflow Tutorial, Part 2: Complete Guide for a Basic Production Installation Using LocalExecutor

Apache Airflow Tutorial, Part 2: Complete Guide for a Basic Production Installation Using LocalExecutor ABN AMRO Follow Nov 19 · 9 min read By Rafael Pierre In his first Apache Airflow tutorial, Rafael Pierre wrote about how to install, setup, and run Apache Airflow. In the second part of the tutorial, Rafael gives a complete guide for a Basic Production Installation, using LocalExecutor. To learn more, read the tutorial below. Source: Unsplash Recap In the first post of the series, we learned a bit about Apache Airflow. How it not only can help us build Data Engineering & ETL pipelines, but also other types of relevant workflows within advanced analytics, such as MLOps workloads. We briefly skimmed through some of its building blocks: Sensors, Operators, Hooks, and Executors. These components provide the basic foundation for working with Apache Airflow. In the previous tutorial, we worked with the SequentialExecutor. Which is the simplest possible Airflow setup. It only has support for running just one task at a time. Therefore, it is used mainly for simple demonstrations. That obviously is not enough for production scenarios, in which we might want to have many tasks and workflows executed in parallel. As discussed, Apache Airflow ships with support for multiple types of Executors. Each of them is more suited to a particular type of scenario. LocalExecutor LocalExecutor unleashes more possibilities by allowing multiple parallel tasks and/or DAGs. This is achieved by leveraging a full-fledged RDBMS for the job metadata database. Which can be built on top of a PostgreSQL or MySQL database. While you can definitely run some light production workloads using LocalExecutor, for scaling up you would have to resort with vertical scaling by beefing up the hardware resources of your environment. LocalExecutor unleashes more possibilities by allowing multiple parallel tasks and/or DAGs. This is achieved by leveraging a full-fledged RDBMS for the job metadata database. Which can be built on top of a PostgreSQL or MySQL database. While you can definitely run some light production workloads using LocalExecutor, for scaling up you would have to resort with vertical scaling by beefing up the hardware resources of your environment. CeleryExecutor CeleryExecutor addresses this limitation. It unlocks the possibility of scaling the setup horizontally, by allowing you to create a processing cluster with multiple machines. Each machine spins up one or more Celery Workers, in order to split Airflow’s workload. Communication between workers and the Scheduler is performed through a message broker interface (can be implemented using Redis or RabbitMQ). Having said that, you must define the number of workers beforehand, and set it up in Airflow’s configuration. Which can make the setup a bit static. CeleryExecutor addresses this limitation. It unlocks the possibility of scaling the setup horizontally, by allowing you to create a processing cluster with multiple machines. Each machine spins up one or more Celery Workers, in order to split Airflow’s workload. Communication between workers and the Scheduler is performed through a message broker interface (can be implemented using Redis or RabbitMQ). Having said that, you must define the number of workers beforehand, and set it up in Airflow’s configuration. Which can make the setup a bit static. DaskExecutor DaskExecutor works in a similar way as CeleryExecutor. However, instead of Celery, it leverages the Dask framework for achieving distributed computing capabilities. DaskExecutor works in a similar way as CeleryExecutor. However, instead of Celery, it leverages the Dask framework for achieving distributed computing capabilities. KubernetesExecutor More recently, KubernetesExecutor has become available as an option to scale an Apache Airflow setup. It allows you to deploy Airflow to a Kubernetes cluster. The capability of spinning Kubernetes Pods up and down is really out of the box. Use such a setup if you would like to add more scale, in a more flexible and dynamic manner. However, that comes at the expense of managing a Kubernetes cluster. An Apache Airflow MVP When starting up a data team or capability, evaluating cost versus benefit and complexity versus added value is a critical, time consuming, daunting task. Agile organizations and startups usually work with prototypes to tackle such a scenario — sometimes working products are better at answering questions than people. Inspired by this philosophy, we will create a basic hypothetical setup for an Apache Airflow production environment. We will have a walkthrough on how to deploy such an environment using the LocalExecutor, one of the possible Apache Airflow task mechanisms. For a production prototype, choosing LocalExecutor is justified by the following reasons: Provides parallel processing capabilities Only one computing node — less maintenance & operations overhead No need for Message Brokers LocalExecutor You might be asking — how is that possible? Well, as the name indicates, when we use the LocalExecutor we are basically running all Airflow components from the same physical environment. When we look at the Apache Airflow architecture, this is what we are talking about: Main Airflow Components for a LocalExecutor Setup. Source: Author We have multiple OS processes running the Web Server, Scheduler, and Workers. We can think of LocalExecutor in abstract terms as the layer that makes the interface between the Scheduler and the Workers. Its function is basically spinning up Workers, in order to execute the tasks from Airflow DAGs, while monitoring its status and completion. Getting The Wheels Turning Now, we had a conceptual introduction about LocalExecutor. Without further ado, let’s set up our environment. Our work will revolve around the following: Postgresql Installation and Configuration Apache Airflow Installation Apache Airflow Configuration Testing Setting up Airflow to run as a Service These steps were tested with Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, but they should work with any Debian based Linux distro. Here we assume that you already have Python 3.6+ configured. If that’s not the case, please refer to this post. Note: you could also use a managed instance of PostgreSql, such as Azure Database for PostgreSql or Amazon RDS for PostgreSql, for instance. This is in fact recommended for a production setup because that would remove maintenance and backup burden. 1. Postgresql Installation and Configuration To install PostgreSql we can simply run the following in our prompt: sudo apt-get install postgresql postgresql-contrib In a few seconds, PostgreSql should be installed. Next, we need to set it up. First step is creating a psql object: sudo -u postgres psql We proceed to set up the required user, database, and permissions: postgres=# CREATE USER airflow PASSWORD 'airflow'; #you might wanna change this CREATE ROLE postgres=# CREATE DATABASE airflow; CREATE DATABASE postgres=# GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON ALL TABLES IN SCHEMA public TO airflow; GRANT Finally, we need to install libpq-dev for enabling us to implement a PostgreSql client: sudo apt install libpq-dev Optional Step 1: you can make your setup more secure by restricting the connections to your database only to the local machine. To do this, you need to change the IP addresses in the pg_hba.conf file: sudo vim /etc/postgresql/12/main/pg_hba.conf PostgreSql Configurations (pg_hba.conf) Optional Step 2: you might want to configure PostgreSql to start automatically whenever you boot. To do this: sudo update-rc.d postgresql enable 2. Apache Airflow Installation We will install Airflow and its dependencies using pip: pip install apache-airflow['postgresql'] pip install psycopg2 By now you should have Airflow installed. By default, Airflow gets installed to ~/.local/bin. Remember to run the following command: export PATH=$PATH:/home/your_user/.local/bin/ This is required so the system knows where to locate Airflow’s binary. Note: for this example, we are not using virtualenv or Pipenv, but you can feel free to use it. Just make sure that environment dependencies are properly mapped when you setup Airflow to run as a service :) 3. Apache Airflow Configuration Now we need to configure Airflow to use LocalExecutor and to use our PostgreSql database. Go to Airflow’s installation directory and edit airflow.cfg. vim airflow.cfg Make sure that the executor parameter is set to LocalExecutor and SqlAlchemy connection string is set accordingly: Airflow configuration for LocalExecutor Finally, we need to initialize our database: airflow initdb Make sure that no error messages were displayed as part of initdb’s output. 4. Testing It is time to check if Airflow is properly working. To do that, we spin up the Scheduler and the Webserver: airflow scheduler airflow webserver Once you fire up your browser and point to your machine’s IP, you should see a fresh Airflow installation: 5. Setting up Airflow to Run as a Service Our last step is to configure the daemon for the Scheduler and the Webserver services. This is required so that we ensure that Airflow gets automatically restarted in case there is a failure, or after our machine is rebooted. As an initial step, we need to configure Gunicorn. Since by default it is not installed globally, we need to create a symbolic link for it. sudo ln -fs $(which gunicorn) /bin/gunicorn Next, we create service files for Webserver and Scheduler: sudo touch /etc/systemd/system/airflow-webserver.service sudo touch /etc/systemd/system/airflow-scheduler.service Our airflow-webserver.service must look like the following: # Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one # or more contributor license agreements. See the NOTICE file # distributed with this work for additional information # regarding copyright ownership. The ASF licenses this file # to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the # “License”); you may not use this file except in compliance # with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at # # http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 # # Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, # software distributed under the License is distributed on an # “AS IS” BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY # KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the # specific language governing permissions and limitations # under the License.[Unit] Description=Airflow webserver daemon After=network.target postgresql.service mysql.service Wants=postgresql.service mysql.service [Service] EnvironmentFile=/etc/environment User=airflow Group=airflow Type=simple ExecStart= /home/airflow/.local/bin/airflow webserver Restart=on-failure RestartSec=5s PrivateTmp=true [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target # Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one# or more contributor license agreements. See the NOTICE file# distributed with this work for additional information# regarding copyright ownership. The ASF licenses this file# to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the# “License”); you may not use this file except in compliance# with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,# software distributed under the License is distributed on an# “AS IS” BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY# KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the# specific language governing permissions and limitations# under the License.[Unit]Description=Airflow webserver daemonAfter=network.target postgresql.service mysql.serviceWants=postgresql.service mysql.service[Service]EnvironmentFile=/etc/environmentUser=airflowGroup=airflowType=simpleExecStart= /home/airflow/.local/bin/airflow webserverRestart=on-failureRestartSec=5sPrivateTmp=true[Install]WantedBy=multi-user.target Similarly, we add the following content to airflow-scheduler.service: # Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one # or more contributor license agreements. See the NOTICE file # distributed with this work for additional information # regarding copyright ownership. The ASF licenses this file # to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the # “License”); you may not use this file except in compliance # with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at # # http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 # # Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, # software distributed under the License is distributed on an # “AS IS” BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY # KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the # specific language governing permissions and limitations # under the License.[Unit] Description=Airflow scheduler daemon After=network.target postgresql.service mysql.service Wants=postgresql.service mysql.service [Service] EnvironmentFile=/etc/environment User=airflow Group=airflow Type=simple ExecStart=/home/airflow/.local/bin/airflow scheduler Restart=always RestartSec=5s [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target # Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one# or more contributor license agreements. See the NOTICE file# distributed with this work for additional information# regarding copyright ownership. The ASF licenses this file# to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the# “License”); you may not use this file except in compliance# with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,# software distributed under the License is distributed on an# “AS IS” BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY# KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the# specific language governing permissions and limitations# under the License.[Unit]Description=Airflow scheduler daemonAfter=network.target postgresql.service mysql.serviceWants=postgresql.service mysql.service[Service]EnvironmentFile=/etc/environmentUser=airflowGroup=airflowType=simpleExecStart=/home/airflow/.local/bin/airflow schedulerRestart=alwaysRestartSec=5s[Install]WantedBy=multi-user.target Note: depending on the directory where you installed Airflow, your ExecStart variable might need to be changed. Now we just need to reload our system daemon, enable and start our services: sudo systemctl daemon-reload sudo systemctl enable airflow-scheduler.service sudo systemctl start airflow-scheduler.service sudo systemctl enable airflow-webserver.service sudo systemctl start airflow-webserver.service Our services should have been started successfully. To confirm that: $ sudo systemctl status airflow-webserver.service $ sudo systemctl status airflow-scheduler.service You should see some output stating that both services are active and enabled. For example, for the Webserver, you should see something similar to this: That’s it. Now you have a basic Production setup for Apache Airflow using the LocalExecutor, which allows you to run DAGs containing parallel tasks and/or run multiple DAGs at the same time. This is definitely a must-have for any kind of serious use case — which I also plan on showcasing on a future post. Of course, there are many possible improvements here: The most obvious one would be to automate these steps by creating a CICD pipeline with an Ansible runbook, for instance Using more secure PostgreSql credentials for Airflow and storing them in a more secure manner. We could store them as a secret variable within a CICD pipeline and set them up as environment variables, instead of storing in airflow.cfg Restricting permissions for Airflow users in both OS and PostgreSql But for now, we will leave these steps for a future article. Click here to read part one of the tutorial.

https://medium.com/abn-amro-developer/apache-airflow-tutorial-part-2-complete-guide-for-a-basic-production-installation-using-e0e6a7541d2a

['Abn Amro']

2020-11-19 09:07:19.175000+00:00

['Developer', 'Tech', 'Tutorial', 'Abn Amro', 'Apache Airflow']

How to avoid Ponzi schemes; Learnings from Adam Smith

In a world of Elon Musk, HODL, Social Media, Profit, etc, and the current pace & tempo of the global financial system, the opportunity to make money has never been this easy, or so it seems. Our consciousness are littered with glamorous success stories of young people who, before now, were literally struggling financial freedom. Tales of how young chaps are climbing the millionaire table and even inviting their pals to join them. “Calculated high-risk appetite”…. That’s what appears to be the success drivers of these newly minted millionaires and since the world is a very dynamic one, maybe financial success, at least for this generation, is only for people who are ready to sink or swim. Even if it’s that risky, what’s there to lose? After all, our folks advised that we try and make all the mistakes there is while we are young, so; whatever happens as we try to make the trip to becoming financially free within the shortest possible time…. At worst, we’d have learnt. But how do we suddenly start thinking that it’s normal for us to throw some money somewhere, go home and relax, expecting 30, 50 and sometimes 100% “guaranteed” return in one month? This is especially in a society where the risk-free return on money is very well less than 5% per annum. It appears Adam Smith (A.S) may have explained something related to this in some of his past publications. One of those, The Wealth of Nations, may prove to be useful for this inquiry. In the book, A.S talked about how we got to this current state of capitalism which he described as commerce. He talked about the four stages of society as being Hunting, Pasturage, Farming and Commerce. Notably, according to this thought, humans started off as hunters.. I therefore think humans should not be blamed for using the hunting spirit to seek very handsome financial returns. A.S would later touch on how humans view actions and inactions. Here, he used a concept called “Fellow-Feeling” to describe how humans manage to put themselves in the shoes of others to judge their actions. Since humans judge others, they also expect to be judged in return, thus they they act in a way and manner that would attract good judgements of their fellow humans. It should therefore be unsurprising that humans, by default, often act so as to be admired by other humans. Knowing that humans are predominantly hunters and they often want to be admired, it becomes a bit easier to understand that financial actions taken due to fear of missing out (FOMO), may not primarily be connected to the promised huge financial returns but may in fact be connected to the fear that an individual who doesn’t partake may be seen as weak or foolish for being unable to harness simple opportunities which may deny such person the admiration that s/he desperately want. A.S, in his book, insinuated that human’s efforts at making more than is enough for subsistence is more connected to the admiration from fellow humans that such attainment would bring than the concept of leaving enough for the next generation. Having known this, what can you do to avoid getting into this constant trap of scammers in a bid to make the best of your money? Review your circle: While there are many ways to hear about a Ponzi scheme, the biggest driver of action appears to be a confirmation or participation of a friend or acquaintance. Confirmation that a close person got paid or is participating, is what an average person needs to jump on the ship. A pointer to the fact that participation may just be an attempt to not be left behind or to keep/acquire the admiration of people around us. Get some financial Education: A basic knowledge of the financial world is enough for you to know whether you’re gambling or investing. Even as a gambling investor, sound financial knowledge lets you understand the kind of risk you’re getting into, if you are expecting certain returns. Do your Due Diligence: Anyone can build a website with less than $100, anyone can take pictures of a farm or of a laptop screen showing some financial market charts, anyone can claim anything especially in a country with weak regulatory and justice system. The onus is on your to do you findings to ascertain what you’re getting yourself into. If you work on the 3 points above, your chance of being caught in a Ponzi may be reduced by over 90%. ..and if you’re thinking about how you can perfectly avoid it? Well.. I’m sorry to tell you that I may have no idea as the very world we are currently inhabiting may be a very big fat Ponzi scheme. Cheers!

https://medium.com/@ibrahimbabayemi/how-to-avoid-ponzi-schemes-a-learning-from-adam-smith-d9b6c375022

['Ibrahim Babayemi']

2021-05-28 18:18:12.927000+00:00

['Behaviouraleconomics', 'Investing', 'Ponzi Scheme', 'Human Behavior']

Is Doctor Strange a bad guy? | Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness wins official teaser and poster

Is Doctor Strange a bad guy? | Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness wins official teaser and poster LK Techsky Dec 23, 2021·4 min read Marvel Studios finally brought the first teaser of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, marking the beginning of the release of his next film and the next chapter of his saga involving alternate realities and all related madness. Not by chance, the trailer released on Wednesday (22) is the same that was displayed in the post-credit scene of Spider-Man: No Return Home. The video had already leaked a few days ago- but in poor quality — making it difficult to completely see the scenes. With the official disclosure, we can have a slightly greater notion of all that the Supreme Mage will face in his new adventure, in addition to the partnerships he will form to deal with the breaking of the barriers of time and space. The teaser begins precisely with the dialogue between Wong (Benedict Wong) and Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) about the risks of using the spell that resulted in the events of No Return Home. The reason for this is explained right in the sequence: the multiverse is a concept that we still know very little and messing with it is too risky. It is also possible to hear some lines taken directly from What If…? How is the trailer Well, behold, the first consequences of this boldness begin to appear. So we have the wizard walking through a reality that is already totally distorted and about to be disintegrated -while we have some quick flashes, such as Christine (Amy Adams) getting married and the hero falling into what appears to be a portal. But the most interesting thing about all this is the Supreme Mage’s first contact with Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen). We see the Avenger collecting flowers somewhere when she is approached by the hero. She says she’s been waiting for her colleague’s visit and tries to explain what happened in Westview -while Stephen Strange says he’s not there to talk about what happened at WandaVision but to ask for help. The trailer also shows another novelty that Multiverse of Madness should present: America Chavez, a new heroine that will be lived by young Xochitl Gomez. In the comics, its origin is related to the different realities of Marvel, but little has been said about how she will act in the new Doctor Strange. Still, it’s interesting to see her very active in the few scenes in which she appears. The villains of the multiverse It’s just that what catches the eye in all this are the villains in the movie. We have the return of Baron Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor) after having sworn to antagonize the hero in the previous film, approaching what he has always been in the comics. In addition, the video confirms what the toys had already anticipated: the Supreme Mage must even face Shuma-Gorath -or Gargantos, as the licensed products have anticipated-at some point. However, it seems that the one-eyed monster will not be the true threat of Multiverse Madness, as this role belongs to Doctor Strange himself. Yes, confirming another rumor that still arose during the screening of What If…?, The Supreme Strange Doctor seems to be a great evil that the hero will have to face. It’s unclear if it’s the same variant of animation -which saved the world from The Ultron-Vision-or some other as evil as, but it looks like the concept will be repurposed around here. In addition to the teaser, Marvel also released an unpublished poster that highlights precisely the existence of these two Supreme Mages. The art brings the traditional version of the hero in the spotlight and, in a fragmented stylization, parts of this darker version. Interestingly, two faces of Wanda also appear. Is it an indication that we should also have more than one Scarlet Witch appearing? Although the video itself is not unheard of, the fact that it has been released now marks the beginning of the release of Multiverse Madness. That means we should see a lot more images and videos of the long-awaited coming up from here on out. And considering that it debuts only on May 5, you can bet that we will still check out a lot until then.

https://medium.com/@lktechsky/is-doctor-strange-a-bad-guy-8f3810a1ce54

['Lk Techsky']

2021-12-23 12:03:25.642000+00:00

['Multiverse', 'Marvel', 'Doctor Strange', 'Movies', 'Doctors']

After the Last Sky, Again

The story of the Arab Middle East in the latter half of the 20th century is not an easy one to tell. It is at one and the same time a story of revolution, liberation, love, loss, defeat, and bitter struggle. Yet the work of Palestinian novelist Jabra Ibrahim Jabra manages to capture this labyrinthine historical moment in much of its beauty and tragedy. Through the lens of a small number of characters whose lives, dreams and defeats are closely, often tragically, intertwined with the social and political world around them, Jabra expresses the hopes, anxieties and unravellings of the region over the course of several decades. Born in Bethlehem in 1920, Jabra was exiled to Baghdad as a result of the Nakba of 1948, where he was to spend most of the remainder of his life. The Nakba, which refers to the dispossession of over 700,000 Palestinians and the wholesale destruction of over 400 towns and villages in which they had lived, is central to both Jabra’s life and the historical trajectory of the region. As his translators Adnan Haydar and Roger Allen put it, the Nakba came to occupy a special place in the social imagination of the region: “Palestine is the microcosm of the Arabs’ defeat, of their failure to determine their destiny in their own lands. The fall of Palestine is not an incidental event; it is the tragic fall of the whole Arab world, a product and a result of Arab acquiescence in a reality before which they are helpless. Palestine is the land, the soul to be reclaimed…” Jabra’s early work is concerned above all with this ‘reclamation of the soul’. He is committed to a project of emancipation and renewal, aimed at both political emancipation and, crucially, the liberation of the mind. His belief in the transformative power of art, literature and freedom of thought is reflected in his characters, most of whom are writers, artists, critics and intellectuals of some sort or other, alongside careers as architects, journalists, workers. All seek to be a part of something bigger than themselves, a collective endeavour to build a new world and assert control over their common destinies. For Jabra, love is an essential part of this endeavour: in the face of setbacks and defeats, love, romantic and platonic, is the redemptive force from which his characters derive their unwavering determination. Bashir Abu-Manneh’s The Palestinian Novel beautifully captures the spirit of Jabra’s early writings, which he describes as “an aesthetic of exile, dispossession, and challenge”. These works, most notably Hunters in a Narrow Street, were written in the midst of a transformative moment in the region. The catastrophic defeat of 1948 had led to the rise of revolutionary social movements across the Arab world and a concerted effort to imagine and build something different. This project was embodied in the meteoric rise of Arab Nationalism, above all in Nasser’s Egypt, and its promise of a new social contract founded on international solidarity. The Algerian Revolution and its war of independence, in turn, captured the imagination of the world, and Algiers quickly became the ‘liberation capital’ of the Third World. The promise of that revolutionary conjecture proved to be shortlived, however. Crumbling under the weight of foreign intervention and internal power-struggles, the revolutionary movements of the 1950s and 60s in time gave way to brutally repressive states which cultivated and weaponised a climate of fear. The cataclysmic defeat of the Arab armies in 1967 became the symbol of this collapse, while Nasser’s death in 1970 provided the final toll of the bell. Hope was not all lost, however, as the Palestinian revolution, born of the defeat of 1967, became the vehicle for the region’s aspirations and dreams of freedom. Jabra’s novels over this period, notably The Ship and In Search of Walid Masoud, reflect these turbulent times, and his characters are troubled by a lingering sense of uncertainty and anxiety. Nevertheless, self-sacrifice and collective renewal, personified by the Palestinian feda’i or revolutionary, represented for Jabra the spirit of the moment, and offered a path to the future which had failed to materialise under the Arab nationalist and revolutionary regimes of preceding decades. Challenges abounded, but one could make out a way forward. Visions of a free future retained some coherence. Even this would not last. The Lebanese Civil War and the 1982 Israeli invasion appeared to spell the end of whatever semblance of coherence remained. The Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) was expelled from Lebanon to a renewed exile in Tunis, while Palestinian civilians were left vulnerable to massacre in their camps, as would happen in Sabra and Shatila. Jabra’s vision of self-sacrifice and renewal disintegrated as Lebanon fell into vicious sectarian violence, and the promise of liberation appeared to fall with it. It is in this moment of collective collapse that Jabra, together with legendary novelist Abdelrahman Munif, writes A World Without Maps in 1982. The central plot of the novel, which is set in the fictional Arab capital of Amouria, is the murder of Najwa al-Amery, long-time lover of the narrator and protagonist, Ala’. The narrative is deeply fragmented, as Ala’ confesses to the murder and then recants his confessions, casts doubt on his own memory, and jumps backwards and forwards in time to narrate the story of his family’s disintegration. Above all, then, this is a novel about things falling apart. As Abu-Manneh puts it, “Throughout this journey of anxiety, self-doubt, and self-questioning, stories are narrated and disbelieved, histories investigated and discarded, and theories put forward and withdrawn … An account of a possible murder thus becomes about the way the contemporary Arab world is constituted. Private act and public condition are deeply intertwined in a world that, as the title suggests, is ultimately one without maps, without firm objective grounding, and without real social or political anchor.” Even love, ever the redemptive theme of Jabra’s work, is clouded by death in Amouria. Ala’s quest for the truth surrounding Najwa’s death in this way becomes a wider search for some semblance of meaning in a fragmented Arab world. Oil money and unrelenting political repression had created an atomised society devoid of the solidarity, energy, and optimism which had marked previous decades. Crucially, however, this experience of loss is not expressed in the form of a naïve yearning for some past greatness. Husam al-Ra’d, Ala’s uncle, offers perhaps the most poignant reflections on this theme in the novel. He is regarded by many of his contemporaries as a relic of a bygone era, obstinately clinging onto an imagined past, as in his dismissal of Ala’s modernist free-form poetry. But in an extended dialogue with Ala’, he makes clear that he is under no illusions about the loss which he, and by extension Amouria and the whole Arab world, has suffered: “I am not talking about that actual era of Amouria’s life. I am talking about the dreams which we knew then, the raptures that made us hoarsen our voices in speeches, in the recitation of poetry, in cursing whoever stood in the way of our freedom, and in laughter. I am talking of the beautiful dream which we imagined would give birth to a better reality. We chanted and cried so as not to lose it, but it was lost after all. Will you reclaim it?” Adham, Ala’s brother, offers perhaps the only source of redemption in this narrative. He joins the Palestinian feda’yeen in Lebanon, and is a lone symbol of revolt against a decaying social order in Amouria. Yet even his story ultimately fails to provide salvation. In Abu-Manneh’s words, “death also catches up with the revolution in Lebanon. Rather than freeing Adham and turning him into an agent of Arab freedom, the revolt is suffocated.” Upon his return, Adham paints an apocalyptic portrait of the war in Lebanon, sombrely telling Ala’: “Death is everywhere. Not only in Shyah and Sabra and Tal al-Za’atar and Fakehani … It is everywhere, and will reach all places.” Where do you go when the world as you know it falls apart around you? What do you do in the face of fragmentation, collective collapse, and an unrelenting torrent of defeats? How do you find meaning or truth in a social world that has lost its moral bearings? If in previous decades it was possible to identify bases of hope and paths to a better future, there now appeared to be nowhere left to turn. In one of his most moving poems, Mahmoud Darwish asks “Where should we go after the last frontiers? Where should the birds fly after the last sky?” These are Jabra and Munif’s fundamental preoccupations in A World Without Maps. Also central to the narrative is the notion that the private is intimately, painfully intertwined with the public and political. National trauma is experienced ultimately as personal tragedy. It colours and disfigures every moment. Even love is not spared. But this offers, in a perverse way, a lone prospect of redemption. For there can be no inward retreat, no escape from society and the challenges of revival. In the end, there is no alternative to throwing oneself in the maelstrom, if only to rage against the dying of the light. In many respects, this narrative arc of Jabra’s work, from revolutionary optimism to defeat and disorientation, maps closely onto the present condition of the Middle East. On 17 December 2010, Muhammed Bouazizi, a Tunisian street vendor, set himself alight in protest of the harassment and humiliation which he had suffered at the hands of municipal officials. The people soon reclaimed their streets, and the tyrants began to fall. For the first time in decades, a palpable optimism filled the air. Bread, dignity, and freedom — these were the demands of protesters across Tunis, Cairo, Dar’aa, Manama, Benghazi, Amman, Beirut, and San’aa. For a moment it appeared as though Jabra’s ‘reclamation of the soul’ was finally coming to fruition. Counterrevolution would not be so kind, however. Eight years later, tyrants have consolidated their grip on power, civil wars have decimated communities, and many dream of nothing more than escape. Over 3,000 migrants seeking refuge from misery met their deaths in the vast expanse of the Mediterranean in 2017 alone. Libya has become the hub for a new slave trade, a large share of the responsibility for which lies with Fortress Europe. Much of Syria lies in ruin. In Yemen, the poorest country of the region, mass famine is wielded as a weapon of war. An entire generation whose social and political consciousness was moulded by the revolutionary moment of 2011 have watched on as their collective future seemingly disintegrated before their eyes. Vast numbers are today in prison. Many were not so lucky. This too, then, is something like a world without maps. There is a moral haziness to the present moment, and seemingly nowhere to turn. We find ourselves once again facing the last sky, and peering over the edge. Jabra’s own former Baghdad home was destroyed by a car bomb in 2010. But perhaps his unwavering belief that there was, in the end, some truth to be found, some soul to be reclaimed, offers some salvation in these difficult times. The most resilient have carried on in the face of desperation. Feminist activists in Lebanon and Jordan achieved historic victories in 2017 when long-running campaigns to repeal colonial-era rape laws proved successful. Young activists in Syria, Egypt and beyond persist tirelessly in their struggle against authoritarianism, striving for a better future for their children, if not themselves. Over the past months, demonstrators have again taken to the streets in their thousands in Sudan and Algeria. As the massacre of 3 June in Sudan illustrates, these movements will face brutal resistance. In clutching onto dreams of popular sovereignty and freedom, however, they have reignited the embers of protest across the region. The Tunisian poet Abu al-Qassem al-Shabi (1909–1934) witnessed a remarkable revival during the years of the Arab uprisings. His most famous poem, The Will to Life, has gained particular significance today. It begins as follows: If, one day, the people will to live Then fate must obey Darkness must dissipate And must the chain give way.

https://medium.com/@rayanfakhoury/after-the-last-sky-again-7c2410d61dd1

['Rayan Fakhoury']

2020-07-07 13:35:43.164000+00:00

['Literature', 'Syria', 'Middle East', 'Palestine', 'Revolution']

From the Edge Analytics Newsletter Archive

From the Edge Analytics Newsletter Archive This newsletter was originally published via email on February 12, 2021. If you want to subscribe to future newsletters, please sign up here. What does Edge Analytics do? Edge Analytics was born out of a simple desire to work with our friends and do things together that make a positive difference in the world. We are a team of ~10 data scientists with engineering backgrounds that helps companies commercialize technologies into products. Some of the products we are building! Some of the highlights of our work this past year include: Human Augmentation Product with Innovative Startup We had a great year with one of our longest partners, Cionic, a startup on a mission to help people transcend physical limitations. Cionic came out of stealth this year and has launched a blog, instagram, and podcast. Lina wrote a post about predictive algorithms and Cherry wrote one on scientific validation! We had a great year with one of our longest partners, Cionic, a startup on a mission to help people transcend physical limitations. Cionic came out of stealth this year and has launched a blog, instagram, and podcast. Lina wrote a post about predictive algorithms and Cherry wrote one on scientific validation! Authentication Algorithm for Luxury Items We worked with Origyn, a startup that authenticates luxury items, especially watches, using computer vision. We developed a custom machine learning solution to Origyn’s problem and they went on to successfully raise their Series A using our approach. Read more about Origyn and their technology in the NYTimes! We worked with Origyn, a startup that authenticates luxury items, especially watches, using computer vision. We developed a custom machine learning solution to Origyn’s problem and they went on to successfully raise their Series A using our approach. Read more about Origyn and their technology in the NYTimes! Consumer Product with Fortune 500 Company We partnered with a multinational, Fortune 500 company to build algorithms for a new consumer product. The product is scheduled to go into mass manufacturing and we can’t wait to see people using this product all around the world! We partnered with a multinational, Fortune 500 company to build algorithms for a new consumer product. The product is scheduled to go into mass manufacturing and we can’t wait to see people using this product all around the world! Reducing Readmission Rates with a Healthcare Startup We partnered with an innovative startup that helps skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) reduce their hospital readmission rates by building predictive models on EHR data. Based on our work, the startup raised more money and closed 3 paying customers. We partnered with an innovative startup that helps skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) reduce their hospital readmission rates by building predictive models on EHR data. Based on our work, the startup raised more money and closed 3 paying customers. Machine Learning to Accelerate Drug Discovery We partnered with a Fortune 100 company to develop machine learning algorithms to accelerate drug discovery. We are excited to be working at the intersection of machine learning and genetic engineering! Read about the technology we helped Origyn develop in The New York Times and Forbes magazine! Follow Cionic on Instagram and stay up to date with the great things we are building together! We worked with several more companies this year on programs ranging from computer vision to natural language processing, from time-series to probabilistic modeling, and from TPU clusters to low-power microcontrollers. We can’t wait to see what cool problems 2021 will have in store!

https://medium.com/edge-analytics/from-the-edge-analytics-newsletter-archive-593345a44f7a

['Sidney Primas']

2021-07-21 10:21:13.671000+00:00

['Machine Learning', 'Consulting', 'Data Science', 'Startup', 'Year In Review']

Top 10 Horror Movies: Let’s Experiment with Heart

Top 10 Horror Movies: Let’s Experiment with Heart Photo By Sammy-Williams on Pixabay On watching these movies, the heartbeat excited beating faster than normal. This is the first time such an experiment has been done under the ‘Scare Project’. Regardless of the horror film, ‘The Exorcist’ or ‘Nosferatu’ can be rated as the most horror film of all time. But despite not being very popular among fans from a science perspective, ‘Sinister’ is the scariest film ever. Recently, ‘The Science of Scare Project’ has been selected by BroadBand Choices as one of the 10 scariest horror films in the world. In this study conducted by BroadBand Choices, during the entire experience of watching these films, the heart rate of all these participants was monitored and readings are taken. After viewing all the films, the highest rate was marked after viewing the participants’ heart rate, which varied from 86 to 131 bpm on normal when watching the Sinister movie. The average heartbeat rate was much higher than 65 bpm. Though the 2012 horror film experienced an average rating of critics, its top place on the scariest list of ‘The Science of Scare Project’ [source link] may shock many. Beats Per Minute (BPM) These films are in the top 10 01. Sinister (86 BPM) 02. Insidious (85 BPM) 03. The Conjuring (84 BPM) 04. Hereditary (83 BPM) 05. Paranormal Activity (82 BPM) 06. IT Follows (81 BPM) ) 07. The Conjuring-2 (80 BPM) 08. The Babaduk (80 BPM) 09. The Decent (79 BPM) 10. The Visit (79 BPM) But the movie that competes with Sinister and is 2nd in the table is Insidious, a movie based on the mysterious incidents of 2010, when viewing these 50 participants had a normal heart rate of 85 to 133 bpm.

https://medium.com/the-haven/top-10-horror-movies-lets-experiment-with-heart-c1c9166803fd

['Status Book']

2020-12-31 21:29:57.875000+00:00

['Entertainment', 'Cinema', 'Film', 'Movies', 'Horror Movies']

Monroe Township granted $15,000 to work toward sustainability and green infrastructure.

Monroe Township granted $15,000 to work toward sustainability and green infrastructure. Sustainable Monroe Township will work hand-in-hand with Rutgers University and the Great Egg Harbor Watershed Association to improve impervious cover. It was announced at last Monday’s council meeting that Sustainable Monroe Township was granted $10,000 in federal funding and $5,000 from Rutgers University to work with the Great Egg Harbor Watershed Association. Patrick McDevitt from Sustainable Monroe Township was enthusiastic when talking about the opportunity. “We saw Rutgers working all over the state so I made some inquiries,” McDevitt explained. “Luckily I was able to hook up with Fred Akers [from Great Egg Harbor Watershed Association] and he was able to access some funding to get Rutgers down here to do a project in Monroe.” Akers went on to explain the specifics of the grant. Akers was able to come up with $10,000 in federal funding that will go to his organization first. He was then able to contact Chris Obropta from Rutgers who matched with $5,000 to have a total of $15,000 for the project. There are three parts to the project. The first part is an impervious cover assessment, a land operation that uses geographic information systems and mapping to measure how much impervious cover there is. The impervious cover is any surface in the landscape that cannot effectively absorb rainfall. The second part of the project is the impervious cover reduction plan. The idea is to plan a way to reduce the impervious cover. Akers described it devising a plan to get water into the ground instead of it running off. The final step includes green infrastructure projects. Akers gave an example of the final step: “If we get the water into the ground by implementing some green infrastructure, whether it be a rain garden, stormwater basin enhancement, or some other measure, Chris Obropta will calculate the value of that in terms of sediment removal and water into the ground. Chris will be able to put a value on it and cost out the project.” McDevitt was excited to bring this opportunity to the Monroe Township Council. “It’s going to be a benefit for stormwater management and green infrastructure,” he said. “In addition, implementing these practices will benefit our aquifer and reduce stormwater runoff. On the residential side, we plan to do some education on rain barrels, rain gardens, and better watering practices that will help as well.” In other news:

https://medium.com/the-williamstown-sun/monroe-township-granted-15-000-to-work-toward-sustainability-and-green-infrastructure-f6f64432e53c

['Anthony Mazziotti']

2018-05-17 19:47:13.275000+00:00

['Sustainability', 'Local', 'Water', 'Community']

Core Banking Software Market Size Worth $16.38 Billion By 2027

Core Banking Software Market Size Worth $16.38 Billion By 2027 The global core banking software market size is expected to reach USD 16.38 billion by 2027, registering a CAGR of 7.5% from 2020 to 2027 according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. Core banking software and services are seeing an increased rise in demand as they enable customers to access their bank accounts and undertake basic transactions from any branch office of their bank, among other benefits. Core banking is often associated with retail banking, with many banks treating their retail customers as core banking customers and managing businesses via their corporate divisions. The advent of telecommunication and computer technology is allowing businesses to share banking information with bank branches efficiently and quickly. Moreover, banks are focusing on moving to core banking applications to support their banking operations via a Centralized Online Real-time Exchange (CORE) of transaction data. Financial institutions and banks are adopting core banking software as it enables them to facilitate decision making through real-time reporting and analytics. Large financial institutions are focusing on implementing their custom care core banking systems. Additionally, credit unions and numerous community banks are outsourcing their core banking systems, thereby driving the market growth. Large financial institutions and banks are increasingly realizing the need to focus on ways of achieving customer delight, thereby creating growth opportunities for the market. While the market is expected to witness steady growth in the near future, the COVID-19 pandemic is anticipated to adversely impact the market to a certain extent. However, the increasing demand for managing customer accounts from a single or centralized server is expected to fuel market growth. Increasing investments in core banking system updates to handle a growing volume of product-channel banking transactions is anticipated to propel the market growth over the forecast period. Click the link below: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/core-banking-software-market Further key findings from the report suggest:

https://medium.com/@marketnewsreports/core-banking-software-market-65a3091ee610

['Gaurav Shah']

2020-12-30 11:07:36.630000+00:00

['Technology', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Big Data', 'CRM', 'Banking']

Creating a Video Game Market Index

Video Game market has grown continuously over the years, up to an estimated $180Bn in 2021. Video Games is a $180Bn industry (source : newzoo) Once deemed a small market, a sizeable valuation and 10–15% growth YoY is enough to generate interest of private funds : Venture Capitalists, banks and various investors. After an appalling year 2020 where people spent most of their time in lockdown, streaming and gaming have also largely outperformed the market, making those investors double-down on gaming sector, if only to diversify their portfolio and include pandemic-free digital assets. Gaming & Streaming are outperforming other industries in 2020 (source : Dealroom.co) The fascination of stocks The explosion of online trading proves a certain fascination from public for financial markets. After a botched release, share price drop is the perfect story for journalists. But brownian moves of markets are endless and commenting them daily is of little value : 6 months after it’s #metoo reckoning, Ubisoft stock is higher than if ever was, because ultimately a company share price reflects a general consensus from the market, in the capacity of a public company to generate sustainable profits, and image risk has close to no-value on financial markets. Ubisoft #metoo crisis was quickly forgotten by markets So we need to track sector as a whole. What does “outperforming the market” mean ? How is it measured ? How to invest on a sector growth without micro-managing specific stocks and loose 40% of your savings overnight ? That’s what index and ETF are for. Index and ETF “A market index is a hypothetical portfolio of investment holdings that represents a segment of the financial market, typically a selection of representative actors of a given industry. Investors follow different market indexes to gauge market movements. An exchange traded fund (ETF) is a type of security that involves a collection of stocks that often tracks an underlying index.” (source : Investopedia) ETF are an actionable instrument for investors to bet on an index. A few of them were created recently (2019, showing finance sphere still hasn’t caught-up) but there are imo several limitations : ETF include esport stocks. Esport industry is closer to sport industry, with a completely different business model, excepted for video game publishers, who capture most of the revenue. So, in a portfolio supposed to reflect video game industry, GFinity seems like an outlier. Weight of individual shares requires careful consideration. General practice is to weight each company with its market cap or its share price. This is good to reflect the global sector size evolution, but index will be driven by the biggest companies, crushing the variations of smaller companies under their market cap. Equal-weight ETF seem like a good solution, however they require frequent portfolio rebalancing (sell most expensive stocks and buy cheapest one) which, in the physical world, is simply impractical due to transaction fees. Last but not least, ETF selections are privately owned, and ETF are heavily regulated. It means you can’t be flexible and “play around” with your portfolio, or add the latest IPO such as Unity in real-time. This is why making your own index is a great personal project, free of all constraints ! Video Game Index : C.H.O.I.C.E.S (Source : Bethesda) My objective is to track the sector as a whole, while adressing the previous limitations : Removal of esport -centric stocks -centric stocks Trim the list of US companies, even though they are arguably the most powerful game builders as of 2020, to avoid building a “US video game index”, thus reinforcing their culture hegemony. As Peter Warman said in a conference of video game financing in Europe in december 2020, “more than half of new IPs are created in Europe, and then they thrive in US and Asia due to lack of financing”. As all choices, this one is subjective and tainted by my european nature : I accept that responsability. Europe is great at creating IP, so in spite of smaller companies, it should be well represented in an Index Have a well-balanced portfolio across Asia, US and Europe, as well a diverse representation of mobile/PC/Console and hardware/middleware and even game contractors companies such as Keywords, which has become one of the biggest studio in the world. across Asia, US and Europe, as well a diverse representation of mobile/PC/Console and hardware/middleware and even game contractors companies such as Keywords, which has become one of the biggest studio in the world. Regarding weighting, I chose equal-weight to make sure Team17 stock is not less valuable than Take-Two. I could create an virtual ETF and theoretically rebalance the portfolio every day, free of transaction fees constraints, but I don’t really care about the value of a physical portfolio of shares : what I really want is to compute the average return of every stock, which is really what indexes are about. to make sure Team17 stock is not less valuable than Take-Two. I could create an virtual ETF and theoretically rebalance the portfolio every day, free of transaction fees constraints, but I don’t really care about the value of a physical portfolio of shares : what I really want is to compute the which is really what indexes are about. I want a limited selection of companies : a few dozens of the most widely known companies seem enough, so that we can get intimate with those companies and their brownian moves. For the companies that are listed on several exchanges, I generally chose the most liquid market or at the very least, the most convenient, data-wise. All of this being taken into consideration, here is my selection. K.I.S.S : Keep it simple and stupid. On the technical side, Share price are snapshots of closing, using yfinance API which wraps yahoo finance. which wraps yahoo finance. A python script is scheduled daily and retrieves the value of 30+ tickers, stores them and compute the relative return of every stock. is scheduled daily and retrieves the value of 30+ tickers, stores them and compute the relative return of every stock. The result is agregated in a tweet, pushed daily through twitter API. Ideally, I’d like to provide a way to “slice” the index as desired : taking only the mobile sector, or PC/Console sector. I’d like also to plot the historical values captured for further analysis. And, at last, using the historical values by proposing various weight scenarios (by market-cap) would be fun too. But right now this is out of my technical reach. If you’re interested in the project, feel free to suggest or challenge me on those choices ! The end result can be seen on twitter @vgindex.

https://medium.com/@stephanerapno/creating-a-video-game-market-index-f028f42ae6a6

[]

2020-12-23 11:28:19.234000+00:00

['Twitter', 'Stocks', 'Video Games Industry']

Haystack is the best free streaming news app you’re probably not using

There are many ways to watch the news without an expensive TV bundle, but during a wild election week, I want to highlight one in particular. It’s called Haystack News, and while it’s been flying under the radar as a streaming-news option for years (under the name Haystack TV until recently), I think it’s worth another look. Haystack’s been making some major improvements lately, with more local news sources, live streams from national news sources, and an interesting “ticker” with weather and other useful tidbits. Although the app still feels in some ways like a work in progress, it’s been my preferred way to stream the news in a week full of it. [ Further reading: The best streaming TV services ]How Haystack worksThe Haystack app is a free download on Roku players, Amazon Fire TV devices, Apple TV boxes, and Android TV devices. It also works with Chromecast and is available on smart TVs from Samsung, LG, and Vizio. Haystack’s main claim to fame is the way it pulls in video stories from lots of disparate sources—both local and national—essentially giving you a personalized newscast. When you open the app, you might see a story from ABC News recapping election day, followed by a weather forecast from one of your local stations, followed by a story from Newsy on the MLB’s Gold Glove winners for this year. Jared Newman / IDG Haystack can create a news briefing with video from several sources, including local news and weather. But instead of just watching that pre-arranged playlist, you can also scroll back and forth between stories or drill down into individual categories, such as local news, election coverage, and even clips from the late-night comedy shows. This week, Haystack also added live streaming news channels from ABC, CBS, Newsmax, Euronews, Yahoo Finance, and several others; so, instead of just watching news clips that have already aired elsewhere, you can see what’s happening in real time. (No such luck if you’re looking for live cable news channels like CNN, Fox News, or MSNBC; you’ll still need a bundle of pay TV channels for those.) Jared Newman / IDG As of this week, Haystack includes live streaming news channels as well (but not the big cable networks). Taken individually, none of these features are unique. The personalized newscast concept is also available through Plex, and there’s no shortage of short news clips to watch on YouTube. Haystack’s live news channels are also readily available elsewhere, through free apps like Pluto TV, The Roku Channel, and Tubi (which just added a news section). You can even get local news through other apps like NewsOn, Vuit, and Stirr. But in a way, Haystack is greater than the sum of its parts. For instance, you can navigate the entire Haystack app with video still occupying most of the screen, so there’s no interruption while you look for other stories to check out. In the live section, it’s easy to flip back and forth between channels, even when one of them cuts to a commercial break. Haystack even has a clever little news ticker that appears at the bottom of videos in full-screen mode, cycling between your local weather, stock prices, and headlines. You can then click down to any of those ticker stories and switch to the video in question. As a way to watch the news, it all just feels more holistic than the disparate channels or video clips in other apps. Jared Newman / IDG Haystack’s bottom news ticker displays weather and headlines underneath whatever video you’re watching. Where Haystack could be betterSo what’s the downside? For now, the biggest issue with Haystack is that it just doesn’t work with enough news sources. On the political front, right-leaning cord-cutters might take issue with the lack of Fox News clips—Haystack doesn’t have a content deal with the channel—and there’s no coverage from CNN or NBC. Topics outside general news realm are lacking as well, with no PeopleTV or TMZ for entertainment news, no sources of gaming coverage other than GameSpot, and no dedicated sports news sources whatsoever. And even for sources that are on Haystack, some of them can be strangely hard to find. Bloomberg and MSNBC, for instance, only show up if you search for them by name in Haystack’s customization menu. They don’t show up on the default selection screen when you’re setting up the app for the first time, so it’s easy to overlook that they’re available in the first place. Jared Newman / IDG Haystack could use more news sources, but this selection screen doesn’t even show all the ones it does have. While I’m nitpicking: Haystack also has a section of its app called “Editor Picks,” which sounds promising in theory, but as of those writing, the most recent story in that section is a day old, and the other picks are even older. Nearly all of them are irreverent stories that are unrelated to the election. The whole section gives the impression that Haystack is asleep at the wheel, and should be scrapped if the company can’t commit to curating it. I’m recommending Haystack despite those gripes because the app’s foundation is solid, and even in its current form, it’s an engaging way to keep up with local and national coverage. I like the idea of having a single app that’s purpose-built for news consumption, and if Haystack’s app can scale up to more news sources, it could stand head-and-shoulders above the rest. Sign up for Jared’s Cord Cutter Weekly newsletter to get this column and other cord-cutting news, insights, and deals delivered to your inbox. 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/@lisa73835096/haystack-is-the-best-free-streaming-news-app-youre-probably-not-using-314a24995077

[]

2020-12-07 20:23:57.205000+00:00

['Consumer', 'Cord', 'Gear', 'Streaming']

7 tips to help you find a suitable and safe driving position

We have talked a lot in concept about safety at the wheel and the new safety regulations that will come into force until 2019, forcing all assemblers to incorporate at least two airbags and anti-lock brakes in their offers. The reality is that driver restraint and safety systems only take effect during an impact if the driver is seated correctly and many, unfortunately, do not know what this position is. There are some simple parameters that will help you find the most comfortable driving position so that in an impact the safety systems can do their job properly and thus avoid injuries. If you need to buy used cars online then Auto for Trade is the best option to avoid the following issues. Steering wheel 1. The steering wheel must always be within reach of the driver without his arms fully extended, that is, placing the hands in position 9 and 3, the elbows must have flexion of approximately 120 ° and the torso must be approximately 25 centimeters from the steering wheel. This is so because in an impact, the elbows act as natural shock absorbers to prevent injury to the arms and wrists. Another good formula to find the right position is by stretching the arm as far as possible and making sure that the wrist is above the top of the steering wheel and with this we will also make sure that the airbag points to the torso and not to the face, avoiding burn injuries if the latter is deployed. 2. There should also be a reasonable distance between the steering wheel and the torso, in cars equipped with frontal airbags, sitting too close to the steering wheel can cause the explosion of the airbag to hurt the driver instead of stopping him and keeping him safe. Seat All seats currently adjust at least in travel, we must place it in such a way that we can step on the brake or clutch fully without the leg being fully extended, the knee must have flexion of approximately 120 °. This is for the same reason that our elbows must be flexed, the knees act as shock absorbers and prevent sprains and strains in the ankles. In those cars that can also adjust the seat height, we must ensure that there is at least one fist of the distance between our head and the roof so that in a rollover there is no risk of the head impacting the roof and causing damage to the neck. Back There is the fashion of driving with the backrest reclined because some find it more comfortable, however, this limits our visibility to the outside making it difficult for us to see small objects, children or animals, for example. Although it is not well known, the seat is part of the safety systems because it protects the back and if it is not straight it limits the protection it provides. Headboard In a rear-end collision, the head restraints prevent us from injuring our necks with the so-called ‘whiplash’ and are part of the car’s restraint systems. For the headboards to work as they should, we must place them so that the highest part of the headboard exceeds the middle of the head. This is also applicable for the passenger and rear passengers, in cars that have head restraints on the back seats. Belt Perhaps one of the most obvious recommendations, but we will mention it anyway. All cars today have a three-point front seatbelt and it should fit slightly above the hip and shoulder. For pregnant women, the belt should always be below the belly.

https://medium.com/autofortradeofficial/7-tips-to-help-you-find-a-suitable-and-safe-driving-position-992ecb05049b

['Auto For Trade']

2020-12-24 12:51:37.188000+00:00

['Cars', 'Used Cars For Sale', 'Automotive', 'Used Cars', 'Automobile']

Web Scraping JavaScript Content in Python with Selenium and BeautifulSoup

In the following article, you will see how easy, and seamless Selenium is when it comes to handling the JavaScript tags in an HTML files. Let’s continue with the scraping. In Step 4, we had stored the links of the companies in a list. We will be using these links to redirect to each company’s profile and extract information. The list “links” Step 5: Iterating through each company’s link in the list links. First, we import the relevant libraries. This is where we start using Selenium. Also, we create 2 items here: A dictionary “data” to save the name, address, and the survey scores An empty dataframe “df”, where we would append and save the dictionary, data # Importing the Selenium libraries from selenium import webdriver from selenium.webdriver import Chrome from selenium.webdriver.chrome.options import Options data = {} df = pd.DataFrame(columns = ['Name','Address']) And we loop through each link from the list, links. for link in links: # Extract the scores options = Options() options.add_argument('--headless') options.add_argument('--no-sandbox') path = "C:\\Users\\lenovo\\Documents\\chromedriver.exe" driver = webdriver.Chrome(path, options = options) driver.get(link) The last line driver.get(link) is where the Chrome Driver starts accessing each link. NOTE: You will have to download the “chromedriver.exe” from this link if you don’t have it downloaded already. Make sure the version is the same as your current Google Chrome’s version. Step 6: We are at the most interesting step, where we start fetching the scores. This is where we write our JavaScript query. To extract the scores, we first create an empty list metric_values; we will fetch the list of dictionaries, chart.data, and append it. Since this list is under for loop, a new empty list will be created for each iteration of the link. # Fetching the score from the JavaScript Tag metric_values = [] # This is the JavaScript query to extract chart.data results_vals = driver.execute_script (""""" let results_vals = chart.data.map(({result})=>result); console.log(results_vals); return results_vals """"") metric_values.append(results_vals) We will use this metric_values to fetch the survey scores. Step 7: Extract the name, address for each company, and save the scores for each survey scores. # Extracting info soup = requests.get(link) webpage = BeautifulSoup(soup.content, 'html.parser') # Name of the company data['Name'] = webpage.find('div', class_ = 'letterhead').find('h1', class_ = 'styled').get_text() try: data['Address'] = webpage.find('div', class_ = 'contact-box').find('div', class_ = 'address contact').text.rstrip() except: data['Address'] = "Not Found" # Satisfaction Scores try: data['Satisfaction'] = ''.join([score[0].strip() for score in metric_values]) except: data['Satisfaction'] = "Not Found" # Expectations Scores try: data['Expectations'] = ''.join([score[1].strip() for score in metric_values]) except: data['Expectations'] = "Not Found" ... and so on for all the survey scores # Converting the list dictionary data into a dataframe scores = scores.append(data, ignore_index=True) At the end, we will convert the dictionary data to a dataframe. The field “name” will act as the common key to merge both the dataframes profile (discussed in step 4 of Part 1), and scores. Step 8: Merge both the dataframes Finally, it’s time to merge both the dataframes on “Name”. And there you go!

https://medium.com/python-in-plain-english/web-scraping-javascript-content-using-selenium-and-beautifulsoup-in-python-5365823c5aa4

['Neeraj Khadagade']

2020-11-23 10:14:06.138000+00:00

['Selenium', 'JavaScript', 'Programming', 'Python', 'Web Scraping']

How to automate run your python script in your Raspberry Pi

How to automate run your python script in your Raspberry Pi Sasiwut Chaiyadecha Follow Jul 7 · 4 min read Hello everyone, today we are going to talk about the automation tasks. Many of yous might own the python script that help you to do somethings. I have one. My python script is a daily COVID-19 bot. It is simply to push the notification message for daily cases to LINE application and my Twitter account. Just better to know the situation, isn’t it? Well, I don’t want to run it manually everyday because it might far away from the word “bot” if I doing so. I decided to keep it into my single board computer, I own one called Raspberry Pi. It also run 24/7 so, it is a good place. I assumed all of you have Linux installed in your single board computer. In the Linux has a tool for task scheduler, called “Crontab”. Today, we are going to run our python script by using crontab. Introduction It is better to know about crontab First, we can simply access to crontab by open the terminal and passing command below: crontab -e (If you run for the first time, it might ask you to select to editor. I would recommend Nano or VIM. It is easy to use.) After you have your editor open, it is showing you how the command work. It can be summarised as below: * * * * * command to be executed - - - - - | | | | | | | | | ----- Day of week (0 - 7) (Sunday=0 or 7) | | | ------- Month (1 - 12) | | --------- Day of month (1 - 31) | ----------- Hour (0 - 23) ------------- Minute (0 - 59) 1st * is minute range between 0–59 is minute range between 0–59 2nd * is hour range between 0–23 is hour range between 0–23 3rd * is day range between 1–31 is day range between 1–31 4th * is month range between 1–12 is month range between 1–12 5th * is weekday range between 0–6 (0 is Sunday and 6 is Saturday) is weekday range between 0–6 (0 is Sunday and 6 is Saturday) 6th * is command to run the script For example, if you want to do somethings at 10.45 everyday, you can write the command as: 45 10 * * * yourcommand For someone who get the difficulty and not sure to address the command’s syntax, you can use the website below to get the guild idea. Or if you want to do inversely by picking the date and time and need command to be generated, you can visit the site below: Python script task schedule Now, we all know how the crontab work. Let’s integrate it with our python script. First, I am going to create simple ‘hello world’ python script and save it in the desktop. Go to terminal and cd Desktop . Then, I use Nano to create python script as nano pytest.py . In the nano editor, I code the classic one. print('hello world') Pressing ‘Cmd+x’ or if you are the Windows guys, use ‘Ctrl+x’. Then, you can press ‘y’ to save and exit the editor. Let’s try to run the code, open terminal and type python3 pytest.py . The terminal should display something like this: hello world It works fine! Now, we can add the python script to crontab. However, before doing that we need to know where is our python executor. In Linux, we can use command which python3 (I am using python3) to find the path of executor. Normally, it should locate in the path below: /usr/bin/python3 We are ready to automate the python script. The one last step that you probably should know about crontab. The crontab doesn’t show any output in the terminal. To check whether your task schedules still working or not, you could create the log file to keep results. It can be done by simply use >> syntax to the log file as the example below: >> /home/pi/Desktop/log.txt The command above will create text file, named ‘log’ in your desktop. It can contain any output from your python script. In this case, it is going to append ‘hello world’ every time when the script is running. You can refer to full command below: * * * * * /usr/bin/python3 /home/pi/Desktop/pytest.py >> /home/pi/Desktop/log.txt When you can ensure that your crontab is working, you might not need to create the log.txt . You can only keep * * * * * /usr/bin/python3 /home/pi/Desktop/pytest.py for your task scheduler. That’s all! Just simple and useful. See you next time. You could find me on LinkedIn as link below:

https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/how-to-automate-run-your-python-script-in-your-raspberry-pi-b6fe652443db

['Sasiwut Chaiyadecha']

2020-07-13 01:06:04.009000+00:00

['Crontab', 'Linux', 'Raspberry Pi', 'Python', 'Task Scheduler']

the gift of dyslexia, dyslexia davantage, overcoming dyslexia trauma

Tricia Cook, the author, was listening to a podcast from Daily Breath with Deepak Chopra that was talking about traumatic childhood experiences and he said, ‘first on paper, then in the air, and then gone forever’. Till now, Mrs. Cook had never had her experiences cumulatively in one spot- it was mostly in my mind and heart where it doesn’t belong! Plus, she proved she can get her experience into words, then out onto the paper to be shared to help others too!! In this story, Nettie Fermeracle discovers the veil of being imperfect was her ego’s illusion. She experienced the heartache and troubling mind of having a learning difference. Yet, she finds courage and compassion that she needed to when the last door was opened; she gladly accepted the loving invitation of salvation. Written by -Tricia Cook, MEd., RSP, AOG; https://linktr.ee/tcooktutor Nettie Fermeracle was born, in the 1970’s, in the historically, well known, eccentric city of New Orleans, Louisiana where daily booze and Jazz flows through the streets. She grew up in Uptown NOLA in a predominately old neighborhood which had broken up streets with continuously dimly lit shadows being below sea level, and the massively large oaks with roots and branches that cover it’s paths above and underground. Nettie was hearing from strangers since a young age that she was a beautiful girl with her curly, brunette locks, and hazel eyes with a darker skin-tone typical of people in the area of Creole descent. Interesting enough, Nettie’s Creole ancestors on her dad’s side had taken the journey that come from France, Haiti to New Orleans in the early 1800’s. Looking in very close in resemblance to her dad; her dad was a rather an upcoming, successful architect during this ‘awakened decade’ of the mid-1970’s. He became known in NOLA for designing supermarkets, warehouses, buildings for local businesses, and homes. Nettie was very proud of her dad and was considered a “daddy’s girl”. Nettie’s mom was a loving mother who had similar but different features of having dark black hair, piercing, stark blue eyes which is more like their Dark Irish decent of her family. Her mom was an exultant housewife. She also had a brother whose four years older named Tom. Nettie’s family enjoyed their weekends, as dad during the week worked, diligently on his own business becoming an established architectural firm growing progressively with employees, as well as exponentially in income. Of while, her mom was insistent that since dad worked, so hard that they spent time as a family together on the weekends. The Fermeracles enjoyed their weekends of going out to eat savory foods in the French Quarter, partaking in live soulful musicians playing on the streets, flamboyant mimes entertaining the people passing-by, and crazy-wild Saints games at The Dome. Mostly, The Fermeracles spent their time with what would be their life-long friends, who didn’t live but ten blocks away. They were a couple, who meet Nettie’s parents, while they had been in college. They had a son two days younger than Nettie and a daughter two years younger then them both. Many times were spent at the family-friends house: joyously playing in their pool, slyly watching the adults drink their beverages while playing Bridge, and basically just hanging out being crazy. They went to church almost every Sunday where Nettie had learned much about God [not so much Jesus]; however, she was a spiritual child which she knew that was a gift. She prayed every night when her dad would carry her on his shoulders to her bed. She loved God and believed in God. When Nettie’s family were at home, they played board games, Atari, and mom read to them, on the Fermeracle’s family couch, just about every night from the classic book “The Grimms’ Fairy Tales“. This is where at a young age, Nettie had developed a love for stories about people, nature, and animals, for which she would spend an endless amount of time in the backyard. Their backyard was typical Uptown NOLA concrete backyard with attached courtyard with fountain attached to the mid-sized, modern, brown brick , contemporary home [one not typical NOLA in the least]. In this concrete, exquisite, laid brick setting Nettie somehow truly felt a connection to nature and had created her very own “Secret Garden” along this concrete walkway playground next to the house. Lining the walkways, The Secret Garden was filled with very small beds containing plants such as orange-colored Birds of Paradise, bright-red Tulips, and one large Fig tree in the middle. Nettie spent her time constantly admiring the brilliant, enormous [at least to her], fig tree for which she loved eating off it’s figs, which she knew was a special gift. Her imagination was wild and imagined that no one could see her garden, except her mom only knew about her garden and her daughter’s “gifts”. There were many other fascinating stories she’d conjured-up in her head; like the giant that lived in the city that would walk around stomping it’s big feet at night, and the mystery of the shadow outlined in the hallway carpet of a dead-person laying. She was heavy into mysteries and stories which she knew was a gift. Door One: Gaining Strength Nettie stayed at home with her loving mom till the age of four years, two months old. She was sent to a popular, well-sought preschool not far from the house. She evidently had a late birthday in July; now remember, this was back when schools started in September each year. Nettie had never had been without her mom for very long which caused Nettie separation anxiety for again she was very close to her mom. In Kindergarten, Nettie was behind the other children and the teachers in the prestigious private school where good but not good enough in recognizing nor helping Nettie with a learning difference [To the defense of all the teachers, the definition of a learning disability was defined in the same year she was born]. Nettie was so far behind the peers in her class that she was held back which made her feel angry and abandoned by those who she looked up to and were supposed to help her. Her mom for the next six years continued to “fight for her” along with being on the search to find a proper school that could help her. The major problem here was many of the first-rate schools in NOLA had test to enter these schools and Nettie was a ‘horrible test taker’ this had her feeling like she was letting her parents and herself down. [Nettie in her schooling career was going to five schools in six years. Think about the anger and shame that Nettie must have felt in her heart and mind?]. In those early years of schooling, teachers never let up and wanted to hold her back again; sometimes they would let Nettie’s mom know their frustration with Nettie’s learning and one teacher said, “she is lazy” along with her dad several times eluding to agree with them. As a result, Nettie got tested and diagnosed in 1983 as having CAPD (aka dysphonetic dyslexia- “dyslexia of the ears”) and a Learning Disability (having a average IQ but struggling in Reading and Math). They didn’t mention it being hereditary [her mom has undiagnosed dyseidetic dyslexia and her dad has a language-based learning disability-SLI], but the professionals told her parents, it was caused by her chronic ear infections and the five convulsions that she had when she was a baby. After being diagnosed, at the age of eight, her parents had gotten her a private tutor that helped her learn to read such books as “Cat In The Hat” for the first time. Even after a diagnosis and, being the 1980’s, the teachers were frustrated, angry too, and showed it by standing over her yelling and having her chair placed up against the teacher’s desk. Likewise, teachers would do the opposite-just ignore her! She found out, the hard lesson, that respect was not always returned nor reciprocated; this crushed her self-esteem at a very young, impressionable age [being highly sensitive-empathetic, intuitive, along with her gift for caring immensely for people, animals, and nature is what made this lesson so hard]. School being as difficult as it was, especially Round-Robin Reading, this gave Nettie stomach and head aches to the point of horrendous migraines and high blood pressure at age eight. She pretended to be sick very often, in order to stay home with her mom. All these life’s lessons and traumatic experiences thus far led Nettie to having anger in Nettie’s heart and mind [that would later need to be replaced with strength]! Door Two: Gaining Empathy It turns out that Tom, Nettie’s brother, was tested for his IQ sometime in his schooling at a prestigious school and was a National Merit Scholar [he was headed on the road to becoming a successful Neurosurgeon]. The Fermeracle’s celebrated his gift of being a genius, while Nettie was struggling and experiencing trauma from her learning difference; for instance, her worst experience happened to her in fourth grade. When she brought one of her proudly-written mystery stories to school for her teacher to read, because of her poor handwriting, spelling, and grammar the story was bashed by the teacher along with red marks everywhere on the page. From then on, Nettie decided that she never wanted to write again and learned a major lesson about disparagement. Nettie was a sensitive girl which had propensity for emotional intensity. The kids knew about the learning difference somehow and mimicked the teacher’s behavior. Nettie for much of her childhood was shunned by kids and made fun of her for being slow. They were sometimes down right cruel. Like also, playing jokes, calling names even her brother called her stupid and that was his nickname for her which made her ‘cry like a baby’ often. He also said to her, ‘you don’t have any friends’ and ‘nobody likes you’ [like most older brothers, I’m sure]. Kids got nicer with age such as in High School, but school never got easier she cheated on an occasion despite being pulled for the LD resource room. Spanish class was the most disheartening for her [she really wanted to learn but couldn’t put a sentence together to save her life] and she almost didn’t graduate high school. Luckily, in the summer of 1992, her mom found her a summer program that taught her organizational, study and test taking skills. She also got some after school help in math that helped her turn her grades around. She did have a high moment in High School where received the Top Senior Tennis Player award. [it meant the world to her, she still had the award: remember at this time people with learning disabilities weren’t viewed as leaders and didn’t receive many awards]. One the other hand, the thought of not graduating high school brought negative thinking rushing-in along with the preexisting insecurities. [Don’t worry Nettie got extra test time and a quiet room from her SAT, graduated, and got accepted into college.] Once in her college, she enrolled in Students with Disability Services for continued support such as books on tape, extra test time/quiet space, and tutoring. In their office, they tested her grade level in reading for some reason and she saw the results pop up once she finished: it was a whopping 6.0 grade level. That was devastating for her to be in college and see this numbers in her face; this again brought out her insecurities. She was actually scared they would see them and realize she didn’t belong there. She felt like she was living a lie and the school and sorority would find out she didn’t belong there [her insecurities rearing it’s ugly head]. On top of that, her first semester, she had a 1.6 GPA and even more scared that they would dismiss her, so she buckled down as much as she could with keeping a still rather active social life. Yes…she did rely heavily on her looks, social life, and partying because that’s what she felt she had “going for her” and her ego helping her to survive insecure and unsafe situations in and out of the college classroom. Plus, it’s an old behavior she had learned in high school! Likewise, all these life’s lessons and traumatic experiences thus far led Nettie to having shame in Nettie’s heart and mind [that would later need to be replaced with empathy]! In her senior year, the second worst experience happened, in the College of Education, where a professor read her paper and due mainly to the disorganization of the paper (regardless of having the the letter from The Students of Disability Services) said, in the hallway, “you have failed my class and ‘if I can help it, you will never be a teacher’.” Likewise, all these life’s lessons and traumatic experiences thus far led Nettie to having hatred in Nettie’s heart and mind [that would later need to be replaced with compassion]! Despite this threat, she graduated with a Early Childhood Education degree and state teacher certification. She also went onto receive other degrees and certifications, positions, and varied roles in educational experiences with mostly alternative types of education. Nettie then had her eye-set on being an SLP- she took 210 hours ($14,000 dollars later) of SLP undergrad hours of courses. She missed the cut into graduate school by three people- she was fourth on the waiting list. So, she decided to move on from her SLP dreams when she found Montessori. One of her certificates included an AMS Montessori toddler certificate. During her training, she remembers her peers in the first week laughing at her when she had a hard time with fractions; for which, she asked the instructor afterwards for outside help. This isn’t the first time nor last she had experienced laughing more like snickering really [being highly sensitive-might as well been an outright laugh] by a group in her professional adult experiences. In her first year of teaching, Nettie even had Lead Teacher ask her to practice my handwriting during her breaks. There wasn’t a job where she didn’t get told or received a memo from principals or supervisors to have anything sent out to parents, teachers, administration needed to be proofread first by someone else. After graduated her undergrad, masters as a Reading Specialist; then, she even went on for doctorate in Education. After twenty years in education and two years into her doctorate (10,000 dollars later), she quit the program. Nettie’s reasoning is deductive which means basically the opposite of the “scientific method” inductive reasoning. This doctorate program like many are not interested in second year students writing from someone’s own observations and emotional-intellectual perspectives (11 years an experienced Montessorian), hypothesis, theory and conclusive evidence based on some of the assigned reading. Basically, she was too “outside of the box” and needed to “spit out” what they were looking to hear from the assigned reading [whole language articles] along with showing as little autonomy as possible. She learned the students that do the readings, verbalize and structurally “spit out” the intended “correct” information, get the best reward and that’s positive comments from the professors for all the peers to see. [Nettie will continue to search and pray for a doctoral program that’s “just right” for her and God will present in the “right” time-if its His Will. She trust Him!] In her late thirties, she learned, her first most important life-lessons. First of the three, when you come to the point in life-you need transformation, she needed to discover how to become whole through God; especially, He had already given her empathy, empowerment by being strong, having wisdom, knowledge, and peace, bliss & joy, courage and compassion. Second, most important lesson was that her issues of having the learning difference were the reason for the problems; Meaning, the people closest to her were ”mirroring” her insecurities back to help her to uncover and learn about herself to glorify God through in her life’s lessons. Third, she just needed to recognize her power, courage and compassion in herself (awareness), through Him by learning about Him and loving Him. Likewise, all these life’s lessons and traumatic experiences thus far led Nettie to having grief in Nettie’s heart and mind [that would later need to be replaced with compassion]! Door Three: The Door Opened to Gaining God Was Nettie perceiving life with a troubled heart of possibly hatred and grief of the mind? Gradually over time, she had heard so many negative comments, felt like she couldn’t do anything right, and “nobody liked her, everybody hated her” that they became her inner thoughts and believed them. Until this point, Nettie thought Jesus was already in her heart; yet, looking back, she grew up thinking she wasn’t enough or worthy. In turn, the learning difference was lessening her relationship to God in terms of the freedom, power, glory, victory, and unity that was to come into her life during this middle aged years. Until her mid-adult years, she discovered the veil of being imperfect was her ego’s illusion and not what God had intended for His child because her life is partly her Will too! God, in His Will, uncovered the TRUTH. Similarly, she in unity with Him uncovered how to become blameless, pure, and righteous with grace bringing her closer to God by helping her to discover replacing anger with strength and shame with empathy! In later years, transforming hatred to courage and grief to comprehension was also needed. Nettie had to look into her problems then unto some issues of her childhood. She had learned the importance of prayer, meditation, movement meditation, exercise, daily affirmations and scripture reading! Her affirmations are as the following: I am smart, I can do this, I am Love!Nettie felt like a door had opened; but, she not entirely invited Him fully inside her heart and mind until the “dark night of the soul” situation happened in her life, where she had been placed in a situation of pain, struggle, reevaluation, and self-discovery. Nettie’s message to you is…do not take things so seriously when Life is Rough- Rejoice in the GRACE, STRENGTH, FAITH, and LOVE of JESUS. In this pivotal years, she was actually was growing in faith and love due learning differences. Her issues of failure, abandonment, rejection, control, victimization due to her learning difference along with the feeling of incompleteness and sadness are gone. Her disappointment and heartache do to failure in her past needed to be forgiven and understood in a deeper sense by accepting Him, so she can heal in courage, compassion, and mainly love for others, and acceptance of the true mercy of God! She discovered how to live a blameless life and realizes the issues HAD TO HAPPEN and ALL her problems with others: being the teachers, school and learning, her brother or the other kids; it really wasn’t them or the difference itself. It was for her greater good and His Kingdom to again her new ability to truly Glorify Him! It was her life’s lesson to the journey of learning to glorify God and her newly found (yet was always there): FREEDOM & VICTORY. The struggles are now her strength and has a child-like empathy. THE GIFT OF DYSLEXIA & OTHER LEARNING DIFFERENCES There’s a lot to be said for Maria Montessori’s observations of trusting the universe along with ‘the child’. If we love and trust our children, this becomes their inner thoughts, ideas, and perspectives. When they trust their own brain [and heart], they can experience the “gifts of dyslexia” and learn anything the way they learn best. People with dyslexia have a sound and language processing problems. They will struggle to connect letters to sounds and, mainly problems identifying speech sounds and learning how they relate to letters and words; as well, those with visual processing problems struggle to understand visual information such as letters, shapes, or objects and, mainly problems processing graphic symbols. Related to the absorption and processing of sounds [sounds especially can be omitted from words by the student], students with dyslexia most commonly omit letter sounds, words, phrases in the middle position, then the end, and least commonly the beginning. When they omit, they might do sounds confusions such as repetition(s), substitution(s), addition(s) or delete altogether, on the other hand; transversal and reversal are more common in students with a visual processing problem- have them remember: if it doesn’t look or sound right reread or rewrite till you’re brain feels like “it’s just right” [trust your brain- you are smart, you can do it, and you are love]. People with Dyslexia also have a high coexistence of ADHD (3 types). People with ADHD and Dyslexia have difficulty processing the basic sounds of language (phonemes) and graphic symbols causing fluency struggles. They “stumble over words” due to reading and processing too fast/slow; mainly, in the beginning-ending of word, sentence, paragraph, passage– rest of the time not too fast/slow sometimes it’s “just right” (I call this “varied reading rate”). If varied prosody, reading rate, and expression/intonation objective aren’t met and they still don’t seem to comprehend; mainly, in the beginning-ending of paragraph, passage, etc. have them remember: if it sounds or looks too fast or slow, or robotic, then adjust your prosody and reading rate by rereading so it will be “just right” [trust your brain- you are smart, you can do it, and you are love]. Both, people with just dyslexia and dyslexia along with ADHD are notoriously known for “guessing at words” and stories meaning despite having average/high IQ due to the dyslexia and ADHD tendencies! They both are having natural universal emotions of learning (such as anger, shame which need to be replace with strength and empathy, as well as, remembering calm). The tendencies change according to the reading, hour day, week, etc.. Also, the tendencies way heavily on if they are sick, hungry, tired, or stressed. Reading can make them feel ill with headaches, stomach aches/knots, tight shoulders/neck and even dizzy. Nettie, the girl in my story, is myself…Patricia Flotte Cook. I am not simple nor slow but rather complex and SAVED- thanks to these life lessons, experiences, and trauma including all the antagonist involved; Thanks to God, my protagonist. I just won’t define by my dyslexia and ADHD [undiagnosed Twice Exceptionality] nor as a Southern-Christian lady, Teacher/Tutor, Educational Consultant, and Mom/Wife; I concentrate serving others through Him by mainly using my gifts of dyslexia which are “getting the whole picture” which includes deep and holistic, list-form thinking, problem-solving, building/constructing abilities, computer skills, gaming strategies, and emotional/intellectual sensitivities. Also, seeking out endeavors of creative, imaginative, visual, artistic, and visionary skills while taking on inventing, and innovating pursuits. Lastly, excelling at thinking of “outside the box” solutions, seeing a problem from many different sides (average/higher IQ), and strong spatial relationships along with the ability to think in three dimensions. Those that read my story and struggle with learning need to remember the story of Brunette-locks and the Three Doors know what they are and how they are made is “Just Right” and as God had planned! To learn more: go to http://lookingtohealourownlearningdifference.org/2020/10/08/universal-emotions-looking-into-the-emotions-of-learning/ Dedicated To: God, my friend and honorable brother who has saved so many lives, thanks…Ted, and to the rest of my family and friends whom love and support me always!! Please feel free to read my poetry book Pleading Disparagement: Share this Story: Customize buttons PRESS ON IMAGE BELOW FOR FREEBIES INCLUDING FIRST ONE FREE CONSULT CONTACT (PRESS IMAGE BELOW) Top Four Articles by Cook, T. (Press HERE: https://www.canva.com/design/DAEPwCOywVk/2hpqyJ2UBXaV_MNQn7BZAA/view) Disclaimers & Such This Site Contains Affiliate Links, Pictures Are Either: Creative Common Licensed From Either WordPress or Canva. #dyslexia #dyslexiaawareness #adhd #autism #dyslexic #dyslexiaeducation #education #dysgraphia #specialeducation #learningdisabilities #dyslexiaadvantage #dyslexiaadvocate #dyslexiasupport #learningdifficulties #saydyslexia #specialneeds #dyscalculia #dyspraxia #neurodiversity #learningdisability #overcomingdyslexi a#learning #autismawareness #dyslexiaisreal #add #downsyndrome #parenting #asd #reading #dyslexiapower #mentalhealth #bhfyp #elbert #ras #neurodiversity #love #giftofdyselxia DISCLAIMER: This communication may contain privileged and/or confidential information. It is intended solely for the use of the addressee. If you are not the intended recipient, you are strictly prohibited from disclosing, copying, distributing or using any of this information. If you received this communication in error, please contact the sender immediately and destroy the material in its entirety, whether electronic or hard copy. This evaluation, program, and suggestions are not to be substituted for professional medical advice. They should not be used to diagnose or prescribe. Tricia is not a doctor but the information could change your life! © ELBERT™: EVERYONE LEARNS BETTER EMBRACING REVOLUTIONARY TEACHING!!! 2020 The Gift Of Dyslexia Built with Storefront & WordPress.com. Subscribe

https://medium.com/the-brunette-locks-and-the-three-doors/brunette-locks-the-three-doors-my-story-the-gift-of-dyslexia-accessibility-friendly-237d57c10cb2

[]

2020-12-10 13:17:21.334000+00:00

['Autism', 'Overcoming Obstacles', 'Dyslexia', 'Trauma', 'Adhd']

AppZapper Serial 2020

AppZapper Serial Key is essential to uninstall any application as quickly since it presented fundamentally unhesitatingly. Drag a few applications which can be undesired AppZapper Crack and view with a singular direct snap you delete them since it finds the greater part of these additional records and lets. Basically streamlined. The prosperity that is recalled can be smooth applications you wish to be cautious of, and moreover, the log tunes the aggregate of the archives you have wrecked. AppZapper Crack could be the uninstaller Apple ignored. One of the top highlights of AppZapper Crack, the hit could be found despite their records which are oftentimes associated with our list work, allowing us to flick through the applications presented on our structure, pick them, and discard them. It’s an instrument that is plainly an appearance that is awesome. You drag programs you should beat to the cycle that says Drag Apps Here. The architect of this software considers it the “Uninstaller Apple disregarded” and we agree that it’s both astoundingly easy-to-use and significant. Recall that is essential this current application’s present structure just works with Mac OS X 10.6 and later assortments of this Mac OS. You should download an earlier on the transformation from the proposed structure to filled by more settled appearances of Mac OS X. All in all, anyone that is looking for a method that is precise gets undertakings, and all their connected archives off their Mac adequately should download this application. You essentially need to haul in any event one unfortunate application onto AppZapper Crack and watch as it finds all the extra records and we should you delete them with a singular snap. With its Hit List new component, by and by you can ostensibly scrutinize the aggregate of the applications on your PC. Search, material, and channel your way through every application you have presented. Basically, select an application to see its associated records, and hit Zap to move them to the waste rapidly. Originally Posted On — CrackPlex.com Download Link — Here

https://medium.com/@crackplex/appzapper-serial-2020-654e2ee417a6

[]

2020-12-26 15:02:18.190000+00:00

['Mac', 'Macos', 'Free', 'Software', 'Serial']

UI/UX Career: Building Your Personal Brand

How to build your personal brand to outmaneuver your competition and succeed in the UI/UX market. Overview These days it can seem almost impossible to get ahead in UI/UX, and for good reason, its a highly in-demand, rapidly shifting field! It is far harder to get into now than it was even a few years ago, but don’t let that put you off; where there is competition, there is opportunity! Today we’re going over how to build your personal brand to outmaneuver your competition and succeed in the UI/UX market.

https://uxplanet.org/ui-ux-career-building-your-personal-brand-67be0b38033a

['Nick Lawrence']

2020-12-04 20:21:18.058000+00:00

['Ui Ux Design']

Everything You Need to Build a World

Johannes Plenio on Unsplash Introduction Neverland. Azeroth. Earthsea. The Unnamed Land. Oz. Westeros. End World. The Continent. Middle Earth. My deepest thank you to their respective creators. In their unique styles, each of these places exist in the hearts and minds of the readers, watchers and players across the globe. A collective consciousness almost like a hive sparks recognition. White Walker. Aslan. Rivendell. Witcher. The fantasy genre is simply my preference to scratch into first. This guide will center on the fantasy genre. All fiction genres occur in a world that we want to become real to our readers. I implore you to scratch the pages of any work whose world resonates through you. The Fantasy Genre Tolkien set the bar high. Sky high. Tolkien is a good example because he is inarguably a master world builder. Tolkien regarded Middle Earth, the setting for the Lord of the Rings, as its own charcter. The details were intricate. The lore of Middle Earth is without depth. Various races. Nuances fill every page. Heavily influenced by his Judeo-Christian faith, Tolkien’s world posses a creation story, a corruption story, the birth of races story all the way down to a single man happened upon by Frodo and his band. A mysterious care free man with no beginning or end. Tom Bombadil. His own Melchizedek. 1. Make Your Over Arching World Rules Every civilization has a collection of standards as their own form of law. If you are stumped about what kind of world to build in a story, study history. Humans, most humans, don’t enjoy being lied to. Worlds need to have concrete things about them. The firmness of your world is what grips the reader. Verisimilitude — the appearance of being true or real. — Oxford Languages Most people do not enjoy a story where no stakes exist. There must be consequences. Most readers want to know that what happens in the story matters. How to achieve verisimilitude? Verisimilitude is achieved by the observance of the world’s rules. The characters function and live in the firmness of the world. Think about your favorite fantasy characters. Are they shaped by their world? Does their profile change once you set them in the world? If we are going to move our characters around the world without regard to it, then those parts of the world should not exist in our story. How History Helps Writers Sometimes we hear people say, you can’t make this stuff up. The fortunate thing about writing fantasy novels is we don’t have to look far for inspiration. A famous book says there’s nothing new under the sun. 4 Tips on How to Use History to Build Your World Decide the era in human history that most resembles your story. Most of think of Medieval times. Why is that? I’m not sure. I think of it because it is a strange intersection of religion and fantastic beliefs. The ancient worlds of Greece and Rome are stand outs. The presence of gods and monsters is always a nice touch to a fantastic world. Keeps things spicy. You can use history to create a skeleton for your world. Your imagination will build fantastic, other worldly elements on top of it. What are the political groups of the time? What is the structure of society? Were they capitalists? Did they live in communal settings? Choose geographical regions that you want as settings in your story. You can choose a real country and investigate how life developed in that era over time. The actual history of civilization in the region can serve as inspiration for your tale. In your fantasy world building, you can use the perils, unique landscapes and climates of real places as a backdrop of the world. Look at the arts of that time period. Examine how people express themselves in the arts of that time. What methods did they use? Who participated in the arts? Were the arts celebrated? Studying the arts of that era can provide inspiration for fleshing out the particulars in your world. You may even meet new characters in your study. Examine the significant events. What were the significant events in that time and place. Was it a flood? Could it have been a famine? Was there a birth of triplets? Anyone burned at the stake? Checking out significant events in history let’s you see what people considered important. Think about what is important to the various people groups in your world. 2. The World Origins Must have Significance I think every writer should take interest in history. Likewise, the history of your fantasy world should directly impact its present. The writer should consider if its characters will allow the flow of time to carry the world in its due course. Will the characters impact the world that its course will be changed? In the world of Sapkowski’s The Witcher, there is the Conjunction of the Spheres, a magical cataclysm. Similarly, Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire Westeros, there is The Doom of Valyria as a great world changing disaster. Interestingly, an icy doom looms over them both. Climate change, y’all. In King’s Gunslinger Saga: The Dark Tower, it is heavily implied that was a nuclear disaster. I can’t recall if LeMerc Industries took the blame for that. Consider what things have occurred in the history of your fantasy world. What significant events occurred to shaped the world your characters live in? How are the people groups impacted by those events? You have to decide in order to provide concreteness to your world. If you want a world of three dimensions, you have to create a firm history. Past events can provide a deep rooted motivation for your characters. Don’t neglect history. 3. Draw Political Lines and Factions Politics may be out of bounds conversation in most social settings for obvious reasons. However, neglecting politics in your fantasy world building could be a huge error. There’s so many juicy political dramas in the past. This is the perfect world building fodder, y’all. Consult the aforementioned fantasy legends. As you create your fantasy novel, you should consider the political leanings of the people groups that exist in your world. Don’t ignore politics, in this case. You can’t build a world without people within it. All people have a political stance, even it is to be apolitical. For example, it is widely known that George RR Martin took inspiration for the Starks and Lannisters from the War of the Roses. A real political struggle between noble families, the Yorks and the Lancasters of England. I had the pleasure of taking Margaret Atwood’s creative writing course in Master Class. She stated that everything that occurs in A Handmaid’s Tale has happened in our human history. Her rule for her world is that it must have already happened. So the horrors, all the horrors, found in those books are things humans have already done. Have you read anything by Martin or Atwood? If you haven’t, what are you even doing? Stop reading this and go read them. I’ll wait. 4. Create Belief Systems Octavia Butler. Ever read, Butler? No. Go do that. I’ll wait still. Science-fiction, strong heroines and tangible worlds are your thing, you NEED her writings in your life. The Lilith’s Brood saga paints the world through the eyes of a woman who stood apart from the religious beliefs she once had. I don’t want to spoil the books for you. So, I will say that the religious origins of the world naturally do not have to be the beliefs of your character. In fact, Butler’s heroine’s shift away from religion that marked her apart from her human counterparts. It hinges the story in such a way that it’s of consequence. Moreover, in A Song of Ice and Fire by George RR Martin, there are competing religions of the Old Ways of the North and the Light of the Seven in the South and the Many Faced God in Bravos and the other deities worshipped there. A great deal of the story is set upon these factions. Tangible worlds are worlds that are familiar. What people believe and how they observe those beliefs impact the world. It creates depth, conflicts, characters and wants. Interestingly, a story of a world without religion is equally compelling. What do those who want to believe do with their need for faith? For firm, tangible, fictional worlds, this writer’s amateur opinion is: belief systems are a must. You score bonus drama points if the political and religious beliefs are slapped atop each other in an orgy of rhetoric. (Don’t forget the sex.) History teaches us that beliefs and their systems create opportunities for conflict, drama and endless stories. 5. Have Different Kinds of People C.S. Lewis created Narnia was a world accessed through a wardrobe. It had all kinds of sentient beings from humans, to talking animals, to mythical creatures like fauns and centaurs. J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter boasts Muggles, Wizards, Witches, Squibs and Half-bloods! Those are just the humans! Stephen King’s Universe….whoa baby…hold on…this world is massive…you have those with the Shine…you have Gunslingers, mutants, Taheen, and those born from the Crimson King. Not to mention those cosmic giants like the Great Turtle Maturin and the creature Pennywise. Not to beat you over the head with A Song of Ice and Fire… It bears highlighting various people groups that are on every page in the saga. They are all consequential to the world and the character journeys. Making differences for the purpose of drama. 3 World building People Group Tips Invaders or Voyagers? — Lifestyles can separate so fundamentally that a whole story could be crafted around it. People groups migrate from one land to the other usually to find lands more hospitable. People groups already living on those lands could respond to nomads with hospitality or hostility. Consider your people groups and how might other people groups in the world regard them? There is a wonderful opportunity to develop characters and stories there. Opposing Ideology — whenever you have a character that wants to fight an established belief system, there is promised conflict. Conflict equals drama. There is no drama without conflict. The protagonist could have opposing ideology within themselves. It doesn’t have to be religion. It could be a belief about sex, money, age, or physical ability. Concrete Power Structures — I never understood why the Weasley’s were poor. They were pure blooded magicians, but somehow…they were poor. I never understood that. There are all kinds of explanations out there but none sit right with me. I always thought the more compelling aspect would have been the pureblood having access to greater amounts of magic. Pure blood didn’t really have a lot of consequence since Hermione and Harry could cast circles around Ron, their pure blooded friend. 6. Establish Connections between the Peoples and the Environment There were no out of shape ancient Spartans. Sparta wouldn’t allow you to be out of shape. Moreover, Sparta forbade allow you to be alive if you couldn’t survive exposure as an infant. I don’t know how true that is, but so the legend goes. Spartan belief systems in the ancient world demanded physical conditioning. War was always on their mind because it was the state of the world. When you build a world, if people live near a body of water it will be significant to them. They will most likely swim it. They may even worship it. There could be festivals around it. The calendar of the people may have holy days regarding it. Don’t neglect the particulars of the terrain. Therefore, all natural land structures can serve you as inspiration to craft amazing locations in your story. How many are there? Mountains. Waterfalls. Quick sand. Deserts. Valleys. Canyons. Volcanoes. Whirlpools. Chasms. Rivers. Bogs. Swamps. Oases. A result of careful examination of our world can inspire endless foundations for your fantasy world. Write on, y’all.

https://medium.com/@andrea-turrentine/how-to-create-a-fantastic-fictional-world-step-by-step-48d4ae3234be

['Andrea Turrentine']

2021-01-01 21:10:47.646000+00:00

['Fiction', 'Writing Tips', 'Fiction Writing', 'Witcher', 'Worldbuilding']

How And Where To Buy Cheap ‘Ryzen PC’ In Manila, Philippines During Lockdown?

In my ulog video above, i covered all the options that you have, if you are located in ‘Manila, Philippines’ and wanting to purchase your Ryzen PC, whether ‘Ryzen 3’ or ‘Ryzen 5’ as soon as possible. While the option of Facebook marketplace exists, even if you got a trusted dealer, they are likely to have you wait for days or weeks to deliver your ‘Ryzen PC’ to you. If you had to use marketplaces like Shopee or Lazada, that takes days too! At ‘Gilmore’ in Quezon City, you can purchase your Ryzen PC as soon as today. Even so, you will have needed to search a store that actually has ‘stock’ (of Ryzen), in conjunction with ‘all the parts that will make up your computer’. These PC stores at ‘Gilmore’ like to sell ‘PCs’ in ‘bundles’. This way, they can make ‘profit’ in such a way that allows to pay a reasonable price. Assuming that they do not have all the PC-parts that you want and have had to seek out those parts from other stores, the price you will end up paying for your Ryzen, will be drastically high. In these lockdown period, Ryzen is quite scarce across ‘stalls’ even in Gilmore. Many who have ‘Ryzen PCs’ have old-stock and are likely to hoard it to sell to the highest bidder as ‘customers are quite scarce too’. Besides, there are many people as ‘Ryzen customers’. Where do you go to then to buy ‘Ryzen PCs’ in Manila during this lockdown, at a reasonable price? If you have seen the video above, i have answered your question in it. At the bottom of that video, i have also added the exact address and contact-information of a store in Gilmore of Quezon city, that is a supplier of PC-parts, especially ‘Ryzen’ and that will offer you a reasonable price from the outset. If you haven’t my video above yet, here is where you can buy ‘Ryzen PCs’ in Manila during this lockdown, at a reasonable price: KCAM store — ‘2ND floor, #25 Gilmore avenue, Cor. aurora blvd, Valencia 4, Quezon city. (Telephone: 86318307/87210359) I compared ‘prices’ from a range of stores within ‘Gilmore, Quezon City’ to attain this conclusion. While you may find another store with a reasonable price in Gilmore, they may not have all exact parts that you need and where they have had to obtain these parts from other stores, your final-payment becomes high.

https://medium.com/@surpassinggoogle/how-and-where-to-buy-cheap-ryzen-pc-in-manila-philippines-during-lockdown-f4623be83e79

['Terry Ajayi']

2020-07-19 17:34:56.221000+00:00

['Ryzen', 'Philippines', 'Manila', 'How To', 'Amd']

Artists and Designers Party for Suffrage

by Marilyn L. Geary The Girl Blacksmith. San Francisco Call, April 28, 1907 The late summer and early fall of 1911 saw Marin suffragists gearing up for Proposition 4, the California constitutional amendment that would grant women the right to vote. They held numerous gatherings-card parties, teas and open-air meetings-to raise money for campaigns to promote women’s suffrage. With no vote in the matter, they could only inform and convince their male counterparts to decide in their favor. Lillian McNeill Palmer. © Heritage Society of Pacific Grove. Several artists and designers who had built successful careers combining art with business played major roles in these events. Against enormous odds, these women had managed to break into the male world of commerce. One of them, Lillian McNeill Palmer, known as the “artistic girl blacksmith,” had become renowned as a fine metalworker. She owned the Palmer Copper Shop on San Francisco’s Sutter Street where she created lighting fixtures in the California Craftsman style. Her exquisite work in brass and copper had garnered widespread national acclaim. The San Francisco Call noted that Palmer was “a clever and original worker in metals, and one whose work is attracting even more attention in the East than here.” On September 1, Palmer spoke at an open-air suffrage meeting at the dance platform on Miller Avenue across from the depot in Mill Valley. Organized by the Outdoor Art Club, this gathering on September 1 was, according to the Mill Valley Record, “the first move of the local suffragists to win the men of Mill Valley to their side.” Many of the suffragists in Marin, society women and wives of prominent businessmen, never had the need, nor the opportunity, to enter the workforce. Palmer’s experience in the business world gave her a unique perspective on the value the vote could bring women. At the Mill Valley gathering, Palmer announced that she was a working woman and knew what wage-earners would gain with women’s right to vote. She stated, “It isn’t because women do not know how to vote, but because they DO KNOW HOW that certain interests wish to debase them from the right to do so.” Emily Williams, architect. © Heritage Society of Pacific Grove Palmer’s life-long partner, Emily Eolian Williams, shared Palmer’s views on equal rights for women. Unable to find a job as an architectural draftsman in almost exclusively male profession, Williams started her own architectural firm, becoming one of the first female architects in Northern California, designing homes in San Jose, Pacific Grove, San Francisco, and Los Gatos. She also designed an exhibition booth at the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exhibition for the Alaska Garnet Mining and Manufacturing Company, a firmed owned and managed by twelve women from St. Paul, Minnesota. Palmer created the lighting fixtures for the booth and also showed her own metal work at the PPIE. Palmer and Williams belonged to the California Arts and Crafts Movement and formed part of an informal network of architects and artists that included Julia Morgan and Dick Van Erp. They were friends with Lillian O’Hara and Grace Livermore (unrelated to Marin conservationist Caroline Livermore). This couple partnered in the successful interior design firm of the O’Hara and Livermore Studio of Applied Art, with locations in Santa Barbara and San Francisco. In 1905, Livermore and O’Hara purchased several lots in San Anselmo’s Barber Tract. There they built a number of bungalows, one which served as their second home, the others as guest homes for friends. When the College Equal Suffrage League determined to hold a fundraiser for the suffrage cause, members O’Hara and Livermore offered their country place as the site for a garden party. They called on their colleagues, other women in the interior design field, to assist in creating an attractive setting for the event. The Mill Valley Record opined that “The bungalow and grounds belonging to the two artists are well worth seeing in themselves, but on this occasion they will be decorated as never before, by a corps of artists and decorators, famous throughout California.” Miss Charlotte Williams and Mrs. Mary Bates McLellan, two of the main designers, had “converted the grounds into a veritable garden of Eden.” On September 7, “a big four-horse bus, decorated in the yellow suffrage color” took women of the Mill Valley Equal Franchise League to the party at O’Hara and Livermore’s in San Anselmo. What today is a twenty-minute drive in moderate traffic was, back then, a major outing. For a fifty-cent ticket, the proceeds going to suffrage, attendees could admire “rare draperies and objects d’arts” from the San Francisco shop of the Misses O’Hara and Livermore. Lillian Palmer donated a brass lamp as a prize for the best answer to a “suffrage conundrum.” The women sold sunflowers in lieu of suffrage buttons, and art posters as well. The Mill Valley Record encouraged everyone to attend, stating that “”Miss Maud Younger will make a short address on “The Vote and Its Achievementʼʼ for those who want to hear “suffrage” and there will be the Hawaiian orchestra and tea and refreshments for those who do not.” Speaker Younger of the Wage Earners League was joined by Lillian Palmer, who spoke from the the business woman’s perspective. It does not appear, at least outwardly, that couples such as Palmer/Williams and O’Hara/Livermore experienced discrimination due to their choice of life-long partners. The same was not true for women suffragists of color. Perhaps the most unique views offered at the garden party were those of “an educated Indian squaw who tells fortunes and gives suffrage talks from the squaw viewpoint.” The San Francisco Call labelled this woman one of the main attractions, as she would “not only read the individual fortunes of the guests, but will look into the future for revelations of statewide importance. She will also be included among the suffrage speakers, and will present her topic from the standpoint of a woman of her race.” Unfortunately, the identity of this Native American woman is not known, nor are her revelations for the success of the suffrage amendment. The newspapers printed names of speakers Palmer and Younger, of the party organizers and of each society woman who rode the yellow omnibus to the San Anselmo garden party but omitted the name of the Native American “squaw” suffragist. Too little is known about Native American women who pioneered in the suffrage movement, but this woman must have been an activist like Irene Odock from the Colusa reservation. Author of “An appeal for the Indian,” published in the February 1914 edition of the magazine Out West, Odock was perhaps the first Indian woman in California to register to vote. The garden party organizers aimed to raise campaign funds for the suffrage campaign throughout the state. They accomplished this goal, with funds donated not just locally, but from the New York Men’s Suffrage League and the National American Woman Suffrage Association. On October 10, 1911, the amendment passed by a extremely narrow majority (50.7 percent), making California the sixth state granting suffrage to women. A staunch advocate for women in the workforce, Lillian Palmer continued her activism. She co-founded and became the first president of the Business and Professional Women’s Club of San Francisco. Palmer was quoted as saying, “Women in business must play the game as men have established it.” She played it well, vying with rival Dick Van Erp for talented designers to join her firm. During her lifetime, Palmer’s work gained wide acclaim. Today her pieces are highly collectible. Lillian Palmer and Emily Williams are buried together in Los Gatos Memorial Park. 1. San Francisco Call, April 18, 1907. 2. Mill Valley Record, August 25, 1911. 3. San Francisco Call, September 7,1911. 4. San Luis Obispo Daily Telegram, March 26, 1912.

https://medium.com/anne-t-kent-california-room-community-newsletter/artists-and-designers-party-for-suffrage-f91c268b5754

['Anne T. Kent California Room']

2020-09-16 18:06:50.472000+00:00

['Voting Rights', 'Marin County', 'Suffrage Movement', 'California', 'Womens Suffrage']

Pain-free Work Advice Inspired by The Beatles

Four “Gear” Work from Home Tips from the Fab Four. Photo by Fedor on Unsplash I am a long-time fan of The Beatles. I may have just missed Beatlemania, but I’m old enough that I heard their breakup announced on the radio while my mother was driving me to preschool. But my love for the boys from Liverpool was ignited by our music teacher on the last day of sixth grade at Ridgewood Elementary. Our field day had been rained out, so Plan B involved all of us pre-teens gathered around the record player, singing along to The Beatles Greatest Hits: 1967–1970 (the “Blue Album”). Each kid clutching a mimeographed lyric sheet. It only took one listen to “I am the Walrus,” and I was hooked. Goo goo g’joob. In life I am a Doctor of Physical Therapy, a movement expert. I specialize in treating back pain without drugs or surgery. Cut to 2020, and it’s my profession and passion to keep folks moving — working, exercising, living life — to their full potential, pain-free and empowered to manage pain. And still, I adore The Beatles, after all these years. (How exited are you by Peter Jackson’s sneak peek at his upcoming film Get Back?!” Email me at drgina@maitri.physioif you’ve seen it!) Let’s have some fun. What can we learn about working from home and staying pain-free from John, Paul, George, and Ringo? 1. Ringo and Why You Should Stand Every Hour Let’s start with Ringo. Poor Ringo. Picture his workstation — I mean, drum kit. While the other three Beatles could stand and walk around — heck, even dance — while playing their guitars, Ringo kept the Mersey Beat with his butt in the seat. Even if his drum throne was comfy (probably not), we all know what sitting does after hours and hours. You start to feel drowsy as the circulatory system has a much harder time returning blood to the heart and lungs. Your back starts to ache despite your best efforts at maintaining that good posture you know you should have. You can’t help it: your back and shoulders slump, placing more pressure on your spinal nerves that control all your sensation and movement. This leads to back pain. George Martin could have encouraged Ringo to stand up every hour to go walk and get a cuppa tea. Or, Ringo could have stood up, held his drumsticks in both hands over his head, and leaned back into a good stretch. That would have done the trick after a Hard Day’s Night. (Were you aware Ringo came up with that line?) 2. John and How You Can Decrease Neck Pain John was extremely near-sighted. It wasn’t until later in their career that he started wearing his signature granny glasses. You can see in early performances that John is straining to see, squinting and pushing his head forward. It was also the posture he adopted while he played guitar and piano. It’s similar to what happens when we’re working at our computers and reading emails Eight Days a Week. We’re leaning on our elbows, and our heads move forward of our bodies. This places strain on the back of the neck. Think about it: your head weighs as much as a bowling ball. Holding it in front of your neck can not only lead to pain, but also numbness in the arms and hands. The fix: if you’re straining to see, first get your eyes checked. I need to wear my reading glasses while working on my laptop. Next, perform two mini exercises that strengthen the upper back. Begin by sitting up tall in your chair with your shoulders back. Then hold a finger in front of your nose. Draw your head back away from your finger as if your head is on a rail. Give yourself a double chin. It should feel like a good stretch on the back of your neck. Relax, then repeat 10 times. Finally, squeeze your shoulder blades together and down, like you’re trying to put them into your back pockets. Relax and repeat 10 times. 3. George and How to Fix Your Tight Hips We know George as the spiritual one who played a part in The Beatles traveling to Rishikesh, India, to sit at the feet of the founder of Transcendental Meditation, the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. We know George as the spiritual Beatle. He was instrumental in convincing the other three to travel to Rishikesh, India, to study at the feet of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. (Did you know the MMY developed the techniques of Transcendental Meditation? Yes, that TM practiced by people like David Lynch.) He was also a student of Ravi Shankar, the beloved master of the sitar. So many photos of George sitting cross-legged in meditation or learning how to play his sitar. Leading to tight hips — so much so that it can become difficult to put on socks and shoes! Static hip stretching after immobility is so Yesterday. Dynamic movement is more effective in getting blood to those tight muscles and nutrition to your joints. Here’s what you can do: stand up, place a hand on the back of a chair for balance, and lift your right leg with your knee bent. Then slowly sweep your leg in a large circle. Go clockwise, then try count-clockwise. 4. Paul and How Movement is Medicine Of all The Beatles, Paul is the one on the move. He’s riding a horse. He’s swimming in the ocean. He’s walking. He’s jogging. He’s wrangling sheep (check out the cover to his second solo album, Ram). The lesson from Paul: to feel better and more energized, take a walk around the block. Find a secondhand treadmill or stationary bike for your home. Turn on the TV and find a YouTube music video and dance along to it. The research has been in agreement for years that your heart and body benefit from moderate exercise that raises your heart rate and gets you sweating if you do 30 minutes per day, five days per week. Bonus: there is no minimum time for a bout of activity, so you can scatter this throughout your day. As long as it all adds up to 30 minutes, you’ll have a Good Day, Sunshine.

https://medium.com/@drginakimpt/pain-free-work-advice-inspired-by-the-beatles-24ade7fea2e5

['Dr. Gina Kim', 'Pt Dpt']

2020-12-22 16:36:43.491000+00:00

['Back Pain', 'Work From Home', 'Physical Therapy', 'Wellness', 'Beatles']

Speaker Management & Deal-Making Pivots

Li Hayes is a returning guest (you can listen in to her previous episode, From Concept to Oscars: Overcoming Barriers to Entry in a New Industry, right here). Li is a phenomenal entrepreneur, television host, speaker’s agent, and inventor. After two decades in the corporate world, she summoned the courage to take the entrepreneurial plunge! She started by founding Go Leeward Speaker Management. Li works with associations, masterminds, corporations and more to help them make their events wildly successful. Her invention, the Cool Me scarf, helps to discreetly relieve hot flash symptoms for women dealing with menopause. (It was featured at the Oscars After party!) The Impact of the Pandemic Last time I interviewed Li was early 2020 — right before everything changed with Covid. She had just had her Cool Me scarf shown off at the Oscars, and was headed into larger scale production. We also talked a bit about public speaking, as Li continues to head Leeward Speaker Management. As you can imagine, both of those elements of her work went through changes as a result of the pandemic. Li notes that the pandemic is something that happened to everybody; all business owners can relate to unexpected challenges, shifts, and pivots that have occurred in the last year. She’s no different! In February 2020, Li was riding a post-Oscar high. Things had gone tremendously well, and she was really excited for production to ramp up. She was booked on Good Morning Connecticut to do a live interview, and everything was falling into place. Until, suddenly, it wasn’t. A week later, the interview was canceled. A few weeks after, she got a message from Amazon: “Please be advised, your product has been deprioritized.” What many people don’t realize is that Amazon is a conglomerate of many businesses, in terms of who you’re actually purchasing from. When Covid hit, Amazon focused in on all products that were pandemic related. This included masks, gloves, disinfectant, groceries, and more. If your product didn’t pertain, it was not a priority. For Li’s Cool Me scarf, that meant you couldn’t even find it on Amazon at all. And if you can’t find it, you obviously can’t buy it! The traction Li had been garnering died in its tracks. Boom or Bust? Ihave talked about this a bit over the last few months, but it’s worth mentioning again. Covid hit many businesses and industries hard. For example, restaurants and public speaking! Others, however, were able to use the pandemic as a catalyst for immense growth and success. Has terrible as it has been overall, it definitely hasn’t spelled disaster for everyone across the board. Li’s scarf business died fast. Her speaker management agency also took a hard hit. She happened to be heavily involved in two industries that did not fare exceptionally well. However, Li notes that just because public speaking in general took a nosedive does not mean that all public speakers suffered. She shares that some of her speakers have done exceptionally well by finding ways to pivot with other strengths and abilities. For instance, one of her speakers also did website design and creation. When everything started shutting down, she pivoted into that capacity, and experienced a banner year. Looking back now, Li sees two major waves. In Wave One, everyone hit the brakes hard. This was when the rule of thumb was just canceling any and all events, which was happening left and right. A few months into that, Wave Two came. This was mostly related to cautiously optimistic postponements. Rather than cancel a summer event, people were looking ahead and hoping to be able to hold the event in October or November instead. Obviously, that mostly didn’t pan out! Those Wave Two postponements mostly resulted in early fall cancelations when it became clear that things were not reopened the way we had once imagined they might be. Pivoting to Virtual & Maximizing Hybrid Models It used to be that “real” events with high calibre speakers and large turnouts were always in-person. After the pandemic was mid-stride, there was a boom of virtual-only events to compensate. Now, Li is seeing the rise of hybrid events, and she says they are flourishing. She loves this! In her personal life, Li notes that she genuinely loves attending events. However, there is a cap to how many she can legitimately travel to throughout the year while also balancing the rest of her work and life. With the hybrid option, she can choose to travel to some, and attend others virtually. As this model continues to grow, Li expects to see an expansion in the events industry, as well as in those who are seeking speaker management agencies. I remembered a Miami event I was supposed to have attended in March 2020. This was immediately after the lock-down, and the host scrambled to convert the whole thing into digital. She also let us all know that not only could we attend the virtual event, we would also get to attend a live event when the opportunity was again available. After day one, we debriefed and she got excellent feedback. In fact, she decided to take that event (which she typically offered live 5x per year) and convert at least two of those into virtual experiences to increase access. Many people are finding that there are major pros to attending events virtually, and that they are willing to attend at least some events that way moving forward. (Obviously there are lots of reasons to love in-person events as well, and I don’t think we’ll see those going away!) Speaker Management & Deal-Making Li notes that speaker-related deals have been changing! When things first went virtual, she had immediately recommended to her speakers that they look at price adjustments. Some refused to do so, which they based on the value of their speaking, which they argued remained the same whether they were on stage or on camera. Although Li gets that argument, she would return with the idea that you have to be able to flex according to demand and needs. So many events needed decreased prices because they had had to significantly reduce ticket prices. An event they may have charged $500 per ticket for live was suddenly being offered virtually for $50 per ticket. With those sorts of adjustments, profit margins significantly change. For speakers who were willing to be flexible and work with those new realities, there were bookings to be found. For those who refused, it was hard to find openings. Li notes that she had a number of speakers who would typically charge $30,000 for on-stage appearances. When the pandemic struck and many events couldn’t work with that, they began offering $5,000 appearances virtually. They ended up with more engagements and a better bottom line than previous years, because they got a lot of opportunities. In general, I absolutely believe in knowing your value and remaining firm with your rates. However, I know that I made different choices as a speaker last year as well. In the law firm, our rates remained consistent and we were busier than ever (deal-making, as an industry, stayed quite busy!). On the speaking front, the “hold firm” strategy wouldn’t have played out as well. Rigidity Kills Deals Something I write about in my negotiation book is the reality that rigidity is a major reason for deal failure. It’s one thing to own your value and stay the course….but another to fail to realize changes in circumstances that should necessitate adjustments. Personally, I was able to do a number of talks that I deeply enjoyed, even though my rate was not what it normally is. In fact, I now have multiple groups that are excited to bring me in live when things open up again; all because they got to experience me virtually during this pandemic. By choosing to be flexible and acknowledging the changing circumstances that were impacting the market, I was able to continue making deals that benefitted all parties. A win-win that I’m proud of. Li noted that one major deal-making shift they went through in speaker management was brokering deals with the long-term in mind. For example, a speaker might be willing to offer a deeply discounted speaking engagement virtually now, in exchange for an opportunity to be the featured keynote speaker at the next live event when things opened back up. In this way, they were able to leverage both current and future opportunities. There were incredible insights on this episode — it’s a must listen!

https://medium.com/@corey-kupfer/speaker-management-deal-making-pivots-417d2eb7bab0

['Corey Kupfer']

2021-05-14 19:47:44.331000+00:00

['Business Strategy', 'Speakers', 'Deal', 'Speakers Corner', 'Business Development']

- Adam Tabriz, MD

”Among the numerous discourses of the US political sphere, COVID-19 pandemic marks an ironic bullseye. Then we realize how one‐​size‐​fits‐​all doctrines, overseen by bureaucracy, impede an abrupt and creative response to an unfolding public health disaster.” Adam Tabriz, MD

https://medium.com/@adamtabriz/among-the-numerous-discourses-of-the-us-political-sphere-covid-19-pandemic-marks-an-ironic-50458edec9c3

['Adam Tabriz']

2020-12-16 18:45:38.261000+00:00

['Quotes', 'Quote Of The Day', 'Pandemic', 'Covid-19', 'Policy']

I’m sick of hearing about Freedom

I’m sick of hearing about Freedom [JOURNAL] Let’s talk about authenticity and consent. Photo by Aditya Saxena on Unsplash ^ Cue John Oliver saying, “Cool.” Any movement, be it personal or political, that is founded on freedom will invariably miss the mark. It will fall short of its goals because it fixates on the wrong ideal. Freedom is a means to an end, but not the end itself. It is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for creating actions that are consensual. The other necessary condition is authenticity. To begin: Every action we take is a choice. This is not to say that everything that happens to us is a choice; it isn’t. The actions we take, however, are choices, whether or not they feel like choices. When we act, we choose a particular option from a possible set of multiple options. Our choices are never infinite, in the absolute sense, but are infinite in the sense that there is an infinity of different numbers between 0 and 1. For example, if your boss calls you into her office to fire you, this is not your choice. But where are you going to sit while you’re fired? You can move your chair one inch to the left. Or are you going to stand on one foot? You probably chose not to interrupt your boss by reciting Shakespeare monologues or belting out a Disney love ballad. Are you thinking about your work performance, or the pimple on your boss’s nose? You’re breathing. Are you noticing your breath? You can breathe more slowly or quickly. Your inhale could take 5 seconds, or 2, or 10. Yes, technically, even within this extremely narrow event, you have an infinity of options, each and all of which alter and shape the experience for all involved. But that probably didn’t make you feel anymore empowered to make choices, did it? Because choice is not the same as consent. Consent is the act of making a choice that feels like a choice, that is experienced as a choice. Consent is experienced as a free choice. But freedom is never infinite — try as you might, you cannot teleport yourself to Rome right now. You cannot grow gills and breathe underwater this Thursday. You cannot just decide that your crush loves you back and make it true. You never have an absolute infinity of options, no matter how much “freedom” you have. But at some point — freedom feels like freedom, and choices feel consensual. That point is determined by two things: 1) your ability to take possible options, and 2) your awareness of what options exist. When your ability is too constrained, always by some material or imagined power hierarchy, choices do not feel consensual. For examples of power hierarchy corrupting and negating the experience of consent, see the #MeToo movement. Likewise, when your awareness of possible options is too limited, your choices do not feel consensual either. Political movements focus on creating consent through expanding the ability to take options (for example, by dissolving power hierarchies between profiteering landlords and tenants). Capitalism is intended to be consensual (vote with your dollars, kids!) but its consensual Utopian goal is brutally broken by the fact that it tries to do so by creating power hierarchies, which is antithetical to consent. Dissolving those power hierarchies, and expanding ability, leads to less suffering. On the flip side, spiritual and self-help movements focus on creating consent through expanding the awareness of possible options (free your mind!), from observing one’s emotions to dealing with unconscious resistance to finding simple acts of enjoyment to dissolving attachment. Expanded awareness, in this case, leads to less suffering. Both of these kinds of movements have a tendency to talk about Freedom. But a fixation on freedom invariably butts up against the reality that you can only ever make choices for yourself. Your freedom will never be absolute, nor should it be — absolute freedom for oneself necessitates a lack of freedom for others. Even “free association” is a myth; while it respects everyone’s unique freedom, it misses the point that humans (like all of nature) are interdependent and completely reliant on one another for the meeting of our needs. Rather than buy into some fantasy of independence and “freedom” to act towards others however we choose, we could instead focus on getting our needs met in ways that are… authentic and consensual. So why is fixating on freedom a problem? Because it either slips into a desire for absolute freedom, and therefore, tyranny, and because it completely misses the point of what freedom is for: Freedom is for consent. If freedom is not aiding the act of choosing to feel consensual, it has no function. Freedom is a noble goal insofar as it dissolves power hierarchies and creates the opportunity for consensual action, and only that far. Consent is a choice that feels like a choice, that is experienced as a choice. We feel our choices are free when we have enough freedom to choose an option that we authentically want. In this way, consent, too, is a means to an end: the end is authentic action: taking actions that we actually want to take. Doing things we actually want to do. Being what we actually want to be, saying what we actually want to say, acting and interacting in the ways that feel true. Consent is still a means to an end, albeit a closer one than freedom and one that takes into consideration external realities, such as power hierarchies, that inhibit the practice of acting authentically. The end is actually authenticity. Imagine a world where every conversation you have is authentic, every relationship you have is authentic, every thing you do is something you authentically want to do, even if it isn’t your absolute first choice. Imagine interacting only with those you authentically want to interact with, because you authentically enjoy those people, not because you “have to” to survive. Imagine knowing yourself, so intimately, because you are completely open and authentic with yourself. Imagine knowing others, connecting so deeply, because you are open and authentic with them, and engaging from a place where all interactions are consensual. It would feel so free, so freeing, so liberated. Why? Because freedom is a means to authentically consensual action. So rather than build a free society, let’s build a consensual society. Rather than free our minds, let’s be completely honest with ourselves and behave authentically with others. Let’s engage without hierarchy, but with respect for one another’s freedom, allow our own to be limited by it, allow theirs to be limited by ours, but only so far as we need to in order to find interactions and solutions that are consensual, and authentically meet the needs of all involved. I don’t care for a free world, because what does that even mean? I care for an authentically consensual world. A world without hierarchy, and without lies and bullshit. Authenticity is the goal. Consent is the manifestation of the goal in the world. Freedom is a complicated experience with blurry lines, and at this point, it’s just a buzzword.

https://medium.com/dogs-with-buddha-nature/im-sick-of-hearing-about-freedom-5b395b0b364e

['Anna Ronan']

2020-07-12 14:49:34.808000+00:00

['Authenticity', 'Consent', 'Freedom', 'Society', 'Philosophy']

Pfizer vaccine news resulted in US tech sell-off. What is next for the Silicon valley stocks?

Pfizer vaccine results in US Tech Sell off With the majority of the global workforce ordered to stay home owing to the Covid-19 induced lockdown, the demand for tech-based services jumped like never before. Silicon valley stocks soon turned winners on Wall Street as the stock price of companies such as Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook and Zoom became the new safe haven for investors. But last week — contrary to other sectoral stocks — the announcement of a possible vaccine developed by Pfizer resulted in a sell-off among tech stocks. Zoom Video which was among the top gainers (635% year to date) closed 17.4% lower. Amazon and Netflix dropped 5.1% and 8.6% against its 79.2% and 59.1% jump while Teladoc Health slid 13.7% and Shopify declined by 13.6%, CNBC reported. Sell-off in the tech stocks wasn’t out of the blue. Possibility of a tech sell-off over the vaccine news had been talked about vigorously ever since the experts started associating the massive buying interest in tech stocks with the term ‘bubble’. According to a report in FT, the price-to-earnings ratio, at one point, rose close to levels last seen during the dot-com bubble. Vaccine will end tech dominance: BofA A widely published research report by Bank of America in September predicted that a positive COVID-19 vaccine development would mark the “end of tech dominance” which began since the US markets bottomed on March 23. The report reasoned that the rise and rise of US tech stocks were also possible because of the near-zero interest rates in the US. “A COVID-19 vaccine would likely lead to a surge in economic activity, which would boost interest rates, leading to a surge in the discount rate and the relative valuation of tech stocks looking less attractive to other assets,” Business Insider reported citing BofA research. But it may be too early to write them off Although the silicon valley stocks may have surged over and above their actual value, it may be too early to write them off. After the initial sell-off, a recovery was witnessed in the tech-heavy Nasdaq. Experts say that the earning results of these tech companies may see a marked improvement and help the stocks maintain current levels. “We’ll probably have these fits and starts of the rotation until we get into the spring,” said Shawn Snyder, head of Investment Strategy at Citi Personal Wealth Management, reported ET. “There’s still solid earnings for these technology companies, and you’re still facing a potential surge in COVID cases through the winter months and renewed restrictions and lockdowns.” The bottom line It must not be forgotten that an effective vaccine is yet to get regulatory approval. Questions regarding the availability of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine — especially owing to its ultra-low temperature storage requirements — has been making investors less enthusiastic about its early availability. Some reports suggest that its may take years before a Covid-19 vaccine reaches the poorest of the poor. Therefore the road to recovery may be longer than anticipated. Must depend on the availability of a vaccine and not just an announcement of the same. Till then tech stock may well act as a safe haven investment and the interest rates may not see a swift rise. To know more, follow us on Instagram or email us at hello@unfinance.co Get yourself registered for early access of Unfinance App, Checkout www.unfinance.co

https://medium.com/@unfinance/pfizer-vaccine-news-resulted-in-us-tech-sell-off-what-is-next-for-the-silicon-valley-stocks-db23f09eb68c

[]

2020-11-20 12:39:46.009000+00:00

['Vaccines', 'Technology News', 'Investing', 'Silicon Valley', 'Stock Market']

𝐇𝐎𝐖 𝐁𝐋𝐎𝐆𝐆𝐄𝐑𝐒 𝐌𝐀𝐊𝐄 𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐄𝐘 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐀𝐅𝐅𝐈𝐋𝐈𝐀𝐓𝐄 𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐊𝐄𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆?

❓𝐇𝐎𝐖 𝐁𝐋𝐎𝐆𝐆𝐄𝐑𝐒 𝐌𝐀𝐊𝐄 𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐄𝐘 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐀𝐅𝐅𝐈𝐋𝐈𝐀𝐓𝐄 𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐊𝐄𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆? ➡️𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗱𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗕𝗹𝗼𝗴𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴? Blogging refers to writing and other content that’s self-published online. Blogging is a platform that anyone can start with his own knowledge. You can share your knowledge on your blog. You can share your daily routines like people are doing on Youtube. They create some Vlogging and explores their daily routines and some places. You can take some inspiration from how Youtuber makes their content with the video. Blogging is the same platform as Youtube but here you have to share your knowledge in written words. You can share videos also but It is not a suitable thing for the blog. Every Platform depends on the different markets like Youtube is for Video Marketing. Instagram is for Image and Video. Blogging is for the Written documentary. The podcast is for the audio documentary. Twitter is micro-content. ✨I hope you will get an idea about the blog. You can learn about some research on google and you can “ 𝗱𝗺 “ and book a free 15-minute meeting on 𝙕𝙊𝙊𝙈.✨ Like every marketing, if you want to succeed and get more audience and should choose a niche means your hobby and interest. In which things you are really passionate about. A domain that relates to your niche and you can start to create that will take you to your audience or your audience come to your blog site. If you have no ideas about what you do with blogging and how you can start then you should check some bloggers who already doing it for some years and they all are earning good with their blog. Find your niche blog that people are creating content in your niche. Like if you are good at one particular thing like you have great skills to play games like Pro gamers. You have great skills in video games and It is an additional thing where you can share your video gaming journey in written words. You can start also your Youtube Gaming Channel but now I’m talking about blogging so focus on writing and documentary. How people will connect to you. You can share daily routines and daily tasks that you played every day and complete it on regular basis. You can share some tips on how people can improve their skills and also post here videos that connected to your youtube channel. Here I can share more and more ideas that you can start today. so it depends on what you want to do. ➡️𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁? First of all, watch the people who are already exist in your niche and making tons of money. You can join their program and subscribe to their daily newsletter. what they are doing on all regular basis and how they doing it. Follow them on every platform they have. Read all the daily things and take the ideas and starting doing with it. Don’t copy them it is not a relevant approach but you can take ideas from them and make yourself different from them and also your content should different and focus on more and deep knowledge that will keep you away from the crowd. You find a lot more people who are working with a blog and making good content and also earn a good income from their blog. ➡️𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗲 𝗮 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗼𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗯𝗹𝗼𝗴? A content that is worth it for your audience and has great value. People will be engaged through your content then you can promote a product that is related to your niche or You can make a particular new blog for a product like if you are already in the blogging industry and you aware of SEO, hosting, and domain. So you can make a particular blog on that thing and share your real-life experience with these things. When I was working on my own blog then I learned a new thing that is called SEO (Search Engine Optimization). It optimizes your blog on google search rank with SEO Keyword. I have learned a lot about it and find some great tools that help me to grow my own blog. I have found some tools (SEMrush, Ahref, AnswerthePublic, etc). I have purchased the membership of these sites and learned how I can use and provide the first rank on google. I will explain it later in my upcoming post.Your content should provide value to your audience and you can provide some free values and make a relation with them. Connect with them through the social media platform and solve their query and issue. Make sure your affiliate product link inserted in your blog. When I was creating a blog regards domain and hosting promotion then I created a small plan and some great content that related to my real life experience and share details on how it helps me and which is the cheapest platform for the domain that will provide a lot of stuff with Your first purchase. Like you can get a 30% discount if you purchase through my link and also lifetime free SSL Certificated. One more thing no need for a credit card you can pay through PayPal and much more). I have more & more ideas that you can implement with these few things and make your own profitable business online. Connect through Facebook :- Click Here

https://medium.com/@surajnagarwal1/-c23db12906aa

['Suraj Nagarwal']

2020-12-19 06:22:35.710000+00:00

['Content Marketing', 'Blog', 'Content', 'How To', 'Content Strategy']

The Friend on the Hill

Ted and his family lived up the hill from us in a medium-sized white house with a green awning and a slanted roof. The roof looms large in my memory, though I’m sure it will be anti-climatic for most of you. Ted’s father held the august title of Superintendent of the Bessemer city school system, which, as history notes, maintained its segregated status well into the mid-1960’s. I don’t remember Ted’s father being vocal or instrumental in the changes occurring around us: in the attempts by many to integrate and the attempts by man others to obfuscate the court orders. Someone had to superintend our district despite its flaws, and so Ted lived under the roof of the man who did so, whether he did so well, with good intentions or bad. Also living under this roof were Ted’s mother — a fairly typical, warm, housewife of her age — and Ted’s younger sister Ellen, who lives almost as large as Ted in my memories and whom we will see more of later. Even at the age of five, Ted was a head taller than the rest of the kids our age. I suppose his father was tall, too, though Mr. Clark’s physical stature does not linger in my memory. Many assumed that Ted and our close neighbor Mary Jane were sweethearts in this time, though once we got to first grade, I always assumed that Ted went for Pam Gassaway who was both pretty and as tall as Ted. I don’t know if I was ever right in my hopes, but I do know that I always wanted Mary Jane for my girlfriend, and for a year — from mid 5th grade to mid 6th grade — I got my wish. But that’s another story, and Mary Jane isn’t lost to me, as friends and this series go. In Miss Carroll’s kindergarten, Ted and I were inseparable. How often I recall some teacher — Miss Garner or Miss Pierce — crying out “Ted and Terry,” or “Terry and Ted,” as if in one voice for one person. We sat by each other, stood by each other in our choir, and always huddled together at mid-morning snack time, where many of us brought peanut butter and Graham Crackers, and were served some sort of juice by Miss Carroll. I hated the days when we got apple juice — another of my strange childhood ticks. Orange juice, yes. Orange pineapple, yes. Grape, yes. Even Tang. But not apple juice. Strange kids are strange kids. But what happened to Ted on a particular day I’m thinking of, the day of his Barbecue potato chips, was less strange than tragic. Miss Carroll’s kindergarten was four or five miles from our neighborhood, and so our parents (mothers) arranged a standing carpool, including my would-be girlfriend Mary Jane, our neighbor Elise, Ted, me, and I also seem to remember a girl named Dale Evans riding with us, for who, back in this era, could ever forget a girl named Dale Evans? Even counting Ted, we were small enough to cram into the back seat of all the various cars, though when Mary Jane’s mother drove, we had the expansiveness of a station wagon. We also had a maniac for a driver, so tradeoffs are always just that. I so remember seeing the speedometer, which was color-coded, shifting colors as quickly as a green chameleon caught on a woodpile. So on this day, when the car picked me up, I slid in by Ted, who proudly displayed his bag of Barbecue Golden Flakes, offering to share with me at snack time. I’m sure we both salivated, at least until we arrived at Elise’s house. I can see it so plainly: Ted had set his bag of chips on the other side of his lap from me, and when Elise began climbing in the back seat beside him, he plainly forgot about the bag. No one knows for sure what exactly happened next, though in his own mind, Ted, at least, was certain. “SHE SMUSHED MY POTATO CHIPS.” And indeed, Elise did smush them. Sat right down on top of them. It’s possible, of course, that Elise hadn’t seen the glittering bag of chips right in front of her and just hopped on in like normal. A pure accident with no ill intent. Except Elise had at least one historical precedent for meanness — the time she purposefully picked up handfuls of sand from my very own sandbox, and on my very own birthday, and threw that sand right in my eyes. Talk about screaming. She got caught, too, and I want to say she got whipped for her act. But on this car ride, as Ted held up his bag of chips, which were indeed clearly smushed to crumbs — begging the question of not only how hard Elise sat on them, but also, did she grind into them? Because these chips never stood a chance once her five-year-old bottom reached them — and as his tears crept down the crevices of his nose and mouth, Elise said nothing. Just stared and turned beet red in her face. To my knowledge, she never apologized to Ted, who, at snack time, despite my assurance that we could still attempt to eat the chips and that maybe they weren’t so smushed, held up the bag and cried, “No we can’t. See? They’re still smushed!” And so they were.

https://medium.com/weeds-wildflowers/the-friend-on-the-hill-a38ecd3503af

['Terry Barr']

2020-12-02 16:28:58.420000+00:00

['Friendship', 'Nonfiction', 'Love', 'Weeds And Wildflowers', 'Children']

One year ago. I have been feeling all sorts of…

I have been feeling all sorts of passion lately. Rather than try to define it, and investigate the source of its nature, I’m going to ride it like a wave and write some things I’ve wanted to type out for awhile. 2020 was a big year for me, and I wanted to look back and see what lead me to where I am now. One of the many reasons I love keeping a journal is for this exact reason. I love being able to see my evolution in a written, tangible way and being able to document things that worked and things that didn’t pan out. Doing this pretty consistently for the past several years has significantly increased my intuitive abilities, and I’m manifesting much more effectively. My disclaimer is that I’m not a financial expert, mental health professional, or anything of the sort. My ultimate intention is to share my story in a meaningful way and be a relatable presence along the journey of anyone who hears these words. Below is the written word from my journal from this time last year (end of December). It’s just the first few pages, and then it goes on into all the stuff from 2020, which I plan on writing in a different post. I hope you enjoy reading this and find something of value from it. I look forward to digging through more of my writings and getting them out there. Anway. I’m sending warm, loving, vibrant, caring energy to every one of you. I love you all so very deeply. December something 2019 — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — Rent: 375 Rent: 375 phone: 81 Phone: 81 LES: 140 Insurance: 300 Food: 200 Student: 300 Wellness: 55 Truck: 183 Current: 7.1k 1yr: 8.5= goal 6mo 4.1k I figured out how much my 6mo and 1yr emergency fund needed to be to explain the first page. I considered helping Dylan with his budget in the second column; however, I decided to focus on my transformation. I’m proud of where I’ve gotten myself. It’s not about the money. It’s about changing habits. Learning patience and consistency and using these experiences to drive me to be my best self. When I am doing my best, I can be of the best service to others. I want to see people happy, and I know that I can only truly experience happiness in another if I am myself. My pleasure involves a full picture of health — social, physical, spiritual, and career. 2012–2013 These were my social years. 2014 I had many spiritual lessons. 2015 -2018 I got real about physical health. 2019 I started taking my career to the next level. 2020 It is all about balance and bringing these areas of wellbeing into a unit. 2010- The hottest mess. I survived. 2011- ##### 2012- I signed my first lease. I broke up with my first long term a$$-hole bf. 2013- I kicked my long-term a-hole bf out of my first apartment. I met a new group of friends who shared the same passion for flow arts. I started my first full-time office job. 2014- The year of profound lessons through toxic relationships. 2015- New job. New career path? New man? New place? 2016- New lifestyle. Own place. Challenging job. 2017- I have concerns about my skin. I’m also preoccupied with wanting to travel. 2018- No debt, but considerably bored. I need to get real about money and defining what success means to me. I’m in a healthy relationship, and I’ve been in it for quite some time. I’ve also held down this job longer than any other. 2019- We are for sure, moving to CO. I can get a better job. I’ve saved more money than ever before; how can I make my money work for me? 2020- I deserve this. I could go on. I believe 2020 will be a fantastic enjoyable year. (the next few pages go on to me doing a manual audit of my spending over the entire year of 2019. I did some crazy stuff) Set gentle reminders for yourself. Keep a distraction journal. Make to-do lists and check things off. Final thoughts going into 2020 January- Move $5k into a high yield savings account. Plan a surprise 30th b-day party for my Boo. Do Yoga every day Take walks during work breaks. Do your dental checkup! THE END THANKS FOR READING TILL THE END ❤ I’m open to making connections, so please leave me a comment if this struck a chord with you…also check back to see if I conquered the big ambitions I set for myself! My deepest gratitude, Bri (Oh, if you want to follow me on insta: @ ok.this.one YouTube: Attitude Gratitude FB: NONE)

https://medium.com/@beyondthebudget/i-manifested-reality-one-year-ago-26de2407c976

['Attitude Gratitude']

2020-12-21 14:28:24.218000+00:00

['Goals', 'Manifestation', 'Self Care', 'Love', 'Transformation']

Science Says You’re Smarter Than You Think

Science Says You’re Smarter Than You Think Reminders worth hearing over and over. Photo by Timothy Dykes on Unsplash If there’s a way that this year has changed us, it’s that it has made us uncertain. Unsure of what lies in the future, what we’re capable of, and our ability to move our lives forward. As has been the case this year, with your plans thwarted, it’s easy to lose faith in yourself and your wisdom to make sound decisions. It’s easy to think you can’t get your life back on track. Fortunately, that’s not the case. You’re smart and capable of overcoming whatever life throws at you. Here are 15 reasons why science says you’re smarter than you think.

https://medium.com/publishous/science-says-youre-smarter-than-you-think-28dd7ae57a39

['Leah Njoki']

2020-10-09 00:48:05.289000+00:00

['Life Lessons', 'Advice', 'Self', 'Life', 'Growth']

Wake-Up and Set-Up Your Day

Ring ring, snooze, ring ring, snooze … repeat. If that’s your morning routine, you are my kindred spirit. And not just mine, millions of people around the world can’t get up in the morning without going through an endless alarm/snooze process. Feeling dejected already? Read about the awesomeness of the 5 am club, and you will be downright depressed. Because some self-appointed self-improvement gurus will tell you that if you can’t wake up at 5 am, you don’t deserve to be a leader in your world. Let’s prove them wrong. The exercise below will take no more than 5 minutes. In case you can afford to start your day a few minutes late, great! If not, wake up 5 minutes earlier than your usual time (one less snooze will do). Avoid the temptation to get down and rush to the bathroom. Stay in your bed but sit up or you will doze off and hate me for making you late to work. Step 1: Breath Take a deep breath and then a deeper one. Feel the air flowing in and out of your lungs. Try to expel as much air as you can. Then inhale to the maximum capacity of your lungs. Repeat 5 times. Step 2: Be Grateful Thank the Universe (or any higher power you believe in), for providing you with a nice rest. Thank your pillow, your blanket and your mattress. Don’t think about people in your life. No, not even your partner or your kids. That’ll take you off on a tangent and out of gratitude. Step 3: Set Intentions Set the intention for a happy day ahead where everything is accomplished with ease. Imagine putting this intention inside a pink balloon and let it float up to the sky. Don’t try to be specific with your intentions. Setting intentions for winning a client, or delivering your product on time will yank you out of your bliss. Instead, set an intention expecting satisfaction and joy throughout the day. In a nutshell Taking a few deep breaths focusses your attention to the present moment and calms down your mind. Expressing gratitude tells your brain that you are in a safe environment. Lastly, setting feeling intentions for the day primes your subconscious to respond positively to people and conditions you encounter. Live life with joyous intentions.

https://medium.com/soul-safari/wake-up-and-set-up-your-day-6c169b8542ee

['Sudipto Chanda']

2020-12-28 05:18:14.738000+00:00

['Sleep', 'Self Improvement', 'Intentions', 'Wake Up', 'Joy']

How to Convert iOS App to Android App — Process, Benefits, and Reasons

With Android Apps capturing 75% of the market share, converting iOS to Android application is an intelligent move. While iOS apps allow you to make money from the App Store and promote the brand among the Apple customer base, you cannot miss the Android market share. You can begin with the iOS application, however, then you need to change over in order to get the benefits of converting iOS to Android applications. One of the significant reasons to convert iOS to Android app is you can get more cash-flow on the App Store. Once, your iOS adaptation of the application is performing well, the next wise step is to have an Android variant so that your application users can get a rich experience. In the event that you are wondering if android app development is a worthy investment, here are some benefits of converting iOS to android application. Creating apps for Android vs iOS might seem very similar, but the truth is that each of these two operating systems has its own peculiarities. When considering Android and iOS app development, there are several differences both in the technologies used and in the process of building an app itself. Android and iOS development also differs in terms of the design as well as app store submission and marketing strategy. A lot depends on the type of operating system chooses while drafting the concept of your application. Developers who switch from one operating system to another, with a completely different programming language, will notice the differences. Android for Flexibility and the Range of Applications The Android system runs many brands of smartphones. It gives you a very wide choice of different terminals according to your design preferences and your performance needs. This operating system is suitable for users who want to customize the interface of their mobile with widgets and shortcuts. Android also offers an impressive range of productivity tools and access to countless applications dedicated to working. These include the Google Doc co-editing tool and Google Drive file storage and sharing. In addition, the documents created are automatically saved and synchronized on all your Android devices. Points to Consider to Convert iOS App to Android App Architecture Defining the target audience and app features are the first step to initiating the conversion. For Android App Development, it is ideal to characterize the compatibility of the base Android devices that will be supported by the application. For example, KitKat 4.4 and above versions are used in over 90% of mobile phones. Code iOS and Android users are familiar with their particular frameworks. In most cases, the development team will have to develop the entire code from scratch. To ensure a seamless porting, businesses need to identify the time-sensitive elements and prioritize them during development. You can also choose to use Xamarin to develop cross-platform apps. Developers will have to consider external tools and libraries. A proactive check of these tools is an integral part of designing Android App solutions during porting it from iOS. Design Copying design elements when porting from iOS to Android apps is ideally not recommended. Android specializes in icons, texts, lights, shapes, images, and offers flexibility in elements. iOS uses a flat design. Key Differences Between Android and iOS Apps: Tabs — top of screen vs bottom Lists — Right pointing arrows vs left Buttons — round vs square Font sizes — measured in pixels vs points Navigation — top back button vs bottom back button for back navigation Date and time selectors, widgets Framework and Libraries In the process of converting iOS apps to Android, developers need to identify libraries and frameworks that make the replication of all functionalities seamless and easy. They must also support both OS. With the help of third-party libraries, you can add graphics, set up rules, customize communication protocols, templates, and more with complete ease. Screen Sizes The new app must also adapt to varied screen sizes and resolutions. Developers can utilize several available layout tools to convert iOS apps to Android and adapt them to different screen sizes. Testing Quality assurance is one of the most important steps for the successful porting of the apps. Continuous testing must be carried out during and post-development stages. It will involve integration testing of the software modules used, validation testing to ensure that the ported app meets the business goals. Beta testing and user scenario testing can also help analyze real-time data before the final release of the product. To Conclude The process of converting an iOS app to Android requires careful strategy and design considerations to meet business requirements. You may be faced with a few challenges, but the benefits of converting iOS to Android applications are higher than it. All you need is the right mobile app development company to execute this process. OneClick IT Solutions is known as the best app development company in USA and has helped our clients port iOS to Android apps and vice versa, successfully. Contact our team of experts to know the cost of converting iOS to Android app.

https://medium.com/@oneclickitconsultancy/how-to-convert-ios-app-to-android-app-process-benefits-and-reasons-ac8601be0cb4

['Oneclick It Consultancy']

2020-12-18 13:40:56.728000+00:00

['App Development Company', 'Mobile Apps', 'Android App Development', 'iOS App Development', 'Mobile App Development']

The best video baby monitors: Keep eyes — and ears — on your bundle of joy

The best video baby monitors: Keep eyes — and ears — on your bundle of joy Nintendoguy Jan 11·4 min read Baby monitors have a singular purpose: to bring parents, particularly nervous new ones, peace of mind. Each of the models reviewed here transmit both audio and video, allowing moms and dads to keep eyes and ears on their snoozing little ones, so they can get things done or just get a good night’s sleep. But these nursery essentials can be as fussy as the babies they keep tabs on. And like virtually every other household appliance, they are growing increasingly more capable and complex. In addition to conventional video baby monitors that use a camera and a handheld LCD display, often called a “parent unit,” there are now also Wi-Fi-enabled systems that connect to your home network and use your smartphone as both the display and the controller, much like DIY home security cameras. These latter models offer high-definition video, intelligent alerts, and the ability to check on your child from anywhere you have an internet connection. To help you find the best video baby monitor for your family’s needs, we’ve outlined some key features to look for, and we will continue to share the results of our testing. Here are our current top picks, followed by a buyers’ guide that will help you identify your wants and needs if our picks don’t match what you’re looking for. And if you scroll down to the bottom of the page, you’ll find links to all of our latest video baby monitor reviews. Best video baby monitor Arlo Baby Read TechHive's reviewMSRP $249.99See itThe Arlo Baby expertly combines solid security with nursery-centric features for parents' peace of mind. Arlo brought the best features of its home security cameras to its first baby monitor. That includes Full HD video, night vision, sound and motion detection, two-way audio, 24/7 recording, and free cloud storage. The company also used feedback from owners to add a nursery-centric spin to the Arlo Baby, with a multicolored LED nightlight, a built-in music player with nine lullabies, environmental sensors, and artificial intelligence that can recognize your child’s cries. Runner up Mentioned in this article Cubo AI Plus Read TechHive's reviewSee itThe Cubo AI Plus is an excellent AI-powered baby monitor with smart alerts that should help both child and parents sleep better. Artifiicial intelligence enables this camera to detect and warn parents when babies are in potentially dangerous sleeping situations, such as having their face covered or sleeping on their stomach. It also has the unique ability to recognize when a baby is sitting up in their crib or smiling, and it will snap a photo that can you save in a memory book. The cute industrial design is just the icing on the cake. What to look when buying a video baby monitorIf our top picks don’t match your budget or your needs, this guide will help you understand all the features you’ll encounter in your search for the perfect video baby monitor, so you narrow the field to find exactly what you’re looking for. Motion and audio sensors: In the old days, parents were forced to endure a consistent ambient hiss from their audio monitors while they listened for their child’s stirrings or cries. Mercifully, many modern baby monitors will stay in “quiet mode” until they detect motion and/or sound, which will trigger an alert, such as activating the handheld video display or pushing a notification to your smartphone. Hanwha Techwin Wisenet The Wisenet BabyView Echo’s display can operate on battery power, waking only when the camera detects sound. Rechargeable batteries: Since the camera will most likely stay trained on your bundle of joy, it can remain plugged into AC power. But parent unit displays are designed to be always on and carried with you as you move from room to room. That can drain batteries quickly. Look for a parent unit that runs on rechargeable batteries, so you’re not constantly swapping them out. Night vision: Because much of the time you’ll be checking on your child after dark, most video baby monitors include infrared LEDs that automatically turn on in low light. The trick is to make sure they illuminate just enough that you can see your child without the light waking him or her. Two-way talk: If your child does start prematurely stirring from their sleep, the last thing you want to do is risk waking them fully by walking into the room to settle them. Baby monitors often include a push-to-talk microphone you can activate from the parent unit or your smartphone to remotely soothe your child with your voice. VTech Many baby video monitors, including the VTech VM3251 shown here, can play lullabies to soothe your child to sleep. Environmental sensors: Many monitors include the ability to set thresholds and upper limits for room temperature and/or humidity, and they’ll alert you when these ranges are exceeded. While they can’t control the temperature or the amount of moisture in the room’s air, this feature can help you improve your child’s comfort, which will help them get more restful sleep. Lullabies: Monitors often include a selection of soothing sounds to help your baby drift off to slumberland. These can be traditional nursery rhymes of the rock-a-bye-baby variety, nature sounds, white noise, or some combination of all of them. It’s a good idea to check them out before you play them to your sleeping child to determine whether they might help or hinder their sleep. Our latest video baby monitor 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/@nintend92798481/the-best-video-baby-monitors-keep-eyes-and-ears-on-your-bundle-of-joy-332f9ea03daa

[]

2021-01-11 21:58:46.931000+00:00

['Chargers', 'Connected Home']

แทรม หรือ บีอาร์ที ดีกว่ากัน? ตอนที่ 2

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/city-th/%E0%B9%81%E0%B8%97%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%A1-%E0%B8%AB%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%B7%E0%B8%AD-%E0%B8%9A%E0%B8%B5%E0%B8%AD%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%A3%E0%B9%8C%E0%B8%97%E0%B8%B5-%E0%B8%94%E0%B8%B5%E0%B8%81%E0%B8%A7%E0%B9%88%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%81%E0%B8%B1%E0%B8%99-%E0%B8%95%E0%B8%AD%E0%B8%99%E0%B8%97%E0%B8%B5%E0%B9%88-2-7aff3872090d

['Sorathun Maitrawatthana']

2020-12-24 08:24:56.274000+00:00

['Phuket', 'Brt', 'Thailand', 'Tram', 'Transportation']

How Going Diaper-Free With Your Infant Can Deepen Your Connection for Years to Come

How to Use Diaper-Free Time to Understand Your Child’s Needs As I mentioned, I have begun this method with both newborns and infants. Plenty of parents begin with older children, though, and whether your child is an hour old or a year old, the same general principles apply. For the purposes of this discussion, I’ll stick to newborns and infants. Observe your child for cues Cues? Really?, you might ask. Indeed. Though most of us are used to hearing about it only after the diaper has been soiled (or during, if you have a particularly long pooper like my son), babies cue when they need to use the bathroom as well. The most obvious example for me with my two younger babies was on their first day of life. Out of the blue, they emitted a high-pitched wail unlike any cry they’d done up to that point. Sure enough, that cry was accompanied by their very first pee. Any amount of conscious observation you can do will help you get to know your child better. Watching your baby and paying attention to what they do just before or during a pee will help you decide when to offer the potty. Cues that a child needs to use the bathroom are often confused with general fussiness. And, in fact, I’ve found most of my most recent baby’s general fussiness is correlated with a need to pee or poop. Other cues might be grunting, wiggling, or arching of the back. Diaper-free time is relatively easy with young babies because they generally stay put. You can put them on a towel, waterproof mat, flat prefold diaper, or really anything you don’t mind getting soiled. Even just opening the diaper while you’re sitting together can work. With boys, you might find you need to be a little extra vigilant because of the spray, but I’ve found my son also offers more visible clues that he needs to wee and so, as long as I’m paying attention, I miss his pees less frequently than I did with my girls. Keep in mind I’m not suggesting you throw away all your diapers and leave your child’s bottom bits uncovered from now until eternity. Diaper-free time doesn’t mean your child will never wear a diaper again. You can give two minutes a week, two hours a day, or whatever amount of time you’re comfortable with. And it doesn’t need to be a huge time commitment. Try taking off the diaper for a few minutes while you’re already playing together, and just paying attention to your baby. Any amount of conscious observation you can do will help you get to know your child better. Cues are much easier to see when the baby’s lower half is uncovered, but you can observe your child with a diaper on if you’re not ready to go diaper-free quite yet. Even with a diaper on, you can still learn a lot from paying attention to your child’s behavior. Baby might fuss and/or wiggle for a few minutes and then suddenly emit a soft grunt and stop fussing. It’s the baby version of holding your bladder for the entire ride home and then sighing with relief when you finally get home and use the toilet. Narrate what is happening Diaper-free time and elimination communication are not about potty training your baby. They’re about strengthening the connection between child and parent. These tools help the parent to know what is going on for the child, but they also help the child know what is going on in their body. So, when you notice the baby going to the bathroom, tell them what they’re doing. “Oh! You’re peeing,” or, “You peed!” Just an observation, not a judgment. The more you can narrate what is going on for the baby, the more they will connect your words with what’s happening in their body. You’re not praising them, but you’re not shaming them either. I’ll admit, I’ve been peed (and pooped) on a few times, and on more than one occasion I’ve reflexively shrieked and expressed irritation. The same will probably happen to you. I’ll share a secret with you, though. My irritation is actually with myself because nine times out of ten, it was my fault for not paying attention to my baby’s cues. My child would start to fuss and wiggle in my lap; I’d say, “Just a second, sweetie,” for a lot longer than a second, and then they’d let loose. The more attention you can pay, the more you’ll know about what your child needs. Offer the potty You could achieve the benefits of fostering a deeper connection with your child simply by doing what I’ve already outlined above, but adding a baby potty into the mix here has a lot of benefits. Once people get over their incredulity, they often ask a ton of questions and even try it themselves. First, it gives a tangible end product for the work of observation and narration. Sure, the real goal is to get to know your child and their needs and behaviors more intimately, but that’s a long game and it’s nice to see short-term success. Second, it positions the potty as something the kid has used all along rather than some new thing they must get used to once they’ve hit a certain age. Potty training is easier or even completely unnecessary; my two older kids never needed official potty training. Instead, they simply stopped wearing diapers during the daytime around 16 months and only had occasional accidents afterward. Third, you use fewer diapers, and the cleanup becomes much easier. I used disposable diapers with my oldest. I could count the packs I bought after beginning to offer the potty on two hands and still have some fingers left over. With my youngest I use cloth, and it means we are only washing every two days instead of every day in the beginning— and later on, much less frequently. Also, you’ll probably have noticed most of my references above are to pee. My babies do poop, it’s true, but the beauty of this method is that, since poop cues are often much more obvious, it’s easy to get the baby on the potty. My son is nearly four months old and I haven’t had to clean a poopy diaper in three months — which means I also haven’t had to clean poop from around his bum and genitals. Finally, it’s just plain cool. Once people get over their incredulity, they often ask a ton of questions and even try it themselves. When and how to offer the potty depends on you and your baby. First, let’s talk when. Once you’ve gotten to know your baby’s cues, you can certainly offer the potty when you notice these signals. But these cues often happen when the bladder is uncomfortably full. Offering at other times of day can reduce that discomfort. Some common times are to offer after baby eats, after they wake up in the morning and from naps, and at diaper changes. As mentioned before, poop cues are pretty easy to spot and you can often just catch the baby at the beginning of a poop and let them finish in the potty. As for how, there is a lot of variation here. Some families use a bowl, some use the sink, some use the toilet, and some use a baby potty. I’ve used all of these, depending on where I am, who’s around, and what’s available. Regardless, when a baby is younger, it goes without saying that you want to support their head and avoid getting their body into an uncomfortable position. There are a few positions you can hold the baby in; what’s worked for me is to hold the insert to a baby potty in my lap and support baby with his back to me as he sits on the potty. Author’s photo — baby using the potty after a nap Usually, if the baby needs to go, they’ll do it pretty quickly. We don’t want to traumatize them by trying to hold them there too long, or by holding them there while they’re upset. It’s just an offer. If they go, say, “Look at that! You peed in the potty!” If not, say, “I guess you don’t need to go. We’ll try again later!” Remember, using the potty comes with some cool side benefits. The goal, though, isn’t to stress out you or your child about the toilet; rather, it is to improve the communication and connection between you and your child. Also, diaper-free time and using the potty are not an all-or-nothing proposition. Skeptics often bemoan the time requirement and the fact that parents have to be right next to the baby at all times. This is only subject to your availability and comfort level. I am with my son most of the time because we are quarantined in the house and have been since before he was born. But with my daughter, I worked part- and eventually full-time and we achieved the same results.

https://medium.com/better-humans/how-going-diaper-free-with-your-infant-can-deepen-your-connection-for-years-to-come-25d7feed1d15

['Nikki Kay']

2020-08-07 17:52:38.851000+00:00

['Family', 'Babies', 'Children', 'Parenting', 'Relationships']

What Is the Right Choice of Life?

What Is the Right Choice of Life? Photo by Oliver Roos on Unsplash Choices. Every single day we are bombarded with the situation to make a choice. From what to wear, what to eat, till what we want to do, it just a lot of decision-making situations. Sometimes this situation can be quite frustrating, right? Imagine if there is something or someone that helps us decide. But you know what is more frustrating? When you regret the outcome of the choice you choose, wishing that you can roll back time and change the decision to a better one. The example above is based on an average person’s everyday life. There are moments where you have to decide, and your whole life course will change. To pick a choice without knowing the outcome, if things will turn out good or bad. During this moment wouldn’t it be great if you can view the outcome of the choices, you had? Able to see and decide which choice brings out the best benefit so that you can choose the right one and live a less regretful life. There are such moments I face in my life too. The big life-changing decision that I had to take. I often call it my life’s turning point. Moments like choosing whether to settle down in my hometown or start exploring a new city. The moment I step out from my hometown to the independent person I am today, I have faced nearly four life-changing decisions so far. The decisions that I took back then have consciously or subconsciously pave the path I am going through today. When I reflect on those moments, I sometimes wonder what will my life be if I had just chosen the other choice. I bet things would have changed drastically. Who knows how things will have turn out? Good? Better? or Worst? Sometimes I hope to see multiple timelines of all the life-changing decisions and then choose the type of life that I would love to live. I guess we will never know. One thing I can be sure of was I didn’t feel regret for the choices I chose. Once I choose, I focus on it and move forward. Even if the choice had some unfortunate outcome, some downfall moments, or turn out to be a wonderful experience. I just keep moving forward because I know I made a choice based on the best thinking ability I had at that time. Life is a master of choices, and every choice you make makes you — John C Maxwell You see in life in your life; when we are present with two choices, we always think there will be a better one, and we always find it hard to choose. We try to compare both choices and imagine all the possible outcomes. We try to make sure that we choose the right choice and make the best out of it. But the truth is there is no better choice. There is only a choice to choose. We often worry ourselves, thinking that we will regret choosing the wrong choice as if we could even know what we are regretting. Regret thinking there was a right choice, and we made the wrong one. But how can there be a wrong one? The only thing we know is that on the other side of the decision, we will be there. No matter what path we go, there will always be something to love, and there will always be something to be fearful of. The only matters are that the choices that we take, are fully our choice and not by other people. Life is full of uncertainty, and so with the path that is ahead of us. As long as we are true to ourselves and choose whatever choices we have, I am sure it will be the right choice.

https://medium.com/@ravinrau1/what-is-the-right-choice-of-life-61591dbc9088

['Ravin Rau']

2021-02-20 03:13:15.370000+00:00

['Self Improvement', 'Self Discovery', 'Life Lessons', 'Choices', 'Self Love']

Hostinger Hosting Review: Is It Fast? Worth Buying?

BASIC INFORMATION Hostinger was founded in Lithuania in 2004 and reached the one million user milestone in 2011. Since then, Hostinger has grown to include several subsidiary companies; powered by data centers in seven countries, the company and its affiliates now serve over 29 million users, with over 10,000 new signups every day. WORDPRESS HOSTING Hostinger offers four different types of hosting: shared, WordPress, cloud, and VPS. Shared and cloud hosting are the cheapest and most beginner-friendly options, WordPress hosting is excellent for blogging, while VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting is best suited for larger sites that demand more resources. Hostinger mentions on its website that the company offers e-commerce hosting. They cover the Magento and PrestaShop platforms, as well as the WooCommerce plugin for WordPress.Note that these offerings are basically a rebranding of the WordPress/shared hosting plans, but with slight software, changes to support the specific e-commerce tool. SHARED HOSTING Hostinger’s shared hosting plans are suitable for those just getting started with a small website and who need a budget-friendly option. There are three plans, with prices beginning at $0.99 per month. The cheapest option, called Single Shared Hosting, gets you to support for 1 website and email account. You’ll get 10 GB of SSD storage space on 1 MySQL database and weekly backups, and you’ll be able to support up to 100 GB of bandwidth. Single Shared Hosting Starting at $0.99 per month (renews at $2.15) Hosting for 1 website 10 GB of disk space 100 GB of bandwidth 1 MySQL database Premium Shared Hosting Starting at $2.59 per month (renews at $3.49) Hosting for up to 100 websites 20 GB of disk space Unlimited bandwidth Unlimited MySQL databases Free domain registration Business Shared Hosting Starting at $4.09 per month (renews at $7.95) Hosting for up to 100 websites 30 GB of disk space Unlimited bandwidth Unlimited MySQL databases Free domain registration Free SSL Free daily backups VPS HOSTING VPS Hosting gets you powerful servers built for speed, but since this is Hostinger we’re talking about, you won’t break the bank for any of these plans. The VPS options are best for those who need a lot of resources to serve their site quickly and are comfortable with the management required of such plans. In addition to getting a dedicated IP address, VPS hosting users get full root access (which allows you a greater degree of control over your environment), and SSDs (solid-state drives). CLOUD HOSTING Cloud hosting is a relatively new type of web hosting service. The cloud hosting plans provided by Hostinger is a step above the shared options. Let’s take a closer look at what each cloud plan offers. Cloud Startup Starting at $9.99 per month (renews at $15.90) 3 GB of RAM 40 GB of SSD storage 2 CPU cores Cloud Professional Starting at $18.99 per month (renews at $31.80) 6 GB of RAM 80 GB of SSD storage 4 CPU cores Cloud Enterprise Starting at $35.99 per month (renews at $71.55) 12 GB of RAM 160 GB of SSD Storage 6 CPU cores PROS AND CONS The Hostinger administrative dashboard is super easy to use. It’s very straightforward, even if you don’t have much experience with the web hosting or managing a website. Hostinger is cheap. So if you want a low-cost web host, this is a logical place for you to start. But keep in mind that like most web hosts, Hostinger has some tricks and ploys when it comes to their pricing. For the most part, cPanel is the industry standard in web hosting. So if you’re used to using cPanel, then you may be a bit frustrated using Hostinger’s version. Premium, Business, Cloud, and VPS plans come with a free domain name. But if you’re planning to use Hostinger to host more than one website, you’ll need to pay for additional registrations. All Hostinger plans come with a free domain and website builder. So for those of you who are building a new website from scratch, you can take advantage of Hostinger’s easy to use drag and drop builder. SHOULD YOU USE THEM? Hostinger is one of the better hosting companies, there is no wrong choice for joining them, but NameHero and SiteGround. will be a better choice. Feel free to visit our NameHero and SiteGround review here on medium! *affiliate links are included

https://medium.com/@cashflowtip/hostinger-hosting-review-is-it-fast-worth-buying-85a9bbfd4a3a

[]

2020-12-18 23:06:34.561000+00:00

['Hostinger Reviews', 'Wordpress Hosting', 'Hostinger', 'Hosting', 'WordPress']

Joe Galloway Catholic Author Publishes Personal Finances Book for Catholics

How do you survive and even thrive in these challenging times? How do you find the peace that you truly want? Common advice to find happiness is to buy more things and go on exotic vacations. That’s great, but it probably costs a bit more than you really can afford. And that causes financial stress. Money worries cause stress and anxiety, and are a major cause of a family’s breakdown. In his second book, author and financial expert Joe Galloway offers a practical and spiritual roadmap to finding the peace of mind we all seek. It’s Not Your Money: Finding the Peace of Putting God First on Amazon by Joe Galloway will challenge your thinking and strengthen your faith by teaching you what God says about money and possessions — a topic mentioned over 2,500 times in the Bible, more than any other subject. Joe gives you the tangible advice you need to follow those teachings. If you are interested in comparing and contrasting what God says about money with society’s best advice for attaining happiness and success, then get this book on personal finance told through the lens of a Catholic Christian spiritual perspective. Changing your attitude about assets and income will change your heart. Your life, your marriage, and your family will be transformed. That will change your community and the church for the good of all. This book provides the key to that transformation.

https://medium.com/catholic-financial-advice-with-joe-galloway/joe-galloway-catholic-author-publishes-personal-finances-book-for-catholics-cf9540c5262a

['Joe Galloway']

2021-02-02 04:08:47.166000+00:00

['Joseph Galloway', 'Personal Finance', 'Catholicism', 'Joe Galloway', 'Catholic']

Adobe Illustrator course in Rawalpindi Pakistan

Adobe Illustrator course in Rawalpindi Pakistan Adobe Illustrator is a professional vector-based design and drawing program. Used as part of a larger design workflow, Illustrator allows for the creation of everything from single design elements to entire compositions. Designers use Illustrator to create posters, symbols, logos, patterns, icons, etc.

https://medium.com/@coursescomputer7/adobe-illustrator-course-in-rawalpindi-pakistan-68ca05a49d39

['Icp Institute']

2020-12-24 07:22:57.258000+00:00

['Logo Design', 'Graphic Design', 'Institute', 'Brouchers', 'Adobe Illustrator']

Entertainment platform SHOW Token 600,000 incinerators. 🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀

The SHOWGO Foundation, a blockchain-based entertainment platform, announced that it has incinerated 600,000 SHOWToken as an activity to revitalize the SHOWGO platform and increase the value of tokens. SHOWGO has a total issue of 10 million, much less than 21 million Bitcoin issues, and is a project that aims to build all entertainment platforms, including music and sports. SHOWGO is currently building various systems to improve and change various problems, including illegal alteration of music sources, irrationality in the distribution process, and protection of new creations, which are problems in the entertainment industry. It is a structure in which contracts are carried out through smart contracts, and musicians and influencers will register their profiles through platform apps and proceed with contracts through smart contracts. Users who use tokens to sponsor musicians and influencers and watch ads on the platform can be rewarded with SHOW tokens. It plans to continue to increase demand by popularizing music and video streaming purchase services, limited edition auction shopping mall services, active and wide creator support services, and various user reward services. http://www.nbntv.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=931216 Homepage : http://showgolive.com/ Medium: https://medium.com/@showgo_live Blog : https://blog.naver.com/showgolive Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/Showgo_office Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Showgolive-100164992348043

https://medium.com/@showgo_live/entertainment-platform-show-token-600-000-incinerators-a13ec3efffeb

[]

2021-07-22 10:53:50.048000+00:00

['Coins', 'Platform', 'Showgo', 'Blockchain']

Why Did I Cover So Many “Low-End/Consumer” Headphones?

You might think that you shouldn’t Google yourself. And you’re right. You shouldn’t. Especially if you’re a content creator. What follows the press of a simple enter key is a mind-melting odyssey through random thoughts about you written by complete strangers. I haven’t done it in a while, but the last time I did, I noticed some scattered comments out there on forums and the like. People mentioning that they enjoyed or at least read my reviews (thank you!) but that I cover a lot of “consumer gear.” Not the good high-end stuff. You know. The real stuff. Much of audiophile fandom obsessively focuses on the ever-evolving and ever-money-grabbing high-end. The fancy new driver systems, cable interconnects, and amplifiers of the world. Headphones with exotic wooden cups, big boxes, and thousand-dollar-plus prices. That’s not a world I want to live in, or can afford to live in. Well, I could probably afford it once a year. But then I’d only have one headphone article to write. I like to write about stuff. I buy all of my own technology, and then I review it. So I have to write about the things I can actually afford. “But Alex, why didn’t you just save that money and buy yourself one really good pair of headphones?” There’s so much to break down here. First off, quality is not exclusively limited to the rich, even in technology products. If value didn’t exist at a somewhat-mainstream price, then the whole market would collapse under its lack of customers. Even with many exceptional sub-$100 headphones and the $300 price of popular pairs like Beats, the market isn’t huge. Audio-Technica revealed their M50X sales numbers recently as part of the Bluetooth version’s launch showing that they’ve only sold 1.8 million units over the decade-plus life of that family of headphones. Check out this story from the Verge for the full context of this quote. That’s great for a studio headphone, but not so good as far as overall market-size. It’s secretly part of why I once declared that this was all a stupid idea. Secondly, I don’t keep every headphone that I review. I keep a small collection, and sell the rest. Headphones are a hobby for me, not a lifestyle or a status symbol, or a verification of my self-worth. High-end manufacturers are banking on your innate desire for BETTER when they produce borderline snake-oil products that cost too much money. Thirdly, I like to write and think about tech on a regular basis. I like to try out new things and see what they have to offer. There’s a fun novelty to it, and it’s cool to see what innovations make their way to more public-facing gear. The consumer market has more products in it that I can afford than the high end market. So, that’s where I’ve focused. Inevitably, I’ll run out of headphones to cover. I’m getting pretty close to that point already. When I do, I’ll perform a soft-reboot on myself and focus on my other passions. Video games. Movies. Music. Books. Maybe I’ll even get to write some original fiction again. Don’t let the elitism of the high-end of the community entice you. It can be tempting to belong to a group, even if that group consists solely of members who spent more than $1000 on headphones. I get it. I get that desire to belong. But often, that comes with a weird need to shun all those who don’t I follow the same path. That’s no good, regardless of the fandom you’re in. Criticism is an important part of technology, and of life. It’s okay to think that something is bad, and to try and articulate those opinions for others to read and ponder. It’s a much murkier path to insult the people that like something you didn’t like. Or vice versa. One is productive, and one is a bit…self-serving. I always want tech products/headphones/things to be good. I approach everything with the same level of cautious optimism, and my own money is always on the line. When it’s great, I celebrate it. And when it’s bad I try to figure out why, then I learn from my mistake and move on. Most people aren’t buying high-end stuff all the time, and there are so many resources out there that it’s easy to do some research on your own. And remember that you have to use your own brain, not just the brains of others. Low-end products are no less worthy of critical thought than high-end ones.

https://medium.com/@xander51/why-did-i-cover-so-many-low-end-consumer-headphones-40acaf5bae81

['Alex Rowe']

2019-02-06 21:34:31.029000+00:00

['Marketing', 'Review', 'Tech', 'Gadgets', 'Headphones']

Mysore Trip

I went to Mysore from Bangalore. The journey took place on 18th December 2020. I went by auto to bus stand, it was a long arduous journey. I left very late by 10.30 am and took the bus by 11.11am. I saw the various parts of Bangalore City. After reaching the bus stand, I boarded the bus. There were many buses and lots of people. What a view!!! In the bus, vendors of fruits and peanuts. I was very hungry so I bought a Vada. I have been in the bus around 4 times before, but this was best experience and scary. I went down the bus. I went to the St. Philomenas Church and Shri Chamundeshwari Temple. I bought some old coins for a friend as a gift. There was no time to eat and drink anything just being HIGH ON LIFE!!!! I boarded the bus and went to 1MG Mall by Auto again. The theme was very Christmas and I could smell the joy in the air. The big Christmas Tree was very nice. I went to Puma store and then went home with papa what a day!!!!!

https://medium.com/@cheriyanahira/mysore-trip-fe1a953f8e90

['Ahira Cheriyan']

2020-12-19 12:49:06.519000+00:00

['Church', 'Mysore', 'Temple', 'Adventure']

Have I Lost My Sense of Humor?

Have I Lost My Sense of Humor? The truth about knowing better, doing better, and my missing funnybone Seriously? Photo by Michelle Tresemer on Unsplash Something shifted in me, and I’ve noticed recently that things other people seem to find funny don’t seem funny to me anymore. It came to a head on Monday, and I posted on Facebook that I felt like I’d completely lost a large portion of it, at the least. After being asked which part, I revised my statement. Maybe it’s not so much my sense of humor that’s gone missing, but my tolerance for bullshit? Meme screenshot courtesy of author. Several months ago, someone posted a meme in a group I’m in, encouraging women to send a photo of a speculum to their partners then share their responses in the comments. Among the replies were a lot of men using words like “vagina spreader,” “vagina stretcher,” and “that thing for your pussy.” Everybody seemed to think this was a hilarious exercise in mens’ ignorance. Except me. I shrugged it off- perhaps I was being too sensitive, a wet blanket ruining the fun of men not knowing what a vulva is or that a speculum allows a doctor to look at your cervix. Sometime during the same month, another viral post with the most ridiculous things men had actually believed about periods came across my feed. I’m not saying that I found zero humor in some of the anecdotes. Largely, though, it felt increasingly sad and horrifying that there are so many men out there who have no idea how close to half the bodies on earth actually work. To be honest, the idea of having grown sons who don’t know how periods work or what happens when a woman gets her annual exam is mortifying to me. I would be beyond ashamed to find out that my children didn’t know the basic functions of the human body or care enough about their partners to know about basic medical procedures. Additionally, when is the last time you met a woman who didn’t know how a prostate exam was performed? Why do we find it cute/funny/acceptable as a society that men don’t make the same effort?

https://medium.com/rachael-writes/have-i-lost-my-sense-of-humor-7273d2fee130

['Rachael Hope']

2019-08-14 19:55:46.336000+00:00

['Culture', 'Social Justice', 'Human Rights', 'Feminism', 'Society']

London a world-class global city

Saskia Sassen, found London as one of cities with advanced urban areas that defined the modern world. London is a financial centre that won the organization of the Olympic Games in 2012, is focused on a Smart City strategy to position itself as a world-class global city. Therefore, Smart City Board, which is a committee of experts, academics, entrepreneurs, businesses hold a strategy part of a long-term plan for London’s infrastructure (London Infrastructure Plan 2050) to ensure economic growth. Elephant & Castle, Nine Elms, the Greenwich Peninsular and the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park are the areas with the greatest opportunities for new urban regeneration projects and local community planning focusing on diversity and inclusivity. The old London Docklands model is being replicated with the London Legacy Development Corporation in East London where the Olympic Park is located. Nine Elms London is also taking one of the key concept of Orange Economy by supporting creatives and cultural industries with the help of some institutions for knowledge transfer which are: Imperial West College, LSE Cities, UCL The Bartlett, Victoria and Albert Museum, Creative Industries Council, Arts Council England. In this field, Digital Catapult is the leading connector between startups and industries with acceleration programs for Intelligence Artificial and Machine Learning, 5G, IoT, Medias and Sports. The Bartlett Another new concept in London is the “Business Improvement District”, as in the case of Kingston first was apply to manage the Kingston Town Center Business Improvement District. The goal is to make Kingston a better place for people who visit, work and live. BID is a partnership between a local authority and the local business community to develop projects and services to benefit the business environment within the boundaries of a well-defined business area. As described on the website, The Creative Industries Centre of Kingston provides an exciting state of the art facility for our extensive range of Art & Design, Digital Arts, Games Design, Media/Interactive Media, Music/Music Technology and Photography courses, all delivered by passionate and inspiring lecturers.

https://medium.com/@williamgourg/london-a-world-class-global-city-3239d7773dc1

['William Gourg']

2020-09-23 13:45:07.484000+00:00

['Creative Industry', 'London', 'Urban Planning', 'Globalization', 'Knowledge Economy']

Lets Talk About Our Balance of Enviroment In The World

These days, we talk a lot about water, soil and air that give us life. We get some data, and we start worrying about the future. I’m sure many of us are well-meaning people who want things to change. We may be aware of our environment, but can we improve it? We have some problems such as air pollution, water pollution, soil pollution. Does sharing these problems on social media accounts or supporting the shared by liking make us strong against these problems? It is important to raise our awareness of the world and what is in it, but it is insufficient. Every individual who gains awareness should take an active role in the army of those who make the world beautiful. I think you should read a little more to understand what I mean, let’s see it together .. I have been working as an environmental expert for 6 years and during this period we have organized environmental training for thousands of people. We have informed employees from many different sectors on many issues such as greenhouse gas emissions, global warming, natural resource problems, and energy problems. If you want to teach someone something, you must have unlimited faith in what you have to say. A sustainable belief. But later, I realized that although I had this belief, the people were not interested in the subjects I was telling. Some people would prove that what I told was true by giving examples from the environment he lived in, some from the events he had experienced, and some from his childhood. I know that many professionals like me have been talking about these issues somewhere. Is it enough ? No. Does it work? No way.. Photo by Noah Buscher on Unsplash Training people to prevent consumption, to talk about the need not to harm nature, to talk about the need to share the world with plants and animals.. Humanity has more serious problems. Like hunger, housing, health. Actually the main problem is poverty. Poverty exists that due to the existence of wealth. Unfortunately, there has never been a balance between poverty and wealth in this world. But when you look at millions of years, we see that the last 70–80 years have been dramatically awful for the world. Maybe we can say that the rapid in the increase of problems after the 2nd World War has exceeded the graph. Since then, we have been consuming as if the world could endure us. So why? To get richer? To be stronger? Bravo! You did it! Can you survive a few hundred years more than the underdeveloped countries? Whatever happens, the world will beat you too. You have to put aside the advanced egos. Unless everyone can act together, our end will not be different. Don’t be arrogant. These people are poor and have turned their back on our world because of the activities caused by people. And we say to these people ‘’Let’s save our world!’‘.. Unfortunately, our job is very difficult. The world continues to take its revenge on us..

https://medium.com/@uguralpcetinn/lets-talk-about-our-balance-of-enviroment-in-the-world-1518ed799822

[]

2020-12-03 14:52:15.600000+00:00

['Enviroment', 'Poverty', 'Awareness', 'Wealth', 'Environmental Issues']

Image encryption and decryption web application using Flask

A few months back I made a flask app during a hackathon. The web app helps in easy encryption and decryption of an image. It is based on the XOR operation. Upon encryption, the user is given back an encrypted image along with a key. Later on, the user can upload the encrypted image back to the web app along with the key, and in return, the user is given back a decrypted image only if the key entered is correct. The link to my deployed website for this project image security The Tech stack used for making this app is Flask + Jinja framework. The sole function of this web app is image encryption and decryption. The reason for choosing flask is because it is relatively easy to fetch or provide images in Flask. The other reason for using Flask is python (easy operations). Kindly refer to this documentation if you want to set up a flask project.

https://medium.com/@vinayaksh42/image-encryption-and-decryption-web-application-using-flask-b3b113b16365

['Vinayak Sharma']

2020-11-18 12:40:00.465000+00:00

['Encryption', 'Decryption', 'Hackathons', 'Flask', 'Python']

Scientology and Me: Part One, Growing Up in the Church

by Stella Forstner The E-Meter I was about the age Suri Cruise is now when I had my first session. Mickey, my first-grade teacher at the non-traditional school I attended, had announced that day that he would soon be leaving for a new job somewhere in California. All I remember now of Mickey is his warmth, and his soft, crinkly eyes and thick black beard, but the day he made his announcement, I was devastated in the way only a six-year-old can be — someone I loved was leaving me! The world had turned cruel. I trudged home to my mother, sobbing, and though I’m not sure who brought up the idea first, I knew a session was just what I needed. Because my brother was an infant at the time, my mother wasn’t going into the mission regularly, and when she did auditing it was from home. I remember the E-meter set up on a table in the light-filled kitchen, the screen facing her. I sat across, gripping metal cans narrower than soda cans but still too big for child-sized hands. I felt excited, a little nervous, my sadness about Mickey already dulled by my entry into the adult world of the church and the confidence that I could make these painful feelings of loss go away. The E-meter, short for electropsychometer, operates on the same principle as a lie detector, measuring electrical fluctuations from your skin believed by Scientologists to correspond to interior states and unconscious feelings. A high-level Dianetics (the ‘science’ upon which the practice of Scientology is based) auditor, my mother’s job was to guide her clients through whatever issues they were dealing with, using the E-meter as a tool to locate sources of mental turmoil they were not themselves conscious of. According to Dianetics, uncovering these sources — mental images known as engrams — rids them of ‘charge,’ which is seen both physiologically as it registers in the movement of the needle on the screen of the E-meter, and mentally as it binds an individual to illness, mental anguish, and unconscious impulses. I was fascinated by the E-meter when I was little; wouldn’t you be? The machine promised to show you what was going on inside the black box of your brain and give you the power to change it. I sometimes turned the machine on and played with it secretly, but I knew from my mother that I couldn’t audit myself until I was older and trained to do so. It seemed like a kind of magic the way my mother was able to read my feelings through the E-meter, though to be fair my tear-stained six-year-old face probably made things pretty transparent. She identified the source of my upset (I was afraid I would never see Mickey again and that he would forget me), helped me to devise a solution (I could write to Mickey and perhaps someday we could visit him in California), and left me exultant as she ended the session with the words “your needle is floating.” I felt happy and in control. A ‘floating needle’ meant, I knew, that all had been resolved. I knew this because my mother was an auditor and she made people happy, helped them to explore and eventually triumph over their problems. I remember a client showing up at the house with a bouquet of flowers for my mother, intense gratitude on his face. He credited her and the auditing she had given him with helping him to change his life. I didn’t see my mother’s clients often; she usually worked long hours at the mission, an independent Scientology franchise by that time subservient to the ‘orgs’ (short for organization) operated directly by an arm of the church. My mother did most of her auditing at the mission, a place I remember as overwhelmingly brown, in that woody style of the late ‘70s/early ’80s. I hung out there often, mostly because she couldn’t afford daycare, spending hours in the basement playing with the clay demos used in courses and trying out my atrocious jokes on the stressed-out staff. The atmosphere was so casual that I was sometimes allowed to take part in Dianetics training called the communications course — a set of techniques intended to help people become more comfortable in social situations. Part of what were called the TRs (short for training routines) for this course involved a drill called ‘bullbait;’ the student had to remain calm and focused while their partner, typically another student on the course, did whatever they could to make them laugh or otherwise break. My stretched-mouth-pig-nose-exposed-under-eyeballs-face took down many an otherwise excellent bullbaitee. I loved being allowed in the adult world of the church, not only because I was a child who adored adult company but also because I, like the adults, was taken in by the feeling that I was part of something big and important. I remember when a new promotional film was released and the city org set up a viewing at a local movie theater. In the opening scene the earth was shown rotating on its axis, a great shadow spreading over it as the narrator proclaimed the rapid and unstoppable growth of Scientology. We had the power to make people better, stronger, to release them from negative emotions; I had seen evidence of this and even experienced it myself. I felt special and proud. But the Church wasn’t always a good place to be a child. For a time I had attended a Scientology kindergarten where discipline involved long stretches of time in the corner reflecting on one’s misdeeds. After I came home crying from school on half a dozen occasions, my furious mother pulled me out of the school and found a way for me to start first grade early in Mickey’s class. Though an excellent auditor, my mother was not always the best Scientologist; she believed in and practiced church principles but was too stubbornly independent to swallow everything whole. When my mother used Scientology techniques (or ‘tech’ as we called it) on me, she did so gently, believing that reincarnated thetan (thetan being roughly equivalent to spirit or soul) or not, I was still a child. I was raised on the principles of Dianetics, but not the ones that you’ve probably heard about, because the parts of Scientology that are useful for things like dealing with personal relationships or teaching children about responsibility are too pragmatic and boring to attract the kind of attention that space aliens do. When I did something wrong — stole a cookie, failed to do a chore, tormented my little brother — I first had to be honest about it, avoiding an ‘overt’ that could perpetuate my bad behavior, identify the wrong I had done and who I had wronged, and finally devise suitable ‘amends’ so I could make things right. I had arrived on the scene during the very end of my parents’ relationship, and since I only saw him on summer visits to the Midwest it took years for my father to figure out how to relate to me, let alone how to raise me (his default of mini golf, ice cream, and Six Flags season passes wasn’t bad, though). Scientology provided him with a road map for interaction, and though it was not always the right one, I think it was important to him to have guidance. As I seemed to always be scraping my knees or bonking myself in the head (too much mini golf and ice cream, perhaps) my father would frequently treat me with Scientology’s healing practice, a ‘touch assist,’ a technique employed by Scientology’s volunteer ministers (following emergencies from Ground Zero to the Haitian earthquake). An assist is a simple procedure that involves diverting attention from the source of pain or grief while providing a dose of basic human compassion. His voice even and soothing, my father would ask questions intended to orient me in my body. Where does it hurt? My knee. Can you touch your knee? Yes [touches knee]. Does your ear hurt? No. Where is your ear? [Points at ear.] Can you touch your ear? And on it would go, usually until I demanded an end. After I was seven or eight, I found the process a little ridiculous and sometimes wished for a simpler comfort, but I had to admit it helped. My parents met in the church in the early 1970s and married young. In their wedding pictures, my mother is 19 with pale blond flat-ironed hair, thick eyeliner and pale lips, and a white velvet dress with bell sleeves trimmed in lace, my father just a few years older with muttonchops and a ruffled black dress shirt under his white tuxedo. Like the people who had decorated the house where I grew up in garish yellows and oranges and installed an avocado fridge, the people in these pictures seem confident these fads would endure. Certainly at the time Scientology seemed little different from many of the other faddish groups, movements, and subcultures that had sprung up following the uproar and instability of the 1960s. Like EST, TM, yoga, Up With People, or building your own geodesic dome, Scientology promised a new way to both transform yourself and create a better world. At the mission there were always copies of a popular booklet called “The Way to Happiness” lying around, and I remember being certain it would be the first course I would take when I was old enough; the cover featured a rainbow bursting above a grassy path. My Little Pony would have been at home there. I don’t remember thinking of myself as different from other kids, but then there was nothing visibly Scientologist about me — nothing I had to do or couldn’t do because of my parents’ religion. Like most children, I was well attuned to strangeness among my peers and not particularly sensitive about showing my curiosity or judgment: a neighbor had some Mormon friends, and I was baffled as to why they weren’t allowed to drink soda — never in their whole lives? And what could soda have to do with a religion anyway? I may have thought of Scientology like others see their own religious practices, but I never thought of it as a religion: if I could have phrased it as such I would have described it as something like a scientific philosophy. And so I was stunned, if a bit excited, the first time I saw Airplane on television and caught a mention of Scientology in a clearly unflattering context: If I had grown up in the church 20 or even 10 years later than I did, I’m sure I would have become inured to things like this, accustomed to all sort of passing insults to the church and to its members, and I’m sure I would have grown more defensive with outsiders, protecting myself and my family from embarrassment or attack by hiding our association with the church. Back then Scientology had few celebrities on its rosters and attracted little media attention, in large part because of its aggressive and litigious attacks on its detractors. The absence of the internet meant that I heard little outside criticism of Scientology; it also meant that when my mother started to grow disillusioned with the church she had nowhere to go to confirm her suspicions about the organization or to find a way out. But I don’t doubt that children growing up in the church today feel any less than I did that they are a part of something important, that there is a kind of magic around the name L. Ron Hubbard. I’m sure they, like me, peep curiously into “Ron’s Office” — the roped-off room in every org filled with models of his ships, copies of his books, even a glass ashtray on his heavy wooden desk. I remember how strange the darkened org looked in the flicker of candlelight on the night L. Ron Hubbard died, how excited I was to be entrusted with my own candle next to my mother and stepfather in all that awkward silence. I felt I had been lucky to have been alive while he had been alive, even though I’d never seen him in person, and imagined telling future generations about my attendance that night. Instead it became an anecdote to wield at parties, a way to mute the complexity of my family’s long entanglements with the church. NEXT: What Scientologists actually believe. Stella Forstner is a pseudonym for a Hairpin devotee who wishes to protect her family’s anonymity.

https://medium.com/the-hairpin/scientology-and-me-part-one-growing-up-in-the-church-d635b9738202

['The Hairpin']

2016-06-02 00:44:22.110000+00:00

['My Scientology Story', 'Life', 'Religion']

The Viciousness of Corporate America Continues

On March 18 of this year, my coworkers and I got a nationwide notice from the company headquarters that all offices were to be closed indefinitely due to the Coronavirus and that we would be working remotely. We were anticipating this due to all the news updates about the deadly disease, but it was still difficult to believe that this was actually happening. We all rushed to pack our things and headed home with laptops in hand. From the outset, we got video updates from our CEO. She stated that our health and safety were her priorities and promised that the firm would not let anyone go; there would be no layoffs during the pandemic. She came across as empathetic, kind, and transparent. She did a great job of putting us at ease. So we all fell into our remote routines and did the best we could under the horrific circumstances. Then the police murdered George Floyd and protests erupted all around us. Our CEO once again stepped up to the plate. She immediately sent an email and set up a firm-wide video chat. She told us that she was appalled by the senseless murder and was determined to do her part to end racism and discrimination in our organization. Once again, we were all put at ease and were very impressed by her transparent and empathetic leadership. She kept in close touch throughout the unrest and even started a task force primarily made up of high-ranking African-American staff to address systemic bias in our workplace. It seemed as if the firm was finally going to seriously embark on righting many racial wrongs within its ranks. I had never personally experienced such action in any place I had ever worked. It was refreshing to see. Unfortunately, we had to change captains in the middle of the voyage. Our then-CEO’s tenure was previously scheduled to end this year, so a new chief executive took over in the summer. He let us all know that he strongly supported the outgoing CEO’s mandates and that he would stay the course. I for one was very sorry to see our previous CEO go; I didn’t quite trust this new guy. Not too long after his ascension, the layoffs began. First, it was the IT department in August. We were told that this was planned from before the pandemic. The next month, the executive assistants were notified that there would be restructuring and that some of them would be laid off as well. But the real bombshell for me, and many others, was yet to come. On the first Tuesday of October, the company announced an impromptu early morning video call for all employees nationwide to attend. The meeting lasted a mere ten minutes. The upper brass notified us that they were going to lay off scores of staff. They told us the people affected would receive emails of their termination within the next couple of hours, and then they abruptly ended the call. I quickly video-conferenced my team so we could support each other after this disturbing announcement. Right in the middle of our team meeting, I received the email notifying me that I was laid off, effective in a couple of weeks. In real time, I let my staff know that I had received the dreaded notice. They were shocked and upset. I wished them all the best of luck and told them it had been a pleasure working with them. I’ve heard of other staff that also received their termination emails while on video calls. What a horrible way to find out that your life has just been turned upside down. I quickly got off the meeting and told my wife what had occurred. She was also working remotely. To have her close at this time was very comforting. At 12:00 noon, right after the Tuesday morning massacre, the CFO sent an email basically stating, “Mission accomplished.” It was a very strange dynamic. There was never a real explanation as to why we were chosen to be let go. It was obvious that the gatekeepers of every department were given free rein to decide who would be affected. A couple of days later I found out that all the African-American women in our particular unit were laid off, leaving only one Black man on the entire team. Aside from myself, another Latino was also laid off. To avoid allegations of racism and/or discrimination, the firm used the excuse that “positions” were eliminated, but ironically, not one white staff member was affected by the layoff, even though many of them shared the same job titles as those who were just let go. I’m not sure if this was the manner in which the previous CEO would have handled this, but the new one made a clear statement: no one’s job was safe and Black lives didn’t matter that much after all. The recent firing of African-American ethical AI researcher Timnit Gebru from Google has called into question the promise from corporate America to fully support their Black employees and address systemic/institutionalized racism in the workplace. Declarations of corporate “allyship” abounded after the world was shocked by the senseless murder of George Floyd at the hands of police officers. Many firms spoke out against this ghastly action and promised to make things better in their institutions for their Black employees. But that was short-lived. Ms. Gebru’s case is by far the most well known, but this is happening all across our country as companies feel the need to rid themselves of employees. Some because their bottom lines are affected by Covid-19 and the associated economic downturn, and others to please shareholders, even though they’ve made record profits during the pandemic, as the Washington Post points out. Black and Latino workers are too often the first to feel the brunt of such actions. A couple of very dangerous trends are in effect. Companies are growing antsy and are no longer concerned for the safety of their employees or our country. They’re showing civic-duty fatigue. It also looks like vindictive, racist shot-callers are using this opportunity to get rid of People of Color and those who they disagree with politically. Many of us who were let go were vocal proponents of the firm’s new sponsored initiative of ending racial bias within the company. The gatekeeper in our department was by no means a fan of this movement, so he got rid of those of us who were advocating for it. Another troubling fact is that the majority of team members who were dismissed were on the lower rungs of the corporate ladder. In other words, those folks who earned the least were laid off first. Not one manager was let go. They made sure that they took care of those who were part of the “club.” To give the appearance of objectivity, the company’s HR department repeated empty statements, such as “tough decisions had to be made” and “we eliminated positions, not people.” All a crock of bull. This is happening all around us — mass corporate layoffs in the middle of this horrendous pandemic as well as blatant acts of discrimination. Very soon, workers will be forced to make the hard choice between staying safe at home and working remotely or having to physically work on site and risk possibly catching the virus to keep their jobs. As has always been the case, People of Color will disproportionately feel the impact. Many of these big companies have enough money in their coffers to weather this unpredictable national disaster without displacing workers, but they choose not to. The federal government should have stepped in from the beginning of the Covid-19 lockdown and asked large corporations to not disenfranchise any employees to avoid dire future consequences, death, illness, bankruptcies, and homelessness during a pandemic. Layoffs also led to people losing their employer-based health insurance. The Kaiser Family Foundation found that approximately 2 to 3 million Americans lost their employer-based coverage between March and September of 2020. Mass dismissals make things vastly worse in the middle of a crisis of this magnitude. Germany, for example, has discouraged companies from laying people off and even paid said companies to keep workers on the payroll during the Covid-19 pandemic. They made a clear choice to be proactive, not reactive, in support of their citizenry. In contrast, our country and many business leaders have chosen to do nothing. Corporate America has shown once again that it is incapable of doing the right thing for Americans in a crisis. Instead, they’re happy to continue adding more fuel to the fire. There was a time not too long ago when American companies actually showed great pride in being vested in their employees, their communities, and their country. We’re in the middle of a global disaster, a pandemic that still rages. This is the time for corporations to stand with the rest of us, so we can all survive this calamity.

https://medium.com/our-human-family/the-viciousness-of-corporate-america-continues-5b4de858fea9

['Alejandro Diaz']

2020-12-18 07:03:16.325000+00:00

['Employment', 'Discrimination', 'Covid 19', 'Business', 'Equality']

聽蛙講，跟蛙走：TEDxTaipei Adventure ft. 蛙類專家楊懿如

in In Fitness And In Health

https://medium.com/tedxtaipei/tedxtaipei-adventure-yang-and-frog-52ad22ffe0ca

['Hazel Wei']

2018-09-28 02:57:37.405000+00:00

['Experience', 'Education', 'Adventure', 'Tedx']

Thought-Provoking Facts about Medieval Knights

Bravery, loyalty, and honor — the popular characteristics of knights in the Middle Ages. The average knight may or may not stand up to such flawless standards. Though the heroic archetype is brought about by ancient folklore and literature. Here are the top seven facts you would love to know about chivalry and medieval knights. 1 King of the Franks The King of the Franks, Charlemagne was the very first one who was introduced to the fanatic world of knights by the 18th century. The king needed dependable soldiers who could fight on horseback in the battle. 2 The Powerful Knight One of the renowned knights of France is believed to be Bertrand du Guesclin. He came under the spotlight of Charles V who sent him to handle some men he didn’t want around. The popular knight earned immense respect and appreciation after defending against the British in the combat at Rennes in 1364. 3 Chivalry Was Dead The contending tournaments also helped many knights to become more popular and richer. They would snip away the horses of the fellow knights and even abduct other knights, demanding ransom money. This one is shocking, isn’t it? 4 What about Tournaments? You would probably assume that tournaments were more like the Olympics of the Middle Ages having several different events. The reality was quite different! Many tournaments lasted for many hours or even days and were possibly simply enactments of battles. 5 History of the Black Prince The Edward of Woodstock earned the title “black prince” as he wore black armor. He incredibly fought in a few prominent battles including the Battle of Crecy and together with Edward III in the Battle of Poitiers. He significantly helped get Peter of Castile back on the power in Spain. Although, he never became a king. 6 The Writer! A Knight Who Writes! Sir Geoffroi de Charny, a French nobleman and the knight himself have written three books on the battlefront in 1356. The most famous of his writings are “The Book of Chivalry”. It’s a reliable source for anyone who wants to have in-depth knowledge about knights. 7 Women Strength Not every woman in medieval times needed protection. History reveals that many female knights successfully fought alongside the men. One example is Countess Petronella who fought with her husband against Henry II. Also Read: The Weapons of Medieval Knight

https://medium.com/@jj6573565/thought-provoking-facts-about-medieval-knights-a8271531a28e

['Jessica Jones']

2020-05-20 09:27:09.315000+00:00

['Facts', 'History', 'Medieval', 'Ancient History']

roots

Often times, I feel more alive than other days. Not in that way, but I mean that some days, I actually think about the fact that my body is a magical conjuction of all the right things. Blood, cerebral matter, flesh, spirit, Self. I am many components, yet somehow they all function FOR me. They exist solely within me. These elements serve to carry me through life gracefully. Aiding me as I go along solely because my body is all I have. Similarly, this blood flowing within me is one I share with those who have graced the Earth long before me. The reason I am here, is them. The reason you are here, is them. The blood running through us is theirs. What, who, and where we are is all but a reflection of our ancestors decisions. Picture one domino falling then the rest following, without meaning to. It’s seamless. We are in sync with them. Life is but a complex, everlasting, vast miracle. Everything and nothing. That is life. That is you. When I move on from life, I leave my blood here in the form of my Sun (my son). I stay, yet I’m not there. Through creation and correlation, I am there. As are they, our ancestors. They are around and they are within. This is but mere appreciation for what I was given, for being human and for being present right now. As we should all be, because we are a product of much more than we can comprehend/much more than can be told all at once. I am overtly filled with gratitude and love for the the blood that runs within me, that makes me me. My blood is special and unique to me, as yours is to yours. I am a miracle. You are a miracle. Treat yourself as such. Treat others as such. Life is too swift to be filled with anything but love, which is the most monumental state of existence. (art found via tumblr user @gradientvoid13)

https://medium.com/@milfee/roots-60fdb0b83c48

['The Sweet Byte']

2020-12-23 00:12:19.989000+00:00

['Love', 'Kindness', 'Ancestors', 'Spirituality', 'Self']

Star (-spangled banner) Struck!

Walking into the United States definitely takes some time to get used to. Especially if you are from a third world country. I should know, I did it last year. And don’t get me wrong, I am not here to talk about racism, or xenophobia. It wasn’t startling at all to see a white man screaming at a black lady at the immigration desk for having mangoes in her luggage. She said her son (nine or ten years, judging by height) put the three mangoes in her check-in luggage. I do not believe her. Kids almost never do anything extraordinary at all. In fact, mangoes are a popular way people of colour infiltrate the job market and take away the jobs from Americans. Their jobs, which they were not doing before some riff-raff with a degree in neurology, took it away. Neither was it startling when a white family turned up at the airport demanding a flight be called back from the sky, because it wasn’t their fault that they were late. Their previous flight got delayed. The very co-incidentally African-American man at the gate to the airplane, tried very hard to explain you couldn’t call back flights that have left. They were not ready for another flight, or overnight accommodation. I was sleep-deprived, slightly nauseous from travelling around the world the last twenty hours. The really loud lesson in principle the white family was trying to give the black man entertained me for a bit. The flight, apparently, should have been called back because the earlier flight messed up and they were being “punished” for no fault of their own. It wasn’t fair; the white gentleman was correct. I watched from a distance as his voice and tone sobered up and they quickly got ready for an alternative flight as soon as a white, blonde woman took over the situation. Not that I come from Utopia Central. This gentle-family (puns intended) was already strongly bringing back memories of the Brash Brahmin Boys from back home. But where was my really startling experience? Where was the ‘Murica? The land of the rich? By the time I took a tiny American Eagle to a university town that would be home for the next five years, I had given up. Then I stepped out of the airport. Within an instant, my life transformed. Hollywood was correct. This was it! It was like I had taken off the orange-toned glass and nothing was sepia anymore! First world, I had arrived.

https://medium.com/@cinnamonsoc/star-spangled-banner-struck-11d1a64f1577

['The Cinnamon Sociologist']

2020-11-14 22:31:42.478000+00:00

['Immigration', 'Racism', 'Sociology']

Kubernetes cluster on Azure, AWS, GCP with Terraform and Seldon

Major cloud providers provide managed Kubernetes cluster offering and cli tool to create it easily. However, lots of companies are using are using IaC tool terraform for automating infrastructure provisioning. In this article, let’s use terraform to create Kubernetes cluster on different clouds, and quickly test a machine learning model deployment using Seldon Install Terraform CLI On Ubuntu, it can be as simple as sudo snap install terraform Install kubectl Install cloud CLI (command line interface) and authenticate Azure GCP AWS Create Kubernetes cluster Overall steps Define VPC/virtual network/firewall rules Define kubernetes cluster (master node/control plane, cluster name, location, VPC/subnet) Define node pool (worker node/data plane, specification, node count) AKS difference: service principal GKE EKS Model deployment Install s2i Install seldon-core sklearn_iris model deployment Run following command to train model python3 train_iris.py Now run s2i build -E environment . seldonio/seldon-core-s2i-python3:0.18 seldonio/sklearn-iris:0.1 Local docker test curl -s docker run --name "iris_predictor" -d -p 5000:5000 seldonio/sklearn-iris:0.1curl -s http://localh ost:5000/predict -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"data":{"ndarray":[[5.964,4.006,2.081,1.031]]}}' Setup seldon-core operator and ambassador kubectl apply -f kubectl apply -f # helm issue https://github.com/datawire/ambassador-chart/issues/90 kubectl apply -f https://www.getambassador.io/yaml/ambassador/ambassador-crds.yaml kubectl apply -f https://www.getambassador.io/yaml/ambassador/ambassador-rbac.yaml kubectl config set-context $(kubectl config current-context) --namespace=default helm install seldon-core seldon-core-operator --repo https://storage.googleapis.com/seldon-charts --set ambassador.enabled=true --set usageMetrics.enabled=true --namespace seldon Deploy model kubectl create -f sklearn_iris_deployment.yaml kubectl rollout status deploy/$(kubectl get deploy -l seldon-deployment-id=seldon-deployment-example \ -o jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}') Test model kubectl port-forward svc/sklearn-iris-example-sklearn-iris-example 8000:8000 curl # through seldon deployment podkubectl port-forward svc/sklearn-iris-example-sklearn-iris-example 8000:8000curl http://localhost:8000/api/v1.0/predictions -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"data":{"ndarray":[[5.964,4.006,2.081,1.031]]}}' kubectl port-forward $(kubectl get pods -l # through ambassadorkubectl port-forward $(kubectl get pods -l app.kubernetes.io/managed-by=getambassador.io -o jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}') 8003:8080 curl -s http://localhost:8003/seldon/default/seldon-deployment-example/api/v1.0/predictions -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"data":{"ndarray":[[5.964,4.006,2.081,1.031]]}}' Result {"data":{"names":["t:0","t:1","t:2"],"ndarray":[[0.9548873249364059,0.04505474761562512,5. 7927447968953825e-05]]},"meta":{}} Access ambassador diagnostic UI

https://medium.com/@billtcheng2013/kubernetes-cluster-on-azure-aws-gcp-with-terraform-and-seldon-a762b33189b1

['Xin Cheng']

2020-11-24 03:53:57.767000+00:00

['Ml Model Deployment', 'Cloud', 'Kubernetes', 'Terraform']

How To Address A ‘Picky Eater’ Kid Without Compromising On Vital Nutrients.

Being a “picky eater” is a new normal There are no official medical criteria for the “picky eater,” but you probably know if your child qualifies for the diagnosis. During the toddler and preschool years, picky eaters are the norm, rather than the exception. Food can fall in and out of your child’s favor with amazing speed, and for no apparent reason. Food jags are extremely common in this age group — almost every child becomes devoted to a particular food at some point in time, steadfastly refusing to eat almost anything else. While you definitely won’t want your child to continue these behaviors forever, there’s usually no reason to worry in the short term. In some cases, a certain degree of selectivity is protective for children. Some kids may instinctively avoid specific foods because they’ve learned that they don’t feel well after eating them. Look for an alternate source of nutrition If your child doggedly refuses to drink milk, it may be because your little one might be lactose intolerant, or has a mild allergy to dairy products. You can still help your child with sufficient intake of calcium by offering dairy foods that are more easily digested and better tolerated by sensitive stomachs, like yogurt or cheese. If your child refuses to eat broccoli or green beans because of their taste, that’s OK too — there is a whole spectrum of vegetables in your cold storage that can compensate for the required nutrition that your child needs at the time. Introducing new foods in a subtle manner It’s a good idea to introduce new foods regularly, but at every meal or snack, you should always include at least one familiar item that you know your child likes. By offering a new food, but not forcing your kid to eat it, you’re allowing to maintain freedom of choice while expanding your child’s dietary horizons. If your child doesn’t like the new food, at least there’s something nutritious on the table that your child will eat, and you can take comfort in knowing that your loved one will not starve. It also prevents you from having to jump up and prepare an additional dish that you know your kid likes. Giving in to requests or demands for “special” foods that aren’t on the menu is a bad habit to develop — both for you and your child. Never ever bribe or force-feed If your child refuses to eat the new foods and the old standby at a given meal, that’s fine. Parents should try to resist the temptation to bribe or beg their kids to eat, and they should never punish them for not eating. After a less than successful meal, it’s generally best to wipe the slate clean and start over again at the next meal or snack. Being a picky eater, just because your child doesn’t like a particular food the first time around, it doesn’t mean the end of the matter forever. It may take two, three, or even ten tries before your little one gets used to the new taste and texture. Kids are more willing to experiment with a new food when they know that they have the option of tasting it without eating it. Try asking your child to conduct a taste test with the tip of the tongue, and assure your little one that he/she will not be forced into eating if it doesn’t taste good. Keep reviewing your child nutrition on a regular basis You’ll be relieved to know that no matter how little food your child may consume at a given meal, or even on a given day, starvation and malnutrition are virtually nonexistent among kids who are routinely offered a balanced selection of nutritious foods. When you analyze your child’s diet, be sure to review the food intake over a period of several days, rather than just one meal or a single day. Kids may not eat everything you want them to eat every day of the week, but with your consistent encouragement, they usually manage to build a complete and balanced diet over the course of a week. Seek pediatrician advice, if nothing works out If you’re worried about your child’s appetite and eating behaviors, be sure to discuss your concerns with the pediatrician. If the doctor feels that your kid’s growing and gaining weight falls within an acceptable pattern, you can rest assured that your child is getting plenty to eat. Conclusion Coping with a picky eater can try the patience of any mom or dad, but in the grand scheme of things, finicky appetites rarely affect a child’s overall health. With parents’ continued patience and persistence, plus a little tincture of time, even the pickiest kids will eventually expand their dietary horizons. Citation: https://bloomposts.com/diet/child/best-practices-for-picky-eater-kids-keeping-up-with-their-vital-nutrients/

https://medium.com/@bloomposts/how-to-address-a-picky-eater-kid-without-compromising-on-vital-nutrients-57d14623f7cc

['Navjot S']

2021-08-07 19:00:56.298000+00:00

['Picky Eaters', 'Kids Diet', 'Parenting Advice', 'Parenting', 'Picky Eating']

Why Go Solar, Top Reasons

Solar energy is always more efficient to use and cheaper to buy. This is good news for anyone who is serious about change. Main reasons why many people choose solar power: 1. Solar energy really helps the environment. We all leave a carbon footprint, like it or not. (Our carbon footprint is the damage caused by the use of electricity) We can replace our traditional use of electricity with clean solar energy for a better environment. 2. Solar energy can save money When you learn about solar power and savings, it often sounds simple: you get solar power, you pay less for electricity. And while every situation is different and there are no guarantees that you will save money, there are actually a number of ways you can increase your chances of saving money with solar energy. 3. Solar energy can add value to your property. New research tells that the Energy Department says that buyers are willing to pay more for solar panels houses. 4. Solar panels are safe and reliable. You can rest easy knowing that the solar panels we install on your roof are safe and of the highest quality. 6. Solar energy is the future. When mega-retailers like Amazon also turn to solar power, it becomes clear that sustainability is the way to go. Om Solar offers its customers the highest quality products on the market and solar solutions at the best price in Uttar Pradesh. To Know about the latest tata solar panel price in Allahabad then you contact us anytime. Visit: https://www.omsolar.in/solar-company-in-allahabad/

https://medium.com/@omsolargogreen/why-go-solar-top-reasons-d6054dda2bce

[]

2020-12-15 12:52:17.890000+00:00

['Solar', 'Solar Installers', 'Om Solar', 'Solar Energy', 'Solar Panel']

How Airbnb Won Customers by Offering a Free Night at the Louvre

The Glittering Itinerary If you were jealous of Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s night in the Louvre in their “Apesh*t” video, listen up and listen up good. On April 30 of last year, Airbnb and the Louvre were hosting a lucky pair of guests for one unforgettable night among the masterpieces to celebrate the 30th birthday of the Louvre Pyramid. The itinerary was nothing short of amazing. Here’s what it looked like. As the sun sets in Paris, the winning couple would make their way to the museum, only to be greeted by an art historian, who took them on a bespoke tour, like those previously given to the Obamas, Beyoncé, and Jay-Z. Once they discovered the museum’s wonders, the couple enjoyed an aperitif beside the Mona Lisa, all without any other visitors pushing past them for a better selfie angle. Trust me, having been there before, it’s not the best place to be in. After that, they were welcomed for a “supper with Venus.” The winning couple were invited to an exquisite seat by the Venus de Milo, where an individual chef prepared a vibrant menu motivated by love and appeal, in honour of this magnificent goddess. Think it’s done? Think again. The winning couple were then escorted to Napoleon’s chambers, where they unwound while listening to a live performance. Yes, you heard right. There was a personal acoustic performance to conclude this amazing experience. To finally end the night, the winning couple also slumbered inside the glass pyramid for what promised to be a masterpiece of a sleepover, and early next morning, they were dealt a Parisian breakfast in bed. Can you sign me up already?

https://medium.com/better-marketing/how-airbnb-won-customers-by-offering-a-free-night-at-the-louvre-e43b40a4aacf

['Nitish Menon']

2020-08-17 18:58:39.098000+00:00

['Partnerships', 'Business', 'Airbnb', 'Art', 'Marketing']

overheard in the hallway

walking to the bathroom, (one of the only highlights of my day), an HR lady talking to her colleague: “you talk about 20 years… in 20 years I’ll be on the other side.” waiting for the day when she didn’t have to struggle anymore. I didn’t know if she was referring to retirement or death. does it matter?

https://medium.com/the-scene-heard/overheard-in-the-hallway-febb18c72b38

['D. Levolt']

2018-02-07 21:34:14.473000+00:00

['Work', 'Thesceneandheard', 'Poetry', 'Workplace', 'Poem']

Alzheimer’s Awareness Fundraising In Canada

Alzheimer’s awareness program is organized every year in the month of January. According to a survey, more than 747,000 people in Canada are living their lives with Alzheimer’s disease. If we consider the worldwide situation, you will get to know that almost 44 million people are suffering from dementia. People suffer from dementia when the nerve cells lose their connections in the brain. Dementia can affect people in different ways. The entire matter depends upon the area of your brain that is affected by it. Now, if we specifically talk about Alzheimer’s, it is one of the most common causes of dementia. It is a kind of progressive dementia that is not reversible. Go out into the world and do good until there is too much good in the world. LARRY H. MILLER Alzheimer’s Awareness Program Unfortunately, there is no proper treatment available for Alzheimer’s disease. But, people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease deserve a better life. This is why we at Werbylo give the utmost preference to the Alzheimer’s awareness program. Alzheimer’s disease gradually destroys the cells of our brain and so, it is very important to recognize it at the early stage. Most people cannot do this and this is why Alzheimer’s awareness program plays a very important role. The non-profit professionals organize Alzheimer’s awareness fundraising program. The supporter across the globe take part in the January charity awareness program as well. The motto of Werbylo is “We rise by lifting others”. We believe that Alzheimer’s awareness program plays a very important role. It is the first step through which we can reinforce human rights, fight stigma, and push the government to bring changes in the policies. January is called Alzheimer’s Awareness Month. It is the time when you can help the Canadians suffering from this disease. We can raise awareness of Alzheimer’s throughout the country with the help of Alzheimer’s fundraising campaign and other charity programs. People’s suffering will not be over after the end of this month. Therefore, it is very important to know the important aspects associated with this disease so that you can help people throughout the year. About Alzheimer’s disease Alzheimer’s disease occurs when our brain stops functioning properly. It is one of the most common causes of dementia. The disease affects the patient’s behaviour, thinking capability, and memory. It does not look problematic in the initial stage. But, over the course of time, the symptoms make the life of the patients more complicated. Alzheimer’s is a progressive disease and the rate of progression can be different for different people. It might take eight years for people having Alzheimer’s to experience the symptoms. At this moment, no proper treatment is available. However, you will find some sort of medications that can mitigate the intensity of such symptoms. Symptoms People suffering from Alzheimer’s disease face difficulties to recall information. But, it is not the only problem that they face. Over the course of time, they deal with different symptoms. We have highlighted the symptoms of this disease below: Completing an easy task becomes troublesome for the people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Changes in personality or mood are some other symptoms. They cannot maintain a positive relationship with their families and friends. Communication skills get hampered. They cannot speak or write properly. Confusion about events, people, and places. They gradually suffer from the visual problem. For example, understanding images becomes difficult for them. If anyone in your personal network is suffering from such symptoms, it is time to take him or her for a medical evaluation to find out the main cause. Diagnosis There is no specific test that can tell that the person has Alzheimer’s disease. However, some common medical evaluations that are done are as follows: Neurological exam Brain Imaging Blood test Several cognitive tests to evaluate thinking capability and memory. Deliver Caregiving Through Alzheimer’s Awareness Program As of now, you have realized the condition of an Alzheimer’s patient. But, amid this situation, proper care can somehow mitigate these problems. You can deliver proper caregiving through Alzheimer’s awareness program. When people have proper knowledge of this disease, they will be able to deliver proper care to Alzheimer’s patients. Well, it can be both challenging and rewarding. But, stepping backward is not an option at all. Initially, a little care can do the job. But, over the course of time, it should be intensified and the patients will need 24×7 assistance. Help These People through Online Alzheimer’s Awareness Fundraising Campaign You might be wondering how you can help these people in the pandemic situation. Well, there are various ways through which you can provide help. Organize Virtual Event You can organize a virtual event to raise awareness among the people. People will have to purchase tickets to join the event. You can use this money to help people suffering from this disease. You can use mobile fundraising app to track the donation. Conduct Your Own Custom Fundraising Campaign If you want to help individually, you can conduct your own custom fundraising campaign through online fundraising sites. Tell the people the cause of your campaign and donate the money to any non-profit organization that is supporting the patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Read more

https://medium.com/@werbylo/alzheimers-awareness-fundraising-in-canada-7053e66e7e4f

[]

2020-12-25 00:45:35.408000+00:00

['Januarycharityawareness', 'Fundraising']

A Community Update From MetaCert CEO, Paul Walsh

Hello Community Supporter, This is an important update for you as a valued MetaCert Protocol token buyer. We have decided to postpone the public token sale and extend the beta program. Between now and then, we have decided to fundraise with an equity investment. Ultimately, our long-term goal is to provide an equal opportunity for everyone that would like to get involved in the MetaCert vision, contributing to the largest “Trust and Reputation” security solution in the world. We desire fair and equal distribution, so extending the beta program is the best strategy to get our tokens in the hands of as many people as possible so they can participate in providing these valuable contributions. Integrations We’re proud to have integrated our anti-phishing security protocol with CoolWallet, which is the first hardware wallet in the world with baked-in phishing protection.. We’ve also been in talks with Coinsuper to provide anti-fraud alerts for addresses associated with phishing attacks to help them meet regulatory best practices. We have several additional partnerships including Presearch, Metalyfe, and Rocket.Chat, with more being announced in the future. Equity Investment We currently have $10M committed, but equity investments take longer to close, particularly at this time of year. Our investment round is open to accredited investors, and we are offering a 50% discount to anyone who would like to participate in a convertible note before the equity investment closes. This is an opportunity for those who share our vision to get in on the ground floor. We are postponing the public sale until approx Q2 2019 to take advantage of what we anticipate to be improved market conditions. This also helps us to focus on reinventing security for native email clients, starting with iPhone Mail — in addition to Cryptonite, and our security solutions for Telegram and Slack. We are now protecting over 1 million people in crypto — that’s more than all other security companies combined. And we have more than 20 companies integrating MetaCert Protocol — including exchanges and wallets. What happens to your tokens? Your current purchase remains unaffected, but you are entitled to request your ETH or BTC back if you do not wish to wait for this extended period before the public sale. If you do, we’ll to send you back the exact amount of ETH or BTC you originally sent. However, you might not want to to be so hasty… If your token purchase was below the minimum threshold of 50 ETH for qualification as a private buyer, you will have automatically been converted to the beta program. This is very good news because, as a reward for your participation we have decided to award a 60% bonus. We’re also extending this 60% bonus offer to any additional or new purchases made before November 30th. And a 50% bonus will be added to token sales between November 30th and December 15th 2018. Private buyers get the same benefit. More tokens for your money The 60% bonus applies to every token buyer (private buyers and beta participants). For example, if you buy 1,000 tokens, we will give you 1,600 in total. The beta program will remain open until the public sale starts. Between now and then we will continue to build and support existing customers, partners, and end users. We have signed deals with more than 10 wallets, exchanges, and other companies that will integrate MetaCert Protocol over the coming months. I have shared this with you before, but CoolBitX just published a new site just for the MetaCert Protocol integration https://coolwallet.io/metacert/. If you have any questions about the private equity investment please reply to this email. If you have any questions related to the token sale please email ian@metacert.com. Buy more tokens and get a 60% bonus now. Thanks in advance for your patience. It’s greatly appreciated.

https://medium.com/metacert/a-community-update-from-metacert-ceo-paul-walsh-c76b53e52c71

['Paul Walsh']

2018-11-06 18:26:04.391000+00:00

['Blockchain', 'Ethereum', 'Updates', 'Bitcoin', 'Token Sale']

“Seven O’Clock” from Gigaton— Why its Pearl Jam’s Best Song Since the Vitalogy Era

I wanted to share my thoughts on something I’ve been non-stop thinking about since I heard Pearl Jam’s new album Gigaton. Specifically, the absolute triumph of the song “Seven O’Clock”! It might just be the best song the band has written since the Vitalogy era (i.e., 1994). Full disclosure, I’ve been a fan for almost as long as Pearl Jam has been together. I know my Ten Club fan club number by heart. Lastly, I’ve been to over 25 shows and can probably recite and sing the lyrics to all Pearl Jam songs including rarities, b-sides and even covers. Before I go over “Seven O’Clock”, let me briefly address Gigaton as an album. If you don’t recognize it yet, you will; I believe we’ve been given an absolute gift in Gigaton, particularly in what is likely the biggest challenge of our times with the current Coronavirus Pandemic. As Americans social distance and stay in our respective homes to mitigate the spread of the novel virus, I can’t help but think about the poetic coincidence; Gigaton is so eerily relevant not just to contemporaneous events (i.e., politics, Trump “presidency,” climate change and etc) but this exact moment dealing with this devastating pandemic. Dare I say how clairvoyant Eddie Vedder is when he stated “we are stuck in our boxes, windows open no more” in “Dance of the Clairvoyants”. How can he have known and write something so prescient? Needless to say, these are crazy challenging times — might be the biggest in our lifetime. How do I cope? While I recognize that this might be strange to some people, Gigaton has been my lifeline. Personally, its a warm blanket on a very cold night. Its mom’s chicken noodle soup while I lie in bed sick (fyi, i’m not for the paranoid folks out there). While the album has a ton of amazing songs, the main centerpiece of Gigaton is arguably “Seven O’Clock”. Recent articles have pointed to Gigaton’s sequencing as mostly Eddie Vedder’s work. In fact, he’s probably mostly responsible for this since Vitalogy came out. Eddie’s sequencing of the songs in this particular album was deliberate and he put “Seven O’Clock” smack in the middle for a reason — he really wants you to listen to it. As a comparison, think about songs like “Jeremy”, “Rearviewmirror”, “Corduroy” and “Amongst the Waves”. All 4 songs were placed in their respective album’s middle section. This is significant for a reason because the songs are the torchbearers for their album’s respective central theme. I believe the same goes for “Seven O’Clock”. Why is “Seven O’Clock” the best song Pearl Jam has written since the Vitalogy days? I look at this in 3 different lenses / categories: thematic relevance, music quality & finally, cultural significance / longevity. It simply triumphs in all 3 categories in a way that hasn’t happened since a particular song in Vitalogy — that song is “Corduroy,” which happens to be my favorite song of all time (well either #1 of #2). For critics out there, I’m definitely not saying Pearl Jam hasn’t written any good songs since “Corduroy”. Some of my favorite songs include “Present Tense”, “In Hiding”, “I Got Id”, “In My Tree”, “Light Years”, “Sirens” and etc. My point is that in “Seven O’Clock”, Pearl Jam hasn‘t been this direct and convincing in writing a truly epic song that exceeds in all 3 categories I outlined. With regards to thematic relevance, there’s no question as to the relevance of both Gigaton as a album and “Seven O’Clock” as a song. Make no mistake, this song is a “call to arms” to get shit done in the face of pending disaster in the current environment — politically (i.e., “sitting bullshit as our sitting President…as a tragedy of errors”), environmentally (i.e., “waves rising with the oceans”) and socially (too many to quote here). Why? First off, why is the song even called “Seven O’Clock”? Why is that significant? It’s mentioned in the first line of the first verse, specifically “7am”. I think it’s because 7am is the prime time to start your day and get going. As Eddie says “this is no time for depression or self indulgent hesitance”. With this, he’s basically saying it’s 7am so pull yourself together, get the fuck up and get shit done! There’s way too much at stake and “all hands on deck” is required to “fix this fucked up situation” (Covid-19 anyone???). Lastly, to hammer the urgency, at the end of the song Eddie sings there is “much to be done” repeatedly, as if to keep hammering the point home. Clearly, he doesn’t want to be misunderstood. He’s urging us to act now because there is “much to be done” and too much at stake! Musically, “Seven O’Clock” is as ambitious a song as Pearl Jam has ever attempted. The song perfectly complements the lyrics and thematic elements of the song and album. While Pearl Jam has written plenty of songs with memorable melodies since Vitalogy, this one is absolutely infectious and special even in its seeming simplicity. It is majestic and you will start humming all the parts — verse, chorus and outro (trust me). Further, there is a symphonic quality to the instrumentation — you hear all sorts of instruments like synths, strings and etc. It’s musically layered in certain parts of the song in a way that we’ve never heard Pearl Jam ever attempt in such a grand scale. Vocally, it is also layered in certain parts just like another Gigaton standout, “Dance of the Clairvoyants”. If I had one criticism, I wished Eddie didn’t stuff as many words in the main verses. But its completely forgivable. Further, the song isn’t actually as simple and straightforward as I might have suggested. The intro to the song is particularly interesting; if you listen to it before the first verse, its almost as if it’s a different song entirely. But somehow when it transitions to the verse, it somehow makes sense. At the finale, “Seven O’Clock” absolutely morphs and changes into something unexpected yet magical starting at the 4:18 mark — the outro section which is the song’s final two minutes. Needless to say, this isn’t your traditional Pearl Jam outro. In fact, I don’t think there’s a song in their catalog that completely changed in a manner this has. The chord progression in the outro is completely different as if to suggest an almost a different song entirely. Finally, the song lifts into a cathartic climax as if Eddie is suggesting that the main chorus, while memorable, wasn’t enough to communicate his point across. Again, I think this is highly deliberate. Eddie and the band really wants us to listen to them, even to the point where they completely change the song to get our attention. It’s absolutely hair raising, grand and brilliant! Sounds simply majestic, optimistic and hopeful, particularly when the song ends in that A-major chord. While “Seven O’Clock” is contextually relevant now in the time of the Covid-19 crisis, will it be relevant later? Does it have legs to stand the test of time, thematically and musically? I’m convinced it does! Just think about how relevant it is given the current Coronavirus crisis. Unless he’s a clairvoyant, Eddie certainly could not have known about the current crisis, yet “Seven O’Clock” sounds even more relevant. I think this is because the theme explored isn’t just limited to the current political and environmental climate. The song is an overall “call to arms” or “call to action”. Once in a while we all need a little push. Bluntly, right now we need to be kicked in the butt to take action. Consider me kicked! I’m certainly inspired and ready. It’s 7 O’Clock in the morning. Are you ready? There is much to be done! Much to be done!

https://medium.com/@rockandromeo/seven-oclock-why-its-pearl-jam-s-best-song-since-vitalogy-acfc85600f03

[]

2020-05-03 03:58:12.007000+00:00

['Call To Action', 'Pearl Jam', 'Gigaton', 'New Music', 'Rock']

An Introduction…

Greetings! My name is Eric B. Jones and I have come to Medium to carve out a new space for my writing. I am a self-proclaimed (my family would proclaim me as well) film buff. As far back as I can remember, I have always been enamored with the art of cinema as well as cinema history. I believe my cinematic diet evolved from multiple sources. One was my grandmother, who I would watch older films with and developed an appreciation for the stylings of classical Hollywood cinema. My mother was also an influence. She loves films based in history and through that, I learned to understand the stories behind the stories of films. The last is my father, who loves science fiction and that opened my eyes to a genre that is capable of connecting to many other genres. I love watching films and reading into them. Over the years I’ve felt my knowledge and capabilities in analyzing films increase and I want to share that and hopefully connect with other cinephiles as well. I began writing years ago with my first blog DeaconsDen. This space was my first foray in providing content. The blog is still very important to me, but I would like to expand and really show the world what I have to say on this art form I’ve loved since childhood. I hope my perspective is one people look to uncover.

https://medium.com/@ericbjones25/an-introduction-3b8fcca575b7

['Eric B. Jones']

2020-12-14 02:30:26.619000+00:00

['Introduction', 'Greetings', 'Welcome']

Unfinished Business

Introducing Scenery Today we’re delighted to announce funding and introduce the world to Scenery, a collaborative, intelligent video creation platform. We’re excited to bring on Ashot Petrosian as head of product and co-founder and to partner with Dave Samuel at Freestyle VC as well as other amazing investors to bring Scenery to life. In 2005 this team helped build Jumpcut.com. Jumpcut was the first web based video editor and one of the first fully functional web creativity tools. We didn’t use the word collaboration at the time, but Jumpcut allowed groups to share and edit source files and even allowed for published videos to be re-mixed. By simply pressing a button you went from viewing a video to being in your copy of the edit. We learned how creators such as iJustine built a community of artists that congregated around the craft of video editing. Photo credit to @weibel our amazing Jumpcut Creative Director and designer Today, most major productivity software categories have made the leap from desktop software to the web. Despite significant progress in web technology, professional video tools have not made this leap. With WebGL, WASM, and other advancements this will change. We can now build performant, feature rich applications integrated with the fabric of the web. That’s what Scenery is. We’re rethinking from scratch what video creation should look like, feel like, and be like today. We want to help make video creation into a team sport and build a platform for creators to create, learn, grow and teach each other (read a more about Scenery here). We’re excited to continue getting feedback from editors and teams to help us further understand problems we can help them solve. Please sign up at http://scenery.video to try early releases and give us your thoughts. This team has learned a lot from building products at Jumpcut, SnappyTV, Facebook Stories and Events, Yahoo! Video, Flickr and Twitter. Ryan and I helped lead SnappyTV, a live video post-production editor used by media companies such as the NFL and NBA which was acquired by Twitter. At Twitter we helped lead media publishing, live video and Periscope. Ashot started several companies then was instrumental in building Facebook Stories and Events. Chris Martin, who leads Scenery’s platform engineering, previously led Flickr’s platform engineering. We are excited to continue to learn how to better serve creators and their audiences through web technologies. We are hiring an amazing engineering team to join Ryan, Ashot, Chris, Kavi and Chet to crank out the amazing designs that Alyssa is dreaming up. We have made good headway in this direction, but more remains to be built, designed and imagined. If that is something that peaks your interest, let’s talk. Select Investment funds: FreeStyle VC, Precursor Ventures, Wireframe Ventures, Transmedia Capital, Uphonest Capital, Rembrandt Venture Partners Select Operators and Individuals: Kayvon Beykpour, Kevin Weil, Elizabeth Weil, Russ Fradin, Joe Bernstein, Keith Coleman, Ross Walker, Bobby Jaros, Dong Min, Brian Parker. Special thanks to David Pidwell, Ryan Peirce and Don Ryan for investing in our 3rd company Team: Alyssa, Chris, Kavi, Chet, Ashot, Ryan and Mike

https://medium.com/@mfolgner/unfinished-business-9607e194e9bd

['Mike Folgner']

2020-12-16 16:23:17.270000+00:00

['Collaboration', 'Editing', 'Video Marketing', 'Remote Working', 'Vidéo']

Why will your career stagnate?

If you believe automation is coming for 1 in every 2 jobs (it may well be), then perhaps career progression doesn’t matter a ton long-term. But for the short-term, it definitely does. People often have defined career goals, but it’s a murky path through to them right now. Employees want to be trained, but oftentimes employers don’t want that (it’s a cost, after all). When they do offer training, it’s often low-impact BS led by HR. The final elephant in this family room is the role of job-hopping. That’s often the only way to make more money these days (i.e. career progression), but we still have a stigma among HR reps that if you job-hop, you’re somehow a “loose cannon” or something. It can paint people into corners. Combined with generally awful hiring practices, we create an ecosystem where many companies miss out on the absolute best person for their role — often because of some antiquated HR belief. Sad. Most of the above was the organizational side of a career arc. Now we come to the personal. As people move through a career, though, they also have “derailment periods.” These are aspects of personality or working style that can push your career progression in the wrong direction if not managed. And what are those? The five aspects that derail career progression Carter Cast is a business school professor at Northwestern and wrote a book on “how brilliant careers are made and unmade,” so he seemingly knows his stuff on career progression and arc. He did a podcast with Northwestern’s Insight page, and here are his top five career derailers at the individual level: Relational issues with other people (by far the biggest hit to career progression) Can’t hack it as a manager after being a good employee Clinging to what you know instead of growing Very good at execution; no clue on strategy Over-commit and struggle to prioritize All seem fairly logical and I’m sure you’ve all seen people experience all five. Let’s go one-by-one quickly. Relational issues with people Yep. A lot of people end up being assholes at work, because they’re chasing relevance for themselves as opposed to anything else. In reality, work is (still) made up of humans, so what matters are concepts like gratitude and friendship. Most people think the KPIs and deliverables matter. If you push the people to the side, though, work becomes a much bigger zoo. Can’t hack it as a manager All too common: 82 percent of managers end up being the wrong hire. The simplest problem is two-fold. First, we promote off execution (see below). Execution can be ruthless and efficient, but it doesn’t mean you know how to relate to others. Then you manage others and the whole thing blows up. Second: most people only want to become managers because it’s the only way to make more money. They don’t want to manage people or take on responsibility; they’re doing it for the money. Often, it’s the only compensation path they can follow. When you become a manager and don’t want to be a manager, well, it doesn’t usually end well. Clinging to what you know Normative nowadays, as many chase retirement and ignore concepts like “digital disruption.” This is actually maybe the most annoying part of white-collar work these days: there’s so much potential for advancement and new ideas, especially around metrics, but so many “decision-makers” are using 1991 methodology because it’s all they understand. Don’t understand strategy Also somewhat normative. Can’t prioritize … and ditto. The elephants in the career progression room This is literally all relative to organization. At some places, you can cling to what you know for 20 years and get promoted 11 times. That’s why “relational” is so important. If you have relationships with the right people within your organization, none of the other four matter that much. You will eventually get minted even if you don’t understand strategy or would be a terrible manager. We have all worked for this guy. No clue on priority, strategy, and hides behind portals instead of having conversations. Every new idea is “No, we’ve always done it this way.” How did this guy get up the chain? Because he did the relational part well enough, or he stuck around long enough and they had to put him somewhere. This is middle management personified. How can we improve career progression? I’m a terrible person to ask, because I’ve never really been great at the whole “jobs” or “career arc” thing. My parents probably spent $30,000 on my kindergarten and now I mostly take conference calls in an undershirt. I wouldn’t say I’m killing it at the life game, you know? But here’s what I’d argue: This is an individual-level concept, not an organizational one. (Most organizations probably don’t care about your career progression, unfortunately.) “Look out for №1 and try to avoid stepping in №2.” Try to make decisions that make sense at the time. No decision is going to be perfect. “Skate to where the puck is going.” And then maybe this: What else you got on career progression?

https://medium.com/@tedbauer2003/why-will-your-career-stagnate-d87265ef7a4

['Ted Bauer']

2020-12-19 15:13:19.716000+00:00

['Careers', 'Work', 'Future Of Work', 'Management And Leadership', 'Career Advice']

CASSINI

For anyone that knows me well, it isn’t a secret that space is something I am incredibly curious of and passionate about. Both deep space natural phenomena that we study from afar, as well as human endeavors closer to home like the International Space Station, fill me with equal parts fascination and wonder. In 2016 I saw some pictures getting circulated around the internet that were taken by a probe I had never heard of, called Cassini. Cassini’s primary mission was to orbit Saturn and its respective moons, taking thousands of photos during its thirteen year life within Saturn’s orbit, until it ultimately was drawn in by the planet’s gravity, concluding its mission. I won’t claim to have any real understanding of the hard science that was allowed to progress because of the efforts of this mission. However, the photos sent back by the probe can be described as nothing other than breathtaking. They may seem poor in quality and clarity relative to artists renditions and even pictures taken from right here on Earth using our radio telescopes, but the profound nature of seeing an image that was taken from so close to the source, can’t be understated. When we look through a telescope, and look at something that is incredibly far away, we’re seeing the light that left the object a long time ago. In the case of Cassini (and other probes like it) we instead went directly to the source to get information and to learn more about the universe we live in and our proverbial cosmic backyard. We still had to transmit the images back to Earth which is a process virtually identical to looking at light that was sent our way, but to have literally touched the object that we are seeing, is profound to me.

https://medium.com/@alocascio/cassini-1b87a1f58a83

['Aidan Locascio']

2021-02-05 16:07:06.026000+00:00

['Space', 'Saturn', 'NASA', 'Cassini']

The International Criminal Court has refused to investigate the genocide against the Uighur Muslims in China.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) rejected to open an investigation into the mounting allegations of genocide against the Uighur Muslims in China, meaning the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has a free rein to continue what it deems “re-education” camps — for now. In this Nov. 4, 2017 file photo, Uighur security personnel patrol near the Id Kah Mosque in Kashgar in western China’s Xinjiang region. Classified documents, leaked to a consortium of news organizations, lay out the Chinese government’s deliberate strategy to lock up ethnic minorities to rewire their thoughts and even the language they speak. (AP Photo/File) Activists had carefully been compiling evidence about acts of genocide, including classified Chinese government cables detailing a sweeping surveillance system and extrajudicial detention — much to Beijing’s chagrin. “China has tried to avoid the ICC at all costs. Recently, on November 18, 2020, the Chinese government held a press conference in Urumchi and pushed back against the Uyghurs’ complaint to the ICC,” Salih Hudayar, prime minister of the East Turkistan Government in Exile, which filed the investigation request, told Fox News. The case put forth was based on operations against the Uighurs residing in Tajikistan and Cambodia, both of which are ICC members. Furthermore, a collective of more than 60 parliamentarians from more than a dozen countries also added their gravitas to the appeal, sending a letter to prosecutor Fatou Bensouda requesting that the international legal body “play its part in ensuring that the perpetrators of the most egregious human rights abuses are held accountable and prevented from acting with impunity.” However, the office of ICC prosecutor Bensouda stated last week the “precondition for the exercise of the court’s territorial jurisdiction did not appear to be met with respect to the majority of the crimes alleged” since they appear “to have been committed solely by nationals of China within the territory of China, a State which is not a party to the Statute.” But for some analysts, the argument doesn’t hold weight — raising questions over a broader influence of China in the international community and throughout the United Nations, of which The Hague, Netherlands, is affiliated with but functions independently. “It is truly amazing and revealing that the Chief Prosecutor so quickly determined that the ICC lacked jurisdiction to investigate the alleged genocide being perpetrated against the Uighurs by the Chinese government,” said Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, an Israel-based attorney who has long specialized in suing terrorist regimes and state sponsors who orchestrate human rights abuses on behalf of victims. “Fatou Bensouda’s announcement that since China is not a state member, she is powerless to proceed against Beijing must be contrasted with her ruthless pursuit of war crime allegations against Israel and the United States. Like China, neither Israel nor the U.S is a signatory to the Rome Treaty.” While information filtering out of the rugged, autonomous province remains opaque, broad investigations have revealed that since at least 2017, upwards of 2 million of the minority group have been propelled into detainment camps, which the CCP initially denied but later referred to them as “re-education” facilities, as part of an extensive anti-terrorism campaign. Yet few Muslim-majority nations, fearing retaliation from Beijing, which has a broad global influence in terms of its loans and reconstruction endeavors, have dared speak out. Instead, the U.S. has remained at the forefront and unwaveringly vocal in its condemnation and issuing of sanctions, as well as trade restrictions on goods from the region over concerns of forced labor. Ziba, a Uighur, appeals for her mother’s return. (Ziba Murat) Several similarly outraged Western countries have subsequently echoed the denouncement. Finally, at the U.N. in October, 39 member states — including the European Union and Japan — joined Washington in reprimanding Beijing over the proliferating list of human rights misconduct. Yet as many experts contend, confronting China could come with economic and political repercussions. According to Darshan-Leitner, if the ICC did decide to investigate further and indict China, the CCP would likely utilize “all its political and economic might to derail the investigation.” “China would correctly argue it did not sign the Rome Treaty and the ICC lacks jurisdiction. Moreover, China would flex its muscles and demand all member countries that want to continue doing business with China to place pressure on the chief prosecutor to terminate the investigation,” she surmised. “China is an international powerhouse economically, politically and militarily. The ICC is well aware of the pain and havoc Beijing could impose on the court and its officials, including the justices and prosecutors.” Although not party to the ICC, analysts have questioned China’s underhanded influence on the court system, as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council and controversial election to the Human Rights Council in October. In 2000, Beijing’s fiscal commitments to the U.N.’s regular budget stood at just $12 million — making up only 1% of total donor contributions. But fast forward two decades, and that amount now stands at around $367.9 million — some 12% of the total — propelling China to the rank of №2 donor, behind the U.S. As of Dec. 15, 2020, according to U.N. data, 139 member states have paid their regular budget assessments in full — which includes Beijing, which paid its bill in May, subsequent to the end of the 30-day due period and amid the growing firestorm emanating from the coronavirus fallout, which is believed to have started last year in the Chinese province of Wuhan. Uyghurs people demonstrate against China during the Universal Periodic Review of China by the Human Rights Council, on the place des Nations in front of the European headquarters of the United Nations, in Geneva, Switzerland, Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP) However, last year, the ICC green-lit a probe into crimes against Rohingya Muslims in Burma, also called Myanmar, and Bangladesh. Myanmar is not a member of the ICC either. Still, the court determined that it had the authority to investigate the alleged crimes in Bangladesh, which ratified the Rome Statute a decade ago. Canadian human rights lawyer David Matas also pointed out that in 2019, there was a complaint against China for crimes against the Philippines. Still, the prosecutor concluded that the crimes did not fall within the jurisdiction of the Court. “This is a general problem with the international legal system. In principle, the rule of law means that no one is above the law. Yet, for the international instances which address international law, that is not the case,” he conjectured. “China objectively is big, relatively well to do and powerful. The weight it objectively has is magnified in the international arena because of solidarity among non-democratic regimes as well as gratitude for the money China pours on developing countries with the expectation of political support in exchange.” And in 2015, the ICC opened an exploratory review into the 2014 Gaza conflict after the Palestinian Authority sent a complaint about war crimes committed by the Israeli military. Matas subsequently underscored that “the international legal system suffers from a double standard,” and that the contrast with Israel, “a small country, unpopular in the international arena, is striking.” “Look at the issue only of transfer, addressed for both countries in 2020. For China, as noted, the prosecutor concluded that there was an insufficient basis on which to proceed. The conclusion for Israel was the opposite that, on transfer, there were reasonable grounds to believe that the crime had occurred,” he argued. “Yet for Israel, the Prosecutor was addressing the voluntary movement of Israel citizens into the West Bank. For China, the Prosecutor was addressing forcible transfer to death, torture, or cruel and inhumane treatment.” Nonetheless, the ICC’s Uighur case file remains open — and the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) has confirmed that it has received a request for “reconsideration” pursuant to further facts and evidence. View of the International Criminal Court, or ICC, where Congolese militia commander Bosco Ntaganda is scheduled to hear the sentence in his trial in The Hague, Netherlands, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2019. The ICC is delivering the sentence on Ntaganda, accused of overseeing the slaughter of civilians by his soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2002 and 2003. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong) But what that amounts to remains to be seen. “The next step in the case is to provide the prosecutor with further evidence, regarding the deportation of Uighurs from Tajikistan and Cambodia back to China, that she has highlighted is needed to open an investigation,” added Rodney Dixon, an international human rights lawyer and the lead counsel on the case. “We have been gathering this evidence since the case was submitted in July and will be presenting that evidence to the office of the prosecutor in the new year.”

https://medium.com/@deserttalks/the-international-criminal-court-has-refused-to-investigate-the-genocide-against-the-uighur-aaf41e76f4f8

['Desert Talks']

2020-12-23 06:09:39.738000+00:00

['Genocide', 'Criminal Justice', 'Uighur Muslims', 'China', 'ICC']

Toto’s new smart toilets are less likely to invoke sticker shock

Toto’s new smart toilets are less likely to invoke sticker shock Audra Jan 15·2 min read Toto is known for building elaborate booths at CES to display and demonstrate its technologically advanced plumbing fixtures. If you’ve longed to grace your bathroom with one of the company’s high-tech toilets, you’ll be happy to know that some relatively affordable models are coming to market. When we first covered Toto’s CES in 2016, its top-of-the-line toilet cost nearly $10,000. In 2021, you’ll be able to buy that same technology for less than $1,500. Granted, the Toto Washlet+ C2 (integrated remote control) and the Washlet+ C5 (wall-mounted remote) still cost several times the price of your average throne, but they’re equipped with technology that will keep your bum squeaky clean. Plus, Toto promises the toilet itself will be easier to clean. [ Further reading: A smart home guide for beginners ] Toto The Toto Washlet+ C5 features a wall-mounted remote control. The remote is mounted to the bidet seat on the Washlet+ C2 displayed at the top of this page. The toilet bowl is fabricated from an ultrasmooth ceramic. Adding Toto’s Washlet+ seat turns the toilet into a bidet. When you approach the toilet, a “pre-mist” feature sprays electrolyzed water over the surface of the bowl above the water line. Electrolyzing the water converts it to sodium hypochlorite—a broad-spectrum disinfectant—and makes the bowl surface even more slick. When flushed, Toto’s Dynamax Tornado technology fills the bowl with water from the back as well as the sides to create a more forceful flush. The combination of the slick bowl and the robust flush reduces the likelihood that solid waste will stick to the sides, all while using less water, about .8 gallons per flush. The misting function occurs every eight hours to keep the bowl clean, and it reduces the need to introduce harsh chemicals during periodic cleanings with a brush or rag. In addition to the bowl cleaning, the bidet wand uses the same process to clean itself. There’s also an onboard water heater and a deodorizer to keep odor at bay, and a blower tops the experience off by lightly drying your bottom after the show. Both models require a button push to initiate flushing. If you’re looking for a touchless experience, you’ll need to move up to one of Toto’s more expensive models, with prices starting at around $2,500. 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/@audra85966277/totos-new-smart-toilets-are-less-likely-to-invoke-sticker-shock-279189e317b3

[]

2021-01-15 05:03:51.511000+00:00

['Connected Home', 'Cutting', 'Chargers', 'Home Tech']

Free Spins No More, Free Spins New Names

The policies currently being enforced by the United Kingdom Gambling Commission are set to transform the terminologies used by online casinos in the presentation of their free spin bonuses to casino players. In a move to make the “free spins” bonus more transparent, the UK Gambling Commission is partnering with ASA (the United Kingdom Advertising Standards Authority) to ensure that the mentioned bonus is properly advertised to casino players When a closer look is taken in the terminology used by online casinos to advertise their “free spins” bonuses, we can deduce that the said bonuses are not free hence making the ads misleading. True to this case, most casino players take the “free spins” bonus advertisements for their face value, not realizing that they are required to meet set conditions. The United Kingdom Gambling Commission has referred to the terminologies used by online casinos as predatory as they prey on casino players who are reluctant to read the casino’s terms and conditions. The terminologies go against the fair play regulations that every casino is expected to adhere to. The solution to this issue is the changing of the terminology “free spins” to something more appropriate and factual. Online casinos have already started adopting new names for their “free spins” bonus. For instance, the use of Fair Spins, Super Spins, Bonus Spins, Casino Spins and Extra Spins are some of the terminologies casinos are adopting in the presentation of their bonuses. By complying with the new policies, online casinos are presenting factual ads to their clients. The two watchdog institutions, both the United Kingdom Gambling Commission and the United Kingdom Advertising Standards Authority are aiming at protecting casino players from exploitation through misinformation. As a result, casino players are guaranteed to continue carrying out their activities in a fair and regulated environment. The free spins name change to other terminologies is also as a result of the government intention of introducing taxes on the free play bonuses offered in UK licensed casinos. There were plans in place by the government to levy taxes on casinos; this did not happen as the plans and proposed new policies were shelved and removed from the policy maker’s agenda. But with the recent magnifying glass put on the casino industry, it is expected that the lawmakers may reconsider their options and in turn levy casinos with taxes on their free play bonuses. The Remote Gaming Duty is a bill that was earlier drafted last year by the United Kingdom Tax Authority with the intention of making casino operators pay additional taxes on extra spins and free bonuses. The 2016 proposed bill was tabled before the country’s legislators who later scrapped it. There is an ongoing crackdown by the United Kingdom Gambling Authority on casino operators who are still using the Free Spins terminology. All UK licensed casinos are expected to change the Free Spin terminology to Extra Spins; this took effect on October 16th. The policy on the bonus name change is one amongst the many expected to be passed in the gambling industry. Read the full article at Bonusland.co.uk

https://medium.com/@BonusLand/free-spins-no-more-free-spins-new-names-8697de583dd

[]

2017-12-14 08:54:18.587000+00:00

['Gambling']

Interesting Factors to Consider When Buying a Pushchair

From the time the baby is born to a certain age, they need to be carried in a pushchair when the parent is traveling with the baby. Because of the delicate nature that the babies are from the time they are born up to the of twelve years the parent should get a pushchair that they will use in carrying the baby around for the safety of the child. When we talk about safety, the parent should ensure that the pushchair has passed the safety measures that have been put by the authorities. And the best way to know that the body responsible for the safety of pushchair is by looking at the sticker from the authority when shopping for the pushchair. Today the number of pushchairs in the market has increased, making it a difficult task for the parent to get the ideal pushchair for their child. In the article, we will discuss some of the things to consider when searching for a baby’s pushchair. Buy the best baby push chair or stroller at Baby & Co.. The parent should first come up with the budget before they decide going shopping for the baby’s pushchair. A child requires a lot of things when they are growing; hence, the pushchair is not the only thing that the parent wants to buy for the child. Thus they need to set aside the amount that they think they will in purchasing the pushchair for the baby. The budget will guide the parent in the type of chair that they will buy once they go out to buy the chair. The age of the child is another factor to consider when searching for the ideal pushchair for your child. The doctor recommends that a newborn child should be lying flat in the chair as it will help the child breath easily when in the pushchair. Most of the pushchair in the market can be placed in the one hundred and eighty degrees that making suitable for the newborns. Some of the such as the silver cross reflex are economical to the parent as they support a child from birth up to when they are twenty-five kilograms. The parent is required to adjust the pushchair as the child grows; therefore when the parent purchases the chair when the child is born, they will use it until they are older enough to walk on their own. Check out this link for the best baby pushchairs: https://www.babyandco.com/prams-and-pushchairs/prams-pushchairs-and-travel-systems/pushchairs-and-buggies/silver-cross-reflex-pushchair-onyx At times the parent may be blessed with twins, triplets, or more; hence, they need more space compared to the parent who has one newborn. So when looking for a pushchair for your baby, the parent should consider the number of children to accommodate. In summary, when looking for the best pushchair, an individual is required to research the pushchair before buying. Find more info at https://www.britannica.com/technology/child-safety-seat

https://medium.com/@wattskristopher/interesting-factors-to-consider-when-buying-a-pushchair-2456953460ca

['Watts Kristopher']

2019-05-27 14:27:13.660000+00:00

['Baby Products', 'Parenting']