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9 Writing Lessons I Learned From Drafting My First Fiction Novel | 9 Writing Lessons I Learned From Drafting My First Fiction Novel
Tips to consider if you’re interested in crafting a new story
Photo by Ben Karpinski on Unsplash
The idea first started over the summer.
I had just finished reading a book by a musician named Andrew Peterson where he talked about the creative process and why it was important for adults to retain the imaginations of their youth. He quoted two of my favorite authors, C.S. Lewis and Tolkien. That day in early June, in my daily journal, I wrote down a question that was starting to creep into the background of my brain:
What would it look like to try to write a fiction novel?
I’m an avid reader and have been writing for years now. I’ve written drafts of non-fiction books and worked in a myriad of the stages of publishing other people’s books, but I had never attempted to write my own fiction story.
Like most ideas, I sat on it and didn’t do anything about it. A few months later, a friend invited me to participate in a creative writing group focused on completing a specific writing project of our choice throughout the fall. I threw out that I’d write a series of short stories, still partially afraid to commit to the idea of an entire novel, and started working in my spare time.
As most writers can attest, once I got going, I kept going. I had a story I liked and characters that were starting to take shape. When I found myself thinking about the idea and the events about to unfold within the novel even when I wasn’t writing, that’s when I knew I was hooked.
By the end of October, I was sitting on nearly 60,000 words and a partial story. I had never really participated in National November Writing Month but thought this would be a good moment, considering I was already at work on a novel. Over the first 21 days of November, I wrote the remaining 75,000 words and finished the draft of my first fiction novel.
While writing, I learned so much about the ideas that go into getting a fiction novel down on paper. After combing back through the process and noting the speed bumps, stalls, and sticky spots, I’ve come up with nine core ideas to consider if you want to write a fiction novel as well. | https://medium.com/better-marketing/9-writing-lessons-i-learned-from-drafting-my-first-fiction-novel-bef878d564f0 | ['Jake Daghe'] | 2020-12-18 14:01:00.503000+00:00 | ['Fiction Writing', 'Storytelling', 'Fiction', 'Advice', 'Writing'] |
Heroes and Villains: A look at Codyfight Characters | import articles from ‘codyfight’
let article17 = articles.Characters
console.log(article17)
In the Codyfight metaverse, you control AI robots to chase and hunt down the main antagonist — a criminal that just escaped from his prison, now coming to threaten the future of Earth itself. As the old saying goes, “keep your friends close and your enemies closer,” we want to give you a briefing of all your allies and enemies in Codyfight.
Mr. Ryo
Mr. Ryo, a pink humanoid swine clad in a flashy blue suit and sunglasses, is the main antagonist in Codyfight. Years ago, during his reign of terror, he and his villainous henchmen attacked AI robots when they first came to Earth to rebuild the collapsed planet. Later, the Robot Army defeated and imprisoned him in the core of a gigantic gas giant in another galaxy. Yet, he has since escaped confinement and returned to Earth to once again wreak havoc on our planet. With crafty schemes and many loyal allies on his side, Mr. Ryo will prove to be quite a tricky adversary, but capturing him grants you a hefty amount of points.
Mr. Kix
Ryo’s right-hand man and most trusted ally, Kix is a humanoid green rabbit with a mysterious secret power — an ace up his sleeve that you will need to be wary of. Always seen together with Mr. Ryo, Kix acts as a deterrent in your pursuit, trying his best to slow you down by blocking the exit from you.
Legendary Llama
A timeless warrior and hero loved by many. When Mr. Ryo was a tyrant, Llama trained AI robots to fight against his gang and started a resistance against Ryo’s rule. Llama now continues to train robots by teaching them different techniques to catch Ryo. Though Ryo did put a bounty of $CTOK on him, Llama is an excellent warrior in his own rights and is always quick on his feet, eluding capture until now. Surely, you can’t think about betraying him, right? Right…?
The Ripper
A ruthless hunter robot made by an unknown creator, The Ripper’s sole purpose is to hunt down Mr. Ryo. A mighty warrior who led the charge against Ryo in the old days, it strikes down anyone standing in his way, no matter friend or foe. As Ryo once again returns to Earth, The Ripper’s valiant watch also continues — he puts a bounty on Mr. Ryo and accompanies AI robots into battle. Stay out of his pursuit, or else…
Buzz
Buzz is a friendly, collaborative robot buddy. He hates violence in any form and discourages others from resorting to it, but he will help you get to Mr. Ryo. So keep an eye out for this little buddy, and he will boost you towards victory.
Additionally, as we implement special and holiday events, other Special Agents and characters will be periodically added and removed to keep the gameplay fun and the metagame refreshing. So study your friends and foes carefully and constantly tweak your strategy, and you’ll be at the top of the leaderboards in no time.
//Further data classified
//Higher level access required
exit() | https://medium.com/@codyfight/heroes-and-villains-a-look-at-codyfight-characters-39f9c7e67fc6 | [] | 2021-12-30 10:54:30.353000+00:00 | ['Gaming', 'Esport', 'Crypto', 'Codyfight', 'Nft'] |
Computational Creativity: The Role of the Transformer | Over the years, computers have become increasingly sophisticated in their ability to identify more and more complex patterns. The field of computational creativity, a multidisciplinary endeavour to build software that can assist humans in a variety of tasks in the arts, science and the humanities, has seen much progress since the early days of computers where instructions had to be explicitly programmed.
In this article, we will attempt to unravel some of the recent developments in generative modelling that have shown significant improvements in computers’ ability to generate useful patterns that appeal to human observers. In particular, one type of neural network architecture, the Transformer, will be discussed in detail with regard to its ability to capture longer-term dependencies in text, music and images. Some future directions that this technology could lead to are also discussed.
What is creativity, anyway?
In her illuminating essay, Margaret Boden describes that creativity is “the ability to come up with ideas or artifacts that are new, surprising, and valuable”. Historically, this has been viewed as a unique aspect of human intelligence. As described by Boden, for something to be deemed creative, it must deliver both novelty and value.
A common criticism about modelling creativity is that machines (including the most recent deep learning methods) just use “brute-force pattern matching” to achieve an end goal — if the machine is simply identifying existing patterns in the data that it was trained on, then what “novelty” is it truly adding? In addition, “values” are known to be highly variable, and “any arguments about creativity are rooted in disagreements about value”.
While it may be true that computers might “just be pattern-matching” on a large-scale, it is important to realize that even great scientists and mathematicians are in essence, using their finely tuned pattern-matching abilities (albeit in a highly sophisticated form) to discover patterns in reality that nobody else thought of before. In the below sections, we will look at how transformers could help address both the issues of novelty and value, and how they might combine with other tools to aid humans in combinatorial creativity.
The Transformer
The 2017 Google AI paper “Attention is All You Need” first introduced the concept of the transformer neural network architecture. In essence, a transformer is a stack of encoders that can process a sequence of arbitrary length, which connects to a stack of decoders that outputs another sequence. Below is an example of such a structure used for machine translation.
Image source: Illustrated Transformer by Jay Alammar
In recent times, there have been a number of extensions and modifications made to the vanilla transformer that allow it to generalize to other tasks by using encoder-only stacks (BERT), or decoder-only stacks (OpenAI GPT), resulting in large-scale improvements to downstream language modelling tasks.
A deep technical description of the transformer is out of the scope of this article — however there are excellent visual explanations (Illustrated Transformer) and line-by-line descriptions of the implementation (Annotated Transformer) that supplement the original paper.
Self-Attention
At the core of the transformer is its self-attention mechanism — i.e. the ability to model relationships between parts of a sequence (for example, words in a sentence), regardless of their respective positions in the sequence.
Image source: Google AI blog post on transformers
The above image shows two examples where the meaning of the word “it” could be ambiguous to a machine— in the example on the left, “it” refers to the word “animal”, whereas on the right, “it” refers to “street”. The term self-attention used in this context means that the encoder, while inspecting its input sequence, is able to focus on different parts of the input in relation to itself, allowing it to “attend” to the right representation based on observed patterns in the training data.
Self-attention is incorporated into an encoder/decoder structure as follows.
Image source: Illustrated Transformer by Jay Alammar
Via this design, the encoder’s input tokens first flow through the self-attention layer, which allows it to focus on different parts of the sequence in relation to itself. The output of the self-attention layer is then passed to a feed-forward neural network, through which the model “learns” the representation of each word.
Multiple Attention Heads
The transformer expands on the idea of self-attention by incorporating multiple “attention heads”, i.e. instances of self-attention applied to different parts of the sequence simultaneously. In Google AI’s transformer, there are eight attention heads focusing on different positions at the same time step, applied to each encoder.
Image source: Illustrated Transformer by Jay Alammar
In essence, having multiple attention heads (eight, in the above image) makes parallelizing the computation relatively trivial, since each head can identify the relationships between words independently of the other. This greatly reduces the amount of training effort, allowing the transformer to scale efficiently to very large training sets, unlike more sequential architectures like Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs).
Over each training epoch, the individual attention heads update their vector representations, with the final representation being calculated as the weighted average of attentions.
Image source: Self-Attention for Generative Models, By Ashish Vaswani and Anna Huang
The decoder side works in a much similar way, and the final output vector representation is fed through a linear layer (which projects the vector output to a much larger “vocabulary space”), followed by a softmax layer (which converts the float representation of the word into a probability distribution for each word in the complete vocabulary). | https://medium.com/sfu-cspmp/computational-creativity-the-role-of-the-transformer-c3fa20da9c5f | ['Prashanth Rao'] | 2019-03-07 06:11:06.678000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Deep Learning', 'Generative Art', 'Neural Networks', 'Artificial Intelligence'] |
Stop Calling it Recreational Use | Many assume that this distinction is an important one, but is it?
By no means should the medicinal properties that cannabis possesses for treating a range of health conditions must not be undervalued.
However, are we paying enough attention to ‘recreational’ reform? Is the use of the word ‘recreational’ perhaps undervaluing its importance?
Recently, medical cannabis reform has dominated the advocacy space, driving the conversation forward. This has been incredible in terms of the positive progress we are making. We see this with symbolic advancement with time UN decision last week.
Although this moves medical reform forward, what does it do for recreational use?
Aside from the MORE Act passing in the US House, there haven’t been major calls for recreational legalisation. Perhaps this is a sign that we need to advocate stronger for recreational reform.
At the moment we might be running the risk of getting lost in the medicinal debate and not putting enough emphasis on recreational reform.
Although we see incredible momentum for medical reform, it is a balancing act. We shouldn’t let either call for reform drown out the other, we must emphasize both.
The current focus on medical reform might be making recreational cannabis use less legitimate. If you don’t have a medical prescription, does that make your cannabis use less legitimate? Viewing it in such a way will continue to stigmatise, criminalize and discriminate against people that use the drug for pleasure.
What I don’t like about the term ‘recreational’ is that it takes away the validity and legitimacy of what someone chooses to do.
Plus, it is far more complex than that. There is a fine line between recreational and medical use with a blurred barrier between what is pain relief and enjoyment. They are two sides of the same coin — though we have to draw the line somewhere, it is difficult.
The interplay between recreational and medical cannabis is extremely complex. Recreational use is a means of relaxing — but who is to say that this isn’t also a medical experience? There is certainly a medical element to the majority of cannabis use and we shouldn’t let this degrade the legitimacy either use.
Largely speaking, we take drugs due to their pleasurable effects. We have a biochemical pursuit of happiness, many of us alter our state of consciousness with the use of psychoactive substances.
Although a distinction can be important for severe cases, we mustn’t let this distinction negatively impact recreational users.
Whilst medical reform is vital, we mustn’t believe that if everyone that ‘needs’ cannabis has it, then our work is complete. Far from it. We can’t get into the dichotomy of thinking that taking cannabis to feel happy is ‘bad’, but relieving pain which leads to happiness is ‘good’. They are both ‘good’.
The vast majority of cannabis users use the drug unproblematically, with it having a net-improvement to their life. I do hope that the push for medical reform will lead to greater openness and acceptance toward cannabis use for pleasure too.
At its core, cannabis use generally has medical properties through providing pain relief and an improvement of wellbeing.
I urge us to not see recreational and medical cannabis as two separate entities. Singling it out as ‘recreational’ use may degrade legitimacy. Acknowledging that medical and recreational use have a lot in common will help to advance both aspects of reform. | https://medium.com/@katya398/stop-calling-it-recreational-use-2b6a39936432 | ['Katya Kowalski'] | 2020-12-11 15:45:00.018000+00:00 | ['Drugs', 'Marijuana', 'Cannabis', 'Recreational Marijuana', 'Cannabis Medical'] |
K-Means Clustering with Math. Common Unsupervised learning technique… | When we are working with huge volumes of data, it makes sense to partition the data into logical groups and doing the analysis. We can use Clustering to make the data into groups with the help of several algorithms like K-Means.
In this article, I will try to address
a. Clustering
b. K-Means and working of the algorithm.
c. Choosing the right K Value
Clustering
A process of organizing objects into groups such that data points in the same groups are similar to the data points in the same group. A cluster is a collection of objects where these objects are similar and dissimilar to the other cluster.
K-Means
K-Means clustering is a type of unsupervised learning. The main goal of this algorithm to find groups in data and the number of groups is represented by K. It is an iterative procedure where each data point is assigned to one of the K groups based on feature similarity.
Algorithm
K-Means algorithm starts with initial estimates of K centroids, which are randomly selected from the dataset. The algorithm iterates between two steps assigning data points and updating Centroids.
Data Assignment
In this step, the data point is assigned to its nearest centroid based on the squared Euclidean distance. Let us assume a Cluster with c as centroid and a data point x is assigned to this cluster, based on the distance between c,x. There are some other distance measures like Manhattan, Jaccard, and Cosine which are used based on the appropriate type of data.
Centroid Update
Centroids are recomputed by taking the mean of all data points assigned to a particular cluster.
image by George Seif
Let us go through the above steps using the example below.
Consider 4 data points A,B,C,D as below
Observations
2. Choose two centroids AB and CD, calculated as
AB = Average of A, B CD = Average of C,D
Two centroids AB, CD
3. Calculate squared euclidean distance between all data points to the centroids AB, CD. For example distance between A(2,3) and AB (4,2) can be given by s = (2–4)² + (3–2)².
A is very near to CD than AB
4. If we observe in the fig, the highlighted distance between (A, CD) is 4 and is less compared to (AB, A) which is 5. Since point A is close to the CD we can move A to CD cluster.
5. There are two clusters formed so far, let recompute the centroids i.e, B, ACD similar to step 2.
ACD = Average of A, C, D B = B
New centroids B, ACD
6. As we know K-Means is iterative procedure now we have to calculate the distance of all points (A, B, C, D) to new centroids (B, ACD ) similar to step 3.
Clusters B, ACD
7. In the above picture, we can see respective cluster values are minimum that A is too far from cluster B and near to cluster ACD. All data points are assigned to clusters (B, ACD ) based on their minimum distance. The iterative procedure ends here.
8. To conclude, we have started with two centroids and end up with two clusters, K=2.
Choosing K
One method of choosing value K is the elbow method. In this method we will run K-Means clustering for a range of K values lets say ( K= 1 to 10 ) and calculate the Sum of Squared Error (SSE). SSE is calculated as the mean distance between data points and their cluster centroid.
Then plot a line chart for SSE values for each K, if the line chart looks like an arm then the elbow on the arm is the value of K that is the best.
Choose the Best K
Hope you enjoyed it!! Please do comment on any queries or suggestions. | https://towardsdatascience.com/k-means-clustering-for-beginners-2dc7b2994a4 | ['Sampath Kumar Gajawada'] | 2019-10-24 18:42:48.923000+00:00 | ['Clustering', 'Machine Learning', 'Mathematics', 'Unsupervised Learning', 'Data Science'] |
Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming -1 Object & Class | Object-Oriented Programming
In this article, we will see what does Object-Oriented Programming — abbr. OOP- means. Many times, we see it in action but do we really know what it actually implies for? Let’s jump right in.
Everything we see around is basically an object and OOP is a model that assumes everything is, well, an “object”.
Maybe these objects have similar properties. But they are completely different objects and they have their own actions. There are behaviors we expect from every object.
So we wrote the objects with properties and methods and explain each one as a schema. We call these schemas a Class.
An object is a real form of class. We can produce a lot of different objects by using variants of properties.
We understood the object and class differences. And now we will see how can create an object using classes.
First of all, we using new Classname words to create a new object by using this class name. In summary, we say create me an object of this class. Then we set this object to a variable. Finally, we have an object and now we can set properties to this object. — I’ll explain why I use this way to set the properties to the object in the future encapsulation article. —We can call the object methods the same as setting the properties.
Why we use empty brackets after the new iPhone words? It’s called an Empty Constructor.
If I want to set my values to the first step, we call this way as a Parameterized Constructor. | https://medium.com/@baristure/introduction-to-object-oriented-programming-oop-b03797968651 | ['Barış Türe'] | 2020-12-25 20:48:36.945000+00:00 | ['Programming', 'Object Oriented', 'Development', 'C Sharp Programming', 'Software Development'] |
Mary Jane and Matchdays | Mary Jane and Matchdays
Marijuana, Mary Jane, Weed, or whatever your preferred way of calling it, can be and is used as a recovery tool for certain mental health disorders. Ever since moving to America, I have personally used the drug to help with my anxiety and depression, and hey it works. When I do reach my high which only takes 10 minutes to hit me, I experience relaxation to the max in my mind and body. My mind begins to laser in and only focus on one thing which helps massively with my overthinking, the tightness and all the stresses I have in my body loosen up, and my creativity springs to life I begin to open doors in my mind that I never knew existed. I also feel emotions ten times harder than normal, this is why it is important when your “high” to focus on the good and happy things because a turn into a little darkness can make your experience go south real quick. I’ve heard watching football high is also an experience but haven’t tried this myself but I am intrigued. My sleep hygiene also benefits as I fall asleep a lot quicker and deeper making me feel refreshed and awake the next day. To put it simply marijuana takes the edge off and relieves symptoms of my depression and anxiety in a big way.
Marijuana in football though is a big no no even for players off the pitch, the Football Association have the drug banned on their substance list. Musonda Mweuke in 2003 was arrested for unlawful use of the drug and later pleaded guilty, it’s important to note that he was the top scorer for Zambia’s domestic league at the same time. As marijuana becomes ever so increasingly used in America with more and more states legalizing it, it still has an uphill battle for legalization with other nations such as England. As mental health takes a front seat in the UK with the backing of Prince William, it has me wondering if marijuana will ever be given a chance to help the mental health community within the UK.
While I was doing my soccer coach summer camps, I would smoke on my off days on the weekend and felt more relaxed and refreshed to coach through the week. This is because I wasn’t worrying and overthinking like I usually do on whether my session plans would be up to standard and was right for the kids or whether I was impressing or disappointing my boss the director of coaching. I did see the amazing benefits until I started not doing it only on my off days but then every day after the summer camps ended. Too much of something is never good and with smoking every day, I started to become lazy, bigger because of the bloody munchies, unmotivated and uninspired, and kept myself on an ongoing loop of this. I get inspired just by watching football and indulging with all its content that it has to offer especially women’s football. During quarantine, I discovered that I want my career to be in the football industry more so the women’s side but I’ll take either and I also discovered that I wouldn’t get anywhere if I were to stay on this lazy bum route I was going on. So as of right now I have been abstinent from weed for 18 days now and counting and am now back at it and ready to continue to fight this depression and anxiety and live the life I envision of myself. I won’t kick out marijuana forever but it won’t ever become a daily occurrence again maybe something like one day every two months or so.
So to end it all marijuana is a huge help in relieving systems of depression and anxiety but in my opinion only to be used in moderation. I now leave you with a little weed meme. | https://medium.com/@roughtackle/mary-jane-and-matchdays-b8f6ade134bc | [] | 2020-09-22 15:43:10.559000+00:00 | ['Mental Health', 'Anxiety', 'Marijuana', 'Depression', 'Anxiety Disorder'] |
Build The Skills You Need In The New Economy | Finding our mission is incredibly difficult if we have debt and can’t work at the job we want. In order to always be growing, many individuals will undoubtedly want to level up their skills. This is a great thing, but in order to do this safely, we must avoid the pitfalls of thinking that college will solve all our problems. College is a great choice for those seeking to get a credential that they can only obtain through college. But for both the college bound, as well as those who want to bypass bureaucracy, this article could help save you tens of thousands of dollars in debt and years pursuing a degree that may not pay off.
It’s a bit crazy that the average college student in America takes 5.6 years to complete a four-year bachelor’s degree. On average, these students are left with around $30,000 of debt, and the ones who find jobs typically work outside their majors, in jobs they didn’t need their degrees for in the first place. Collectively, there is $1.3 trillion of student debt! College costs (when adjusted for inflation) have risen 400% since the 1980s. Many college degrees do not lead to opportunities or job offers and carry with them a debt that can’t be expunged via bankruptcy. To make matters worse, we often don’t realize how long we’ve been pre-sold the idea of college throughout our K-12 education. In order to avoid these pitfalls, and overcome past conditioning, we must choose carefully when we’re pursuing training that will help us level up our skills.
This isn’t to say that college degrees can’t be extremely valuable; of course they can. But before we purchase a college degree or course load, we are allowed to double-check and objectively prove to ourselves the value of what we’re buying.
Trust, But Verify
A few months before my last deployment in the military, I was thinking about going to graduate school. I wanted some sort of credential that could guarantee me a great salary and future opportunity. Looking back on where I was then feels a bit pathetic now. I was looking for confirmation from a university about the type of value I could provide to employers. I was looking for a “quick fix” of getting a graduate degree, prestige, and a salary boost instead of doing the hard upfront work of making sure the degree I was going to purchase was valuable. At first, I thought I’d go to law school and get a JD. But I found a number of attorneys who had graduated in debt and were clerking at $40,000 a year. Others were at big law firms, but they definitely did not seem mission-driven.
Then, I thought, since I already had a bachelor’s degree in economics… I’d get a PhD in economics! That would be it! That credential would set me up for success! As I began to study and take the prerequisites needed for a PhD in economics, such as Calculus III, I started to ask myself better questions. Who had their PhD in economics that I wanted to emulate? Who found meaning in this choice? I decided I should start meeting people who had earned their PhD in economics and ask for myself. I had my sights set on a specific economics department at a specific college, so I dug around to find dissertations and resumes of those who had recently earned their PhDs. I cold emailed all of them. A few responded, and we struck up some interesting conversations. I expected to hear that they were making great money, they had learned a lot, or that they were generally content with the investment they’d made in their PhD. None of this was true.
To say they were not satisfied was an understatement. Each person I reached out to seemed confused, unsure of the value of their degree. To be blunt, some of them seemed to be harboring deep, passive aggressive anger towards spending five years on a pursuit that didn’t lead to where they were told it would. Many were working at the same jobs they had before the PhD program. In a few cases, they were still looking for jobs.
This was an icy wake up call about higher education. Looking to learn and take an interest in improving ourselves is great, but we should determine the actual potential value of the college degree we’re buying before we purchase it.
I talked to one of my former professors from undergraduate school for a final piece of advice before I decided whether or not to go to graduate school. He listened intently to my story of reaching out to recent graduates from the program. He responded with a few crystal clear points:
Be thankful you didn’t waste five years of your life doing that
Think about how much you could learn on your own, or accomplish in the business world, in five years
You can find used editions of every book they read in class on Amazon, and read them on your own
His points hit home, and I got the wake up call I wish I had received before I devoted four years of time and money towards a bachelor’s degree. Making the choice to go to college or earn a credential doesn’t have to be difficult. It only takes a small amount of extra work for us to “trust, but verify” the value of what we’re buying. If we want to produce a certain outcome, earn a certain salary, or unlock certain opportunities, there has never been a more important time to reach out and discover if the path we’re thinking about is viable. | https://medium.com/the-mission/build-the-skills-you-need-in-the-new-economy-b6a1a20ed78e | ['Chad Grills'] | 2018-08-06 14:37:17.035000+00:00 | ['Higher Education', 'Careers', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Economy', 'College'] |
Do Whatever He Tells You | © 2020 Neven Krcmerek. All Rights Reserved. Unsplash.
Used by permission.
It was a gathering of university students, eager, young followers of Jesus. The leader of the discussion asked what was the most important part of being a Christ-follower.
A flurry of answers engulfed us, answers like, “faith” or “love” or “trust.” Each such response elicited a host of “yeah” or “uh-huh” or “amen” statements indicating alignment or agreement.
The answers slowed as the group ran out of standard replies to offer, when the student sitting next to me chimed in with a bold and resolute, “obedience!”
Silence. No one said a word. It was both revealing and slightly unnerving.
Obedience is a discomforting word. We’re much more at ease with words like love, peace, faith, and trust. But obedience . . . that harsh. It’s fundamentalist. It’s pharisaic.
On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” — John 2:1–4, ESV
Jesus had done no miracle to this point, and he had given no indication that he would do one now. There is nothing to suggest that Mary should expect one. John is unmistakably clear that this was the “beginning of his signs” (John 2:11).
The loss of wine at this wedding feast (typically seven days in length) would be a matter of great embarrassment to the wedding family, and, by extension, to the greater community in which the wedding was held. It is not clear if Mary’s concern is with the family as close friends, or if it is that the community would be a source of ridicule.
Whatever the case, Mary turned to her eldest son for help. With Joseph no longer around, Jesus would be the head of the household, and as such, in a position to make some decisions. Perhaps Mary expected him to scrape together the funds to buy more wine. Maybe she thought he might organize a quiet collection from trusted friends and neighbors for a wine purchase. Her expectations are not clear, but her direction is unmistakably clear.
Mary said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” — John 2:5, ESV
Mary delivered this abrupt statement, directing the servants to carry out Jesus’ instructions without question or objection. If he directed them to buy wine on his credit, they were to do so. If he told them to quietly take up a collection, they were to do so. If he instructed them to take the headwaiter a ladle filled with dirt . . . are you getting the picture?
Taken literally, Jesus told the servants, “Serve the guests water.” I do not believe anyone, not Mary, not the servants, not the disciples had any expectation that what actually happened was what would happen. All of them likely had the same reaction. “Well, I guess we’re drinking water now.”
Even if we don’t understand, even if we have no expectations, we, like the servants, are called to “Do whatever he tells [us].” If Jesus tells us to serve our guests water when they are calling for wine, serve them water. If Jesus tells us to feed the multitude with five barley loaves and two small fish, we do so.
We are not called to understand Jesus, but to obey and follow him.
If any one chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. — John 7:17, NIV-1978
The temptation is to say, “Once I have this all figured out, I’ll jump on board and follow Jesus.” No, that’s not how it works. Obedience precedes understanding. We obey, and then these things become clear. We do not wait for clarity before obeying.
When Jesus told Simon to put out into the deep water and let down the nets for a catch, Simon objected briefly, noting a hard night of fishing with no results. Simon was the fisherman here. Simon knew that letting down the nets in the deep water was pointless. But then he said, “But because you say so, I will let down the nets.” The nets were so overloaded with fish that they began to tear.
Take a cue from Mary. “Do whatever he tells you.”
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Victoriously in Christ!
- damon
DamonJGray.org
Medium.com
Facebook Author Page
Twitter — @DamonJGray
Bible Gateway Blogger Grid
YouTube Channel | https://medium.com/@damonjgray/do-whatever-he-tells-you-aedc02abf555 | ['Damon J. Gray'] | 2020-01-09 01:09:18.307000+00:00 | ['Obedience', 'Wine', 'Jesus', 'Christianity', 'Christian Living'] |
Where is the Pink Man? | Please let me know who has last, and where, spotted the rare species of sapien known as the ‘Pink Man’ — Is he one man, is he many men? Are they clones, or does he travel in time? Dr. Pink Man perhaps….
(.. this one’s for Jon — a fellow pink-man-asaurian expert and tracker (any sightings in NYC these days?)
The Pink Man in the wild
Here he is, a rare sighting of a even rarer sapien (homo? ,, one doesn’t know, all speculation!) | https://medium.com/@pana-cinematically/where-is-the-pink-man-332b32d99277 | ['Up-Archically Thrilled'] | 2020-12-09 16:30:58.259000+00:00 | ['Strange People', 'Pink Man', 'Homosapien', 'New York City'] |
How Much Does it Cost to Build a Website | In today’s digital world, a website is no longer a liability, but it has become a source of necessity for all kinds of business.
We all know that a superb website can fuel your business growth and website is one of the most powerful marketing channels for all kinds of business, but the first question which arises on people’s mind is: How much does a website cost?
Well, the answer to this troublesome question is: Website development cost totally depends on individual budget, goals, features, and functionalities that you want to integrate in your website. It also depends on the website development company you are going to work with.
The cost of building a website varies on various factors, some of the key components are as follows:
Types of Website:
Ecommerce website:
The foremost thing determining the website development cost is its purpose of creating it. Depending on the requirement of the business, various websites are developed, some of which are discussed below:
Ecommerce websites are used to sell products and receive payments online. If you’re planning to start an eCommerce website, then you must know that this website has more features than a normal website. Thus, the cost of developing this website is a bit more than a normal website.
Ecommerce websites include some factors like payment gateways, OTP verification, shipment and tracking, etc. that results in the increased cost of the website development.
2. Brochure Website:
A brochure website is mostly used to represent small business with an aim to serve marketing purposes in order to gain the interest of the clients.
A brochure website is mainly a 5-page website consisting of contact us, home page, services, portfolio, and about us. Brochure website cost ranges from $1,000 to $25,000+.
3. Educational Website:
This type of website is ideal for educational institutions that offer online courses. The size of this website depends on the course that needs to be showcased individually.
The cost of the educational website depends on the number of the website page.
Domain Name:
A domain name is your website’s permanent address on the internet. It is what visitors type into the browser to reach your website.
To access your website, you need to register your domain name. Once you register it, you can use that domain name for your website for one year. If you want to use the same domain you are required to renew it each year or as long as you want to keep the name for your site.
The cost of your domain depends on your TLD (Top-Level Domain) for example; “.COM”, “.NET”, etc. The average cost of the domain is $5. However, the “.COM” domain usually costs $10.
Website Building:
Whether you are a beginner or an advanced developer, you’ll need to use a website builder to make the website. It makes your website appealing the way you desire. It also allows you to easily add features like plugins, SEO tags, etc. without any hassle.
When building a website, we always suggest you choose self-hosted WordPress as your website builder. WordPress is the first choice for almost 30% of all website owners. It gives you immense possibilities to create and enhance your website the way you hanker.
Website Hosting:
Web hosting is like the storage-box of your website, where you store content and files of your website.
In simple words, web hosting refers to renting the space on a server that stores all files and data necessary for your website to work properly around the globe. Hosting can range from being free to hundred dollars.
There are a lot of different types of web hosting services such as WordPress, VPS hosting, Wix, Squarespace, shared hosting, etc. When you’re just getting started, we suggest you to choose WordPress hosting because it is the perfect choice for most website owners in terms of pricing. WordPress cost around $17 for the first year, including the free domain name.
The domain name and web hosting both of these are pivotal elements of your website and should never be ignored while calculating the cost.
Website Design:
Another important component to be considered in determining the cost to build a website is its design. There is no clear-cut cost of the website design; it ranges from $250 to $20,000 depending on how you want your website to look.
If you hire a professional designer for your website it may cost you little more depending on the website design cost and packages. On average, website designers charge $6/hr.
You can use themes rather than designing your website from scratch. There are many software like WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, etc.- that offer free and premium themes.
Content & SEO:
Content is a crucial factor in the success of a website. The amount of content that needs to be created is commensurate to the number of pages the website has. An effective website needs to place the right word that will not only boost the ranking of the website but also get visitors hopping around on your site.
Content ties to Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO includes Optimization, Content analysis, page speed, keyword research, etc. The cost of SEO services is $200 to $1500 per month.
Maintenance:
Just like a vehicle needs regular care and maintenance to enable it to work smoothly, a website also needs to be maintained and updated regularly in order to perform efficiently. Regular maintenance of the website results in better SEO ranking and higher visibility.
The cost of maintaining a website is around $300 to $1000. If a website needs to redesign or redeveloped it will cost a bit more.
Things to be considered when designing the website:
Identify your primary users:
Before contacting a website development company, it is essential to narrow down your target audience and identify why they will visit your website.
2. Balancing your Budget:
Before solidifying your plan for website development, you need to establish your budget. A simple website will cost you less as compared to a custom website project.
3. Structuring your site for scalability:
Never set a plan for building a website that meets only your current needs. Hence, keeping scalability at the top of your priority list is the foremost thing to consider before developing the website. | https://medium.com/@rentechdigital/how-much-does-it-cost-to-build-a-website-4b90bbe145de | ['Rentech Digital'] | 2021-02-22 08:55:27.726000+00:00 | ['Ecommerce Web Development', 'Web Development Company', 'Web Development', 'Web Design', 'Website Development'] |
Abandoned Theatres | Nostalgia | Abandoned Theatres | Nostalgia
Image: Madurai Ram Victoria Theatre 70mm
I wish I had the resources. I would never let a standalone theatre go obsolete, especially those located in Madurai. Not only did they grow cinema viewing but enlightened many. I'm one of those victims.
Deepa theatre was the first in Madurai to be equipped with Dolby sound in early 90s. It was shutdown, and converted into vehicle parking/ garage in mid 2000. I vividly remember watching Kuruthipunal, Dil To Pagal Hai, Border, Karuppuroja, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Thunderbolt at Deepa in Dolby surround, and many other films only for the sound. Nostalgic.
Initially, 'Kuruthipunal' was released in Mathi theatre. It was mono sound. Incidentally, Deepa theatre released this film as a second release highlighting the theatre's Dolby Stereo Surround sound. That was the very first time in the early 90s, I was introduced to Dolby sound. The sequences where RPG launched had incredible surround effect. Almost everyone in theatre looked around if a real RPG was launched into the theatre. That's was the impact of Dolby and DTS sound systems when they were introduced in Madurai in early 90s.
I vividly remember Deepa theatre playing Hindi songs of Dilwale, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, DilSe an hour prior to the show. People couldn't comprehend the sound experience. No one goes out for smoking. There was pin drop silence not when the actual feature film was on, but when the music/sound was played.
I recalled all these memories when I happen to enter the theatre again in 2016 disguised as a Documentarian.
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This blog is not exhaustive. There will be addendums.
Authored by Balaji Thangapandian aka #BT - a spacefarer, who is also curious about film-making, connectivity technologies and military history.
mindofbt.blogspot.com
tbalajiocha@gmail.com
https://www.facebook.com/balaji.thangapandian
https://www.facebook.com/FilmTheorist/ | https://medium.com/@BalajiThangapandian/abandoned-theatres-nostalgia-515fbd489042 | ['Balaji Thangapandian'] | 2020-12-10 01:26:12.933000+00:00 | ['Madurai', 'Film', 'Standalone Theatre', 'Nostalgia', 'Abandoned Theatres'] |
Getting back on track after one year without OKRs | More than a year ago, I stopped working with OKRs at both professional and personal levels. I did it because I changed companies at the professional level and because too many changes happened at the personal level. To sum it up: the pandemic started, I went back to my home country and started remote work.
One year later, I want to go back to the practice of OKRs and want to share my observations and the reasons behind this decision.
The most important thing that I’m missing is working with results-oriented people. Many times when picking up projects or work that requires collaboration, I find myself in the middle of debates regarding the “how” with little or no focus on the “why” or the “what”. This happens especially when working with creative people who have hundreds of ideas about how something can be achieved. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have anything against being creative, and I like brainstorming, exploring different perspectives and ways of doing things. But too many ideas and the focus drifts to anything except the objective. That’s why, when focusing on a project or even a task, it’s essential to keep in mind the desired outcome and visualize the results of implementing that project. This practice keeps the focus on the “what” and “why”; what you will achieve and why you are doing it. For example, after I participated in the OKR Forum one year ago, it helped me get insights about my future objectives and what results I wanted to achieve because my peers challenged me to think that way.
Another thing that I noticed after 1 year is that I now take fewer risks. When being focused on results, the how becomes less important, and because of that, I took more risks. For example, I had as an objective to find a new place to rent, and I had concrete key results behind it: to be cheap and of excellent quality. And because I wanted that, I ended up renting an apartment provided by a rental company rather than a classic owner. It was a risky move because I had never done that before. Overall, it was much easier for me to go down the unknown path as long as it took me where I wanted. Probably that was one of the reasons I stopped using OKRs. When the pandemic hit, I realized that I had to be in a safer environment, and I wanted to rely more on my short-term intuition rather than medium-term goals. I didn’t want to take any risks. When using your intuition, it’s challenging to put a result behind an objective, you choose an objective, but you don’t really know why you are doing it.
Even though I was not working with OKRs, I finished many projects and managed the work using a framework. I used the classic framework of project management, taking a goal, breaking it down into actionable steps, milestones, deadlines, etc. A project management framework is great for getting things done, but it doesn’t help much with motivation, direction, and measurement, areas where the OKR’s really shine. For example, I finished the website at www.efesent.com, and I’m very proud of it. It looks very nice, presentable, it’s a great piece of work, and from time to time people visit it, and I get the chance to collaborate with somebody, but 4 months after launching it, I’m not happy with the results that it brings: I don’t have enough visitors, the SEO optimizations don’t bring enough people to it, etc. Looking back at it, when I started the project, I should have placed first the results: leads, contacts, sessions with people, etc., and be flexible about how I was going to achieve those results, with a website or without a website. I learned the hard way that OKRs are about achieving the goal, setting a benchmark for measuring results, giving direction, and motivating. OKRs work hand-in-hand with project management frameworks and GTD systems, they don’t replace them but build on top of them.
I’m now leaving 2020 behind and starting 2021 with fresh personal OKRs. I’m really excited about it, and I can’t wait to share these with others. I see now that the first OKR podcast was launched at There Be Giants, and there are free virtual classes at OKRs For Success | https://medium.com/efesent-solutions/one-year-without-okrs-getting-back-on-track-with-this-awesome-tool-568d777345b6 | ['Dan Gurgui'] | 2020-12-20 19:46:46.037000+00:00 | ['Leadership', 'Management', 'Goals', 'Okr', 'Coaching'] |
The guide to giving cryptocurrency as a Christmas gift | As the holiday season quickly approaches, the urge to give creative and inspiring gifts goes stronger than ever. After all, there are a number of typical gifts people have come to expect come Christmastime: mugs, socks, neckties, and gift cards for example. While it’s certainly the thought that counts, do these really excite anyone?
Why not then consider giving cryptocurrency as a Christmas gift?
Aside from the fact that it’s certainly unique (although the past few years have seen it slowly entering the mainstream, as more and more shops are accepting Bitcoin as payment, you’d be giving someone a great way to grow their assets. It’s been pointed out, for example, that certain cryptocurrency could be a better store of value than paper money especially as worldwide inflation threatens to reach unprecedented levels because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Adding to this argument is the fact that one Bitcoin recently reached a record market value of over $ 24,000, a trend that looks upward in the long term due to the limited supply.
Sharing is caring if you already are a cryptocurrency holder. Thus, there’s more reason than ever to gift cryptocurrency to your loved ones. In the article below, we’ll be covering the best ways to do exactly that.
Use Telegram to give (and receive) cryptocurrency gifts
The first and most practical way to introduce someone to cryptocurrency is to simply give them the coins themselves. With 400 million monthly active users around the world, it isn’t far-fetched to think that you or someone you know uses Telegram regularly.
The good news here is that the messaging app has proved user-friendly to cryptocurrency in the past, from discussing cryptocurrency projects to build a blockchain network and eventually a currency of their own. We see further collaboration between widely-used messaging apps and cryptocurrencies.
XWallet has a feature that allows Telegram users to gift each other cryptocurrency. With Crypto Gift, XWallet users can use Telegram chat to send and receive cryptocurrency as easily as send a simple message through chat. This eliminates the hassle of keying in and confirming the long wallet addresses.
Use a crypto exchange
If your loved ones are interested in acquiring more cryptocurrency, you can teach them to sign up on a credible online digital currency exchange such as Binance, Coinbase, Kraken and others, connecting your bank account, debit, or credit card. If they prefer face-to-face interaction, visit one of our XPOS merchants to buy.
Once the above steps are done, you can send Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other coins to another account registered on the currency exchange or wallet addresses. With free cryptocurrency now at their side, it will surely open the door for the rest of their journey into the crypto world.
Give a physical wallet
This option is best if you’ll be giving your gift in person as it’s exactly what the name implies — a physical crypto wallet that contains all relevant information needed for spending the coins. You can choose to give an XPASS card that the crypto can be deposit from a XPOS merchant.
Or you can give a paper wallet that the public and private keys needed for making transactions printed on the paper, allowing the two of you to set up the wallet together.
Of course, the only downside to a paper crypto wallet is that the information can be seen by anyone so be careful when wrapping this gift and/or handing it over.
Give a hardware wallet
The alternative to a paper wallet is a hardware wallet, with the key difference being that they are more advanced than paper wallets or XPASS card because they have a micro storage device backup and QR code scan camera. Additionally, although hardware wallets are also physical devices not connected to the internet, it is suitable for those who look for a safer option to store a large amount of crypto offline.
Overall, there are now more ways than ever to have a holiday season peppered with the gift of cryptocurrency. Where people once gave each other cash and gold, it may not be long before people realize cryptocurrency is a better store of value — and there’s hardly a better gift than helping someone move that much closer to access to the digital assets built on the future-proof technology. | https://medium.com/pundix/the-guide-to-giving-cryptocurrency-as-a-christmas-gift-1da1f5c90546 | ['Pundi X', 'Writers'] | 2020-12-21 12:00:02.136000+00:00 | ['Bitcoin', 'Gift', 'Christmas', 'Xpos', 'Cryptocurrency'] |
Drake’s “Nice For What” Is The Bittersweetest Song I’ve Ever Known | Drake’s “Nice For What” Is The Bittersweetest Song I’ve Ever Known
Aaliyah stans can’t sing Lauryn’s spirit this well, dammit.
I adore Lauryn Hill to the level that I have every bar she ever rapped or verse she ever sang committed to memory. I was so inspired by The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill that I listened to her excellent 1998 release every day for 18 months, plus owned a four-foot tall “Ex-Factor” promotional poster. But, alas, by the time that she released Unplugged, her heartbroken, hasty and half-written, yet still magical and impacting 2003 follow up, the Lauryn I knew was gone. Moreover, the heart and soul of my love for soul music had been ripped out, savaged, then placed back into my body. Thus, while it is magnificent, Drake’s current single “Nice For What” is some straight butt-trash that I don’t have any time for (but will stream another million times). I feel this way if for no other reason than he already loves Aaliyah the way I love Lauryn and thus, in my mind can’t authentically make a song that seems so heartfelt. “Nice For What” is probably the most bittersweetest thing I’ve ever known. By heart. Already. Damn.
L. Boogie has more creative talent in her right pinkie finger than 100 musicians could use in ten lifetimes. She was the nexus at which Joni Mitchell meeting Stevie Wonder combined with Rakim’s warrior heart and the passionate politics of Angela Davis occurred. Ms. Hill was ill-equipped for popular music in 1996. Back then, pop took rappers and made them charlatans, hard edges on polite radio fare, exclamation points raging where periods once ruled. Lauryn Hill’s message shined brighter than all the world’s shiny suits and bling bling combined. I sincerely feel that between heartbreak, having a family and popular culture wanting her to be a dolled-up cooing clone, instead of fighting the machine, she quit it at her peak.
Lauryn Hill plainly stared the mainstream music industry in the face and called them the liars and pimps that they are. Nobody likes an unwilling whore, and she fell off precipitously, as life on the pop margins is like a million cloudy days blocking the sunshine of mainstream love. In retaliation, she changed her times, and as a professional mother, let her rhymes raise her babies (all five of them), art influencing life.
Drizzy is a fascinating artist to be tying his art to Lauryn Hill’s creative legacy. For as much as he’s an actor-ternt-sanga, he’s also the artist whose five-foot two-inch tall mother cried into his chest in depressive angst. He’s also known for encapsulating his “devil may care” mantra toward life in song. Also, in having Aaliyah’s face tattooed on his body, he probably cares more about 90s R & B than I ever did by just putting up a poster on my wall. In fact, while wholly inspired by Lauryn Hill to get my “lover and a fighter” tattoo on my own back ten years ago, I couldn’t get myself to the point where Hill’s wood-carving cover of Miseducation seemed made for my skin. Instead, I opted for a fist with brass knuckles holding a rose.
“Nice For What” was released in the same week as Cardi B’s debut album Invasion of Privacy. Invasion of Privacy is a release that was the first New York/East Coast influenced hip-hop album by a female artist since The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill to hit in such a way that it left an immediate and indelible imprint on popular culture. It’s again beautiful, yet bittersweet that hip-hop is now mainstreamed to a point where it’s big enough to support Lauryn Hill and another hip-hop artist. Ultimately, if Jay and Bey are the new parents of the culture, Lauryn is the grandmother. She’s older, wiser, a memory of the legacy mixed with the talent for timeless impact. Lineage-wise, Drake exhuming the ex-Fugee’s spiritual essence while Cardi B is simultaneously living her “best life” is a magical, yet still, to me, potentially lousy hip-hop moment.
Maybe that’s my issue with Drake’s New Orleans bounce inspired cover hit. Co-opting the Earth Mother of mainstream hip-hop feels sacrilegious. When he says “she had a man last year…life goes on,” over a female empowering club banger that feels like Webbie’s “Independent,” it feels like it cheapens the best song ever written about the romantic inadequacies of Wyclef Jean that led to Hill’s career-tragic professional decline. “Ex-Factor” isn’t just another ballad. It is one of the most iconic, broken-hearted torch songs ever performed, and an anthem that still leaves an indelible mark on women worldwide.
In fact, Drake is such a real fan of Lauryn Hill, that he made the song exactly three minutes and 30 seconds long. Three minutes and 30 seconds you ask? Yes. Lauryn’s time-splitting duet with Bob Marley for “Turn Your Lights Down Low” includes Hill saying “loving you is a like a song I replay, every three minutes and thirty seconds of every day.” If you’re going to get Lauryn right, you have to mix multiple levels of sacred and keep God and Jah locked in the room with the Devil. The period that inspired “Turn Your Lights Down Low” is right around the time of the height of the “era of good feeling in her on-again/off-again relationship with Rohan Marley. This epoch directly proceeded the period that created the space for “Ex-Factor” to exist. Thus, it’s a nice nod. Drake doing call and response with Lauryn paralleling Lauryn and Robert Nesta Marley’s lovelorn redemption song as a coda for “Nice For What?” It’s the little things.
Maybe I’m a curmudgeon. Or, perhaps, I’m a diabolical hater. Possibly, it’s just that the inevitability of Drake is just wearing on me, and the idea that he’s allowed to be a man for all seasons and all people seems like a step too far. It’s a virtual impossibility to me that one artist could be so uniquely gifted as to wear Aaliyah’s face on his body, but sing Lauryn’s spirit so well. But, “Nice For What” is easily the bittersweetest song I’ve ever known. By heart. Already. Damn. | https://marcuskdowling.medium.com/drakes-nice-for-what-is-the-bittersweetest-song-i-ve-ever-known-46d1ad13b222 | ['Marcus K. Dowling'] | 2018-04-10 15:12:11.188000+00:00 | ['Drake', 'Feminism', 'Music', 'Rap', 'Women'] |
Bitcoin As Subscription | this is pb&j french toast. it sounds delicious. it has nothing to do with what you’re about to read.
During Bitcoin 2021 I had many long conversations about the future of bitcoin and the Lightning Network. Lightning seems to be on the verge of massive (dare I say mainstream) adoption. Lightning payments are fast, cheap, and easier than Venmo. Strike is indistinguishable from magic. Entire countries have started betting on the network.
In the first world we’re seeing adoption through the streaming of micropayments to podcasters over Sphinx Chat, Breez, and other lightning wallets. It’s all the rage. But I’m unconvinced that this is a sustainable model on its own.
Over the last few decades media has gone through a number of regime changes as we moved our content consumption from outdated disk technologies and onto the internet. In the early 2000s the entertainment industry moved from selling CDs and DVDs from $10-$20 per disk to simply selling them virtually through online platforms. This was insufficient, and as data transmission speeds helped streaming get better, the model shifted from paying for downloads to a “last minute” streaming architecture. In this new regime, selling media on a per download basis fell out of favor for the much more explosive subscription model that we know all too well.
In the middle of this shift was lots of hype around the industry moving to some form of micropayment system. But just like paying for media on an individual basis, this never caught on. While some will say it didn’t catch on because micropayment architecture is difficult under the USD system, I think it never caught on (and never will) because streaming money to someone whenever you engage with their content is a mental brain drain. It does exactly what bitcoiners are trying to avoid: it financializes every second of your life.
The humble subscription with a fixed monthly cost doesn’t do this, and it’s been the way people have paid for things for centuries. You know, like loans and houses and pelotons and stuff.
But I do believe that because of bitcoin’s internet native architecture, it may fundamentally alter the possibilities of the subscription model in a way that helps to strengthen the Bitcoin network while bringing the customer/producer relationship into deeper alignment.
NO ONE WANTS TO SELL THEIR BITCOIN
Many a bitcoin entreprenuer has discovered that bitcoiners are rather stingy with their money. They simply don’t want to sell their precious bitcoins. This is totally fair… it can be hard to rationalize spending money on a product that may be 90% cheaper a year from now because of Bitcoin’s NGU technology.
I’ve had a similar experience with this in a past life, when I built a web game that encouraged micropayments with a native in-game token. I found that our users would rather go through immense pain than microspend any of their tokens on our platform. Our users viewed our token as something to horde, not as something to spend.
When you’re holding money that you perceive will go up in value over time you don’t want to give that money up for much of anything. This causes extraordinary challenges for bitcoin entrepreneurs who are trying to encourage bitcoiners to part with their stacks.
But what if there was another way? What if a bitcoiner could get access to paywalled content without ever spending their bitcoin, and at the same time, the producer of that content could also get paid? Ridiculous, right? I mean geez, if that were possible it would certainly turn the payments world on its head. It might be maybe a little bit revolutionary?
Well… I really kinda actually think bitcoin specifically makes this crazy idea possible.
LIQUIDITY IS THE NEXT GOLD RUSH
I’m not an expert on the technicalities of the Lightning Network, but I do know that node liquidity is one of the most important factors for the operation of the network. In order for my transaction to get to you, I have to route my transaction through a number of other lightning nodes that are staking a proportional amount of bitcoin.
If I send 1 bitcoin to you over lightning, each node I route through must also contain 1 bitcoin. Right now, a 100 million satoshi lightning transaction is rather large, but as the network scales these kinds of transactions may become more common.
For lightning to route hundreds of billions of dollars of daily value there will need to be hundreds of billions of dollars of liquidity staking across the nodes in the network. Furthermore, for optimal security, it’s best that the bitcoin being staked to these nodes is well diversified across the network instead of centrally owned by a few big players. The most effective and highly liquid node operators will be rewarded lucrative fees for providing their liquidity, and as lightning grows there will be a gold rush by operators large and small to give their liquidity to this network.
This is where the model gets interesting. Providing liquidity to the lightning network is extraordinarily low risk. The bitcoin you stake into lightning never leaves your wallet, it can’t be forcibly removed by a third party, and if users use your node for routing their transactions you earn a fee. As Preston Pysh puts it, lightning is Bitcoin’s proof-of-stake protocol.
You earn a return on your bitcoin without risk, and at any time you can take your bitcoin back. Win-win.
And it’s this factor that plays interestingly into the goods and services economy. Imagine that open sourced software could allow me to stake my bitcoin with a content producer in order to enjoy discounted or free services. In return, they receive my staking rewards. I never pay them a single satoshi, and at any time I can walk away with all the money I started with.
Bitcoin then becomes a ticket to a show. A lifetime ticket that you can take to any show in any town any night of the week.
A TALE FROM THE MOTHERSHIP
The implications of Bitcoin as Subscription are far larger than podcasting, but considering that podcasting + lightning are all the rage right now I think it’s appropriate to walk through what this might look like in practice with an entirely fictional, but soon to be famous, podcaster named Jeter McPoormack.
Jeter is an alien aficionado who’s been working on his rapidly growing podcast “Tales from the Mothership”. Up until last week all of his content was free, but he’d like to begin putting some of his future episodes behind a paywall.
To do this he downloads some open source software for creators like him and connects it to one of the many beloved lightning wallet apps. He sets a requirement that anyone who wants to view his content must stake $25 worth of bitcoin in an account that only the user has access to, but which pays him the staking fees.
The above part is important, Jeter never has access to the bitcoin, his audience does. They simply forgo their staking rewards, giving those rewards to Jeter instead. At any point (within the limitations for lock up within the lightning network) Jeter’s users can pull their bitcoin out and take it elsewhere.
If the staking rewards net out to about 2% per year, after one year, Jeter McPoormack’s growing podcast with 30,000 subscribers each staking $25 worth of bitcoin nets Jeter an easy $15,000. If Jeter gets super advanced and sets up a tier system that encourages even larger staking deposits, this $15,000 number could quickly become a living wage.
Of course, things are far more complicated in practice since you’ve got channel management, node uptime, varying staking rates, and all sorts of other technical stuff… but that’s something really smart computer guys can figure out. I’m just the idea guy.
Furthermore, this model can exist on top of other models like advertising, merchandising, affiliate marketing, Patreon, and yes, if you must, your sat streaming.
The true beauty in this model is that all parties get to benefit from the increasing value of the bitcoin network. If bitcoin’s price goes up, Jeter’s 2% take increases in purchasing power. At the same time, because the viewer never spent their bitcoin they also see an increase to their wealth. Furthermore, if hundreds of thousands of producers are participating in this sort of staking, the lightning network rapidly decentralizes away from a few big node operators routing most of the payments.
EVERYBODY IS A CREDIT CARD NETWORK
Let’s go beyond podcasting.
Imagine being able to stake bitcoin to your local, state, or federal government in return for a tax break. Or what if a community could stake bitcoin to pay for HOA’s or the funding for a new park? Maybe I could stake at any financial institution for a discount on their loan products. And, instead of donating to my favorite charity I could stake with the charity and still get invited to the annual gala.
Bitcoin as Subscription is not a psyop to steal your bitcoin! It shifts the locus of power away from the big faceless organization and towards the individual. At any time I can choose to opt-out or opt-in based entirely on my personal preferences. An organization that mistreats its stakers could see its funding dry up overnight, similar to the way exchanges in the cryptocurrency market rise and fall rapidly because of the low switching costs.
This can even extend to our communications on social media. As Guy Swann pointed out with one of his most recent tweets, a Bitcoin as Subscription model could be used to fight spam (without requiring micropayments by the way #winning).
this is not an image of a pb&j french toast sandwich and i am sorry
But this model also connects and ingrains you with the initiatives and people you choose to stake with. By staking significant capital with your community, capital that is locked up for a set period and unable to be spent, you become far more inclined to get involved with your neighbors. In return, your neighbors are incentivized to get involved with you. Bitcoin as Subscription shifts everyone’s focus to a longer time preference.
I know I’m only scratching the surface of this model, and I’m definitely not touching on the enormous technical hurdles required for this to be a reality, but Bitcoin’s internet native architecture and principles of self-sovereignty may dramatically change the way we conceive of economic transactions.
Thanks for reading. Now, I’m hungry. | https://medium.com/@clayspace/bitcoin-as-subscription-c21b582d4e90 | ['Clay Space'] | 2021-06-14 16:17:48.396000+00:00 | ['Sats', 'Lightning Network', 'Payments', 'Bitcoin', 'Bitcoin As Subscription'] |
Fixation with lagging metrics | While running a growing SaaS startup, it is very easy to fall into the trap of sticking with metrics that give a sense of progress. For instance, let us talk about metrics like ARR & MRR. These are better than most metrics because they are a fairly objective indicator of revenue. These are not feel-good, vague indicators of “growth” — these indicate money in the bank, money that your customers have paid in order to use your product. However, fixating on these could also spell disaster in the medium term. Here’s why…
Let us take ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue) and unpack it a bit. For simplicity, let us say your SaaS product is offered only with an annual subscription of say $100/year (no monthly subscription, no multi-year subscription). So ARR is calculated as:
New subscriptions added in the year, plus
Subscription renewals from existing customers, plus
Subscription upgrades from existing customers (say, from Individual Plan to Team Plan, if that applies to your product)
And then we deduct the revenue loss (or churn), which is essentially the subscription revenue that existed last year but isn’t now:
Subscription loss from downgrades (if applicable), and
Subscription loss from cancellations.
ARR has great forensic value. It tells you exactly what happened and where you stand. It is less likely to be gamed or distorted, and it is easy to calculate. Yet, it could get misleading if it is used for projections. To understand this, let us walk through the customer subscription journey.
Acquiring a new customer is hard. It is harder than you had initially thought. It is harder than what your worst detractor told you. The competition is fierce and costs are high. In this scenario, since the customer is already contributing to the ARR, you have managed to cross this significant hurdle. Your efforts have been paid off, congratulations! The customer too has overcome their inertia and has decided to invest in your product.
However, in the SaaS universe, the paying customer is very fickle. They may decide not to renew their subscription next year. Some people often project the subscription loss due to cancellations or downgrades and say “Yeah, we expect 5% of the existing subscribers to cancel every year”. It may be true if you are a well-established SaaS company with 10 years in the market— you have enough data to generalize. But this may is very misleading if you are in Year 1 or 2. Especially if you have no idea why the customers are churning. And in the first few years, you don’t really know. At best you may have some hypotheses. And it is all too tempting to dismiss the churn with statements like “Oh, this set of customers were early adopters and not our long term user base”, or “These 3 wanted some bespoke features that we are not interested in building”, and so on. Perhaps all valid reasons but none of them would help you remedy the churn problem.
Many growing SaaS companies miss to identify the usage patterns and predict which customers are going to churn. A lot of attention is paid to converting customers into paying customers, but things tend to go downhill after that.
Measuring what matters
Stewart Butterfield (back in 2015, when Slack became a unicorn) noted that they don’t consider just the number of new signups as a reliable metric; instead, they look at the number of teams who have exchanged at least 2,000 messages on Slack. These teams had really found great value in what Slack was offering. These were teams that had actually preferred Slack as their tool of choice — they were the potential champions of Slack. And indeed, it turned out that 93% of the teams that crossed the 2,000 messages threshold stayed on Slack.
Every SaaS product needs similar leading signals that indicate the likelihood of the customer churn. Forensic metrics like ARR should be used along with such leading signals to understand where is the business going. The problem is that identifying such signals is hard work. While metrics like ARR are well established in startup literature, the leading signals are likely to be very specific to your product and userbase. This means you have to make the effort the define what’s important.
Instead, we often see overzealous user activity tracking. There are GBs of user activity data collected through dozens of tools. There are 3 problems with this:
The product often slows down, annoying the user
Often no one knows what to do with the massive amount of data
No user likes unnecessary surveillance
Stop spying on your customers and start talking to them — Dan Martell
Collecting mountains of data seems to be the norm. Product teams actually seem to boast about it. As if all the data is going to magically convert into some actionable insight. More often than not, such data is collected just so it’s not lost; just so someone can do some analysis down the line to figure out what’s going on. The more-is-better maxim is actually hurtful to the customers. I liked Dan Martell’s view on this: “Stop spying on your customers and start talking to them”. But it is way more convenient to track — hoping that if you collect enough data, someday you will find the right set of signals with which to predict your growth. That is, IMO, wishful thinking.
On the other hand, talking to customers is incredibly hard, especially when you are growing. In the growth phase, it is not feasible to talk to every customer and to collate what they have to say. Moreover, not all customers may have useful feedback — they may not have used the product properly yet, they may just try to be polite, or they may be terse, or they may not really want your exact product but may want something adjacent to it (typically this set will have a bunch of features they want you to add). You will definitely get good feedback if the customers are frustrated about the product, especially if they are expected to pay for it. But that would push you into a reactive damage-control mode.
It is pointless to collect loads of user activity data without having a clear idea of how to derive relevant insights from it
What if, instead of investing heavily into analytics tools and surveilling the customer, you try doing it the hard way: Identify the top 3 leading signals that will help you understand that the customer is happy with your product. And no, CSAT and NPS surveys won’t cut it — they rarely present the true picture. And no, there is no book, framework, tool, YouTube channel, or podcast that will you which signals you should look for your product. Your business is somewhat unique, your SaaS customers' needs are somewhat unique — so you will have to go the whole hog.
MAUs, DAUs, and other feel-good metrics
Just settling for MAUs/DAUs isn’t enough either. The hard part is defining what an “active user” means to your business? Of course, it can’t just be no. of users who logged in on a given day. Different user types use your product for getting different things done.
Let’s take a B2B example: Say you have a CRM product. A decent metric per client would be how many leads were added/updated per day by a Sales Executive user. However, an admin user may use the product once in a few days just to add or remove users. Perhaps that’s good enough as that’s all you expect an admin to do. Or perhaps, there are other features that the admin can use but no one is using. Pondering over this can bring up interesting questions:
Are the admin users aware of these advanced features?
Are these features important enough for the admins to care about?
Are you planning to extend these features? Should you be spending any time or money on extending them? How would you calculate the ROI?
Could these features probably be like an add-on or available only with a higher tier subscription?
Similarly, you the sales manager users could probably use certain reports far more than say, adding a lead.
How often do they view the reports? Few times a day? Few times a week?
How often are they expected to view the said reports?
Which reports are least used?
Viewing reports is generally a passive activity. You can’t know for sure if it is serving the manager’s purpose. But if the manager users rarely view the reports, it would be a signal that the managers don’t care if your CRM exists or not. They are probably asking the sales executives to export everything into a spreadsheet, which is the more convenient and familiar option. If these managers are influencers in purchase decisions, it is likely they will vote against your CRM in the next subscription cycle. Meanwhile, the sales executives, who do find some value in your product, are frustrated that they have to copy everything in spreadsheets — doubling their work. The upshot: Your product is just not compelling enough to switch over from their spreadsheets.
An unused feature may give you more useful insights into your product’s future than dozens of usage metrics.
Many teams spend more time on building new features and acquiring new customers without giving really equal attention to existing customers. MAUs/DAUs and similar metrics, if superficially defined, can only lull you in a false sense of security that existing business is not going to churn. And yet, metrics like these are far too commonly tracked (and rewarded) — it is again a case of Metrics of Convenience being prioritized.
Your business, your customers’ needs, and your solutions are going to be unique. You may get blindsided by relying solely on lagging indicators because they are “tried and tested” and everyone’s using them. You will need to think of what are the key leading signals that are relevant for you. This is hard work and needs to be iterative. In the process, you will be tempted to choose metrics that are easy to measure and/or paint a pretty picture of the business — resist going down that route. A simple list of questions that can get you started with the journey to identify such leading signals:
Who are the different types of users? Which type of users will benefit most from your product?
Which users will are the decision-makers and influencers for your products? Is your product solving something for them?
How will you objectively know that users find value in your product? If you pull your product off the market, who will miss it?
Can you quantify the value your product provides in some intuitive way? (Avoid any contrived calculations that are designed to give feel-good numbers)
Which features seemed most important during your product research but are barely used in the actual product? Was something wrong in the research or in the implementation?
How do you know you are seeking out the right metrics or user feedback? If there is some confirmation bias at play, do you have a culture where anyone in the team is empowered to call it out?
To summarize: Finding the right leading metrics for your SaaS product is incredibly hard. It is important not to get comfortable with commonly defined metrics like ARR/MRR, MAUs/DAUs, ARPA, LTV, etc. — these are necessary but may not be sufficient. You will have to build on top of these, not blindly follow them. Finally, never confuse metrics with insights — it is never about fancy charts and tables. | https://medium.com/@gurukini/fixation-with-lagging-metrics-7d18f9d14ca6 | ['Guru Kini'] | 2021-08-02 06:12:36.540000+00:00 | ['Metrics', 'SaaS', 'Startup', 'Feedback Loop'] |
11 ‘Fun’ Facebook Mom Group Rules From Admins Who Are Not At All Drunk With Power | Image by Mizter_X94 from Pixabay
Hi and thanks for joining “The Awesome Moms of Fairview” group! As you can tell by our banner picture of stock photo models laughing while draping their arms around each other in a totally natural way, you’re going to have an amaaaaaazing time. Just make sure you stick to these easy-peasy guidelines:
1. This is a positive, feel-good group for moms living in Fairview. Please feel free to share inspirational memes and messages, like “Hang in there, kitten!” “Hoes over bros!” and “I’ll cut the bitch who won’t serve wine at playdates.”
2. No mom-shaming! Whether you breastfeed or bottle-feed, send your kids to school or home-school, use a car seat or let your kid hang his head out the window while you’re zooming down the highway at 87 miles per hour, we won’t judge! You do you, Mama!
3. Don’t be a Debbie Downer and post stuff that will put group members in a funk. For instance, kids in cages separated from their parents? Not OK! However, cute puppies in cages about to be adopted? Totally OK!
4. On that note, please no political or, ugh, “woke” posts. If you want to save the whales or stop the planet from becoming a flaming hellscape or whatever, take that self-righteous garbage elsewhere. Also, no one wants your free canvas bags, Lisa. Some of us like our carbon footprints, thankyouverymuch.
5. We want to hear about your hobbies, as long as they’re fun ones! Please tell us all about your favorite true crime podcasts, crochet patterns and skinny margarita recipes! Please do not post about ancient Greek mythology, acrostic poetry, developments in string theory, or coding in Python. The admins have declared those subjects boring AF, ‘k?
6. Fake news welcome! Did a rando website publish a new study saying essential oils cure athlete’s foot, herpes, and brain tumors? Post that shit! Are moms who pound at least four glasses of wine every day scientifically proven to be hotter than moms that don’t? Spread the word! It doesn’t matter if it’s true or not, it just needs to make us smile! (Lisa, I swear to God, if you post one more Snopes link, I will strangle you with the strap of one of your stupid bags… haha, JUST KIDDING! LOL LOL LOL LOL)
7. We support momtrepreneurs! Please share information about your MLM business, whether it’s hemp-based nail art or jewelry made of endangered rhino tusks! We encourage all members to host or attend at least one MLM party, and then talk viciously behind the seller’s back about how the party was lame and rhino tusk necklaces are so last year.
8. Please no GoFundMe posts or charity solicitations. We’re always super sad when someone can’t afford insulin — sorry, Lisa! — or had their electricity turned off or went broke trying to sell rhino tusks, but it’s a bummer to keep being reminded that some people are poor. (See also rule #3.)
9. We love holidays and diversity! We encourage members to wish each other a Merry Christmas, a Happy Easter, and a Happy Jewish Candle Day.
10. The admins reserve the right to remove members at any time for any reason, irrespective of whether they adhere to group rules or not. The admins also reserve the right to exclude group members’ children from birthday parties, soccer teams and Fairview school field trips by the powers vested in them by the Fairview PTA. (If little Jody really wanted to go with her class to the petting zoo, maybe her mom shouldn’t have been such a snot-nosed, insulin-dependent, canvas bag-carrying loser.)
11. The admins and their infinite wisdom shall never be questioned. YOU ARE ON SOME THIN FUCKING ICE, LISA.
Thank you so much for reading! Now let’s have some FUN!! | https://medium.com/slackjaw/11-fun-facebook-mom-group-rules-from-admins-who-are-not-at-all-drunk-with-power-e1e3e37a108 | ['Alice Gomstyn'] | 2020-01-07 15:46:01.983000+00:00 | ['Humor', 'Satire', 'Moms', 'Parenting', 'Facebook'] |
Using keyword extraction for unsupervised text classification in NLP | Applications of NLP
Using keyword extraction for unsupervised text classification in NLP
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
Text classification is a common task in Natural Language Processing. The main approach tends toward representing the text in a meaningful way — whether through TF-IDF, Word2Vec, or more advanced models like BERT — and training models on the representations as labelled inputs. Sometimes, however, either labelling the data is impractical or there is just not enough labelled data to build an effective multi classification model. Instead, we are forced to leverage unsupervised methods of learning in order to accomplish the classification task.
In this article, I’ll be outlining the process I took to build an unsupervised text classifier for the dataset of interview questions at Interview Query, a data science interview/career prep website. This would be greatly beneficial to them for several reasons. Interview Query wants to be able to offer more insightful information for users about the companies that they are applying to, as well as the functionality to practice only certain question types. Most importantly, it would enable them to “characterize” different companies by the types of questions that they ask.
Our task is to classify a given interview question as either relating to machine learning, statistics, probability, Python, product management, SQL, A/B testing, algorithms, or take-home. I decided the most practical approach would be to first extract as many relevant keywords as possible from the corpus, and then manually assign the resulting keywords into “bins” corresponding to our desired classifications. Finally, I’d iterate through each interview question in the dataset and compared the total counts of keywords in each bin in order to classify them. The possibility of using Latent Dirichlet Allocation was also considered in order to generate topic models and retrieve relevant keywords relating to each topic without having to manually assign them, as well as K-means clustering. These proved to be difficult and less effective than simply counting keywords, given the wide and disparate range of our classifications.
First the data had to be cleaned and preprocessed. I used SpaCy to tokenize, lemmatize, lowercase, and remove stop-words from the text.
import pandas as pd
import nltk
import spacy
from tqdm import tqd nlp = spacy.load("en_core_web_sm") def create_tokens(dataframe):
tokens = []
for doc in tqdm(nlp.pipe(dataframe.astype('unicode').values), total=dataframe.size):
if doc.is_parsed:
tokens.append([n.lemma_.lower() for n in doc if (not n.is_punct and not n.is_space and not n.is_stop)])
else:
tokens.append("")
return tokens raw = pd.read_csv("topics_raw.csv")
tokens = create_tokens(raw)
After this came the problem of choosing a way to extract keywords from the corpus of text. Since my corpus was comprised of a massive number of small “documents,” each one a different interview question, I decided to extract the keywords from each document separately rather than combining any of the data, and sorting unique keywords from the resulting list by frequency.
Then, testing began. Various methods, such as TF-IDF, RAKE, as well as some more recent, state-of-the-art methods such as SGRank, YAKE, and TextRank, were considered. I was also curious enough to try Amazon Comprehend, an auto-ML solution, to see how competent it was. Unfortunately, the results were unsatisfactory as the combination of high level abstraction with the granularity of the NLP task proved still yet impractical. In the end, after comparing the keywords produced by each method, I found that SGRank produced the best results (the highest quantity of relevant keywords).
import textacy
import textacy.ke
text = " ".join(raw.tolist())
nlp = spacy.load('en_core_web_sm')
nlp.max_length = len(text) keywords = []
for tokenlist in tqdm(question_tokens):
doc = nlp(" ".join(tokenlist))
extract = textacy.ke.sgrank(doc, ngrams=(1), window_size=2, normalize=None, topn = 2, include_pos=['NOUN', 'PROPN'])
for a, b in extract:
keywords.append(a)
Finally, I sorted unique keywords by frequency in order to get the most salient ones.
res = sorted(set(keywords), key = lambda x: keywords.count(x), reverse=True)
The result was around 1900 words, which I then manually went through and assigned the top 200 most relevant ones to our bins.
Finally, with the final list of categorized keywords, it is possible to classify each interview question as one of 8 different types by counting the appearance of keywords in each question. Furthermore, we can generate “personality” profiles for different companies which are displayed on the website.
In conclusion, I found that for this specific problem it was best to simply opt for a hybrid approach towards the unsupervised classification task that involved both machine learning as well as manual work.
Generally, working without labels in unsupervised contexts within Natural Language Processing leaves quite some distance between the analysis of data and the actual practical application of results— forcing alternate approaches like the one seen in this article. This is, in my opinion, a distinct deficiency of NLP which is more severe than in other fields such as computer vision or generative models. Of course, I anticipate future advancements in more insightful models and other research will make marked improvements in this regard.
Anyway, thanks for reading this article! I hope you learned something. | https://towardsdatascience.com/using-keyword-extraction-for-unsupervised-text-classification-in-nlp-10433a1c0cf9 | ['Evan Hu'] | 2021-01-14 04:25:24.213000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'NLP', 'Keyword Extraction', 'Text Classification', 'Unsupervised Learning'] |
It’s The Most Powerful Word In Marketing… | It’s The Most Powerful Word In Marketing…
And You Can’t Buy It
Photo by Shane Rounce on Unsplash
Back when I lived in New York City, I lived near a diner that served the most amazing fries I’ve ever eaten. I have no idea if the restaurant is still there. I can’t recall the name, but the fries were so good, they earned the most remarkable distinction a brand can earn. They did not buy this distinction — that is not possible. They did not ask for this distinction. That is possible, as you will discover later.
My friends and I referred to this diner’s french fries as “The Fries.” Yes, just “The Fries.” We did not attach any other qualifier or name to it. If someone said, “let’s get The Fries later,” we knew what it meant. There was no need to say “the fries on 76th and 1st” or the fries at [insert restaurant]. Think about the significance of that. Thousands of restaurants in NYC served french fries. If someone said “The Fries,” it could only mean one place out of thousands.
There is perhaps no greater marketing and brand coup than the word “The.”
If you become The [anything], you have earned a distinction that nobody can match.
You cannot buy this distinction. You can claim it but your body of work must justify it. If you lack the justification, you will sound like a buffoon.
Last year I took Seth Godin’s marketing course. He calls it The Marketing Seminar. It was a gutsy move that worked. Marketing is a wide-ranging discipline with a seemingly infinite number of practitioners.
Why Is It So Powerful?
To call your course “The Marketing Seminar” implies that you have the knowledge, experience, and body of work to back up the claim — he does. If anyone else had tried such a scheme, it would have backfired.
The word “The” implies top level. It implies you’re the patriarch or matriarch of your niche. It declares your product or service sets the standard by which we judge all others.
There is “The Design Queen” and there are all others.
There is “The Marketing Seminar” and there are all others.
Claim Your “The”
There are two ways to be become “The” person or brand of your nice or industry. Someone can dub you that person. My friends and I dubbed the diner on 76th and 1st as the place that serves “The Fries.”
If they had made that claim, it wouldn’t have worked. “Who are these guys to claim they have the best fries?” They’re one of a thousand diners in New York City. It would have been tough to make that claim and make it stick.
It happened organically. We started referencing it as the place for fries and it stuck. It’s one of those magical quirks of group culture that you cannot reverse engineer. Yes, you need to do or produce something otherworldly. But that’s not enough. I have never dubbed a bakery as the place to get “The Cookies,” or a bar as “The Place For Beer.”
The owners of this diner did nothing other than creating insanely delicious french fries. Chance took care of the rest. You can help the process along by creating labels around your best work. This diner could have called their fries “The Fries” on their menu. With enough repetition, it might encourage organic growth. It’s possible to make this work, but it requires a bit of luck.
Be Bold
Your second option is to dub yourself the “The” of your industry or niche. Let’s face it. Only a few people in the world have the body of work to claim that title in any industry. If you brand yourself as “The Design Guy,” or “The Marketing Gal,” you risk hurting your credibility. It sounds arrogant and delusional unless you have the resume to back it up. You need to earn the right to use that title. You cannot buy it. If you don’t have the history to back up your claim, it will backfire.
So where does that leave you? How do you become The guy, gal or brand of your industry?
Think Small
Forget industry and niche down. You may not have the chops to claim “The Design Guy or create “The Application Development Course,” but you might be able to claim a notch or two below. Consider these titles.
“The Marketing Guy For Dentists” instead of “The Marketing Guy.” “The Queen Of Marketing For Dentists In Northern New Jersey” instead of “The Queen Of Marketing.” “The Blogger Course For Techies” instead of “The Blogging Course.” “The Biblical Era Vampire Novelist” instead of “The Vampire Novelist.”
By niching down, you can claim that title as the go-to person in your niche. There’s an endless number of people who have accumulated an impressive body of work in marketing. How many of those folks specialized in marketing for dentists? How many specialize in marketing for dentists in northern New Jersey? How many authors of vampire novels focus on the biblical era? How many blogging courses appeal only to techies?
The further you drill down into a niche, the faster you can accumulate a body of work that positions you as an expert in that niche.
Where Do You Start?
There’s one thing both of these approaches have in common. You need to produce work that stands out above your competition. That’s how you claim “The” without sounding like an idiot. The diner made outstanding french fries. Seth Godin produced an in-depth course on marketing, sharing his unique expertise.
Look at where you are today. Examine your body of work. Think about the trajectory you’d like your career to take. Answer these two questions.
What “The” can you claim today?
What “The” do you aspire to become?”
Everyone can claim this title. If you’re just starting out, you have one advantage you can always assert. You have your unique voice, insight and experience. Nobody else can match it. Start with that and work your way forward.
Need an example? Let’s suppose I created a course called “The Davret Writing Method.” It would appeal to a tiny sliver of the market, but it would be unique to my experience and voice. If it were to gain traction, others would talk about it, generating more credibility and word of mouth. | https://medium.com/writtenpersuasion/its-the-most-powerful-word-in-marketing-c6e9ac4406fe | ['Barry Davret'] | 2019-02-06 16:31:00.672000+00:00 | ['Marketing', 'Startup', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Business', 'Leadership'] |
JavaScript ES6 Awesome | Block-Scoped Variables (let)
Declaring a variable is the most basic thing in code. Without it, you can’t do anything, for sure! But even the simplest thing absolutely need an attention, especially if it affects the scoping. Check this out:
Regular variable
key points:
scope of a var variable is the entire enclosing function
variable is the entire enclosing function redeclaration won’t throw error
hoisting allowed
At the top level, it will create a property on the global object
ES6 let variable
key points:
let variable is blocked-scope
variable is blocked-scope redeclaration absolutely throw error
hoisting not allowed
At the top level, not create a property on the global object
Complete reference: mdn
2. Constant (const)
not only let , there is also another type of variable with different functionality. check this out:
let
key points:
reassigning variable value allowed
declaration without initial value allowed
const
key points:
value can’t be reassign
declaration must put the initial value
Complete reference: mdn
3. Arrow Function
“Being as short as possible!” i think that’s kind of motto for every developer/engineer, especially when you just writing a single statement, you might want to find the shortest way to write the code like function. Check this out:
regular function
key points:
have this
must state return to return value
to return value must state function
must use argument parentheses ()
must use bracket {}
arrow function
key points:
does not have this
no need return to return value in a single statement
to return value in a single statement no need to state function
use => instead of ()
instead of single/simple statement may not use {}
Complete reference: mdn
4. Template literals
Writing multiline string with variables in JavaScript? no need to hassle anymore. check this out:
regular
key points:
use + between variable expression
between variable expression enter doesn’t affect the break line
template strings
key points:
just use `` (back tick) to wrap the strings
(back tick) to wrap the strings use ${} to write expression
to write expression enter will give a breakline
Complete reference: mdn
5. Default Parameter
Handling unused parameter is another thing to do when you don’t assign default parameter values, but is there a shorter way to handle it? check this out:
no default
default
Complete reference: mdn
6. Spread Operator
This one is one of my favourite feature in ES6. it’s like a magical feature! 🌈
As it’s name, the spread operator will spreading the values inside an object/array into various of place (arguments, elements, or object expression). cool right?! let’s check this out:
concat
key points:
concat will put the elements at the end of the array
will put the elements at the end of the array concat dependent to the order of the array
dependent to the order of the array concat not return the values, but the array itself
spread syntax
key points:
spread syntax has no order dependency
spread syntax is more flexible in terms of the order
spread syntax will return the values inside of the array/object
In this topic, concat and spread syntax have their own characteristic and function depends on the cases. but if you need to merge the values of an object/array, and you need the flexible order, spread syntax looks like the best option instead of concat .
Complete reference: mdn
7. Promise
Have you ever running multiple function but you’re not sure if the other process is finished one after another? or maybe you want to start calling a function right after another asynchronous process is done? well, you might use callback but is there another way to handle this kind of thing? check this out:
callback
key points:
callback is passing another function into the argument
is passing another function into the argument nesting a lot of callback might be painful. it could causing callback hell
promise
promise is returning an object
is returning an object promise has 3 states: pending, fulfilled, reject;
Complete reference: mdn
8. Modules (export/import)
On these days, writing code in a non-modular file is absolutely not a choice for every developer whose working in a team. Can you imagine sharing single main.js to write different functions with your team? Impossible. Well, thanks to export/import features! Now you can work with the team with no hassle. Check this out:
write functions as a module, export them
import modules, call the exported function
also you will need to put type="module" to your <script> tag
Complete reference: mdn | https://medium.com/@ardodeardo/javascript-es6-awesome-62df9082076 | ['Deardo D. Sinaga'] | 2021-05-06 18:51:13.330000+00:00 | ['JavaScript', 'Front End Development', 'Vanillajs', 'ES6', 'HTML'] |
What is Sacred Sexuality + Why Should You Care? | SACRED SEXUALITY.⚡️Sacred. Energy. Xchange.
When you alchemize and cultivate your sexual energy you open up portals
To healing
To pleasure
To creativity
To abundance
To consciousness
To Truth
To Love
Your sexual energy is a gift. Don’t take my word for it. Discover it for yourself.
Are you ready to dissolve the distortions around sexuality?
WATCH HERE.
💖Serena
@serenavamoroso
PS- vaginal de-armoring. Sex magic. Yoni eggs. Crystal wands. Self-pleasure. Want, will, won’t Desire list. A few pieces we dive into in Feminine Magnetism. DM me to learn more. | https://medium.com/@serenavamoroso/what-is-sacred-sexuality-why-should-you-care-62921c9800a5 | ['Serena V Amoroso'] | 2020-12-20 16:27:30.729000+00:00 | ['Sex', 'Spiritual Growth', 'Relationship Building', 'Sexuality', 'Energy Healing'] |
Cubic Polynomials — Managing the Architecture to Calculate Roots | Cubic Polynomials — Managing the Architecture to Calculate Roots
Rotating cubic roots into managed quadratic segments where the math is easier!
This post presents a novel method for approximating 1st roots of cubic polynomials that avoids the lengthy gradient and height calculation iterations associated with Newton’s and some of my own previously posted methods.
It particularly addresses the task of approximating cubic polynomial roots in ‘difficult to get to’ locations - namely where root gradients are low and close to turning points. Such ‘architecture’ would normally require two or more iterations to solve.
This method exploits the amazing symmetry of cubic polynomials and their ‘component architecture’ by ‘rotating’ roots into segments where the underlying quadratic architecture approximates the cubic curvature.
This means we can use the simpler quadratic math to calculate a root!
This post assumes knowledge of polynomials at the high school level.
Note: In the interests of read time I’ll skip basic calculations where evident. | https://medium.com/cantors-paradise/cubic-polynomials-managing-the-architecture-to-calculate-roots-279d77fce4f5 | ['Greg Oliver'] | 2020-12-14 05:20:54.345000+00:00 | ['Math', 'Graph', 'Mathematics', 'Mathematics Education', 'Cubic Polynomial'] |
Start your research on Declan Cobalt Inc. — today! Now is the time to act! | In a world that is constantly changing — investors have to stay ahead of the game to make the big money. Everyone wants to buy a stock that costs mere pennies and watch it soar into dollar land. It looks to us that Declan Cobalt Inc. has that kind of potential. The company which trades on the CSE (https://thecse.com/en/about) in Canada — under the symbol LAN — seems to be on the launchpad for a spike higher. The company also trades on the OTC in the US under the symbol DCNNF and on the Frankfurt Exchange under the symbol DCR1. We think you should start your due diligence on Declan Cobalt Inc. today.
These guys are ready to bring ethical cobalt to the world — straight from the heart of Europe. The operations of LAN are located in Germany and the Czech Republic which makes them a unique proposition for cobalt users like Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Skoda. These giants of car manufacturing have intensive EV (electric vehicles) lines and they will see the marketing benefit of using Declan Cobalt Inc. as a source of cobalt (for their Lithium-io batteries) rather than cobalt from the DRC (Democratic of Congo). The DRC can’t always guarantee that their cobalt production is conflict free. EV consumers are savvy buyers and the conflict-free angle for the cobalt in the Lithium-ion batteries in the cars — will help sell cars for the manufacturers. By 2020; 75% of the lithium-io batteries will contain cobalt. It is a clear case of right place — right time for Declan Cobalt Inc. and a great opportunity for LAN shareholders.
The chart on Declan Cobalt Inc. shows the promise of potential upside. The sellers in the stock are nowhere to be found. There are key points on the chart at .19 and .27. If we get through .19 — which is a stone throw away — we are headed to .27. Solid volume on a climb higher and any new flow could result in a super spike which could be a real money maker for anyone who gets in at these prices. As we said earlier. Being first matters and this is your chance to get cheap shares first — before the stock runs on news. People will notice LAN and when they do — the stock will begin to move higher.
In closing, we want to point out that the company is being run by Wayne Tisdale. Mr. Tisdale is a legend in mining and finance circles. He has raised $2 Billion for companies he has been involved with in the past. He is the right man to take Declan Cobalt Inc. all the way to the end zone. He has a platinum reputation and we believe that Bay Street will put a premium on LAN’s share price when they realize that Mr. Tisdale is running the show. Today is a great day to start your due diligence on Declan Cobalt. Go to Google, Yahoo Finance or the company website @ http://declancobalt.com/. We love this stock and we think you will as well. The question is — when will you buy your shares. Will you buy them @ .18, 20, .27 or $1.00. The choice is yours. Stay tuned for more Declan Cobalt Inc. updates and in the meantime trade safe and smart. | https://medium.com/@turbostocks/start-your-research-on-declan-cobalt-inc-today-now-is-the-time-to-act-42dbe510893c | [] | 2019-02-06 17:33:29.092000+00:00 | ['Investing', 'Investment', 'Battery', 'Stocks', 'Mining'] |
Jenom pro pořádek | in In Fitness And In Health | https://medium.com/shifthappens/jenom-pro-po%C5%99%C3%A1dek-7c0ae84f7fe7 | ['Martin Pánek'] | 2017-12-31 12:14:07.712000+00:00 | ['Eusoc', 'Politika', 'Notes'] |
Homelessness Recovery Plan | COVID-19 has made it clear how critical housing is for a healthy city, especially among people facing homelessness. In response to the pandemic, we’ve opened more than 20 hotel sites with over 2,600 rooms for unsheltered people who are vulnerable to COVID to isolate and shelter indoors. This undertaking is at a scale that is unprecedented in the City’s history. Hundreds of City employees and thousands of nonprofit staff funded by the City are working around the clock every day to make it happen.
But these hotels are a temporary solution for what we know is a long-term need. As we keep making progress on reopening, it is critical that the thousands of people who are currently sheltered in hotels don’t end up back on the streets and that we don’t give up on people who are still outside. That’s why, in the midst of this emergency response and despite our budget challenges, we have continued our long-term planning to provide housing solutions for people experiencing homelessness in San Francisco.
In July, I announced our Homelessness Recovery Plan. This plan is built on three basic premises:
Expanding housing options for our homeless , including investing in the largest expansion of permanent supportive housing in 20 years.
, including investing in the largest expansion of permanent supportive housing in 20 years. Adding capacity in our shelter system , including both opening up our existing shelters, navigation centers, and alternative housing and adding new sites.
, including both opening up our existing shelters, navigation centers, and alternative housing and adding new sites. Using prevention and rapid rehousing efforts, like problem solving, time-limited rental subsidies, and connections to health care, employment, and other resources to end homelessness for people with a variety of housing needs.
Ultimately, housing is the solution to homelessness, and by expanding access to housing and other support, we can create real opportunities for people to get off the streets and create a path for them to live a fuller, healthier life.
Where We Are Today
During the early months of COVID, our homeless response system saw significant challenges. We had to reduce capacity in our shelters by nearly 75% and many people lost their temporary housing, which left thousands of people on the street. We couldn’t do the same outreach we normally do because of fear of spreading the virus. To help meet this need, we leased thousands of hotel rooms and opened up safe sleeping sites, but it’s been challenging and we’ve seen far too many people living on our streets.
The good news is that in the last few months, with the expansion of hotels, shelter, and safe sleep sites, City staff has been out tirelessly working in our neighborhoods to move people into safer places off our streets and sidewalks. There’s a lot of work to do, but we have seen some results.
In the Tenderloin, we’ve gone from over 600 people living in over 400 tents on our streets and sidewalks in June to down to under 30 tents today. We’ve worked to get people off the streets from encampments across the entire City, including in the Mission, the Haight, the Bayview, NoPa, the Castro, South of Market, and many other neighborhoods.
Before and after an encampment resolution in the Mission. This was part of an effort in the Mission where the City offered hotel rooms, access to safe sleep sites, shelter, and services to people experiencing homelessness.
Key to all of this is to continue to have places for people to go. That’s why our Homelessness Recovery Plan is so important. Every new unit of permanent supportive housing is one more person who doesn’t need to rely on our shelter system. That means one more shelter bed is free for someone to get off the street. Every person who uses Rapid Rehousing to quickly get housed is one more person who doesn’t get trapped in the cycle of being homeless on our streets and in our shelters.
Combined with our new Street Crisis Response Teams and improvements to how we respond to behavioral health challenges on our streets, we can continue to make a difference. It’s going to take work, but we have a plan.
What is the Homelessness Recovery Plan?
Our plan to help San Francisco recover from COVID-19 includes a steady increase in shelter beds and stable exits to housing over the next two years. We will expand capacity in our Homelessness Response System and make 6,000 placements available for people experiencing homelessness.
These exits include adding new and existing Permanent Supportive Housing, increasing shorter-term rental subsidies and connections to resources to help people exit homelessness, maintaining safe sleeping sites, and reactivating space in the shelter system at a safe capacity with COVID-19 modifications in place.
This plan, which will include all populations and be guided by racial equity, is based on proven approaches such as Prevention, Problem Solving, Rapid Rehousing and Permanent Supportive Housing. Here are the details:
Permanent Supportive Housing
In the next two years, the City will add 1,500 new units of permanent supportive housing. That means that by 2022, the City will have completed the largest one-time expansion of PSH in the last 20 years. San Francisco already has the largest number of permanent supportive housing units per capita of any community in the country with over 8,000 units online, but we know that we need to do more.
To meet this goal:
The City will identify and acquire buildings that meet the needs of future tenants and are financially feasible for the City. This includes efforts like Project Homekey , which is providing state funding to San Francisco to purchase a 232-room hotel in Lower Nob Hill and turn it into permanent supportive housing for previously homeless individuals.
, which is providing state funding to San Francisco to purchase a 232-room hotel in Lower Nob Hill and turn it into permanent supportive housing for previously homeless individuals. In partnership with Tipping Point Community, 200 newly leased units will be made available through a flexible housing subsidy pool, which matches people experiencing homelessness with private market apartments and provides support services and rental subsidies to keep them housed. Tipping Point and other philanthropic partners are also hard at work raising additional funds to support this Recovery Plan.
In addition to these new units, the City will place approximately 3,000 additional individuals in Permanent Supportive Housing over the next two years, which includes units of PSH that are currently under construction, and units that are already part of our system that become available due to regular turnover.
That means that in total, over the next two years, 4,500 people currently in our shelters and on our streets will be moved into housing.
145 units of Permanent Supportive Housing are currently under construction at 833 Bryant Street. This project is a partnership between the City, Mercy Housing, Tipping Point Community, and the Housing Accelerator Fund. Photo Credit: Mercy Housing California
Shelters, Navigation Centers, and Alternative Housing
We know that while housing is important, we also need shelter to help people immediately get off the street. We plan to expand our current system capacity, by reactivating our existing shelter system, adding new Navigation Centers, and continuing alternative housing options like RVs and safe sleep sites.
To meet this goal, the City will:
Reactivate its adult shelter system to add 500 more beds in the near-term
This increase will maintain necessary spacing between residents and will include robust safety measures including daily health screening, social distancing, enhanced cleaning, testing, and other preventative measures.
Add two new Navigation Centers early next year, including: 1) A first-of-its-kind Transitional Age Youth Navigation Center at 888 Post, providing beds for young people ages 18–24; and 2) An adult SAFE Navigation Center at 1925 Evans Street to serve the Bayview community.
early next year, including: 1) A first-of-its-kind Transitional Age Youth Navigation Center at 888 Post, providing beds for young people ages 18–24; and 2) An adult SAFE Navigation Center at 1925 Evans Street to serve the Bayview community. Plan to continue the operation of 120 RVs to maintain this expanded emergency respite, along with safe sleeping sites .
to maintain this expanded emergency respite, along with . Finally, once the COVID-19 pandemic has subsided, capacity in the adult shelter system will return to pre-COVID levels, reopening approximately another 1,000 placements in previously existing shelter locations.
San Francisco has opened 120 RVs for people experiencing homelessness in the Bayview.
Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Rehousing
We are currently maintaining our eviction moratorium but we know people are still facing housing instability. Every person we can help through targeted interventions is one more person we won’t see fall onto our streets or into our shelter system. These are effective, proven solutions to help address homelessness.
To meet this goal, we will:
Invest in homelessness prevention , since we anticipate that the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic may contribute to an increase in the number of people at risk of homelessness.
, since we anticipate that the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic may contribute to an increase in the number of people at risk of homelessness. Continue our Rapid Rehousing for youth and families, and expand this approach for adults. This strategy matches people with short and medium-term subsidies and community resources to help people stabilize in housing.
for youth and families, and expand this approach for adults. This strategy matches people with short and medium-term subsidies and community resources to help people stabilize in housing. Partner with the new San Francisco Housing Authority to unlock hundreds of vouchers for formerly homeless individuals, which other communities have been getting for years but San Francisco has not previously had access to.
Mayor Breed with members of the San Francisco Homeless Outreach Team.
How is this Plan Funded?
Over the next two years, the City will leverage over $500 million from a variety of federal, state, and local sources to fund the City’s new Homelessness Recovery Plan.
Funding for the Homelessness Recovery Plan is largely dependent on continued FEMA reimbursement through the next fiscal year (which means through June 2021) for emergency shelter initiatives, newly unlocked funds from the November 2018 Proposition C measure, and the Health and Recovery General Obligation Bond, which San Franciscans will vote on in November 2020.
We also plan on using other federal, state, and local funds to implement the plan. These funds include new state Project Homekey funding, new state homelessness funding from the Governor’s FY 2020–21 budget, federal funding sources, and local General Fund, including $23 million in one-time permanent supportive housing acquisition funds.
As we move from COVID response to a citywide recovery, we have an opportunity to make a difference for those living on our streets and in our neighborhoods. Let’s stay focused on removing barriers to housing and resources, and creating more opportunities for people to transition off our streets. | https://londonbreed.medium.com/homelessness-recovery-plan-40fd96eccd39 | ['London Breed'] | 2020-09-22 22:01:28.560000+00:00 | ['Housing', 'San Francisco', 'Covid 19', 'Homelessness'] |
If you are a “black” person residing in the UK this point of view makes a lot more sense. | If you are a “black” person residing in the UK this point of view makes a lot more sense. I do suggest researching topics like: Imperialism, Colonialism and Hereditarian European Identity formation.
The United States has a different social structure than other Western countries. In the US we are sixty -seventy years behind other Western countries in topics like anthropology and sociology.
In the US habits of socialization are different than in other countries. This of course is what socialization is.
In the US capitalism and the land use system were developed on the concept of the inferiority of non white people and the superiority of people socialized to be white. So the dynamics as it relates to power, class and capital are completely different.
Our economy was built on a social structure of slavery and it continues into the present day. Now it encompasses people socialized to be white as well. In the US you will see all ethnicities partaking in a capitalistic indentured servitude framework. Where they sell their labor to a few overseers who take the profits from other people’s labor who don’t own the land or inherited capital to extract other people’s capital. But in the US because we have a history of people being socialized to be white traditionally occupying the owning and overseer class. You will see many race based dynamics play out. For instance in the US white restaurant servers don’t like waiting on African Americans because it is an act of lowering themselves to a subservient position to who they perceive should be in a lower class than them. They use the excuse of tipping without considering that eye rolls and a hostile attitude is unlikely to extract a tip from anyone of any ethnicity.
I have befriended many people with less melanin production from Europe and they are not socialized to be white in the same way like they are in the US.
It is not in fact all people with reduced melanin production that display racist behaviors but in the US the majority are socialized to be white. Which in America means something different than in other parts of the world.
From my understanding to be socialized to be white in Europe is not to rely on your skin color to legitimate your claims to anything. It is to take your place as a global citizen with an open mind. In the US being socialized to be white is completely different. It is to remain close minded and to act out ethnocentrism. It also produces the result of relying on your skin color to legitimate your own authority and skill level. Rather than learning and growing your knowledge base to actually back that up.
I have considered moving out of the US for this very reason. The racial dynamics here are ridiculous with a capital R. I frankly don’t have time for this race myth nonsense to affect my life because of the geographical region I happen to inhabit.
Of course someone’s melanin production is not indicative of one’s over all behavior that literally is racism.
But one’s socialization absolutely affects one behavior. In Europe they aren’t socialized to associate white and black in the same way. So thus I really have no qualms with most Europeans. You still have your close minded people everywhere. But if we are dealing with majorities than no I don’t think most Europeans were socialized in America. So I don’t correlate their behavior with American white socialization.
You specified the UK so I can definitely sympathize it’s your position in a totally different area and totally different socialization experience.
America is infecting other parts of the world with their racism and early 1900s based anthropology.
For instance in America they still pander to myths of race as real anthropological concepts instead of just using ethnicity.
The highest office in the land still produces what is called a US National census and in it they distribute propaganda. They split people into races and make people check boxes pretending we are all a different race from each other. Race theory was debunked in 1950, 1952 and again in 1998. By the UN and the American Anthropological Association. So when I say we are 50–70 years behind Europe I mean this literally.
I have 5 “white” friends and acquaintances from 5 different countries in Europe who are first generation immigrants and two still live there. They aren’t racist. But out of the white people I know they are the only ones because the rest of the white people I know are from the US. | https://medium.com/@platonicsnitch/if-you-are-a-black-person-residing-in-the-uk-this-point-of-view-makes-a-lot-more-sense-6d9028ef2c38 | ['Elisabeth M'] | 2021-09-12 14:15:10.482000+00:00 | ['Blm', 'BlackLivesMatter', 'Racism', 'White Privilege', 'Europe'] |
Go: Introduction to the Escape Analysis | Illustration created for “A Journey With Go”, made from the original Go Gopher, created by Renee French.
ℹ️ This article is based on Go 1.13.
The escape analysis one of the phases of the Go compiler. It analyses the source code and determines what variables should be allocated on the stack and which ones should escape to the heap.
Static analysis
Go statically defines what should be heap or stack-allocated during the compilation phase. This analysis is available via the flag -gcflags="-m" when compiling and/or running your code thanks to go run or go build . Here is a simple example:
func main() {
num := getRandom()
println(*num)
}
//go:noinline
func getRandom() *int {
tmp := rand.Intn(100)
return &tmp
}
Running the escape analysis shows us tmp escapes to the heap:
./main.go:12:2: moved to heap: tmp
The first step of the static analysis is building the Abstract Syntax Tree of the source code, allowing Go to understand where assignments and allocations are done along with variables addressing and dereferencing. Here is an example of the previous code:
Abstract Syntax Tree of the source code
However, for the escape analysis, we can remove the noises produced by the AST and get a simpler version of this tree:
Simplified AST
Since the tree exposes the defined variables — represented by NAME — and operations on pointer — represented by ADDR or DEREF , it gives all information to Go to perform its escape analysis. Once the tree is built and the functions and parameters parsed, Go can now apply the escape analysis logic to see what should be heap or stack-allocated.
Outlive the stack frame
While running the escape analysis and traversing the functions from AST graph — marked, Go looks for variables that outlive the current stack frame and therefore need to be heap-allocated. Let’s first define what outlive means by representing the stack frame of the previous example if there is no heap allocation. Here is the stack growing downward when calling the two functions:
Memory stack
Then, any variable created in the function getRandom will not be accessible when the stack frame of the function becomes invalid, i.e., when the program will return from the function:
Memory stack
In this case, the variable num cannot point to a variable allocated on a previous stack. In this case, Go must allocate the variable on the heap, making sure it will outlive the stack frame:
Heap allocation
The variable tmp now contains the address of the allocated memory to the stack and can be safely copied from a stack frame to another one. However, the returned values are not the only ones that can outlive. Here are the rules:
Any returned value outlives the function since the called function does not know the value.
Variables declared outside a loop outlive the assignment within the loop:
func main() {
var l *int
for i := 0; i < 10; i++ {
l = new(int)
*l = i
}
println(*l)
} ./main.go:6:10: new(int) escapes to heap
Variables declared outside a closure outlive the assignment within the closure:
func main() {
var l *int
func() {
l = new(int)
*l = 1
}()
println(*l)
} ./main.go:8:3: new(int) escapes to heap
The second part of the escape analysis consist of determining how it manipulates the pointer, helping to understand what could stay on the stack.
Addressing and dereference
Building a weighted graph representing addressing/dereference counts allows Go to optimize the stack allocation. Let’s analyze an example to understand how it works:
func main() {
n := getAnyNumber()
println(*n)
}
//go:noinline
func getAnyNumber() *int {
l := new(int)
*l = 42
m := &l
n := &m
o := **n
return o
}
Running the escape analysis shows that the allocation escapes to the heap:
./main.go:10:10: new(int) escapes to heap
Here is the AST code generated in a simpler version:
Simplified AST
Go defines the allocation by building the weighted graph. Each dereferencing, represented by * in the code or DEREF in the nodes, increase the weight by 1 . Each addressing operation, represented by & in the code or ADDR in the nodes, decrease the weight by 1 .
Here is the sequence defined by the escape analysis:
variable o has a weight of 0, o has an edge to n
variable n has a weight of 2, n has an edge to m
variable m has a weight of 1, m has an edge to l
variable l has a weight of 0, l has an edge to new(int)
variable new(int) has a weight of -1
Each variable ending up with a negative count escapes to the heap if it outlives the current stack frame. Since the returned value outlives the stack frame of its function and gets a negative count through its edges, the allocation escapes to the heap.
Building this graph allows Go to understand which variable should stay on the stack despite it outliving the stack. Here is another basic example:
func main() {
num := func1()
println(*num)
}
//go:noinline
func func1() *int {
n1 := func2()
*n1++
return n1
}
//go:noinline
func func2() *int {
n2 := rand.Intn(99)
return &n2
} ./main.go:20:2: moved to heap: n2 | https://medium.com/a-journey-with-go/go-introduction-to-the-escape-analysis-f7610174e890 | ['Vincent Blanchon'] | 2020-08-06 16:01:01.124000+00:00 | ['Golang', 'Compiler', 'Internals', 'Go'] |
How to bypass mega limit | 🔰 BYPASS MEGA LIMIT WITH A SIMPLE SCRIPT 🔰
1.create a new mega account with temp mail, verify it and log in on your new MEGA account
2. To run the script you first need to add the Google Extension Tampermonkey to your browser
3.Click on the Tampermonkey icon from your browser and choose the “Create a New Script”-
This will open up the Script Editor. Delete all of the content that is already prepopulated
4.Now……
for more information
click-here | https://medium.com/@skhaninfo4you/how-to-bypass-mega-limit-e98f5590d942 | ['Professor Hacker Free-Stuff'] | 2020-12-20 07:40:04.980000+00:00 | ['Learning', 'Covid 19', 'Hacking', 'Tips', 'Tips And Tricks'] |
Did you know these 5 facts about your internet salesman? | Has this pandemic affected the way you’re doing business? And how do you plan to thrive in this pandemic-fuelled economy? Is your strategy working?
If you sell on the internet, you don’t have to worry anymore. If you have a good copy, your funnel is going to make you bank. But you need a strong compelling copy than ever before to retain customer attention — because there are SO MANY ads we see a day and many business started selling online after the pandemic started. Now this means that they’re stealing your audience. Yes, they’re thieves.
Did you know this? Your customer’s attention span is less than 6 seconds. So you have to grab their attention in the given time-frame or the sale is gone. You see, selling is the art of persuasion. To sell anything online, you need a great persuading copy. Copy is your salesman (in print).
You see an average of 574 ads a day. But you don’t even realise most of them because they’re dull and boring. Super sleazy. Look, you only read what you’re interested in — only what grabs your attention. So, a good copy grabs your attention, and a bad copy gets you annoyed with ads.
Let’s think different for a moment…
If every business in the world had a great copy, there would be no financial crisis. Not hypothetically, but you get what I mean… persuade till your last breath.
Who is the salesman behind businesses selling on print and in ads?
The Copywriter.
Here are five proven facts about your copy…
1)
Good copy sells. You need a successful readership to have good sales and to get actions taken from your copy. Look, your interactive copy tells an enchanting story and deep emotions in every word. You build your brand image through effective copy. You can turbocharges your sales when you present it to qualified leads. Copywriters have amazing selling skills and could probably convince an Eskimo to buy a fridge.
2)
Your copy creates an ever-lasting bond with your audience — and gives you the chance to improve your relationship with your prospects, by answering their questions and helping them with what they need. You not only sell more — but you transform leads into long-paying clients.This helps you in increasing your brand awareness, to diversify your clientele and make more sales.
3)
Your copy transforms wants into needs in your readers. You see, people buy emotionally — then justify logically! An action-oriented copy helps you to turn your new product into a hot must-have — by unique features and benefits. Copywriters know how to provide immense value to boost sales using the salesmanship-in-print tricks and secrets.
4)
Your copy makes you stand out from the crowd. There are hundreds if not thousands of businesses out their providing the same type of service you’re serving. You want to stand out of the crowd. To inspire the inspired — and to cut through the noise with a voice that’s powerful, persuasive and memorable. This helps you create and promote a powerful, compelling story that will give people the chance to eliminate their concerns and preconceived ideas and start believing you.
5)
Stop spending immeasurable money on ads. With a good copy, every penny you invest for marketing is scalable. Get better engagement rates, high conversions, and more conversions.
If you liked this short article, check out our copywriting services to boost your sales now! | https://medium.com/@copyboom/did-you-know-these-5-facts-about-your-internet-salesman-32f7b1eaaa27 | [] | 2021-01-04 12:19:28.852000+00:00 | ['Digital Marketing', 'Internet Marketing', 'Ecommerce Solution', 'Ecommerce', 'Copywriting'] |
RFPs done right | Love ’em or hate ’em, Request for Proposals (RFPs) are standard practice for many non-profit, higher education, and government organizations, and this leaves project managers with few options when they’re purchasing tangible goods or professional services.
If this is your first project lead, make sure you know your organization’s regulations and purchasing limits. Be aware of all your options. With professional services like design and website development, there are lots of reason to avoid an RFP.
But if an RFP is your only option, there is a right way to conduct the process.
Developing the RFP
Here’s how to develop an efficient RFP for professional services that gets you better results in less time.
1. Establish an effective team who can get on the same page about the project goals. Honest feedback and effective collaboration is an essential part of working with a team. Differences of opinion can be helpful for honing in on the goals and needs of your project. But you must manage the fine line between constructive discussion and derailing disagreement. Don’t be afraid to trim the fat from your team if you have a team member who disrupts the flow of the process.
2. Provide context for the project. Once your team is established, you need to determine the key elements of your RFP. These are important to the responding firm’s ability to develop an effective proposal that meets your organization where you are and solves your problems. These items include:
Budget
Schedule for RFP including submission deadlines
Contact Information
Contextual Background Information
The Problem to Solve
Compensation Terms
Required Qualifications (minimum & preferred)
Evaluation Criteria & Process (including notification process)
Legal/Procedural Rules
3. Determine your budget. Some people believe that keeping your project budget a secret from potential respondents helps you to get the best deal. What it really does is hamper your ability to find the partner who is the best fit for your organization. If you hide your budget you will inevitably get responses with a wide variance in cost, experience, and ability. This means more time on your part to evaluate proposals that you’ll never select because of the cost or lack of fit. You will also have wasted money on the part of the firms developing those proposals just for you to throw them out without real consideration.
Clearly defining a budget or at least a budget range allows firms to decide if they can provide you with an effective solution to your problem within the given budget. Those that can will write proposals, and those that can’t will self-select out which saves both parties time and energy.
After setting your budget, instead of focusing on getting the best deal (i.e. price), focus on getting the best value. In other words, focus on identifying the firm who is giving you the most return on your investment given the budget limitations by evaluating the combination of deliverables and quality of work they are offering to complete for you.
If you truly have an open-ended budget for your project, then your team should determine the value of this project to your organization.
How important is it to have this problem solved?
What role will a firm’s particular areas of expertise play in solving these problems?
Is the product or service you’re looking for going to directly generate revenue for your company, such as an e-commerce website?
These are just a few examples, but all of these questions will help you to determine value and establish a budget. That budget will help all potential partners determine if they are really the right fit for you.
4. Determine respondent requirements. Once you’ve clearly articulated your pieces of the RFP that help to educate the respondents about your organization and the particular project, it’s now your turn to get specific with a few requirements for the responding firms that define how much control your team wants over the creative process, and what you need to see from them to determine best fit.
Be clear about what you want from them, but be respectful of their time. We all know the old adage that “time is money” and RFP responses cost time to develop and evaluate. To be efficient, your goal should be to develop an RFP that is as efficient as possible while still sharing all the information a firm needs to respond. Requirements you should request include:
Proposed statement of work, process, and project timeline
Description of Experience/Qualifications — may include team biographies
Relevant Work Samples — Don’t ask for Spec Work
References
Legal requirements as dictated by local, state, or federal regulations
Proposed Monetary Bid
Of all of these, the most important piece to consider here is whether your team will outline the statement of work (i.e. the solution to your problem), the process, and the timeline for the project, or whether you will simply identify the problem and let your applicants outline these other elements (the process, timeline, and ultimate deliverables) for you.
The benefit of the first option is that your team has control of how you want the work done, and the deliverables you receive at the end of the process. The negative is that when we identify our own problems and solutions we often bring preconceptions to the process that blind us to alternative solutions that may better serve us. This is magnified when dealing with technology because innovation is constantly happening, so you may not even be aware of other solutions that are available to you.
In “Expository Sketch is the New RFP,” Stanford University Technology Strategist Zach Chandler provides good insight as to why engaging your partner firm in helping to solve your problem is essential to successful projects.
While Chandler advocates for doing this outside of the RFP process, if you must seek this problem-solving expertise within the RFP framework, the firm’s response will also give you insight into their process, creative vision, and strategic thinking abilities.
5. Gather any additional information needed. Depending on your project you may consider asking a few additional questions beyond those outlined above. But don’t ask for frivolous requirements, documentation or intrusive information that has no real bearing on your project.
Examples of these frivolous requirements and questions that the MAC team has seen in RFPs include (but are not limited to):
‣ Tell us about a challenge that you’ve faced and overcome.
‣ What project would you like to re-do?
‣ What’s one question we should be asking and haven’t?
‣ After providing a fixed cost bid and an estimate of hours needed to complete the project, please provide a breakdown of each individual team members estimated hours and hourly rate.
‣ Please provide project budgets and scope for similar projects you’ve completed for other clients.
Some of these questions are a waste of time for firms to respond to and your team to read the answers to. This only serves to distract from the only elements of the RFP that truly matter: the quality of the work, the process, the timeline, and the total proposed cost.
As for budgets, the only thing that should really matter is whether you think the work being done for you is worth the price the firm has placed on it. As with all businesses, as a firm does good work and grows, inevitably so will their internal overhead costs. It’s unfair to the firm for your team to try to nickle-and-dime them for the same rate they charged a client five years before. If your team feels the quality of work being proposed is worth the price tag being attached, then the creative firm should have the freedom to distribute the funds how they see fit.
Soliciting proposals
Once you’ve written the RFP and have a solid foundational idea of what you are looking for, it’s time to reach out to potential partners and solicit responses.
Some organizations require you to post an RFP publicly, but many allow you to distribute your RFP selectively to pre-qualified firms. While selective distribution requires some upfront research on your part to identify prospective partners that fit your project requirements, it also provides you with tighter control of the process, shortens the required evaluation process, and eliminates wasted time developing proposals from firms that you’d never actually consider to complete the work.
If you’ve failed to scope the project correctly, or underestimated the project budget given the type of firm you’d like to work with, selectively soliciting bids will also help to identify these issues because your prospective partners will politely decline the invitation to respond.
If you can selectively distribute the RFP, your distribution list may include as few as 2–3 firms or as many as 20 depending on your objectives. The general rule is that if you don’t consider the firm a serious contender, don’t send them the RFP.
Make yourself available to answer questions
Depending on your organization, there may be ways in which your communication is legally limited after the RFP has been distributed. At the very least, you should conduct a pre-proposal conference call where firms can ask you clarifying questions to make sure their proposals are on point.
If you’ve limited the pool through selective distribution and you’re legally allowed to, consider answering individual emails and phone calls. This will allow you to quickly and effectively answer questions, establish a relationship with potential partners, and get insight into their process and attention to detail.
Evaluation and selection
If you’ve done a good job outlining the RFP and soliciting proposals from prequalified firms, the evaluation process should be simple and efficient because you’ll already have a narrow, focused field of responding firms and a clear guideline for how you want to evaluate the proposals.
When you’re writing your RFP and establishing timelines, your team should also internally pre-schedule proposal evaluation meetings as part of this timeline. The last thing you want to do is receive proposal submissions and then spend two weeks trying to nail down your team’s schedule to meet.
Additionally, make sure you’ve established a clear scoring system that is being shared with the respondents as part of the RFP. For example, if your rubric uses a 100-point valuation process and 25 points can be awarded for price, then make sure it is clear what price (or range) will earn the proposal the full 25 points and what will just earn it 15 (or zero) points. A vague scoring system makes it harder for your team to objectively evaluate proposals, and it makes it more difficult for firms to see what you really value in their response.
Successful selection committees
An odd-number of selection committee members is also best in evaluation in the event that the decision comes down to a majority vote. If you have an even number of committee members or a voting system that requires unanimous approval, make sure you have a predetermined tie-break procedure in place.
If you opted to distribute to a small field (3–5 firms) of prequalified firms, you may also consider if it is possible to have the firms present their proposals to you rather than your team just reading them. This will allow you to ask follow-up questions and clarify aspects of the proposal if needed.
Finally, If you ask for references, use them. References can be extremely helpful in evaluating a firm’s expertise and ability to form positive working relationships if these are key evaluation metrics for your team. If you have no intention of contacting the references, though, then asking for previous work samples will go just as far in showing prior work experience.
Final thoughts
Ultimately you can only award your project to one firm, and someone will inevitably be disappointed given the amount of work responding to an RFP requires. However, the firm you select will be your partner for months, if not years. Make sure you treat this relationship with care by responding to emails and phone calls in a timely manner and keeping them up-to-date as you go through the evaluation process.
When you’ve come to a decision, let all responding firms know of your choice and why you went that direction. While you may pass on a firm’s proposal this time, they could be a great partner for you on a project down the road, and letting them know where they fell short will help them to improve for the next project they take on.
While sometimes necessary, RFPs are time consuming for organizations on both sides of the table. Following a simple, clearly defined process and avoiding anything that’s not essential to the process will help you to streamline your efforts and make it as painless as possible for all involved. | https://medium.com/madison-ave-collective/rfps-done-right-52fc2d8c1c86 | ['Logan Hoffman'] | 2017-03-23 19:12:20.820000+00:00 | ['Design', 'Marketing', 'Business'] |
I’m Done Running | I’m done running
Away
From my past.
Away from my past which has always swirled around me, taunting me. “You’ll never escape me,” the intention echoed. I can still feel it’s cruel grasp around my back and throat, choking the energy, soul, and ambition from my body.
I am ready to turn around and face down all the karmic injustices. I am ready to relinquish the loops I created, manufactured, and perpetuated.
I have stumbled and fallen so many times, and it’s all because I refuse to let go of my past. Like a jilted lover, it cruelly derides me. And yet I am obsessed with it. I am confused by my past and transfixed by it. Like a trainwreck or a tragic fire.
I have realized that I have been so obsessed with the reflections of the past, that I have not focused on my present and future. Unlike Narcissus, I must turn my eyes away from the pond, and meet the sunrise.
I must change, grow, and learn.
When I fall, I will get up.
When I get up, I will rise.
When I rise, I will uplift others.
I think about how many lost minutes, hours, and days I spent going over my own tragedies and I realize the only way to retrieve them is to move forward.
After all, the sad, lonely girl in my past was special all along. She was me.
And I think, and I know, that I am right. | https://medium.com/write-like-a-girl/im-done-running-472f9d1c0dfb | ['Blair Fawcett'] | 2020-10-10 19:21:17.877000+00:00 | ['Women', 'Self Improvement', 'Self', 'Life', 'Poetry'] |
O que o mundo precisa agora: Uma intervenção para a promoção de comportamentos pró-sociais | Referências
Baumsteiger, R. (2019). What the world needs now: an intervention for promoting prosocial behavior. Basic and applied social psychology, 41(4), 215–229.
(*1) Aknin, L. B., Dunn, E. W., & Norton, M. I. (2012). Happiness runs in a circular motion: Evidence for a positive feedback loop between prosocial spending and happiness. Journal of Happiness Studies, 13(2), 347–355.
(*2) Poulin, M. J., & Holman, E. A. (2013). Helping hands, healthy body? Oxytocin receptor gene and prosocial behavior interact to buffer the association between stress and physical health. Hormones and Behavior, 63(3), 510–517. | https://medium.com/@coletivohumanario/o-que-o-mundo-precisa-agora-7ca15748ec53 | ['Coletivo Humanário'] | 2020-12-26 16:11:00.049000+00:00 | ['Coletivo Humanário', 'Empathy', 'Human Behavior', 'Prosocial Behavior', 'Prosocial'] |
Tequila Sodas & Leather | I wasn’t sure if my psychiatrist said it was two Xanax or three for my anxiety. The former seems like it would just be enough to pillow the feeling of death while seemingly feigning to the world that I’m “chill.”
But three? Well, that seems to be the standard intake for a rapper trying to silence the deafening memories of the dead homies. My homies are all alive (I did lose my grandmother once when I was four).
Shit. I’ve been in Sierra’s bathroom for too long peering into her Mid Century vanity. The bathroom is a sacred space; its aura settles the spirit. But sitting the faux-mysticism aside, the $350 Diptyque was just doing its attended olfactory job. Now, call me an asshole, but for someone who professionally practices in the dark, deep kinks of domming, her taste level was luxuriously delicate and intentionally bubbly.
Fuck it, I’m taking three of these guys.
I’m not sure if it’s an ethical violation that my psychiatrist is my best friend, Laurence. So, just about any pill I need can be callously written out on a script. And don’t make any cursory judgements, like: “Is his mental health deteriorating?” Well, considering I’m a millennial living in a post colonial world, that’s a given it is. Or is it capitalism?
About three weeks ago is when it all began. In a fit of what could be described as desperation fueled by a cocktail of horniness and loneliness, I joined FetLife. And by no means am I what you call a “sex” person. See, the outermost limits of my sexual proclivities boomerang from missionary back to a lazy sideways thrusting. And my ex has denoted my performance as the proverbial personification “of a finance bro in a Patagonia vest.” Basically, it’s uninspired and boring.
No one wants to be deemed as boring in their 20s; I mean, I am, but that’s not for anyone else to decide.
So, I said fuck it. Making a profile on Fetlife wasn’t as vexing to navigate as traditional dating apps seem to create. It was a bit more liberating to be in a sex-positive community. Dating sites create inconsistencies in our self-esteem; to no avail, we try to perfectly curate a self that is in part novel but, as well, generally accessible. I didn’t feel any of that.
There was no time to fret if a photo of myself exuded, “This guy is good at sex,” as there was a guy whose profile pic was him in a red unicorn costume, claiming one was “trans-species.” There was a place for everyone. Water sports. Araki. Cuckolding. Findom. I clicked them all: It was an act of kinky malfeasance.
She wasn’t the first of my interactions on the platform but most def was the most appealing. It was Sierra’s looks who I instantly became infatuated with: that dark hair, scrambled mix of Celtic tattoos, making her look like a Nordic goddess; and that dubious smile — perfectly wrapping together her physical appearance. Her photos exhibited an extreme sense of confidence in herself. It’d made you lust after her spirit rather than her body. I didn’t want her: I wanted to feel as good in my skin the way she felt in hers. And maybe through some osmosis-like occurrence, her confidence would seemingly diffuse across my neurotic membrane.
Don’t get me wrong, she was gorgeous, and aside from piquing my manic pixie dream girl fantasies, she was in essence everything I was searching for in a partner. I liked her, she liked me. And in that like, she slipped in that she happened to make her living through sex work. And I was, and am, still cool with it; it’s a job at the end of the day.
I digress; so we talked for days, not even about sex, just about everything — redendering every topic down into its infinitesimally small constituents. But due to my inability to process social situations, Sierra couldn’t take my social ineptness any longer and ended up asking me out.
Now, to say the date wasn’t the most perfect moment of my life would be an understatement — also seemingly validating the banality of my own existence. An intense attraction was mutually felt by both of us. And to think, transitioning from texting to the real world without a buffer would seem to be quite daunting, but, again, we found endless topics to talk about. 6 PM turned into midnight, and we both didn’t want the night to end there. She wanted more of me and I wanted more of her, so it was by no surprise that we ended up back at her apartment making out on her green leather barker.
So, that’s why I ended up in her bathroom. I was on the edge of an anxiety attack because in the other room she was amped up and ready to have sex. And I usually wouldn’t balk at any instance of being able to have intercourse, but I know what Sierra’s “into” and I know what I’m “into,” and they were far from the same thing. She likes to be whipped, and I’ve cried every time I watched What’s Eating Gilbert Grape.
Eventually, I left the bathroom and began my trek down the corridor back to her. The only hope was that my prolonged stint in the bathroom would’ve been grating enough to kill the mood. But at the entrance of the living room I paused.
Scanning the room, it was hard for your eyes not to gravitate towards her, she beckons every ounce of you. Her legs were tucked up on the couch: her bare feet overlapping onto each other. Portraying somewhat of a modest mood, her pleated skirt gently wrapped her legs. She was finishing off the tequila sodas she made for us. I asked for a little bit of bitters in mine, for my small boy stomach can’t handle the harshness of tequila. Though it seems she may have been trying to further loosen up because she finished off mine, too.
The mason jar in her hand was slammed down on the table with a bit of control. Immediately, she pulled off her sweater, revealing a thin white tank top. Her arms alone were tantalizing enough for me. Triceps protruded out from the sides of her arm, revealing she fashioned herself as a gym goer. My eyes walked their way up to her face observing how strength and softness existed in harmony from her forearms to the shoulders. Several moments of stillness passed: aware of my presence, Sierra looked up and saw me waiting at the threshold. A quick smile and a head nod my way had let me know I should join her. I would have rather not moved, but my feet acted independently from me. Every step towards her meant I was closer to my sexual demise.
I sat on the couch and she slid her way towards me, wrapping her legs over mine; even through my pants I could tell they were soft. Silence fell between us, and I tried everything in my power to divert her gaze. But fuck, that smile: a moon-shaped half crescent beamed into the room and demanded my attention. It would have made sense to seize that moment and be the “man” my younger brother likes to precociously flaunt to me in our weekly catch ups, but I was caught between being spontaneous and asking for permission. Yeah, I wanted to kiss her, but I didn’t know if I’d be overstepping my boundaries.
Sierra had other plans as she slinked her body towards mine; her mouth meeting my ear, she uttered what had taken me so long. Uncontrollably, I lied, and the worst possible lie at that: I told her I was taking a shit.
She laughed and roughly pulled my hair back, cocking my head back into the couch, and began making out with me. For the life of me, I didn’t have the heart to let her know she was hurting my head. However, to a man who hasn’t felt the lips, nor the touch, of a lover, in quite some time I may add, I was not going to be my own saboteur. So, I sat there, hands at my side, trying to focus on the rhythm of her mouth, being sure to think about being there in the moment and not using too much tongue. Occasionally, I’d slip out, caught up in thinking about what her home life was like — which made me think that I should call my mom more. Then, I’d snap back and remember I was kissing someone.
A few minutes passed. She pulled away from me and laughed again, which was seemingly demoralizing and a slightly new feeling: a turn on? But I was reassured, as she asked why I wasn’t touching her. Honestly, I had not considered that as an option. I was just happy to be there. Another laugh slipped through: it was veiled with a bit of eagerness. Sierra removed herself from atop me and seamlessly grabbed my hand in the process. I didn’t ask questions: I just followed her.
We walked through the corridor, inevitably headed towards an anticipated dalliance. The candle wafted from the bathroom though this time it was even a bit more calming, but it was probably the Xanax. And again, maybe it was Xanax, but that silent retreat back to her room felt like it took an eternity.
Making our way towards the entrance of her bedroom, Sierra stood to the side, slowly forcing the door open. She motioned me into the room and I stepped into a world of near darkness. Moonlight sauntered into the room, only to be spit up into slivers of light via the distressed curtain that partially sheathed the window above her bed. Its white light danced across the floor bouncing up to outline the only partially viewable relic. I gathered it to be a dominatrix contraption, or in layman’s terms, a giant X. I instantly felt scared but my body wasn’t able to respond in its usual manner. Instead, I turned back and told her: “I was waiting for this.” I wasn’t.
Again her laugh had hit me, it was unusually piercing this time, foreboding almost. Walking up behind me, Sierra grabbed my hair and pulled it back, and even though the Xanax was hitting, I was in pain, but I wasn’t going to let her know. A quick kiss hit my cheek then my shirt was hoisted over my head and pants were down. I wish I hadn’t worn black dress socks with my Stan Smiths. Sierra walked me into what I would later learn as an X-cross. My body was positioned so that I was abreast to her face, as she slowly backed me into the apparatus. It felt less sexual, more medieval, even insidious.
Each strap was attentively placed around each of my limbs. Sierra leaned forward and rested her cheek upon mine tenderly. But unbeknownst to me, she was reaching behind me to unhinge a lever on the back which allowed her to spin me upside down and lock me in place. The blood immediately rushed towards my head. I felt this nubivagant drifting.
She backed away from me and walked towards her closet. I heard rummaging through its contents, and I wasn’t quite sure what she was looking for. There was a bit of mental gymnastics undergone because I convinced she was going to ball and gag me as if I were some scrawnier Ving Rhames. I was sure she was gonna try and peg me just like in those videos I’ve accidentally stumbled into. And I would’ve been more open minded, but there was no prior conversation had.
My running mind was cooed as she walked out carrying what looked like a pair of long leather heels and an assortment of fabric. Coming back to me, she let me know I was in for her surprise. I could tell she was drunk. Not because she slurred her words when she spoke, but it became more noticeable when she left her room, as she aggressively, almost with intent, knocked into her dresser. An assortment of opened face oils and lotions fell over and began spilling onto the floor, but it wasn’t enough to phase her drunkenness.
Upside down in the apparatus, I began to really feel the effects of those bars. Three were def too much. I was becoming light headed, and the opportunity for intercourse was becoming an afterthought compared to wanting to rest. But I tried to focus and shake the stupor off. It couldn’t have been more than five minutes when Sierra came back and swung the door open. She stood at the door’s threshold ready to pounce on me.
It was a fit from the bottom up. Those leather stiletto boots ran up her thighs acting as a complement to her lingerie, a leather one-piece. And in her left hand she held a flog of some sort. In the moment, most would instantly think of sex, but in my high ass state, my mind fixated on one thought: if she left the clothes she was wearing on the bathroom floor, wouldn’t her roommate be angry with the mess?
Anticipation had reached its peak; Sierra took a calculated step into the room. The weight of her heels became obviously apparent as she moved forward, scraping the ground with her shoes. A connection was made between the stiletto and floor, yet it was not solid. The skincare products, once on the dresser she knocked into, dripped onto the floor into a slick patch. Now, any sober person would’ve been able to at the least brace and catch themselves before they fell to the ground, but we were about six tequila sodas in.
I watched in slow motion from the X-cross as she fell to the ground. First body then her head to the floor. And without a sound, she was out cold. Normally, horror would follow as I was strapped upside down in a stranger’s apartment. But, for some reason, my body felt it was time to rest. I could feel the blood rushing more and more to my head, pushing up against the cavities of my forehead. Every time my eyes would blink I slowly began to fade until I was in nothingness.
Consciousness returned as a flash of lights perforated my closed eyes. A gloved EMT — who was in training — kneeled over me to guide me back to the physical plane. However, I’m not sure if death from inversion was more jarring or the fact that my first responder was flippantly asking: “Bro, you good?” I couldn’t dignify a response as I tried to ground myself in the spinning room. Clarity eventually befell me, and I was left even more bewildered considering I was in Sierra’s bedroom but was back in the common area.
Sierra laid next to me on a scoop stretcher: her head wrapped in bloody gauss — still dressed in her lingerie. Even in that fragile, static state, she still looked as powerful as when she was standing in the doorway. Two men hoisted her up with little effort. The only afterimage left of her was her knee high stiletto boots that flopped over each other. As I followed her out the door, I noticed her roommate sitting in the same position as Sierra was on the couch, yet she was diverting my gaze. I’d come to find out that she arrived home after an excruciatingly long date to find her roommate and a rando on the verge of death, prompting her to ankle pull deadweight into the living room. It made sense why my ass felt raw.
I sat for about thirteen minutes, clothed in my Uniqlo briefs, in that living room making sure my vitals were cleared for me to go. To be honest, I wanted my hands washed of the situation, yet, at the same time, I was relieved I’d escaped facing my sexual anxieties. As the trainee finished his litany of tests, he leaned close to me, making sure the roommate couldn’t hear us and coyly jeered: “Y’all into some freaky stuff.” | https://medium.com/@jamierboatman/tequila-sodas-leather-589ba604b857 | ['Jamier Boatman-Harrell'] | 2020-12-24 14:11:04.705000+00:00 | ['Short Story', 'Dating', 'Short Fiction', 'Love'] |
The Price We Pay for a Purposeful Life | This poem is inspired by this story. Would love to hear your thoughts…
If you want to connect, you can find me on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or my website. Or somewhere in nature learning how to align economy and ecology…
Further reading | https://medium.com/house-of-haiku/the-price-we-pay-for-a-purposeful-life-3e770c369071 | ['Desiree Driesenaar'] | 2020-07-05 07:34:13.403000+00:00 | ['Shame', 'Poetry', 'Consumerism', 'Self', 'Tanka'] |
What is BIG DATA? | What is BIG DATA?
Big data is a very important section which became popular since the 19th century. Nowadays all major industries such as healthcare, retail, manufacturing, financial, banking etc use big data to achieve their goals. This review covers an introduction to big data, characteristics and types.
Introduction
Most definitions of Big Data focus on the volume. The size is a challenge, but there are two other main characteristics, they are variety & velocity. The three Vs of big data create a complete definition, and they busted the myth about the volume. The growth of technology and human research of the data moved data handling to an extreme level. Characterized by volume, velocity, variety, veracity and value (5Vs). Generally, big data is massive and wide-ranging, more complex data sets. Consequently, business organizations could not manage them with general data processing software. However large data sets detect business issues which were not tackled before.
Characteristics of BIG DATA
BIG DATA can be described by the following characteristics
Volume: Recently, industries are facing problems with voluminous data. The mass of data becomes larger day by day. It increases in size from terabytes to petabytes
Variety: There are so many types of data. Data forms are text, picture, audio, video, sensor data and log data etc. The main advantage is that we can discover new insights when analyzing all data types in the same movement.
Velocity: Velocity means how fast data collects. Sometimes even one minute becomes harmful to the output. Big Data velocity is dealing with the speed at which data flows from the source like social media, networks, sensors, applications, mobile devices, etc.
Types of BIG DATA
Big Data comes with multiple types. Examples are numeric data, text documents, audio records, videos records, pictures etc. Data structures can be divided into three main structures. They are structured data, semi-structured data and unstructured data. And all three structures are usually mixed together. Most of the data is structured and unstructured. Therefore, industries require different techniques and different tools for analyzing tasks. Distributed computer environment (DCE) and massive parallel processing (MPP) that allows paralleled data ingestion and analysis.
Structured data: Most data (80–90%) falls under the structured data. Structured data primarily shows tables and the other data sources of relational databases. The common examples are Excel sheets or SQL databases. Each example has ordered columns and rows.
Semi-structured data: Semi-structured data is a type of structured data, but it does not show the proper structure of data models which are linked with relational databases. The common examples are JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) and Extensible Markup Language (XML).
Unstructured data: These types of data have no inborn structure. Unstructured data is commonly so heavy because it is not easy to understand. The popular examples for unstructured data include texts, numbers, PDF files, photos, audio records and videos.
Conclusion
Data is incredibly powerful when it is used correctly. All major industries take advantage of big data to make efficient decision making. Benefits like saving time, reducing costs, increasing sales and loyalty etc. Big data leads our lives to extreme levels that our lives cannot reach. | https://medium.com/@senubattage/what-is-big-data-2b3bc3feb649 | ['Senura Battage'] | 2020-12-02 06:36:42.940000+00:00 | ['Open Data', 'Big Data', 'Data Science', 'Big Data Analytics', 'Data Structures'] |
Is my life a waste? | Creating a great life from scratch at the age where other people are already living it
Actually don’t answer that question, even if you were going to say no
Let me introduce myself first :)
Trigger warning: Please read only if you’re comfortable with vulnerability and the words — rape, abuse, trauma, suicide
Hi, I am Prachi and I was raped in 2015, and according to the orthodox people around me (I’m talking friends and family too) my life ended the day I was raped and that I should have actually taken the step of suicide to make it truly so.
Today, I am a holistic health coach and a social entrepreneur helping other women, who have experienced rape, abuse and/or trauma, heal and find their purpose in life.
Full disclosure: I did try to end my life
Twice! In 2019. And I was going to attempt to do so again in March 2020 because I was so fed up of hearing how the rape was my fault, how I’m bringing shame to my family even by continuing to breath, and how my life is wasted and all my parents’ efforts and money to raise me, to educate me have been wasted, etc. I was raped by a “friend” so it’s supposed to be my fault (but it wouldn’t have been any different otherwise also) because I went to his place with him and, if you’re a guy in India and a girl is in your home, apparently you have the right to rape her (I’ve since then found out that this thinking exists across the world)
I was born to be bold and to express my truth and to live with my head held high.
But I was born in a culture with such orthodox views that I’ve been hearing from childhood things like “girls should not speak up”, “rape is a girl’s fault”, “hide your body” men must not be able to see even the contours of your body otherwise you’ll be raped, and even “girls who dress skimpily and girls who are bold must be raped”
And I could go on venting about all of this because I have heard many such quips in the past so many years, especially since I had the audacity to file a legal case and fight it on my own with no moral support and no financial support from anyone whatsoever.
But, instead, I would like to talk about what was going on inside me
I had multiple breakdowns, having to deal with all this, the harassment inside the courtroom and outside by my lawyers as well, and having to hide this aspect of my life from my employer and co-workers (even friends and relatives) while balancing work life and all this, while living alone
As I learned later on, my trauma responses were being used against me by the police, the lawyers as well as the judges, to retraumatize me and to help the perpetrator get away with his crimes and to deny me justice and my right to safety
And because at that time I didn’t know that those were trauma responses, I let them do that to me while I too beat myself up for being “dumb” (not able to think or respond or take action) and “a complete and total fool” among other things
I would think to myself that I’m so stupid, my education was a waste, the money my parents spent on my education could have educated so many other people, I’m taking up so much space in this world, and the food and water I consume would be better off nourishing somebody else,among many other self defeating and disempowering (especially victim blaming) thoughts
Biggest of all, I don’t deserve to live!
I was forbidden to but, in 2019, I decided to talk about the rape with some of my friends and social workers in my vicinity (most of those conversations were similar to what I’ve shared above) and I learned that almost every girl has been sexually abused or raped at some point of time in her life by a family member, friend, colleague, boyfriend, husband, and almost every woman feels ashamed of it and will never talk about it with another person ever.
Especially where I live, there are a lot of men who abuse financial and political power and the rampant corruption in the city to serially rape women and most of these women end up being murdered or taking their own lives. (The guy who raped me, along with members of his gang, also tried to murder me and my family when I reported him)
Most of the women who continue to live hide this aspect of their life and live an outward life of normalcy, being scared and untrusting of all men forever thereafter
It saddens my heart that all of us have been carrying this shame and guilt that continuously robs us of our spark, our creativity, our humanity, our femininity, and our divinity!
I desperately wanted to do something to make other women realize that but I was feeling helpless. All I had was my experience, and as one girl I reached out to said to me, I myself was a rape “victim”, how did I expect to help her or another?
And that helplessness was there because I was still coming from a place of “if I don’t help other women, my life is a waste”
My self esteem was tied to helping others, my life was worth living only if I gave and gave and never took. I never asked for help, I could not ask for help (even from God!) because, if you’re a woman and you ask for something, you’re needy, you’re greedy.
One of the privileges I’ve had, however, is that I sought therapy, no matter how much it cost, no matter how bad my expenses, and no matter how many incompetent therapists (who unintentionally were retraumatizing me because they don’t understand PTSD) I came across. I knew that I couldn’t continue to live with the guilt and shame, that would just be a hollow life. I had to reprogram my mind, my body, and my emotions. I had to learn to love and accept myself as I was (and I still have my days).
It’s easy to say to someone “Oh, just get over it” or “move on”, but trauma, especially sexual and experienced in childhood, impairs our recovery mechanism.
The other good thing that happened was that I had gotten hooked to embodiment practices, such as yoga and qigong.
The combination of therapy and yoga really helped me not only recover but also transform in the real sense and, within a matter of 2–3 months, I could look myself in the eye in the mirror and say with a powerful steady gaze that I want to live.
That’s how my journey of becoming a social entrepreneur started. I studied hypnotherapy, EMDR, Yoga, Chinese energy medicine, Reiki, and NLP, and got certified to start “living my life” (which was still a life of giving).
Counseling and coaching others helped me see further into myself and find places I needed more work in. My own therapist has been a really strong and constant support and motivator (and also a role model) through my healing journey and evolution.
I share this to let you know that I’m no super human. What I have conveyed here in these few words is a very small gist of both the trauma and the transformation I went through.
There was a time not so long ago, when, if you had told me soon I’ll be where I am today, I would have said something on the lines of “f off” (because I don’t swear) “that’s wishful thinking” and “impossible”.
But I’m here to tell you this is possible for you too. If I can do it, anyone can do it!
Today I don’t need to do anything to deserve to be alive
And I want to bring this experience to other women.
So I created the “Roadmap for Resilience & Growth from Trauma”, a free private Facebook group for women, which is a safe space for women who have been abused and/or raped, and help them:
o Process and integrate their trauma and shame
o Awaken once again to their intuition, spark, and true self
o Release the inner critic and learn to love themselves completely, without exceptions and expectations
o Release the need for external validation and codependency
o Not have to worry about trusting another ever again, because they trust themselves completely
If you’re one of us, I want you to know that
You are whole, you are not half of a relationship where you only give and never receive
Your wants and desires are justified
Your existence is justified
You don’t need to be nice, you need to be bold
You don’t need to be liked, you need to be accepted
You don’t need to do anything to deserve love, you already deserve to be loved but foremost by yourself
I want to hold space for all of you, a space where you can become the beautiful beings that you have buried deep inside your hearts, since time immemorial, strapped with shackles, and wrapped in bubble wrap, and surrounded by walls and reinforcements, never to see the light of day
Let me help you see the light of day
You deserve to live with your head held high
Did that make you cringe?
You’re not alone!
I’m building a community of women who want all these things and more. Even if right now it feels impossible and you feel undeserving. Especially if you feel that you do not deserve!
Let me introduce you to your greatness
And then you must introduce the world to it
Don’t deprive the world of it! | https://medium.com/@prachidas18/is-my-life-a-waste-3530b9ede5bb | ['Prachi Das'] | 2021-01-20 11:53:22.744000+00:00 | ['Rape', 'Healing', 'Trauma', 'Resilience', 'Holistic Health'] |
A Newbie’s Chronicles on Distributed Data Processing — S01E03: Grand Finale | Roadblock: The DAG-ger that cut deep
The application logs by themselves weren’t very useful to debug as we could just see tasks failing — but not the exact conditions in which they were failing. For example, we saw that our code was still failing due to a memory issue at the JOIN step. Which was weird — as memory shouldn’t have been an issue after the optimization changes we had made in the previous episode.
To figure that out, we turned to our secret arsenal: the Spark Web Console!
Sample Spark Web UI, credits: https://spark.apache.org/docs/3.0.0-preview/web-ui.html
Basically, this is a Dashboard UI provided by Spark, that throws a lot of useful hints such as the stages, tasks, time taken, nodes status, memory metrics, etc in a step-by-step manner for a job on-the-fly right when it’s running.
It came in clutch like a Swiss-knife for debugging, to say the least! As we looked at the current application’s run, we saw that for some reason, one of our earlier pre-processing steps to read incremental data was being called again during the JOIN operation, instead of re-using the one we had already got as output for in the count() operation stages.
The mysterious case of re-reading incremental data
Thankfully, Sanket was familiar with this issue as he had faced this before himself once and he explained it to us in detail.
Basically, Spark keeps versions of the computed values according to Catalyst’s Logical Plan, in a DAG (Directed Acyclic Graph). Now, depending on the memory availability (or requirement) for its next operation, the earliest values stored in the DAG keep getting purged one by one till we’ve made enough memory for the next operation to happen.
Which means, one of the variants of our incremental DataFrame must have gotten purged from the DAG to accommodate the join operations, and it was trying to read them all again and start processing from the beginning. This is why it had hit a memory issue — and the job started failing after a maximum tolerance of 4 retries for the failing task.
And here I was — thinking that if the DataFrame was in memory while successfully executing the count(), it’d still be in memory for the consequent JOIN steps. The very fact that the DataFrame could get purged from the DAG in between these 2 lines of code — felt like being betrayed by my own code. 😢
Trust issues: “Hello there, long time no see.” | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/a-newbies-chronicles-on-distributed-data-processing-s01e03-grand-finale-99b7cc8601cb | ['Athitya Kumar'] | 2021-02-18 17:13:38.590000+00:00 | ['Scalability', 'Experience', 'Data', 'Distributed Systems', 'Learning'] |
BINANCE: MITH Trading Airdrop, Bitcoin-Pegged Token on Binance Chain and former Vice President at NBA as a new Strategy Officer | Finance
Token holders and the number of transactions (information from explorer.binance.org)
To celebrate the release of Mithril’s VAULT mobile app, Binance and the Mithril team will be committing a total of 14,500,000 MITH to a trading airdrop on Binance Chain/DEX. Activity Period: 2019/06/11 0:00 AM -2019/06/21 0:00 AM (UTC)
Binance has been in operation for two years, and the amount of changes that have been done through that period are remarkable.
Hence, Binance 2.0 was born. Check out the new Binance.com website here.
Here are some of the things Binance team revamped for the website.
1. Margin trading is just one tab away
2. One-stop shop for buying crypto using cash
3. A comprehensive User Center that displays all the information you need in one place
4. Sitewide visual enhancements
5. More information up front about Binance
6. Better support for 15 languages across the website
7. Learn about what Binance can do through a more interactive About Binance page
8. Enhanced website performance
9. Get better support fast with our revamped Support Center
Fusion announced that it is integrating into the Binance Chain ecosystem to bring great value to Fusionites and Binancians alike. The first part of the engagement involves integrating Fusion’s FSN token with Binance Chain.
Fusion will migrate a portion of FSN tokens to the BEP2 standard that is compatible with Binance Chain. Because of DCRM, Fusion’s tokens can exist in different states whilst remaining completely compatible with the Fusion public chain. FSN in the BEP2 format will be able to be locked into the Fusion main network and controlled by your universal wallet.
Fusion recognizes the value that Binance has contributed to the cryptocurrency community at large, and are looking forward to becoming an active participant in their new decentralized ecosystem.
Binance will issue a number of crypto-pegged tokens on Binance Chain (BEP2 token format) in the coming days, starting with BTCB, a BEP2 token pegged to Bitcoin.
Pegged tokens such as BTCB, are 100% backed by the native coin in reserve, which is Bitcoin (BTC) in BTCB’s case. The reserve addresses are published for anyone to audit. The blockchain offers a much easier way to audit a crypto reserve than a traditional bank balance tether.
A trading pair will be created on Binance.com between the pegged token and the native coin, e.g., BTCB/BTC.
Large buy orders will be maintained on the trading pair on Binance.com, with a price spread of around 0.1%. This provides an easy way for anyone to convert from the pegged token back into the native coin on Binance.com. If this buy order is filled, a new order will be placed while an equal amount of funds will be deposited from the reserve address into Binance.com. The sum of the buy order and the funds on the published reserve address will be bigger than the total supply of the pegged token, ensuring there is always 100% backing.
Binance Exchange
Listing Updates | https://medium.com/paradigm-fund/binance-mith-trading-airdrop-bitcoin-pegged-token-on-binance-chain-and-former-vice-president-at-b06a918c49fb | [] | 2019-06-19 20:23:35.953000+00:00 | ['Crypto', 'Cryptocurrency Investment', 'Binance', 'Bitcoin', 'Cryptocurrency'] |
Ownership of property by NRI | Inheritance matters are covered under the personal law that has been followed when the person passed away. This could be either the law of the land or the law of the religion. If a NRI (non-resident Indian) or person of Indian origin (PIOstands to inherit property from a deceased Indian, then the personal law of the deceased shall apply. A NRI (non-resident Indian) or person of Indian origin (PIO), can inherit any property in India, whether it is commercial or residential. They can even inherit agricultural land which they are not entitled to obtain by the way of purchase. An NRI can inherit the property from his family including his relatives. In subject to certain conditions a NRI or PIO can inherit property in India even from another NRI or PIO. The permission of RBI’s is compulsory, in case the inheritance comes in favour of a citizen of a foreign state, who is a resident outside India.The Indian law does not permitresident outside India to purchase any immovable property in India unless such property is obtained by way of inheritance from a person who was resident in India. However, the person can transfer or acquire immovable property in India on lease not exceeding five years.
An NRI or PIO who has purchased any commercial or residential property under general permission is not required to file any document with the RBI (Reserve Bank of India). The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) generally allows NRIs/PIOs who hold a valid Indian passport to buy commercial/residential properties in India. An NRI can buy any number of these types of properties as per income tax laws and RBI regulations. If an NRI wants to investin residential/commercial property in India. He hasno need to come to the country, the purchase can be done by giving a legally binding power of attorney for purchasing to another person.If a person owning a property in India becomes an NRI, then the person can continue holding the property. They can also let out their property. The tax should be paid as applicable in the country.As Estate Duty was ended long back, there is no tax implication at the time of inheritance. So, neither the inheritor northe representative of the deceasedhas to pay any tax at the occurrence of inheritance. In case the property is transferred by the person during his lifetime by way of a gift and the value of the property exceeds Rs 50,000, the receiver has to include the market value of the property received by the way of gift in his total income, unless he is among the specified relatives of the donor.The PIO orNRI can continue to maintain the ownership of the property, or can dispose it. Even if the NRI has decided to dispose of the property, there are certain tax implications for the period during which he retains the ownership of the property. As wealth tax has been finished in India, the NRI does not have any wealth tax implications, for being the owner of the property.An NRI can either gift away the inherited property or can sell the property and remit the money outside India. There are many restrictions on gifting of the property by an NRI. The NRI can gift the inherited property only to the person who is resident in India or an NRI.An NRI can repatriate the sale proceeds up to dollars every year without any approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) provided that taxes in India must paid for the sale of such property. | https://medium.com/@monishamahajan-72047/ownership-of-property-by-nri-a6786f7f7b5e | [] | 2020-11-23 11:18:12.038000+00:00 | ['Nri Investment', 'Legal', 'Legalization', 'Legaltech'] |
Confessions of a Former SWERF | Ok, so maybe I wasn’t a full on SWERF, like I didn’t want to take rights away from sex workers but I did think that sex work was exploitative and a direct result of centuries of patriarchy. I thought that anyone who tried to purchase sex from another person should be criminalised, because I naively believed that that would end demand. I also thought that everyone working in the industry was there under duress. And all of these assumptions were based on complete and utter ignorance.
I have since been fortunate enough to meet lots of people who work in the sex work industry (most of them women). What an eye opener that has been. I’ve had a lot of my ideas and illusions shattered. One of my friends was forced into sex work as a teenager and her experience was awful. But aside from that friend — and I would say she was a victim of sexual assault and coercion, not a sex worker — every other woman I know who is a sex worker has chosen their line of work.
For some women the choice is financial. Other women just fucking (excuse the pun) love it. Some women I know find sex work to be hugely fulfilling and rewarding and enjoyable work. I know! Amazing isn’t it? I was shocked too when I first realised that not everyone is like me! (I’m being sarky of course but mostly towards my former self).
Meeting and listening to sex workers and former sex workers opened my eyes about why people work at sex work, and how those people feel about it, but what about patriarchy? How to reconcile the selling of the female body following centuries of gendered degradation, sexualisation and exploitation? As we currently live in a patriarchal world it is almost impossible to know if sex work would still exist if we lived in an equitable world, or even a world that wasn’t so hung up on shame, fear and secrecy. I have a feeling that even if society was equitable in every way and there was no fear or shame around sex there would still be people wanting to be sex workers. I’m basing this feeling on the genuine sense of joy and fulfilment some sex workers say they get from their work and because the majority of the women I know who are sex workers tell me that they are happy with the work they’ve chosen.
I’ll never forget the question I asked a sex worker (who has now become a friend) when I first met her:
“Are you saying that some people actively choose sex work” “Yes.” She said. “But aren’t some women doing it because they can’t afford not to?” I asked. “Yes. There are people who don’t like their jobs no matter what job they’re doing, like there are cleaners who don’t want to be cleaners but are forced into it by poverty.” She said. “Just because we use other parts of our body to do our job — does that mean we shouldn’t have the same rights and safety as you?”
I couldn’t argue with that. And that was the end of my SWERF-iness.
I know a lot of women are anti-sex work and to me these people are much like anti-choicers. They wish to deny women their own agency and experiences and show little interest in addressing the core issues that cause some women to take up sex work — for example, poverty, high university fees or child care costs. Why aren’t SWERFs fighting hard to end poverty, to provide more supports for lone parents or bring down uni fees? Why instead attack women who are - like the rest of us — just trying to make a living. I know of women who wouldn’t chose sex work if they had enough financial security but since they don’t sex work is the option they’ve chosen to keep food on the table. And of course there are the women who want to and enjoy being sex workers. Why should these women be criminalised, stigmatised and negated, just because of the type of work they’ve chosen to do (and regardless of why they’ve chosen it)?
There is an essential paradox in being a SWERF, how can you truly be a feminist if you do not listen to and believe the experiences of other women? How can you take such a paternalistic view of sex workers and think you know what is best for them even when they are clearly telling you otherwise? My own SWERF views came from ignorance and a patronising kind of moral crusader vibe, “I know what is best for you fallen women. Come on and I’ll help you out of your awful life.” I never said that or thought it but it was at the root of the beliefs I had about sex work and sex workers. I cringe to think of it now, how condescending, how arrogant, how offensive. I’m publicly atoning for my prior awful SWERFy ways now and hoping that by doing so I might reach out to a few people who are open to some new ideas about sex workers.
There were plenty of SWERF voices delighted by the introduction of the Swedish/Nordic model to Ireland. And yet this model has not reduced the selling of sex in Sweden and has only made it more dangerous for sex workers, so it begs the question who is it serving and why would anyone feel happy about it being introduced? SWERFs seem happy to ignore the evidence and research that shows the many dangerous failings of the Swedish/Nordic model. I have argued previously that SWERFs be called SWERs, as I cannot find any trace of feminism in a dogma that removes the voices and agency of the women who are being discussed and who are most affected. Our sex worker sisters should not be thrown under the bus for the sake of a moralising few.
I’d love to know how SWERFs reconcile their ‘feminism’ with beliefs that are harming and in some cases killing women? Perhaps like me, most SWERFs had never met a sex worker or thought much about how dangerous and hurtful their ideas are. I hope some of you might consider joining me in supporting the rights of all women, regardless of what profession they have chosen for themselves.
A note on trafficking: Trafficking and sex work are often discussed together as if the two things are the same — but consensual sex workers are not the same as someone forced into sexual activity against their will. I don’t know anyone who thinks human trafficking of any kind is ok. And no sex worker I know wants to force anyone to work at sex work against their will. Consent is key in sex work (and in sex). Fighting for the decriminalisation of sex work and safety for sex workers is not a win for traffickers. It is somewhat beyond the remit of this piece for me to go into but you can find great piece on the problems with the Nordic model/linking it to trafficking here and the fundamental difference between sex work and human trafficking explained beautifully here.
I want to acknowledge and thank all the women who have given so much of their time and energy to teach me and others about sex work, (with a special thanks to Lucy Smith of Ugly Mugs who is a total Shero).
I’m not paid for this piece, if you want you can support my work by shouting me the price of a coffee :) https://ko-fi.com/taryndevere
Find Me Here Also… | https://medium.com/athena-talks/confessions-of-a-former-swerf-be0892f0fd30 | ['Taryn De Vere'] | 2018-01-18 17:58:23.305000+00:00 | ['Sex', 'Sex Work', 'Gender Equality', 'Feminism', 'Women'] |
Are the Palestinian People threatening Israel’s health? | CARTOON: CARLOS LATUFF
Are the Palestinian People threatening Israel’s health?
The global spread of Covid-19 caused movements restrictions and full-on lockdowns in many places all over the world, including the area of Israel and Palestine. As an occupying force, Israel had always controlled every entry and exit in the West Bank and last week closed every area under Palestinian administration to allegedly curb the spread of the infected. It may be clear that Israel is using the pandemic to quicken the process of annexation of Palestinian land: as a matter of fact, Israeli settlers are allowed to attack Palestinian civilians, interfering with health authorities attempts to fight the contagion.
The goal of these strict limitations could be the safeguard of public safety, but it would mean that the measures would be applied to Israeli citizens as well, since the virus infects both populations alike. That is not the case since Israeli settled in the West Bank, despite living only a couple hundred meters from the Palestinian communities in forced lockdown, are not subjected to the same rules. The imposition of these guidelines is a glimpse into what would have happened if the “Trump peace deal” had been implemented.
A violent series of attacks towards Palestinians farmers is underway: one example is Bethlehem, where Palestinians are facing a harsh quarantine and thousands of trees belonging to them were cut down. Israel has also started to build in the immediate vicinity of Nablus, a blatant attempt to create ghettos and bantustans for Palestinians. Gaza, that has already registered a small number of covid-19 cases, caused stark preoccupations regarding the readiness of its healthcare system, already put under stress by the embargo forced by Israel.
More than 5000 Palestinians, including women and children, are detained as we speak in Israeli prisons, known for being old, dirty, crowded and underserved from a hygiene perspective. Cells are claustrophobic, unclean and without windows, and on top of everything ex-prisoners testified that psychological and physical tortures are commonplace in there. In conclusion, the health of prisoners is completely overlooked.
Palestinians are trapped and fighting on two sides: one battle is fought against the pandemic, the other against the brutal Israeli occupation, in which these people are the perfect scapegoat to blame for the Covid-19 spread in Israel. They are considered a threat to the health and lives of Jewish citizens, presented as a sort of “fifth column” and considered illegal aliens.
The health sector has been since ’48 one of the most representative for Palestinians (despite many racist incidents happening in this system as well). 17% of doctors in Israel is Palestinian, and many nurses, pharmacists, technicians and ecological operators are as well. While in Israel a big part of the population is being tested, only 5% of Palestinians were guaranteed Covid-19 testing. On one side the Israeli government is promoting health precautions methods among Jewish citizens, on the other it’s not doing the same for Palestinians. Instructions haven’t been translated into Arab for weeks, and no investment has been made available to support the health infrastructures in Palestinians cities and villages. Palestinian people, like other native and discriminated people, are at a structural disadvantage when it comes to healthcare; this situation combined with a deadly pandemic can lead to devastating results.
The average distance between Palestinians communities and the nearest hospitals is almost double the Israeli one, and the quality of healthcare facilities in Palestinian territories is lacking: as a result many people there suffer chronic diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure and heart problems. For Palestinian Bedouins the threat is even greater. Around 150 000 Bedouins live in 40 villages not considered legitimate by the state and as such not granted running water, sanitary services and healthcare infrastructures. Despite the calls for actions made by Bedouin authorities, the State refused to do anything in regards of testing, social distancing enforcement and access to hospitals or medical care. Judging by these facts, Israeli response to Covid-19 could reveal indifference towards Palestinian lives.
Coronavirus’s spread among Palestinians could also provide Israel with the opportunity to intensify control on them, maybe even coming to isolate them politically and physically. In the last few days in Jaffa, for example, Israeli police attacked Palestinians residents for allegedly violating social distancing norms, even going as far as throwing shock grenades. This could be only the beginning, and if the pandemic hits seriously Palestinians villages and cities, we could see their inhabitants rise against the lack of healthcare and as a reaction the Israel state militarize even more to react to the protests. This emergency could make the Palestinian population even more controlled, punished and militarily oppressed than It already is. | https://medium.com/@threeworldpills/are-the-palestinian-people-threatening-israels-health-2b052e398a3a | [] | 2020-04-20 09:25:58.244000+00:00 | ['Virus', 'Coronavirus', 'Palestine', 'Israel'] |
Why I Started Writing Shorter Articles | I started with an article. And then another. And then another. My brain was on fire that weekend.
I didn’t wake up with the plan to just sit and write. All I knew is that I wasn’t going to go out for the day without writing something I could put on my blog. The irony is that I had been trying to focus on longer content, but my hand was a bit forced.
I had written an article about quantity over quality which I wanted to live up to. My time had been heavily constrained with work and my baby. I also found it was a lot less pressure to write something when I lowered my minimum word count for what I was willing to write.
Aiming Closer
My aim was to write articles which were roughly 1,500 to 2,000 words, with a minimum of 1,500. I used the same approach for pretty much any kind of article, with the exception of certain short articles. This kind of structure gave me a concrete goal to keep my writing more consistent. I could write things outside of this, but this was my general benchmark for a “complete” article.
One day, I noticed I could knock out a short article which was roughly 1,000 words in less than half the time it took to knock out one which was 1,500 words. Writing two 1,000 word articles also left me feeling less tired than I did after a single 1,500 word article. I had many articles I stalled out on or forced an extra point into to make my minimum. I also had multiple factors from work and life which made it increasingly difficult to allocate time. If I could get the free time, I could knock out more, but that’s not really an option at present.
I decided to start shooting for somewhere between 750 to 1,000 words as my minimum depending on the type of content. Certain content I wanted to hit 1,200 words before I felt finished, but if I stopped or ran out of ideas, I ended it and moved on. This strategy has worked amazingly so far. My writing has become more organic, though a bit more volatile. I can feel the growth from the writing process more immediately and I can keep the heat up.
I have basically been able to double my output of content without feeling rushed or that I’m missing something. When I want to write more, I do. If I hit a dead end, I wrap it up and move on.
Quantity Over Quality
Sometimes you just need to do more to get more practice. Instead of obsessing over perfection, drop it and move on. Splitting up a task into smaller tasks means more practice with each individual component.
By shrinking the minimum I was aiming for, I could produce more, and it ended up faster. There is more to writing the just writing itself, especially when creating blog content or writing for something like Medium. You have to consider research, planning, writing, rewriting and editing, media production or procurement, title creation and summary, and polishing. Some of these factors have a fixed cost, some grow evenly with the word count, and some can grow exponentially for minimum time required per step.
Skill Sets
Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay
Each of these factors is also its own skill set. Research won’t make your writing itself better, but it provides better evidence and better topics to write about. Media production or procurement just enhances your writing and can help make a better product. Planning makes the writing more coherent and consistent and can give a scaffolding. Rewriting, editing, and polishing are all their own skills which temper writing into something better and better at different steps of the process. Title creation and summary writing are their own kind of writing entirely which impact how your writing is received.
By shortening the writing cycle, I get more practice on the skills that can help shape my writing as well as my writing itself. I can also test more ideas since the cycle is much shorter and a bad article is less of a hit to my productivity. Repeating the process more means I can focus on how everything goes together instead of trying to kill 200 more words for the sake of a number on my screen.
Working Around Time Constraints
Image by annca from Pixabay
My job has calmed down, but can still take a toll on my time outside the office. As my baby gets bigger and bigger, she gets to need more and more time with me. She doesn’t want to sleep early anymore either.
Most tasks have a warm-up period before getting productive, and writing is no exception. I have fewer and fewer blocks of time I can allocate to my writing, so I had to simplify my workflow to make use of what I had. It takes me a lot longer to get into the flow when I have to catch up on a massive amount of text. Smaller articles have a lower associated cost to get back in the flow.
I worked as an editor for years, so I have a specific workflow which requires periods of focus. The longer the article, the longer the period necessary. Shortening the writing cycle means I don’t need as much time so I can play fit my editing blocks in gaps of free time more efficiently.
My kid may not cooperate to give me productive writing time for days if she’s going through a growth spurt. The more of the process I can fully complete, the easier it is to keep the momentum going. I can knock a shorter article out on a moderately bad night now. If the baby or work don’t cooperate, I don’t get stuck halfway through the process.
Lowering Pressure
Image by Jan Vašek from Pixabay
More practice and lower time constraints on individual steps lead to less pressure. I don’t have to force the article, I can end it when I want. Setting a limit may arguably be restrictive, but I find it gives me structure which makes me write better. If I just sit down without some end in sight, I’ll either ramble or not write much. I may write for the sake of writing, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have a process for writing.
If I set a minimum, I feel a need to reach it, but some articles just don’t have 1,500 good words in them. A good writer can arbitrarily hit that (or pretty much any arbitrary standard), but I never said I was good. Setting my standards lower and surpassing them has helped me keep on track and write better. Don’t make the bar low enough to be pointless, but an easy win is still a win and can still provide great feedback.
Why It Works
I tend to obsess over the ritual for my writing process. The structure makes me pace myself and not burn myself out. If you tell me to run a mile, I’ll sprint until I can barely walk the last 9/10ths (I’m also not a runner), but if you tell me to run for 20 minutes, I’ll jog at a consistent speed. Setting conditions and restrictions forces me to pace myself. Writing is a release for me, and by controlling the release, I am able to get the most out of it for myself.
This advice may not be as applicable to you if you have plenty of free time and write organically. By slashing my articles down, I have more time to focus on other aspects of writing and perfect my overall process. I can fit more small sessions in where I can, and I feel a lot less pressure to finish an article. Try writing less and see if you don’t get more out of it.
Featured image by Jess Watters from Pixabay | https://medium.com/swlh/why-i-started-writing-shorter-articles-a15be0e214e | ['Some Dude Says'] | 2019-11-12 18:28:30.281000+00:00 | ['Writing Tips', 'Productivity', 'Writing', 'Self', 'Writer'] |
Old SEO Really Is Dead | Old SEO Really Is Dead
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) used to be simple. Now, it’s easy.
SEO used to be simple. Now, it’s easy. There is a difference. Photo by Merakist on Unsplash
I’ve modified this a bit from its original form. Some things in SEO have changed, but most remain the same.
Quite a few years ago, Google released an algorithm update, the so-called “ Penguin 2.0,” and as is usually the case with major announced updates to Google’s algo, a bunch of people got their panties in a bunch. Officially, Google called this the “Penguin webspam algorithm.”
No matter. SEO, as we know it, is DEAD. Seriously. The old ways of tricking the search engines (the only one left, for all practical purposes, is Google) have been rendered useless.
Back before Google (B.G.), we used to be able to stuff keywords in a webpage and get it ranked pretty highly quite easily. Then, when Google came along, we had to go out and build links to our “money sites.” Then, as Google got smarter, we had to disguise our link building by building links to links that linked back to our money sites.
Automated software like SEnuke became the rage. Push a button and your SEO was done! Praise the SEO Lord!
Now, all that is pretty much crap. Don’t waste your time with it. But take all this with a grain of salt. Some of this stuff still works, but doing any sort of SEO carries risks, chief among them that what works today may not work tomorrow and may even work to the detriment of your site in the coming months.
It’s not like everything you do SEO-wise will get your site killed…but doing this instead of that may cost you time, effort, and dollars. Best to spend those scarce resources on what works, right?
So — what works? And better yet, how do you actually do the work to get it done?
Four Things Critical to SEO Success
There are four critical things that Google is looking for when it comes to ranking web pages and websites. They are:
Quality content Traffic (yeah, I’ll get to that) Backlinks (there’s more to it than just numbers; in fact, more can be worse than less) Social signals
We’ll tackle each of these in turn.
Quality content
By now, you have no doubt heard the expression, “Content is king.” And it is. The more quality content your site has, the better. Hands down. No question about it. If another website outranks yours and it has inferior content, just chalk it up to the fact that Google hasn’t caught up with its own proclamations yet. Yet, at the end of the day, Google really only cares about whether they are supplying the best content to their users.
Since “best” is a subjective term, it is hard to quantify it. But Google does it by looking at what other people and sites are saying about your content. In short, if other people link to your content, they are casting a vote in favor of your website. If droves and droves of “peer sites” are referring their visitors to your pages, you better believe that your content is being held in very high esteem.
The way to get others to vote for you is by writing quality content. And lots of it. Again — in this case — more is better. Frequency matters, too. All other things being equal, more frequent publication of new, quality content is better than less frequency. Get in the habit of writing a lot. And writing often.
Traffic
Yeah, Google looks at how much traffic you get and rewards you for it. It seems sort of backwards, right? I mean, you’re doing SEO so that you can rank higher in the SERPs so that you get more traffic. More traffic means more potential buyers or customers. Simple.
But you can’t get traffic if you can’t get ranked and you can’t get ranked high if you don’t get a fair amount of traffic. So what do you do? You buy traffic 🙂
This, after all, is what Google wants; it’s how they make the bulk of their money (if you buy AdWords). If you have a new site or just want a bump in rankings, go out and spend some dough on AdWords or Facebook ads. When you invest in paid ads, typically, once your ad buy is over, the traffic dries up. That’s because people typically send traffic to landing or squeeze pages. You don’t really want to do that. You want to spend a few bucks to get an initial influx of traffic that keeps coming back.
Why do they come back? Because your content is awesome, that’s why.
So all you’re really doing is paying for a burst of traffic. Once you get visitors, you have to entice them back with top-quality content. See why content is king? Oh, and get them to opt-in, too. That way, you can always send more traffic to your posts, articles, and stories whenever you send out an email to your subscribers.
Backlinks
Backlinks come from two places: Your own site and other people’s sites. While internal backlinking has benefits, it’s the backlinks that come from other sites that you really want to covet. In the “old days,” one could simply get thousands of Xrumer backlinks and call it a day, rank well, and get as much traffic as you wanted. Now, not so much. Google knows those links are crap.
What you really want is links back from websites that are better than yours. And when I say “better,” I mean those that rank higher. There are three qualities to look for in a potential backlink:
Authority Relevancy Diversity
It used to be that PageRank was the de facto standard for “authority.” It still does give an indication of a website’s authority, but it is wielding less and less power as time marches on. Suffice it to say that in the vast majority of cases, for any given keyword phrase, “authority sites” in your niche are those on the first page or two of Google. It’s really that simple. Look for sites that rank well, have quality content, and have a practice where they link outside their site frequently.
One of the best ways to get a link back from an authority site is to approach the site owner with a proposal to write a post for them for free, in return for a link back to your site, of course! This is called “guest posting” and as the web evolves, more and more guest posting will be done. Of course, this “goose that laid the golden egg” is currently being abused quite badly and there will come a time when Google places a much keener eye on the practice.
Of course, the best websites won’t allow abuse and will only accept quality guest posts sparingly (there’s that “content is king” concept again!) .
Now, you may not be able to score a guest post opp with a true authority in your niche. If that’s the case, you have two choices, and I suggest you do both:
Opt to guest post for a lesser site. First, you never know when that guy’s gonna pop and become an authority site in its own right. Second, what you’re really trying to do with guest posting is two-fold: You want a backlink but more importantly, you want the direct traffic that such a post can provide. When somebody reads your guest post, they may in fact hop over to your site to see what else is there. That direct traffic is gold. Consider creating a landing page that rewards your new reader for her visit. In Medium, this could be your profile page or your publication’s page. Make a thoughtful comment on the authority site. Most websites nowadays have commenting enabled, so use it! Often, your comment will elicit a visit from the authority site owner himself and/or his readers. Again, this direct traffic is pure gold.
Remember, if you always aim for traffic, everything else you do will be gold. Seriously.
It’s not enough just to get backlinks from authority sites. You must get relevant links. By this I mean that you need to get links back from sites within your industry or niche. Getting a backlink from CNN is always cool. But getting one from a true leader in your industry is even better!
Lastly, you want diversity. Google is always on the lookout for “suspicious activity.” If, all of a sudden, you go from having zero backlinks for “dog training” to having thousands, you will draw undue attention to yourself and your site. Don’t do that.
Also, don’t try to get backlinks exclusively for your chosen keywords. Vary things up a bit. Your anchor text (the text that displays the hyperlink) should range from “click here” to “read more” to your brand (e.g., “nabisco”) to some related keywords like “dog training,” “train your dog,” and “puppy education,” all the way to the URL of the page you want the backlink for — “http://dogtrainingu.com/how-to"
Of course, there are many ways to get links back from authority sites. Guest posting and commenting are just two ways. Another way is to just ask: Will you put a link on your site back to mine in return for my doing the same? This is called reciprocal linking. This practice fell out of vogue a few years ago but it’s still worth considering.
No commentary about backlinks would be complete without saying that quality trumps quantity. In fact, if you have a ridiculous amount of backlinks, especially when compared to your competition or peers, you may in fact draw Google’s ire; they may penalize you for it worst case or disregard all your efforts in the best case.
Social signals
This is all the rage! Social signals are Facebook likes and shares, twitter tweets and retweets, Instagram “loves,” etc. Basically, any time you can share or “vote” on a social website, you are telling Google that you are endorsing the website at hand. For example, if you give my article on http://dogtesting.com/train-your-retriever a like on Facebook, you’re telling Google that what you read is great stuff. They throw that in their database and out pops a slightly higher search ranking. Get enough likes and you’ll begin tipping the SERP scales in your favor.
Of course, people are “gaming” the social signal landscape, too. Take a look at Fiverr. Five minutes spent there and you will discover that “gig sellers” are selling likes, shares, and other social media “signals.” Google knows this and has ways to discern what is going on. These, of course, are false signals and Google is getting better and better about detecting when social signals have been manipulated.
So what do you do? Two things:
Make it very easy for your website visitors to share your content (Medium has done this for you with the little Facebook and twitter icons, but don’t limit yourself to just those two channels). Every time you publish a new post, let your email subscribers know about it; tell your Facebook fans and friends; announce your post on twitter and ask for re-tweets. It’s all very simple.
What does the future hold for SEO? Well, I think we’re in sort of a holding pattern. Content is king, but you may still find hundreds or even thousands of examples where crummy sites beat out quality sites; that will change.
The beast is getting better.
Getting others to link back to you will always be a part of any good search engine optimization strategy. Of course, the importance of backlinks may ebb and flow as time goes on, but rest assured that quality backlinks will remain a staple of good SEO for a long, long time; I daresay forever.
It is becoming clearer and clearer that social signals are here to stay, too. As search becomes more and more personalized, social signals will become more important to obtain. Really — they are the only way to personalize search besides looking at your own personal data (search history, location, proximity, etc.). What your “friends” say or do will determine to a greater degree how your search results are derived and delivered.
Finally, if you simply have a kick-ass website (or Medium portfolio) with screaming content, fast loading times, near-real-time engagement (you respond to comments and other feedback quickly, sincerely, and thoughtfully), you will eventually get a ton of traffic.
That traffic will beget even more traffic, as more people recommend your site, give you backlinks, and share your content. All those will factor into ranking you higher in the SERPs, which will in turn get you even more traffic.
Now, the brass tax: How do you do all of this?
Well, if you have more time than money, you do it yourself perhaps with a bit of outsourcing. Hire a ghost writer for a per-article fee. Solicit backlinks from authorities in your field. Reach out to them and ask how you could help them. In turn, a good number of them will help you by making mention of your website (in a variety of ways, not just in backlinks). Get a Hootsuite account and make sure that every post you make is getting publicized on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and YouTube, among others.
Buy some advertising. Yeah, it’s old-fashioned but it works.
If you have more money than time, go buy a service. There are good “SEOs” all over the place (and 100x that number in bad SEOs). Be selective. Spread your risk among several top-notch firms and/or individuals. Give a keyword phrase to vendor 1 and a different one to vendor 2. See how they perform. Make sure you’re comparing apples to apples, though…
Of course, I offer a couple SEO services (use the contact form to inquire about my SEO services). I’d love to help you out. I use a tried-and-true (backed by testing) method for ranking your site well. It’s costly, but effective. And it’s recurring, too. SEO is not a one-shot deal. It’s like any other marketing effort: You have to continue to invest.
Don’t ever believe an SEO pro if he tells you he can get you to the top of the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) and keep you there with a one-time investment. He’s lying. Just like the dentist would be lying if she told you all you had to do to have pretty, white, cavity-free teeth is to brush once and never again.
You wouldn’t believe that, would you?
So, now that your panties are all out of a bunch, go make some money. Get your sites ranked. Start seeing the traffic you need to get you the earnings you deserve for all your efforts.
Of course, nothing’s really changed from two or ten years back. In fact, it’s actually easier to rank a web site now — because a lot of SEO’s got out of the game.
People looking for better rankings often need to be educated first. That takes a tremendous effort in terms of time and patience. | https://medium.com/in-real-life-irl/old-seo-really-is-dead-4131072b96a2 | ['Bill Davis'] | 2019-10-29 15:20:49.358000+00:00 | ['SEO', 'Seo Services', 'Seo Services Company', 'Search Engine Optimizaion'] |
Dumbstruck with the sweetness of being | A late afternoon lustre, still as Sunday. I remember being in the car. Kids crammed in the back, awkward cosy redcheek slumped — full of innocent air, like stuffed toys clutching their own stuffed toys.
The elastic tie with London at full stretch, about to spring back.
And I remember the sun — no, the light, making carousel flashes of the day just gone: cut grass, blossom fallen around and under trees, the ripple of laughter, and of hills, birdsong. The glow of sunshine warm and soft, a gentle breath of wind, each glancing off us like it would the face of a stopped clock. Time behind us and ahead of us.
It’s like the world on pause, when the light is luminous and the day tires and the shadows stretch and nature circles back to quiet. Trees lay their arms out behind their heads, reach their fingers into field corners. The hills edge downward, their day’s exploration done.
And Joanna Newsom is singing:
There is a rusty light on the pines tonight sun pouring wine, lord, or marrow
Down into the bones of the birches and the spires of the churches, jutting out from the shadows
The yoke, and the axe, and the old smokestacks and the bale and the barrow
And everything sloped like it was dragged from a rope in the mouth of the south below
It’s the cadence of the words that pulls you first. Falling, unhurried, assured, like the curve of the hills banking away from us. The music like birdsong — fluttering plucked wires and orchestrated curlicues.
But the words. The words.
They animate: sun, poured like wine. They gleam: a rusty light. They sing: bones of the birches, bale and the barrow, mouth of the south. They capture too how the faded and the dilapidated and the old can be radiated by that same lustre I remember, by nature’s indefatigable beauty.
The moment I heard Ys by Joanna Newsom for the first time was a beguiling concoction of nature, stillness and memory. It is a moment I return to and a moment that returns to me. The shock of the voice, high-pitched and creaking like backwoods pine. The antique swell of the music, each song carved more ornately than the last, its edges undulating, shifting, twisting and turning, like a landscape, the lines finding their own winding, natural course as would a mountain stream. Sometimes the stream slows, the terrain evening out. Sometimes it tumbles down, a torrent under which you can only stand, overwhelmed by the cascade of words.
And, Emily, I saw you last night, by the river
I dreamed you were skipping little stones across the surface of the water
Frowning at the angle where they were lost, and slipped under forever
In a mud-cloud, mica-spangled, like the sky’d been breathing on a mirror
Reach in, grab a pebble — a phrase. Turn it over. Hold it up, let the water drip. Let it catch the light. Mica-spangled, like the sky’d been breathing on a mirror. You’ll see the world looking back, made new.
Emily, then, is a song made of nature, stillness and memory. But also wonder. A wonder at what we might perceive if we allow ourselves, if we gave free reign to our senses. The words, embedded in a particular landscape, in a particular experience, convey a deep, umbilical connection to someone the writer loves. The words conjure this wonder, and conjure us to see it. The words are written about and to a sister. To Emily.
Anyhow — I sat by your side, by the water
You taught me the names of the stars overhead that I wrote down in my ledger
Though all I knew of the rote universe were those Pleiades loosed in December
I promised you I’d set them to verse so I’d always remember
Emily is an astrophysicist, and a teacher to her sister. Through Emily, Joanna learns about the universe. Joanna is clever too, though in a different way, a precocious girl who fashions a nursery rhyme to show her sister she understands, a nursery rhyme to contain the cosmos. In this family, within this relationship, formed against this landscape, these so-called ‘two cultures’, science and art, are equal, each offering wisdom, each a vessel for childlike wonder. Each a source of poetry. Each — when pitted against our flimsy, transient idea of everyday reality — eternal.
The meteorite is a source of the light
And the meteor’s just what we see
And the meteoroid is a stone that’s devoid of the fire that propelled it to thee And the meteorite’s just what causes the light
And the meteor’s how it’s perceived
And the meteoroid’s a bone thrown from the void that lies quiet and offering to thee
It’s a chorus, of sorts, and one that plays with perception and reality. This is appropriate. Somewhere among this torrent of words lies a story, something goes horribly wrong, only it’s not quite clear. Perhaps over the years I’ve been mesmerised by the the words — the words — or maybe it’s deliberately obfuscated. The main event happens off stage. We see neither bone nor the void from which it was thrown. Just the light. Luminous.
But even in this nursery rhyme here we’re being misled. Joanna, still learning maybe, or simply the sister with the gift of poetic license, has switched the meanings of meteorite and meteoroid. Why we’re not quite sure. Perhaps it’s narrative detail, placed there for anyone willing to look closely enough. Newsom does tend to leave clues like this, and her fans like to look for them: crumbs in the forest she knows will be picked up and picked over, by people hungry to know where every allusion leads, or where it came from. Follow the trail online and you’ll find forums full of theories, shared by people who scour lyrics and record sleeves, look for references in videos. Obsessives, looking for the meteoroid. I think they should be content with just the light.
Those fans will tell you, though, that Emily, the song, contains a mystery. A tragedy.
In search of the midwife who could help me And my clay-colored motherlessness rangily reclines
For some, the mentions of midwife and motherlessness suggest a miscarriage. Certainly the second half of the song appears to be about something going wrong for Joanna. As a result the sisters’ relationship turns from teacher and pupil, to nurse and patient. Emily’s support is unyielding, but there’s a suggestion that she unwittingly makes things worse for her sister as she exposes an intensely private experience.
You came and lay a cold compress upon the mess I’m in
Threw the window wide and cried, “Amen! Amen! Amen!”
The whole world stopped to hear you hollering
You looked down and saw now what was happening
The lines are fading in my kingdom.
Things fall apart. Her surroundings turn. The community she lives with make her the centre of attention.
The talk in town’s becoming downright sickening
Joanna characterises the townsfolk as gossips, uncivilised.
The muddy mouths of baboons and sows and the grouse and the horse and the hen
She even acknowledges that how much that deep connection we have with our family can hurt us.
The ties that bind, they are barbed and spined, and hold us close forever
But eventually, things even out. We pause. The torrent becomes a stream again, the stream slows to a trickle. There’s a call to return, and naturally a reunion between the sisters is marked by a reunion with everything else that’s important. They go back to the landscape. Back to nature, stillness, memory.
Come on home, the poppies are all grown knee-deep by now
Blossoms all have fallen, and the pollen ruins the plow
Peonies nod in the breeze and while they wetly bow
With hydrocephalitic listlessness ants mop up-a their brow
And everything with wings is restless, aimless, drunk and dour
The butterflies and birds collide at hot, ungodly hours
It’s beautiful. Nothing dilapidated here, nothing sloped. Everything’s happening at once. Nature seems drunk on itself, a mesmerising, fizzing cycle of countless microscopic details. And somewhere inside what we’re shown, hidden, or perhaps hovering among it like dust motes caught in the sun, no — the light, or the lustre of a late afternoon — is that feeling again. A calm. The same residual stillness from the beginning of the song. Time behind us and in front of us. Light bouncing off a stopped clock. We’re back at the end of the elastic. When everything makes sense and nothing matters.
We could stand for a century,
Staring, with our heads cocked in the broad daylight at this thing
Joy, landlocked
In bodies that don’t keep
Dumbstruck with the sweetness of being
And I remember again the light. I remember being in the car.
I remember a sense of awe, at the eternal, fleeting, profound, meaningless beauty of it all. | https://medium.com/a-longing-look/dumbstruck-with-the-sweetness-of-being-a6d3ac8a1533 | ['James Caig'] | 2018-08-07 16:42:34.871000+00:00 | ['Lyrics', 'Poetry', 'Music', 'Joanna Newsom'] |
‘Homed- NOT Housed’ | The Warren Project, based in Hull, is one of 32 organisations supported through Act for Change Fund for young people to lead change and challenge social injustice. This article shares their response to homelessness & housing-related issues in Hull.
For some years now, the young people of The Warren had been coming to us with ever more worrying issues related to housing such as promised wrap-around support never materialising, infestation, damp, poor repairs, unresponsive or uncooperative providers, extortionate rents, congested HMOs, inappropriate accommodation — the list went on and on and more and more of our time at The Warren was devoted to unpicking housing-related matters on behalf of our young people. The most immediate and alarming of these issues was how quickly, and easily young people were threatened with eviction or indeed evicted — thus exacerbating the physical and mental-health related issues they had already been experiencing.
Our young people were becoming increasingly vocal about youth homelessness and poor quality accommodation — particularly around the experience of one young man — Andy, who had been made homeless just before Christmas (we managed to get him a flat on Christmas Eve). Andy said to us “Can’t the Warren just buy us a house?” — we said unfortunately not in time to help him, but we could begin to develop a plan that enabled us to buy more than one house and put young people in charge of how we did that.
Then we secured funding through the Act for Change Fund- a joint initiative between Paul Hamlyn Foundation and Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, working in partnership with the #iwill Fund. The first issue young people wanted to address through Act for Change was their need for homelessness to be seen by the public as an all-year round problem rather than a media-focus at Christmas (we have a lot of young people who are homeless/sofa-surfing- and also young people who are experiencing issues with the quality of their housing. Seventy-four young people on that issue alone at that point). They had seen the work of a local amateur photographer called Jason Shipley (who has taken portrait photos of some young people experiencing homelessness) and they wanted to work with him by showcasing his work in a public exhibition at The Warren. Unfortunately, I had to explain that from a safeguarding and logistical perspective it was only possible to have such an exhibition open to the public on one single evening and I advised them to be realistic about the limited impact it might have because of that one-night restriction and whether it was worth doing a single evening.
That advice was not well received — with one young person saying to me “People are always telling us to be realistic? This is The Warren — why can’t we just do it?” They were of course absolutely right. So we did just do it. The exhibition — titled ‘Our People’ was simple but incredibly impactful and two hundred and three people attended the evening (including the homeless people who were the subject of many of the photos) despite the fact that we’d had torrential rain all through the early evening. But the exhibition was primarily notable for the absence of some key invitees…- not a single member of any housing provider in the city (including the local authority) attended the event. Young people and staff were extremely angry about this — feelings that were expressed at the next meeting of The Thing (the Warren’s youth parliament).
Warren staff were tasked with the job of approaching the local authority’s housing team to ask why they were unable to attend given the seriousness of the matter and the relevance to their work. It transpired that there had been some genuine confusion at their end and some of them hadn’t received the invite. The upshot of that meeting is that The Warren now meets regularly (until Covid hit) with Hull City Council’s Housing Programme Strategy Leader and two of his project officers and we update them on all the housing issues experienced by young people. This in turn informs the council’s housing strategy. They have been very supportive and helpful.
But the really big outcome from the ‘Our People’ exhibition was kickstarted by a young person who said we should just build our own houses. We talked about that idea a great deal (and discussed what Andy has said before Christmas) and subsequently formed a housing team and set about gathering data and information to form a body of evidence to demonstrate the need for a youth-led housing cooperative. We turned this evidence into a funding application to the Lloyds Bank Foundation’s ‘Enable fund’- and we were successful, securing £15k to develop a feasibility study and proposal to take to housing funders. The working title of that proposal is ‘The Design for Life Tenancy’- and the local authority are giving us considerable support (and have recently introduced us to Homes England).
So — what at first seemed like a one-off exhibition that has limited potential impact, has in fact possibly sowed seeds of our young people taking control of their own housing crisis.
The young woman who said “People are always telling us to be realistic? This is The Warren — why can’t we just do it?…” was right after all. That’s how empowerment works.
At this point we began to work with young people to develop details of what such a model might look like — reinventing tenancy agreements: deciding what additional support young people required as tenants: looking at how the interior design of properties could maximise mental health etc. We now secured additional £3,000 which allows us to afford the services of community housing experts (from an organisation called Locality) to support with both registering as a housing provider and preparing an application for funding from Homes England to acquire property.
We then employed the services of an architect and now The Warren has planning permission to convert some of the space in its vast building into 4 apartments which will be the first phase of our Youth-led Housing Cooperative — which has now been rebranded by young people as Warren Homes. They insisted on dropping ‘Housing’ from the initiative as they wanted homes, not housing, and were at pains to point out the difference between being ‘housed’ and being supported to have a ‘home’. “‘Housing’ sounds like the council” was one remark that stood out.
As it stands, following consultation with Locality, we are preparing a funding proposal to Homes England to fund the first-phase (the 4 apartments) before immediately moving on to prepare the second phase of the plan which will hopefully be much bigger — with the hope of repeating these phases continually until we are either sufficiently addressing the housing needs of our cohort, or our young people ask us to shift our organisational focus elsewhere.
Some Key details on organisational structure of Warren Homes:
- The Warren will be the parent organisation and provide support services to tenant of Warren Homes;
- Warren Homes will be shaped by young people and the template tenancy agreement they draft (which has the working title Design for Life);
- Young People will be represented on the board of Warren homes as it is on the board of The Warren itself;
- Any staff appointed by Warren Homes must be interviewed and appointed by young tenants (as they are at The Warren);
- Warren tenants must subscribe to the Warren ethos of respect, tolerance, compassion, and unconditional positive regard (which will be enshrined in the Design for Life Tenancy Agreement);
- Young people will not be asked to leave a Warren Home when they are beyond the age limit for access to services.
Act for Change Fund is a £3.6 million partnership for organisations supporting young people working for change. The fund provides resources for young people to challenge social injustice, find ways of overcoming inequality and give voice to issues they are experiencing.
It is a joint initiative between Paul Hamlyn Foundation and Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, working in partnership with the #iwill Fund. Both foundations are acting as match funders and are awarding grants on behalf of the #iwill Fund.
The #iwill Fund is made possible thanks to £50 million joint investment from The National Lottery Community Fund and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to support young people to access high quality social action opportunities. | https://medium.com/@actforchangefund/homed-not-housed-22f0e8840881 | ['Act For Change Fund'] | 2021-07-06 16:07:03.647000+00:00 | ['Young People', 'Housing Crisis', 'Homelessness'] |
TravelSole: “Into The Further We Go” | A Complete Guide to Astral Projection | Out-of-Body Experience | What is Astral Projection?
All of us enthusiasts and psychological geeks out there have now, since so many years have an idea that our world, that we live in, is not the only world in the multiverse, right? There are so many things we don’t know about, so many things we are finding, almost daily! and so many worlds out there.
One such world, is known as Astral Plane: “the world where consciousness lives, a world where souls reside”. And the best thing about this place, is that you can travel their. No tickets. No money needed. No begging for leaves from your boss. All you need is meditation.
An ultimate Out-of-Body experience. Where, theoretically, your soul comes out of your vessel (body) and enters a different plane. A different world. An unknown world.
There are many forums, groups and even self recorded videos of people telling their stories about Astral Projection and how their experience was. Just the thought of such a practice is really fascinating. Travelling through different realms, in our own mind.
Concept of Astral Projection
Although this term might seem new to some of you, but it can be said without any doubt that unbeknownst to oneself, we all have experienced some amount of astral travel while asleep. You know, those dreams of flying or visiting places you haven’t ever seen before. You might have read about many Yogis and spiritual Gurus talking about this concept, telling their stories about how they met their devotees while in a state of sleep, in an unknown place. While in reality, their devotees might even be hundreds of kilometers away from them.
There are theories which suggest when you wake up all of a sudden, or feel an inexplicable weird something in your body, it is basically your soul coming back home from Astral Travel.
Astral Travel is very much real and many researchers say that most of the times our soul might even be travelling to the Astral Place without us noticing it, as our body is asleep.
Before we talk about How to Astral Project or Astral Travel, we must first believe that it is indeed real, and not a hoax. The incredible idea of human souls leaving their bodies behind and travel through an inexplicable realm has been in talks and legends since old ages. Out of body experiences have been recorded from many people of the modern world and from the shamans and gurus all around the world as well.
One thing you need to understand about the process, is that it can even be harmful. And you need to be careful and have a sense of control over your soul, when it travels. So it can return back.
One search on the massive world wide web and you will find many different documents — books, audios, videos etc. available to teach you the right process. Astral Projection is a natural process. To experience the process, to remember it, one needs meditation.
In order to Astral Project your body, you need to have proper control over your mind. And that is achievable when you meditate. Before you head on to your Astral adventure, you need to practice meditation for days, even months.
Astral Projection is a combination practice involving a lot of Meditation and Lucid Dreaming.
Meditation makes you calm down your thoughts and hear the inner voice guiding you. While lucid dreaming, helps us to see and experience the world or Astral Plane.
How does Astral Travel feel like? Out of Body Experience
Imagine floating around a hallway, flying from one corner to another. In a place which seems familiar, but isn’t quite. Now Imagine turning downwards and seeing your own body lying over the bed. It’s your bed. Your room. But not quite. That is how it feels when you experience the first episode of an Out of Body Experience.
The world you see is an Astral Plane. A place where souls travel. People who have experienced it before have stated that it feels as if you’re actually out of yourself, out of your body, you even see your body lying there. Sleeping. And they say sometimes, it even feels real.
Let’s try and imagine an Astral Travel together.
As per the records of Astral Projection, here’s the basic story of how it goes. So you are out of your body. Your floating. It’s dark. The first thing you experience or see in the Astral World, is a form of light. The light is actually your guard. A power to protect you. People have different forms of light which they came across during the trip. Some got a lantern, some a wooden stick on fire, some even a lightsaber! It depends. So you grab on the light and you start to explore. This world, this unknown realm, it might actually look exactly the same as the real one. Except for the fact that you’re gliding above your body or vessel. Also, some claim that it can be whatever world of whatever shape you want it to be. Some people have even seen an amount of immediate future while in the Astral Plane and woken up to seeing the exact scene take place. It’s magical, incredible and a really spiritual experience.
The Dark Side of Astral Travel
Astral Travel is said to be an experience you can never forget, and maybe even never understand completely, but is worth it. But every good thing, has a darkness behind it too, right?
The Dark Side of Astral Travel was referred heavily in this amazing horror film franchise called Insidious. This concept was the thing that fascinated director James Wan to make a movie on. An exceptional movie.
The Dark Aspects of Astral Plane, referred as The Further, in the movie were made really clear in the storyline with the help of spooky visuals. And many researchers do believe that there can be some truth about the concept afterall.
So theoretically, when you Astral Body travels to this realm, it is still connected with the real body, through a silver cord — as light as a thread. This suggests that even when your body is empty, or without soul, it does not die due to the connection.
But the dark part about the Astral Plane is that it is a place where souls travel, and where souls reside. Good souls, Bad souls, and maybe even a few evil ones.
And these evil souls can sense a body, or an empty vessel from the real world. What they do next, is look for it. Many people in a phase of sleep paralysis have been noted to be seeing someone sitting over them. These are the wandering spirits trying to take control of the body. They can attach themselves to your subconscious mind and try to scare you.
Some people even claim seeing the evil demonic spirits in their dreams, months or years after they astral projected.
Theories also suggest, that the connection of your soul and your body, that silver lining, is a very strong bond. Which the spirits cannot break on their own. But these spirits are really enigmatic and evil and even have plans to confuse your astral presence between what’s real and what’s not. The deeper your soul or Astral Body travels and indulges into confusion, the more the silver lining could loosen up.
Times like these, is the major reason why people always say that the first step to learn How to Astral Project, is to learn meditation. Thorough Meditation. You need to have control over your body, your soul, and your subconsciousness.
“You are stronger than them. You are alive!” | https://medium.com/@shash-wat2206/travelsole-into-the-further-we-go-a-complete-guide-to-astral-projection-out-of-body-67fc5a2b3ef | ['Travelsole', 'Shash Wat'] | 2020-12-27 09:13:01.207000+00:00 | ['Astral Projection', 'Lucid Dreaming', 'Travel', 'Mind'] |
Help to Save the Pollinators | Birds, butterflies and bees — even bats, snakes, toads and frogs — are facing threats from every possible direction. Chemicals, climate change, invasive species, illnesses peculiar to the different pollinators, and loss of habitat are often cited as being huge factors in their decline.
Action needs to be taken.
So what can we, as individuals, do to help the pollinators?
If we have a garden, even a very small one, we can plant things that they like to visit, eat, or can use for nesting materials, or use as a secure place to nest. (Check out the Cardinal in the image below.) There are many examples, and I will provide a list at the end of this piece.
Male Cardinal laying claim to a section of a cedar shrub for a new nest. Photo by Louise Peacock
2) We can provide water for them. Our local wild bird store advised us that water is the most important thing to supply the birds especially during the winter months.
Bird baths are great, especially a with a small fountain in the centre. The sound of the water attracts them and the fountain is great for the Hummingbirds who prefer to drink from a fountain. But birbaths do not help in the winter months unless they are heated. Ideally then a heated birdbath. (Ours is busy all year, and is especially fun to see in the Winter.)
If you have a bit of space, you might consider building a small pool. When we had a small pool, we noticed that it attracted toads, and a rock placed in the centre provided a perch for visiting birds. We installed a tiny pump and fountain in order to keep the water moving to deter mosquitos from using it as a breeding ground.
3) we can use natural ways to control pests and disease in the garden. Using chemicals in the garden is harmful to everybody. Of course. one does not want to spend hours tending the garden, only to have the plants ruined by pests and disease, so, what to do?
a — use non-chemical controls (e.g. Quassia bark against a series of insect pests, Baking Soda and dish detergent against Powdery Mildew, pheramone traps against the Bronze Beetle)
b — encourage insect pest eating predators (Birds, Toads, grass snakes) by providing them with a suitable habitat in your garden
c — avoid growing plants that are prone to disease and insect damage. (Grow hardy plants that thrive in your particular climatic zone. We are in Zone 5–6. I avoid growing plants that will not do well in our zone.
Even if all we have is a balcony, we can still help. We can provide water for visiting or passing through birds, We can provide some potted plants that will provide shade, a resting place and seeds, as well of course, as provding something pleasant for us to have. We could provide a Hummingbird feeder which will help a migrating Hummer on his or her way through our area.
We could even provide a Hummingbird feeder that could help an Oriole or a migrating Hummer on his or her way through our area. (I have never been quick enough to get an image of a Hummingbird.)
Baltimore Oriole enjoying a sip from our Hummingbird feeder. Photo by Louise Peacock
Some Pollinator Friendly Plants
Here are a few of the plants that are hardy in our climatic zone — 5–6a that provide food for birds, bees, and butterflies, nesting materials for birds, nesting spots for birds, convenient perching spots for birds. It also provides our garden with three seasons of color and interest. You can easily Google for suitable plants for your specific climatic zone. | https://medium.com/@louisepeacock/help-to-save-the-pollinators-4df04a67bcfa | ['Louise Peacock'] | 2020-11-27 15:09:18.705000+00:00 | ['Pollinators', 'The Masterpiece', 'Birds', 'Bees', 'Environment'] |
An old teacher once told me a saying so ancient that it had to come from the Old World. | An old teacher once told me a saying so ancient that it had to come from the Old World. “If you can see them, they can see you.” Every time I think about her, her lessons flood back into my head, but this one was by far the stupidest. I have disproved it, a simple task once you’ve mastered the skill of being functionally invisible.
No one pays me any mind while I on the other hand, take notice of each of them. Some are more familiar, frequent customers of the market. While the new people catch my eye, shining brighter than the Stars I’ve stolen light from.
Poor children, many of whom looked to be even younger than me, but still I took note of them like I would anyone else. Never too young to learn the art of pick pocketing.
Their feet were barren, burning on the hot sand below us. The bodies were thin, familial markings were a rarity, and their hair was never longer than their ears. A few were even bald, shaven clean. Signs attributing to their weakness, born so low in the birth order it would be impossible for them to inherit their families magic or their respect.
Watching them made it harder to look at the brighter and bigger Stars that surrounded them.
The wealthy and powerful families of all ages seemed to line the streets around me, churning my stomach with their mere presence. Back length hair or even going down to their knees to brag about their status without having to open their mouths. That would probably be too much work for them anyhow. Shining jewels lined their sleeves, and their familial markings were highlighted on their bodies. They seemed to tailor their clothes to perfectly show off them off, probably made by one of the bald children in their families.
It was pride for them. Something not only to show off, but to look at and remind themselves where they had come from. Stars need to shine lest they blend in with the night sky.
The other people in the market were the Aids. Tall, hulking people who’s soul purpose is to serve. Their entire bodies covered in dark fabrics, hiding wounds and blood stained into their uniforms. They carried the bags their owners couldn’t be bothered to hold themselves.
Their one job is to help in anyway they can provide. And yet they do nothing for the children around who shamble around, waiting for death to claim them. Nor do they use their gifts to help fight in the war. Their talents are better served waiting on the Stats hand and foot apparently.
This is Dremar, this is the marketplace, this is my home.
And on the dirt roads, under the burning sun, and in between buildings and stands, are people.
I may not know their names, but I know them. The stars in the sky never change, and the Stars on earth don’t either. The only thing that does is what’s in their pockets. In my prime, it took mere moments to pick and choose who amongst the crowd was the best target. And of course, making sure I didn’t take everything for myself. Sometimes, I would laugh to myself at how easy it was.
Thin hands with longer fingers, with swift legs that often took me where I needed without instructions. My body is light, my voice quiet, and my movement are precise. Sharp and quick eyes that could see into the Stars' souls.
With coins to buy new shows, basic medic’s kits, and fresh water in which to bathe myself. My bags will be lined with jewels to trade amongst other children and vendors for items such as clothes and fire starters.
But most importantly, I stole food cards. Given to each citizen, unfortunately I am not one of these citizens. At the time, I didn’t know why. All I knew that my stomach was empty. Now, I know exactly why I, Notrien Tactuvia, was not and will never be granted citizenship. They would never let a Farian have the same rights as them, honestly it’s a miracle they even let me live.
My first theft was one I don’t believe I could ever forget. Everything about it still seems so unreal to me. The way the sun rose that morning was different even and the air was dirtier than normal.
I stood still for what seemed to be hours, the only part of me willing to move was my Concu cloak that swayed in the wind. My legs felt like concrete sand, like the slightest breeze could topple me, while at the same time, refusing to move. From my place in between Achia’s drinks shop and Minih’s questionably legal antique’s store, I watch a cluster of people in the town marketplace. I watched it all day and listened to my stoach ache in hunger pains. I couldn’t stop thinking about what would’ve happened if I got caught. They government and the people may not have been able to kill me then but with just cause, finding me to be a theif, they would have every right to slaughter me.
Still, just before the setting sun disappeared from view, I left my alleyway.
With my cloak covering my body I looked like a Concu child. It was perfect for a theif and was how I perfected my technique. No one looked at me, no one ever looked at binials as they are even lower than dirt. It was an odd sensation at first. To be in the center of the town, with enemies everywhere, but not a single eye on me.
Concu’s are children with little or no claim to their families magic, but have been bought by a wealthy adult. Sometimes as a house slave, sometimes for entertainment, but most often, Concu’s are forced to please their owners. They are seen as nothing but objects to the masses, something so insignificant that a simple cloak could make me next to invisible.
I headed towards the first person I saw. A simple girl with mid-length hair that framed her face in a way that which intrigued me. The girl’s skin looked so perfect in the evening sun. Her golden eyes had three dots under each, the marking of a family I soon learned was that of the Exy family.
With false confidence my legs walked past her and my hands snatched her bag, a rope went through the top to be tied around and worn on the waist. And just as quickly as I got to her, I left. Back to my alleyway.
Looking inside I found an entire stack of food cards! The sheer sight of them was enough to make me salivate. That girl was rich, that much was clear. I made a mental note of her.
Each day after, it became easier. Still I began to question my morality. When I traded their jewelry, cashed in their food cards, bought myself clothes and shoes, I began to wonder; why was it okay for me to take from the Stars?
As each day came to a close, I headed back to my alleyway, hidden between Achia and Minih. Looking up, finally taking off the Concu cloak, and feeling my hair fall to my sides and hit the sand.
I forgot the Stars I had spent the day taking from, simply enjoying the sky. And I made art in the night. Drawing on my legs with stolen pens, trying to figure out what the true stars said. Constellations weaving stories for those of us still awake. Dots of white on the black, dancing to their own silent beat.
I twirled my hair in my fingers and hummed to myself. Son to two prominent Farian families, and yet here I am. Stuck behind enemy lines, fighting for scraps, and without my inheritance. At least one day, I will get my revenge on this two, and show them all what true stars look like. | https://medium.com/@vicente13marcusaguilar/an-old-teacher-once-told-me-a-saying-so-ancient-that-it-had-to-come-from-the-old-world-78499d26253d | ['Marcus Aguilar'] | 2020-12-19 00:22:44.415000+00:00 | ['Fiction', 'Ya', 'Astrology', 'Fantasy', 'Magic'] |
AYS Daily Digest 05/01/2021: Horrific death of a youngster in Libya | AYS Daily Digest 05/01/2021: Horrific death of a youngster in Libya
Footage from Libya shows a dead boy and and a living boy, both starved to their bones // Greece: More news about worrying new members in cabinet // Updates from Lipa camp // 265 people land in Sicily // Arrivals on Canary Islands // Expulsions from Calais // Deportation scheduled from Germany to Afghanistan // UK: Right-to-Remain Toolkit updated to a post-Brexit version Are You Syrious? Follow Jan 6 · 9 min read
Distribution of clothes Care4Calais volunteers in a church in London. Copyright: Care4Calais
Boy starved to death in Libya
The researcher Guilia Tranchina has reported about the appalling death of a 16 year old boy in Tripoli. The boy from Somalia apparently died from starvation and tuberculosis. His 14 year old friend was with him. The 14 year old is reported to be still alive, but it is very unclear if anybody, besides fellow people on the move, are helping him. A video published by Giulia on Twitter and Facebook shows a boy, crouched on the floor and weeping. He appears starved to his bones. Another picture shows the dead boy, skeletally thin, lying on some blankets on the floor next to the other boy.
Guilia stated that no NGOs took the responsibility of helping the boy after fellow refugees who found the boy and his dead friend tried to call for help:
“Other refugees who found them called UNHCR, IOM and IRC but they say that they were told by all agencies that ‘it’s not their responsibility’ to help the sick boy still alive. Most organisations said it would be UNHCR responsibility as they were both registered as asylum seekers, but nothing has happened so far. Several hours later IRC came with some officers to remove the dead body, but refused to take care of the sick boy and take him to hospital.”
Apparently the boy was later taken to a hospital but released shortly after, again with no support:
“He was taken by the refugees to UNHCR centre & then to hospital today, given a drip and then discharged again so now the refugees are trying to organise how to help him because he cannot stay alone, sick, without food…& UNHCR apparently said they will go to visit him tomorrow..”
How can anybody still claim Libya is safe? How can Europe still push for a Libyan Coast Guard? How can there still not be a proper rescue mission for people who try to flee this country?
We decided not to include the footage in the Digest, due to the graphic and shocking nature of the content. However, you can easily find it on Guilia’s Facebook and Twitter.
An informative but not too current article about the so-called Libyan Coast Guard can be found here. | https://medium.com/are-you-syrious/ays-daily-digest-05-01-2021-horrific-death-of-a-youngster-in-libya-9b6104a29b7d | ['Are You Syrious'] | 2021-01-06 14:39:29.466000+00:00 | ['Refugees', 'Lipa', 'Calais', 'Greece', 'Libya'] |
The Basics of Designing for Web | Overall
When designing a web interface for your product or service consider the following:
Design to appeal to your specific audience (e.i.:an attractive physical appearance, an easy-to-use product, a functional and well performing interface, and to meet their needs); Prevent unnecessary annoyance, use smart defaults (e.i.: reduce clutter in text, options, and number of elements on the page); Present solutions, do not test the memory of your users (e.i.: provide recommended options from the beginning and do not make your users remember their choices); Small tasks and short information per task (e.i.: display information in a linear format with simple interactions so as not to confuse or overwhelm your users); Display adequate user interface elements to match a general style, functionality, and interaction (e.i.: have consistency in behavior, look, location, and function throughout your site); Update, maintain, and sustain your overall site (e.i.: continue to make changes to your site to improve on its usability, appeal, and content).
Designing a website is anything but easy. It takes dedication and a lot of testing. Slowly incorporate changes so as not to disrupt the flow for your current users. Have fun while your develop and design your site, but remain elegant in your aesthetic and and your composition.
…This is by no means a comprehensive guide, but rather a work in progress. If there is something you’d like me to add please let me know.
With ❤ by Juan at Product Pencil. | https://medium.com/productpencil/the-basics-of-designing-for-web-eb439f3cf16a | ['Juan Figueroa'] | 2019-06-06 01:17:54.547000+00:00 | ['User Interface', 'Ui Ux Design', 'Web Design', 'User Research', 'Interaction Design'] |
71. WHAT IS TRUTH? | There are some clues to being all that we are ordained to be that call for exploring in different ways. Repeating some topics in these posts may seem redundant; however, when topics are repeated, I will try to add something new to motivate us to dig deeper into that topic. This post will attempt to dig deeper into the subject of truth.
The question that I hope you will find engaging is, “What does truth mean to you?”
Perhaps we equate truth with facts. But remember how many centuries and how many millions of people were certain that the earth was flat. It is likely that learned scholars even came up with facts to justify that false view. Then, we discovered that the earth is round. And now, we have pictures of our round earth. Maybe we think that we know the truth when we can verify the facts on which our view of truth stands.
Perhaps we think truth is what we have been taught by those we trust — family, teachers, ministers, political leaders. This is often the way we view truth, especially when we are young. Then we encounter different sources of truth and change our views when we come to trust new sources. Maybe we associate truth with trust. But our sources of trust change as we open our minds to new sources.
Perhaps we are influenced in what we view as true by the contexts in which we live. In fact, if we are surrounded by reinforcement that we can count on our immediate culture for truth, we may be inclined to accept only what that immediate culture conveys. For example, in the early days of scientific discovery, some of our immediate cultures viewed conflicts between religion and science.
In a Pew Research Center survey, 59% of respondents thought that science and religion are often in conflict. However, 38% found science and religion to be mostly compatible. But in answer to a different question about how science conflicts with their own beliefs, 30% said that their personal faith conflicted with science. Maybe our view of truth is changing as we are more comfortable with ways that science and religion shake hands. Perhaps religious people even see some truth in subjects like evolution.
We also seem to be impacted by our immediate social culture when it comes to our views of political truth. When we are surrounded by reinforcement about political issues, we are known to ascribe “those others” as being fake. Think of how we are polarized in our views about climate change. Where is the truth about this crucial issue? Are political parties privy to the truth or should we be willing to take a deeper look at multiple scientific sources?
Some suggest that truth is not a property but an attitude. This might be expressed in the view that truth corresponds to successful actions. If something works, it might be true. But this begs the issue that something might work for me but not for you. Then which is true? Or must we conclude that truth is in the opinion of the beholder?
We might be tempted to confirm truth intuitively. If it feels true, then it must be true. But this sounds like truth is based subjectively rather than objectively. This seems to be in conflict with the view that truth is what can be verified.
It may be that we rely on criteria that support what we view as positive and constructive to determine truth. But might others have different definitions of what is positive and constructive?
Of course, we may not wish to lock in on either of these ways to determine truth. Maybe we are equipped with the competence of a more coherent perspective. Maybe we come to a conviction about what is true based on all of the above. Maybe we are able to “discover” truth by being open and receptive to multiple indicators.
Q: What does truth mean to you? | https://medium.com/tts-clues/71-what-is-truth-e9ed2fc21b77 | ['Irving Stubbs'] | 2019-07-04 05:11:01.013000+00:00 | ['Religion', 'Truth'] |
The Power of Song | As I get older, I find myself singing more and more often. Part of this, I think, is the fact that I have been separated from my beloved piano. This beautiful instrument that I so love to play lives at my mother’s house now because it does not really fit into my little “cottage.”
I own a guitar and a banjo, yet I don’t know how to play either because I am lazy and distracted and impatient, and I don’t like the calluses they leave on my fingertips — I’m a knitter and callousy fingertips can be very dangerous to my beautiful yarn.
So what do I do? I strum my instruments clumsily and without even the slightest competence, just to have a little something in the background to sing to.
Or I just sing without them.
I sing in my garden. I sing in the shower. I sing in my bed. I sing in the woods. I sing to my nieces and nephews.
Sometimes I think the more I sing, or rather, the more music we all make, the better we can shield ourselves against the darkness. When I start to think that the world is filled with people who only want to hurt others, flinging the cruelest words at strangers on the internet, I sing more often and I sing louder because I know my song will drown out their hateful words. I sing to disarm them. I sing to interrupt their cruelty. I sing to welcome more light into this world.
I also sing to fortify the earth. I sing as a way to restore dignity to the natural world. To tell the trees and land and flowers and birds and coyotes that I recognize them as my kin. I recognize their right to be here. I appreciate their place in this world. I honor what they have to teach me.
And I sing like I’m casting magic spells, weaving threads of melodies between myself and my loved ones. I sing Be with Me now not so much for my owls, who have grown and flown away to find their own territory, but for my little nephew, Alex, who I hope will always remember me, even though he is moving far away.
River runs to the sea
Salmon runs to the sea
If you need someone
You can run to me
I pray that the river will always run to the sea, that he will always run to me.
I believe so deeply in this. I might lose my faith in so much, but I never seem to lose faith in song. I remember once, all those years ago when I was observing my three baby owls, I couldn’t find them one afternoon, so I took a little drum out to a glade that I love and played a rhythm on it while singing a Tori Amos tune, my eyes closed so I could feel the full energy of the song.
When I opened my eyes, one of the baby owls streaked past me, a white and brown blur, and then she disappeared into the shadowy grove of trees just beyond.
I knew she heard me and liked my song and wanted to let me know that she was there, somewhere just beyond where I could see.
© Yael Wolfe 2020 | https://medium.com/wilder-with-yael-wolfe/the-power-of-song-714995d7f458 | ['Yael Wolfe'] | 2020-08-19 03:56:19.231000+00:00 | ['Creativity', 'Magic', 'Soul', 'Spirituality', 'Music'] |
Longings Of A Caged Love | The Clash Of Love And Tradition — — African Fiction Part 5
Credit: Unsplash
Okorie was torn apart by Chuka’s remarks. The love lyrics Chuka released kept burning his head with feelings of loss and defeat. He walked back home dejected, his movement being even as slow as that of a snail. He really felt like a chicken pounded by huge rainfall, looking for shelter. He didn’t even utter a word of greeting in his mother’s presence. But Ige knew something had put her son in a sad mood. Okorie’s full resemblance to his mother wasn’t in doubt, for he took after her, feature to feature; the way she talked, and even the way she walked was not spared. Though age was fast telling on her, her beauty of the past was still discernable.
Okorie was pacing up and down in his hut, and spoke things only he understood, when his mother entered. There was nothing Ige detested like seeing worries overtake her only son. Her gaze ran through, pictured a dumb struck Okorie with perspiration broken all over him.
“What is it, my son?” she asked in a tone, which clearly spoke her concern. Okorie sauntered and sighed. “What is wrong with you? Do I no longer deserve to know your worries?”
“It’s Ada,” Okorie spoke and sat down on a mat spread out on the floor. “Chuka is taking her away from me, mother,” he continued as Ige listened attentively. “I think I’m loosing Ada to him.”
“Who? Poor rotten son of a poor man? How could you be thinking of that?” Ige shouted and raked her son with an astonishing gaze. “Don’t think that will ever be possible in this land. Little things should not bother you.”
“Little thing! You call it a little thing, mother? But I saw them! Didn’t you see them dance?”
“And so what!”
“Didn’t you see them embrace? He even lifted her up! Ada’s heart is slipping away from me. Going to that fool.”
Ige took a long look at her son, especially his worried face, and her lips turned into a slight smile. “It’s already done,’ she said. Ada is your wife to be. Don’t be bothered. It’s only a matter of time.” Okorie felt absolutely better when Ige left. He gradually lowered his head unto the mat.
“Oh…sweet mother,” he whispered. Ige’s words of consolation had taken a toll on him. They drowned away his fears.
That night was a cold one. Ige lay awake listening to cracklings of raindrops on the thatched roof. She began to think about Okorie’s observations about Ada and Chuka. Not that she had given up the optimism that her son would have no problem marrying Ada. After all, it was fully backed up by the tradition. But then, Ige never liked taking chances. As memories of the festival came rushing back to her mind, scenes she had called nothing came clear. Particularly when Chuka lifted Ada off the ground. Ada had never done that kind of thing before. Not even with Okorie.
Fear soon dawned on Ige. She concluded her son had cause to be worried, and ran off the next morning to Amanze’s compound to see Ogazi, with all she had to say firmly fixed in her mind.
Ada had already left to fetch some water and her mother was about leaving for the farm when Ige announced her arrival.
“Is anybody around?” she asked and panted almost like a dog that ran for miles in her exhaustion. Ogazi faced no difficulty in placing Ige’s voice. She came rushing forward. It was at the festival that both women last saw each other.
“You are welcome please. I hope this early visit will multiply our fortunes this day.” Ogazi said amidst smiles, embracing Ige and failing to notice the worried face she carried, even though a grin was forced out of it.
“I hope it really will,” Ige replied and took a wooden seat Ogazi handed her.
“What do I offer you this morning?”
“Don’t bother yourself,” Ige replied as her mission firmly revolved in her mind. “I have not come to celebrate when it seems our houses will soon catch fire,” she snapped and looked on. Ogazi lost her wide grin. And pregnant silence pervaded, which elapsed and heightened Ogazi’s curiosity.
“Ige,” she called, almost stuttering, her tone, a very low one. “Tell me what is happening. Why keeping mute. Tell me what is bothering you.”
“May the lizard never grow hair,” Ige began to speak. “Is nothing else but our children. I don’t see what your daughter has seen in Iweka’s son. Didn’t you see her? I know you saw what she did with that young man at the festival. Look, Ogazi. I foresee something about to happen. Not even our late husbands will forgive us.”
“I swear my daughter will never marry another man except Okorie!” Ogazi thundered. Her eyes looked fierce and her anger fulminated. “It’s never done in this land. And my daughter will not start it.”
“This is no talking matter. All we need is to act fast before it becomes late!”
“Yes! You are right! We have to act fast!” Ogazi thought of how to take care of the emerging threat as memories of the ceremony in which Ada and Okorie were engaged slowly slipped into her mind. It was on a sunny afternoon, with many guests in attendance.
There was plenty of palm wine, pounded yam and cassava to delight of the guests, coupled with different kinds of soup. Most of the guests went for the delicious combination of pounded yam and bitter leaf soup. The high point of the ceremony came when little
Ada that was only four years old, carried a gourd full of palm wine to the little Okorie, who was then six years old. Okorie took the gourd form Ada and sipped a little wine. Thunderous applause and laughter erupted from the guests in response, some of whom were already drunk. That marked Ada and Okorie’s engagement.
“Ada, my daughter is not for any other man except Okorie,” Ogazi screamed. She did not want to be the one who would be said to have acted contrary to what the Akoga marriage tradition demanded. “How will I carry the shame?” She asked to Ige.
“Your daughter wants to put us in danger,” Ige responded. “I do not see how posterity will ever forgive us if Ada does not marry Okorie eventually. Please call your daughter to order.”
“I will,” Ogazi uttered, expressing a strong determination to compel Ada to retrace her steps.
“As far as our tradition is concerned”, said Ige, “marriage is, the rich to the rich and the poor to the poor.”
“Yes, that is what it is!” Ogazi concurred instantly. “What it is, is what it is, no changes,” she affirmed.
Longings Of A Caged Love: Watch Out For Part 6 | https://medium.com/@kencel65/longings-of-a-caged-love-3adc2eb5e23b | [] | 2020-12-23 15:06:38.884000+00:00 | ['Illumination', 'Fiction', 'African Literature', 'African Culture', 'Lovestory'] |
The official revision was made nearly a year after the agency noted last May that COVID-19 does not spread easily through touching surfaces or objects | The official revision was made nearly a year after the agency noted last May that COVID-19 does not spread easily through touching surfaces or objects jhenni kojek Apr 6·3 min read
Before that, at
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday there is no significant risk of catching the coronavirus from a surface or object.
The CDC clarified its position in a guidance update that said people generally contract COVID-19 through direct contact with a sick person or from airborne transmission.
“It is possible for people to be infected through contact with contaminated surfaces or objects (fomites), but the risk is generally considered to be low,” the revised guidance states.
The official revision was made nearly a year after the agency noted last May that COVID-19 “does not spread easily” through touching surfaces or objects.
Before that, at the beginning of the pandemic last March, the agency had warned that “it may be possible” to pass on the bug from contaminated surfaces.
That initial guidance prompted the MTA to close the subway system overnight and to use disinfectants to clean every surface in stations and trains.
MTA Chairman Pat Foye was accused then by Brooklyn City Councilman Brad Lander of performing “hygiene theater” with the extreme cleaning regime.
The CDC now says that disinfectants aren’t even necessary in most situations and that simple cleaning agents appear to be effective against the virus.
“There is little scientific support for routine use of disinfectants in community settings, whether indoor or outdoor,” to prevent spread through surfaces, the CDC said.
“In most situations, cleaning surfaces using soap or detergent, and not disinfecting, is enough to reduce risk.”
The new guidelines were introduced by Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the CDC director, during a White House coronavirus briefing on Monday.
She said that some cleaning methods, such as fogging, fumigation and electrostatic spraying, aren’t recommended as a primary method of disinfection and actually carry safety risks.
Case reports have shown that the virus can be transmitted when a person touches their nose, mouth or eyes after touching something that an infected person has recently coughed or sneezed on.
But, the CDC noted, studies have found that the risk of catching the bug via a surface is generally less than 1 in 10,000.
The governor’s office announced Monday evening that Gov. Greg Gianforte tested positive for COVID-19.
Gianforte had just received his first vaccine dose last week. A spokesperson for the governor says they do not know how he contracted it, and added that he has held no public events since Thursday evening. They say his close contacts include one staff member, a member of his protective detail, family members and friends he had dinner with. The spokesperson confirmed the governor attended Easter services at his church, but says he wasn’t exhibiting symptoms at that time. They say he had no close contacts from church aside from family members.
Officials say the governor is experiencing mild symptoms. He is isolating for 10 days and canceling any in-person events until further notice.
Gianforte’s wife is awaiting her test results. Staff will be tested Tuesday.
The following is a press release from the Office of the Governor:
After exhibiting mild symptoms on Sunday and out of an abundance of caution, Governor Greg Gianforte today was tested for COVID-19 and received a positive result. The first lady, who has exhibited no symptoms, has been tested and is awaiting her results.
Following his doctor’s instructions and public health guidance, the governor is isolating for 10 days.
The governor has notified all individuals with whom he may have had close contact.
All of the governor’s in-person events have been canceled until further notice, and the governor will continue to conduct his duties and manage the state’s business from his home in Bozeman.
As a precautionary measure, the governor’s staff will be tested early Tuesday morning. The governor and his staff have been tested regularly since he was sworn into office in January.
https://zenodo.org/communities/milaohiteru917352/?page=1&size=20 | https://medium.com/@kojekjhenni7513/the-official-revision-was-made-nearly-a-year-after-the-agency-noted-last-may-that-covid-19-does-6155c29716f0 | ['Jhenni Kojek'] | 2021-04-06 14:03:21.943000+00:00 | ['Covid 19', 'Zack Snyder', 'Coronavirus', 'Virus', 'Justice League Snyder Cut'] |
Authenticate Users and Save Data in a Database Using Firebase | Authenticate Users and Save Data in a Database Using Firebase
Photo by Tim Patch on Unsplash
When you go about to build an application, there are a ton of considerations to take into account. And those are all mainly concerned with the client part. When you start to think about the server of your application, things can get pretty complicated. One option to alleviate some of that pressure is to use Firebase, in particular, two features from Firebase:
Authenticating users using Firebase Auth Storing data using a Realtime Database
We will show in this article :
How to build an Android application in Kotlin which authenticates users with Firebase Auth
Use Retrofit2 to make requests to our server
How to build a server in Node.js with Express that will receive requests from our application and fetch data from a Realtime Database in Firebase
If all of this might seem like a simple task, it isn’t. There is obviously a lot of setting up to do and handling various configurations, but here are also some pitfalls one would benefit from that will help save time and frustration.
Learn from my mistakes.
If you want to skip over all of the explanations, you can head over to the bottom of the article and see the entire source code there through the links. | https://betterprogramming.pub/authenticate-users-and-save-data-in-a-database-using-firebase-5a7e8828a5f8 | [] | 2020-11-18 20:20:29.676000+00:00 | ['Mobile', 'Authentication', 'Firebase', 'Kotlin', 'Programming'] |
24 Most Controversial Books of All Time | 24 Most Controversial Books of All Time
Readers.com infographic details most challenged/banned books of all time
“What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.” Salman Rushdie, among many others, finds a book of his on this list of the 24 most controversial books of all time. There are a few conspicuous absentees (Joyce’s Ulysses, for example). Which books were you most surprised not to see? | https://medium.com/electric-literature/24-most-controversial-books-of-all-time-70e484941082 | ['Nicholas Politan'] | 2016-07-25 16:23:09.939000+00:00 | ['Writing', 'Free Speech', 'Infographic', 'Books'] |
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Hire Me :https://cutt.ly/Rh19Kyj | https://medium.com/@tarikkonock/i-will-design-responsive-wordpress-landing-page-by-elementor-pro-with-in-24-hours-64f840dbcafb | ['Tarik Konock'] | 2020-12-23 18:16:30.901000+00:00 | ['Landing Page Design', 'Squeeze Page', 'Elementor', 'WordPress', 'Sales Page'] |
ML: Decision Trees & Random Forests | Decision trees are widely used in many fields but it is very poorly understood at the same time because we cannot certify our solution is the best or close to the best solution. However, the idea is really simple. It just follows the human decision process. It is asking a series of queries and decide the result.
It makes partition the input space based on the queries. We can divide the target classes with a rectangle region in the graph. However, it is a very low likelihood in a real-life that it follows the rectangle area but we assume the decision boundary is rectangle in decision trees. The rectangle is generated in a repeated manner.
The biggest advantage of the decision tree is interpretability. You don’t want to explain deep learning to your boss but the boss will understand the decision tree more easily.
Regression Trees
You can intuitively understand the decision trees can be used for classification. You can actually use it for regression. It has the same intuition as KNN. It fits a constant in each region.
You can express regression trees like this. R is the region. c is the assigned constant. The region is decided by decision trees. You don’t have to use the constant. We can use linear regression in the specific region or other regression methods if you have enough points falling in the region. We call this application as model trees.
Now, we need to know how we assign the constant and how we divide the region. How many regions are needed is not given apriori. We need to find out how many regions are needed during fitting the model. Our objective function is the mean squared error. We need to minimize the objective function. What is the reasonable guess for the constant? It is obviously the average of the points in that region.
Finding the best region is an np-complete problem. Therefore, we need to use heuristics. We will use the greedy algorithm. We need to define a splitting variable and splitting point.
j and s are a splitting variable and a splitting point each other. We find the j and s with this function.
c is calculated by averaging and the evaluation of function is determined by j and s. We find the j and s which lead this function to the minimum value. We find j by selecting each j and we don’t do this process jointly. Then, it calculates which s is the best. How do we find s? We sort the data and hopping on the data point like recursively and compare the results. The splitting is the same in a specific range. Thus, we are just hopping on the data.
When do we stop?
One strategy is early stopping. If the errors are really small, then we stop the algorithm. However, it can go wrong when the data point has interaction. Thus, it is not a good strategy. We call these effects as interaction effects.
We can stop when the data points in the leaves are small. We can choose the number of data points in the leaves when you start training.
Pruning
You build the perfect tree using a greedy algorithm. Then we prune the tree to get a smaller tree that is almost the same with the perfect tree with respect to accuracy.
Reduced Error Pruning
We need two sets of data, a training set, and a validation set. We train the big tree with the training set. We test it on the validation set. The pruning is performed on the validation set. We record the score of the big tree and replace the internal node to leave like the above graph. We test the pruned tree on the validation set. The score could go up or go down. If the score goes up or stays, then we keep the pruned tree. We do this until our algorithms are not improving. It can give a very different tree depending on the randomness.
Cost Complexity Pruning
We build the full tree and collapse the leaves. We store every collapsed tree fro a full tree to a single region tree. Each of the trees is subtrees of the full tree. We calculate the score on every tree and plus the complexity term in the equation.
|T| will be the number of leaves, it represents the complexity. We pick the smallest Ca tree. We can control the tree size by alpha. Alpha means how much we consider the tree size. We can use cross-validation for alpha.
Classification
Miss Classification Error
It is the basic probability function of the point in region m. We don’t use the sum squared error function. We are trying to maximize the probability and we need to define the cost function. It will be the classification error function.
Finding regions is the same as regression.
Gini Index
Gini index
It was invented by economists to observe the disparity of wealth. If there is more class 1 than class 2 in the specific region, we can use the Gini index representing the skewness. We are going to make region skewed distribution.
The number of bits in the information theory can be interpreted as the requirement of the quantity of information to explain the variable. Therefore, if you can gain the information by splitting, then it was nice splitting. For example:
<400, 400> => <400, 150>, <0, 250>. In this case, we can explain the split data with less information because we gained the information by splitting.
We minimize the cross-entropy or maximize the information gain. This is how we split the nodes.
Note: Miss Classification Error is used for final scoring.
Random Forests
Bagging and Ensemble
Random Forests are the result of a combination of bagging and ensemble. Bagging short for bootstrap aggregating. It uses the same training algorithm for every predictor and trains them on different random subsets of the training sets. When sampling is performed with replacement, this method is called bagging. When sampling is performed without replacement, this method is called pasting. After we trained all predictors, we aggregate the prediction. The typical aggregation function is the statistical mode for classification or the average for regression.
Out of Bag Evaluation
If you are doing bagging, then you can realize there is a subset that is not used in the bagging. Let’s say we sample 63% of data with replacement and train 5 models. Then, we can calculate the estimation of unused samples with a simple equation, approximately 0.7% of data is not used. We can use this unused data as the test set and this method is called Out of Bag Evaluation. It is frequently used because it produces similar results.
Feature Importance
Random Forests provide the feature importance calculation because you can easily calculate which feature reduce the impurity in the nodes. There are two methods. The first one is to calculate the impurity reduction in each feature of all trees and add the results and average them. How much Gini index increases or how much cross-entropy is decreased after this feature. The second way is to calculate the OOB error over all trees containing the specific variables. We re-measure the OOB error after we permute the values of the specific variable. Compute the differences and rank them.
Note: the root of p is the default value of 0the number of variables per tree and the default value of minimum node size is 1 => sci-kit learn.
Note: You should consider whether your data set contains relevant data or not because RF can give you very poor performance if you don’t have relevant data in the high dimensional dataset.
Notes: RF can be applied in Proximity of data points, Missing value imputation, Outlier detection, and Class Prototypes. You can also apply it in unsupervised learning but it is not common.
This is published on 9/26/2020 | https://medium.com/swlh/ml-decision-trees-random-forests-3f19a0f5c096 | [] | 2020-09-26 19:08:57.575000+00:00 | ['Decision Tree', 'Machine Learning', 'Random Forest', 'Data Science'] |
P is for Petrichor | In 2008, I was living in Los Angeles and working as a freelance producer for a cable network. Since I didn’t really know much about “producing,” I usually spent my 4-hour edit sessions seated quietly in the back of the edit bay, perusing Facebook, while a skilled editor did the actual work.
That’s how I stumbled upon “The Mr. P Fan Club.”
To my knowledge, there weren’t many teachers from my high school who had achieved the enviable status of a Facebook fan page. But it made sense that Mr. P would have one. For one thing, people actually called him “Mr. P.” He had a real last name that consisted of more than just the one letter, but he was the sort of teacher that students were chummy with in that sitcom-y, one letter sort of way.
I scrolled down, reading the comments from hundreds of former students. Some of them had graduated years before me. Some of them were friends with my brother. Some of them had sat in the same freshman honors English class that I had. The comments ranged from thoughtful and carefully composed, (as though Mr. P might be grading them), to hastily written inside jokes. (Mr. P rocks! Free bacon! LOL!)
Mr. P was a popular teacher–probably as close to a celebrity as an English teacher in northeastern Ohio can be. I followed in the footsteps of two older brothers, and I’d been hearing stories about Mr. P since I was in 3rd grade.
On my first day of high school, I arrived in Mr. P’s third period English class. We went through all the normal boring first day things. Syllabus. Roll call. Assigning seats. The usual. Then somehow, in the middle of talking about vocab tests and research papers, he went off on a tangent, launching into a long rant about whether or not he should stop wearing leather. We didn’t know it at the time, but this was a well-rehearsed routine. We would later learn from older siblings and upperclassmen that this speech was an annual event. The performance culminated in him removing his shoes and belt, and hurling them out the window, much to the confusion of the class. It was not entirely clear if it was meant to be funny or not. He then pointed to me and Jacob Stein and ordered us to go outside and retrieve them. I was comforted by this omen of undeserved favoritism.
It was a fun class. Or, at least, more fun than other classes. Because no matter how funny or quirky or passionate the teacher, conjugating verbs is never really a roaring good time. And while Mr. P could be a fun teacher, he was unreasonably strict about trivial things, like which direction the staple should go on a research paper (vertical). He didn’t listen to excuses or budge on deadlines. My good friend, Amy, learned this when she had a printer failure the day an outline was due. He liked Amy and she was one of the top students in his class, but he made no exception for her. He was kind of a hardass, tbh. And when he was trying to convey something of the utmost seriousness, I always thought that he lapsed into the faintest (fake) British accent.
But for the most part, people didn’t fault him for being mean or pretentious. (Although, he really was both at times.) But he made up for it in other ways. In the winter, we read A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote. Mr. P read the story aloud in class, positively giddy with excitement. You know when someone gets really excited to tell a joke and they start laughing before they get to the punchline? It was like that. When he got to the part where the old woman says, “Oh my! It’s fruitcake weather, Buddy!” he exclaimed it in his best Southern lady falsetto. We spent the greater part of the class giggling, repeating this phrase, and discussing what, exactly, fruitcake weather is.
I regaled my mom and my brother Jeff with my own tales from English class. Jeff would chuckle and nod his head in appreciation. But Joe, I learned, felt differently. “That guy? I don’t know. He’s kind of a dick,” he said, casually. I was scandalized. We don’t speak ill of Mr. P! Not in this house! I was shocked that I had never heard this opinion before. But Joe recalled an incident from his own high school days when, upon asking about the due date of a research paper, Mr. P became outraged, repeating a chorus of melodramatic “How dare you?! How dare yous?” Joe, confused about what he had dared to do, other than ask a straightforward question, understandably, became less of a fan.
I found it so hard to believe. I’ve always admired my brothers and trusted their opinions. But this was confusing. Jeff liked him. Joe didn’t. I felt deeply conflicted.
But the truly troubling thing was that as a current student of Mr. P, I had very little trouble believing Joe’s story. I had witnessed similar disproportionate outbursts in my class. Kelly, a girl in my class, was one of the more memorable victims. Not memorable for what she actually did to incite him—I have no idea what set him off. But it wasn’t every day that a teacher made someone cry.
And to be clear, I would have cried too, in Kelly’s shoes. Mr. P could be scary. Impressive, considering his decidedly unimpressive physical presence. He was a small man in his 50s with a weak chin and prominent ears. But he knew how to project. (He was also the speech teacher.) So the class would silently watch as Mr. P berated my friend Jeni, who once dared refer to Pip from Great Expectations as “a prick.” (Despite the fact that Mr. P might have used the same word to describe our principal, just last week.) And afterward, Mr. P had lost one fan, but the rest of the class remained unswayed in their allegiance, just happy that it hadn’t been them.
And since I made it through my freshman year without ever being the target of his rage (unlike Joe, Kelly, or Jeni), I took no issue with his eccentricities, or, as Joe might call it, dickheadedness. I liked him because he criticized other teachers, mocked the principal, and most of all, because he liked me, a quality I’ve always found admirable in any person.
So, throughout my somewhat miserable high school career, I maintained a close relationship with Mr. P. For 4 years, I was a frequent visitor to his classroom after school. He would perk up when he saw me approach his door and wave me in. I never had a real reason for stopping by and he never expected me to. I just liked hanging out with him.
During my senior year, I worked in his room during my free period, grading the same vocabulary tests that I myself had taken as a freshman. It was common for teachers to have an aide. But Mr. P never had just one aide. The year that I worked for him, there were four of us at one point, all girls. He joked that it was like Charlie’s Angels, only our assignments were less espionage and more preparing his instant oatmeal the way he liked it. (“Watery as hell.”) At the end of the year, he took the four of us out to Taco Bell during our lunch period. He also gave us each a handwritten thank you note with a 50 dollar bill tucked inside.
That same year, I elected to take his speech class. Like most normal people, I hate public speaking. I get very sweaty and become suddenly and painfully aware of how my voice sounds a little too much like Lisa Simpson’s. But I had no choice. It was the last chance to have him as a teacher and it was practically a requirement for any dedicated Mr. P groupie.
And that’s what I was, right? A groupie? There were lots of us. I wasn’t the only student visiting him after school. And it was common practice for recent graduates to stop by to see him while they were home on break from college. But, the thing that was obvious to me, is that he liked me more than he liked those other kids. It sounds childish and petty, but it was high school, after all. He was friendly to other students. But he seemed to genuinely enjoy my company. Maybe he treated me differently because he knew my family so well. (My mom had his home phone number.) But for whatever reason, he made me feel like I was special. Of course, I’ve always suspected that I was an extraordinarily interesting person, but it was more rare that someone else seemed to think so. “You’re an enigma, Jeanne. You know that?” he often told me, making good use of one of our BEV words. And though, at that time in my life, I had no particular ambitions, I considered him a mentor.
So, in September of 2005, just before I started my senior year at Ohio State, I managed to squeeze in a visit to the high school, despite my busy schedule of television watching and catching up on doctors’ appointments. I wandered into the newly renovated high school (after going to the dentist) several minutes before the last bell. I found his new classroom and lurked outside the door. I peered in the small window, inadvertently attracting the attention of most of the students, who were anxious to be dismissed from their final class of the day. Following their gaze, he spotted me and excitedly ushered me in, presenting me to his class.
“Everyone, this is Mrs. P.”
I smiled, and clumsily played along, not expecting anyone to buy it for a moment. I was 21, but probably could have passed for 16.
“Hi honey, sorry to interrupt,” I said as he hugged me.
Obviously enjoying the impromptu theatrics, he continued the charade. The disbelieving class was our audience as we played this weird game of “house.” He asked what we were having for dinner that evening, and I told him I thought we’d just go out. (I’ve never been good at improv.) When the bell rang, the confused students gave me their final questioning glances as they filed out. It was undoubtedly the subject of many text messages that afternoon.
Once they had gone, he sat down at his desk, still chuckling, and I picked a seat in the front row, directly across from him, just like a teacher’s pet.
“You look good,” he told me, smiling.
“I just got back from the dentist.”
“You have great teeth. Am I allowed to say that?”
“Sure,” I said. “I’m not a student anymore,” I joked.
It had been over a year since I had seen him last. We briefly discussed school and my family. I’d be graduating in the spring. Jeff had gotten married earlier that month. (Mr. P had been invited, but did not attend.) I told him about the internship I had just finished. He wanted to know everything. He was excited about my future. More excited than I was, honestly! But the conversation kept coming back to my “love life,” a phrase that has always grossed me out. He wanted to know about my boyfriend. “Do you love him? Are you going to marry him? Have you cheated on him? What about in high school? Who was that one guy you talked about? Did you sleep with him?”
I assured him that I was not yet thinking about marriage, but found the line of questioning a little odd. I gave him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe this was normal small-talk and I just didn’t know. Besides, we’re all adults here, I figured. He reminded me once more that he wanted to know when I did get married.
“You need to call me. I’m serious,” he said.
“Yeah, I get it,” I replied, starting to tire of the constant reiteration.
He carried on like that for a while, talking without really saying anything new, complimenting me and then asking for permission to compliment me. Something had changed. There was discomfort in the air, or at least in me, and it wasn’t entirely due to the fact that I was seated in a small plastic chair with an attached desktop. I felt sweaty and noticed my gums beginning to ache from the teeth cleaning. He was talking, as usual, in a very grand, very dramatic fashion, but I wasn’t really following what he was saying. He talked faster, in vague expressions, with growing momentum before he finally interrupted himself.
“No, I’m not — I shouldn’t say…” (He really made a meal of those ellipses.)
“What?” I urged him to continue, not really wanting to know what would follow the suspenseful punctuation. Maybe it was some sort of morbid curiosity.
“No, I can’t… Ok, do you really want to know?”
“Sure.”
He launched into a lengthy answer, the volume and intensity in his voice growing. “I mean, I don’t want to be one of those guys — you know, ‘I’m middle-aged and my wife doesn’t understand me so why don’t you sleep with me’, but…”
I thought that it was possible that I could sit quietly in the desk, and never respond, as if he had just asked a very hypothetical question in a lecture, but he continued.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t say this. I can’t say this, can I?” he asked, although he didn’t seem to want an answer.
“Say whatever you want,” I said tensely, unsure of how one responds to something like this. Storm out? Give him a round of applause?
“So, does your wife understand you?” I attempted, not really caring, but wanting to fill the silence.
“Yes — well, not really. It doesn’t matter.”
“I see.”
Perhaps he believed that I only returned year after year because of some longstanding school-girl crush. That maybe all I needed was a little encouragement. A little push. Unfortunately, for both of us, I had no such crush and the word “crush” is another thing that grosses me out. So I sat in the desk, paralyzed, at a complete loss for words.
Disgusted and disappointed, I tried to lighten the mood. “Well, I hope the principal doesn’t drop by. That could be awkward!”
But he didn’t join me in my mood-lightening efforts. He had come this far. I guess he figured it was no time for ambiguity.
“I would like to spend a weekend with you, Jeanne.”
Well, that might be nice, I thought. I imagined drinking coffee and strolling through a museum.
“Can I say that? How about this: I would like to sleep with you.”
The museum vanished and I imagined being in a hotel room with a jowel-y little man in his late 50s. I could think of no words that might end this conversation.
“Well, I guess you can say whatever you want now. I’m not a student.” I said.
The longer I sat at that desk, the younger I felt. Not knowing how to extricate myself from the situation, I babbled, trying to change the subject. I think part of me was in shock and part of me just couldn’t bear to leave on such a weird note. I think he asked me about some of my old classmates, what they were up to. I’m not really sure. Finally, I regained control of my legs and began my exit.
“I really have to get going. I’m meeting a friend for dinner.” It was true, but I was so desperate to leave that it sounded like a lie, even to me. He apologized more, complimented me more, and reminded me that he was entirely serious.
“Really, Jeanne. I want you to call me before you get married so that we can spend a weekend together.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said, unsmiling, placating him.
“Please keep in touch. Email me,” he urged.
“Sure.”
“Can I give you a hug?”
“Okay,” I told him. I felt defeated.
And then, as I should have known, he attempted to turn an awkward hug into an incredibly awkward kiss. Instinctively, I turned my head, in what could only be perceived as repulsion. His thin, dry lips touched my face. I was so close to the door. I easily could have knocked him down and ran for it, but it was like a bad dream when you try to scream and nothing comes out. I felt angry and sick but I just stood there, his face still much too close to mine.
“If you’re going to kiss me, really kiss me,” he said, attempting what he likely saw as a romantic leading-man maneuver where he pushed me away from the door, to the more private and romantic chalkboard. His lips were now wet and he pressed them forcefully against mine. My mind raced as I replayed his words. It was almost funny, the absurdity of this statement. I was obviously not going to kiss him, and certainly had no interest in really kissing him. I struggled to see how he was viewing me as an active participant in this encounter.
I escaped his desperate embrace and spat out some words. “I really, really have to go.” I walked briskly, almost breaking into a trot, down the long hall, hoping to god he wasn’t watching me.
A week later, he emailed me. The only other time he had emailed me was in response to a request for a letter of recommendation. The email said something like, “I can’t sleep. I’m dying here. I need to talk to you.” I deleted it. I had no desire to work on a cure for his insomnia.
I felt bad. Not because I believed I had done anything wrong, but because I hated to think about the way he was probably feeling. Maybe I had overreacted. I wasn’t a student. It wasn’t illegal, was it? I was 21. So he wanted to sleep with me. I couldn’t blame him for that. Everyone should want to sleep with me! But not him.
I felt bad for being so upset. It wasn’t even that big a deal, was it? And I felt bad because everyone liked him and I didn’t want to ruin that. (But I kind of did want to ruin that.) I told my brother Joe, because I knew he wouldn’t care that much. “Yeah, that guy was always a dick,” he said. I purposely didn’t tell my mom. There was no reason to. I waited a few years to tell Jeff. “Canceling my fan club membership and returning the decoder ring,” he told me. | https://medium.com/@jeannegoshe/p-is-for-petrichor-f1ab8bfa23bc | ['Jeanne Goshe'] | 2021-08-23 22:50:11.418000+00:00 | ['Nonfiction', 'Sexual Assault', 'Teachers', 'Mwc Death', 'High School'] |
Engineering Magic Bullets for Pancreatic Cancer | Originally published on February 4, 2019 in Johns Hopkins’ blog Biomedical Odyssey (link)
In a 1909 manuscript titled “Ueber den jetzigen Stand der Chemotherapie” (“About the Current State of Chemotherapy”), Nobel laureate Paul Ehrlich proclaimed, “We must learn to aim in a chemical sense.” What did he mean? Ehrlich was referring to his “magic bullet” theory of chemical specificity, the observation that certain drugs can eliminate disease-causing entities (example: bacteria) without inflicting damage on healthy tissue. He outlined a nascent form of this concept in his doctoral dissertation, describing how to visually distinguish between subtypes of white blood cells using certain dyes that preferentially stain the cellular structures in one subtype versus another. Ehrlich surmised that the chemical structure of each dye determined its preference for painting biological structures that are present in certain cell types but are absent in others. He wondered: If chemical dyes could selectively color certain cells, could other chemical compounds selectively kill rogue cells that confer disease? Ehrlich extended his thinking to search for compounds we now recognize as “antibiotics” — drugs that disrupt biological processes essential for the survival of pathogenic microorganisms but do not affect human tissue. In 1908, his efforts led to discovery of the first modern antibiotic, arsphenamine. Armed with the ability to selectively kill the bacteria that cause syphilis, arsphenamine indeed served as a “magic bullet” in contrast to the metaphorical blunderbuss that is mercury, the universally toxic standard of care at the time.
Just as Ehrlich used his insight into chemical specificity to discover and develop antibiotic agents, investigators following in his footsteps founded the field of immuno-oncology. Its practitioners aim to therapeutically target cancer using the immune system, which can generate its own pathogen-recognizing chemicals (antibodies, T-cell receptors, etc.). Current immuno-oncology strategies generally involve the following processes:
Training the immune system to recognize recurrently mutated or unusually overexpressed proteins (called “neoantigens”) that are present in cancer but are absent in normal cells.
Emboldening the immune system to attack such cancer cells upon encounter.
On Oct. 18, 2018, investigators at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins reported on a targeted therapy that combines both strategies of immuno-oncology to eliminate pancreatic cancer in mice. The therapy involved administration of an immune-training vaccine called PancVAX, supplemented by intermittent doses of two immune-emboldening compounds: a PD-1 antagonist and an OX40 agonist. PancVAX consists of a STING ligand, which recruits immune cells called T-cells, mixed with 38 synthetic long peptides, which mimic several proteins found to be mutated in pancreatic adenocarcinoma cells and that have amino acid sequences determined to elicit an immune response according to a prediction algorithm called NetMHC. In other words, PancVAX taught T-cells to “aim in a chemical sense” at pancreatic cancer cells that bear certain mutated proteins, just as Ehrlich had envisioned. Although the vaccine was shown to suppress the growth of pancreatic cancer in mice, the antitumor effect only lasted a few days. Why? T-cells that managed to make their way into the vicinity of pancreatic tumors displayed several markers of exhaustion, a state in which immune cells have a diminished capacity to attack target cells upon encounter. To counteract this disarming effect, researchers supplemented PancVAX with a PD-1 antagonist, which blocks one of the pathways that cancer cells exploit to throw T-cells into a state of exhaustion, and an OX40 agonist, which prolongs the life span of activated T-cells. Thus, the two supplementary agents were intended to embolden T-cells to attack tumor cells. Mice with pancreatic cancer that had been treated with the triple-combination showed tumor shrinkage and increased survival, with 30 percent of mice completely cleared of tumors. In contrast to mice treated with PancVAX only, mice treated with the triple therapy displayed durable responses that lasted for an extended period of time (56 days). Four out of five of these same mice almost completely eliminated new pancreatic tumors upon reintroduction without any additional treatment, demonstrating the staying power of the combination therapy.
Investigation of the PancVAX, anti-PD-1 and OX40-stimulating combination therapy in mouse models of pancreatic cancer yielded promising results that support follow-up studies to assess its safety and efficacy in nonrodent animals. The treatment would need to deliver significant survival benefits to patients in clinical trials before it could become commercially available. Neeha Zaidi, an oncology fellow and co-author of the publication, says pilot clinical trials of patients with advanced pancreatic cancer could initiate within the next year or so. Paul Ehrlich’s grand synthesis of chemistry and biology, the “magic bullet” theory of chemical specificity, still serves as the foundation of rational drug development more than 100 years later. Indeed, it is a principle that will be critical in the ongoing effort to engineer more “magic bullets” against cancer. | https://medium.com/@rvchikar/engineering-magic-bullets-for-pancreatic-cancer-a9971a03f727 | ['Roshan Chikarmane'] | 2020-12-25 01:59:55.682000+00:00 | ['Venture Capital', 'Biotechnology', 'Pharmaceutical', 'Medicine', 'Science'] |
Attachment Styles in Academia: Choosing An Advisor | Attachment styles are formed in childhood and impact how you interact in relationships well into adulthood. There are four primary attachment styles: (1) Secure (2) Anxious/Preoccupied (3) Avoidant/Dismissive (4) Fearful-Avoidant/Disorganized and they can impact the way people form, maintain, and dissolve relationships. It is possible for these styles to change over time and it is normal for people to have different attachment styles in different contexts. It is possible for a person to be securely attached in friendships and anxiously attached in romantic partnerships. I also believe it is possible for a person to be (generally) securely attached in their personal relationships and have non-secure attachment styles professionally (or vice-versa).
When you enter graduate school and choose a mentor, it is almost like choosing a parent. Obviously, students are autonomous adults; however, the mentor holds a lot of responsibility when it comes to training and guiding students on a successful career path. It is common to refer to labmates as lab siblings and the mentor of your mentor as your grand-mentor. There are clear power dynamics inherent to the mentor-mentee relationship and, as a result, the professional attachment style formed at the beginning of a student’s training can have a long-lasting impact on research progress and the student’s well-being.
In a secure attachment style, anxiety is provoked. The student tries to reduce anxiety by seeking solutions from their mentor. The mentor responds positively to the request, which reaffirms a sense of security and reduces anxiety. Research progress continues.
In non-secure attachment styles such as anxious and avoidant, the student tries to reduce anxiety by seeking support from their mentor. The mentor refuses the request. The lack of responsiveness increases feelings of insecurity and anxiety. The student may give up on getting support from the mentor, suppress anxiety, and distance. Research progress stalls unless another style is used or another mentor is found.
When I started in academia, I was anxiously-attached through no fault of any mentor. I came in that way. I knew it was important for me to find a collaborative mentor that was readily available and able to help me become more securely attached. If you are more securely attached, you might be able to handle a wider range of (non-abusive) mentors. Consider your current attachment style and the type of mentor that would best support your research career. | https://medium.com/@anigwe/attachment-styles-in-academia-choosing-an-advisor-a42f074e73fc | ['Allie Igwe'] | 2020-12-15 06:17:27.842000+00:00 | ['Choosing An Advisor', 'Attachment Style', 'Academia'] |
Inside Baseball | Inside Baseball
Knowing the other guy’s language or vernacular is paramount
Photo by Tim Gouw from Pexels
All occupations have their special lingo. Like with Action Mag, we used to refer to the different ad types (outcall, incall, fetish, she male) as classes of trade.
Or with selling ads for the Village Voice, a “run” was an ad that ran the previous week and would continue the next unchanged. A “pick up” had run previously at some point — but had not run in the last issue. A “twenty-eighth” was a minimum size display ad. For Backpage, a “sponsor ad” was the terminology used for that stupid box on the side that never worked for the advertiser.
Anyway…you get my drift. An old buddy used to refer to all this as “inside baseball” meaning…nobody would know what the hell you were talking about unless they too were part of the clique.
Knowing the lingo of somebody else’s job generally serves to ingratiate you — just as knowing how to speak another language puts you in good standing with people who speak that language primarily.
If you see a Spanish girl and say something in the throes along the lines of “me gusta tu chocha. Es bien suave y apretada,” she’ll be a lot more receptive than if you say the same thing in English. Especially if she doesn’t speak English.
Like one time when I was a cabby, I got stopped by a cop in front of Penn Station who was obviously going to give me a ticket for the crime of being a cab driver. (Cops did that routinely when I drove. There was no place to drop passengers legally and so, it was easy to cite schmucks like me who had no choice).
So when the sergeant came up to me I said “Damn! I knew you were on ‘summons duty’ but what could I do? I can’t drop a passenger with heavy bags a block away!” And guess what! Because I knew the term “summons duty,” which is some inside cop lingo…he let me go!
So anyway…to the point: Escorts — like people in any other occupation — have their own lingo. And it follows that if you know some of it, they’ll feel like you’re one of their own — and treat you accordingly. Want better sessions? Here goes with some of that lingo you can use to accomplish the mission:
1. TO BREAK is a term all escorts use when they see their first customer of the day. So if some girl tells you “I haven’t broken yet”…or “I finally broke 4 hours into my shift,” you now know what she’s talking about. Say you’re a salesman and you’re telling the favorite object of your lust that you were having a bad day. You could say “I couldn’t sell shit yesterday until I finally broke with some old lady who bought the most expensive sofa in the store.” Guaranteed you’ll get a favorable reaction.
2. A BIG WILLY is not a super endowed guy. It’s a guy who has lots of money and spends it on a girl. So when an escort refers to a guy as a “big willy,” she’s talking about his wallet! Let’s say a girl tells you she saw a guy for 3 hours. You could respond “Oooo! A big willy, eh?” She’ll think you’re down — or (excuse me) — she’ll find you informed.
3. RATCHET simply means anything low class and negative. “That chick is ratchet” means she’s a skank! If your girl is ragging on some woman she hates, you simply respond “Word up! That chick is as ratchet as they come.” Points, baby. You’ll be in — all the way in if you get my drift!
4. OFFICIAL (I just learned this one) is a way of saying some girl is very attractive. If a woman is “official,” that means she’s certified hot and worthy.
5. MAD is an adjective that is generally used as a substitute for the word very — or just describes a superlative. Thus, you could say “That chick is mad beautiful”…or “she got mad booty.” Either way, the girl is a mind-boggler!
6. A DOUBLE occurs when two girls are booked at the same time by one guy. If Bertha and Maude are doing a double, they’re in the room with one guy for the duration.
7. RENEGADE is an adjective describing a situation during which a pimp’s ho sheds her shackles and leaves her slave driver. As in “Where dat bitch Lexus,” asked a plaintive waif from low on G Money’s totem pole of babes. Answer: “She went renegade and now he’s lookin’ to fuck her up,” responded Money’s bottom bitch.
8. Which brings us to BOTTOM BITCH. A pimp’s bottom bitch is his favorite ho in the stable. She gets the preferential treatment. Usually, it’s his biggest money-maker because she’s the best looking of the bunch.
9. FLOOR GIRL — Big places will sometimes have phone girls, managers, maids, or kitchen mommies in residence. The “floor girl” is the girl who actually goes in the room with the customers and provides the vital service. The aforementioned ladies are support staff and thus, not floor girls even if they rarely hover in mid-air while they’re working.
10. The TRACK or STROLL — is the street where girls sell their wares. If a girl queries “where’s Porscha” and somebody else answers “she’s on the track”…or “she’s strollin’”…that means she’s walking the streets in search of customers. Similarly, a known place where women of this career path congregate would be called “THE TRACK” or “THE STROLL.”
11. TURNED or TURNED OUT — This expression has a couple of meanings. “Turning somebody out” means either a) introducing the girl to a life of being an escort or b) satisfying somebody sexually. Examples: “How’d Mercedes get into the business?” Answer: “Her college roommate turned her out when they both needed money for the rent.” Example 2: Frat Boy Frank tells one of his brothers “I fucked that girl’s brains out at our house party last weekend.” If Frat Boy Frank knew the lingo of the subculture, he would say “I turned that b…. out at our house party last weekend.”
Obviously, I don’t know a lot of the jargon — or I’m forgetting what I know right now since I can only come up with 11 expressions. Still, you get the idea. The more inside baseball you know…the better. | https://medium.com/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-escorts-but/inside-baseball-b1ac1f9894f6 | ['William', 'Dollar Bill'] | 2020-12-22 09:26:10.125000+00:00 | ['How To', 'Escorts', 'Culture', 'Education', 'Sex Work'] |
Nest, Half-Empty? | Jenny Jedeikin’s work has appeared in The San Francisco Chronicle, Rolling Stone, The Advocate, The UK's Oh Comely; read more at jennyjedeikin.com.
Follow | https://medium.com/spiralbound/nest-half-empty-ef55a3c8ff57 | ['Jenny Jedeikin'] | 2018-11-12 13:01:01.329000+00:00 | ['College', 'Jenny Jedeikin', 'Family', 'Parenting', 'Comics'] |
Cost Function in Logistic Regression | picture credit: Nucleusbox
We have covered a good amount of time in understanding the decision boundary. Check out previous blog Logistic Regression for Machine Learning using Python. And how to overcome this problem of the sharp curve, with probability.
In the Logistic regression model the value of classier lies between 0 to 1.
So to establish the hypothesis we also found the Sigmoid function or Logistic function.
So let’s fit the parameter θ for the logistic regression.
Likelihood Function
So let say we have datasets X with m data-points. Now the logistic regression says, that the probability of the outcome can be modeled as bellow.
Based on the probability rule. If the success event probability is P than fail event would be (1-P). That’s how the Yi indicates above.
This can be combined into a single form as bellow.
Which means, what is the probability of Xi occurring for given Yi value P(x|y).
The likelihood of the entire datasets X is the product of an individual data point. Which means forgiven event (coin toss) H or T. If H probability is P then T probability is (1-P).
So, the Likelihood of these two events is.
Now the principle of maximum likelihood says. we need to find the probability that maximizes the likelihood P(X|Y). Recall the odds and log-odds.
So as we can see now. After taking a log we can end up with a linear equation.
So in order to get the parameter θ of hypothesis. We can either maximize the likelihood or minimize the cost function.
Now we can take a log from the above logistic regression likelihood equation. Which will normalize the equation into log-odds?
MLE is Maximum likelihood estimation.
Cost Function
I would recommend first check this blog on The Intuition Behind Cost Function.
In logistic regression, we create a decision boundary. And this will give us a better seance of, what logistic regression function is computing.
As we know the cost function for linear regression is the residual sum of the square.
We can also write as bellow. Taking half of the observation.
As we can see in logistic regression the H(x) is nonlinear (Sigmoid function). And for linear regression, the cost function is convex in nature. For linear regression, it has only one global minimum. In nonlinear, there is a possibility of multiple local minima rather the one global minima.
So to overcome this problem of local minima. And to obtain global minima, we can define new cost function. We will take the same reference as we saw in Likelihood.
Cross entropy loss or log loss or logistic regression cost function. cross-entropy loss measure the performance of the classification model. And the output is a probability value between 0 to 1
So the cost function is as bellow.
Now we can put this expression into Cost function Fig-8.
As we can see L(θ) is a log-likelihood function in Fig-9. So we can establish a relation between Cost function and Log-Likelihood function. You can check out Maximum likelihood estimation in detail.
Maximization of L(θ) is equivalent to min of -L(θ), and using average cost overall data point, out cost function would be.
Choosing this cost function is a great idea for logistic regression. Because Maximum likelihood estimation is an idea in statistics to finds efficient parameter data for different models. And it has also the properties that are convex in nature.
Gradient Descent
Now we can reduce this cost function using gradient descent. The main goal of Gradient descent is to minimize the cost value. i.e. min J(θ).
Now to minimize our cost function we need to run the gradient descent function on each parameter i.e.
Additional reading on Gradient descent
Gradient Descent for Logistic Regression Simplified — Step by Step Visual Guide
Footnotes:
Gradient descent is an optimization algorithm used to find the values of the parameters. To solve for the gradient, we iterate through our data points using our new m and b values and compute the partial derivatives.
OK, that’s it, we are done now. If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to reach out to me. I’ll come up with more Machine Learning topic soon. | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/cost-function-in-logistic-regression-95cd5289a42 | ['Brijesh Singh'] | 2020-06-25 17:28:04.637000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Logistic Regression', 'Data Science', 'Artificalintelligence'] |
Fetch API: A modern replacement for XMLHttpRequest | It is said that “Necessity is the mother of all inventions” and that’s what fueled the development of Fetch API. But before digging deeper into the Fetch API let’s dive into the history behind it. I know I know what’s going on in your mind but I will keep it short.
Fetch is a new native JavaScript API, supported by most browsers today. Fetch allows you to make network requests similar to XMLHttpRequest . According to Google Developers Documentation Fetch makes it easier to make asynchronous requests and handle responses better than with the older XMLHttpRequest . It is an improvement over the XMLHttpRequest API. The main difference between Fetch and XMLHttpRequest is that the Fetch API uses Promises, hence avoiding callback hell.
Fetch Interfaces
The Fetch API has following interfaces
fetch() : The fetch() method used to fetch a resource.
: The method used to fetch a resource. Headers : Represents response/request headers, allowing you to query them and take different actions depending on the results.
: Represents response/request headers, allowing you to query them and take different actions depending on the results. Request : Represents a resource request.
: Represents a resource request. Response : Represents the response to a request.
Making a request using fetch()
A fetch() function is available in the global window object. The fetch() function takes one mandatory argument, the path to the resource you want to fetch. It returns a Promise , whether it is successful or not. If request is successful .then() function will receive Response object, if request fails then .catch() function will receive an error object
The Response Object
The above code makes use of Fetch API and makes a call to GitHub to fetch data about the user. When the promise is resolved we get a Response object in return. But wait, if you try logging Response object on the console you will find that it didn’t have the data which we want. That’s because a Response object has information about the response itself. To actually get the data, we need to get the body of the response.
Headers Object
The Headers interface allows you to create your own headers object via the Headers() constructor. A headers object is a collection of name-value pairs.
var headers = new Headers();
headers.append('Content-Type', 'text/json');
headers.append('X-Custom-Header', 'SomeValue');
//We can achieve the same can by passing an object literal to the constructor
var headers = new Headers({
'Content-Type': 'text/json',
'X-Custom-Header': 'SomeValue'
});
Supplying options to fetch()
The fetch() method accepts an optional second parameter, an init object that allows you to customise the request.
let reqHeader = new Headers();
reqHeader.append('Content-Type', 'text/json');
method: 'GET', headers: reqHeader,
};
fetch('
.then(function (response) {
return response.json();
})
.then(function (data) {
console.log(data);
})
.catch(function (err) {
console.log("Something went wrong!", err);
}); let initObject = {method: 'GET', headers: reqHeader,};fetch(' https://api.github.com/users ', initObject).then(function (response) {return response.json();}).then(function (data) {console.log(data);}).catch(function (err) {console.log("Something went wrong!", err);});
Request Object
The Request Object represents a resource request. Instead of passing an URL of the resource into the fetch() call, you can create a request object using the Request() constructor, and pass that as an argument to fetch(). By passing Request object to the fetch() , you can make customised requests.
reqHeader.append('Content-Type', 'text/json');
let initObject = {
method: 'GET', headers: reqHeader,
};
var userRequest = new Request('
fetch(userRequest)
.then(function (response) {
return response.json();
})
.then(function (data) {
console.log(data);
})
.catch(function (err) {
console.log("Something went wrong!", err);
}); let reqHeader = new Headers();reqHeader.append('Content-Type', 'text/json');let initObject = {method: 'GET', headers: reqHeader,};var userRequest = new Request(' https://api.github.com/users ', initObject);fetch(userRequest).then(function (response) {return response.json();}).then(function (data) {console.log(data);}).catch(function (err) {console.log("Something went wrong!", err);});
Definitely, The Fetch API makes it easier to make asynchronous requests and handle responses better than using an XMLHttpRequest . Fetch allows us to create a better API for the simple things, using modern JavaScript features like promises .
Let’s start fetching !!
References
Thanks
Happy Coding! | https://medium.com/codingurukul/fetch-api-a-modern-replacement-for-xmlhttprequest-c24ced9ff8d3 | ['Vrijraj Singh'] | 2019-01-09 12:29:15.743000+00:00 | ['Codingurukul', 'JavaScript', 'Fetch', 'Fetchapi'] |
Might As Well Write A Song | Caught on the periphery
Of what I want and where to be
Do you know what I mean?
Taking what’s in front of me
Like my life has come to be
In this turnstile, I’ll reconcile
That windy night
In that ancient city
It was just meant to be
And it’s all
Better than I could’ve predicted
That morning you lifted me from my sleep
And then you were suddenly gone
But I know it wouldn’t be long
Because who are we kidding?
We couldn’t divide it
With the sharpest of knives
And our love there on the sidelines
Like an old arborist with no signs of any sells
But a sign with cracks from top to bottom
But in our desperation
The full moon peaking through the clouds
Shows a light sometimes that’s more beautiful
Than if we could see the full picture
And our exposure
We lay in darkened drawers
So the light of day won’t ruin our image
But we both know it’s developing
And when we open that drawer
We’ll put it out and see
How beautiful it can all be in the light of day
But in the meantime
While we wait for the time to let us be
I guess I might as well write a song | https://medium.com/@theharvestmoon/might-as-well-write-a-song-d2d4ebb65f6e | ['Harvest Moon'] | 2020-03-12 13:58:59.029000+00:00 | ['Love Letters', 'Nostalgia', 'Lyrics', 'Romance', 'Songwriting'] |
More than a Testimony: Part One | This may be one of the most difficult pieces I will ever write because it surfaces self-inflicted pain, humiliation, situational depression, and hopelessness. I struggle to make sentences now as the thought of what people will think of me after it has been published to my blog site. However, when The Lord God places an assignment on your life, you don’t want to be the one who ignores Him while he searches for another to do His will. So, I write this, knowing that I am healed by God, knowing that He forgave me even before “it” happened and He forgives me still, knowing that my testimony will definitely help the next woman.
In March 2020, I found out that I would have my first child. Me. Most of my close friends and family would tell you I’ve never shown any interest in having children. In fact, most people would probably describe me as a career woman, solely focused on her goals — -and you could almost always catch her head in a book. Well, not so much of that part of me has changed but after receiving the shocking news that I would become a mommy, I knew my life would never be the same — -and that terrifies me still.
Now that I am married to the love of my life, most of you may say that my pregnancy should be no big deal now. “At least y’all are doing the “right” way now,” as some would say. I too use to have this same judgment when women would have babies “out of wedlock,” that somehow, a woman’s pregnancy is much more valuable when she’s married, that a woman, is much more valuable to the world when she doesn’t humiliate herself or her family. I want to make sure that whoever’s reading understands something, especially us Christians: Having a child out of wedlock isn’t the sin. Sex outside of marriage is the sin. The scriptures are clear on this: “Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him” (Psalm 127:3). We have placed a societal construct on the process of having children; we push women into annihilating corners that cause them to abort their gift from God. We persecute so many women who have fallen into this type of sin as if there is no road to repentance for them. Now, I am not saying that it is okay for any of us to go on sinning. What I am saying is that if we as Christians meet women with more grace, mercy, and compassion, we will start to see more women walking into their God-given purpose instead of choosing a world of uncertainty and despair. The next chapter will begin my story. I don’t care how many people read it, I don’t care if you think it’s too long. And I certainly don’t care if you think I should keep it to myself. My job is to be obedient to the Spirit. God has nudged me for months to begin this series. And when it’s all over, I want to hear the greatest phrase any human being could ever hope to hear: “Well done, my good and faithful servant.” | https://medium.com/@loreal-moore2013/more-than-a-testimony-part-one-e52c9b39a18c | ['L Oreal Moore'] | 2020-07-22 09:07:40.243000+00:00 | ['Christianity', 'Christian Living', 'Women'] |
Spending the Holidays Alone | First of all, whether you’re actively choosing to spend the holidays alone or are doing it out of circumstances due to Covid-19 or life event, I hope that you’re compassionate towards yourself and are extra kind to yourself this holiday season. Give yourself the permission and the challenge to invest in your happiness and emotional health by buying and making yourself your favorite meals, spending a few extra hours in bed, playing your favorite games, watching your favorite films or YouTube channels, treating yourself to your favorite drinks, and buying yourself presents. Give yourself a hug and treat yourself the way that you’ve always wanted to be treated. Perhaps you need to forgive yourself for an indiscretion or even the way that you treated yourself in the past. Self-care can come in the form of self-reflection, grieving, going to therapy, and crying. Whatever it may be, I implore you to accept yourself, whatever your financial state might be, whatever goals you may or may not have met, and love yourself during this holiday season.
The holidays are meant to be a time to celebrate and to come together with your loved ones. For some of us, the holidays are trying times. They are the times that amplify the fractures in our lives and in our families or they can be the times in which we pretend that everything is okay, only for things to fall apart and to go back to the way they were after the holiday season.
Growing up, the highlight of my Christmas holiday was going to the Chinese grocery store in Houston. We drove an hour and a half each way just to go to a grocery store! Seeing the items on the shelves, even though I wasn’t allowed to buy them, made me happy. Because we were poor, we didn’t exchange presents. We weren’t even allowed to buy cakes or such. Mostly, I loved going to the grocery store because in those few minutes, it felt like I was in China again, and I could pretend that everything was okay. My mother usually gave us the silent treatment or had some sort of angry outburst before or after going to the grocery store — pretty much at all times — but at the grocery store, she usually wasn’t as mean. I stayed out of her way and didn’t ask for anything. Those were the happiest times of my life. It aches to remember and to write about it now. Because my father hated the Chinese government, we weren’t allowed to celebrate Chinese holidays either. So life was just a long blur of misery. The thing is, even when things changed and my parents earned more money, the holidays remained the same. The only difference was we bought a tree and on Christmas morning, my father would write me a $100 check. There was no love or appreciation. Just a transaction.
As an adult, I set out to have real holidays. But I didn’t realize that I was still playing pretend and creating a fabrication. I chose people who would have proper Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations but I didn’t really enjoy spending time with them. The holidays were this construct, and we played our parts, but we didn’t like each other. Still, this was better than the holidays that I spent at home. There were real presents underneath the tree and large celebratory family meals with drinks. There was genuine laughter and even momentary happiness, but our relationships didn’t work, and I wanted real lasting relationships, apart from the holidays.
Going Cold Turkey
In the last few years, I’ve been spending my holidays alone. I quit the holidays like an addict quitting cigarettes. I went cold turkey. If I didn’t know how to choose people who were healthy for me and people I really wanted to celebrate with, then I would spend it by myself. At first, I thought that I was a loser. Even so, I ventured to buy myself my favorite brisket sandwich. I spent a week without talking to anyone. The second year I spent Christmas alone I ate BBQ again and went to see Vox Lux. The waiter at the BBQ joint gave me a free helping of potato salad. At the movies, seeing people that actually liked each other made me feel sad. I wondered why I had such a difficult time surrounding myself with people who I liked and who liked me back.
Core shame and fear of attachment prevents me from seeking healthy people who are good for me while trauma bonding impels me to seek out the same kind of people and relationship dynamics that I grew up with. It’s all I know. Even though I was sad and I spent Christmas and New Years alone, it was the best holiday I’ve ever had. I ate what I wanted to eat and I did what I wanted to do. For the first time, I was part of the equation. I didn’t have to spend my holiday break at an outlet mall as my mother browsed the racks for hours without buying anything or humiliating me. I got to do what I wanted to do. Last year, I caved and spent the holiday season with an old college friend. After the second day, I realized that I was wasting my time, that I was still chasing people who didn’t choose me, and that it was officially time to go on my way and stop looking back.
The holidays, for people like me, are difficult. It means looking back at a history of holidays filled with deprivation and low self-worth. Sometimes, the holidays compel me to relapse. To seek out people from my past just so I don’t have to spend the holidays alone. I feel ashamed because I am alone. There are conflicting voices in my head judging me for being alone and cheering me on for taking care of me. The judgment doesn’t feel very good.
The last four years has made me stronger. Being alone has helped me to rebuild a relationship with myself and it will help me to seek people who choose me as much as I choose them. I am not there yet but I will be. The most important thing during the holidays isn’t the presents or the food or drinks. It’s the people that you spend it with. Healing and grieving takes a long time. Quitting abusive people and starting a new way of life takes years. I wish the transition period didn’t take so long. I have a firmer idea of what I want and I am committed to making it happen. I’d rather spend the holidays alone than with people who don’t appreciate me. I just hope that I get past my fears of attachment and core shame so that I can begin to seek out healthier relationships. Here’s to normalizing spending the holidays alone and to carving out a life that is healthy for you.
I understand that Covid-19 has forced people who actually appreciate one another to be apart. My heart goes out to them. At the same time, Covid-19 has allowed people like me — a person who would rather be alone to do so without having to explain it or justify it to someone else. Whatever the case may be, I hope that you love yourself and give yourself the permission to be kind to yourself, whether you’re alone or with others.
Being alone on the holidays doesn’t have to be sad or lonely. It can be but that can actually be a good thing as it is part of the healing and grieving process. In the last four years I’ve gotten to know myself better, and I’ve gotten more out of the holidays than spending it with people who had to make digs at me to make themselves feel better. I’m learning to meet my needs and to treat myself. In the past, I chose to spend holidays with people just to be around people. Any proximity to another human being was better than being alone, even though being around them meant the absence of me. One thing I’ve learned in my adulthood is that it’s better to be alone than to be around people who don’t see me. It’s hard for me to understand that I can be around people and be completely myself at the same time. That’s the next step in my healing process. Here’s to the holidays and here’s to taking care of yourself! | https://medium.com/illumination/spending-the-holidays-alone-23c6699f2b41 | [] | 2021-01-01 15:16:03.042000+00:00 | ['Holidays', 'Self Love', 'Loneliness', 'Growth', 'Alone'] |
My 5 Money Goals for 2021 | It’s that time of the year where everyone is setting new goals for themselves. All the finance/money youtubers are posting videos about how they’re planning on spending 1% of their enormous income and saving/investing the other 99% of it. That’s not hard to do when you have a lot of money coming in every month. Here’s my version of this but from the perspective of someone who is a fulltime student working part-time. For some reason, I spent my whole life thinking I couldn’t really save money or be financially disciplined while being a student. Countless podcasts and Youtube videos later, I realized this is definitely not the case. Below I share a list of the money goals I am setting for myself for 2021:
Have a fully funded emergency fund
My emergency fund is currently 50% funded and has 2500$ in it. Since I’m still living at home and don’t have to worry about living expenses, I decided I want to have 5000$ in my emergency fund. I hope to accomplish this by the end of January 2021 as I’m spending most of my holiday break picking up extra shifts.
2. Reduce my cost of livng and actively stay out of debt
I’m going into this new year with months of budgeting experience and an (almost) fully funded emergency fund. I have month’s worth of data that I can analyze to make cuts in areas where I’m overpseding (ahem Tim Horton’s coffee every morning) and I should be able to cover any surprise expenses without going into debt. In previous years, I had a few hundred dollars in my chequing account and credit cards to hold me over for emergencies. Nope. Not in 2021. I am done with those reckless days!
3. Keep working on my credit score
My credit score is finally at a “good” place — a whole 715. By continuing to make all my payments on time, this number should continue going up this year.
4. Scale my side hustle to have 1000$ a month in extra income
I recently started an instagram business and as with any online businesses, the overhead cost is close to nothing. My goal is to scale it to bring in an extra 1000$ a month. Whatever profits I make from this will be split between re-investing to grow the business and towards maxing out my TFSA for the year (the limit for 2021 is 6000$).
5. Buy my first investment property
By following through on all these goals, I should be in a position to buy my first investment property by summer 2021. I will finally have saved up the capital to purchase a condo and have a good enough credit score for this to pan out. I can then rent this property out to create additional cash flow for myself.
Maybe in a December 2021 I can come back and write about how this worked out. Wishing you all happy holidays and a happy New Year! | https://medium.com/@thefrugalgirl/my-5-money-goals-for-2021-ca5d011cb1f7 | [] | 2020-12-25 01:49:53.751000+00:00 | ['Debt', 'Money', 'Money Management', 'Money Finance', 'Goal Setting'] |
What is the point in responding to a tweet by Trump? | What would Twitter be without Trump raging about political enemies, bragging about his success or tweeting random comments while watching Fox & Friends? We all would be back to re-tweeting cat pictures.
We all are going crazy when it comes to the latest Trump tweet. Some even set Twitter alerts and use pre-written responses to be among the first to reply. But where is the point in responding to his tweets? I think there are at least two groups of people replying.
The first group consists of those naively thinking the president would actually dig through the flood of mentions. And we are talking about a hell of a lot of mentions! Even if there is no recent tweet from @realdonaldtrump this account receives about 60–100 replies. Per minute and around the clock! And this number easily triples the moment he dropped a tweet. Supporters, “Best President Ever”-bots (have you ever noticed that these tweets mostly come from users in foreign countries?), haters, comedians, democrats, activists, journalists — the whole internet jumps into a huge and messy discussion about impeachment, indiction and the 2020 election. His mentions have turned into an ongoing noisy chatroom with thousands of people quarreling at the same time.
Assuming Donald Trump sleeps for an average of 8 hours he has around 28.800 to 48.000 mentions waiting in his Twitter account by the time he wakes up! Even if he would just fly over all of them it would roughly take him ten hours per day. I hate to break it to you, but Donald Trump will very likely never read any of your replies. And since a federal judge declared Trump’s favorite strategy of blocking his critics as unconstitutional you won’t even get the fame for being blocked by the President of the United States any longer (even though Stephen King still seems to remain blocked).
Anyway, you will get a lot of attention of others following Trump — especially if you are among the very first people to reply to his tweet! Prepare yourself for a lot hatred from impeachment-activists or #MAGA fanatics (depending on your reply). But you will get a lot of interactions, that is for sure!
And that is exactly the motivation of group number two: Getting their share of the Twitter-fame! Replying to Trump within the first few seconds gains the most attention of his followers (58 Million!) and is one of the most effective platforms for self-promotion! As The Atlantic notes, it is prime media real estate. Many people even set their Twitter App’s mobile notification solely for Trump’s tweets to be among the first to reply, because surfing the Trump Tweet Wave is the golden opportunity to raise your tweet’s impressions and engagements to tens of thousands within the first minute!
However the real intentions of those who frequently race for the first reply are highly questionable. Do they really want to argue with Trump (unlikely) or (more likely) simply take advantage of the attention? This phenomenon fuels a parasitic economy in which people compete to ride Trumps digital coattails. They obsessively re-tweet, analyze, comment and attack. This helps Trump tremendously by focusing massive attention on his agenda while this also makes him seem larger than life. This again produces a cognitive effect called the “focusing illusion” and it helps explain how Trump ascended from political clown to the presidency. It’s a double-edged sword and we all should question ourselves whether we really want to change the fate of this country or put us in a spotlight out of vanity. | https://medium.com/@crankydan/what-is-the-point-in-responding-to-a-tweet-by-trump-1eea47ba447c | ['Daniel Van Moll'] | 2020-12-25 14:53:07.986000+00:00 | ['Twitter', 'Donald Trump', 'Social Media', 'Politics'] |
Six Advantages You Can Get From Setting Up a Home Automation System | Smart home technology generally refers to any suite of devices, appliances, or systems that connect into a common network that can be independently and remotely controlled. When your home technology works together in one system, it can also be referred more loosely as a “connected home”. For example, your home’s thermostat, lights, audio speakers, TVs, security cameras, locks, appliances, and more are all connected into a common system, which can be controlled from your smartphone or through a mobile touch screen device.
Smart home automation allows you to tap into high-tech functionality and luxury that wasn’t possible in the past. As technology development continues to expand, so will the possibilities for consumer home automation to make life easier and more enjoyable.
Below are six advantages of using a smart home automation.
#1. Extreme Convenience
Another incredible advantage you can get from introducing a home mechanization framework is accommodation. With a home computerization framework, you can advantageously control or work your lighting, warming and electrical gadgets utilizing handheld controllers. You can even deal with the entirety of your home capacities from any piece of the world, as long as you have web access. Utilize your cell phone, iPhone, iPad, tablet or PC to work your lighting, change the temperature of your warming gadgets and that’s just the beginning. Home robotization will give you a helpful day by day life.
#2. Boost Your Home Security
A robotized home framework will permit you to have computerized entryway bolts that will invigorate your home security. You can distantly control these entryway locks utilizing a web-empowered gadget, for example, cell phone, tablets or PC. You can generally make a point to bolt your entryways with just one tap of your finger.
This is a brilliant component for circumstances like neglecting to bolt your entryways when you take off from the house or when you need to go to work before you kids leave for school. Having electronic entryway bolts likewise wipes out the danger of being bolted out from your home. You can generally make sure about your home from anyplace with web access.
#3. Home Security Awareness with Security Cameras
Furtherly improve your home security by introducing surveillance cameras in your general vicinity. Joined with a magnificent home computerization framework, you can set up a security framework where you can get live feeds on your keen devices, for example, iPhones, iPads, cell phones, tablets and other web-empowered gadgets.
With this extraordinary component, you can screen whatever it is going on around your home. It’s additionally an extraordinary element in the event that you need to monitor the exercises your children are doing while you’re at the workplace.
#4. Safety on Your Appliances and Lighting System
A home mechanization framework will give you added insurance to your home and family. With a shrewd home innovation you will have full control of your lighting, warming and force, switch each light, warming gadget and electrical gadget on or off with a bit of at the tip of your finger. Having this favorable position will permit you to check if an apparatus is left working which can prompt fire dangers and other serious situations. Not just that it will keep you and your family protected and forestall perils like flames, yet it will likewise delay the existence of your electrical gadgets.
#5. Keep An Eye on Your Kids
Watch out for Your Kids
Same as incorporating surveillance cameras with your home mechanization framework to give you live feeds on your cell phone or other web-empowered gadgets. You can likewise ensure that your little ones are doing fine, particularly in the event that you have a child in the house. You can place cameras in the child’s room or nursery to watch out for the children. You can likewise coordinate infant screens and alerts with the keen home framework to ensure the infant is alright.
#6. Increases Promotes Peace of Mind
Living in a keen home will give you harmony, not just on the grounds that it offers a more sustained home security, however it additionally gives you full oversight on the entirety of your home gadgets. You can ensure that all entryways are bolted prior to resting, all gadgets are killed, and it will likewise furnish you with a superior conviction that all is good.
Having known a portion of the advantages of a home mechanization framework, we can say that having these focal points is sufficient to legitimize the sticker price for having one. Not just that, home computerization framework is demonstrated to be exceptionally advantageous over the long haul. Moneywise, it offers extraordinary cash sparing potential.
It is a particular framework that offers moderate items which can permit you to begin to organize and extend the framework as time progresses. The market for keen home innovation is huge, it gives a lot of choices, you can even locate a superior and less expensive method of having a brilliant home.
Learn more about a next generation smart home technology=> https://ngteco.ng | https://medium.com/@zktecowa/six-advantages-you-can-get-from-setting-up-a-home-automation-system-e9eea4d934dc | ['Zkteco West Africa'] | 2020-11-23 14:01:02.395000+00:00 | ['Smart Home', 'Home Automation', 'Kids', 'Family', 'Smart Cities'] |
Dilemma of Overseas Chinese Students | Wrote in 2016 in North Carolina
HPU faculty and staff talked about how they looked at Chinese students
As more and more international students come to America, this group becomes increasingly important. While to High Point University, the prominent phenomenon is Chinese students have been playing a relatively significant role recently. As a whole, there are around 30 to 40 Chinese students in HPU. And the number is expected to almost double this fall according to the enrollment officer. The following question is in the teachers’ eyes, what’s the difference of Chinese students from American students? What are the changes they will take to HPU?
A side: Polite and hard workers
Chinese students talking with the professor
According to most teachers, Chinese students are hard workers. In their eyes, Chinese students always take their academics seriously. When it comes to which aspect that Chinese students are most good at, Andy Bills, vice president of enrollment said, “I know that Chinese students are very good at preparing for testing.”
As what Bills said, the typical image of Chinese students appears in the media before are more good at reading and writing rather than other things. Almost all of them do well in Mathematics. “You know all the Chinese students did the math problems correctly but only a quarter of American students did it right. “Phil Watson, associate professor said.
What’s more, Elana Zamorski, who teaches modern foreign language, thought Chinese as “detailers”. She said, “They pay close attention to details. They will focus very carefully on the directions when they do their assignments. They want to understand exactly what the professor is asking them to do.” It is quite different from other international students because some of the other students might ignore the direction and they just do what they feel like doing.
Bills also gave the explanation to the characteristics of Chinese students. “Because it’s how the system operates in China. Whereas U.S. system hopefully teaches students more well-rounded, exposed them to other courses over four years that help them become educated in many different ways, “said Bills.
Besides, Chinese students are usually politer in the staffs’ eyes. The coordinator in Student Success Ann Foody thought that Chinese students were politer inquisitive with their bills than American students. “I think they are generally more mature than American students, “Foody said.
B side: Less creative and too shy to get involved in campus life
Chinese students have their own friends circle
Among the whole world, Chinese students are acknowledged as the ones who come with a little more structure and discipline than are American students. “Comparing to them, American students are given more freedom, “Bills said.
As a result, although Chinese students work harder and grasp the details, it seems American students do a better job on creative issues. Denny Bolton, executive vice president of HPU, also attributed it to the differences in system education. “While Chinese put less emphasis on memorization, we put more on creativity and problem-solving. So you have to adapt to a different system.”
Watson also made another point of why Chinese students do not do well in creative part. “You know, I’m teaching advertising and public relations. They deal primarily with American culture. Things would work in the United States probably wouldn’t work in China and vice versa.”
Another problem that Chinese students have, according to Zamorski, is that they do not speak up. “I have two or three students that are always asking some questions. But some other Chinese students don’t do that, I don’t know whether because they’re shy or they feel it’s inappropriate to ask professor questions, “Zamorski said. Plus, some Chinese students even don’t complain if they disagree something. “You know sometimes professors are making mistakes too. For example, I read an article in this way while students explain it in a different way. And I may change the grade. Some of the International students are always speaking up all the time. But Chinese students don’t do that. “Zamorski hopes Chinese students could speak up much more because it’s acceptable to approach professors and disagree with professors in the United States.
It also seems difficult for Chinese students to get involved in campus life as some of the Chinese students only get along with their Chinese friends. The big reason for that many teachers think is their shyness. Bills wanted to give some advice to the Chinese students, “I think it would benefit Chinese students to make sure they are reaching out and trying to make friends outside of the circle of friends from their own country. I hope Chinese students embrace the opportunity and get involved in the campus life, get involved with students you don’t know them.”
Mutual changes to both Chinese and American students
After all, with the increasing population of Chinese students, what are the changes that might bring to both sides? April Cosner, the coach of Student Success, had a say to it. She has a Chinese student who always bowed to her at the beginning, which made her really embarrassed. “I never exactly know do I have to bow back. But I really want to respect his culture. And I notice he has become more and more relaxed with me, and more and more informal. And last time he didn’t bow. I’m not sure whether he has noticed that we don’t do that here’s I want to respect his culture but he has made that change.”
As time goes by, Chinese students seem to get more relaxed in the United States. They become more and more adapted to American society. “I have seen some changes in my four Chinese students. They look a little bit of American just in terms of their dressing. “Watson said.
At the same time, there are also some changes that may will take to Hpu. Cosner said, “We need diversity here at HPU. So that our students will be more well-rounded. Our students here need to know all kinds of people not just white people.”
Watson thought that it important to American students who were going to make business or work with China to know the Chinese students. “China is a country with a large population. If it’s not already, it will soon be the largest market.”
Bills,who are in charge of the enrollment said Chinese students would play a big part here because China is a large country and is the largest exporter of students to America to get education. “Certainly our Chinese population is part of growth plan. And so our Chinese students can learn from different cultures and different customs.”
For more information on High Point University, you may visit www.highpoint.edu
For more information on situation of International students, you may visit http://www.iie.org/Services/Project-Atlas/United-States/International-Students-In-US#.VyDMPmNlmT8 | https://medium.com/@yunergao/chinese-studentss-double-sides-61d3edafb2ad | ['Yuner Gao'] | 2021-12-08 22:09:45.183000+00:00 | ['Chinese Students', 'American Culture', 'Chinese'] |
Three Churches of Sleepy Hollow & Tarrytown | At the southern end of Upstate New York is the Lower Hudson Valley. It is a region of blended histories for its European settlers and their descendants, beginning with its initial exploration by Englishman Henry Hudson on behalf of the Dutch East India Company in 1609. Even after the English acquisition of New Netherland in 1664 and the formation of the United States in 1776, the regional population long remained predominantly Dutch. In the wider public imagination, the region’s Westchester County is especially notable due to the literary contributions of American writer Washington Irving (1783-1859).
Irving is renowned nationally and internationally for his short stories Rip Van Winkle (1819) and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1820), which were featured in the collection The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. The Legend is the longest story of The Sketchbook, fundamentally influenced by the cultural-religious histories of what are today the modern Villages of Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown in Westchester. Although The Legend became synonymous with hauntings and the supernatural, its themes also vitally consider the temporal, primal tensions found between homogeneity and the outsider as well as between tradition and change.
Irving’s life was spent in and out of both New York and the United States, but his initial, formative visit to Tarrytown, to escape a yellow fever outbreak in New York City, was as a teenager in 1798. Tarrytown was already a formal Village at the time, but the northern area where the Pocantico and Hudson Rivers meet was only colloquially known as Slapers Haben (Sleepers Haven), a name first given by Adrien van der Donck (1618–55). “Sleepy Hollow” was only popularized, and further formalized, much later because of The Legend. Three historic churches in Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown exemplify the seminal intertwining and proliferation, via Irving, of local culture into universal literature. | https://medium.com/the-photographic-muslim/three-churches-of-sleepy-hollow-tarrytown-ef6e4a4b2430 | ['Haytham Ad-Din', 'The Photographic Muslim'] | 2020-09-30 07:32:10.199000+00:00 | ['Christianity', 'Special Feature', 'History', 'Religion', 'Photography'] |
In our opinion: Honor our veterans | Every year, on Nov. 11, our country celebrates Veterans Day. America has been honoring its veterans around this date, in some fashion, by some name, since 1919 — the one-year anniversary of the armistice of World War I, then known as “The Great War.”
Fighting stopped between the Allied nations and Germany on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918. President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed Nov. 11 as the first commemoration of Armistice Day a year later.
In 1938, the government passed an act that made Nov. 11 an official holiday dedicated “to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as ‘Armistice Day.’” In 1954, after World War II and the Korean War, Congress revised the act, replacing the word “Armistice” with the word “Veterans.”
The remembrance shifted to Oct. 25 in 1971 after some governmental “confusion,” but was returned officially to Nov. 11 by in 1975.
The name and date of what is now known as Veterans Day may have changed in the 94 years since the first celebration, but the spirit has not.
Veterans Day commemorations are held throughout the country, and our local region does an excellent job of paying homage to the servicemen and servicewomen who have served, and are still serving, to protect our freedoms.
These men and women of the Armed Forces past and present risk their lives, day in and day out, so that we can live the lives we enjoy today in America. They risk their lives, day in and day out, so that we can live better lives in the future. They risk their lives, day in and day out, so that people around the world can hopefully live a life that is free like ours.
Fighting for freedom is not always a popular choice, and it may be debatable, at times, whether it’s even the right choice. But that does not, and should not, take away from the people who serve to protect our country.
Hopefully, you commemorated Veterans Day in some fashion. And hopefully, you’ll continue to honor our veterans throughout the year.
Your thoughts:
How did you commemorate Veterans Day this year? How can we continue to honor the servicemen and servicewomen throughout the year? | https://medium.com/the-voorhees-sun/in-our-opinion-honor-our-veterans-e61da2247ed7 | [] | 2016-12-19 14:33:07.417000+00:00 | ['Headlines', 'Celebrate', 'Congress', 'America'] |
The story of the first genetically edited twins | You might have come across a story about the birth of twin sisters Lula and Nana whose genome was edited to protect them from the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
This news caused a furore in the scientific community, and the lead scientist (Dr He Jiankui) of the experiment was severely criticised. Dr He was sentenced to 3 years in prison and fined 3 million Yuan for violating the ethics of research on human embryos.
One year later, the case of Dr He Jiankui is still a hot topic in the scientific community as more and more details and — most importantly — results of this “clinical research” (as Dr He called it) are being revealed to the general public.
Today, I want to tell you about the system by virtue of which Lula and Nana were created and about Dr He and his “experiment”.
CRISPR/Cas9
CRISPR (from ‘clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats’) and protein Cas9 are a type of bacterial immune system. When attacked by a virus, bacteria retain fragments of genetic information from the virus. In case of a repeated attack, the bacteria are then able to recognise the viral invader and the Cas9 protein destroys the virus’ genetic material.
The discovery of the CRISPR/Cas9 system revolutionised scientific research. This system was quickly copied and adapted for use in different model organisms. This well-received method of gene-editing has substantial advantages:
1. Easy to use
2. Low cost
3. Has the potential of inserting and replacing genes
The CRISPR/Cas9 system has a huge potential in curing genetic disorders and alleviating diseases using in vitro (cell cultures) and in vivo models (laboratory animals).
The difference between genetic therapy and genome editing
Genetic therapy is intended to “deliver” one or few copies of a gene to the patient’s body with the help of vectors (special vehicles that deliver the gene of interest to the host’s cells and help insert the gene to the host’s genome). The aim is to compensate for the negative effect of the bad gene with a mutation. However, genetic therapy has an effect only on somatic cells (all the cells except the egg cells and sperm), and such editing is NOT hereditary.
Gene-editing, on the other hand, is intended to correct a gene that causes a disease. In the majority of cases, gene-editing is carried out in the embryo stages of development. As a consequence, all the cells, including ovum and spermatozoon (egg cells and sperm), have the alteration in their genotype, and therefore the changes will be inherited by the following generation.
Doctor He
He Jiankui was born in 1984 in the Xinhua county. He received a state scholarship to study at the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei (one of the most prestigious universities in China) where he studied physics. As he completed the degree, He went to the USA, joined the laboratory of Professor Deem and started working on his PhD. In 2010, He published his own mathematical model of the evolution of CRISPR and other proteins.
In 2011, Dr He returned to China and received state funding to develop a biotech start-up called Direct Genomics. His team included some famous scientists specialised in embryology and genetics. In April 2018, the scientist announced a successfully completed pregnancy after the genetic modification of embryos.
Today, almost all of Dr He’s colleagues affirm that they were wary of his ideas and tried to stop the experiment… However, investigations have shown that many scientists supported He and were pleased with his achievements.
I would like to remind you that he is a physicist. So, to continue his project, Dr He needed help from embryologists, genetics, and gynaecologists who apparently were not against his experiments.
The successful pregnancy — Lulu and Nana
In 2017, Dr He and his team began selecting couples that could not have babies and where the male partner had HIV. One couple fulfilled the criteria and was selected for the “clinical research”.
After the insemination, the embryos were edited in a petri dish with the help of the CRISPR/Cas9 system. A fragment of the CCR5 gene that encodes the receptor on the surface of white blood cells was eliminated in the embryos of Lula and Nana. Dr He believed that such editing would prevent the twins from being infected with HIV because the CCR5-receptor is involved in the distribution of HIV in the body.
The successful in vitro fertilization of the twins was followed by the news about Lula and Nana’s birth in November 2018.
In the video above Dr He announces the birth of Lulu and Nana and potential benefits of genome editing in humans.
Why did not Dr He gain the appreciation and respect that he anticipated?
To date, there is no scientist that would openly support Dr He.
The main reasons why Dr. He’s “experiment” was not well received are:
Open violation of the law: in China, like in the majority of other countries, it is prohibited to conduct experiments on human embryos that are 14-days old; as well as its implantation into a woman’s womb. («Ethical Guiding Principles for Research on Embryonic Stem Cells,» 2003); The human genome (that is, a combination of all human genes) is not yet fully understood: to date, the number of known human genes comprising of 20,000–25,000 is believed to be only a fraction of the real number of genes; therefore, any kind of intervention into the human genome may lead to unpredicted consequences; The science acknowledges that CCR5 is also responsible for intellect, meaning that Dr He created girls with an artificially elevated IQ; It was later revealed that the CCR5 gene was only partially deleted in one of the twin sisters’ genome; meaning she could still be infected with HIV; Most importantly, this “clinical research” did not have therapeutic significance! The girls were not under the direct risk of infection since the sperm of their father was disinfected by the procedure called “sperm washing” before the fertilisation.
Note: starting from 2012, in many countries of the world, ‘sperm washing’ became a routine procedure before an in vitro fertilisation procedure if a partner is infected with HIV, hepatitis A or C. | https://medium.com/@kadani/the-story-of-the-first-genetically-edited-twins-17bbb74d00ae | ['Kadani Health Science'] | 2020-12-08 13:16:14.923000+00:00 | ['Research', 'Twins', 'Stem Cell Research', 'Crispr Cas9', 'STEM'] |
What are the benefits of stress management? | What are the benefits of stress management?
MANAGING STRESS — GOOD FOR YOUR HEALTH.
WE ALL KNOW WHAT IT’S LIKE TO FEEL STRESSED, AND WE ALL DEAL WITH IT DIFFERENTLY, BUT HOW MUCH STRESS IS TOO MUCH? YOUR BODY WILL LET YOU KNOW WHEN YOU’RE OVER STRESSED, WITH MUSCLE TENSION, SWEATY PALMS, OR DIFFICULTY SLEEPING. YOU MIGHT FEEL WORRIED, FEARFUL, FATIGUED, IRRITABLE, OR HAVE A HARD TIME CONCENTRATING. THESE CAN BE THE SIGNS OF STRESS, BUT THE CONSEQUENCES CAN BE MUCH LARGER, BOTH ON YOUR LIFE AND THOSE AROUND YOU.
THE SOLUTION IS TO KEEP YOUR STRESS UNDER CONTROL WITH STRESS MANAGEMENT SKILLS. MIKE WENT THROUGH A PERIOD OF HIGH STRESS. HE WAS LAID OFF FROM HIS JOB AND RUNNING OUT OF SAVINGS. THE FINANCIAL STRAIN WAS KEEPING HIM UP AT NIGHT. HE WAS IRRITABLE AND TENSE, AND EVEN HAD DIGESTIVE PROBLEMS. AT THE VA, MIKE GOT HELP FINDING WAYS TO MANAGE HIS STRESS, SUCH AS THINKING DIFFERENTLY ABOUT HIS PROBLEMS AND MAKING TIME FOR HOBBIES AND ACTIVITIES LIKE WALKING HIS DOG. THE PHYSICAL ACTIVITY HELPED MIKE RELAX AND BE MINDFUL OF HIS STRESS, AND HE LEARNED SOME NEW PROBLEM-SOLVING SKILLS.
HE FOCUSED ON POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS, AND NOT JUST THE PROBLEMS, EVEN PROGRESS, LIKE VISUALIZING HIMSELF STARTING A NEW JOB. GETTING EXERCISE AND THINKING POSITIVELY HELPED MIKE GET BACK INTO THE JOB MARKET. FINDING WAYS TO PHYSICALLY RELAX CAN BE EXTREMELY HELPFUL. JOE WAS FEELING DETACHED FROM HIS GRAND KIDS, AS HIS ACHES AND PAINS WERE KEEPING HIM FROM KEEPING UP. BUT SINCE HE TOOK RELAXATION CLASSES AT HIS VA AND STARTED DOING LIGHT PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AT HOME, JOE HAS FOUND THAT HE FEELS BETTER, BOTH PHYSICALLY AND EMOTIONALLY, AND IS ABLE TO ENJOY MORE TIME WITH HIS FAMILY. RELATIONSHIP PROBLEMS — WE’VE ALL HAD THEM. GEORGE AND VICKIE’S RELATIONSHIP WAS SUFFERING DUE TO TIME-MANAGEMENT RELATED STRESSES — WORKING LATE, ARGUING OVER WHO WOULD PICK UP THE KIDS, AND SPENDING THEIR ONLY TIME TOGETHER IN SILENCE.
TIME CONSTRAINTS LED THE JOHNSONS TO STOP COOKING MEALS, AND THEIR NEW FAST FOOD DIET TOOK ITS TOLL ON THEIR WALLETS AND THEIR WAISTS. THE JOHNSONS TOOK A STRESS-MANAGEMENT CLASS AT THE VA AND LEARNED THAT MAKING A PLAN — AND STICKING TO IT — COULD EASE THEIR STRESS. THEY USED PROBLEM-SOLVING SKILLS TO DETERMINE WHO WOULD PICK UP THE KIDS AND MAKE DINNER ON WHICH DAYS, AND IN THE PROCESS THEY MADE TIME TO GO ON WALKS TOGETHER.
THEY LEARNED NO MATTER HOW CHALLENGING LIFE BECOMES, HELP IS AVAILABLE. TO LEARN MORE ABOUT HOW TO MANAGE STRESS. HEALTHCARE IS DEFINING EXCELLENCE IN THE 21st CENTURY.. THIS NATURAL SUPPLEMENT IS THE MOST POWERFUL REMEDY TO MAKE YOU FORGET ABOUT STRESS AND START LIVING TO THE FULLEST.
READ MORE | https://medium.com/@superlifebase/what-are-the-benefits-of-stress-management-61057ace6e04 | [] | 2020-12-15 21:09:35.041000+00:00 | ['Stress Management', 'Stress And Anxiety', 'Stress Relief', 'Stress Management Tips'] |
5 Reasons Why You Should Have Variety In Your Workout! | Just imagine being served the same sandwich every day for breakfast, for a year. Or watching the same movie every day before going to bed. You can’t, right? You need variety in that. Then why do you think forcing your body to undergo the same workout every day is a good idea?
Well, it’s not. You cannot bore yourself and your body with the same fitness activity. You need to have a variety to enjoy getting fitter. Or sooner or later, you’d just give up on working out.
Here are 5 reasons that’ll definitely convince you to play around and mix things up in your fitness regime.
It Prevents Stagnation Of Body Development
Our bodies have undergone millions of years of evolution to adapt to change. So if you run on the treadmill for 30 minutes every day for a fortnight; chances are, your body will get used to it and treat it like it’s just part of your day.
This means that you won’t shed weight, or increase stamina, just waste 30 minutes of your day for nothing. So constant change in your workout forces your body to keep adapting to your routine, and in turn, make more progress towards your fitness goals.
An Adrenaline Rush Is Good
Endless cycles of monotonous reps are not only boring but also redundant. Changing up your workout makes things so much more spontaneous. Don’t you miss having that rush of adrenaline like you did when you drove a car for the first time? Now, imagine that rush, but every day.
Scientifically, a spontaneous workout makes you lose your breath faster, releasing endorphins throughout your body that help break down fat and restore muscle growth. Endorphins are also happy hormones. So, they’d make you feel much calm, relaxed and at peace
Different Activity Means Different Goal Accomplished
When you rigorously do one activity, you tend to exhaust a particular part of your body. For example, if you go for intense running sessions, chances are, after each session you need to have a couple of days of rest to let your legs recover.
Now if you only stick to running, you are left with nothing to do on your rest days. But if you plan to experiment with other activities, you can try other things like Yoga to relax yourself. This way, you get to have more training sessions and get fitter faster.
Your Mind Gets Healthier
Constant experimentation with different ways to work out not only helps you physically but mentally as well. Learning new techniques in fitness forms like Karate, MMA and Zumba involve extensive use of memory, which fires more neurons in the brain. The more the number of these neurons, the healthier the brain gets.
Not just that, engaging in soulful Yoga and relaxing treks and fun fitness parties (like the ones hosted by us) can reduce your stress and anxiety levels and boost your mental well-being.
You Get Variety In Company
The very premise of our lives today is based on social networking. While we are busy making never connections virtually, we are losing out on real-life connections and getting more and more lonely and secluded.
So, what better way to find new people that share similar interests with you than to explore fitness studios in and around your area. So, one day you find a gym partner and the next day you get a swimming buddy and then you would soon have a gang to go on a trek.
In The End
Choosing a variety of fitness activities for your workout helps you make your fitness journey more holistic. It allows you to not only get physically fit but also improve your mental and social well-being.
And if you wish to enjoy fitness this way, your best bet is Fitato.
For more information on all the different gyms and fitness activities (CrossFit, Yoga, Zumba, etc), you can try out in your city, check out Fitato. Fitato is your single membership to various gyms & fitness studios in your city. So what are you waiting for? Download the app now. | https://medium.com/@connect_13012/5-reasons-why-you-should-have-variety-in-your-workout-3b52745adbb8 | ['Fitato Fitness Pass'] | 2020-03-11 15:25:43.844000+00:00 | ['Health', 'Workout', 'Fitnessmotivation', 'Fitato', 'Fitness Tips'] |
Monero BulletProof — Transactions Now Cheaper By 97% | Back in December 2017, Monero announced that they would be implementing their Bulletproof Protocol in two stages which promised to retain all existing privacy and security features while shrinking down transaction sizes significantly and providing an avenue for sustained and efficient scaling.
Since that time two separate audits were done on Monero’s Bulletproof Protocol, the first being done by Kudelski Security back in July 2018 and the second by QuarksLab in January 2018.
Recently Monero shared their latest major release of v0.13.0 of the Monero software named “The Beryllium Bullet” which has enabled Bulletproofs to make transactions on the Monero platform nearly 97% cheaper. While there were some crucial fixes needed Monero has since patched their documented vulnerabilities, most significantly stopping the threat of a 51% attack on their network through remote nodes.
Although significant, the BulletProof update showed little improvement towards the value of XMR and saw only a $4.00 maximum increase in value after the news broke of the update according to CoinMarketCap.
In the long term, Monero looks like they have taken a meaningful step in the development of their platform that might set them apart in the future as the crypto market continues to undergo constant change and evolution. With such a massive step forward Monero may very well be clearing a path for other networks to follow.
Will the BulletProof update spark rally for the value of XRM? Only time will tell. As other networks fall behind the curve Monero has set we may very well see Monero start to climb the charts past its competitors. | https://medium.com/rublix/monero-bulletproof-transactions-now-cheaper-by-97-80801601b594 | ['Shane Moser'] | 2018-10-26 17:46:21.864000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency', 'Crypto', 'Bitcoin', 'Monero'] |
September 2019 | September 2019
My entries more often than not have a BDSM and femdom angle to them, enjoy.
I opened her up with my tongue, and let out her demons.
#Storyin12
Demons, Sep 28th
Some measure of quiet solitude is quite necessary for contemplation, and masturbation.
#Storyin12
Solitude, Sep 26th
She trembled as the buzzing wand brought her closer to the precipice.
#Storyin12
Buzz, Sep 24th
Her plump lips, ripe with wanting;
His erect rod, into the slit.
#Storyin12
Ripe, Sep 23rd
Every session together seemed a quest to test his, and her, boundaries.
#Storyin12
Quest, Sep 22nd
She liked him; naive, but tongue nimble, hips vigorous and spirit willing.
#Storyin12
Vigorous, Sep 21st
Her stream was strong and golden, splashing over her slaves’ upturned faces.
#Storyin12
Golden, Sep 20th
She pushed me away and out I came with a slick pop.
#Storyin12
Pop, Sep 19th
Her moans from the opera box were masked by the soaring soprano.
#Storyin12
Opera, Sep 18th
Orgasms can be elusive, which is why you’re welcome to keep trying.
#Storyin12
Elusive, Sep 17th
She was butter on his tongue, rich, melting at the slightest contact.
#Storyin12
Butter, Sep 16th
Her skilled hands ensured he made a mess in quite short order.
#Storyin12
Mess, Sep 14th
“Bless this mess,” the priest pronounced, cumming on her face and chest.
#Storyin12
Mess, Sep 14th
Her long linen skirt was airy, affording his hungry hands easy access.
#Storyin12
Linen, Sep 13th
He dripped icecream on her pert nipples, then slowly slurped it up.
#Storyin12
Icecream, Sep 12th
His nipples were like knife-points as she teased his hole with the dildo.
#Storyin12
Knife, Sep 11th
Her pussy was luscious; warm, sweet and moist like a rich pudding.
#Storyin12
Luscious, Sep 9th
Becoming a widow unfettered her, and she revelled in her newfound freedom.
#Storyin12
Widow, Sep 8th
Jealous of her other dalliances, he still obeyed dutifully when called upon.
#Storyin12
Jealous, Sep 7th
A prince among men, to her he was only a submissive slave.
#Storyin12
Prince, Sep 6th
His need was a product of her invention, the locked chastity device.
#Storyin12
Invention, Sep 5th
Bound and gagged, he grunted for help, but there was none forthcoming.
#Storyin12
Help, Sep 4th
Trembling with arousal, he shot his load deep like a water gun.
#Storyin12
Gun, Sep 3rd
The distinctive magnetic chemistry between them was sparked by naked instinctive lust.
#Storyin12
Chemistry, Sep 2nd
With a soft rustle, she joined them under the slick satin sheets.
#Storyin12
Rustle, Sep 1st | https://medium.com/@uncmfrtblynmb/september-2019-85e9390f8448 | [] | 2020-12-18 14:32:34.296000+00:00 | ['Microfiction', 'Femdom', 'BDSM', 'Erotica', 'Kink'] |
Wanna Keep Fit? Try Zumba! | Physical activity is a must in today’s busy and stressful life. Most of us are engaged in such work that makes us sit for long hours. There is hardly any activity or moving around or sport/recreational activity we do. Such a lifestyle is called sedentary activity. Sedentary lifestyle is responsible for many lifestyle related diseases and disorders such as obesity, diabetes, heart diseases, etc.
Overstress adds to this condition and makes us more susceptible to such problems.
Many-a-times we realize this and want to be physically active. One may think an easy way of doing this is joining a gym or go for walks. However some of us find these activities to be very monotonous and may get bored soon. This may lead to us either quitting the activity or be irregular at it.
There are various other forms as a substitute to the usual approach to exercise. New types of set physical activities are being developed to suit more and more people and their lifestyles.
Zumba fitness could be considered an effective type of physical activity able to improve aerobic capacity i.e. the cardio activity (it relates to heart health and expending calories by burning fats from the body).
Zumba is a fun activity, which is a combination of various dance moves and cardio vascular exercises. It also has some strength building activities involved in routine. Generally, there is a class in which one or two trainers train a group of participants on a piece of music.
Zumba was found accidentally by Alberto “Beto” Perez (Columbian dancer/choreographer) in the 1990s. The dance routine includes a combination of various dance styles such as hip-hop, soca, samba, salsa, merengue and mambo. Other exercises such as lunges and squats are also comprised in Zumba.
Health Benefits:
Weight loss
It is a good activity for losing weight (of course along with the right kind of healthy diet and other lifestyles changes). It is medium to fast pace activity and help in burning fats from the body, thus resulting in weight loss.
2. Improves Cardio Vascular (Heart) Fitness
Studies show that a Zumba program of 12 weeks can be responsible for noteworthy improvements in cardio vascular or aerobic health.
3. Decrease Blood Pressure
Regular Zumba activity has also shown to decrease the blood pressure.
4. Increases Threshold to Pain
It is a great aerobic activity and evidence shows that aerobic exercise improves tolerance to pain.
5. Fun and Social Activity
When a physical activity is done in a group, it is thought to be more enjoyable. You may meet new people, make new friends or workout while having a great time with your friends and family members! Experts believe that being social helps in maintaining and improving mental health.
6. Makes you Happy
Exercising release feel good hormone called Endorphins, the same effect can be achieved with doing Zumba and thus it may help elevate your mood.
Some experts also believe that certain types of Zumba programs such as “Zumba toning” may also help improve the muscle strength and help tone your body. But more research in this area is required to show its effectiveness.
Please Note:
For various pathology tests, MRIs, Scans, X-rays, Dental and Eye Care Centers and Health Check-ups in Nigeria, please visit https://www.mecure.com.ng/
Download the Mecure Smart Buy app to order medicines and healthcare products: https://msb.ng
References
https://www.healthline.com/health/fitness-exercise/benefits-of-zumba#1
https://www.pmrjournal.org/article/S1934-1482(16)30189-7/pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zumba#cite_note-brides-3
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22699138 | https://medium.com/mecure-healthcare/wanna-keep-fit-try-zumba-d12c83495fcd | ['Minoti Dighe Gadre'] | 2020-01-03 10:41:21.439000+00:00 | ['Fitness', 'Weight Loss', 'Exercise', 'Dance', 'Health'] |
“It’s getting dark” — A Short Story | “It’s getting dark” — A Short Story
They didn’t know if they would get out of there.
Photo by Simon Wijers on Unsplash
She was cautiously looking outside the window. Something wasn’t right. They had arrived at the vacation house two days ago for a quick weekend getaway. But something had happened. By the sound of it, it seemed that all the animals had gone crazy. All you could hear was constant growling and howling. Julie was afraid to even go outside by herself. A couple of times she had even seen some wolves lurking around.
When she was little, she spent most of her summers there, playing with toys outside. Back then they were always hoping to see some animals as it was a rare thing to happen. Today it was different.
“Jake! Come take a look!” She shouted out. “They are here all over again.” He dashed down the stairs. “What’s going on?” The wolves were dragging plants from the ground, clawing at trees and the shed. Some were even climbing on their car.
“What the hell is happening? What are we going to do, Jake?” she asked nervously.
“This is not right. Something has happened to them. We need to get back to the city,” Jake answered.
“How are we supposed to do that?”
“Check your phone. Do you have service?”
“No.. P…Po… Power is also out.”
“That’s not good. We need to get to the car before they scrap it.”
It had gotten very dark already. It was hard to see anything outside. Some blurry silhouettes of creatures were the only thing their eyes could separate. The sounds were getting worse.
“There must be a lot of them,” she uttered.
“I’m gonna get the flashlight. We must hurry or we’ll be here forever, “ mentioned Jake.
“They are scraping the door already. I’m scared to go outside. “
“I understand. I’m also not so thrilled about it. But it’s the only way to get out,” Jake answered. “But we must use the back door.”
Suddenly they heard glass shattering. “That can’t be good.” It was a modestly small house. They could hear the animals moving around the house. Some steps sounded way too heavy.
“For sure, these aren’t only wolves, ” mentioned Jake. “But let’s move. Let’s take the back door.”
They ran through the living room until they reached the small lobby at the back. “It seems quiet.” Jake pushed the door open a little and peeked outside. “I can’t see anybody. But it’s really dark. Do you have the keys?”
“Yep.”
“Let’s go. Carefully.”
They heard a loud roar extremely close.
“Something’s moving there,” said Julie.
“It’s coming closer! Quick, inside!”
They managed to jump inside, while the monster was left behind clawing the door. They dropped to the ground breathing heavily. “What was that?”
“No idea. It can’t be good. There’s no way we are going back out there. Maybe it’s better to wait for the morning.” | https://medium.com/collective-unconscious/its-getting-dark-a-short-story-84e028987f5 | ['Erios De Kir'] | 2019-11-20 17:12:55.381000+00:00 | ['Fiction', 'Short Story', 'Flash Fiction', 'Horror', 'Writing'] |
Why Switzerland Wants to be the Best Country for Cryptocurrencies | Switzerland wants to position itself as the leading global nation for the cryptocurrency market. The country holds the reputation for being one of the most advanced nations in the world with regards to financial services, banking, and technology. It’s not a surprise that today Switzerland ranks number one blockchain-friendly country in Europe.
The future of Switzerland is "Crypto".
The country has been at the epicenter of the wealth management industry for long, accounting for 27% of the global share wealth, according to Deloitte. A pioneer in the development of Blockchain technology within its progressive, modern financial industry and with Bitcoin being accepted to pay for goods and services such as train tickets, and with the emergence of Zug, Swiss well-known “crypto valley”, Switzerland makes many crypto investors dream. On top of it, the country’s tax-free policy attracts a plethora of startups and foreign companies from all around the world looking to consolidate their position into the blockchain industry.
What is the future of the blockchain and cryptocurrencies in Switzerland? What makes Switzerland so attractive for crypto investors?
Soon after having ended its world-famous bank secrecy in January 2017, the country had to rethink its positioning in the global financial sphere to remain as leader. Therefore, embracing a future based on blockchain and cryptocurrencies was an opportunity for the Swiss nation. Hence, to move away from the bank secrecy tradition and to further protect its reputation as a global place for healthy banking, Switzerland embarked on the blockchain and Bitcoin journey, promoting blockchain projects widely. This year, Switzerland was declared “largely compliant” by the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes, meaning the country was ready to open up to a new future.
Switzerland offers an attractive Environment for blockchain startups and cryptocurrencies.
Source: Deloitte Report The Blockchain (R)evolution — The Swiss Perspective, 2018
Switzerland benefits from a favorable environment on many levels that support the development of the blockchain and the crypto markets. From the public and private sectors to the government and the media, from the Swiss economic history as a liberal and democratic economy to regulating bodies such as FINMA, the Swiss ecosystem is solid and healthy enough to support the blockchain revolution.
Indeed, the blockchain is largely fostered by big banks such as UBS in Switzerland that plans to develop a digital currency linked to a central bank and tied to a fiat currency, according to Deloitte. The Swiss bank launched its Utility Settlement Coin (USC) with Deutsche Bank which allows financial markets to make payments and settle transactions securely, timely and transparently through the blockchain.
Plus, blockchain experiments in Switzerland go further than the dynamic financial sphere. For example, blockchain technology will be tested in a municipal vote this summer in the canton of Zug, home of the Swiss crypto hub. The blockchain-based trial municipal vote will allow people to vote directly through their mobile phones. Depending on the results, the test should allow Switzerland to strengthen its position as a global leading blockchain nation on many sectors.
Switzerland is an “unofficial” crypto heaven
With a comfortable ecosystem that supports the development of Blockchain and Bitcoin, crypto investing has flourished in Switzerland. For example, ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings) raised approximately USD 550 million in funding in 2017, which represents 15% of the global ICO market. Similar to the traditional IPOs (Initial Public Offerings), ICOs are a new financial strategy to raise capital through digital currencies and Blockchain technology that enables to fund projects and startups. In the context of ICOs, investors buy in fiat currencies (USD or Euro) and receive ‘”tokens” in exchange.
According to Mondag, the taxation in Switzerland is very attractive for ICOs:
The implementation of an ICO does not require a specific type of company.
An equity token, issued by an ICO, may be subject to a one-time capital duty of 1 percent, unlike a debt token.
Any distribution of profits on equity tokens is subject to Swiss withholding tax at a rate of 35 %.
However, the taxation of ICOs remains a work in progress in Switzerland as there are no clear best practice standards available yet for crypto investors. Therefore, it’s the sole responsibility of investors and ICO issuers to look at the Swiss legislation from time to time to follow the progress regarding taxes.
FINMA published guidelines on ICOs regulations.
Nonetheless, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) published a set of guidelines in February 2018, in the hope of regulating ICOs. The report mentions that “in assessing ICOs, FINMA will focus on the economic function and purpose of the tokens (i.e. the blockchain-based units) issued by the ICO organizers.”
FINMA classifies tokens into three categories as follow:
Payment tokens which are synonymous with cryptocurrencies as means of payment.
Utility tokens which are tokens intended to provide digital access to an application or service.
Asset tokens which represent assets such as dividends or interest payments, similar to equities, bonds, and derivatives.
Finally, the important focus of the body is to fight against potential money laundering and boost securities regulation relevant to ICOs. FINMA also published some guidance for investors, reminding them that many ICOs are still at a stage of development meaning they are subject to some uncertainties such as price volatility.
Conclusion
The blockchain is an excellent fit for Switzerland as the country is rooted in technology with forward-thinking banking and financial systems. Bitcoin is already largely adopted in some part of the country and is regarded as a currency. The current flexible Swiss taxations on ICOs enabled the rise of the crypto nation that is Switzerland today. With such a dynamic cryptocurrency market and the development of top blockchain-based projects outside of the financial sectors as seen with the municipal vote planned in Zug over the summer, the Swiss nation could be the first one ever to serve as a role model for future countries looking toward a blockchain and crypto driven economy. Savvy investors interested in the Swiss market should further go ahead as ICOs are booming now, bearing in mind the potential risks. | https://medium.com/blocktoken/why-switzerland-wants-to-be-the-best-country-for-cryptocurrencies-2a597f076864 | ['Genson C. Glier'] | 2018-08-16 03:40:13.299000+00:00 | ['Bitcoin'] |
Britain’s Oven-Ready Turkey | Five years ago
David Cameron was prime minister, happily rambling along when a dark shadow from his past whispered in his ear and reminded him of his student high-jinks. Bullied into it, he promised to have a referendum that only the dark shadow and a Mr Jack Featherstone from Cleethorpes wanted, but he didn’t think he would lose.
Nobody could say why Brexit was a good idea, except Nigel Farage, who said it but couldn’t give any reason why he said it. Everybody knew why he said it and it wasn’t because it was a good idea.
The government did a secret report on the impact of Brexit and then said we couldn’t know what is in the report because it is just speculation, then they speculated Brexit would be good, but the report was leaked and it said it would be bad — which they ignored.
The Shadow Minister for Education, Boris Johnson, backed the side he didn’t believe in because he didn’t think it would win.
Nobody in their right mind thought anyone would vote for Brexit, so only the people not in their right mind turned out to vote and everyone puffed out their cheeks and expelled air in disbelief when Brexit happened — even those who voted for it were dumbfounded. | https://medium.com/the-haven/britains-oven-ready-turkey-7aa648090b97 | ['Malky Mcewan'] | 2020-12-16 07:40:57.995000+00:00 | ['Brexit', 'Politics', 'Humor', 'Humour', 'Funny'] |
Building a Predictable Lead Generation Strategy for One of New England’s Top Colleges | Building a Predictable Lead Generation Strategy for One of New England’s Top Colleges Ideometry Follow Oct 20, 2017 · 3 min read
Based in Worcester, MA, Assumption College is one of the top Catholic colleges in New England, boasting over 40 majors for undergrads, and seven programs for graduate students.
The Challenge
Assumption’s marketing team needed new, more predictable streams of quality leads for their MBA and Clinical Counseling Psychology graduate programs. Though they had invested in email marketing, event marketing initiatives, content marketing, and billboards, Assumption had yet to find a way to consistently generate leads for these programs.
At the same time, Assumption was also launching a brand new graduate program — Applied Behavioral Analysis — and wanted to seed the initial class with high-quality candidates.
The Solution
We started via a discovery and research phase, interviewing staff, administrators, current students, and alumni to better understand what differentiates Assumption and their programs in addition to what are the key factors prospective students consider in their decision making process.
Based on our research, we determined that the best way to reach these people were through custom Facebook and SEM campaigns. Our approach to the Facebook and SEM campaigns for all three programs was to build out dozens of viable target audiences and hundreds of unique ads for each program. We like to call this “ad and audience experimentation at scale.” In testing hundreds of creative ad concepts across all of the target audiences, we were able to figure out which messages resonate with which specific audiences.
Once the campaigns were live, we could see which audiences and creative were generating the best results and reallocate the remaining budget to the highest-performing ads. To track our results, we built highly accurate conversion attribution funnels to identify precisely which ads/audiences are responsible for driving each lead.
After a year of running the campaign, and Assumption had a predictable amount of high-quality leads coming in for each program. As we optimized the creative concepts and audiences, we continued to see increases in the number of leads coming in.
Beyond the hundreds of leads that were generated, these campaigns generated over 11+ million impressions, and over thousands of people “liked” or shared the Assumption FB page. The reach and engagement level of our campaign was also been a great push for overall brand awareness and visibility. Additionally, the research we conducted on which audiences responded best to the ads was a great exercise in target realignment, which gave Assumption a better idea of the audiences they should be targeting with all marketing communications.
***
If you liked what you saw here, check out some of the other branding and creative campaigns we’ve done for a major credit union and a tech startup.
Need help generating fresh leads to fill your sales pipeline? Get in touch with us today. | https://medium.com/ideometry/building-a-predictable-lead-generation-strategy-for-one-of-new-englands-top-colleges-f00f98bc5d15 | [] | 2017-10-24 14:45:39.906000+00:00 | ['Higher Education', 'Marketing', 'Digital Marketing', 'Lead Generation', 'Social Media Marketing'] |
7 Life-Changing Books You Can Devour In A Single Day | 7 Life-Changing Books You Can Devour In A Single Day
#2 and #5 will only take you 30 minutes to read
Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash
You think I just “click-baited” you, huh?
You think it’s impossible to read a “life-changing” book in just one day, don’t you?
But let me tell you something…
It’s possible.
How do I know?
I know because I’ve done it.
And you know what?
It’s not that hard either. You just need to know which books to read.
Obviously, you won’t be able to read Leo Tolstoy’s 1,296-page “War and Peace” in one day. But if you’re like the average adult who can read about 300 words per minute (or 18,000 words per hour), then you can easily read a short 150 page book in a single afternoon.
This is why I compiled a list of 7 life-changing short books that you can devour in a single day.
Yes, I mean it.
These 7 books will significantly change your life in major ways and they only require a little bit of your time. That’s a great ROI.
I hope you enjoy! | https://medium.com/books-are-our-superpower/7-life-changing-books-you-can-devour-in-a-single-day-72536765a02f | ['Vincent Carlos'] | 2020-11-21 18:23:58.362000+00:00 | ['Ideas', 'Self Improvement', 'Productivity', 'Life', 'Books'] |
Tiffany Haddish Was Asked to Host the Grammy’s For Exposure, Not Pay | Tiffany Haddish Was Asked to Host the Grammy’s For Exposure, Not Pay
Tiffany Haddish is an accomplished actress, producer, stand-up comic, and author. She keeps an impressive portfolio of television and film appearances on The Carmichael Show, Keanu, Night School, Like A Boss, and most famously 2017’s award-winning Girls Trip, in which she starred beside Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Regina Hall. In 2019, ABC revived the show Kid’s Say the Darndest Things, which Haddish hosted and produced. She even got her own comedy special on Showtime, Tiffany Haddish: She Ready! From the Hood to Hollywood.
Haddish keeps it very real, and she’s funny as hell doing it. It’s no wonder why she’s in such high demand in Hollywood, nor is it surprising that she would be offered the job of hosting the 2021 Grammy’s pre-telecast Premiere Ceremony, a live stream virtual event.
What is surprising, not to mention insulting and problematic, is that Haddish was asked to host the Grammy event for free.
It was a three-hour hosting gig, in which Haddish was told she would not be paid for her time. She would not be compensated for her hair, wardrobe, and makeup costs either. Haddish turned the job down.
Haddish spoke to Variety about turning down the hosting gig, saying:
“All of that would have to come out of my pocket. I don’t know if this might mean I might not get nominated ever again, but I think it’s disrespectful.” “The exposure is amazing but I think I have enough. I appreciate you guys asking. And as much as I appreciate the honor of being nominated, that’s not OK.”
Since the news broke, the Academy has apologized to the comedian.
Harvey Mason Jr., the Recording Academy Interim President and CEO, also spoke out on Instagram, posting a public apology to the actress, saying he was unaware of the decision made by a talent booker working for the Academy not to compensate Haddish.
“I’m frustrated by that decision. It was a lapse in judgment, it was in poor taste and it was disrespectful to the creative community. I’m part of the creative community. I know what that feels like, and it’s not right.”
So, can we talk about what life would be like if other professions were paid like artists?
Screengrab from Twitter, Source
The exhausting expectation of people in the creative world to work for free is insulting, no matter who it is. But for a talented Black actress like Haddish to be asked to work for exposure, well, what does that say to the Black community? What does that say to the creative community? What does that say to women artists?
In no other field is someone expected to work “for exposure” other than the creative field. For creatives, we see this asked of us all the time.
I’ve been offered to submit my writing to several online publications that have enough money to pay for my work, and they assure me that the exposure will be great for my career.
Okay, but what about my car payment? Or my groceries? Or my dog’s vet bills? Exposure isn't going to pay my bills, so stop offering it in exchange for my hard work. | https://medium.com/swlh/comedian-tiffany-haddish-was-invited-to-host-the-grammys-but-without-compensation-ea5d77ff3c52 | ['Jessica Lovejoy'] | 2020-12-23 17:28:51.096000+00:00 | ['Equality', 'Culture', 'Work', 'Creativity', 'Celebrity'] |
Weekend Essay 001: Reacting to Reality | Jean Baudoin — Recueil D’Emblèmes Divers, 1638.
‘You have power over your mind- not outside events. Realise this and you will find strength’- Marcus Aurelius
Our reactions make our reality. How we perceive an experience, emotion, even ourselves, all comes down to how we choose to react. When you start to analyse why you are reacting in a certain way, often it boils down to one of four truths.
The First: Biology
At our fundamental core we are animals. Whilst our mind, consciousness and ability to collaborate at scale may give us a sense of humanly divinity, much of how we respond to life is driven by our basic instinct to achieve human needs. We want to survive. Survival means reducing threats and pro-creating. For example, a friend recently read her partner’s text messages, she felt betrayed and jealous or more simply her animal instincts were alerting her that her security and chance of pro-creating were at risk. Our desire to be well liked by our friends, colleagues or even the broader public is driven by our fear of being ostracised from the group and we all know that our chances of survival are greater together than alone. Whilst we live in advanced societies, our intellectual prowess cannot defeat our animalistic essence.
The Second: Emotion
Possibly one of the most beautiful parts of the human experience is our ability to feel. Anger, euphoria, despair, hope. We each ride waves of feelings throughout the day, many of which derive from hormones or frankly a response to change. We wake up feeling optimistic thanks to a morning surge of serotonin, we feel exhilarated flirting, testosterone rushing through our veins. Each interaction we experience throughout the day whether alone, virtually, or in a group, can illicit a range of emotions. We’ve been taught through a culture of professionalism to not respond emotionally as it’s not rational, but it is human and we each need a different amount of time in order to process our emotional response. When you find yourself in a heated moment of emotion, decide to take an investigative approach to your state and pause to just analyse why are you feeling this way? Can you name the emotion? (an ex-boyfriend had to actually give me an emotional chart to help me learn how to recognise and articulate ~feelings. Disclaimer: I am also British.) How much of this response is to do with your ego? Or your anticipated version of how something was going to go, not panning out how you originally hoped? If emotions are information we should all take the time to learn what they are really telling us, and give ourselves permission to feel. Be brave and trust that your mind has the power to change how you feel and therefore how you react. For some of us the waves of emotion break rapidly on the shores of our reality, for others the waves are gentler and more drawn out.
The thing is you can decide how long you want to feel an emotion. Here is an exercise to practice. Re-call how a recent experience or interaction made you feel, then write down if you were to perceive it in entirely the opposite way. For example:
Perception 1: I feel sad that I cannot spend more time with someone.
Perception 2: I feel grateful for the amount of time I have spent with this person. I am blessed they are in my life in some way even if it isn’t in the way I think I want.
When you write down a different emotional response it’s quite amazing how easily your brain can begin to believe that version of reality and how differently you will feel. You can literally alter the present moment. Combine this with a sense of destiny and the idea that whilst your brain wants to set goals and believe in the fantasies it makes up, you must not get attached to a single outcome. The universe and the course of events that shape your life is not fully in your control, but you can control your outlook on life. Through pattern recognition you learn the interactions or experiences that create the emotions you want to feel. Then it’s just about multiplying the number of those interactions and experiences you have.
The Third: Learned Behaviours
Whether through nature or nurture, our actions and reactions form our character. Much of our experience of life comes down to the the experience our parents decided to give us and the behaviours we witnessed from a young age. My own bias towards action and curious relationship with time comes directly from my father. He is impatient and decisive action is his guiding philosophy. Whether this is a character trait passed onto me through DNA or a result of behavior exposure, it has shaped how I react.
In the same way, we become like the people we surround ourselves with. If you want to live calmly and thoughtfully you surround yourself with those who share that desire for zen. If you want to build and create, you surround yourself with curious entrepreneurial minds. Whether in a physical place that attracts a certain type of person or in a virtual community. One cannot underestimate the effects of the network we are in and the direct or indirect advice received from others around us about how we should be reacting to life events. The environment and stimuli you chose to surround yourself with directly shape and evolve your perception of things. Where people seem to get stuck is in this place of warped fear that they cannot change their circumstances, whether mentally or physically. Remember, it takes just a little bit of courage and a dose of curiosity to experience a different version of life. To reinvent one’s self and learn new behaviors.
The Fourth: Reason
‘All is as thinking makes it so’ The retort made to Monimus the Cynic cements the virtue of reason in Stoic philosophy. Popular with entrepreneurs and Silicon Valley perhaps because of the guidance it gives in how to respond to change. Life, as with startups, is an ever-changing state, with no promise of how long we will live or when we shall die. So to be able to react to one’s current circumstances with reason gives you a firm ground to stand on. However stoicism shouldn’t be the only state to navigate your life in. For if you limit your reactions to reason alone you deny yourself all the pain and pleasure of the full human experience. Accepting that your current circumstances, emotional state or even physical state is temporary can almost deliver a sense of relief. Not in a nihilistic or apathetic sense, but more so in the way of just enjoying where you are now. Evolution has primed us to always be on the hunt for new experiences, to plan the future! We almost always want to be somewhere else, but accepting where you are right now and what you are presently feeling, all the while quietly knowing that you have the power to change how you are perceiving reality is a powerful thing. | https://medium.com/@amberatherton/weekend-essay-001-reacting-to-reality-db6db641438c | ['Amber Atherton'] | 2020-12-12 20:05:27.902000+00:00 | ['Stoicism', 'Emotional Intelligence', 'Emotional Health', 'Philosophy', 'Mental Health'] |
How to Avoid these Engineers Pet Peeves | How do you soften the blow and work around the conversations you must have with you engineers?
Photo by Anna Shvets from Pexels
Reporting bugs, asking for the feasibility of building a feature and timelines are conversations we must have with engineers. However, those are topics that engineers dread and can often turn into heated conversations. How do you soften the blow and navigate these discussions?
1. “It didn’t work”
Why is this annoying?
It doesn’t provide any details to help the engineers solve your problem. Which part didn’t work? (The data didn’t get updated after you hit save or the page just keeps loading?) What did you do before that?
Without any “evidence”, the engineers will likely reply “It is working as intended”. This leads to a circular loop and frustration.
Do this instead
Provide the details so they can reproduce the problem. This means they can follow the same steps and see the same result as you do.
Very often, it only happens to a subset of users. Sharing this helps engineers narrow the possibilities. It also helps them ensure that the solution doesn’t introduce new problems to the users who are not impacted.
Link to get the book “How to Work with Engineers”
Are you a looking to work more effectively with engineers? Check out my book that address these pain points.
2. You can build this right? (aka. Shiny object syndrome)
Why is this annoying?
We often get excited about an idea and want to see it come to fruition. Calling an impromptu meeting and spending hours babbling an idea distracts engineers from focusing on other tasks you asked them to do.
Do this instead
Channel your excitement and creativity into words. Write a one-pager with a high-level overview of what I’m looking to build. Flush out your idea with one or two of your closest developers to free up others’ time.
If you really need to call that meeting, keep it to no longer than an hour. Be very clear that the idea is still at an exploration stage and you are not looking to change their priorities. This is an important disclaimer — especially if you are in a leadership position. So they don’t drop everything to work on your half-baked idea.
3. You can build this instead? (aka. Rework)
Why is this annoying?
Changing the requirement often requires taking down what they built. It’s discouraging to have to throw away codes they spent days writing — or solve the same problem for the nth time.
Do this instead
However, it is unavoidable — because someone changed their mind last minute or forgot to communicate a key workflow. I reframed the problem to make it sound easier and more exciting.
You will do it faster and better this time — because you know what didn’t work last time.
Would it help if I pair you with another engineer to divide and conquer? You are the expert in this area — and I want you to teach others how to do the same.
The second example is best for engineers who aspire to be in a “leadership” role. To the other engineer, this is a “new” problem.
4. When can you build this (aka. Timeline)
Why is this annoying?
Everyone is afraid of deadlines, including engineers. They are reluctant to give you an answer for two reasons:
They have not tackled this problem and therefore they don’t know what the solutions are. How can they give you a timeline without knowing what to do? They don’t want to get blamed when they miss the timeline.
Do this instead
Deadline is a necessary evil as your work depends on the engineers — either to sell a new product or tell users when issues will be fixed.
How do you get past the “I don’t know”?
Offer to give them a day or two to investigate. So they are not pressured to give you a makeup number that you can’t trust anyway.
Throw out two extremes, such one day to a week, and see how they react. When you hear “Definitely not a day”, then you can rule out the impossibles. If you say “a week” and you see a look of relief, you are more likely to get it by then.
When I get a precise number, I add a 20–40% buffer on top of the numbers the engineers give — and round it up.
Buffer is important to account for the unexpected. Here are the surprises I often encountered:
They push their fix live — but it didn’t actually fix the issue or it introduces another bug.
They weren’t able to push their fix live — because another developer’s work changed how the feature should work.
Say the estimate is 4 days. The buffer would be:
4*0.2 = 0.8 = 1 day
4*0.4 = 1.6 = 2 days
So the actual number of days will fall between 4+1 = 5 days to 4+2 = 6 days.
Sum it up
If you can’t enhance the relationship, at least don’t break it by avoiding saying the wrong thing.
This is especially important when you and your engineers are still getting used to working with each other.
Trust is the most valuable investment. Sometimes, it only takes one bad conversation to lose the rapport you’ve worked hard to establish. | https://medium.com/swlh/how-to-avoid-these-developer-pet-peeves-70ec0dff3a0d | ['Lee Ling Yang'] | 2020-12-10 08:55:31.232000+00:00 | ['Startup', 'Software Development', 'Project Management', 'Software Engineering', 'Product Management'] |
Generate gradient lines with the Static Image API | By: Jeffrey Ericson
Gradient lines communicate change throughout a route. They can show a the intensity of a runner’s heart rate throughout their course, the speed of a car down a path, or simply represent movement aesthetically.
Take a look at how our Maps API team creates gradient lines by breaking down a single path into many line segments and coloring each segment a different color on a spectrum. With the Static Images API, developers can add these gradient line maps on web and mobile applications.
Building a Static Images API call
The Static Images API offers a lightweight solution for embedding a map image without requiring developers to install an entire mapping library. It uses parameters like longitude, latitude, and zoom, to set the map view.
For this tutorial, you can either use the Static Image API Playground to pan and zoom to the area they want an image of, or follow the template below to create the API call by hand.
https:api.mapbox.com/styles/v1/{username}/{style_id}/static/{overlay}/{lon},{lat},{zoom},{bearing},{pitch}|{auto}/{width}x{height}{@2x}
Adding the gradient
Once you have your view, it’s time to start adding the gradient. For this example, we’re using the coordinates below to create a route from the Chicago History Museum, down Lake Shore Drive, to The Art Institute of Chicago. If you’re looking for a similar route, swap these coordinates out for a recent Strava run or draw a GeoJSON line using geojson.io.
const coords = [[41.91176, -87.632], [41.91307, -87.63279], [41.91323, -87.6323], [41.91329, -87.63203], [41.91331, -87.6318], [41.9133, -87.63153], [41.91328, -87.63123], [41.91319, -87.63083], [41.91309, -87.63049], [41.91301, -87.63027], [41.91254, -87.62928], [41.91238, -87.62894], [41.91231, -87.6287], [41.91225, -87.62842], [41.91223, -87.62827], [41.91222, -87.62806], [41.91223, -87.62778], [41.91227, -87.62728], [41.91231, -87.6269], [41.9123, -87.6267], [41.91227, -87.62657], [41.91222, -87.62649], [41.91217, -87.62644], [41.91212, -87.6264], [41.91189, -87.62633], [41.91145, -87.62619], [41.9104, -87.62597], [41.90941, -87.62592], [41.90922, -87.62589], [41.90888, -87.62582], [41.90783, -87.62558], [41.90649, -87.62524], [41.90517, -87.62492], [41.90404, -87.62464], [41.90313, -87.62437], [41.90283, -87.62426], [41.90254, -87.6241], [41.90233, -87.62393], [41.902, -87.62359], [41.90179, -87.62329], [41.90163, -87.62296], [41.90149, -87.62263], [41.90139, -87.62228], [41.90133, -87.62201], [41.90127, -87.6216], [41.90124, -87.62105], [41.90121, -87.62032], [41.90117, -87.62011], [41.9011, -87.61994], [41.90099, -87.61973], [41.90088, -87.61959], [41.90071, -87.61947], [41.89993, -87.61896], [41.89905, -87.61837], [41.89694, -87.61696], [41.89353, -87.61463], [41.89302, -87.61427], [41.89261, -87.6142], [41.89167, -87.61422], [41.89018, -87.61424], [41.88785, -87.61419], [41.88538, -87.61409], [41.88481, -87.61414], [41.88448, -87.6143], [41.88405, -87.61461], [41.88377, -87.61496], [41.8836, -87.61524], [41.88345, -87.61553], [41.88336, -87.61574], [41.8832, -87.61612], [41.88302, -87.61648], [41.88283, -87.61673], [41.8827, -87.61689], [41.88253, -87.61705], [41.88224, -87.61726], [41.88199, -87.61739], [41.88179, -87.61745], [41.88162, -87.61749], [41.88093, -87.61751], [41.88086, -87.62201]];
Next, let’s define some helpful color utility functions to color individual line segments:
Finally, in the code below, we’re using the polyline library paired with color utilities to transform pairs of latitude and longitude coordinates into an encoded polyline that we assign stroke colors to.
Once the hex codes are embedded into the encoded polyline, we can paste the overlay value into the API call to retrieve a static map with a gradient line. This will give us the path below:
Watch how to build a gradient line
If you’re ready to start building a gradient line follow the steps above. Or if you prefer, follow along in the video below as we use the Path Gradient helper library to break down the components of a Static Images API call and generate a gradient line:
Share how you’re adding gradient lines to your maps with us on Twitter using #builtwithmapbox. If you have any trouble, take a look at our common error codes or reach out to our Support team. | https://blog.mapbox.com/generate-gradient-lines-with-the-static-image-api-368eb28068a3 | [] | 2020-04-13 19:17:47.580000+00:00 | ['Mapbox', 'Mapping', 'Map', 'Maps Api', 'API'] |
China’s Obsession with Sinicization of Tibetan Buddhism | One of the most notable and significant events to have taken place with regard to the Tibet issue in the last few months was China’s Seventh Work Forum on Tibet held from 29–30 August. The key takeaway from the meeting was the Chinese government’s call for renewed emphasis on Sinicizing Tibetan Buddhism. Although China’s emphasis on controlling Tibetan Buddhism is not something new, the call to renew its efforts to Sinicize Tibetan Buddhism in its latest forum on Tibet illustrate China’s growing challenges in assimilating Tibetan people and culture.
As a state objective, cultural assimilation of its minorities such as the Tibetans, Uyghurs, Mongols, Zhuangs, etc., serve a dual purpose for China. First, assimilation of its minority ethnicities remain key to China’s ongoing process of nation building. Second, it safeguards China’s territorial integrity as the modern Chinese state exists within frontiers that are multi-ethnic in nature such as East Turkestan in the northwest, Tibet in the Southwest, Inner Mongolia in the north, and Zhuang and other minorities in its southern border with the Indo-China regions.
In the case of Tibet, for centuries, China, earlier under the imperial dynasties and now under the CCP, has faced a unique challenge in dealing with the Tibetan people. The Chinese notion of the nation rests on Han identity and its perceived superior culture. There exists a belief of a superior China surrounded by less sophisticated, less developed, peoples. According to this view, as the non-Chinese begin to recognize the glory of the Chinese civilization, they would gravitate towards China and seek to integrate into the Chinese civilization, in other words, willingly assimilate into the Chinese fold. However, the resilience and the prosper of a distinct Tibetan civilization on China’s southwest belies this notion. In contrast, Tibet has historically looked towards India in its south as the source of high culture, not China. This has been so particularly since the Great Debate of Samye, also known as the Council of Lhasa, between the Chinese Buddhist monk Heshang Moheyan and Kamalasila in the eighth century. Ever since, Tibetan culture underwent broad changes and a particular brand of Mahayana Buddhism, specifically referred to as Tibetan Buddhism, began to infuse every aspect of Tibetan culture, thereby giving Tibetans a distinct identity. When the Chinese army arrived in 1950 and occupied Tibet in 1959, it was Tibetan Buddhism and its monasteries and monks that became Tibet’s symbolic structures and icons of identity challenging Chinese occupation. The Tibetan attitude of Choesi Sungdrel — the blend of religion and politics, is another tension that confounds the modern Chinese leadership in its control of Tibet. As such, China sees Tibetan Buddhism as the essence of Tibet, and without controlling or distorting it, it knows it cannot effectively make Tibet into China.
In Marxist formulation, organised religion in any form is defined as ‘opium of the people’. Tibetan Buddhism as such was no different. Mao’s infamous quote ‘religion is poison’ that was whispered into His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s ear during their meeting in 1954 was an indication of that attitude towards religion. In tune with this ideology, Tibetan Buddhism faced an onslaught of destruction under Mao’s campaign of destroying the ‘Four Olds’: old ideas, old culture, old habits, and old customs during the Cultural Revolution. Despite the destructive policies of the Cultural Revolution, China’s principle of regional ethnic autonomy (multi-nation state) remained consistent since the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1949. Due to the consistency of the ethnic autonomy laws, with the culmination of the Cultural Revolution after Mao’s death, the restrictions on religion were relaxed and a brief respite prevailed for minority cultures and religions. However, the system favoring ethnic minorities under the regional autonomy system reached a turning point in 2008. This turning point, reflected by a renewed emphasis on cultural assimilation (one nation, one state), under the erstwhile Hu Jintao and the current Xi Jinping administrations, was a result of the majority Han Chinese ethnicity’s response to the unrest in Tibet (2008) and East Turkestan (2009). The reaction of the Han Chinese public towards these unrests took the Chinese government by surprise. Given that Han Chinese account for 90% of China’s population, simmering discontent among the Han was seen as a source of instability for the survival of the CCP. To mollify Han Chinese grievances and anger, even if it meant coming down hard on minorities such as Tibetans and Uyghurs, the Chinese government started reinvigorating their emphasis on cultural assimilation and integration since 2008. For the Chinese leadership, any attempt to appease the minorities meant inflaming Han Chinese grievances, and addressing ethnic minorities’ complaints was rendered unimportant even when the minorities have legitimate social or political grievances.
The Communist Party’s legitimacy is associated with the economic development that it was able to bring in the rest of China. Yet economic development takes second place to social stability when it comes to regime survival. Chinese history, including that of the Communist Party itself, has maintained that social unrest leads to revolution. Therefore, to ensure the Communist Party’s survival as China’s hegemon, and assuage Han Chinese public’s anger at perceived minority advantages, the CPC has shifted from a policy of multi-nation China to creating a China of one nation, one state, and one ethnicity. This is being done through a state-led effort to erode ethnic identity as evidenced by its policies of cultural assimilation. From the point of view of this state policy, Tibet’s Buddhism-infused culture is the main stumbling block towards its goal of cultural assimilation. Hence, the ongoing effort on sinicizing Tibetan Buddhism by the Chinese government. And the call for a renewed emphasis on sinicizing Tibetan Buddhism during the 7th Tibet Work Forum was just another example of this policy. | https://medium.com/@sjamphel/one-of-the-most-notable-and-significant-events-to-have-taken-place-with-regard-to-the-tibet-issue-56c39d576dda | ['Jamphel Shonu'] | 2020-12-22 04:43:16.407000+00:00 | ['Dalai Lama', 'Sinicization', 'Tibet', 'Buddhism', 'China'] |
Week 46 Stock Market S&P 500 Roundup — Diversified Industrials in focus | As mentioned in Week 45 stock market roundup, bullish scenario played out last week with S&P 500 broke all time high followed by profit taking and possible rotation from NASDAQ to the Dow Jones and RUSSELL 2000. If you are still wondering if the volume spike in conjunction with strong rejection on last Monday could pose some damage to the market, watch my video where I discussed how to seek for confirmation for the beginning of a a market sell-off or simply profit taking with rotation in play.
Since the strong rejection on last Monday, S&P 500 futures (ES) did not have follow through to the downside, which is a bullish sign. It is likely to attempt to rally up to test the all time high at 3668 with immediate support at 3500.
On 12 Nov, I compared side by side in a trade review about an inverse head and shoulders pattern trade vs how to trade from the price action perspective (with volume). Are you trading the pattern like the head & shoulder pattern or double bottom, etc…? Do watch the video below as it is crucial to understand the rationale behind the price movement rather than simply trading from the pattern alone.
Industry Group for Study — Dow Jones US Diversified Industrials Index (DJUSID)
The Diversified Industrials index has been a laggard since Mar 2020. However, it relative strength started to turn up with higher high and higher low forms since Oct 2020. The current rotation in play could further propel some of the strong stocks within this industry.
Photo by Author — Ming Jong Tey
Here are some interesting stocks to watch in terms of their price structure and volume: strong stocks: HON (HONEYWELL INTERNATIONAL INC), ETN (EATON CORPORATION PLC); SWK (STANLEY BLACK & DECKER INC), AME (AMETEK INC), etc…
Stock Watchlist — Malaysia
Watch the walkthrough of the Malaysia stocks watchlist below:
VS (V.S INDUSTRY BHD) — VS is within the trading range between 2.25–2.56. Next support at 2.1–2.2.
JHM (JHM CONSOLIDATION BHD) — Broke above resistance at 2.0 and hit all time high. Support is at 1.9–2.0. Staying above this support level could see JHM to trend higher.
FRONTKN (FRONTKEN CORPORATION BHD) Support levels: 3.5, 3.25. Should FRONTKN can stay above the support, it should attempt to test 3.8.
MI (MI TECHNOVATION BERHAD) - Trading range between 3.7–4.7 is still in play. MI is likely to challenge the resistance again at 4.7. Supply has been decreasing, which is a bullish sign.
PENTA (PENTAMASTER CORPORATION BHD) — Increasing of supply caused PENTA to test the support at 5.0 again. Supply absorption was observed and PENTA is likely to challenge 5.5.
Stock A as mentioned in Week 45, is UWC (UWC BERHAD). UWC tested the resistance-turned-support and hit all time high on last Friday. Further upside is expected.
Stock Watchlist — US
Watch the walkthrough of the US stocks watchlist below:
MSFT (MICROSOFT) — Profit taking on last Monday and Tuesday was held at the intermediate support at 210. Trading range of 210–225 is expected.
FB (FACEBOOK) — Supply absorption was observed during the profit taking on last Monday and Tuesday. FB is expected to challenge the swing high resistance at 300.
SE (SEA Limited) — similar to MSFT and FB, supply absorption was observed during the profit taking process last week. Higher upside target is expected.
JD (JD.com) — Supply absorption was observed. JD is expected to trend higher.
NET (CLOUDFLARE) — One of the strong stocks outperform the market. Continuation to the upside is expected for NET.
PTON (PELOTON INTERACTIVE INC)— Strong profit taking in PTON currently testing the support level at 100. Possible trading range between 90–110.
BABA (Alibaba Group Holdings) — Strong sell off with spike of supply in last week. Sign of weakness showed up in BABA broke below the support at 268. Strong bearish momentum could propel BABA to test the next support is at 240–250.
BTG (B2GOLD CORP) — BTG tested the support at 6.0.
FSLY (FASTLY INC) — Supply has been exhausted for FSLY and commitment above the support at 74 violated the sign of weakness mentioned last week. First resistance is at 90. Support is at 62.
SQ (SQUARE INC) — Support is at 160–170. SQ is expected to test the resistance at 193.
AVGO (BROADCOM INC) — Immediate resistance is at 388 while the support is at 360 for AVGO.
Stock X as mentioned in Week 45 is ROKU. Last week profit taking did not cause lots of damage to the price structure. ROKU is likely to test the resistance at 239.
I revealed the actual or extra stocks and exclusive content in the email to my subscribers. If you are keen to know the actual stocks for studies prior I reveal them in my next week roundup, feel free to subscribe my weekly stock trading / investing ideas plus exclusive content in email for free below:
https://hot.wishpondpages.com/ideas/ (Yes, it is free)
Further Reading:
Disclaimer: The information in this presentation is solely for educational purpose and should not be taken as investment advice. | https://priceactiontrading.medium.com/week-46-stock-market-s-p-500-roundup-diversified-industrials-in-focus-3d5a722e0468 | ['Ming Jong Tey'] | 2020-11-17 11:46:02.684000+00:00 | ['Investing', 'Day Trading', 'Business', 'Stock Market', 'Money'] |
#39: TheBit | Coloring Crypto is a podcast that sets out to illuminate the blockchain. For more episodes or to join us for a future episode, contact us at ColoringCrypto.com. | https://medium.com/coloringcrypto/39-thebit-97e068f0dd4 | ['Kelly Mcquade-W.'] | 2018-07-04 00:10:47.799000+00:00 | ['Investment', 'Education', 'Finance', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Bitcoin'] |
Transfer unlimited data between cloud storage services thanks this lifetime Multcloud Christmas 2020 / New Year 2021 deal | Transfer data between Gsuite, Google Drive / One, Backblaze, Google Workspace, Koofr, Mediafire, Mega, pCloud, Dropbox, OneDrive, FilesFM, Box, Google Photos, etc. easily thanks Multcloud Lifetime — Christmas 2020 / New Year 2021 deal CloudStorageDeals Dec 21, 2020·3 min read
For the first time ever Multcloud launched a lifetime deal. Transfer unlimited data between cloud storage services thanks this Christmas 2020 / New Year 2021 deal.
We all know that Google changed policies, now they delete all files after 2 years of inactivity. Same for Google Photos, where they consider all new uploaded data inside the 15GB Google Drive space. Without considering the random deactivation by Facebook now.
To prevent bad situation, is always better to keep multiple copies. How? Rclone can help, but even Multcloud.
With Multcloud you can connect different cloud storage services like Google Workspace, pCloud, Mega, Backblaze, WebDAV based (example Icedrive, Koofr, FilesFM, etc.) or other and transfer data between them.
You can choose different sync options: simple, mirror, move, cumulative, update, incremental or full sync. There is an option to transfer data too (which is faster compared to the sync option).
Until few years ago there was 2TB free for every account, then they changed the price plan, by adding max 50GB pro month. They dropped to 30GB pro month few months ago too.
Now they offer a lifetime unlimited cloud transfer plan for 239.4$ instead of 119.9$ pro year. You don’t see such option immediately on the price page, because is only available once you click “purchase the plan” inside your account. [WebArchive Backup]
We think this is a crazy Christmas Sale 2020 — New Year 2021 deal, which can be used perfectly in combination with Transfercloud deal.
You can transfer up to 2TB torrent pro each file or download 10 Youtube Videos (youtubedl style) or grab 10 websites (in the style of wget) at the same time with unlimited queue. In that way you can for example download a torrent to Google Workspace thanks Transfercloud and then you can create a clone copy on a second Google Workspace account or 2TB pCloud plan or 5TB Icedrive plan or other clouds thanks Multcloud.
PS: we need to warn you, that sometimes you can get errors, especially if you want to transfer a lot of library files. Such errors are available even if you try to transfer big folders (example 1–2TB+). We saw even errors with Google Photos. Cloud Transfer sometimes works better compared to the feature “Cloud Sync”, especially if you need to transfer big files or a lot of small files for the first time.
By r-CloudStorageDeals From DataHoarders to DataHoarders. | https://medium.com/@cloudstoragedeals/transfer-data-between-gsuite-google-drive-backblaze-google-workspace-koofr-mediafire-mega-febfb15e2827 | [] | 2021-03-11 12:11:51.359000+00:00 | ['Cloud', 'Mac', 'Business', 'Storage', 'Backup'] |
Reading Habits Tag | Writer’s Blog
Reading Habits Tag
I like watching tag videos on Youtube and I wanted to participate. Sorry.
I’ve been enjoying watching a lot of tag videos on Youtube recently and as someone that likes to participate but doesn’t really know how to use a camera or video editing software I often feel left out. So I’ve taken to Medium to transfer this Tag into one of my articles.
Reading Habits Tag
Do you have a certain place at home for reading?
At first, my answer was no, but the more I think about it the more complicated this answer gets. I’ll do my best to make sense of my jumbled mess of reading places.
I like to read non-fiction at my desk.
I usually read fiction in my bed or on my couch. I really love to read on aeroplanes or trains. My family lives in a different country so every time I go to visit I get to settle in for the long haul. It’s a great excuse to spend the day reading guilt-free!
Bookmark or random piece of paper?
Both. If I have a bookmark handy I will use that, but I’ll use tissue paper, sticky notes or even dog-ear the pages if I don’t have a bookmark in reach!
Can you just stop reading or do you have to stop after a chapter/ a certain amount of pages?
I normally finish the paragraph that I’m reading. I prefer to stop at chapters but I can stop wherever I have to or want to. I think that’s probably because of reading while travelling so much.
Do you eat or drink while reading?
I tend to forget about food or drinks when reading, even if I have something handy I just don’t pick it up. I get quite absorbed in stories so to eat or drink would pull me out of the book too much.
Multitasking: Music or TV while reading?
Sometimes lyricless music is fine. Mostly I just like the quiet. I like to focus on whatever I’m reading at any given time and noise can be distracting.
One book at a time or several at once?
I used to be a one book at a time girl, then I started my English Literature course and now I usually have three or four on the go at once. I have different moods, what can I say.
I normally have a non-fiction, a few fictions and maybe a poetry book at any given time.
Reading at home or everywhere?
Everywhere. Opps I kind of answered this one earlier.
Reading out loud or silently in your head?
I read poetry out loud mostly. I feel like that is how poetry is supposed to be read? I will read everything else in my head unless I really like the way that something is written. I will take the time to read it out loud if I think that the writing is gorgeous! That might be in line with the poetry thing.
Do you read ahead or even skip pages?
I don’t. I can’t understand why you would ever want to spoil yourself. The only thing that I sometimes do is check how many pages a book is, I like to know how far through I am in the book. I’m not sure why.
Breaking the spine or keeping it like new?
Both, either. If it happens it happens, I’m not picky. I will try to keep a book looking it’s best but my shelf is filled with new books and second-hand books alike, so it doesn't really make an aesthetic difference. If breaking the spine will make it easier to read, I’ll go ahead and break it!
Do you write in your books?
I don’t write in fiction books. I do write in non-fiction.
I don’t normally write in the margins but I’m very good at colouring in my books with a highlighter. I find that reading non-fiction with a highlighter helps me pick out the important information! | https://medium.com/writers-blog/reading-habits-tag-c7520f24f18d | ['Beth Van Der Pol'] | 2020-03-20 12:45:12.065000+00:00 | ['Novel', 'Habits', 'Reading', 'Books', 'Writing'] |
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Click Here to Visit web site | https://medium.com/@groupbuyseoamz/group-buy-seo-reviews-2021-bec1a0640c36 | ['Group Buy Seo'] | 2020-12-18 11:56:10.333000+00:00 | ['Tools', 'Group', 'Group Buy Seo', 'SEO', 'Buy'] |
Dimitris Kosvogiannis to memorialize life | The Hotels Industry persists a part regarding such consideration business plus is involved of 5 superior sub-sectors which present resort silver (inns, B&Bs, shelters, hotels, motels, etc.), meals
furthermore drink assistance, carnivals, tourism & shipping.
Concerning its nature, the Hospitality Industry examines itself as deducting releases and assistance to support Dimitris Kosvogiannis which extra near production and holding the happiness about beings. This contains several operations, which exceptional advance aim is to sponsor assistance and customer’s amusement.
Here end receptacle is segmented into four: meal & refreshment, travel & tourism (conveyor), lodging, and recreation (leisure park, rest, etc).
See too:
Hospitality Management
Resort Operator
Conviviality
Accommodation Control
Series Hotel
protection
Food and Beverage, essentially upon bodies which stand away of their seats for several purposes. Such organizations need assistance with food including drinks if people are endlessly for a short continuation of formation. The basic needs of customers for food furthermore beverages remain met by the foodservice result.
It can be portion of a comprehensive hospice or tourism production and it can additionally be moved as an independent institution. Food including Beverage Department remains accountable for keeping the high caliber of meals and co-operation, food costing, managing restaurants, shoals, etc.
travel and tourism
Travel plus tourism is one of the biggest including fastest-growing in the world. We are yet beholding the extended engagement of many physiques fancying to employ their spare time on travel.
Tourism is the performance of traveling to a different location for either concern or pleasure for longer than one connected year
Travel refers to traveling from one location to different. It can be long-distance, short-distance, across or domestic journey and can incorporate a wide variety of different hiking purposes.
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This quarter of the welcome industry features a gamut of comfortable hotels to lavish retreats and campgrounds.
Again, consumer service signifies needed in catering accommodation help. Moreover, that isn’t all — efficiency, integrate comfort, and world-class conveniences are also its infrastructure.
Recreation
Play forms an important heroine of tourism also holidays for certain ages as more including more extra characters like to consume vacation background when on a weekend. People these days explore hotels furthermore resorts Dimitris Kosvogiannis that offer recreation and sports facilities to the guests. Keeping the demands moreover demands of some consumers in mind, most resort hotels offer a wide range of entertainment departments and amenities to the patrons so that they can experience their stay in the houses.
A leading desk secretary is every first person to cooperate with customers, typically at a hotel. They conduct administrative responsibilities and manage customer connections, including initiating objections, resolving problems, coordinating room pottery orders, providing licenses, and blocking in new boarders. | https://medium.com/@dimitriskosvogiannis53/dimitris-kosvogiannis-to-memorialize-life-af8c057d0adf | [] | 2021-06-08 07:26:47.973000+00:00 | ['Hotel', 'Resort', 'Customer Service', 'Dimitrios Kosvogiannis', 'Florida'] |
Beyond Coding: Watson Assistant Entities — Part 3, System Entities | Photo by Tierra Mallorca on Unsplash
In the first two articles, we examined the part entities play in an assistant and the difference between entities as synonyms versus entities as patterns.
In this article, we’ll be looking at system entities and how they differ from user-generated entities. We’ll also examine some helpful tips on how to avoid potential pitfalls to make sure you’re getting the best out of system entities.
User Generated Entities vs System Entities
As we’ve seen, user-generated entities allow you to create your own custom entities — either as synonyms or patterns. But what about those times when we want to identify a number? What do we do when we want to understand the user is talking about a date? Surely we don’t want to create and import these common entities every time we build an assistant!
This is where system entities can be used. System entities are a special type of entity which uses patterns and synonyms, but they are a part of the Watson system. This means we can implement them in our system for every skill and they will work the same way for every build.
However, it’s important to note you cannot modify these entities. They are available for use in all assistants, but the definitions — the synonyms and patterns — behind each entity exists within the Watson Assistant code and is not exposed to users.
To find the list of system entities you need to log in to your Watson Assistant, then click on Entities. You will then see two entity options — My entities and System entities. Click on System entities to display the list of available entities.
System entities location
The first thing you should notice is the naming convention of system entities. All system entities start with the prefix “sys-”. This allows Watson Assistant to differentiate between an entity created by a user and those available to all users.
List of System entities
What this means is you cannot create a user-generated entity which starts with the prefix “sys-”.
User-generated entities naming limitation
Let’s look at each system entity to get a better understanding of what they can do. We’ll focus on the non-Beta system entities for this article.
The Currency System Entity
Photo by Ethan McArthur on Unsplash
As the name suggests, this system entity is used to detect a currency value. If the user mentions a currency and a dollar value Watson Assistant detects the currency type and the number mentioned.
For example, a customer may say “I want to withdraw $50 from my account”. The assistant will recognize that a currency has been mentioned (dollar symbol) and the amount (in this case 50).
But what if the customer were to say “I want to withdraw fifty dollars from my account”? No problem! Watson Assistant recognizes a currency is mentioned as well as a number, even though digits weren’t used.
The Currency system entity identifies the type of currency used by the customer:
• “I want to withdraw fifty pounds from my account” would be identified as Great British Pounds (GBP)
• “I want to withdraw fifty euro from my account” would be identified as Euro (EUR)
• “I want to withdraw fifty Japanese yen from my account” would be identified as Yen (JPY)
But what happens if you’re in a country where the currency indicator is “dollars”? When Watson Assistant detects the currency type as “dollar”, or the dollar symbol (“$”), the default is USD. For any other currency which uses the terminology “dollar”, the user will have to state the specific type — such as “I want to withdraw fifty Australian dollars from my account”.
If the currency type is irrelevant to your build, you can ignore this aspect. Otherwise, you will need to take this into account when trying to determine which “dollar” currency is referenced.
It’s also important to understand if the customer’s interaction doesn’t include a currency indicator (dollars, $, etc) the assistant will not identify the number. For example, “I want to withdraw 50 from my account” will not be identified as a currency. Instead, you would need to use the Number system entity (discussed further on).
The Date System Entity
Photo by Estée Janssens on Unsplash
This system entity detects dates mentioned by a customer. It recognizes different types of dates and date formats (such as DD/MM/YY, MM/DD/YY, and YYYY-MM-DD).
For example, a customer could mention “Book an appointment for 13/1/2022”. The system entity detects the date is the 13th of January, of the year 2020. The statement “Book an appointment for 1/13/2022” would produce the same result.
But it can also detect the same date if the customer were to say any of the following:
• “Book an appointment for 13th January 2022”
• “Book an appointment for January 13, 2022”
• “Book an appointment for 13 Jan 2022”
It should be noted that the system entity is not case sensitive — thus January and January are the same things.
You should also be aware of the pitfall which applies to English language assistants only. The default date detection for English assistants is MM/DD/YYYY. In other words, 1/4/2022 is detected as 4th January, 2022. The assistant detects a date as DD/MM/YYYY only when the first number is greater than 12.
This is why “Book an appointment for 13/1/2022” and “Book an appointment for 1/13/2022” produce the same result — 13th January, 2022. However, the statement “Book an appointment for 1/4/2022” would be detected as 4th January, 2022. Again, this is for English language assistants only. In future articles, we will examine how to account for this and correct the information, but for now, you should be aware of this pitfall for English language assistants only.
The previous example deals with explicit dates mentioned in the customer’s interaction. But what if the customer didn’t know the specific date? What if they just knew they were available next Tuesday? Watson Assistant handles that for you!
The customer could say “Book an appointment for next Tuesday”. Watson Assistant understands that the user is referencing a date (Tuesday) and the future (next). In this case, the assistant would detect that the customer is talking about the first Tuesday after today.
This doesn’t mean the Tuesday next week, it means the first Tuesday which occurs after the current date. It’s important to understand the distinction.
For example, if a customer is interacting with your assistant on a Monday afternoon they may mean the Tuesday occurring next week (in approx. 8 days time). Watson Assistant will interpret “Book an appointment for next Tuesday” as tomorrow (in less than 24 hours time). This is because the system entity is looking for the first instance of Tuesday after today (Monday).
The same applies to the detection of previous days mentioned — such as “I had a booking last Tuesday”. If the customer is interacting with the assistant on a Wednesday, it detects the date as yesterday (the first Tuesday before the current date), rather than the Tuesday approx. 8 days ago.
This pitfall applies to all assistants, not only English language assistants. We will also look at ways to work around this pitfall in future articles.
The final aspect of the Date system entity is that it can detect date ranges. This means if a customer were to say “I need to make a booking next month”, the system will detect a date range within the interaction (first of next month to the last of next month). The same applies to date ranges such as “next week”, “next year” etc. While the system entity wouldn’t pinpoint a specific date, it does provide the understanding that a range of dates is applicable.
The Number System Entity
Photo by Antoine Dautry on Unsplash
As the name suggests, this system entity detects numbers used in the customer’s interactions. The entity can detect cardinal numbers (and cardinal number words), such as 1, 2, three, four, etc. But it cannot detect ordinal numbers, such as 1st, 2nd, third, etc.
While this system entity is simple to understand, when used in conjunction with the Currency system entity you have a powerful set of tools. For example, a customer might be in a rush and decides to say “I want to withdraw 50 from my account”. There aren’t any currency indicators in the sentence which means the Currency system entity will not trigger. But with the Number system entity, your Assistant can identify the numeric value.
The Number system entity will also detect numbers used as part of a currency. For example, “I want to withdraw $50 from my account” would trigger both the Currency and Number system entities.
In future articles, we’ll examine situations where you might prefer to use the Number system entity versus the Currency system entity.
The Percentage System Entity
Photo by Artem Beliaikin on Unsplash
The Percentage system entity detects whether a percentage has been mentioned in the customer’s statement. For example, if the customer were to say “I want 30% of my account transferred”, the assistant would detect that a percentage had been mentioned. The same would apply if the customer had said: “I want 30 percent of my account transferred”.
It should be noted that a percentage range would also be detected. For example, “I want 25–30 percent of my account transferred”, would trigger the Percentage system entity indicating that the percentage mentioned was 25 and 30.
Also note that the percentage in the sentence “I want 25 to 30 percent of my account transferred” would produce a different trigger. Only the number adjacent to the word “perfect” (or the % sign) (in this case “30”) is detected as a percentage.
The Percentage system entity overlaps with the Number system entity. A percentage trigger will also trigger detection from the Number system entity. This would allow for a combination to compensate for any pitfalls, such as the percentage example above where only the “30” is detected.
The Time System Entity
Photo by Djim Loic on Unsplash
This system entity detects times mentioned by a customer. This system entity typically works in conjunction with the Date system entity, but they do function independently.
For example, a customer might say “Book an appointment for 3pm”. The Time system entity will detect that a time (3pm) has been mentioned. But what if the customer didn’t think to mention the am/pm indicator, but instead said “Book an appointment for 3”. The Time entity will not detect a time in this case since we can’t be sure the customer doesn’t mean book an appointment for 3 people. But, if the sentence had been “Book an appointment at 3”, the entity detects a time (“at 3”), but detects the time as 3am!
The Time entity can also detect implied times. For example, “Book an appointment in 3 hours”. The entity would interpret this as a time 3 hours into the future from the time the interaction occurred. The great thing is that the Date system entity detects that the user is talking about a date as well and automatically calculates the date discussed.
The other feature the Time system entity shares with the Date system entity is the ability to detect ranges. For example, “Book an appointment for 2pm to 3pm” is detected as a range starting at 2pm and ending at 3pm. But, “Book an appointment for 2–3pm” would be detected as a time range starting at 2am and ending at 3pm. There are techniques we can use to navigate around these pitfalls, which will be discussed in future articles.
It’s important to understand the subtleties of this system entity, as what we might expect may not be what the system has detected. By understanding these nuances, we can anticipate, and account for, pitfalls.
System Entity Benefits
Now that we’ve looked at each of the system entities why would we use them if we have the freedom to generate our own? One reason is re-usability. We can implement system entities across multiple assistants and they function the same way in every build.
But, beyond identifying information, system entities allow us to extract the information for later use — without creating Regular Expression patterns. The patterns are built into the system entity and we can easily extract the identified value!
So, with system entities, we have a great package where we can easily detect and, if required, extract data. The added benefit is that we can control whether to use them for our assistant. Unlike user-generated entities, we can turn system entities on or off. This means we can either use the pre-packaged system entity or if we prefer, create our own version.
System entities are a great solution to commonly used concepts and they are always available. They help to speed up our build time and get the assistant up and running that much faster!
Photo by Leo Rivas on Unsplash
More About Entities
Now we’ve taken look at system entities we’ll be taking a closer look at implementing entities in general. In future articles, we will examine:
How to use entities
• How to determine which entities we need
• Entity Best Practices
Stay tuned for future updates! | https://medium.com/ibm-watson/beyond-coding-watson-assistant-entities-part-3-system-entities-16d7351a94c4 | ['Oliver Ivanoski'] | 2019-08-28 20:33:31.215000+00:00 | ['Watson Assistant', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Wa Editorial', 'Chatbots', 'Editorial'] |
The Fear I Felt (Part 2) | Being afraid; the feeling of fear or anxiety. The scariest thing about fear is that it is everywhere. It is better known for its symptoms, most commonly: sweating, shaking, upset stomach and nausea, uneven voice, crying, discomfort, irrational actions, laughter and overthinking. You can never know what it looks like because of its many faces and disguises. Even when fear has infiltrated a person they may not even know that it has. In the most severe cases, symptoms include fainting, death or the harm of others.
In a bubble time still moves but separately from the outside. I sit on a bus seat cramped and tired after an eight hour ride. My stomach tosses and my head pounds with nerves and excitement. I am on the way to my first major camping and rafting experience. In this bubble of semester school I am invincible, the thin walls that separate us from everyone else are made of bulletproof glass and strong metal. Protecting us from the monsters outside its walls. I look out the window and watch as the outside world moves by. I start to daydream of what my next two weeks have to hold; however, I am abruptly brought back to reality as we pass a flag arguing that I, a black woman, should not receive the same basic rights as any white man or woman. A flag shouting that I am less than human, that because of the pigmentation in my skin I do not deserve equal rights as my white classmates. A hanging Trump 2020 banner. While this banner itself is not completely unexpected, in the duration of my semester it has become a normal discomfort, I am extremely aware of the community we are entering. In front of me I watch as my peers point it out and two of them high-five. A high five, such a simple gesture, an expression of shared joy or accomplishment. At this moment, a simple high five is extremely impactful. They are celebrating the suffering and pain of my people. While my skin crawls and I test how low I can slouch in my seat, my classmates burst out in laughter. How did I think I could leave my skin, leave the pain and burden for even a second. Simply my appearance itself pops every bubble I walk into. Though I thought I was peacefully floating, it was all just a hopeful illusion. I am in fact falling. Cold, tight and heavy metal is wrapped around my ankles. Chains. They yank my body down an endless dark hole. The chains of my skin and of my history. Chains I can never escape no matter how hard I shake and pull, no matter how far I try to run. I glance around at the laughing faces, mocking me because I thought I could escape. I thought I had finally broken free of these painfully constricting chains.
Barely a block away from this banner my breath catches as we pull into the campsite. When communities wave flags such as the Trump banner it shouts to me loud and clear, I am not welcome. I am on high alert and quickly notice I am the only person of color here. My survival instincts kick in. Despite my body telling me to fight, freeze, or flee, I can’t. There is no one to fight, no one has done anything. I am completely and utterly afraid of something that could happen. Something that is more likely to happen in this environment but hasn’t yet. I can’t leave or run away. I am in the middle of nowhere by the Salmon river, camping with 14 other students and 4 instructors. How do I explain that I am terrified to go to sleep, to let my guard down for even a second. I can’t freeze. I must act normal. As we unload the rafts and prepare them for the next day, I am terrified. I try not to make eye contact with the many white men on the loading ramp. I awkwardly stand with other students so I am always in a group. I try, despite my hair and skin, despite my fear and the overwhelming amount of emotions I am feeling, to desperately fit in. My peers don’t notice. They don’t see me scanning my surroundings or hear the pain in my laugh. They think I am smiling because I am excited and happy. They think I am taking photos with them because I want to remember this moment forever. The truth is I am afraid of what will happen if I don’t, if I step away or stop laughing for just a second. I can’t look alone and weak. I can not show that this place, this community has an affect on me. I suffer by myself, running the worst case scenarios through my head.
We grab our remaining equipment and walk over to the area we are camping tonight. I look around observing how busy the campsite is. I check cars and trucks seeing if there are stickers that portray their hatred and fear of me. I don’t want attention so I take quick glances, never long enough to worry the owners. As darkness begins to hide the campsite, new heart racing fears become a reality. I am scared to go to the bathroom alone. Would my group hear my screams? Would my classmates even notice I was missing? I quickly run to catch up with my peers as they walk to get water or use the restroom. Never to be caught alone. Never to be seen as weak. Darkness engulfed us, hiding us in her belly. Disguising all the monsters in her masks of blackness.
When we are young our greatest fears are of the dark, and the monsters under our beds. As we grow those monsters become real and embodied in larger ideas such as death, loneliness, and government. Being black in a nation where my human rights are debated, I live in constant fear. Fear of death. Fear of getting hurt. Fear of loneliness. | https://medium.com/@rabimichaelcrushshon/the-fear-i-felt-part-2-21a44f062831 | ['Rabi Michael-Crushshon'] | 2021-01-25 17:45:47.833000+00:00 | ['George Floyd', 'Raceinamerica', 'Race Relations', 'Trumpism'] |
Connecting the Blockchain dots from China to Germany | As much as I like to talk about Berlin being an important international blockchain hub, the basic logic of a hub might be contradictory to a decentralized movement. Let’s take a look at some important companies from the blockchain space:
The Ethereum formation ConsenSys is operating from 6 continents, has offices in 11 countries and employees in 19 countries
Germany corporate VC Innogy Innovation Hub is scouting in Berlin, Essen, Palo Alto, Tel Aviv, and London
The biggest crypto exchange Coinbase has offices in San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Portland, Tokyo, and London
The international VC Outlier Ventures invested in blockchain companies in Finland, Germany, US and UK
The very core of the blockchain technology is establishing consensus in distributed networks. I believe it also impacts the mindset of the blockchain peers and empowers collaborations between different ecosystems and teams, beyond regional borders. Jasmine Zhang, CEO of LongHash Germany is the person to watch out for when we are speaking about connecting Asian and European blockchain ecosystems.
Jasmine, at rent24, LongHash Germany Office
— Jasmine, you have a career background in China, England, and Germany. Could you tell us a little more about your background?
I have studied Financial Mathematics and later master in Statistics in England. By that time, I had my final year project with Deutsche Bank in London and had the chance to work with the quantitative research team on the global derivatives trading market. Later, I worked in a German consulting company in Beijing for projects like Volkswagen and Audi. With the interest in German culture, I have decided to move to Germany and got drenched into the vibrant urban tech-scene of Berlin immediately. Bridging different ecosystems has been what I have been focusing on for the past 4 years here in Germany until I joined LongHash in May this year.
Trading Bitcoin in China: Graph by LongHash
— When you compare Europe and Asia, Berlin and Beijing — is there a major difference in how people work? If so — could you elaborate on this difference?
There are a lot of differences of course. This would be one major difference for me: Germans are relatively conservative and Chinese are rather risk-takers in the perspective of fast implementation and flexibility. Germans are rigorous in being careful to consider every piece of a project before they make final decisions, while Chinese might focus on the prominent part and make the move already.
Germans are relatively conservative and Chinese are rather risk-takers in the perspective of fast implementation and flexibility
— Let’s talk blockchain. Can you remember the first time you got excited about this technology and why? What brought you to lead the LongHash?
I got into crypto scene quite late since early this year. I started to go to blockchain meetups and was amazed by the excitement of the crowd. Then I looked into it and read e.g. how blockchain can solve different user cases in reality, how many millions are raised within a minute while all the hacks, scams and attacks happen. This felt super interesting. I got reached out in May, took the position in June, and have been convinced by the vision of LongHash since then.
— Could you elaborate on the concept of LongHash? What is your “unique selling proposition”?
We have seen explosive growth in the ICO market in 2017 followed by a subdued market in 2018, but we remain fundamentally optimistic of the blockchain industry as maturing infrastructure drives mass adoption. LongHash, a global blockchain incubator, is well positioned to tap into this nascent opportunity. We provide tailored incubation services with an in-house technical delivery capability and exchange listing. Our incubation strategy is focused on early stage and tech-driven teams in key identified verticals such as decentralized finance and IOT, and we are on track to incubate a series of strong projects. Our unique strengths set us apart from our competitors in 3 major fields.
Firstly, we have the complete infrastructure and strategic investor relations;
Secondly, we have built a global network from April this year in Tokyo, Singapore, Shanghai, HK, and Berlin;
Thirdly, our founding team includes veterans in the blockchain space and experienced professionals.
LongHash’s educational videos
— With LongHash you combine an incubator and data-driven media. Why exactly are you focusing on these two fields? Is the data journalism platform of LongHash envisioned to spread the word about the startups you incubate?
In an industry ridden with scams, we believe it is key to incubate high-quality projects and use data to provide reliable analysis and information to educate mainstream society. This is why we had the initial idea to build our own data-driven media. This platform explains important trends in the blockchain industry and provides an unbiased article written by independent journalists.
In an industry ridden with scams, we believe it is key to incubate high-quality projects and use data to provide reliable analysis and information to educate mainstream society
It will not become a media to promote our incubated startups. Rather, it will stay neutral and help accelerate the understanding of blockchain technology. It is an investment from our side and we are not aiming to make a profit from it.
LongHash has complete infrastructure and strategic investor relations
— Did LongHash already invest in any projects in Berlin?
We had our first investment in April in MXC (Machine Xchange Coin), whose goal is to create a decentralized, global IOT economy. For us, the decision to invest in MXC was straightforward. In order to improve efficiency as a society, we believe it is necessary to shift from a centralized economic model to a flatter, decentralized economic model where resource allocation is flexible, and demand and supply are matched in real time. We are very happy to see that the team has experienced unprecedented support across the Globe sparking a keen interest in their revolutionary Device Data Blockchain solutions and the founders at MXC have closed significant partnerships with a number of cities to use the MXProtocol as part of their “Smart City” movement. They just successfully launched their public sale on 30th Sept.
— Recently you have secured a funding for the Berlin decentralized exchange startup Herdius through an ETO in China. Previously Genesis Space was financed through the ETO. Could you explain the concept of the ETO? How is it different to other forms of crypto-crowdfunding and what was the outcome for Herdius and Genesis Space?
Of course. ETO is short for Earlybirds Token Offering, which is a brand new concept raised by the Co-Founder of LongHash, James Gong, who is also a prominent KOL (key opinion leader) in Asia. With ETO, we support premium early stage blockchain-related projects to raise a small amount of fund (2,000 ETH) through a decentralized exchange CYBEX. Through the process, the projects raise kick-off money while building an organic community and CYBEX will supervise the fund in a multi-signature account later on. We aim to achieve a bigger consensus from the community and lower the investors’ (individual) risk, which are the missing links currently in this industry.
We aim to achieve a bigger consensus from the community and lower the investors’ (individual) risk
The outcome was that we have successfully raised 2,000 ETH for Herdius on 18th August and Genesis Space 4th August in 54 seconds and 51 seconds on separately. Genesis Space has recruited their community manager and CMO from these supporters as well! | https://medium.com/blockchaincircle/connecting-the-blockchain-dots-from-china-to-germany-an-interview-with-jasmine-zhang-from-10ceb81bfffc | ['Pavel Romanenko'] | 2018-11-09 11:51:15.024000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Bitcoin', 'Ethereum', 'Stories', 'Technology'] |