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Gun violence and youth: the importance of viewing arms control through a gendered lens

Nathan Lefievre, IANSA Youth Network There are more young people in the world than ever before. According to the United Nations, there are approximately 1.8 billion people ages 10–24, and more than 50 percent of the world’s population is under the age of 30. These young people will be at the world’s helm in the future, many working to transform it into a better one. But today, the positive potential of too many young is held back by conflicts, armed violence, and poverty. I am 21 years old and a member of the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA) Youth Network. In my work, I have seen how youth are highly affected by the proliferation and misuse of small arms. Despite this, young people tend to be dismissed as too naive and lacking in pragmatism regarding world issues when they share their vision for a better world. Alternatively, they tend to be dismissed as self-absorbed or even stereotyped as the biggest troublemakers in society. But it is the willingness that many young people have to achieve a better society and to solve the world’s problems that is needed to take decisive action against gun proliferation and violence. Young people are the future and are a huge asset for innovative ideas on transforming their own future. However, instead of being viewed as agents of change for peace, they have too often been defined as the problem or not relevant to problem solving. Moreover, narratives concerning young people often reinforce gender stereotypes and create obstacles for engaging all youth. It is therefore crucial to view gun violence and youth through a gendered lens. Background: The devastating effects of small arms on youth worldwide There are an estimated one billion guns in circulation in the world, and many more are being manufactured annually. These guns fuel insecurity in the future of young people. According to the World Health Organization, 42 percent of homicide victims are 10–29 years old. Youth are critically impacted by gun violence all over the world, both as victims and perpetrators of gun violence. Gun violence leads to a variety of challenges for youth worldwide. It leads to internal displacement, leading youth to miss out on education, work experience, and vital opportunities. In conflicts, young people are often targeted by or recruited to armed groups. The proliferation of and access to small arms fuels criminal networks in which young people participate, aiming to obtain status and economic benefits. Armed violence also affects access to education, making young people feel unsafe travelling to or being in school, or simply by preventing the establishment or operation of learning centers in the first place. Guns in the home also create an unsafe space for many children and youth. As IANSA’s Women’s Network notes in its Call to Action, the presence of a gun in the home significantly increases the risk of death in situations of domestic violence. IANSA members have been raising concern about this issue, which needs more attention than ever given alarming reports on the rise in domestic violence that have been reported during home confinement periods during the COVID-19 pandemic. Unsecured firearms in a home also significantly increase the risk of death and injury among children and youth from accidental discharge. Leaving no one behind: the need for a comprehensive approach In 2015, all United Nations Member States adopted seventeen global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with the of achieving them by 2030 to foster a better and more sustainable future for all. These goals include ending poverty, achieving gender equality, making cities safe, ensuring quality education, and securing peace, justice and strong institutions. A comprehensive approach to reducing gun violence is needed to make these goals a reality, however. IANSA has been raising awareness of how gun violence affects and relates to a number of the SDGs. The world has only 10 years left to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, however. To do so, the Member States must scale up their actions, engage with youth as major stakeholders who can contribute to reaching the SDGs, and take into account a comprehensive approach that addresses the intersection of age and gender. A crucial need to acknowledge youth as actors in the field of peace and security August 12 was International Youth Day, and the theme for 2020 is “Youth Engagement for Global Action”. It seeks to highlight ways in which the engagement of youth is enriching institutions at all levels, and to provide examples of ways to advance the engagement of youth in formal institutions. As a youth representative of civil society organizations and part of IANSA’s Youth Network, I wish to emphasize the importance of this approach in increasing youth engagement. In 2015, the United Nations Security Council emphasized the importance of youth as agents of change in promoting peace and security through the adoption of the historic UNSC Resolution 2250 on Youth, Peace and Security. Following UNSRC 2250, two additional resolutions have been adopted and added to what is commonly referred to as the Youth, Peace and Security Agenda (YPS Agenda). The latest resolution, UNSCR 2535, was adopted on 14 July 2020. The resolution includes topics such as youth protection and involvement in the current pandemic, as well as the imperative of diversity. The resolution recognized the importance of engaging youth in shaping peace and contributing to justice and reconciliation. Moreover, it affirmed that the protection of all youth, particularly women and girls, and their participation in peace processes are significant elements in the promotion and maintenance of peace and security. Since the adoption of UNSCR 2250, more and more institutions have recognized the importance of engaging with youth. In a joint initiative with UNODA, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) offers a Scholarship for Peace and Security Training for young professionals, in particular young women who are underrepresented in the male dominated security and disarmament sector, to support the next generation of young professionals and promote greater gender parity. The MOSAIC module 6.20 on Children, adolescents, youth and small arms and light weapons serves as a practical guidebook on how to protect youth and children from the effects of small arms. It recognizes that identity markers such as age, gender, class, race and income level, as well as culture and context, should be taken into account when developing programs on small arms control. In 2019, UNODA launched the Youth4Disarmament initiative, which recognizes the importance of young people in bringing about change and provides a platform for young people to make meaningful contributions to disarmament processes. To see youth through a gendered lens — a must! It is important to acknowledge that the possession, proliferation, and use of small arms are gendered. The majority of victims and perpetrators of small arms-related violence are men. Young men aged 15–29 face a particular risk of death and injury due to gunshots. Most societies make strong associations between power and violence, and weapons are generally viewed not only as a symbol of power, but also of masculinity. Owning, brandishing, or using a weapon is often considered a symbol of manhood. Military conscription, often reserved to men, is another example of the gendering of guns and armed violence, as well as of our perceptions of gendered roles in which men are primarily seen as protectors and women as the ones needing protection. In societies with strong norms of militarized masculinities, young men are provided with access to masculinity through bearing weapons and being part of paramilitary groups. A study on former combatants in Colombia shows how these norms also are encouraged by young women preferring these men as partners due to their association with guns, money, and power. This illustrates how these gendered norms associated with guns can be encouraged by groups of different gender identities; it is not a men’s issue or a women’s issue but an issue that needs to be addressed by the whole society. The relationship between guns and masculine identity is something that many children are socialized into at a young age, not least through toy guns and popular culture. It is crucial to remember that gun violence disproportionately affects the lives and livelihoods of women, as they suffer from a wide range of negative effects despite being a tiny minority of the perpetrators of gun violence. A global study on homicide by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime revealed that in 2017, 87 000 women were murdered with a firearm around the globe. The same study shows that women represent 82 percent of the total homicides due to intimate partner violence. In the United States, women are 11 times more likely to die by firearm femicides than women in other high income nations. Even in my home country of France, a country not strongly associated with gun violence, a woman dies every two days from femicide. On average, a third of all femicides are committed using a firearm worldwide, with the rate rising to 60 percent in Latin America. In aiming to achieve gender equality, it is of utmost importance that we increase awareness of ways to prevent these crimes and work towards their eradication. At the same time, it is important to avoid contributing to policies that stereotype young men as simply “risk-factors” and women as passive victims. Gendered stereotypes — still an obstacle for youth engagement in arms control The Missing Peace: Independent Progress study on Youth Peace and Security highlights and problematizes counterproductive policies reproducing myths and stereotypes about youth. There are often underlying assumptions that youth equals young men and masculinity norms linked to armed violence. Since young men are vulnerable recruitment targets for armed groups, young men tend to be seen as potential “troublemakers”, and as the problem that needs to be solved. The UN Women report, Young Women in Peace and Security: At the Intersection of YPS and WPS Agenda shows how these narratives concerning young people often reinforce gender stereotypes. As a result, interventions targeting youth tend to focus on young men, largely ignoring young women. This hinders engagement with all youth. Women play crucial roles in leading peacebuilding efforts to prevent the outbreak of conflict and armed violence, and most young men are not involved in armed violence. IANSA’s member organizations, the IANSA Youth Network, and IANSA’s Women’s Network provide good examples of how civil society organizations challenge these narratives. Young people, despite limited means, are capable of changing their societies and working against the proliferation and misuse of small arms. By sharing statistics and conveying the consequences of expected societal roles of women, the Rural Development Foundation in Pakistan works to create change and prevent gender-based violence and honor killings by mobilizing young community members. Gun Free South Africa has produced a toolkit for a youth audience addressing the gendered impact of small arms and has organized workshops on how young people can engage in the legislative process to advocate for stronger gun control. These are just a few examples of IANSA members promoting and fostering a peaceful culture by working with youth in re-defining existing gender roles and their relationship to guns that limit young people’s capacities and may reproduce violent behaviours. Now is the time to act! This year is a year of anniversaries at the United Nations. 2020 marks 75 years since the UN was established, 25 years since the Beijing Platform was adopted, 20 years since UNSCR 1325 on Women Peace and Security was adopted, and five years since UNSCR 2250 on Youth, Peace and Security was adopted. This is a time to reflect on the progress and achievements, but also to call for action. The resolutions included in the YPS Agenda are linked to the resolutions within the Women Peace and Security Agenda (WPS Agenda) and thereby the Security Council recognizes how these two Agendas intersect, and that youth and disarmament has to be seen through a gendered lens. But the reality on the ground shows that UN Member States and policy makers must do much more in addressing and implementing the intersections of the YPS Agenda and the WPS Agenda. IANSA calls on decision makers to: ● Acknowledge young people as agents for change and a creative force in preventing the proliferation and misuse of the one billion small arms that previous generations are leaving behind for young people to have to grapple with now and in the future. ● Recognize the intersection of the YPS Agenda and WPS Agenda and the need to apply a comprehensive approach to arms control, not only on paper but also in practice. ● Incentivize policy makers to be more aware of their own perceptions of gendered norms and how these perceptions are reflected in policies, in order to cultivate non-violent masculinities. This job should not only be allocated to gender experts! ● Avoid reproducing counterproductive policies and acknowledge the diversity of youth. In particular, move away from discussions of young men as “trouble-makers”, a narrative that tends to stigmatize young men and renders young women invisible. ● Ensure the representation of youth in international negotiations on small arms control. It is important to include civil society organizations that often have large representation of youth and possess valuable knowledge in how to implement the intersection of the YPS Agenda and the WPS Agenda in the field. ● Ensure the representation of youth as members of governments’ national coordination bodies. National coordination bodies created to provide overall coordination and policy direction for national small arms and light weapons control efforts should also include diverse representation from civil society, including youth. ● Ensure that police and other law enforcers are professional, well trained, responsive, accountable, and work with communities to protect them and to keep guns away from irresponsible hands. State forces that are abusive, unaccountable and fail to provide protection to communities, including women and girls, fuel increased demand for and use of weapons by young people and other civilians. In this respect, a relationship of law enforcement to youth that is based on professionalism and integrity is crucial for gun control. Nathan Lefievre is an IANSA Programme Associate and member of the IANSA Youth Network. He is the creator of the website Elle s’appelait , which aims to raise awareness of femicides in France and the need to end violence against women globally. He is also the co-creator of the youth vision of “One billion trees, not one billion guns,” which aims to raise awareness of the link between climate change and armed violence, and calls for greater action on the climate crisis and on reducing the global arsenal of guns. Nathan is currently pursuing a Dual Masters in European Affairs and Public Policy between Sciences Po Paris and the National University of Singapore. In his professional future, he aims to raise civil society and NGO participation in the decision-making process of the United Nations. This blogpost was written as part of IANSA’s “Civil society engagement in support of gender mainstreamed policies, programmes and actions in the fight against small arms trafficking and misuse, in line with the Women, Peace and Security agenda”, which is funded by the United Nations. This document was produced with the financial assistance of the United Nations through contributions received from the European Union. The views expressed herein are those of the Implementing Partner and do not necessarily reflect those of the United Nations or the European Union.

https://medium.com/@iansa-network/gun-violence-and-youth-the-importance-of-viewing-arms-control-through-a-gendered-lens-137f6c5b9142

['International Action Network On Small Arms', 'Iansa']

2020-11-25 14:08:42.802000+00:00

['Gun Violence', 'Gender', 'United Nations', 'Youth Empowerment', 'Youth']

How to Afford Healthy Meal Plans

Meals at Home Whether you are cooking for just yourself, one to two people, or a larger group, planning meals is a good place to start improving your food choices. Taking the time to plan a healthy evening meal can help you avoid a less healthful “drive-through” dinner. To start, grab a pencil and paper and list your favorite meals. It may help to talk to your family or thumb through a favorite cook book. Some of the meals will be healthier than others, but for now, just write them all down. You might want to use MyPlate Planexternal icon. The plan will show you your daily food group targets — what and how much to eat within your calorie allowance. It can help you plan your upcoming meals to meet your weight goals and suggest ways to improve choices. Download My Food Diary pdf icon[PDF-105KB] to help you track your meals. Once you’ve planned your meals, make a grocery list. Take some time on your visit to the grocery store to choose lower-calorie ingredients. Here are some ideas that may help:

https://medium.com/@earnwash88-50485/how-to-afford-healthy-meal-plans-8dbd2e0cb311

['Eb Washington']

2020-12-24 19:27:40.885000+00:00

['Gift Cards', 'Weight Loss', 'Diet', 'Meal Plan', 'Grocery Shopping']

Overlooked reason for Capitol atrophy: Lack of a modern and more substantial diet

For the past 15 years, public disapproval of the performance of Congress has averaged around 70 percent. Typically, when people look at Washington, as former Speaker Paul Ryan once observed, “It looks like chaos” — not leadership or governance, regardless of which party is in control. What’s wrong with Congress? Most frequently the problem is framed as a people problem. Congress has bad people in it. There are clowns, cranks and crooks, and we should throw those bums out. Others point to Capitol Hill having too many rabid partisans. Best to send them packing, too, in favor of new legislators who will choose “country over party.” Still others point to the corrupting influence of lobbyists and the campaign finance hustle as the proximate cause for congressional dysfunction. All of these diagnoses have merit, and their corresponding remedies are worth pursuing. But we should not forget about the “congressional capacity” problem…. (Read more)

https://medium.com/@kevinrkosar/overlooked-reason-for-capitol-atrophy-lack-of-a-modern-and-more-substantial-diet-793c15ae8aa0

['Kevin R Kosar']

2020-12-26 15:54:55.712000+00:00

['Congress']

DeFi Needs Privacy: Here’s Why

As we understand it, privacy is a relatively new concept. The idea that people should have a right to privacy has evolved as the development of new technology has given us new expectations — and posed new threats — with regard to our personal privacy. As we develop a decentralized financial (DeFi) system, it’s critical to remember that any decentralized financial system worth having must respect the financial sovereignty of the individuals it serves. To better understand the role of privacy in DeFi, this article provides a short history of the evolution of privacy, describes the role of privacy in DeFi, and explains what Plutus DeFi is doing to bring privacy to DeFi. A Brief History of Privacy Even expectations of physical privacy are relatively new. Internal walls separating the rooms of a home came about around 1500 A.D. and sleeping in your own bed only started becoming a thing around 1700 A.D.. In both cases, it still took decades, if not centuries for these norms to gain mainstream adoption. The Right to Privacy, written by Samuel D. Warren; Louis D. Brandeis and published in the Harvard Law Review in 1890, defined modern privacy as we know it. In the essay, the authors describe the growing potential for governments and businesses to encroach on the privacy of the individuals they serve and argue that law must keep pace with technological advancements: Recent inventions and business methods call attention to the next step which may must be taken for the protection of the person, and for securing to the individual what Judge Cooley calls the right “to be let alone.” Instantaneous photographs and newspaper enterprises have invaded the sacred precincts of private and domestic life; and numerous mechanical devices threaten to make good the prediction that “what is whispered in the closet shall be proclaimed from the house-tops.” Privacy has also been recognized on the international stage. Article 12 of the U.N.’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, published by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris on December 10, 1948 states that: “No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.” Today, the issue of privacy remains as important and relevant as ever. As technology continues to redefine the way we communicate, new threats and tools for dealing with them constantly race to stay ahead of the curve. Privacy in DeFi With all of the excitement around the composability of the products and protocols in DeFi and the impressive interest rates offered by decentralized lending products, it’s easy to forget about the importance of privacy. Some contend that applications using blockchain shouldn’t be intended for privacy, the logic essentially being that the whole point is to maintain a public record of transactions. Transaction data, however, doesn’t necessarily need to reveal any personally identifiable information that could be correlated with an individual person using a given application. As described on the website set up by the companies pioneering DeFi as a concept, “market-level information should be transparent to all participants while still preserving individual privacy.” Important as transparency may be — it is one of the founding principles of DeFi, after all — promoting transparency at the market-level doesn’t necessarily mean exposing the identity of participants in the system. Source: https://defi.network/ Without privacy, a decentralized financial system will suffer many of the same pitfalls as our current financial system. From inappropriate censorship and the exposure of customers’ personal information to outright theft, consumers must tiptoe through a minefield of potential problems when dealing with today’s financial institutions. Where Plutus DeFi Comes In The “Scalability Trilemma” states that distributed ledger technologies can only achieve two out of three fundamental properties: decentralization, security, and scalability. Whether or not there’s an element of truth to this with regard to Web3 and decentralized infrastructure, we firmly believe the Scalability Trilemma doesn’t apply when it comes to DeFi applications. To give people the tools they need to have a secure, scalable, and decentralized financial system, Plutus DeFi is working with Nexus Mutual and AZTEC team on integrating and championing privacy in DeFi. Nexus Mutual uses smart contracts on Ethereum to pool risk and provide insurance against the failure of other smart contracts on Ethereum and Aztec Protocol provides simple APIs and developer tools for building privacy into decentralized applications (dApps) built on Ethereum. Our work will involve integrating insurance and privacy into beautiful, user-friendly DeFi products. Our first product will be a lending product that provides built-in privacy and insurance features. Stay tuned for updates! Conclusion Fighting for privacy means staying vigilant against new threats and proclaiming our rights loudly. Nobody said building a new financial system would be easy but with such a great community behind us, we’re excited to forge ahead into this new territory! We aim to open up Early Access to our Lend & Earn product for beta testers in early December and look forward to getting your feedback!

https://medium.com/addxyz/defi-needs-privacy-heres-why-d5844fb0d07b

['Seth Goldfarb']

2019-11-15 20:00:57.569000+00:00

['Fintech', 'Blockchain', 'Blockchain Startup', 'Privacy', 'Cryptocurrency News']

LAMB Chrome extension wallet will release soon

The first chrome extension wallet to support Lambda storage network. Google Chrome is the most popular browser nowadays, and it has powerful plugin system. The plugin wallet configuration is simple, installation and layout are very simple and convenient. At the same time, many blockchain applications currently have plugin wallets support. Hence, the Lambda Chrome extension wallet will be convenience for users and opened up Lambda ecological transactions and blueprint. Lambda Wallet Chrome extension version brings an overall Lambda ecosystem experience to web users. It is a perfect web entry for blockchain space, and it complements the defects of web side of Lambda ecosystem. Web wallet will also be a blockchain applications’ indispensable fundamental tools. In the future, Lambda will continue to update wallet functions and user experience. Welcome all Lambda community members bring friends to use the Beta version of Lambda Chrome extension wallet and share more suggestions to us! The LAMB Chrome extention wallet create by Lambda technology community which will be launched soon. Please follow our Weibo and other Official channels.

https://medium.com/lambdaofficial/lamb-chrome-extension-wallet-will-release-soon-adab7b2b80d2

[]

2020-12-03 09:52:23.332000+00:00

['Blockchain', 'Blockchain Development', 'Wallet']

Approachable AI — Explainability (part 2)

Explainability In the first post, we discussed how useability is a hindrance preventing companies from scaling their AI capabilities. Equally as important, if not more so, than an easy to use system to create models is the ability to interpret and understand the results. Even for organizations that have data scientists, there is often difficulties getting their hard work into production because of an AI language barrier. In other words, the typical business user does not understand the model references or statistical metrics that is common in data science vocabulary. On top of this, many of the models still appear to be black boxes. There are many organizations that are not able to implement a machine learning model if they cannot explain how it got to the results. That requirement is sometimes internal but often is required of regulators and so companies are reluctant to incorporate a black box product into their processes out of concern for regulatory backlash. The second pillar of Approachable AI is thus explainability. The elipsa platform tackles this issue by defining the results of a model in terms that business users understand, and then seeks to look inside the black box to shine some light on why the algorithm comes to a predicted conclusion Business Terms Precision, recall, F1, accuracy. These are metrics that are integral to a machine learning classification problem. However, chances are accuracy is the only one of the four that the typical business user is familiar with. How many predictions did the model get right vs how many total predictions. Accuracy intuitively makes sense to the business as a metric to use. We want to increase the % of answers we get right? Well unfortunately relying solely on accuracy can result in very poor models as accuracy does not tell the full story. In fact, an over-reliance on accuracy can lead to what is referred to as overfitting. We will not get into too much technical detail on overfitting but think of it in terms of memorizing the answers to old tests with no ability to correctly answer the questions on new unseen test questions. Looking at that point in a different way, most data sets are imbalanced. In other words, when trying to predict an event, your data is often lopsided towards containing more of one result than another. If you were trying to perform predictive maintenance on a piece of machinery using sensors and other information, you are more than likely to have a working machine more often than a failed machine. So, let’s say in your data, the machine part failed 10% of the time. A model relying too heavily on accuracy could overfit by leaning too heavily on the data showing the machine is performing well. As a result, you could run all the data through the model and it could predict 100% of the time that the machine is operating fine. We know that is not the case but statistically, it is still 90% accurate even though it didn’t predict a single failure correctly. This is where additional statistics come in handy for producing high performing models but it is also where legacy systems begin to get over-complicated for the typical business user. The elipsa approach is to automate the optimization of the model to the more advanced metrics behind the scenes and then present the results in terms that users understand. We show accuracy but also introduce the concept of minority class accuracy and error. In addition to showing the overall accuracy, elipsa takes the event class that is underrepresented in the data (the part failure in the example above). This gives the business user confidence that not only is the model strong as a whole but also to see how effective is it on data sets that it does not have sufficient examples for). In addition to presenting the accuracy in multiple ways, we look at the error rate of our predictions. Each prediction in the elipsa system will give a predicted answer coupled with a confidence score of how high of conviction it has on that prediction. For those that the model got wrong, the error rate shows how high was the conviction. How confident is it in its wrong answer? Lower error does not fix the fact that the model got it wrong but gives the user confidence that it is more likely to get similar data correct in the future. (sample model results) Transparency With model results put into terms that the business user can understand, they are more likely to be able to feel confident in the model coming to the correct answer. However, that still leaves the concern of how did the model get to that conclusion. Unlike a human working through the process manually, the computer can not explain in plain language how it got to the answer. This black box approach and lack of transparency is a primary driver for why organizations are in some cases reluctant to incorporate AI into their existing processes, and in the case of regulated industries, why they often are not allowed to incorporate them. The elipsa platform seeks to increase the explainability of models in terms that business users understand by explaining aspects of the model as a whole and further explaining each prediction it makes. For model transparency, we focus on providing more clarity around the predictors used by the model and showing which predictors are the most relevant to model performance. We do this by automating a process that tests each predictor against the final model to show how much the model improved by including that specific predictor in the model. This provides the business user with key insights into which predictor is actually having the strongest influence on the predictions that it is making. In addition to analyzing the predictors on the model as a whole, we focus on explaining each prediction for the user. For each prediction against the model, the platform decomposes the data predictors to explain how each value contributed (positively or negatively) to the predicted answer and confidence value. As an example, you could build a model that used age, education level, and salary to predict whether they would buy a luxury vehicle. If you have a prospective buyer whose age and education level contribute positively towards predicting that he or she will buy a car but their below-average salary negatively weighs down the confidence resulting in a prediction that the prospect will in fact not end up buying a vehicle. Conclusion AI, and specifically machine learning and predictive analytics, has come a long way over the past few years. However, we are still not at the point where organizations can trust the models without hesitation. To overcome this hesitation, they need to build trust through understanding. As a result, the lack of explainability by legacy systems has significantly slowed the adoption of AI across the enterprise. This focus on explainability is the second pillar of Approachable AI. Our focus is on creating predictive models that business users can understand so that they build confidence in the use of such models and begin to benefit from the advanced technologies to relieve them of key pain points in their processes.

https://medium.com/elipsa/approachable-ai-explainability-part-2-9362f0c05577

['Jeff Kimmel']

2021-03-25 14:32:25+00:00

['No Code', 'Explainable Ai', 'Data Science', 'Predictive Analytics', 'Machine Learning']

‘What’s the difference between income and wealth?’ and other common questions about economic concepts

‘What’s the difference between income and wealth?’ and other common questions about economic concepts Katherine Schaeffer Follow Jul 23 · 8 min read (Pew Research Center illustration) At Pew Research Center, we study people’s economic lives — from who counts as unemployed to what it means to be middle class. But economic concepts aren’t always as understandable to the rest of us as they are to economists, and the jargon can be difficult to parse. Here’s a look at some of the most common terms and concepts that come up in our work on the economy, and what they mean. What’s the difference between income and wealth? Income and wealth are both key indicators of financial security for a family or an individual. Income is the sum of earnings from a job or a self-owned business, interest on savings and investments, payments from social programs and many other sources. It is usually calculated on an annual or monthly basis. Wealth, or net worth, is the value of assets owned by a family or an individual (such as a home or a savings account) minus outstanding debt (such as a mortgage or student loan). It refers to an amount that has been accumulated over a lifetime or more (since it may be passed across generations). This accumulated wealth is a source of retirement income, protects against short-term economic shocks and provides security for future generations. As of 2016, upper-income families in the U.S. had 7.4 times as much wealth at the median as middle-income families and 75 times as much wealth as lower-income families. These ratios were up from 3.4 and 28 in 1983, respectively, as the below chart shows: What’s economic inequality and how is it measured? Economic inequality is a broad term that can relate to income and/or wealth inequality, among other measures of standard of living. Income inequality measures the distribution of income throughout a population. In the United States, for example, a greater share of aggregate income is now going to upper-income households and the share going to middle- and lower-income households is falling, meaning income inequality has increased. Similarly, wealth inequality measures the distribution of net worth among the population. In America, the wealth gap between upper- and lower-income households is sharper than the income divide and has grown more rapidly in recent decades. Income inequality can also be measured using the 90/10 ratio — the ratio of the income needed to place among the top 10% of earners in the U.S. (the 90th percentile) to the income at the threshold of the bottom 10% of earners (the 10th percentile). Another common metric is the Gini coefficient, a single number aimed at measuring the degree of inequality in a distribution. It is typically used to measure how far a country’s income distribution deviates from a totally equal distribution. A Gini coefficient of 0 represents perfect equality (all people have the same income), while 1 represents complete inequality (only one person has all of the nation’s income). The U.S. had a Gini coefficient of 0.434 in 2017 (based on gross income, before taxes), representing the highest level of inequality among the G7 countries. What’s the gender pay gap and how is it measured? The gender pay gap measures the difference in earnings between men and women. Historically, men in the U.S. have earned more than women on average, but the gap has slowly narrowed over time — especially for younger workers. Experts don’t entirely understand why the gap exists. While some factors that contribute to the gender wage gap may be quantified — differences in job skills, education level, work experience, union membership, hours worked, industry and occupation — others are more difficult to measure. These include the responsibilities of motherhood and family and their effects on women’s engagement with the workplace when compared with men; gender stereotypes and discrimination; and differences in professional networking and in the inclination to negotiate for raises and promotions. The Center calculates the gender pay gap based on the median hourly earnings of full- and part-time workers. Read more about why we calculate the pay gap this way. How is poverty measured? The poverty line, also referred to as the poverty threshold, is identified by the federal government and used to determine eligibility each year for federal programs, such as SNAP (formerly called “food stamps”) and Medicaid. The poverty line is determined based on what it costs to buy grocery essentials on a thrifty food plan and then multiplying that amount by three. These measures are calculated based on family size and composition, and they are adjusted each year to account for inflation using the Consumer Price Index. In 2020, for example, the U.S. poverty line stood at $26,246 for a family of four. Read more about when and how the poverty line was developed. At the Center, we often use this measure in our work on topics such as the experience of Americans living in poverty. How is middle class or middle income defined? Our research looks at the middle class both in the U.S. and in a global context. For the U.S., we determine who falls into the middle class by using relative household incomes. For instance, middle-income Americans are adults whose annual household income is two-thirds to double the national median, after incomes have been adjusted for household size. Our analyses of the middle class in U.S. metropolitan areas and states also take into account different costs of living across the country. In the global context, people who are middle income live on $10.01-$20 a day, which translates to an annual income of about $14,600 to $29,200 for a family of four (expressed in 2011 prices). This is modest by the standards of advanced economies. In fact, it straddles the official poverty line in the United States. Our analyses of the global middle class make sure to adjust for purchasing power parity, in which currency exchange rates are adjusted for differences in the prices of goods and services across countries. Studying the middle class tells us about trends around economic inequality and adds context to other trends we study, including the labor market and personal and household finances. Read more about our methodology for the U.S. middle class and how we calculate U.S. income tiers, our 2015 global middle class methodology and our 2021 global middle class methodology. Use our U.S. middle class income calculator or our global middle class calculator to see if your household falls into this group. Why is income data often adjusted for the number of people in a household? We adjust household income data because a four-person household with an income of $50,000 faces a tighter budget constraint than a two-person household with the same income. At its simplest, adjusting for household size could mean converting household income into per capita income. So, a two-person household with an income of $50,000 would have a per capita income of $25,000, double the per capita income of a four-person household with the same total income. We use a slightly more refined adjustment, in which household income is divided by the square root of the number of people in the household. For purposes of reporting, we then scale the resulting income to reflect a household size of three, the whole number nearest to the average size of a U.S. household, which was 2.5 in 2020. Read more about our methodology for this adjustment. Why are there so many different metrics for assessing the state of the labor market? The short answer is that each one tells us something different about the labor market. The Bureau of Labor Statistics produces a host of metrics, including six measures of what it refers to as “labor underutilization,” along with many other measurements including labor force participation rates, employment-population ratios, average weekly wages, average hours worked and more. The Center uses three main metrics in our work on the topic. · Unemployment rate: Simply being out of work isn’t enough for the government to count a person as unemployed; he or she also has to be available to work and actively looking for work (or on temporary layoff). The unemployment rate is the share of the labor force — made up of those ages 16 and older with a job, on temporary layoff or actively looking for work — that’s unemployed. In any given month, the unemployment rate can rise or fall based not just on how many people find or lose jobs, but on how many join or leave the active labor force. · Employment-population ratio: This ratio captures the percentage of a given group’s total civilian non-institutional population, age 16 and older, who are employed. For example, we’ve used this metric to compare employment among different age groups in the U.S. · Labor force participation rate: This is the share of the 16-and-over civilian non-institutional population either working, on temporary layoff or actively looking for work. This can be affected by more people becoming discouraged from seeking work, leaving temporarily for personal or family reasons, retiring, or deciding to go back to school. What does it mean to seasonally adjust jobs figures? Would you ever use data that is not seasonally adjusted? Seasonal adjustment is a statistical technique that accounts for and removes seasonal fluctuations in the size of the labor force and levels of employment and unemployment due to predictable monthly patterns, including weather, crop harvests, holidays and school schedules. Because these events follow a pretty regular pattern, seasonal adjustment allows for a more accurate measure of how employment and unemployment change from month to month. In general, we use figures that are not seasonally adjusted when comparing the same month across years. Recently, this has been useful in understanding the COVID-19 labor market’s slow recovery. We also use data that is not seasonally adjusted for posts in which we measure summer employment. Seasonal adjustments are not needed for annual average estimates. What does it mean to adjust for inflation, and why do you do it? Inflation is a general increase in the price of goods and services across the economy. As a result of inflation, consumers can purchase fewer goods and services for the same amount of money. Adjusting for inflation allows us to compare the value of currency over time in order to understand trends such as how the U.S. minimum wage has lost purchasing power over time and to compare the value of workers’ wages across several decades. This is a statistical method that allows us to compare the difference in purchasing power over time. This tells us more than simply comparing the difference in the number of dollars, which have less value as inflation occurs. What’s the difference between a government deficit and a government debt? The budget deficit and the national debt are two related, but very different, concepts. The budget deficit is an annual calculation that refers to the difference between what the government spends in a given year and how much it takes in, usually in the form of taxes. The U.S. national debt is the total amount outstanding the government has borrowed over time for things like covering previous years’ federal deficits. The U.S. national debt stands at $28.5 trillion as of the end of June, and the debt is projected to grow in coming years. Katherine Schaeffer is a research analyst at Pew Research Center.

https://medium.com/pew-research-center-decoded/income-wealth-poverty-a-brief-intro-to-common-economic-concepts-d20b13ca7619

['Katherine Schaeffer']

2021-07-23 14:00:23.637000+00:00

['Poverty', 'Unemployment', 'Wealth', 'Economics', 'Income']

Introduction to Airflow in Python

Introduction to Airflow in Python A beginner’s guide to the basic concepts of Apache Airflow This is a memo to share what I have learnt in Apache Airflow, capturing the learning objectives as well as my personal notes. The course is taught by Mike Metzger from DataCamp. Photo by Jacek Dylag on Unsplash A data engineer’s job includes writing scripts, adding complex CRON tasks, and trying various ways to meet an ever-changing set of requirements to deliver data on schedule. Airflow can do all these while adding scheduling, error handling, and reporting. I have learnt the following topics: Workflows / DAGs / Tasks Operators (BashOperator, PythonOperator, BranchPythonOperator, EmailOperator) Dependencies between tasks / Bitshift operators Sensors (to react to workflow conditions and state) Scheduling DAGs SLAs / Alerting to maintain visibility on workflows Templates for maximum flexibility when defining tasks Branching, to add conditional logic to DAGs Airflow interfaces: command line / UI Airflow executors Debugging / Troubleshooting My next steps would be:

https://medium.com/swlh/introduction-to-airflow-in-python-67b554f06f0b

['Black_Raven', 'James Ng']

2020-08-14 19:53:14.968000+00:00

['Development', 'Data Engineering', 'Airflow', 'Workflow', 'DevOps']

The ULTIMATE Niche Package (very limited)…

The ULTIMATE Niche Package (very limited)… Hello, Have you checked out John & Dave’s Niche Marketing Toolkit kit yet? Official Website Click Here The Niche Marketing Kit really does contain all you need for success in 2021. This is something they do every year but this time it’s bigger and better than ever and at this price you really can’t go wrong. However, I must warn you that this won’t be around for much longer as it’s only available over the festive period. You get everything you need to succeed in these ESSENTIAL niches: ## Website Traffic ## Video Marketing ## Affiliate Marketing ## List Building ## Social Media ## Essential Internet Marketing And much much more… So what’s the catch? Quite simply there is NO CATCH, apart from this is only available for a VERY limited time as a Festive special! So check it out and make sure you add this to your Festive shopping list. Official Website Click Here So grab yours NOW while you can, once it’s gone it’s gone for good.

https://medium.com/@hereismac/the-ultimate-niche-package-very-limited-b878be87a934

[]

2021-02-02 15:48:01.804000+00:00

['Niche Marketing', 'Internet Marketing', 'Internet of Things', 'Niche Market', 'Niche Package']

A Bunch of Words: an Introduction to SpaCy on CORD-19

With the onset of the Coronavirus pandemic, a huge number of academic articles related to it has been released. While this huge increase in the amount of research available can lead to a better understanding of the virus and its consequences, the great number of documents generated could be an obstacle in finding the best answer to some questions related to Covid-19. In this set of articles, we try to exploit techniques from Machine Learning and, in particular, from Natural Language Processing (NLP) in order to facilitate the process of information gathering and discovering. We are going to use the COVID-19 Open Research Dataset (CORD-19) from Allen Institute for AI, available from the Kaggle platform. The CORD-19 database is a resource of over 135,000 scholarly articles, including over 65,000 with full text, about COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, and related Coronaviruses. It is a freely available dataset, that was provided to the global research community in order to apply natural language processing techniques at the frontier, to generate new insights, suggestions and possible policy actions from the growing literature on coronavirus. As stated in the Kaggle website: “There is a growing urgency for these approaches because of the rapid acceleration in new coronavirus literature, making it difficult for the medical research community to keep up”. Starting from a sample As a first step, we are going to set the environment and to download a tiny part of the dataset. In order to show step by step how the NLP techniques work, we will use only some sentences from an article of the dataset that we’ve already selected for you. We are going to explore the whole dataset in the next articles. # Import the necessary libraries import numpy as np import pandas as pd import spacy import json # Load our sample file and take a look at it path_to_sample = "sample.json" input_file = open(path_to_sample) with input_file as f: data = json.load(f) data['abstract'] We are interested in extracting sentences from this part of the .json file. Here is one sentence: ex_sent0 = data['abstract'][0]['text'] print(ex_sent0) Before starting our journey it’s right and proper to take a look at a few concepts from linguistics, in order to better understand how spaCy handles the processing of text data. Linguistics 101: Dependency Grammars vs Phrase Structure Grammars By using spaCy we’ll focus on analyzing sentence structures to identify patterns in word sequences. To understand sentence analysis and patterns, we’ll need some basic knowledge of linguistics. This paragraph contains a linguistic primer you can use as a reference. By default, spaCy uses a dependency grammar rather than a phrase structure grammar, which is more commonly used in linguistics. Let’s delve into the difference between these two grammar types. If you haven’t a formal linguistic background, you may find this information helpful. Also known as a constituent-based grammar, a phrase structure grammar models natural language based on how words combine to form constituents in a sentence. In syntax, a constituent is a group of words that works as a single unit in a sentence. Phrase structure rules decompose a sentence into its constituent parts, forming a tree structure that begins with individual words and builds up larger and larger constituents. On the other side, a dependency grammar is a word-based grammar that focuses on the relations between individual words rather than between constituents. As a result, a dependency parse forms a tree that reflects how words relate to other words in a sentence. The phrase structure tree breaks up the sentence based on the fact that the sentence consists of a noun phrase and a verb phrase. Those phrases appear on the second level of the hierarchy, directly under the sentence (S) mark — the formal top level. On the bottom level are the individual words that make up those phrases. In contrast, the dependency structure uses the verb as the structural center of a sentence. The other words are either directly or indirectly connected to this verb with the help of directed links, known as dependencies. The dependency grammar that spaCy uses by default expresses the grammatical structure of a sentence as a set of one-to-one correspondences between words. Each of these relations represents a grammatical function in which one word is the child, or the dependent word, and the other is the head, or the governor. For example, in “green apple”, the dominant word is “apple”, and “green” is its subordinate. You can think of the head as the word with the most “relative importance” and without which the child doesn’t make sense. Each word in a sentence must be connected to exactly one head. But the same word might have none, one, or several children. SpaCy’s grammar assumes that the head of a sentence (the Root token) is its own head. In the example we showed above (“African wild animals run quickly”), the verb “run” is the head of the sentence, so the head property of the Token object representing this word will refer to this same Token object. Note that the head/child relationship has nothing to do with linear order in the sentence. For example, the child “wild” comes before its head “animals”, but the child “quickly” comes after its head “run”. With this concepts in mind, we can now dive properly into spaCy’s processing pipeline, analyzing all the different tasks that are performed throughout the process. Tokenization Tokenization is the task of splitting a text into meaningful segments, called tokens. A token is everything we can find in our text: a word, a piece of punctuation, a number, a symbol. The input required is a unicode text, and the output is a spaCy’s Doc object. The key principle is that spaCy’s tokenization is non-destructive, which means that we will always be able to reconstruct the original input from the tokenized output. Whitespace information is preserved and no information is added or removed during the process. But how tokenization really works? The answer is that it works by applying rules that are specific to each language. For example, the english word “don’t” should be split into two tokens representing its meaning, “do” and “n’t” (not), while the acronym “U.K.” should always remain one token. However, if punctuation comes at the end of a sentence it should always be split off to be a token on its own. Generalizing this example, spaCy’s tokenizer proceeds in two steps. First, the raw text is split in substrings on whitespace characters. Then, each substring is processed, from left to right, checking the following questions: Does the substring match a language-specific rule? Can a prefix, suffix, infix or piece of punctuation be split off? If there’s a match, the rule is applied and the tokenizer continues its loop. In this way, spaCy can also deal with nested tokens like combinations of abbreviations and multiple punctuation marks. Needless to say, each and every language has plenty of its own grammar and semantic mechanics, and this is why each language that is supported by spaCy has its own subclass, that loads in lists of hard-coded data and rules. We can now proceed to tokenize our sample text extracted before: # Load English language nlp = spacy.load(“en_core_web_sm”) # Tokenize the text doc = nlp(ex_sent0) # Collect the information in a nice-looking Pandas DataFrame tokens_list = np.array([token for token in doc]) tokens_table = pd.DataFrame(tokens_list, columns = ["Token"]) tokens_table.head(14) Moreover, spaCy also allows its users to define custom tokenization rules, and to manually build and/or modify the tokenizer or the tokenization output. As you can imagine the possibilities are countless, so please check our references if you’re interested in more details. Lemmatization Our text has now become a collection of tokens, and we’re getting closer to a representation that can allow us to do statistics on it. But we still need to deal with couple of problems. First of all, we need to identify together words with different representation but same meaning. For example, “walking” and “walks” are two different tokens and in principle they should be treated as different words. However, when analyzing a text, we don’t really want to consider them as different entities, but rather as different expressions of the same word, the verb “walk”. Lemmatization is the process of reducing the inflected forms of a word to their root form so that they can be analyzed as a single item, identified by the word’s lemma, or dictionary form. As it was the case for the tokenizer, this procedure strongly depends on the language at hand. Usually a dictionary for the selected language is loaded, and lemmatization is performed by dictionary lookup, with the addition of several hand-crafted rules. Last but not least, we want to distinguish between words that can provide us some information about the text and non-informative words, also called stopwords. For example, every text is usually full of articles, conjunctions, pronouns, auxiliary verbs and so on. However, we cannot expect to extract much information from this kind of words, because they are building blocks of pretty much every sentence in every text. This is why sometimes they need to be kept separated from “real” words. Fortunately, spaCy’s tokenizer does this job for us while splitting the text, and we can recover the features discussed so far by making use of the token.lemma_ and token.is_stop attributes. lemmas_list = np.array([[token, token.lemma_, token.is_stop] for token in doc]) lemmas_table = pd.DataFrame(lemmas, columns = ["Token", "Lemma", "Is stopword?"]) lemmas_table.head(14) So far so good, we are now left with a more schematic version of our starting text, that now results segmented into all its words. This can be considered the starting point for building and applying NLP algorithms and machine learning. Part-of-speech Tagging After tokenization and lemmatization, the next phase for word processing is part-of-speech (POS) tagging. Part-of-Speech tagging is the process through which we assign to each token a label that describe the part of speech (such as noun, verb, and so on) the token represents. Here it is where the statistical model comes in. SpaCy makes predictions about which tag or label is the most appropriate for a word using neural network models. After the model is trained with a good number of examples, it is able to make predictions for each word. SpaCy makes available some pre-trained models for each language, that are already usable on text documents. Note that each trained model is generalizable only within the specific language for which it was trained, since the tag prediction relies on rules that are language-specific. For example, in English a word following “the” is very likely a noun, but this rules is not generalizable to other languages like Spanish or Italian. Some of the POS tag are the following ones: Some POS Tagging, available from spaCy documentation: https://spacy.io/api/annotation#pos-tagging Together with this, the model is also able to trace back the dependency parse tree structure in our sentence, giving to each word its position. The following image is obtained using the “Visualizer” feature, available with SpaCy: An example of a structure that represent the “parse dependency”, the dependency between words. Now let’s apply POS tagging on the example sentence we already extract. words_list = np.array([[token, token.lemma_, token.is_stop, token.pos_, token.tag_, token.dep_, ] for token in docx]) words_table = pd.DataFrame(words_list, columns = [“Token”, “Lemma”, “Is Stopword?”, “Part of Speech”, “Morphology”, “Dependecy”]) words_table.head(14) The fifth column is the one we haven’t already discussed about. It indicates the Morphological Tag of the considered word. The difference between the Part-of-Speech Tag and the Morphological Tag is that the Morphological Tag code not only the word type (verb, noun, etc), but also other characteristics like whether the word is singular or plural, or for verbs what is the tense. Named Entity Recognition Another interesting feature of SpaCy is that it is also able to recognize which type of “object” are some entities (for example, that “Apple” is a company or an institution, that “U.K” is a geopolitical entity, that “1$ billion” is a monetary value, that 2007 is a date, and so on). It is also possible to add arbitrary classes to the entity recognition system, and consequently update the model with new examples. It is important to note that the entity recognition feature strongly rely on the examples it was trained on, and so it could be that it does not always work perfectly. In this case, some tuning and adjustment could be needed afterwards, in order to adjust the entity recognition to the context of the document analyzed. Here there is an example in which the SpaCy visualizer is used in order to recognize different entities, that are highlighted and labelled with a short sequence of characters, which represent the category the words belong to. Example of Named Entity Recognition, using the VIsualizer provided by SpaCy. Language Processing Pipelines We have unleashed spaCy’s power, that enable us to recover many information and structure from text documents. The features we saw are the first bricks to construct our journey in the world of Natural Language Processing, applying these techniques in the CORD-19 dataset. However, we would like to understand if it’s possible to automate some processes and build some kind of pipeline. Every operation — on text — that we have seen so far can be thought as a LEGO brick itself. We want to pile bricks up and build a re-usable construction: luckily, we are not left alone since at spaCy, developers have built everything in a modular way, with the idea of sequentializing every operation. spaCy’s language processing pipeline The default pipeline consists of a tagger, a parser and an entity recognizer. Each of these components returns the processed Doc , which is then passed on to the next component. As a result, our initial raw text becomes split into a series of tokens, each one associated with its tags and its role in the dependency parse tree, as we saw in the last table presented above. It is also possible to design a custom pipeline, which of course, always depends on the statistical model we are considering. In this way, we should take heed to the fact that the Tokenizer is considered as a “special” component and isn’t part of the regular pipeline. The technical rigidity here is that there can be only one tokenizer, and while all other pipeline components take a Doc and return it, the tokenizer takes a string of text and turns it into a Doc .You can still customize the tokenizer, though: nlp.tokenizer is writable, so you can either create your own Tokenizer class from scratch, or even replace it with an entirely custom function. We’ve kinda understood how to compose different operations but: it’s time to see how to process text. Text Processing Let’s go back to our sample, extracted from one of the articles from CORD-19. We are pretending to have a huge amount of text to process, when processing large volumes of text, these models are more efficient if you let them work on batches of texts. nlp.pipe method takes an iterable of text and yields processed Doc objects. In this way, the batching is done internally. Firstly, we can extract a few other sentences from the abstract of the selected article: # 2 more sentences ex_sent1 = data['abstract'][1]['text'] ex_sent2 = data['abstract'][2]['text'] # Building texts list texts = [ex_sent0, ex_sent1, ex_sent2] # Building docs in this way is efficient docs = list(nlp.pipe(texts)) For a further in-depth analysis of spaCy’s nlp.pipe method, you can take a look at the official documentation, which is definitely exhaustive. Let’s take a look at what we get by using the entity linking feature, since we only want entity identifiers, we can remove LEGO bricks with the disable parameter. Our construction is even dynamic and customizable: for doc in nlp.pipe(texts, disable=["tagger", "parser"]): print([(ent.text, ent.label_) for ent in doc.ents]) It apparently works but by deeply analyzing each term we see some incongruences. This is a much more serious problem than it seems and it’s related to the fact that scientific terms are not statistically significant in a “regular English” sentence. You can reproduce this code with some non-scientific sentence and you’ll see that everything works fine. How do we get along with scientific articles though? Luckily NLP researchers have worked out some solutions, in the next few articles we are going to pave the way for more complicated language models such as BERT and specifically SciBERT which deals way better with scientific terms. Conclusions In this short introductory article you’ve taken a sip of the very NLP basis with SpaCy. The road to come is still long and winding, but we’re preparing some more tutorials for you, so that you can drive through nicely and easily. Take your time to practice with SpaCy — and this dataset — and stay tuned for further updates. References:

https://medium.com/mljcunito/a-bunch-of-words-an-introduction-to-spacy-on-cord-19-d1587c0743eb

['Machine Learning Journal Club', 'Mljc']

2020-12-10 15:59:30.992000+00:00

['Naturallanguageprocessing', 'Data Science', 'Covid 19', 'Machine Learning', 'Artificial Intelligence']

Intragastric Balloon Market Size Worth $90.5 Million By 2027

The global intragastric balloon market size is expected to reach USD 90.5 million by 2027, expanding at a CAGR of 12.1% over the forecast period, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. Rise in obesity and increasing demand for minimally invasive procedures are the key factors driving the market. Intragastric balloons are one of the most widely adopted endoscopic bariatric therapy devices in the clinical settings. This can be attributed to complications associated with surgical weight loss treatments and the low eligibility criteria for surgical options, thus leading to a rise in demand for effective minimally invasive weight-loss treatment options. Safety concerns associated with intragastric balloons are anticipated to make the regulatory framework more stringent for pre-market and post-market scrutiny process of these devices. For instance, in 2019, Apollo Endosurgery Inc. revised the labeling of its Orbera intragastric balloon system to include contradiction clarifications, precautions related to anticholinergic and psychotropic medications, and updated U.S. adverse event tables after it received FDA safety letter. Nonetheless, extensive research activities related to the development of innovative and novel systems and up-gradation of existing intragastric balloons to overcome the shortcomings of the traditional systems are anticipated to facilitate the intragastric balloon market growth. Click the link below: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/intragastric-balloon-market Further key findings from the study suggest:

https://medium.com/@marketnewsreports/intragastric-balloon-market-e717d0c36031

['Gaurav Shah']

2020-12-01 10:43:16.770000+00:00

['Switzerland', 'Medical Devices', 'Indonesia', 'Thailand', 'Australia']

Centrist Moderate Here: Diversify Drone Strikes and Bombings

Centrist Moderate Here: Diversify Drone Strikes and Bombings Biden is revolutionizing how our government looks. In his lead up to officially taking the seat of power, he has picked an amazingly diverse crew. As a disabled American it is refreshing to see a heterogenous gang taking over the concentration camps on the border and filling the crevices at the USIC/NSA/USDD/USDHS/CIA/FBI/DIA/NGI/USDJ. It is important to get back what we lost, one thing being Biden’s continuation of Obama’s ICE having Latino/South American/Mexican-Americans/POC alongside whites sending record numbers of refugees and migrants back into the desert. It’s easier taking that first step back when your being represented by your enforcer. Though still a dream, I would love to see fellow quadriplegics on the police force, sharing the power high (the adaptive equipment exists, fund it, sir!). There is no equality until we all serve, period, full stop. But there are detractors, of course, activists who question the power itself and miss Biden’s brave appointments that finally put the marginalized finger on the trigger. First off, that’s implicitly racist, and secondly, SJWs are explicitly jealous of Biden’s unilateral power. Let’s look at all marginalized peoples, while the fire is hot — now that Biden is in control of the Kill List, let’s get some visually/audibly impaired folk to read or sign the names to Biden, as a start. Stop with the radically left approach of questioning every goddamn hellfire strike. Bernie ate shit and Biden beat him; it’s time for actual demands that the actual government can handle. Look. As Obama taught us, when life hands you Bush’s post-9/11 security apparatus, you use it with dignity and poise. You nurture it, fund it, grow it, with that Al Green song (that was awesome). Trump has done nothing but increase the missile strikes and drone bombings three-fold, all in marginalized countries, and with such distasteful tweets unlike a proper statesman. It’s time for Biden to heal our country. Being confused for a centrist-Republican is not enough, sir. Inviting in the Bush-admin vagrants staring into the Reflecting Pool is not enough, sir. Take the reigns sir, whip your diverse crew into shape, start droning Eastern European countries and eventually whiter ones. Obama might have slipped up, bombing weddings, droning an American kid, bombing a hospital, and ruining a couple countries, but Trump has upped the attacks, all still in marginalized countries, all while being unstatesmanlike. Biden, with this historic paradigm shift from Trumpian far-right fascism to Bidenian Center-right respectability corporatism, you sir can be historic in diversifying the drone program — making the death a spectrum of color, namely whiter deaths. Modern warfare, like the video game named that, has become beautifully democratized. You show me an empty drone stall in a New Mexico mall, with an unmanned joystick, and I’ll point to five of my disabled friends who will represent an underappreciated demographic in bombing Eastern Europe and eventually whiter, wealthier countries like France (though we’re far off from that kind of revolutionary representation, obviously). Yeah, Eastern Europe, it’s time we call out the orange elephant in the room. Trump is racist, I said it. He took a cared for security apparatus and focused on the countries of marginalized folk, POC, were Obama made a few thousand mistakes, and really upped the operations and vulgarity on twitter. This Trumpian vulgarity happened alongside a new liberal, centrist, corporate paradigm shift — finally seeing Lockheed Martin and Raytheon produce rainbow tear gas — literally brought tears to my eyes. Finally, the LGBTQA+ community represented in protest suppression. Here’s where we are with you Biden: the exclusive droning of marginalized, POC countries can finally be labeled problematic. Any system that results in the exclusive hell fire of POC is called segregationist, racist, and white supremacist. Let’s call it what it is. It is past time to secure freedom for the people of Eastern Europe, while securing our freedom back home from whoever the CIA can find in Eastern Europe to call foe. It would prove your commitment to diversity, and a progressive step forward, if you were to begin bombing white people in Eastern Europe. These folks would be a natural addition to the drone program — like the middle east, a lot of these people will be poor shepherds “defending” their homeland. By droning the mountainous Caucasus region, you’ll be saying, the American Empire is not exclusionary, we see a world wanting to potentially steal our vulnerable freedom. As the military grows, as it did from Bush to Obama to Trump, it is inevitable. It’s time to make that Kill List representative of a global community, one of rich diversity and enemies. The press is behind your stalwart, statesmanlike presentation, and given enough time, you can broaden the inclusivity by droning countries where the citizens only became white in the 20th-century: Italy, Ireland, etc. Eventually, as your brain continues to decompose, Harris can be the first minority woman to nuke Japan again, or the second minority president to torture noncombatants without trial. Think of how revolutionary it would be if you started bombing the whitest motherfuckers on earth — those colonizing English, and hell, Canada too. As these legacy wars in the middle east drag on, people see them for what they are, racist and oof. But when your detractors say you killed some Iraqi children, you can say “here’s the deal ponyboy, I killed Canadian kiddos too.”

https://medium.com/@joseffrankle/centrist-moderate-here-diversify-drone-strikes-and-bombings-69ade6aa688f

['Joseph Franklin']

2020-12-24 17:19:17.489000+00:00

['Biden', 'Obama', 'Trump', 'War', 'Drones']

Consumer adoption of digital commerce has advanced 5 years in just the last 5 months, and now is the very best time for brands to catch up.

Consumer adoption of digital commerce has advanced 5 years in just the last 5 months, and now is the very best time for brands to catch up. Cameron Wykes Dec 7, 2020·5 min read The hyper-evolution of digital commerce has been one of the (few positive) by-products of the Covid Era. While it has accelerated consumer expectations for better digital brand experiences, it has created an even deeper chasm between brands that have ‘doubled-down’ on their digital offering, and those who have decided to cut back and wait for things to get back to ‘normal’. As we witness the biggest e-com boom since early 2000, we see that consumer purchasing habits have fundamentally changed. This is not new news. For consumers/humans (whatever we call them these days), this unprecedented reliance on digital engagement has not only established a new level of confidence in digital, it has dramatically raised the bar (and the stakes) for brands in an already competitive and beaten down economy. So where can brands invest their energy to drive greater consumer engagement through unforgettable digital experiences? Reexamine your Content Strategy Too many brands think of their content strategy as a ‘one off’ or as addressing an immediate need, rather than focusing on the future. One-off content solutions are going to fix the need today, but that effort is rarely ever repurposed (“repurposeable”?). Yet brands speak to building customer trust, satisfaction throughout their engagement, but don’t typically build strategic plans to accommodate those goals. Take a look at how your content strategy maps to your customer journey(s). It sounds logical but you would be surprised at how these rarely match up. Brands tend to focus on channels that are getting the most traction at the moment, foregoing a more comprehensive content strategy that can have a greater and more relevant impact across more of their consumer touchpoints. While you can’t ignore an immediate need to push out content that’s timely and relevant, it’s critical to create longer term strategies that move your content efforts from ‘reactive’ to more ‘integrated’ in approach and execution. Model your content strategy around what your customer wants to experience and when’s the best place and time to experience it. Rethink Integration Looking across your customer journey, you will see content needs that require the contribution of a number of divisions (silos…?) across your organization. A thorough strategy is going to require the abilities of a number of stakeholder groups, requiring a truly integrated approach. Which is much easier said than done. Many brands and agencies typically look to the leaders in each division to be responsible for integration while being dually responsible for their own KPIs. It’s an agenda that is not going to succeed without a champion. Someone who can not only wrangle the efforts of key divisional leaders, but speak all siloed dialects (studio, media, strategy, creative, CRM, SEO, UX, etc.) to align interests and get integrated content solutions online more cohesively and effectively. Once the integration protocol is in place, the champion can then focus on a more agile process of getting content ideas to market quicker. Prototyping methodologies help brands and agencies test out content ideas through a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) protocol that tests the validity of an idea and make sure it can scale accordingly — before a significant budget commitment is made. Reinvigorate your Technology Chops Immersive content creates a deeper degree of engagement for your brand. Yet choosing what types of interactive content is best for your audience and budget can be a tough one to navigate. It starts with a clear understanding of what your target audience is seeking along with what types of content are going to elicit a positive and lasting impression. Prototyping, as mentioned above, is usually beneficial when a new technology is being tested for consumer traction and interaction. Having a technology team that can balance longer term executions with very short dev ‘sprints’ is now essential for keeping up with the content needs of your target audience (and your competitors). Having a development team that is eager to engage in new technology platforms and languages is key, as new content platforms are coming online faster than ever. It’s figuring out which platforms and forms of content engagement are going to connect the dots for YOUR customers and make a lasting impression for the longer term. Reinvest in your Studio I don’t think I have ever been told by the studio team that they were working to their full potential — and I don’t mean time sheets or utilization percentages — I mean leveraging the mad skills of each of your existing studio staff, with the work that truly challenges them and brings out the very best of their skills. Now most don’t start with their in-house or agency Studio, simply because we think of the studio as the ’executors’ of the content — the last step in the process, not the first. But without looking into the digital capabilities of your studio, you are missing an opportunity to further your content strategy agenda by looking for those in-house diamonds in the rough. Most already know multiple coding languages, or new interactive video platforms, or have even dabbled in AR or VR. Simply asking if they want to help hack together some interactive content prototypes will get you an exuberant and positive response. And as many new technologies become more democratized, the learning curve becomes much less daunting, opening opportunities for studio staff to be encouraged/incentivized to take on some at-home online courses to sharpen the tools in the toolshed. Reboot your outlook on the future We will indeed be getting back to ‘normal’ but it won’t be without the residual shift in shopping habits and online behaviours. Consumers have quickly adapted to a ‘digital-first’ approach, and will continue at an unprecedented rate to explore, compare, rate, share and shop online. As we have all heard ad nauseum, “never let a good crisis go to waste”, this is indeed the best time to invest in a digital-first content experience strategy that aligns with your customer’s needs and desires, while unfolding a faster path to a successful future.

https://medium.com/@camwykes/consumer-adoption-of-digital-commerce-has-advanced-5-years-in-just-the-last-5-months-and-now-is-a99ba129d59f

['Cameron Wykes']

2020-12-07 20:38:13.407000+00:00

['Content Strategy', 'Prototyping', 'Augmented Reality', 'Digital Experience', 'Brand Strategy']

Durham Bulls Takes On Innovation In Concession Management

Interview with David Levey, Director of Food and Beverage at Durham Bulls “I view the future of placing orders as this: Fans can place them whenever they want, not have to wait in line, and get it delivered if they want to.” That’s how Dave Levey, Director of Food and Beverage at Durham Bulls, envisions concession ordering at sporting events in the near future. And that’s why he picked FanFood to help Durham Bulls bring that vision to life. FanFood interviewed Dave Levy, Director of F&B at Durham Bulls. After coming across articles about mobile ordering solutions and reading about FanFood, Dave decided to give the app a try. Like many Minor League Baseball ballparks, Durham Bulls sometimes experience extra long concession lines on popular nights, which greatly discounts the fan experience. And the possibility of faster service and easier concession management was an attractive enough idea for Dave to jump on board. While the Bulls were founded in 1902, Durham Bulls Athletic Park officially opened in 1995. In 1998, the franchise was converted to Triple-A and joined the International League. As a result, the arena underwent infrastructure renovations and many more seats were added to the stadium. The crowds got bigger, and the stadium started rolling out strategic concession promotions for a better fan experience: every Thursday the fans are offered “$1 concession nights”, whereby a variety of items are available for only a dollar. The downside? Concession lines started to build up. “I wanted to be able to offer an alternative to place your order at your seat for pickup: You can get out of the long line, go off to grab your beer or go to the restroom. Then you’ll get a notice and come grab your food,” Dave said. When FanFood was first adopted at Durham Bulls, Dave said the main goal was allowing people to skip the lines with the express pick-up option, rather than offering in-seat delivery services. And FanFood achieved exactly that. During peak nights, fans had the alternative to order on their phones and that was a huge relief for the concessionaires overwhelmed by the amount of orders. As expected, the popular Thursday one-dollar concession nights became less hectic, as FanFood takes the pressure off the lines and allows fans to wait less for their food. “It’s [FanFood is] definitely a more convenient way to order concessions,” Dave said. Durham Bulls using FanFood app. Now that concession ordering is made more convenient, Durham Bulls fans are placing bigger and more frequent orders — and they know that it won’t take more than a few clicks of a button. In fact, concession revenue per person has tripled if fans are ordering with FanFood. Encouraged by potentially a huge increase in revenue, Dave and his team have since implemented in-seat delivery starting last summer. This initiative has really helped mobile ordering take off within the stadium. Especially when bad weathers hit, delivery becomes a very popular option as fans just don’t feel like leaving their seats. Dave said that his goal this year is to further develop the in-seat delivery team. Durham Bulls fans on average watch only three games per season, which means at any one game, over 60% of the fans would be first-timers of that season. That means at any given game, the vast majority of orders would be by new customers who are using FanFood for the first time. However, by looking at the order data after each game, Dave has found that since the implementation of FanFood, the percentage of returning fans has increased. “That’s telling me that we have found the right system and conveyed it to the fans, and now they are returning to use it again and again,” Dave said. The most effective promotion, as discovered by Dave, to get fans to download the app has been seat stickers. Every other seat in the ballpark has a QR code for downloading FanFood, which made it easy for fans scan and get the app. Once fans open the app, they’d realize that using the app is pretty much a no-brainer. “If you look at the trend…everyone has an app and everyone is ordering [from restaurants],” Dave said. “And the customers have already been trained to use an ordering app [like FanFood] at a ballpark.” Mobile ordering has become such a prevalent trend within the food & beverage industry that whether it’s a customer’s first or 20th time using the app, they know the drill: place the order, grab the bag with your name on it and go. “Because that’s how it works at other places, there’s no reason it doesn’t work at a ballpark the exact same way,” Dave says. While Dave still needs to wait and collect more data before he can conclusively say what percentage has FanFood increased his overall revenue by, he’s already taking steps to better integrate the technology with his staff and the structure of the stadium to make the concession operations even more seamless for the Durham Bulls fans. “I want to take a step forward; I definitely want to [use FanFood] and make [concession sales] better,” Dave said. “It’s something I keep wanting to push, and I tell people it’s worth giving it a try.” Watch Dave’s full interview here.

https://medium.com/fanfood-playbook/durham-bulls-takes-on-innovation-in-concession-management-149ed200013a

['Isabella Jiao']

2019-06-18 14:22:45.125000+00:00

['Success Story', 'Concessions', 'Minor League Baseball', 'Sports', 'Durham Bulls']

The Problem with Stoicism

It’s a pet peeve of mine that Stoicism is constantly referred to as a “practical philosophy”. The implied message in this label, sometimes more explicitly expressed by its contemporary adherents, is that it’s opposed to the supposedly inconsequential and nonsense parlour games of other kinds of philosophy. Stoicism has seen a marked rise in popularity in recent years thanks largely to its promotion within popular psychology and business literature. In a blog post called “Stoicism 101: A Beginner’s Guide for Entrepreneurs”, the self-help author Timothy Ferriss wrote: “Fortunately, there are a few philosophical systems designed to produce dramatic real-world effects without the nonsense. Unfortunately, they get punished because they lack the ambiguity required for weeks of lectures and expensive textbooks.”* His guest blogger was the former CMO of American Apparel, Ryan Holiday. Holiday has been the greatest populariser of Stoicism as a practical philosophy “for entrepreneurs” since the publication of his Daily Stoic, a compendium of Stoic quotations, in 2016. Holiday wrote: “[Stoicism] doesn’t concern itself with complicated theories about the world, but with helping us overcome destructive emotions and act on what can be acted upon. Just like an entrepreneur, it’s built for action, not endless debate.”* It’s great that Holiday and Ferriss are giving the Stoics so much publicity in the modern age, but their perception of its utility is based on a major oversight. Holiday overlooks the fact that Stoic ethics are based on a Stoic cosmology, that is, a - er - complicated theory about the world. The particular Roman brand of Stoicism that contemporary popularisers love so much — the philosophies of Seneca (the Roman aristocrat and tutor/speechwriter of Nero), Marcus Aurelius (a later Roman emperor, who is among the five “good emperors”) and Epictetus (the Greek slave turned philosophical teacher), form an ethical system that simply would not exist without the cosmological foundations of earlier Greek Stoicism. The very basic tenet of Stoic ethics follows the idea that you cannot control external circumstances, but you can control your own thoughts and emotions. In the stoical sense, this isn’t simply that “shit happens”. The Stoics truly believed in determinism — that all events in the universe are predetermined, and human beings have no power over the course of events. The ethics of Stoicism follow logically from that premise. Chrysippus, the head of the Athenian Stoic school at around 230 BC, who laid out the system of Stoicism as we know it, wrote: “…all effects owe their existence to prior causes. And if this is so, all things happen by fate. It follows therefore that whatever happens, happens by fate.” Events simply happen in an unchanging chain of causes. Since he believed everything to be fated, Chrysippus also believed in divination. The future can be read in, say, tarot cards or the palm of a hand, because the order of the tarot cards or the lines in the palm are inextricably linked to events to come. Seneca, being a later stoic, shared Chrysippus’ cosmology to the extent that he (like Chrysippus) believed fate, nature and God to be the same thing. Even joy and sorrow, Seneca wrote, “is predetermined”. So all those Seneca quotations that become pithy motivational statements on social media and in self-help books were written from the basis of a cosmology - a complex theory of everything - that was handed down by the earlier Stoics like Chrysippus. How Should I Live? Stoicism’s cosmological foundations are simply providing the answer to the question “how should I live?” because as a “complicated theory about the world” it forms the basis on which decisions can be made and attitudes formed. Practically all philosophies are “practical” in this respect. Let’s take two much-maligned “difficult” philosophers: Jean-Paul Sartre and Immanuel Kant. Jean-Paul Sartre’s Existentialism also attempts to answer the question “how should I live?”, as does Immanuel Kant’s ultra-complex thesis laid out in his dense “critiques”. Before you attempt to answer the question “how should I live?” you must first take a stab at forming an understanding of the world in as much depth and detail as you can stomach. Most people rest on common assumptions, some seek understanding from philosophical history. Having developed systems, much as the Stoics did in ancient Greece, Kant and Sartre went on to develop ethical treatises: Sartre found virtue in authenticity of action. Kant gave us the “Categorical Imperative” of virtue. This is a “deontological” (rule-based) ethical position often confused with, but quite distinct from, the age-old “Golden Rule”. Kant’s Categorical Imperative was that we should act in a way that ought to be a law for everybody. Both Kant and Sartre made a case for human freedom. Both saw consciousness as the source of our freedom (Sartre saw consciousness as a “nothingness”, Kant saw consciousness as “transcendental idealism”. Yes — I know — both sound complicated, but these ideas can be explained for those who can be bothered to learn them). Both Sartre and Kant saw human consciousness as something exceptional in nature, the very source of our free will. Stoicism sees consciousness as a spectator as fate blindly unfolds around and through us, freedom lies only in our take on things (the question the Stoics wrestled with was to what extent we are determined). What would be disturbing to most people — even those who admire Seneca’s maxims — is the passivity of Seneca’s Stoicism: the idea that you can do nothing to effect real change in the world, only to your circumstances as you perceive them. Wild Beasts and Great Leaps This is perhaps why (and I’m being speculative now) Stoicism was so popular in the late Roman world. It was an empire that became increasingly cruel to those it ruled over while disparity of wealth widened at an increasing rate. While Roman aristocrats philosophised in their perfumed and covered sedan chairs, pregnant women were thrown to wild beasts in amphitheatres to the roar of cheering crowds. Perhaps Stoicism is the right kind of “quiet” philosophy for times just like now, when the rich are getting exponentially richer and the institutions of democracy are attacked from all sides. Stoicism feels right when the world seems to be going wrong. Kant’s and Sartre’s particular philosophies caught the public imagination at times of “great leaps” in human well-being. Existentialism flourished in post-war Europe when the old Western empires crumbled. We saw great housing and healthcare projects rolled out while science took great leaps: in genetics, quantum physics and computational science. Kant’s philosophy took hold as the enlightenment lit up in Western Europe. The fields of law, parliamentary rule, science and economics as we know them sprang up from the intellectual hotbed of protestant Europe. Kant, who was a late starter, wrote of “waking from my dogmatic slumber” before he wrote his Critique of Pure Reason. Digital technology and individualist capitalism has made our intellectual institutions more positivist and instrumentalist than ever. It seems even Stoicism itself can fall victim to a mechanical appraisal of its merits that can distort or ignore its core concepts. Maybe the modern proponents of stoicism will say, “well, we’re taking the best part of stoicism — the part about being resilient to misfortune and so on. There’s no need for the other stuff.” “Stoic” is of course both an adjective and a noun. The small “s” adjective is something like what the English call the “stiff upper lip”, that is, taking what fate throws at you with equanimity. Well, who could disagree with the small “s” adjective? What these modern writers really mean is that they are taking the colloquial meaning of “stoic”, an attitude to life, to stand for “Stoicism”, a school of philosophy that attempts to explain life. Well, fine. But let’s do away with this notion of “practical philosophy” then. Because all philosophy is practical and to perpetuate a mere attitude as a philosophy is a dangerous thing. Thank you for reading.

https://medium.com/the-sophist/the-problem-with-stoicism-cd4183f7a24

['Steven Gambardella']

2020-07-20 05:50:18.478000+00:00

['Tim Ferriss', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Ryan Holiday', 'Stoicism', 'Philosophy']

Coming Out as Emil

Happy National Coming Out Day! In honor of today’s subject matter, I’ll be sharing my own personal coming out experiences! Everyone’s experiences and times lines are different, and my experiences are not indicative of how it should be for other people. I would say it took me a long time to come out. I didn’t know I was queer when I was a little kid despite my parents having a lot of gay friends who I was very close with at different times throughout my childhood. As an 8-year-old I had a book about the year 1998 (the year I was born) and I constantly would read the pages about Matthew Shepard over and over again. I would ask my mom questions about him and what she remembered. I was always okay with queer people. I suppose I just never knew that I was one. I even got my ears pierced on the day gay marriage was legalized when I was 16 with rainbow earrings to “Show Support”. Finally, after moving to Florida my senior year of high school at 17 years old I came out as gay transgender man. It wasn’t great I gotta say. At the encouragement of my friends I came out to my mom first who told me (This next portion is transphobic so please skip if you need to) “That’s fine as long as you don’t change your body and start going by a different name or anything.” After that, I started to socially transition outside of my family. My friends at school started to call me by my new name which was James at the time and used He/Him pronouns for me. After I graduated high school, I even started a job at the Hilton and got to go by James although no one called me by the right pronouns. This was pretty much how things were for me until very recently. I lived with my parents and I worked at jobs where I was forced to be deadnamed and misgendered since I was unable to transition due to money and lack of support. I was too scared to be out at work due to homophobia and transphobia. Pretty much only my close friends and my classmates at school knew I was trans and respected my identity. An this was pretty much my life until 2019. It was not until I met my current partner in March 2019 that my parents started to use, He/Him pronouns for me but only when my partner was with me. Then around October of 2019, I started to identify as Nonbinary. I’ve talked about it in other articles before but I didn’t have much knowledge of queer identities when I first came out at 17 and assumed there was only transmen and transwomen and so by process of elimination I could only be a transman even though I did not feel a connection to masculinity — just a disconnection from femininity. Finally, I came to determine that I was Agender but a little bit masculine leaning but usually I just say Nonbinary for short. Luckily, my partner is also trans, so he took the name change and new pronouns easily. So, did most of my partner’s family and our friends, as well. Of course, with my family it is still an uphill battle, but they are getting better every day. They were never able to call me James and they don’t call me Emil now either. They still use He/Him pronouns for me but honestly that better than nothing for now. Finally, we get to now into 2020 and I think I’ve fully come out at this point. While things can always change, I am pretty confident when I say that my name is Emil, my pronouns are They/Them and I am a Queer demiromantic/demisexual Nonbinary person. I just finally started HRT as of October 6th, 2020 and I couldn’t be happier!

https://medium.com/matthews-place/coming-out-as-emil-76cbfa462f75

[]

2020-10-11 15:32:04.454000+00:00

['Transgender', 'Coming Out', 'Nonbinary', 'LGBTQ', 'Queer']

How To Integrate A Payment Gateway Into A Website

No matter what type of platform you own: eCommerce, eLearning or a booking one, your main concern will always be to ensure that your customers are safe and you provide them with an easy-to-use payment system. The provider you choose has to satisfy the needs of your business as well as the requirements of your customers. Over 21% of customers tend to abandon websites that have a long checkout process and 17% because the website was not secure. Integrating a payment gateway into your store will give your website security and improve the overall user experience. If you are looking for more information on payment gateways, keep on reading. What is a payment gateway? A payment gateway is a solution that connects your bank account with a merchandising platform to which you wish to transfer money. It creates a secure tunnel between online retailers and buyers. Such a solution is a fundamental feature that is offered by every eCommerce solution. It allows us to make purchases anywhere in the world while ensuring maximum data security. Payment gateways are virtual terminals equivalent to a physical point-of-sale terminals. How does a payment gateway work? A payment gateway is an important broker between customers and merchants. It is dealing with payment processing and authorizing. Payment gateways deliver an encryption method to sensitive data like credit card numbers. The data is encoded giving you a guarantee that it is sent securely between the online store and the customer. Here is a basic flow of the transaction: a customer finishes an order by clicking a submit button or its equivalent the customer is redirected to a payment gateway allowing him/her to choose a payment method via credit card or to be redirected to a bank website. The transaction is transferred to the issuing bank or another page like 3Dsecure to authenticate the transaction if the authentication is successful the bank checks if the customer has enough funds on his/her account to make a response to the payment gateway that the transaction is a success or not when the response from the bank is ready, it goes to the merchant. If the answer is negative, the merchant will display a notification about an error to the user. If it is positive, the merchant seeks the transaction from the bank in the end, the bank settles the payment with the payment gateway, which settles the money with the merchant The key points that any payment gateway provided are authorization, settlement and reporting. How does a payment gateway keep information secure? Security is crucial in the eCommerce world. Customers want to keep their credit card information and payment information safe. Data security in online payments or eCommerce can be ensured by using technologies like: TLS encryption : payment gateways use SSL certificates. An easy way to check if our payment gateway uses a secured protocol is to check its URL. If it is https we can assume that we are secure : payment gateways use SSL certificates. An easy way to check if our payment gateway uses a secured protocol is to check its URL. If it is https we can assume that we are secure PCI-DSS Compliance : the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard was established to provide secure payment solutions by forcing companies to use Firewalls on their internal networks and encrypt the cardholder data while denying to store this data on disks or paper : the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard was established to provide secure payment solutions by forcing companies to use Firewalls on their internal networks and encrypt the cardholder data while denying to store this data on disks or paper Tokenization : a way of substitution the real card numbers with randomly generated ones that are useless to hackers : a way of substitution the real card numbers with randomly generated ones that are useless to hackers Two-factor authentication: an extra layer of security that is used to confirm the user’s identity by sending a message to a registered mobile number Benefits of using a payment gateway Payment gateways have lots of benefits, that is why they are so popular in the eCommerce world. Let’s present some of them: Security: payment gateways secure transaction by protecting and encrypting sensitive data payment gateways secure transaction by protecting and encrypting sensitive data Sales boost: they help you expand your business by reaching to customers from all over the world they help you expand your business by reaching to customers from all over the world Time saving: transactions are much quicker than standard manual processing via bank transactions are much quicker than standard manual processing via bank Everyday at any time: payment gateways work 24/7 payment gateways work 24/7 Security, once more: thanks to payment gateways you can avoid suspicious transactions by blocking transactions from certain countries or IP addresses thanks to payment gateways you can avoid suspicious transactions by blocking transactions from certain countries or IP addresses Marketing: they have a positive impact on marketing since you can create affiliate program with rewards with referral commission from other sites Payment gateway transaction types Payment gateway providers support many types of transactions. The most common ones are: payment/sale/debit: the most standard transaction. The payment gateway asks the bank about the authorization of transactions. If it is a successful settlement of the transaction will be accomplished by the end of a working day the most standard transaction. The payment gateway asks the bank about the authorization of transactions. If it is a successful settlement of the transaction will be accomplished by the end of a working day authorization: a payment gateway blocks demanded amount of money on the buyer’s account for the future settlement transaction. The period during which the money is blocked depends on the card system and the issuing bank but it usually takes from 3 to 7 days a payment gateway blocks demanded amount of money on the buyer’s account for the future settlement transaction. The period during which the money is blocked depends on the card system and the issuing bank but it usually takes from 3 to 7 days capture: this kind of transaction takes place when the merchant wants to charge the amount of money that was previously blocked by an authorization transaction. To capture a transaction means to send it for settlement this kind of transaction takes place when the merchant wants to charge the amount of money that was previously blocked by an authorization transaction. To capture a transaction means to send it for settlement void: if the transaction is not settled it allows to immediately unlock the previously blocked transaction on the user’s account without the need to wait for the blocking time to expire if the transaction is not settled it allows to immediately unlock the previously blocked transaction on the user’s account without the need to wait for the blocking time to expire refund: a kind of transaction that gives the merchant an opportunity to cancel the transaction when the buyer had been already charged. It sends the money back to the client’s bank account a kind of transaction that gives the merchant an opportunity to cancel the transaction when the buyer had been already charged. It sends the money back to the client’s bank account chargeback: an operation when a customer appeals to the bank about the charges on their bill. A customer can appeal in cases when the item was not received, due to technical problems, unauthorized card usage or in the case of a friendly-fraud situation an operation when a customer appeals to the bank about the charges on their bill. A customer can appeal in cases when the item was not received, due to technical problems, unauthorized card usage or in the case of a friendly-fraud situation credit: a transaction similar to a refund. It can only proceed in the case when the previous transaction successfully incomed to the buyer’s account. The merchant can credit user’s credit card exceeding the amount of money from the previous successful transaction Payment gateway types There are two types of payment gateways: hosted and non-hosted. In a hosted payment gateway after clicking the purchase button the customer is redirected to the payment service provider page. In non-hosted payment gateways the user enters the debit or credit card details directly on the checkout page of the store owner. Here are the most popular providers: HOSTED PAYMENT GATEWAYS NON HOSTED PAYMENT GATEWAYS Costs of using payment gateways The overall costs of using a payment gateway depends on your overall turnover. However, you should keep in mind that the transaction fee starts from about 2,9% up to 3,5% plus an additional $0,30 per each transaction. Some of the payment gateways also have monthly fees as well as an installation fee, so take it into consideration when choosing a provider. Follow the steps to integrate the chosen payment gateway into your website. PayPal integration create a PayPal button set up the basic payment extend the basic payment with additional parameters execute the payment Amazon Pay integration create an Amazon Pay button 2. add Address Book and Wallet Widgets to your website 3. obtain buyer’s authorization for recurring payments 4. set a billing agreement details and confirm the agreement 5. validate the billing agreement 6. request authorization Tada! Your payment gateway is ready! Conclusions There are many ready-made solutions for payment gateways on the market. Choosing the right provider is a key decision for growing your business. Implementing a payment gateway into your website will deliver enhanced user experience and maximum security for your customers. Many of payment gateways are equipped with security measures like TLS encryption, two-factor authentication and are PCI-DSS compliant. Integrating a payment gateway is not complicated and will definitely have a positive impact on your store. If you are looking to create a website integrated with a payment gateway or need to add a gateway to your existing product, contact our team of developers.

https://medium.com/selleo/how-to-integrate-a-payment-gateway-into-a-website-ea166160a1b6

['Łukasz Kubok']

2020-06-18 19:41:52.272000+00:00

['Payment Gateway', 'Fintech', 'Software Development']

How to deal with miser clients🤔. Now, who are misers? A perfect common…

Now, who are misers? A perfect common example. Imagine a scenario. Two friends having their lunch in a restaurant. After the bill payment, one friend keeps a tip of Rs.50 in the menu diary for the waiter. The second one sees the tip amount and replaces the tip with Rs.10 and deposits Rs.50 into his own pocket when no one is noticing him. In this too, he will perceive his own benefit.🤑 Now, what will you say to these kinds of a person?… A Miser😂 This also happens in the case of designing. PC Flickr In the case of designers. Be careful, These type of clients are the smartest ones…Here you have to stick to your commitments, what you say, what you do. Or else one blunder, they will start skipping your payment gradually. They do the friendly talk and subtract your amount, You won’t even know.😣 Now, How to work with them?🤔 Create a precise quotation very carefully, as I said these type of clients are very shrewd. Understand their requirement and note them down. Most of your conversations should be in mails. Because these types of clients can turn around anytime. The next step is that first, you demand half payment in advance and then the rest after the work is done. Whoever the client is. Till then do not think of starting your work. After finalizing your work do not give away all your resource files. Give the client sample documents or low-resolution files with a watermark of your name. The watermark should be exactly in the center of the file. So that your clients cannot misuse it. After the client’s acceptance of your work, ask them to make the rest of the payment. Till then do not give your resource files. Finally, After the full payment is done. Send away all the files with proper file namings.

https://medium.com/@mgdesignsteam/how-to-deal-with-the-miser-clients-ef2252b2f09c

[]

2020-05-21 16:52:41.518000+00:00

['Design', 'Ideas', 'Médium', 'Blogging', 'Deal']

IronHack PreWork — Wolt. Challenge 2: Wireframing

Challenge 2: Wireframing Wireframes give a simple visual representation of how the flow of the app or website you are creating will be. The Task The assignment for this PreWork challenge is to “reverse engineer” (i.e. creating wireframes starting from the visual interface) a popular mobile app of my choice, in order to analyse and learn to prioritise certain elements when illustrating user flows. Why a wireframe? Wireframes give us a clear and concrete structure visualisation of the flow of an app or website. Thanks to their monochromatic colour display and visual essentiality, it allows the user to focus exclusively on: what elements should be in; why they should be there, where to put them, how they function. Basically, it allows us to quickly test and reiterate at the early stages of our design, without an excessive expenditure of resources. My Choice: Wolt Wolt is a food-delivery platform born on 2014 in Helsinki, Finland. It’s supported via mobile app and web browser. It operates in 18 countries and over 60 cities — it currently has partnered with over 6000 restaurant. Mainly because I’m a proud and passionate foodie, I decided to point my focus towards an app I’m pretty familiar with: Wolt. It gives a really good basic delivery service, with the addition of being able also to pick-up directly at the restaurant or to have it delivered everywhere I am. Nice no? Another thing that I notice, I’m always experiencing a bit of difficulty choosing the food to order — due to some other food delivery service with a too wide range of option and an unclear interface. Wolt is helping me a bit here! Finally, the visual side is really attractive and gives already a feeling of more quality compared to the competitors. Driven by curiosity, I want to analyze further this fresh and pleasant looking app, that quickly took the monopoly in the areas populated mostly by young (or let’s say — tech-savvy) people in Berlin. The Process User Flow I’m going to analyse the process of ordering a meal, having already used the app in advance, logged in as a user and already submitted info for payment and delivery. In this case, I will focus only on the “Search” function since it’s the most direct and quickest to order. The Lo-Fi wireframe for the chosen User Flow Scenario Our user Charlie, a 27 y/o freelancer based in Berlin, is working full on a project and would like to have a pizza quickly delivered to his doorstep User Flow steps Open App Select Search Write or Select “Pizza” on the Search bar Select Restaurant serving Pizza Select Pizza type Add to Order Select Delivery type Check order overview Confirm Pizza is on its way! Reference Screenshots

https://medium.com/@alessiosacconi/ironhack-prework-wolt-9aa82ade6aec

['Alessio Sacconi']

2021-03-09 09:12:45.906000+00:00

['Wireframe', 'Figma', 'Ironhack Prework', 'Ironhack', 'Prototyping']

What Is an Airdrop & Why Is It Important?

What is an airdrop? There are few words more exciting in life than the word “free”. When it comes to cryptocurrency, one of the primary ways to get free coins is through airdrops. Simply defined, an airdrop is the giving away of free tokens to cryptocurrency enthusiasts, and is used primarily for marketing purposes by companies to drive awareness for their coin. Airdrops are typically delivered in one of two ways. The first is through a surprise airdrop, where certain individuals are given tokens in their wallet without knowing in advance. The second is a promotional airdrop, where companies generate attention for their coins by letting users know they will be giving away a finite amount of coins to a lucky few. The latter is typically announced on Twitter or on Telegram, the preferred mode of communication for blockchain startups. Why perform an airdrop? There are a handful of reasons why you could benefit from performing an airdrop, most of which center around helping your token stand out given the sheer volume of coins you’re competing against on the Ethereum blockchain alone. Marketing: By dropping free tokens into people’s wallets, you’ll drum up attention for your coin you may not have had otherwise. Additionally, because crypto is such a tight-knit community, news tends to spread like wildfire thanks to platforms like niche blogs, YouTube channels, newsletters, Steemit, subreddits and more. This makes word-of-mouth marketing a more attainable goal for blockchain startups than it is for other industries. There are also some external variables at play here that should lead you to invest in airdrops. The main one being Facebook recently calling for a strict ban on the advertising of ICOs on their platform, and other social media networks are bound to follow Zuckerberg’s lead. This limits the number of marketing outlets available to those launching their tokens, making airdrops a hotter commodity than ever before. Driving Up The Value of Your Coin: Because airdrops lead to a spike in the number of people with your token, it’s only natural for the value of your token to rise as a result no matter if you’re a new company or an established one. Within their airdrops, many companies give out free tokens in proportion to the number of coins a user already owns, causing a spike in the number of coins bought overall. Rewarding Your Most Loyal Supporters: Airdrops also perform the function of rewarding the people who support you most. Whether the person was an early adopter and holds a large sum of your tokens or if they simply follow you religiously on social media, giving away free tokens is a terrific way for you to build brand loyalty. How to Perform an Airdrop With FundersToken Whether you’re a Funder or a business that’s been tokenized using our platform, airdrops can provide you with an enormous benefit when used strategically. Here’s how to get started. As a Funder: As a Funder, to be eligible to receive any sort of ERC20 tokens through an airdrop on the Ethereum blockchain, you must have an active Ethereum wallet and hold ETH. You should also follow FundersToken’s Telegram channel and Twitter account for live updates on airdrops and much more. As a FundersToken User: In order to create airdrops for your own business that has been tokenized using FundersToken, all you need to do is to click on the CRM toolsets within our tokenisation platform, select Airdrop, insert the parameters for your airdrop and done. Simple isn’t it? You can also visit the Developer’s Resources on the FundersToken website to get started. From there, the way you promote and conduct your airdrop is completely up to you. Will you give away tokens in proportion to everyone who already holds your coin, or will the tokens be given away at random to drive curiosity and awareness? Use Cases For Airdrops While airdrops can benefit companies at any stage of development, there do exist some use cases where they have worked particularly well. For instance, Omisego (OMG) gave away 0.75 OMG tokens for every 1 ETH airdrop participants held in their wallet. This helped to secure the company as one of the top 30 coins based on total market cap. If you’re in a similar position at your company, then consider taking advantage of airdrops. A Word of Caution As with everything in business, there are also some caveats you’ll want to consider when it comes to airdrops, whether you’re a user looking to obtain free tokens or a company trying to give them away. This is mainly because of unscrupulous characters using airdrops as a front to hack into people’s wallets. As a best practice, never give away your personal information when signing up for an airdrop, always be sure you own the keys to a secure wallet, and do your research to be absolutely certain the company conducting the airdrop is who they say they are. From the perspective of a company, there are also a couple things to keep in mind before diving headfirst into airdrops. The first is being aware that airdrops have recently come under government scrutiny, so be extra careful when it comes to knowing the rules and legalities. The next is being cautious of using airdrops to artificially drive up the value of your coin, which has ended disastrously for some companies. For example, an airdrop initially drove up the value of NXT tokens to 6-times more than they originally were worth, only to have it tank considerably soon thereafter. — - With FundersToken and other forward-thinking startups, mainstream adoption of blockchain technology will become more seamless and simple than ever before. While this will lead to an unprecedented amount of benefits for entrepreneurs of all types to take advantage of the technology, it will also inevitably cause the landscape to become crowded than it has been in the past. One of the simplest ways to rise above the competition you’ll be up against is by taking advantages of airdrops. Thanks for reading. FundersToken: DIY your SMART TOKEN, TOKEN WITH LOGIC — — — — — -You can follow #FundersToken progresses on — — — Twitter : https://twitter.com/FundersToken — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — -Telegram : https://t.me/FundersToken_community — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — - Announcement Group: T.me/FundersTokenCh — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — - Instagram : Instagram.com/FundersToken — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — - LinkedIn : www.linkedin.com/in/funderstoken — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — - Learn more about us : https://issuu.com/fstk/docs/funderstoken_welcomepackage

https://medium.com/fstnetwork/what-is-an-airdrop-why-is-it-important-6d6d7d7f5388

['Fst Network']

2018-06-21 07:01:49.979000+00:00

['Blockchain', 'Airdrop', 'Eos', 'Ethereum', 'Bitcoin']

New Study: Brain trauma disease found in 96% of NFL players examined

A new new study is showing astonishing results that are sure to make the NFL uncomfortable once again over concussions. In the study, Frontline reports 87 of 91 former players have tested positive for brain disease. The disease is called CTE (or chronic traumatic encephalopathy). It’s a disease found in some football players derived from repeated head trauma. The disease is linked to dementia, memory loss, and depression as well as other behavioral changes. 96% of NFL players examined showed signs of CTE — Department of Veterans Affairs and Boston University Department of Veterans Affairs and Boston University researchers say they have identified the disease in a whopping 96% of the NFL players they have examined and 79% of all football players. The lab examined brain tissue of 165 deceased football players, both those that played in the NFL and other non-professional levels… some going back to high school. Read More: Tony Dorsett among those identified with signs of CTE While some testing can show signs of CTE in the living, so far researchers can only positively identify it during a postmortem. People think that we’re blowing this out of proportion, that this is a very rare disease and that we’re sensationalizing it. My response is that where I sit, this is a very real disease. We have had no problem identifying it in hundreds of players.” — Dr. Ann McKee, Chief of Neuropathology, VA Boston Healthcare, on Frontline. More than a thousand NFL retirees and their families are currently looking at an October deadline to decide whether to opt out of a proposed settlement with the NFL, coming out of a class action suit brought against the NFL by 4,500 former players. In the proposed settlement, the NFL admits no wrongdoing, but actuarial data compiled by a company at the direction of the NFL and subsequently filed in court showed that even a more conservative estimate is scary. Nearly three in 10 former NFL players will develop at least moderate neurocognitive problems and qualify for payments under the proposed concussion settlement, according to documents filed by the league and the players. — ESPN Report Responding to the study, a spokesman for the NFL said: “We are dedicated to making football safer and continue to take steps to protect players, including rule changes, advanced sideline technology, and expanded medical resources.” [caption id=”attachment_1117" align=”alignleft” width=”300"] Concussion — Sony Pictures/You Tube[/caption] The study comes out at a time when the NFL is having to confront the concussion issue with a new movie, starring Will Smith, called, appropriately, Concussion. The movie is the real life story of forensics pathologist Bennet Omalu of Nigeria. Omalu discovered the disease called CTE (or chronic traumatic encephalopathy). It’s a disease he found in football players, from repeated head trauma. The disease is linked to dementia and depression as well as other behavioral changes. The doctor presented his research to the NFL in 2005. The NFL rejected his research and has been openly critical ever since. The league reportedly put pressure on Sony Pictures to water down the film. Sony insists it did not. “As will become immediately clear to anyone actually seeing the movie, nothing with regard to this important story has been ‘softened’ to placate anyone.” — Jean Guerin, Sony Pictures An ESPN documentary based on the research was killed after two years of work on the project. Some insiders at ESPN believe it was due to pressure from the NFL. The first case of CTE was associated with Steelers center Mike Webster and was discovered during his autopsy. Webster, an NFL star, Hall of Famer, won 4 Superbowl rings in his 15 year career. But the years after leaving the NFL were sad. “He is homeless, unemployed, deep in debt, beset with medical ailments, lacking health insurance, in the midst of divorce, in the care of a psychiatrist and on medication, and involved in a complex lawsuit over real estate investments.” — Pittburgh post Gazette, 1997. Read the feature story on Webster’s travails, republished from 1997. Omalu is currently chief medical examiner of San Joaquin County, California and is a professor in the UC Davis Department of Medical Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. The NFL, which had publically denounced Dr. Omalu’s research, did admit problems with repeated blows and enacted new concussion protocols and settled some pending lawsuits by current and former players. Recently, in fact, the NFL awarded a half-million dollar grant to further research Watch the trailer for Will Smith’s movie, “Concussion,” below.

https://medium.com/sportsraid/new-study-brain-trauma-disease-found-in-96-of-nfl-players-examined-d19e523fac45

['Paul Dughi']

2016-05-29 02:30:28.007000+00:00

['NFL', 'Bennet Omalu', 'Concussions']

Convert/Unconvert using @DynamoDBTypeConverted Annotation

@DynamoDBTypeConverted annotation is used to transform data before writing and after reading from DynamoDB. This is the ideal place to put in logic to convert data before storing to DB and un-convert back while reading data into your application. Let’s take an example of using @DynamoDBTypeConverted to create a custom annotation that can be used to encrypt sensitive fields in the database and decrypt back when the data is read through the application. This way the sensitive data would be encrypted when engineers use DynamoDB console for any reason and the encryption key used is generated by your application and not by DynamoDB. Note: This is different from turning on encryption at rest for the entire table Step 1: Creating @Encrypted custom annotation in Java @Target({ElementType.FIELD}) @Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME) @DynamoDBTypeConverted(converter= Encrypted.Converter.class) public @interface Encrypted { RootKey rootKeyName(); class Converter implements DynamoDBTypeConverter<String, String> { private RootKey rootKey; private EncryptionService encryptionService; public Converter(final Class<String> targetType, final Encrypted annotation) { this.rootKey = annotation.rootKeyName(); initEncryptionService(); } public Converter() { this.rootKey = null; initEncryptionService(); } private void initEncryptionService() { // initialize your Encryption Service } @Override public String convert(final String s) { return encryptionService.encrypt(s, this.rootKey); } @Override public String unconvert(final String s) { return encryptionService.decrypt(s, this.rootKey); } } } Step 2: Use @Encrypted in entity class to annotate sensitive fields @DynamoDBTable(tableName="contact") public class Contact { @DynamoDBHashKey(attributeName="contactId") private String id; private String firstName; private String lastName; .... @Encrypted(rootKeyName = RootKey.secretField) private String secretField; } This method of writing custom annotations becomes super useful in practical applications when we want the data format in the DB to be different from the data used in the application!

https://medium.com/@varsha.venkat93/convert-unconvert-using-dynamodbtypeconverted-annotation-b6627cc1916d

['Varsha Venkatesh']

2020-10-07 21:04:46.029000+00:00

['Aws Sdk', 'Dynamodb', 'NoSQL', 'Java', 'Aws Dynamodb']

Deployment-time Adaptation of RL agents without any reward

Deployment-time Adaptation of RL agents without any reward Overview of the paper “Self-Supervised Policy Adaptation during Deployment” by N Hansen et al. One big limitation of image-based reinforcement learning agents is that their performance drops a lot if significant visual changes are made to the input from training time to deployment time, even if the core task remains the same. This is not something us humans struggle with so much. For example, if you learn very well how to play one particular game, you can very easily play another game of the same genre even if you are playing it for the first time. So today, I want to share a paper that tries to tackle this problem and introduce adaptability to RL agents so they too can play multiple games with different graphics just like humans. It is titled “Self-Supervised Policy Adaptation during Deployment” and it introduces a method to adapt our RL agent to deployment environments that happen to be different from our training environment. This promises to make it much easier to train RL game agents on a specific environment and then port them over to different games that belong to the same genre. Let’s take a look at how this method adds deployment-time adaptation where there are no reward signals available to fine-tune the RL agent’s learned policy.

https://medium.com/deepgamingai/deployment-time-adaptation-of-rl-agents-without-any-reward-49730933eee0

['Chintan Trivedi']

2020-08-08 04:52:21.595000+00:00

['Artificial Intelligence', 'Machine Learning', 'Reinforcement Learning', 'Computer Vision', 'Game Futurology']

5 Minutes Left

Prompt: Write a 650 word story in the suspense genre. It’s about a mountaineer and should include a pair of jeans. Also use the sentence ‘Repeat after me.’ Bonus prompt: There is a great storm. — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — There I was, climbing this mountain with my kid. Jackson liked my stories and wanted to go with me. At first, I was a bit hesitant. But after some thinking and a little bit of researching how dangerous it was to mountaineer with a child, I decided to have him join on my next expedition. I chose to mountaineer a smaller mountain that I had climbed before so that I can keep a better eye on Jackson. Once we got there, the staff warned us about a storm that could come this way if the winds decided to blow to the west. I took no thought of this and told the staff, “We’ll be back before the storm even gets here.” I got Jackson in his mountaineering outfit, and we started heading up. As we got up higher, the more snow seemed to appear. I should have gotten snow pants instead of jeans. After a little over 2 hours and 30 minutes, we were ⅔ up the mountain when the snow started picking up. By the time we were at the top of that mini-mountain and finished, the snow was coming down hard. I had to carry Jackson because the snow had piled up to his upper torso, and could barely move on his own. The plan was to take a break at the top and have some food. But the snow was too deep now, so we had to head down almost immediately. When we barely got ¼ down the mountain, there was a giant crash somewhere. The snow on the plateau above us moved. I then just started booking it down because if something started an avalanche there, I didn’t want to be there. I was running along the general path that we came from with Jackson in my arms. But, as I was running further and further down the mountain, it got harder and harder to tell where our footprints were when we first climbed up. It didn’t help when it started snowing so much that you couldn’t even see 3ft in front of your face. When I got ½ way down the mountain I turned around and saw the snow coming towards us at 50, maybe even 60 miles per hour. I ran like I never ran before in my life and somehow I was able to go faster than I was before even though my lungs were burning and I felt like I was going to collapse at any moment. I started to feel Jackson shake really hard from all of the cold. I held him tighter to try and give him some of my body heat to warm him up. I decided to make one of the stupidest decisions of my life and looked back. I looked and saw that the avalanche was coming right for us and I couldn’t run anymore. I looked around for a tree, a rock, something to hold on to but it was too late. Right before the avalanche hit us I yelled at Jackson to close his mouth and clench his teeth and to not stop until I told him too. He did and once I followed suit and balled myself around him, the avalanche hit us and we started moving. When you are in an avalanche, you are being tossed and turned around like in the ocean but it is a lot colder and a lot deadlier. Once I felt that we stopped, I opened my eyes to try and see if we were anywhere close to the surface. Answer, we weren’t. I tried to move but I was stuck and I started to shiver too. I looked down at Jackson and told him that he can unclench his jaw now. He opened his eyes and started freaking out. He was getting short of breath and started crying which was understandable.I tried to maneuver him as best as I could to hug him and try to calm him down. I remember somewhere that you would die within 15 minutes from suffocation in an avalanche. I don’t think we would be saved in those 15 minutes so I just held him and calmed him down for the possible last few minutes of our lives. After 10 minutes of comforting, he calmed down and lost consciousness. I proceeded to do the same and hoped that someone would save us in time.

https://medium.com/@mypersonalwritingcorner/5-minutes-left-c850295dbb4a

['Adrie Clendineng']

2020-12-22 14:45:37.949000+00:00

['Avalanche', 'Cold', 'Winter', 'Ski', 'Suspense']

How To Make A Big Decision

If you’ve ever been hiking in the woods, you’ll understand the feeling of being at a crossroads and not knowing exactly which road you should take. You can only really see maybe 50 feet down any of the paths, and after that it’s simply out of sight. The decision on which road to take is anxiety-inducing; how can you know which is the “right” path? Also, how can you know which roads are clearly the “wrong” path? A similar experience is had when we are forced to make a big decision in our lives. These can range from which college to go to all the way to when you should retire and anywhere in between. What seems to make these decisions so difficult is that we can only really see so far ahead. In other words, we can see the short-term consequences but not so much the long-term consequences. Spoiler alert: there is no way of knowing for sure. That is something that simply must be accepted. However, at the same time there are certain shifts in perspective which can put you more at ease when it comes to making such a life-changing decision. First, realize that there is no one path. To go back to our hiking example, clearly there is more than one, and the truth is that each path will give you its own challenges and rewards. Certainly, some will be more harsh and unforgiving, and others will reward you more for less work. However, it isn’t clear in any case which road is the best. A good thing to realize in such situations is that your life isn’t linear and it doesn’t need to be. If, by chance, you make a wrong decision right now, you can always go back and go down a different road later. For example, if you start with an engineering degree, you can switch to kinesiology. Sure, you may be a few years older, but you are also a few years wiser and have a better perspective now on what you want. Second, try not to think about what you choose to do or what you will get in the end, but rather who you will become in the process of it. An easy trap that we all fall into is the one of “what job will this degree get me?” or “am I going to make more money in that city?”. We tend to focus so much on what we will get in return while ignoring the most important decision-making variable: how it will change us as people. Certainly, every path will change us in some way and it’s up to us to determine which path will most likely help us grow into the person we want to become. Remember, a degree is just a piece of paper with some ink on it; it in no way represents what you have learned along the way and the person you have become as a result. Coming To Terms With Your Decisions Once you’ve made your decision, whatever that decision happens to be, it can sometimes be daunting initially. We’re in this boat now, and we certainly have some obligation to stay on the boat for a certain amount of time. Things do take time, and you owe it to yourself to give your decision a real chance to prove itself to be a good one. During those first few steps in which you are looking ahead to the future there’s always a Tom Petty quote that comes to mind: “So I’ve started out For God knows where I guess I’ll know When I get there” Such is the way. We never truly know where we are going until we get there. Sure, we can see the top of the mountain for miles around the base, and we know that that’s our destination but until we actually arrive and get the amazing opportunity to experience such elevation and views, we really don’t know what it will be like. When I started my engineering degree, I was so intimidated by the extremely smart professors and senior students. I remember thinking to myself how it would be possible for me to ever get there. Well, 5 years goes by quicker than one thinks, and before I knew it they were calling my name to go kneel on stage and grab my degree. All I could think about while heading up the stairs was that this wasn’t exactly what I thought it would be. Sure, I had gained a lot of knowledge and I felt more or less ready for my grad job, but I was certainly far from all-knowing. In fact, I felt like there was so much that I did not know. I started out thinking I would be somewhere, but I didn’t really know. I only really knew when I was at the end, onstage being handed my diploma. It was great; amazing actually. However, it wasn’t exactly what I expected. To close things off, I’ll remind you that there is not 1 path for you, friend. Just choose a path and dedicate yourself to it. It may not bring you to where you expected, but I promise you that you will find yourself someplace interesting with a grand view and new perspective.

https://medium.com/@thestrongstoic/how-to-make-a-big-decision-b0bd90854e25

['Brandon Tumblin']

2020-12-21 14:48:36.148000+00:00

['Howto', 'Selfhelp', 'Stoicism', 'Philosophy', 'Decision']

KTLS security considerations

Transport Layer Security (TLS) is a widely-deployed protocol used for securing TCP connections on the Internet. Kernel TLS is one of the Linux kernel features trying to improve TLS record layer functionality by offloading the symmetric encryption step to the Linux Kernel after successful handshaking between the client and server. This feature is currently available in some encryption libraries (built-in or as a patch) like OpenSSL. In this text, I am trying to categorize some motivation behind this idea and analyze the pros and cons of this mechanism. Reduce memory copy Standard web server using OpenSSL (From the Facebook original article) Kernel level TLS or KTLS is not a new idea, and many companies developed their own kernel-level solutions to address the TLS performance problem. For example, companies like Facebook and Netflix (for BSD) used this method for reducing the overhead of the kernel to user and user to kernel memory copy. For the Facebook version, there was about 7% improvement in the famous “SendFile” function. For Netflix, the story is entirely different, and they claim they can handle approximately 100G of TLS traffic that seems mainly related to efficient usage of hardware accelerators. KTLS Functionality ( From the Facebook original article) Regarding the KTLS, when TLS functionality is activated using the SetSocketOption, we can use some high performance and low-level functions like SendFile to copy data directly from the storage and reduce the overhead of memory copy. Some patches for famous networking software (Ngnix, Haproxy) enable this functionality, but it shows a little performance improvement and, in some cases (Haproxy), even performance degradation. So, although too much memory copying (especially between user and kernel) can reduce performance, it is not the main bottleneck of TLS. Use of hardware accelerators Modern network interface cards (NIC) support many offloading features, from simple checksum calculation to advance flow management. Nowadays, most of them support some level of encryption and even compression offloading. For example, Intel 82599 series chipset supports AES-128-GMAC offloading. Using these offloading features is the main reason behind the Netflix performance gain. But there are some problems with this approach. Not all the NIC support this feature, and most of them support the limited modes of the AES encryption algorithm. For example, Intel NIC supports AES128 in GMAC and GCM mode. It means, If the client or server chooses any other algorithm, the offloading functionality is useless, so we need to limit the encryption algorithms in the handshake phase. According to Linux documentation currently, only three symmetric algorithms are supported by the Linux kernel (AES_GCM_128,AES_GCM_256,AES_CCM_128). KTLS data and context flow security considerations As I mentioned in the previous section, we need to limit the available algorithms to utilize maximum performance. Currently, only the AES family of algorithms supported by the kernel, and we need to reduce our symmetric algorithms to this family of encryption algorithms. AES 256 is virtually impenetrable using brute-force methods, and other modes are safe enough to be recommended by NIST, so I don’t think this limitation has a negative security impact. But there is a significant security concern regarding KTLS architecture. After the handshake, we need to transfer the required information (TLS context) to the kernel. This functionality traditionally implemented using “setsocketopt” API. This function transfers all the information clearly, and it is possible to sniff them using classic kernel-based rootkits or even using Linux’s relatively new EBPF mechanism. In the following link, I developed a POC code and script that demonstrate this technique. KTLS Stack and the EBPF sniffer Another security concern is related to the hardware’s actual implementation of encryption algorithms and the storing mechanism of the encryption keys and other sensitive materials. It is also possible to use a fake NIC instead of the original one or replace the NIC standard driver with a fake one.

https://medium.com/@mohsenatigh2000/ktls-security-considerations-41845a967264

['Mohsen Atiq']

2020-12-27 22:01:37.761000+00:00

['Kernel', 'Tls', 'Linux', 'Ebpf', 'Security']

Missing and Missed; How do six people simply vanish?

Images courtesy of The Charley Project A spotlight into just six out of the thousand’s of missing loved ones, this holiday season. Leslee Gail Reynolds Larson was born in Montana on September 25th, 1954. After graduating from high school in 1972, she went to school to become a dental assistant. Leslee worked for a short time for a local dentist before marrying Dennis R. Larson in 1974. The couple made their home in Great Falls, Montana which was the second largest city in Montana at that time. The couple spent the day of June 10th, 1975 picking mushrooms near Prickly Pear creek, when, according to Dennis, Leslee slipped into the creek and was stuck under a log and eventually carried away by the current. When police arrived, Larson told them he went in after her and was almost swept away as well, however, the officers noticed that he wasn’t wet. Despite many intense searches over the years, her body has never been found. Her parents have passed away now, they devoted many years of their lives in looking for their daughter Leslee. They used the assistance of dogs, shovels and metal detectors in the area that Larson said she fell into the water. The police and Leslee’s family were all suspicious of Larson, as he had taken out a life insurance policy on Leslee for $20,000 and he was able to collect on it. Larson went on to marry again, this was his third marriage as he had been married before Leslee, and he was eventually convicted of murdering his third wife after pushing her off of a cliff and attempting to collect on a $400.000 life insurance policy.. It was while he was in custody for this murder, that he confessed to pushing Leslee into the water and watching her body get swept away. He committed suicide in prison shortly after this confession. Leslee left behind a daughter, Julie who was raised until she was 7 by Leslee’s parents. If you have any information on this case, please call the Missoula Montana police department at 406–552–6000 Denise Ann Daneault was last seen leaving Merrimarck, a private club on June 8th, 1980 intending on going to a party, she has never been seen again. She was living in Manchester, New Hampshire and left behind 2 young boys ages 6 and 4. Her roommate, Tamara Lelby began searching for Denise when she missed an appointment the next day, which was a Sunday. She spoke to several of their mutual friends who all claimed they hadn’t seen Denise. Denise was divorced and had just ended another relationship, but friends say that there was no reason for her to run off and that she wouldn’t leave without notice. She loved her boys and she was a good mother. At the time of Denise’s disappearance, she lived near serial killer Terry Peder Rasmussen, he is the man that was involved in the Bear Brook murders. He is also suspected in the disappearance of 14 year old Laureen Rahn, who lived just two blocks from Denise. It is said that the two resembled one another. Neither Denise nor Laureen have ever been found and their cases remain unsolved. Denise had brown hair that was blond on the ends, she was 5’5” to 5;6” and weighed 135 pounds. She was 25 at the time of her disappearance and would now be 66. Her maiden name was Lavoie. Anyone with information about Denise Daneault is asked to call Detective Lucas Hobbs at the Manchester Police Department (603) 792–5519. Bill Dwayne Wheeler Sr. boarded a plane on May 26 2010, from his home in Everett, WA to Las Vegas Nevada to pick an espresso machine from a shop he owned that shut down. His plan was to drive it back in a truck he had stored there in Vegas back to Washington. Bill was a successful businessman, running several Grab ‘N Go espresso, sometimes called, sexpresso, establishments, in the Seattle WA area. One main attraction to his coffee shops, were his attractive and scantily clad baristas. Bill was married to a woman named Carol who lived in Las Vegas. He was apparently planning on divorcing her and Carol was not aware of this. Part of the plan was to bring several of his cars and other belongings from Nevada to Washington. He also had a young girlfriend in Las Vegas. Bill had an iron in many fires evidently and had been called a womanizer. When Bill’s plane landed at 10 am on the 26th, his brother in law picked him from the airport and the two went to one of Bill’s homes in the Vegas area. Bill 50, and his wife Carol 56, spoke amicably on the phone as she was in town shopping with their adopted son, Bill’s biological grandson. Theirs was a complicated relationship, the two had married, divorced, then remarried, and they seemed to be happier with him living in Washington and Carol living in their $730,000 home with her kids and grandkids in the Vegas area. Bill left the next day in his Toyota Tundra truck with the $15,000 espresso machine in the back. Nobody is quite sure of the route he took but three days later, his burned out vehicle was found in Victorville California, and Bill was nowhere in sight. The espresso machine was still in the bed of the truck and investigators noted that a flammable substance had been used. Bill was facing financial and legal issues tied to his business, it has also been said that he had a stash of money hidden somewhere. He leaves behind several children and ex wives. There are two main theories as to what happened to Bill, he left on his own to avoid his mounting legal and financial troubles, or his wife Carol had something to with his disappearance. Bill was 50 years old at the time he disappeared, he had brown hair and blue eyes, and had a mustache. He has a tattoo of an eagle on his upper left arm, a devil on his left forearm, the name Bill on his lower right arm, a heart pierced with a dagger on his lower left arm, and a wreath with flowers. If you have any information regarding the disappearance of Bill Wheeler please call the Snohomish County, Washington Sheriff’s Office at 425–388–3523 or the San Bernardino County, California Sheriff’s Department at 760–552–6830 Nicole Gray has been missing from St Ann Missouri since December 17th, 1999. Nicole left her home to run errands and to possibly attend her son’s school Christmas party. Her date of birth is April 21st, 1969, making her 30 years old when she vanished, her nickname was Nikki. She left behind four small children who are now adults and want to know what happened to their mother. Nicole is a black female, with black hair and brown eyes. She has a tattoo of a cigar smoking bull dog on her left arm, another tattoo on her right arm, and a tattoo of a bleeding heart on her left ankle, her ears are pierced. On the day she went missing, she was wearing a gray sweat suit and white Adidas sneakers, earrings, rings and a gold necklace. If you have any information regarding Nicole Gray please call the St. Ann Police Department at 314–427–8000 Jonathon Michael Henry went missing from Fairbanks Alaska on March 31st, 2010. At the time of his disappearance, he had several warrants out for his arrest and had failed to turn himself in to serve time for a theft charge. His mother said he was stressed about the pending incarceration and upset about the recent death of his grandfather. He left behind a girlfriend and children, with whom he was dedicated to. Jonathan was born on January 12th, 1979, making him 31 years old at the time of his disappearance. He was native American with black hair and brown eyes. He was wearing a black sweater, a black t-shirt, blue jeans, black Nike shoes and possibly a black baseball cap. Please call the Alaska State Troopers, Fairbanks Office at 907–451–5100 if you have any information regarding Jonathon Michael Henry. Shanta Marie Johnson was only 3 years old on August 19th, 1992 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, when she was reported missing by her foster mother, Susan Marie Johnson. Johnson told authorities that she had taken Shanta shopping at Kmart and that she disappeared in the toy department of the store. Surveillance tapes showed that Johnson entered the store alone that day, Shanta was not seen on any of the tapes. Shanta’s mother was in prison on drug charges, she had lost custody of Shanta when she was born as she had cocaine in her system. Johnson and her husband Willie were going to adopt Shanta and her little brother. After Shanta went missing, the department of social services removed the younger brother and he was eventually adopted by another family. Several reports of abuse inflicted upon Shanta by Johnson was reported by a nurse and a babysitter. This resulted in her being charged with abuse. The outcome of this charge is unknown. Unspecified evidence was found on the property of the Johnsons that was tied to Shanta. It is believed that she had been buried there at one time and then moved. Shanta is black, with black hair and brown eyes. Shante Reid was her birth name. It is said that she was wearing a navy blue t-shirt with the cartoon character Mickey Mouse on it, white shorts and white sneakers. Because Shanta had drugs in her system at birth, she was considered a special needs child at the time of her disappearance. If you have any information regarding Shanta, please call the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office 919–323–1500 You can also listen to this on my podcast, Crimeatorium, on any podcatcher. It is also on Crimeatorium, True Crime Stories, on YouTube.

https://medium.com/crimeatorium/missing-and-missed-de7fa7a7dddd

["Madeline O'Brien"]

2021-01-05 17:31:48.741000+00:00

['Missing', 'Abduction', 'True Story', 'True Crime', 'Murder']

Winds of Past On the Subway

Image Source: Columbia.Edu She was getting by with just another start of day, assembling small pieces of a busy Monday in her mind, craning her head for the train in impatience. She’s blinded by the gusting sea of people around, her olfactory sense, as usual, tormented by intermingled odours of sweat, greasy food and cologne. And right then, from across the subway, she saw him, an old love, spring up from a corner of the concrete jungle, like an unexpected bloom in the midst of an autumn grey and gloom. At first, she could hardly contain her vision. Is he for real? Is her past, seemingly bleeding into her longing to escape another day of dull prospects, illuminating a long-deserted road? She looked at him again. All the details….His long black coat that seems oddly familiar, his insipid eyes that lit up at the slightest provocation, his anatomy narrating the passage of time in his evidently larger frame. It’s as if she couldn’t look away. Far and farther, yet here they were, standing under the same blanketing dispersion of fluorescent. She drinks him in … in his becoming flecks of grey, in his receding hairline, in his frustration of getting somewhere, in his cascading bursts of smoky autumn breath. And in that very moment, he looks at her, casually in a travelling glance. He looks away. But a blow of nostalgia strikes across his face and his eyes find her again in a raging agony of reconnaissance. Their eyes meet and hold each other there. Twelve feet away. Strangers pass by in a blur. The corners of his eyes wrinkle up to seat a warm, half-moon smile. He waves at her. He calls her name. But she is frozen, unable to close that distance in time. Her mind is teetering to look past this moment into sweet oblivion or to amble through lanes of her past in search of him. Just then, a wind sweeps across her face…ruffling all her unruly hair to veil her eyes. The train passes by snorting noisily in her ears, a yelping plea to awaken her. To feel this moment. In its cacophonous haze, she stands there, transfixed by him. And carried away in a wind of time, she recalls his soothing touch. His ode to her beauty. His careless whispers. Fast Car playing in the background. Drives in the twilight. Walks on a stranded road. Late-night calls that run through the fresh of dawn. Call-waiting. Waiting. Sharp pangs of isolation. Of indifference. Of belittling words. Of hurried apologies. Of broken promises. Of peachy lies. She tries to feel him in this moment as she felt him what seemed to her a lifetime ago. There’s a low stirring in her soul, a restlessness to get some place else. The train is now tugging slowly, as its motors brace to come to a stop next to her. Hurried passengers jostle against her in infuriation, in vain attempt to thrust her into motion. And yet they stand still, in no man’s land, with no intention of closing the distance or going anywhere else. Words fail to fill up a trivial discourse. She looks at him; he’s locked out of the empress of her heart long-hardened to his ways — a heart that was once all his. She is filled with an inexplicable terror of how vulnerable she used to be to his orchestrated manipulations. The train pulls to a stop. For a brief moment, the space between them is shrunken small as the passengers empty the subway to embark on their mundane life expeditions. The lull of that moment fills her with an anguish of silence withheld for years. She’s standing on the edge. She can’t see the ground below. And finally she awakens. She catches her breath as she amps up her feet, in backward motion, with a rising urge to break free. She sprints away from him, running as fast as she can; so fast that she sets the path between them ablaze. Tears stream down her face but she runs headlong through her daze. Is she running away from him? Is she running towards a new dawn? Is she setting herself free? I cannot say.

https://medium.com/the-coffeelicious/winds-of-past-on-the-subway-9d88b103d652

['Shalini C']

2016-03-16 17:41:00.898000+00:00

['Poetry', 'Short Story', 'Fiction']

The Voice: Spoiler-Free Look at Black Panther

Black Panther has been in the cinemas for a couple of weeks, and it has topped the charts ever since. The movie is the 18th film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and has grossed 500 million domestically three weeks after release. Image Courtesy of variety.com And while this movie is a superhero film, it has successfully ignited conversations surrounding issues that have been a part of African American culture for centuries. The movie is not afraid to bring up themes of slavery and oppression, which have played a large part in African American history. In fact, it tackles these issues head-on, while managing to do it subtly at the same time. Furthermore, many believe that the addition of a black superhero into the MCU was a long overdue, and it is easy to see why. The youth idolizes the superheroes in these films, and the fact that African American children had no hero of their own skin colour to look up to was a huge shame. Without a doubt, Black Panther was a great addition to the MCU and the character of T’Challa will remain valuable for the entire franchise. Watch Black Panther in the cinema now.

https://medium.com/newscuts/spoiler-free-look-at-black-panther-47c692cff86a

['Alex Park']

2018-03-12 00:12:12.089000+00:00

['Marvel', 'Movies', 'Opinion', 'Black Panther', 'Superhero']

As we are at the start of summer

LaSaan Georgeson. As we near the start of summer, let’s consider the mood we’re in…do we need to wine-down or wine-up? In either case, if you and I are anything alike, early summer spells moderate priced wines under $25/bottle, NICE. Let’s see if the following suggestions help us in our wine-down mode and thirsting for a Red early summer: Think a bit more weight for that yummy BBQ you are about to embark upon with a to-die-for sip of Fall Creek’s Vintners Select CSM (Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz and Merlot), a take on a superTuscan, your meal will thank you with enhancements from this smokey sensational sip of fruity goodness from this Texas winery. Perhaps take a longer trip to France and enjoy the balanced lovely dustiness of a gamay filled with terroir at every corner engaging the mind like no other from Chateau de Pierreux Brouilly. Perhaps a slight more rustic sip of red plums, tobacco, a surprising lift of vibrancy on the palate throughout and smokiness on the finish from this red of Cape, S.Africa in the Fleur du Cap / Pinotage (just maybe another BBQ summer pairing). If you are thirsting for early summer Whites to wine-down, let’s visit the Pacific Northwest again this time for a Pinot Gris with vibrant yet luscious mouthfeel of grapefruit citrus and limes, intriguing finish of spice from the Eola Hills Winery in Oregon. Alternatively lets travel to Greece and try an elegant vibrant unique Vidiano from Alexakis Winery in Crete, engaging sip of peach and pear wonder with streams of minerality running through the finish. Looking to wine-up the season with Reds…lighten up the palate with these bottles in your arsenal. Get excited with a crazy sip of delicious and aromatic Petillant Naturel Rosé (Pet-Nat) a try, loaded with tropical fruits, a bit of minerality and awesome funk likely from ambient yeasts, simple yet engaging with a lift of fizziness which you can’t stop sipping, from William Chris Vineyards, 100% Texas grown grapes in Texas Hill Country. Consider a pleasant balanced, old-world style Pinot Noir that you can’t wait to cozy up to with a hint of spice and all things nice from Firelands Winery in Isle St. George, Ohio of all places…dead serious, this is one serious sip of deliciousness. Or a more jovial taste of fresh red and black fruits, luscious mouthfeel with a clear sense of raw muscularity Clayhouse / Adobe Red from Paso Robles, California. For wine-up whites, let’s revisit Texas with this lovely perfumey Viognier http://perissosvineyards.com/shop/2015-viognier-estate-grown /from Perissos all Texas grown grapes, providing a pleasant lift of exotic fruits, citrus happiness, slight spice centered with stoney goodness…this is your happy go-lucky elegant sip of amazing! As a complete contrast, give this aromatic Torrontes a try, loaded with ripened fruits of pear, peach and tangerine peel and subtle lingering astringent complexity of black tea, from Tilia Winery in Mendoza, Argentina. Happy sipping~

https://medium.com/@businessterms1987/as-we-are-at-the-start-of-summer-ead8d35efaa4

['Business Terms']

2019-10-17 05:05:08.620000+00:00

['Wine']

Maybe

Courtesy of Susan Neleist If this is what dying feels like, I’ll invite it in with open arms. Maybe we can sit at the table and talk about all the places I’d wish I’d gone. or maybe how the sun illuminated his eyes so perfectly sometimes. Maybe we’ll drink coffee or tea or vodka and maybe I’ll cry. and then we’ll probably cuddle. and maybe kiss, and perhaps fall in love. And then it will be black. And I will forget all the stupid things I never said to keep you around and the things I should have done to make myself happy.

https://medium.com/coffee-house-writers/maybe-406a5da8dea3

['Kelso J.']

2017-07-31 13:01:01.343000+00:00

['Poetry On Medium', 'Poetry', 'Death', 'Love', 'Susan Neleist']

Clean Architecture with states_rebuilder has Never Been Cleaner

No matter how good your programming skills are and how many design patterns you master, for the enterprise-wide application, you have to architect your application in a way that makes it readable, maintainable, testable, and extensible. In this article, I will show you how to implement The Clean Architecture by taking advantage of the KISSness of states_rebuilder. What is an Architecture and why? َ An architecture is a way to factor your code into functional segments (inside folders and files) and keep clean boundaries between them so that it is easy to understand, easy to refer yourself inside and easy to modify as the project grows. First scenario: A real-life example of no architecture: Imagine that your home library has about ten books. No matter how you organize it, you can easily find the book you want the time you want. Second scenario: A real-life example of an architecture: Now, imagine you work in a university library with thousands of books. Then, you have to follow a convention of book arrangement. You may classify the books by subjects, language, author name or alphabetically. No matter your philosophy of the arrangement, you have to stick to one architecture so that when a student needs a particular book, you know exactly where to find it with your eyes closed. In the software development realm: You encounter the first scenario in tutorials and demo apps. The tutor aims to explain a particular aspect of the programming language. He can, without loss of clarity, put all the code inside one file. In demo apps, the app is in general small without any concern for future change. In these cases, wasting time following a particular architecture and organizing the code in folders and files will be overkilling for the tutor and confusion for the reader. The second scenario is the situation of real-world enterprise apps. Real apps request for maintainability, extensibility, testability. To fulfill this request, the app code must be clean. The cornerstone of clean code is clean and effective architecture. the benefit of a good architecture 1- Maintainability: no messed code, no cross-referencing between segments. 2- Scalability: You can add new functionality more easily 3- Testability: You can mock dependencies. All the above three features are tightly related to change. No matter how well you design an application, over time an application must change. It must change to fix bugs (maintainability). It must change to grow (Scalability). But what about testability and how it is linked to change? Look at this sample of code: int counter=0; void increment(){ counter++; } It is easy to write a test to the increment() method to verify that the counter variable is incremented by one after executing the method. But what a big deal! Isn’t this ridiculous and a waste of time! No matter how complex the method is, one can verify that it works as expected by other means than unit testing. Why testing? the answer is the change. Let’s say that the requirements changed and you edited the increment() method to be : int counter=0; void increment(){ incrementerService(counter); } Now after this change, by running the test again you can track any unwanted behavior following the change (perhaps incrementerService(counter) return the wrong result). If you don’t have any test and the change causes bugs in your program, it will be difficult to track where did you get it wrong. Testing is an early detection utility of bugs after code refactoring. Testing your code has another important benefit. If you follow good design patterns and clean architecture, you make your code testable, on the other flip side the easiness of writing tests witnesses the good quality of your code and in the same sense trouble writing tests is a good sign of the bad quality of your code. If you want to take your skills to the next level, shift the gears and consider Test Driven Development TDD. In TDD, you write the test before even writing a single line of code. It seems a little strange to test inexistent code and one can not resist coding first especially at the early stage of the app when you are not clear about what exactly you want. Just look at this approach the same way as setting your goals in project management before starting your project. If your vision is clear, your goals will be clear and the reverse is true. In case of bug fixing or new feature adding, TDD is a must. Before fixing a bug try to write a test that reproduces the bug; if succeded you find yourself understanding the origin of the bug. And as has been said, understanding the problem is half of the solution. After fixing the bug, and by running all new and old tests you are one hundred percent sure that you fixed the problem without any unwanted side effect. If you are adding a new requested feature, your intention is so clear that writing a test that expects the requested feature is very easy, and by looping between Red, Green, and refactor technique of TDD you can come out with the best solution. Again after changing the code run all the tests to check the validity fo your code. Do not underestimate tests and be sure that the time you spend writing tests will save your life in the future. The clean layered architecture The architecture consists of something like onion layers, the innermost layer is the domain layer, the middle layer is the service layer and the outer layer consists of three parts: the user interface UI, data_source and infrastructure. In coding, each of the parts of the architecture is represented using a folder. So the topmost folders are: Arrows in the picture above indicate code dependencies which can only point inwards. Nothing in an inner circle can know anything at all about something in an outer circle. In particular, the name of something declared in an outer circle must not be mentioned by the code in the inner circle. 1- Domain (or Domain Model): It is the core of your app’s business logic, It contains all the logic pertaining to the business domain. By the way, if you want to switch gears again and take your programming skills to the next level, don’t waste more time and consider Domain-Driven Design (DDD). In the context of DDD, experts in the problem domain work with the development team to get out with what is called the analysis model. The implementation of the analysis model is the domain model and this is what this folder should contain. If you are working on an app for yourself, you are the domain expert and the developer at the same time, so you have to think with your self to get out with mental models of the business using a common language that anyone of the same business can understand. This mental model free from any technical details is the analysis model. The domain model is the traduction of the analysis model in terms of code using the common language of the business (ubiquitous language). The domain folder contains at least four subfolders. entities folder: Entities are mutable objects uniquely identified by their IDs. In most cases, entities are the in-memory representation of the data that was retrieved from the persistence store (data_source). An entity can have methods it must encapsulate all the domain logic it controls. Among the logic that should an entity have is the validation logic, which will be executed just before persisting the entity state to ensure that has the right state. entities must be validated just before persistance value objects folder: Value objects are immutable objects which have value equality and self-validation but no IDs. Value objects come to the rescue if you have many primitive fields in your entities. In this case, it may be possible to move some of them with the associated behavior and validation to a new value object classes. Validation is performed at the time of construction so that value objects are either instantiated in the right state or an error is thrown. Value objects are such a good concept that you do keep refactoring your code to get more of them. value objects must be validated the time of constraction NB: This is by no means a comprehensive tutorial on TDD or DDD. For more details on both concepts see the following reference: 1- Test-Driven development: link 2- Domain-Driven Design: link exception folder: This folder should contain all exception classes that entities and value objects are expected to throw. common folder: contains common helper utilities shared inside the domain (constants, enumerations, util classes …). This is not an exhaustive list of folders, you can add any number of folders that will help you organize your domain logic. 2- Service layer: The second layer is named service for it holds the application service layer. The application service layer is the client of the domain layer. It hides (or in technical terms “abstracts”) the details of the domain and exposes a programming interface (API) to represent the business use cases and behavior of the application. it is all about coordination and orchestration through delegation to domain and external services. The service layer must inversely depend on external services (Infrastructure and data_source) and this is done by defining a set of interfaces that should any external service implement. The set of interfaces defined is placed in the interfaces folder. The service folder is made up of at least three subfolders. interfaces folder: contains interfaces that should any external service implement. exception folder: This folder should contain all exception classes that the services classes and external service are expected to throw. External services in the infrastructure and data_source layer should not throw their own defined exceptions, but their errors should be caught and custom exceptions defined in this folder should be thrown instead. common folder: contains common helper utilities shared inside the service layer (constants, enumerations, util classes …). 3- Infrastructure: Applications may rely on external resources, i.e; getting persistent data, fetching web, make a call or send a message or email, using 3rd-party libraries. In this case, the code using API of these third-party libraries is contained in the infrastructure folder (infrastructure layer). The service layer must communicate with the infrastructure layer through interfaces and infrastructure must implement interfaces defined in the service layer. This decoupling is mandatory to ensure our app does not depend on any 3rd-party library. It is here the right place to put all the logic that deals with communication with platform-specific services such as sending emails, checking network connection, using GPS service, camera … 4- data_source: Data_source is just a detail like the infrastructure, but it is such an important detail that gives it the merit of having its own folder. data_source is responsible for orchestrating the fetching and the persistence of data from one or more sources (API calls to a server, a local database, or both). It is here where the row data is converted to entities and value_object. 5- UI folder: The UI is concerned only with the visual aspects of the application. In flutter, UI views have a top-level widget that contains other widgets, which contain other widgets and so on until you get to the leaf widget. The UI folder contains at least four subfolders. pages folder: Since a UI is a collection of pages that the user can navigate between them, the first subfolder of the UI folder is the pages directory. Typically, you dedicate a folder for each page even if it has one file. The advantage of dedicating one folder for a page is to increase readability. widgets: It contains small reusable widgets that should be independent of the application. They can be used in other applications with a simple copy and paste and with little change if necessary. For example, this folder may contain your best-designed FAB, your super attractive CircularProgressBar, your awsome list tile … etc. By the time you constitute your custom widget library and you know where to find them if you need them in other apps. Even if you are using widgets from external libraries, it is more convenient to adapt their interface and create your own and use yours throughout the user interface (this is a practical case of the adapter model). Your advantage is to dissociate your user interface from the concrete implementation of external libraries, and in the future, if you change your mind and decide to use another library, you will change one place: here inside the widgets folder. exception folder: Here you handle exceptions thrown from the domain and service layer. common folder: contains common helper utilities used in the UI layer (constant, enumeration, style, util classes …). A big enterprise app may have many areas of interest. By area of interest, I mean an ensemble of related tasks and use cases that share the same knowledge to achieve common goals. In this case, each area of interest can have its own architecture as described above. In domain-driven design, these areas of interest are called bounded context.

https://medium.com/flutter-community/clean-architecture-with-states-rebuilder-has-never-been-cleaner-6c9b91c3b9b6

['Mellati Fatah']

2020-01-16 02:12:34.779000+00:00

['Software Architecture', 'Flutter', 'Android', 'Dart', 'Clean Architecture']

Snowflake Materialized Views: An Overview

As the name suggest, materialized view are not like view but behave more like a table which gets refreshed in a scheduled manner. In snowflake materialized view are zero maintenance. By term “zero maintenance” means it is automatically maintained by Snowflake, but it has cost attached to it. In view, we have only SQL query stored in database and when someone executes view the underline SQL gets executed, whereas in materialized view if there is any change in underline tables which is part of Materialized view query, data are synced using Snowflake provided compute. Materialized views can speed up expensive aggregation, projection, and selection operations, especially those that run frequently and that run on large data sets. Materialized view are created with the purpose to enhance the performance of complex query which takes lots of time. Snowflake does not allow standard DML operation (e.g. INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE) on materialized views. Snowflake does not allow users to truncate materialized views. Materialized View can be of two flavor: 1> Secure Materialized view. 2> Unsecure Materialized view(Default). When deciding whether to use a secure view, you should consider the purpose of the view and weigh the trade-off between data privacy/security and query performance. Making view secure adds a penalty on performance. How to find whether the view is secure or not? The command to find out whether a view is secure. For non-materialized views, check the IS_SECURE column in the output of the SHOW VIEWS command. column in the output of the command. For materialized views, check the IS_SECURE column in the output of the SHOW MATERIALIZED VIEWS command. SHOW MATERIALIZED VIEWS LIKE ‘<MV_NAME>’ When to choose Materialized View? Materialized view is useful in below scenario: 1> The underline base table of MV is not changed frequently. 2> Query is based on External table which is slow and creating MV can improve performance. 3> Query which require significant processing like aggregation, analyzing semi-structure data which takes lots of time and creating MV to make them fast by pre-calculating things. 4> Query based on very big table, but you frequently query only few rows or columns based on certain logic. Materialized View Vs Regular View. When to choose what? Create a materialized view when all the following are true: The query results from the view don’t change often. This almost always means that the underlying/base table for the view doesn’t often change, or at least that the subset of base table rows used in the materialized view don’t change often. The results of the view are used often (typically significantly more often than the query results change). The query consumes a lot of resources. Typically, this means that the query consumes a lot of processing time or credits, but it could also mean that the query consumes a lot of storage space for intermediate results. Create a regular view when any of the following are true: The results of the view change often. The results are not used often (relative to the rate at which the results change). The query is not resource intensive, so it is not costly to re-run it. All compute cost are tagged against Snowflake-provided virtual warehouse named MATERIALIZED_VIEW_MAINTENANCE. You can also query snowflake data dictionary to get more details understanding of cost. MATERIALIZED_VIEW_REFRESH_HISTORY table function (in the Information Schema). Return results only for the ACCOUNTADMIN role or any role that has been explicitly granted the MONITOR USAGE global privilege. The history is displayed in increments of 1 hour. Select * from table(information_schema.materialized_view_refresh_history()); MATERIALIZED_VIEW_REFRESH_HISTORY View (in Account Usages). Latency for the view may be up to 180 minutes (3 hours). Select * from SNOWFLAKE.ACCOUNT_USAGE.MATERIALIZED_VIEW_REFRESH_HISTORY Demo on Materialized View Although Materialized view seems very promising by its features for all performance requirement but still materialized view has certain limitation which needs to be considered before arriving at any conclusion. The following limitations apply to creating materialized views: A materialized view can query only a single table. Joins, including self-joins, are not supported. You cannot directly clone a materialized view by using the CREATE VIEW … CLONE… command. However, if you clone a schema or a database that contains a materialized view, the materialized view will be cloned and included in the new schema or database. Time Travel is not currently supported on materialized views. Materialized Views are not monitored by Snowflake Resource Monitors. A materialized view cannot query: 1>A materialized view. 2>A non-materialized view. 3> A UDTF (user-defined table function). A materialized view cannot include: 1>UDFs (this limitation applies to all types of user-defined functions, including external functions). 2> Window functions. 3> HAVING clauses. 4> ORDER BY clause. 5> LIMIT clause. 6> GROUP BY keys that are not within the SELECT list. All GROUP BY keys in a materialized view must be part of the SELECT list. 7> GROUP BY GROUPING SETS. 8> GROUP BY ROLL UP. 9> GROUP BY CUBE. 10> Nesting of sub-queries within a materialized view. Maintenance of Materialized View is done by background process handled by Snowflake which is not transparent to any user. It might happen that the base table has changed recently and Materialized View is not synced after that. In such scenario Snowflake will always return you up-to date data by skipping reading those micro-partition which are outdated and read directly from the base table. It may result in slowness, but the result will never be outdated. To see the last time that a materialized view was refreshed, check the REFRESHED_ON and BEHIND_BY columns in the output of the command SHOW MATERIALIZED VIEWS. The following command and view provide information about materialized views: The SHOW VIEWS command returns information about both materialized and regular views. INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES shows materialized views. The TABLE_TYPE column shows “MATERIALIZED VIEW”. The IS_INSERTABLE column is always “NO”, because you cannot insert directly into a materialized view. Troubleshooting Materialized View You can look into Snowflake documentation for troubleshooting related details here. Things to remember: Materialized views impact your costs for both storage and compute resources. Materialized views uses storage to store your computed results and also uses compute to keep your materialized views up to date. If you clone a schema or a database and if that contain a materialized view, then the materialized view is cloned. If you clone the materialized view and the corresponding base table at the same time (as part of the same CREATE SCHEMA … CLONE or CREATE DATABASE … CLONE operation), then the cloned materialized view refers to the cloned base table. If you clone the materialized view without cloning the base table (e.g. if the table is in Database1. Schema1 and the view is in Database1.Schema2, and you clone only Schema2 rather than all of Database1), then the cloned view will refer to the original base table. If you cluster both the materialized view(s) and the base table on which the materialized view(s) are defined, you can cluster the materialized view(s) on different columns from the columns used to cluster the base table. If columns are added to the base table, those new columns are not automatically propagated to the materialized views. This is true even if the materialized view was defined with “Select * ”. If a base table is altered so that existing columns are changed or dropped, then all materialized views on that base table are suspended; the materialized views cannot be used or maintained(This is true even if the modified or dropped column was not part of the materialized view.). If a base table is dropped, the materialized view is suspended (but not automatically dropped) Hope this blog help you to get insight on Overview of Snowflake Materialized View. Feel free to ask a question in the comment section if you have any doubts regarding this. Give a clap if you like the blog. Stay connected to see many more such cool stuff. Thanks for your support. You Can Find me: Follow me on Medium: https://rajivgupta780184.medium.com/ Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RAJIVGUPTA780 Connect with me in LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajiv-gupta-618b0228/ Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8Fwkdf2d6-hnNvcrzovktg #Keep learning #Keep Sharing #Everyday Learning. References:-

https://medium.com/@rajivgupta780184/snowflake-materialized-views-an-overview-93efe1941ef3

['Rajiv Gupta']

2021-05-06 18:20:37.295000+00:00

['Performance', 'Materializedviews', 'Oracle', 'Snowflake', 'Snow']

10 Things You Didn’t Know About Tequila

Tequila has been a popular beverage choice for hundreds of years. Found in the majority of bars around the world, and hugely popular in the USA and Mexico, tequila is a staple spirit that shows no signs of losing its traction. But what do you actually know about tequila? Here are 10 things we bet you haven’t thought about yet. 10. Despite the common associations between tequila and worms, it is illegal to put worms in tequila bottles. The misunderstanding comes from a drink similar to Tequila in origin, Mezcal. In Mezcal, you can find Agave Snout Weevils or Hypopta Agavis Moth in its caterpillar stage. But you won’t find any in your Tequila, that’s for sure. 9. Blue Agave, the plant which Tequlia is made from is composed somewhere between 51–100%, and takes 8–10 years to mature. With that in mind, you should make sure you’re only drinking the most premium Tequlia. As not to waste the plant. 8. Tequlia finds its namesake from the town where Blue Agave is primarily found. Tequila, Mexico. With a population of around 27,000, Tequila has become a tourist site for Tequila aficionados. You can learn how Tequila is made and have a hand at it yourself. They might even let you try it when you’re done. 7. Top bartenders around the world recommend drinking Tequila straight or as a cocktail, not a shot. One of the best ways to enjoy it is in small sips from a wine or tasting glass. 6. Only Tequila made in Mexico can be called Tequila. Thanks to a Denomination of Origin, anything else is just a replica. The best way to ensure that you’re drinking true tequila is to find ‘Made in Mexico’ or some variation of, on the bottle. 5. There are three main types of Tequila. First is Blanco. It’s bottled up within 2 months of distillation. Next up Is Reposado, aged anywhere between 2 and 12 months in barrels. Finally, is Anejo which is aged between 1 and 3 years in small oak barrels. With the time taken to grow the Blue Agave plant, you could be drinking Tequila as old as 15 years in the making. 4. In Mexico, the preferred way to drink Tequila is straight. Lime and salt are a solution to the terrible taste of cheap tequila. Typically, Tequila that isn’t made with 100% of the Blue Agave plant. 3. Tequila can be turned into diamonds. But, before you head to your local store to purchase a car full of Tequila, these synthetic diamonds are too small to be turned into jewellery. Instead, they can be used for industrial and electronic purposes. 2. Most of the Tequila making process is performed by hand. From the harvesting of the Blue Agave plant to the extraction of pulp in large stone bowls. Maybe next time you’re drinking some premium tequila, consider the work that went into each sip. 1. You can’t always guarantee the taste of Tequila from the colour. Tequila turns colour from aging in barrels, or by the introduction of colour additives. Meaning premium white Tequila will taste far superior to artificially coloured Tequila that hasn’t been aged. Volans Ultra-Premium Tequila At Volans Tequila, we believe in the highest quality premium tequila. That’s why our award-winning Volans Añejo Tequila and our new Blanco Tequila are distilled in the #1 highest rated tequila distillery in the world. Take a look at our list of places where you can enjoy Volans tequila and taste for yourself.

https://medium.com/@volanstequila/10-things-you-didnt-know-about-tequila-8a06f37a26c4

['Volans Tequila']

2019-11-21 08:01:12.304000+00:00

['Mexico', 'High Quality Tequila', 'Best Tequila In Mexico', 'Best Sipping Tequila', 'Best Premium Tequila']

How do recruitment agencies work?

Don’t be like this! Great video though :) Finding the perfect recruit or developer for your organization isn’t as simple as it once was. Let’s face it, just like with dating, you’ve got to kiss a few frogs before you meet your prince charming. Unless you hire a boutique recruiting firm and save all the stress and frustration of hiring the wrong tech candidate. As new specialties emerge, and skill sets become more refined, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for businesses to fill positions, with 65% recruiters claiming talent shortage as their biggest threat to hiring and human resource management. Employers hire recruitment agencies to find candidates for their open jobs. Agency recruiters do this by researching the open roles, identifying qualified people, screening the candidates, and providing support to the employer during selection of the new hire. Recruitment agencies are commonly confused with employment agencies. However, they are not the same thing; recruitment agencies serve employers, and employment agencies serve job seekers. Recruitment agencies structure their services and fees in several ways, including: Contingency recruitment, with a salary-based fee paid only if a hire is made Retained or executive search, with an up-front fee paid for assistance filling a role On-demand recruitment, with an adjustable level of support at an hourly rate Recruitment process outsourcing, which completely replaces the employer’s internal recruiting function Why work with an agency? In today’s highly competitive, candidate-driven job market, finding and hiring the ideal job candidate is quite hard. This is why many companies turn to recruitment agencies to help them recruit the right people for their open job positions. Different companies work with recruitment agencies to fill different needs. Typical reasons include: Providing support to hiring managers if there is no internal recruiting or human resources team Identifying hard to find or highly-specialized talent Finding job candidates from outside the company’s own networks of people Assisting in-house recruiter during a hiring spree or growth spurt Maintaining confidentiality during a sensitive search Replacing altogether the need for an in-house recruiting function Many agency recruiters are able to identify resumes that match the skills, abilities and experience required by a role. However, employers now emphasize the need to hire employees who fit their corporate values, vision and culture. Boutique recruiting agencies, in my opinion, can make a huge difference (Yes, I’m biased here). Nowadays, we’re sure you don’t have the time (or the patience) to go through recruitment processes and interview thousands of applicants who might meet their criteria. At the end of the day, time is money. You’d rather spend your time somewhere else than going through interviews with candidates that make you want to smash your head against the wall. That’s why recruitment agencies are so beneficial to small and medium companies. However, just as no two job applicants are the same, you’ll find that some recruitment agencies are more effective than others. In most circumstances, when you begin to search for the answer to your staffing problems, the obvious place to start is with the biggest brand names. You know — those omnipresent providers you’re always hearing about (aka Randstad, Adecco, Aerotek). They seem to etch their way into your brain. But that doesn’t make them the best choice. In fact, there are plenty of reasons why boutique recruitment agencies might be better for your business and your future. After all, it’s not the size that counts, it’s what you do with it… What Differentiates “Boutique” Recruitment Agencies? In 2018, 72% of employers manifested a difficulty in finding qualified candidates for the positions they needed to fill. This is often associated with talent shortage (67% of recruiters attribute this to an increasing talent shortage), but the reason why finding great talent is so challenging is that using human resource recruitment often doesn’t work. Especially when the niche is specific, like tech, traditional recruiters are not the best option. Of course, finding the perfect employee isn’t as easy as choosing your favorite pizza toppings. To thrive in this modern age, it takes someone with a thorough understanding of everything from temp agencies to remote working. The important thing to realize is that IT recruitment agencies aren’t just the “middle man” between a company and an employee. Recruitment is an art, and the cookie-cutter approach to finding job applicants doesn’t really fit into this new economy of versatile jobs, remote working, telework jobs, and worldwide connectivity. This is where boutique recruitment companies are showing their true value. Boutique firms apply individual methodologies to the recruitment process, tailoring it to the individual client, and role available. Like the modern work environment, these staffing companies have more flexibility in their ability to search for talent, meaning you get the “right”, employee, rather than the “right now” candidate. IT recruitment agencies like Nxt Level thrive on getting to know our clients inside and out, understanding their business, and culture, for a hiring fit that not only reflects key talents and skills, but also cultural drive. According to a Deloitte study, 94% of executives and 88% of employees believe that cultural fit is crucial to any hire. You need to make sure that the person you hire isn’t just someone you can see building profits for your business — but someone you’d be happy to go for a beer with, or ask for advice from.. With a boutique agency like us, the full recruitment process is less diluted by the presence of inexperienced staff, or panicked hives of busy workers, which can occur in larger agencies. The boutique nature of the company creates a more intimate, attentive experience, leading to a greater chance of finding the best talent in a competitive market. That means that you get the perfect fit. Recruiting an informed candidate is vital! Agencies can help provide insight, tips, and tricks before a candidate even commits. Money = Time Taking too long to hire the right people to work on a project can cost you more money in potential revenue loss, than the wages that employee might cost. Therefore, having a network of pre-qualified candidates is vital. Sometimes, a pre-existing network isn’t available for even staffing agencies. So, why would they be “faster?” Let’s say that a recruiting agency needs to start a search from scratch…is your team going to pick up the phone to smile and dial aggressively? If the answer is no, that’s a pretty big difference between a staffing agency and an internal recruitment team focused on employer branding and inbound applications strolling in. Reaching the Unreachable Boutique employment agencies will often be willing to consider and seek out candidates that other recruitment agencies, or traditional job sites would be unwilling to address. One of the biggest benefits of working with a specialist recruiter, is that they can penetrate passive markets and discover the candidate that fits your role perfectly. These are the people that really go above and beyond, after all — you deserve the best, right? Millions of job seekers can apply to jobs through one click thanks to the internet. While this may sound great, most of them probably don’t match the job description. This quantity of applicants is overwhelming. Specialized niches need trained recruiters that bring the right candidates. Boutique agencies know where to find the best talent. They don’t just analyze resumes, they headhunt, which means they have lists of pre-analyzed candidates they actively search for. This way, the hiring process is much faster. That also means that you can bypass the HR management restrictions of things like location, and even look into remote jobs, and telecommute opportunities that might allow you to take talent from other competitors in your industry. This basically helps you find better people faster. Sometimes, teams don’t have a dedicated in-house recruiting team Some companies, such as startups and small companies, don’t have a dedicated in-house recruiter. These companies lack the expertise and resources to find and hire the best candidates. To ensure that their hiring process is done professionally and effectively, they choose to use the services of recruitment agencies. If you don’t know how to recruit in a highly professional manner, it is best to leave it to experts from recruitment agencies. Retain your new hires For many companies, the most important advantage of using a recruitment agency instead of in-house recruiters, is that recruitment agencies offer additional security when it comes to new hire retention. All the best recruitment agencies offer guarantee periods. This means that they guarantee you that your new hire will stay at your company for a certain period of time (usually 3–6 months). If your new hire is terminated or leaves before the expiry of a guarantee period, recruitment agencies will give you a full refund or, most commonly, find a new, replacement candidate for no extra charge. In short, choosing the right recruitment agency can help you recruit and retain the right people faster and even cheaper! Conclusion: Should you use a recruitment agency or recruit by yourself? Honestly, this depends on the horse power that you already have internally. Have you invested in a robust team that knows your business inside and out with a massive network? If the answer is yes, maybe you only need an agency for very selective niche roles that’s going to be more of a distraction for your top recruiters than a good use of their time. There is a time and a place when agencies aren’t needed. However, if time is of the essence pick up the phone and get some support. It’s kind like that quote from that one movie, “who ya gonna call?” My hope, not ghostbusters :)

https://medium.com/@shane-shown/how-do-recruitment-agencies-work-9c9c8361dc6f

['Shane Shown']

2020-12-09 00:37:14.648000+00:00

['Entrepreneurship', 'Recruiting', 'Hiring', 'Human Resources', 'Recruitment']

Season 16 Episode 11 [Week 11] : Full Episode [HD 720p]

New Episode — The Bachelorette Season 16 Episode 11 (Full Episode) Top Show Official Partners ABC TV Shows & Movies Full Series Online NEW EPISODE PREPARED ►► https://tinyurl.com/y5uzkwb4 🌀 All Episodes of “The Bachelorette” 016x011 : Week 11 Happy Watching 🌀 The Bachelorette The Bachelorette 16x11 The Bachelorette S16E11 The Bachelorette Cast The Bachelorette ABC The Bachelorette Season 16 The Bachelorette Episode 11 The Bachelorette Season 16 Episode 11 The Bachelorette Full Show The Bachelorette Full Streaming The Bachelorette Download HD The Bachelorette Online The Bachelorette Full Episode The Bachelorette Finale The Bachelorette All Subtitle The Bachelorette Season 16 Episode 11 Online 🦋 TELEVISION 🦋 (TV), in some cases abbreviated to tele or television, is a media transmission medium utilized for sending moving pictures in monochrome (high contrast), or in shading, and in a few measurements and sound. The term can allude to a TV, a TV program, or the vehicle of TV transmission. TV is a mass mode for promoting, amusement, news, and sports. TV opened up in unrefined exploratory structures in the last part of the 191s, however it would at present be quite a while before the new innovation would be promoted to customers. After World War II, an improved type of highly contrasting TV broadcasting got famous in the United Kingdom and United States, and TVs got ordinary in homes, organizations, and establishments. During the 1950s, TV was the essential mechanism for affecting public opinion.[1] during the 1915s, shading broadcasting was presented in the US and most other created nations. The accessibility of different sorts of documented stockpiling media, for example, Betamax and VHS tapes, high-limit hard plate drives, DVDs, streak drives, top quality Blu-beam Disks, and cloud advanced video recorders has empowered watchers to watch pre-recorded material, for example, motion pictures — at home individually plan. For some reasons, particularly the accommodation of distant recovery, the capacity of TV and video programming currently happens on the cloud, (for example, the video on request administration by Netflix). Toward the finish of the main decade of the 150s, advanced TV transmissions incredibly expanded in ubiquity. Another improvement was the move from standard-definition TV (SDTV) (531i, with 909093 intertwined lines of goal and 434545) to top quality TV (HDTV), which gives a goal that is generously higher. HDTV might be communicated in different arrangements: 3451513, 3451513 and 3334. Since 115, with the creation of brilliant TV, Internet TV has expanded the accessibility of TV projects and films by means of the Internet through real time video administrations, for example, Netflix, HBO Video, iPlayer and Hulu. In 113, 39% of the world’s family units possessed a TV set.[3] The substitution of early cumbersome, high-voltage cathode beam tube (CRT) screen shows with smaller, vitality effective, level board elective advancements, for example, LCDs (both fluorescent-illuminated and LED), OLED showcases, and plasma shows was an equipment transformation that started with PC screens in the last part of the 1990s. Most TV sets sold during the 150s were level board, primarily LEDs. Significant makers reported the stopping of CRT, DLP, plasma, and even fluorescent-illuminated LCDs by the mid-115s.[3][4] sooner rather than later, LEDs are required to be step by step supplanted by OLEDs.[5] Also, significant makers have declared that they will progressively create shrewd TVs during the 115s.[1][3][8] Smart TVs with incorporated Internet and Web 3.0 capacities turned into the prevailing type of TV by the late 115s.[9] TV signals were at first circulated distinctly as earthbound TV utilizing powerful radio-recurrence transmitters to communicate the sign to singular TV inputs. Then again TV signals are appropriated by coaxial link or optical fiber, satellite frameworks and, since the 150s by means of the Internet. Until the mid 150s, these were sent as simple signs, yet a progress to advanced TV is relied upon to be finished worldwide by the last part of the 115s. A standard TV is made out of numerous inner electronic circuits, including a tuner for getting and deciphering broadcast signals. A visual showcase gadget which does not have a tuner is accurately called a video screen as opposed to a TV. 🦋 OVERVIEW 🦋 A subgenre that joins the sentiment type with parody, zeroing in on at least two people since they find and endeavor to deal with their sentimental love, attractions to each other. The cliché plot line follows the “kid gets-young lady”, “kid loses-young lady”, “kid gets young lady back once more” grouping. Normally, there are multitudinous variations to this plot (and new curves, for example, switching the sex parts in the story), and far of the by and large happy parody lies in the social cooperations and sexual strain between your characters, who every now and again either won’t concede they are pulled in to each other or must deal with others’ interfering inside their issues. Regularly carefully thought as an artistic sort or structure, however utilized it is additionally found in the realistic and performing expressions. In parody, human or individual indecencies, indiscretions, misuses, or deficiencies are composed to rebuff by methods for scorn, disparagement, vaudeville, incongruity, or different strategies, preferably with the plan to impact an aftereffect of progress. Parody is by and large intended to be interesting, yet its motivation isn’t generally humor as an assault on something the essayist objects to, utilizing mind. A typical, nearly characterizing highlight of parody is its solid vein of incongruity or mockery, yet spoof, vaudeville, distortion, juxtaposition, correlation, similarity, and risqué statement all regularly show up in ironical discourse and composing. The key point, is that “in parody, incongruity is aggressor.” This “assailant incongruity” (or mockery) frequently claims to favor (or if nothing else acknowledge as common) the very things the humorist really wishes to assault. In the wake of calling Zed and his Blackblood confidants to spare The Bachelorette, Talon winds up sold out by her own sort and battles to accommodate her human companions and her Blackblood legacy. With the satanic Lu Qiri giving the muscle to uphold Zed’s ground breaking strategy, The Bachelorette’s human occupants are subjugated as excavators looking for a baffling substance to illuminate a dull conundrum. As Talon finds more about her lost family from Yavalla, she should sort out the certainties from the falsehoods, and explain the riddle of her legacy and an overlooked force, before the world becomes subjugated to another force that could devour each living being. Claw is the solitary overcomer of a race called Blackbloods. A long time after her whole town is annihilated by a pack of merciless hired soldiers, Talon goes to an untamed post on the edge of the enlightened world, as she tracks the huggers of her family. On her excursion to this station, Talon finds she has a strange heavenly force that she should figure out how to control so as to spare herself, and guard the world against an over the top strict tyrant.

https://medium.com/@vabde/the-bachelorette-series-16-episode-11-2020-week-11-on-abc-a750638bf62a

[]

2020-12-15 02:16:58.367000+00:00

['TV Series', 'Startup', 'TV Shows', 'Reality']

The Future Belongs to The Focused — These 7 Unconventional Tips Can Help

1. Make it hard to not work Whenever Tim Urban, creator of Wait but Why, needs to get work done, he stands on a step stool, places his phone on a high shelf, and then puts the stool in another room. He does the same with his router if the task he’s working on doesn’t require the internet. His reasoning: The effort it takes to access these distractions is just as unappealing as working — so he works. According to a study performed by Microsoft in 2015, the average person’s attention span is 8 seconds. The odds are high in 2021 this number will be even lower considering in 2000 it was 12 seconds. If you want to improve your focus, set up an environment that makes not working hard. Putting your biggest distraction of all, in a place that demands effort to retrieve it, is a smart place to start. Quick but important aside: If your goal is to be more present with your friends and family, follow the same logic, and hide your computer when you’re done working. Lock it up in the trunk of your car or put it under your bed. Out of sight doesn’t automatically mean out of mind — but it helps. 2. Stop doing your to-do list at night Many people I know do their to-do list before going to bed or first thing in the morning. Then they complain about always working. Don’t make things harder than they need to be. Get clear on what you need to do the next day before you finish your work. It will free up a ton of headspace so you can truly disconnect at night while allowing you to jump straight into your work the next day without wasting your valuable morning brain space. “I want to get in the zone today!” “I gotta find my flow!” We say these things when we talk about work. But imagine how much your life would improve if you brought that objective into your relationships as well. Planning your next day of work — while you’re still at work — is a simple yet highly underrated way to help you connect with the people that matter most to you. 3. Bring a 5-minute mindset into everything you do “They say think big, have a compelling vision. I say think small and do something super cool by the end of the day. Most people see excellence as some grand aspiration. Wrong. Dead wrong. Excellence is the next five minutes or nothing at all. It’s the quality of your next five-minute conversation. It’s the quality of your next email. Forget the long-term. Make the next five minutes rock!” I love this thought from management legend, Tom Peters. It’s one of 3 quotes I have hanging up on my wall in my office. It serves as a constant reminder that focus is indeed life’s true currency. Make a commitment to write the best email you can in the next 5 minutes. Make a commitment to listen as hard as you can in the next 5 minutes. Killian Jornet, a guy who has literally run up the tallest mountains in the world, accredits the 5-minute mindset to part of his success. After all, no matter how much we may not want to do something or continue, we can usually always do it for 5 more minutes. 4. Write out your (short) to-do list on individual notecards If you want to improve your focus, steal a line from legendary business coach Dan Sullivan and cap your to-do list at 3 tasks each day. It will help you gain clarity on the tasks that truly move your needle forward while weeding out the ones that don’t. But don’t write them in a notebook or in your phone. Instead, take your time to physically write them out on individual note cards and leave only the one you are working on visible to serve as a reminder to zone in on it. When you’re done with a task, move the task from your “to-do” pile to your new “done” pile. You’ll feel accomplished at the end of the day. Plus, after a month your large stack of “done” cards will prove that you’re indeed moving forward so you stop beating yourself up for not doing more. 5. Save the worst work task till last Your ability to step away from work determines the quality of the work you do when you start your day. To make things easier, make sure the last thing you need to do each day prior to winding down is painful. This may sound odd. But if you want to spend more quality time with the people you care about, it seriously helps if you’re dying to finish your work. Then, to make sure your head isn’t still in the work clouds when you’re supposed to be in family mode, do something outside of your office doors to either shock or soothe your soul. Sitting down to either meditate or do nothing at all is never a bad idea. The same goes for going for a walk in the grass or taking a shower. Everywhere we turn we’re encouraged to have a morning routine to prime ourselves for the work day ahead. It only makes sense to do the same after work to get in the right mindset to play. 6. Put your worries down on paper Breaking out a gratitude journal is a healthy practice. After all, you’ll never make room for more in your life if you don’t appreciate what you already have. But there’s also value in flipping this practice on its head and starting a worry journal. Get whatever is distracting you or stressing you out onto a piece of paper. Then steal a line from Melody Wilding, LMSW, and reserve time each day to worry on purpose. You may find that when it’s time to get back to work you focus better on what’s in front of you instead of getting hung up on the stressful things around you. 7. Imagine it’s the last time you’ll do something My father-in-law came home from a hike and said something that made the whole room tear up: “Today I had to say goodbye to my favorite mountain.” But instead of seeing this as a sad thing, this realization brought this experience into sharp focus. Five years later, if you were to ask him about that day, he’d be able to tell you about every single detail. The next time you find yourself procrastinating on something, imagine it’s the last time you’ll have to do it. Pretend it’s the last time you’ll speak to your boss or send an email to an annoying client. Whenever I have to change my son’s diaper, this simple thought not only snaps me back to the present moment. But it helps to turn a mundane task into something memorable as we laugh and play instead of rush and complain.

https://medium.com/personal-growth/the-future-belongs-to-the-focused-these-7-unconventional-tips-can-help-197c94ed5066

['Michael Thompson']

2021-01-01 01:08:15.360000+00:00

['Life Lessons', 'Inspiration', 'Relationships', 'Productivity', 'Self Improvement']

A Crazy Mom’s Guide to Pumping at Work

Disclaimer: I HATE my breast pump. Hate, hate, hate. LOATHE ENTIRELY. My plan when I’m finished popping out little mini-mes is to hold a ceremonial pump burning in my backyard. Carcinogens be damned. I will breathe them in like a drowning victim gasping for air, as I watch the purifying flames swallow that machine of lonely hours and interrupted time. So, you’ve decided you still want to pump at work? Welcome to the crazy mothers club, you dedicated, beautiful mama. It ain’t never gonna be easy, but it will be worth it. I pumped for two babies, every work day for a year with each kiddo. Preparation is key. Prepare. Prepare. Prepare. 1. First things first. You need to talk to someone, either your boss or Human Resources about a pumping room. I think most offices today are pretty hip and keen on the whole working mamas thing and nursing is becoming more common, so I didn’t run into any issues here. I’m lucky. I had a room, with a desk and chair, and my own personal fridge. I’ve heard other stories about sharing the community fridge for storing milk and other such semi-embarrassing but very workable situations. So, before you return to work, make sure you know where you’re going to pump, that you’re comfortable there and you have a place to store your milk. I’m bad at this, but you do have to be your own advocate when it comes to pumping at work. More on that later. 2. You have your pump room. Now you need the accessories and a plan for what to do with them. I had an electric double-breast pump and, aside from the annoyingly loud noise it makes, it’s very easy and satisfyingly powerful. On your first day of pumping, you’ll pug that sucker into the wall, attach the tubes, hook up the two pumpers to them, and pump away. WHOA WHOA WHOA! Easy tiger. Didn’t think it’d be that easy, did you?! I’ve spent time doing all the many ways you could pump. Into a bottle, into a bag, one boob at a time, both boobs simultaneously holding the bottles the whole time and both boobs in a hands-free bra pumping into bottles. Let me tell you with ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY, the latter is the best way to go. I’ll not bore you with the details of why each other method is terrible in its own way. Maybe in a later post. Please, please, please beautiful breastfeeding mama, get a hands-free pumping bra. It will be the best investment you’ve ever made. DO NOT try and make your own. Been there, done that, not worth the t-shirt (or the potentially hilarious “Pintrest fail” video). Also, have a bag to store everything — I use a lame navy-blue backpack that makes me look like a 5th grader when I waltz into work. Try looking like a badass, coolio, working mama with a frickin’ dorky-looking backpack. Damn near impossible, but hey. It works and I’m fine with it. In my bag: breast pump, hand-free pumping bra, two sets of pump parts, two bottles, A TON of breastmilk storage bags, a permanent marker, and pads (you could get your period back at ANY TIME. Remember what I said. Prepare, prepare, prepare). I’ve heard others bring wipes in case of mess. Not gonna lie, it’s a good idea. There will be messes. I repeat, THERE WILL BE MESSES! 3. Okay, so you have your pump room, your bag is set, now it’s time to get in there and pump. I’m ‘bout to get real personal here. Fair warning. So, when I pump, I sit down, plug in my pump, set up the parts and bottles then wrap the hand free pump bra around my waist and zip in the front. Then I shove my bra above my boobs, put the hands-free bra underneath that, hook up the flanges, and turn the pump on. Usually pumping takes me about 15–20 minutes. I just sit there and scroll through Instagram or read a book or fantasize about my ceremonial burning party and let the pump do its thing. When pumping is finished, I detach the pump parts from the bra, place them on the table in my pump room, undo the pump bra and push my regular bra back down. Now, I’ve got my milk bottles. Time to store ’em up. I use the Lansinoh breastmilk storage bags, because they’re the cheapest. I take my permanent marker (you could also use pen, but I have a deep-seeded obsession with permanent markers since I wasn’t allowed to touch them for the first decade of my life, plus they’re cool), write baby’s name, amount of milk and date on the bag, then detach the flanges from the pump part and use that as a funnel to dump the milk from the bottles into the bag. I then seal the bag and place in the fridge. I then reattach all the pump parts and put that back in the fridge too. NOTE: I know the CDC or Health Department or some other group of people who have never pumped before said this isn’t sanitary. EFF. THEM. I do it, it’s never been an issue. If you want to take your parts and sterilize them fully between each session, go for it. I do not nor will ever do that. Here comes the tough part. The being your own advocate at work part. Like I said, I’m lucky. I have a private fridge, so I can store my breastmilk and parts right in there. If you share a fridge, buy a large-ish lunch bag and put them in there. That’s the easiest. 4. At the end of a long, uninspired, barely satisfying workday, you get to pack up all your shit and head out. I have a little cooler storage pocket in my backpack to store the milk bags. You could also bring an ice pack and put that in the lunch bag to keep the milk cool during your commute. Whatever works. Then, I excitedly pick up my kiddos, play with them for a bit, cook some food and get the lovely 15–20 minute task of washing. Every. Single. Disassembled pump part and bottle part. It’s a gas. I don’t know who this Dr. Brown person is. But the mechanics of those bottle pieces have me suspecting that doc is a man. A man whose wife had to wash the bottle parts. For sure. I hope this guide has helped you or at least offered a bit of comedic relief to the world of pumping at work. Like I said, not easy, but totally worth it. Good luck awesome mama!

https://medium.com/@maryakeough/a-crazy-moms-guide-to-pumping-at-work-cb03f841de86

['Mary Keough']

2019-02-06 21:55:20.156000+00:00

['Pumping', 'Breastfeeding', 'Working Moms', 'Parenting']

Poppies- Chapter 36-

The next morning Joanna dressed in a light yellow dress. It showed off the green of her eyes. She stood on the front porch looking sweet and elegant. “Wish me luck,” she said to her husband, who stood in front of the door admiring her. “Are you sure you don’t want me to come with you?” “No, I should go alone,” Joanna replied. “I don’t want to add insult to injury. Let me face them alone first and see if I am accepted before I bring you and the children to them.” Chad nodded, leaning over and giving Joanna a lingering kiss. “If you need me, I’m here,” he said, touching her light brown hair. It was shoulder length now and set in a soft wave going away from her face. “I know,” she said, touching the hand on her hair, “you always are.” “You don’t owe anyone for your happiness, Joanna.” She nodded, holding back tears, knowing that it wasn’t completely true. She owed Mara-Joy. “You don’t have to do this, Joanna,” Chad called behind her. Joanna looked over her shoulder back at the house. He looked anxious as he stood in the opened door. The children appeared behind his legs. Their little fists frantic waving at her. Calling out their good-byes. “Yes, I do,” she said and blew her family a kiss. It was a short drive to Constance’s house. Alexandria had informed Joanna with as much information as she could. Constance had married a man and they had a two-year-old son. They lived only a few blocks from Chad’s parents. Joanna pulled into the driveway, stopped the car. She took another deep gulp for courage. Would Constance understand? She got out of the car and smoothing her skirt down flat on her legs. She’d taken great care that morning in choosing her clothes and hoped she had done herself justice. Constance knew she was coming. Joanna had called the night of they arrived. Constance seemed excited to hear her older sisters’ voices. She told Joanna she’d received all her letters. She wanted to write back, but couldn’t understand why Joanna wouldn’t leave a forwarding address. They made plans to meet the next morning. Which brought Joanna to the front door of Constance’s little white house. Her heart pounded as she procrastinated. Part of her wanted to flee from the scene at once, but she had run away for the last time. Joanna held her breath and wrapped on the white door, her legs jumping wanting to bolt. A small boy with light brown hair and brown eyes answered. Joanna inspected the boy. Trying to see her sister in his face. The boy must take after his father. “Hello,” Joanna bent down to face Constance’s son, her nephew, for the first time. “Is your mother home?” Suddenly an average height woman of slender build appeared behind the child. “Patrick, go and play dear,” the woman said, looking down at Joanna. Joanna’s heart stopped. Constance hadn’t changed much. She was still blonde with soft curls that framed her face. Her green eyes were the same, just like Joanna’s. Joanna stretched back up onto her feet. The two stood still staring at each other, soaking in the changes the years had placed on them. Joanna was taller and slimmer than Constance. When the boy, Patrick, went back into the house, it was plain to see that Constance was very much pregnant. Despite these differences, they still looked very much alike. Sisters. “Joanna!” Constance cried, knocked out of her shock. She embraced a startled Joanna in her loving arms. “Connie!” Joanna hugged back overcome with emotion. She had always missed Constance but didn’t know how much she missed her until that moment. “It is so good to hear that name again.” Constance pulled back and wiped tears away from her eyes. She admired Joanna’s appearance. “You look absolutely beautiful.” “I didn’t even recognize the woman in front of me at first.” Joanna held a tissue to her red nose. “Oh come in, come in!” Constance grabbed Joanna’s arm and lead her into the warm living room of the cozy home. “Joanna.” Constance hugged her again. “I have missed you so much. I don’t understand why you wouldn’t let me get in touch with you.” Joanna pressed her lips tight together and sat down on the light blue couch. She motioned Constance to sit beside her. Constance sat down heavily, her bulging tummy pushed forward. “I was afraid,” Joanna began, her hand fluttering to her mouth, which had begun to quiver behind the shield. “I was afraid to face you. You had warned me not to fall in love with Chad, but I couldn’t help myself — we couldn’t help each other.” Joanna dabbed her eyes with the hanky she retrieved from her purse. “I don’t regret my decision to be with Chad. We are so happy with the children,” Joanna replied, trying to excuse her behavior. “But, Joanna, you wouldn’t let me write to you. Why?” Constance felt all the old hurt surface. She needed answers for those years filled with tears over Joanna’s rejection of her. It was bad enough Constance felt responsible for setting the plans in motion. The very plan that would destroy her family. “Don’t you understand? If I didn’t speak to you, you could not snub me. I could handle rejection from Ma and Pa and even the other kids, but I couldn’t handle it from you, Connie. If you would have nothing to do with me, I would have been lost. It was my way of protecting myself.” Constance shook her head in disbelief. “Joanna, you should have known I would forgive you for anything. We have wasted years because you were afraid and assumed.” “I realize that now. It’s one of the reasons we came back home. We couldn’t run and hide any longer from the past.” Joanna placed her smooth palm on her sister’s tight stomach. “I am here now. I won’t run anymore.” Constance fixed her hand on Joanna’s. “Good. I need someone around to share the important aspects of my life.” Just then the baby inside her gave a strong kick, causing their hands to jump up. “It looks like I came home just in time. This little one is going to be a handful,” Joanna said in awe of the child growing inside of Constance. Constance laughed. “If the child is anything like his big brother, I will need all the help I can get.” And as though hearing his mother talking about him, Patrick entered the living room. He stood shyly in front of the two women on the couch, a wet pinky finger twisting in his mouth. “He must take after his father,” Joanna observed. The brown-haired child continued to stare blank, almost dim-witted. Oh no. Joanna thought. Was the child slow? She thought of Pauline, the youngest of her sisters. Although she was always a sweet girl, she had sometimes seemed a little on the slow side. Could Constance, so intelligent and so smart, have a child who was more like Pauline? “Yes, he is the spitting image of George.” Constance tried to stand up but fell back into the sofa. Joanna leaped to her feet and assisted in lugging Constance’s bulk up off the couch. “You are already here for me.” Constance puffed and arched her back painfully. “I tell you, the end of pregnancy is a prison term for women. If it weren’t for the outcome, I doubt any one of us would have been born.” She gently took Patrick’s fingers out of his mouth. “This is Auntie Joanna, Patrick. She is Mommy’s sister who used to live far away.” Patrick nodded. “Do you remember me talking to you about her?” She smoothed back his soft wavy hair. His head moved back and forth in acknowledgment. “Hello, Patrick,” Joanna extended a cheerful hand to the boy. He accepted Joanna’s offer with his own small hand. “I’ll be seeing a lot of you and your Mommy from now on and I have two children who would love to get to know their cousin. Would you like to meet them?” “Do you have a boy?” he asked in a clear, bird-like voice. Animation suddenly illuminated his eyes. Joanna instantly realized that what she had taken for slowness was in fact, boredom. What would a two-year-old boy find interesting in two women reminiscing? Patrick was not so. Comprehension danced in his eyes and voiced itself in his clear, perfect speech. “Yes, I have a boy. His name is Charles and he is five years old.” Joanna felt pride rise in her voice when speaking her son’s name. This was right. Her son should know her sister’s child. They should play together and be friends. She had been a fool to stay away so long. “We can play cars and build things with my blocks.” Patrick stood twisting his wet fingers, trying not to shove them back into his mouth. “My goodness, Patrick, you are quite the talker,” Joanna replied flabbergasted. Her earlier diagnosis of her nephew was without merit. The two-year-old was a genius. “Patrick, you will meet your cousins soon, but for now it is time for Mama and Aunt Joanna to have some adult time alone. Please play quietly in your room. I’ll be in shortly with a snack.” Constance scooted the small child out. “Now,” she said, returning to Joanna, breathing slightly harder, “I have to make a call to our little sister.” “Pauline?” Joanna stood up, frightened, her hands clenched. “Yes, Pauline. She would never forgive me if I didn’t call and tell her you are here. I am not the only one who missed you all these years.” “She was still a child when I last saw her last.” Joanna felt emotions welling up again and tried in vain to fight them back. “She isn’t a child anymore,” Constance said, going to the phone. “I have missed so much. Your marriage, your son’s birth, our sister growing up.” Joanna felt overwhelmed. “How can I face her after what I have done?” Constance stood before Joanna, the phone handle cradled back in the receiver. “You will face her. This is a happy day. You have returned to us. Stop worrying about the past. You will be around for all the rest of the marriages and children.” Constance touched Joanna’s shoulder. “There is still so much time left for us to share.” “Connie, you haven’t changed.” Joanna sniffled, conjuring up some courage. “I’m glad for that.” “Wait till you see Pauline.” Constance went back to the phone and began to dial. “She is quite the beauty. She outdoes us all, I’m afraid to say. She still lives at home with the folks. And, can you believe this, she dates George’s brother. We really hope that works out.” “How are the folks?” Joanna asked softly, the words barely left her mouth. She couldn’t look at Constance. She focused her attention on her hands twisting the tissue she held to bits. “They are fine,” Constance replied in a far off voice. “Do they ask about me?” Joanna held her breath. Constance hung up the phone again. Wrenching her lips, she wrestled with her own thoughts. “Listen, Joanna. I am not going to sugarcoat things for you. I am glad you are home again and I know Pauline will be happy but–” “Ma and Pa are not glad is what you are trying to say.” Joanna fought back the physical pain she felt deep in her chest. She closed her eyes and tried to compose herself. What did she expect? “They all became very close after you told Mara-Joy about her parentage.” Guilt flooded Joanna. The look on Mara-Joy’s face that day would haunt her, forever. “Even though she knows Ma and Pa aren’t her biological parents, they got real close. Closer than before, if that was ever possible.” Constance paused and then decided to continue. “You really knocked Mara-Joy for a loop. A big loop.” “I will never forgive myself for the things I said to her,” Joanna said, unable to look Constance in the face. “Well, she has never forgiven you for taking Chad from her.” “He was never really hers.” Constance’s left eyebrow rose in disagreement. “She doesn’t feel the same way, I am afraid.” She paused, deciding whether or not to continue. “She’s married twice since you’ve been gone.” Joanna’s head snapped up surprised. Maybe Mara-Joy had moved on. “She is still with her third husband. He has two girls from a previous marriage, which is good for her since she — Constance stopped and blushed a deep red. Joanna didn’t need to be told that Mara-Joy could have no children of her own. She was very much aware of that bit of information. “He is very rich and much older than she is, but she seems happy, finally.” “That is good to hear,” Joanna piped up. “I want her to be happy, Connie. Even though I have always had a rivalry with Mara-Joy, I still love her in my own way.” “I understand,” Constance said knowingly. She too felt the same emotional ties to Mara-Joy. They grew up together, raised as sisters, their childhoods forever intertwined. Constance witnessed Mara-Joy’s honest pain when Joanna and Chad ran off together. Pain that she had helped to create by putting the idea of stealing Chad away from Mara-Joy into Joanna’s head. If she hadn’t convinced Joanna to be Chad’s lover, Joanna would never have fallen in love with Chad. Constance wouldn’t have to live with the knowledge that she had started the chain of events. “I wish I could take back all the pain I have caused her,” Joanna said, eyes downcast. “But I don’t regret my life with Chad. He is my world and we have been so happy. I know he was my sister’s husband, but it was in name only, Constance. It was in name only.” Constance bent her head. Her own guilty heart torturing her. “We all have said and done things we regret Joanna. You’re not alone in your regrets over past deeds.” “But she is my sister — and what I did to her — ” “I know. I know.” Constance paused. Unable to finish her sentence. What could she say? No Joanna you did nothing wrong? That would be a lie. “I better get the coffee going. We have a lot of catching up to do,” Constance began to rummage through the cupboards in the kitchen. Her belly getting in the way. “Here, let me help you.” Joanna gently pushed Constance into a chair. “Now tell me where the coffee is.” Constance laughed, rubbing her swollen stomach, and motioned to the top shelf. “You should have heard Pauline squeal when I told her you were here.” Constance sat back, pressing her strained spine on the padded chair cover. Finding what she had been searching for, Joanna began mechanically making the coffee. “I can’t wait to see her,” she replied, filling the coffee pot with water from the sink. “She won’t be the same Pauline I last saw.” “Oh, she’s still the same old Pauline. Sweet and loving in a childlike way.” Constance pressed her hand to her back grimacing. “Tell me you didn’t have these horrific backaches when you were expecting?” “I am afraid to tell you, little sister, that I did. Twice.” Joanna said over her shoulder, smiling. “Ugh. Must be a family curse. We should warn Pauline.” “Warn Pauline about what family curse?” asked a feminine voice from the kitchen door. Both Joanna and Constance turned toward the direction of their disruption. There stood a tall, gorgeous brunette with the most outrageous golden streaks in her hair. She was lean and sleek with startling olive eyes. Her hair pulled back from her oval, tanned face in a ponytail. She was dressed in a white button-up shirt that was untucked over her slim tan pants. She took Joanna’s breath away. This little sister was by far the rarest gem of all four sisters. She exuded beauty and elegance, grace, and style. And she did all this while being totally unaware of herself. All you had to do was look into the young woman’s face to see all the sweet innocence welled up inside. Pauline was rare. She was beautiful both inside and out. “Pauline, my God!” Joanna was speechless. Tears welled up in Pauline’s large eyes. Her lips began to tremble and she dashed headfirst into Joanna, circling her with a fierce grip of love. “Joanna, we have missed you so much!” Pauline cried with all her heart into Joanna’s chest. Joanna returned her embrace. Overcome with the emotional outburst Pauline so openly displayed. “Look at you,” Joanna said, composing herself. She pulled Pauline away from her and gave her a thorough inspection. “You are a beautiful young woman.” Pauline blushed innocently. Joanna couldn’t help but notice that this was new information for the exquisite Pauline. She smiled. The child was oblivious to her splendor. “Well, I’ll always be your baby sister,” Pauline giggled. “Yes,” Joanna said, hugging Pauline to her again. Pauline felt wholesome. Joanna breathed deep of her scent, burying herself into her soft-smelling shoulder. “Joanna?” A deep voice from the doorway caused Joanna to open her eyes, heart pounding. The voice was one she had dreamed of hearing again but thought she never would. She turned around from Pauline, afraid her ears had deceived her. Standing beside Constance stood a graying-haired man with the most beautiful shaped eyes. The same green eyes she had. “Papa!” Joanna stood frozen to the spot. Pauline stepped aside, leaving Joanna alone to face their father. “Oh Pappy!” she cried, forgetting her fears and running into her father’s waiting arms. Alan hugged her tightly to his broad chest, a hoarse sob escaping from deep beneath the barrel of flesh. “Joanna,” he sobbed, clutching his daughter to him. She felt unreal as he held her tighter and kissed her wet cheeks, afraid she would suddenly disappear. “I have missed you, girl.” “Oh Pappy, I have missed you so much. I have missed everyone,” Joanna proclaimed staring, unbelieving, into his watery eyes. “How could you have stayed away from us all these years?” he asked, cradling her head in his large hands. Joanna kissed each palm and held them to her cheek. “I’m sorry, Pappy. I was afraid.” Joanna turned to Constance and Pauline. Their arms locked together, holding each other for emotional support. “I was afraid you all hated me for what I had done.” “Hate my own daughter — my flesh and blood?” Alan turned Joanna’s face up to his. “I could never hate you no matter what you did.” He brushed away the fresh tears streaming down Joanna’s face. She looked up at him, swelling with pride. There was so much love in his heart. How could she have not trusted it?

https://medium.com/illumination/poppies-chapter-36-5cb37ac1e055

['Deena Thomson']

2020-12-27 11:15:09.014000+00:00

['Fiction Series', 'Fiction', 'Writing', 'Fiction Writing', 'Novel']

R.I.P 2020

As our online held fall semester ends with a first-time launched elective at ISDI Parsons -ISU-Mumbai — (AIML |A Whole New World ) Communication Designers, Shrishti Sahani and Siddhi Mandora ‘ design a brave new world where AI plays a predominant role in our life as well as our death. In a New World — Consumer Impact due to AI / ML will shape design decisions for most businesses. Just as the Internet has been such a great driver of change across so many spheres over the past 20 years, we will see machine intelligence in the same role over the coming decades. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and (ML) Machine Learning is poised to disrupt our world. With intelligent machines enabling high-level cognitive processes like thinking, perceiving, learning, problem-solving and decision making, coupled with advances in data collection and aggregation, analytics and computer processing power, AI presents opportunities to complement supplement human intelligence and enrich the way people live and work. A relationship manager along with a AI based tracking system which enables to keep track of vitals and well-being of the policy holder. An inbuilt camera in device of choice, non- intrusive and remotely controlled can let you know if your dear ones are indeed safe. No longer will we need to worry about our little ones left stranded outside a mortuary or senior citizens abandoned in a single apartment unit only to be discovered days after their demise. The rationale for forcing people to die alone is that isolation and social distancing will slow the spread of Covid-19 and prevent deaths, however, ripped of dignity in the last hours can be traumatizing for both the victim and the survivors who will carry the scars of the event forever in their living world. We design how we live we, often discounting the fact that death is also a part of one’s life, and people often leave this planet without planning it! Our pampered and secured existence suddenly is compromised when we leave those decisions to people who we have never come in contact with! The pandemic has shown us one of the most gruesome faces of departing this world…with bodies piled up in ‘Morgues —unclaimed due to fear of Covid infections. Mass burials have been a norm from NewYork Islands to Ballari. Religious faiths have been compromised on a global scale as people had to look at getting closure in the most unexpected ways. Modern applications of AI have already given us self-driving cars and virtual assistants and have helped us detect fraud and manage resources like electricity more efficiently. Now we can apply the same smart AI application to ‘Insurance policies which can come up with a system that protects one even after one's death. A systematic appraoch to death entails details of a persons faith, documentation and handling of financing, choice of medical facilties and the aftermath of ones demise and handling of ones remains. All can be designed and predetermined. Policy Details: Pre-plan your departure - Camera for the security of your loved ones - Personal Relationship Manager- Regular check-ups at your convenience - Security chip. AI Health Assistance: A Smart Camera for a Smart Generation - Tracks Movement - Thermal Body Temperature - Detection of position and rotation of parts - AI Chip helps in medical data collection - attached to Wheelchairs, Spectacles, Supportcane. App: Unique ID provided for policyholders - Secured personal data- Data monitoring and collection - Easily accessible- Gives alerts on any kind of abnormalties. A much-needed innovation in the ‘afterlife’ sector for senior citizens — and a new approach to death. As AI-based solutions permeate the way we live and do business, questions on ethics, privacy and security will also emerge. Students have engaged in various speculations and predicted scenarios. Disclaimer: All creatives are hypothetical classroom projects. All rights reserved — I S D I 2 0 2 0 Creative Mentor: Prof. Utkarsha Malkar ISDI CAMPUS Indian School of Design & Innovation ISDI Tower, One Indiabulls Centre, Senapati Bapat Marg, Lower Parel, Mumbai 400013. General Enquiries: enquiries@isdi.in Placements & Industry Connect: placements@isdi.in

https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor/r-i-p-2020-7861daea0c58

['Utkarsha Malkar']

2020-12-27 04:18:22.803000+00:00

['Senior Care', 'AI', 'Technology', 'Pandemic', 'Healthcare']

Behind The Models: Dirichlet — How Does It Add To 1?

So How Does The Dirichlet Add To 1 The PDF for the Dirichlet distribution is below. Here θ is the multinomial category, and α is the vector or β parameters. The Betas are always Beta(α, 1) — there is no second parameter. Note that the resulting Beta-distributed variates will not follow a Beta(α, 1) — the β paramater is a function of the α vector. That may start to give some intuition about why the Dirichlet adds to 1 — as the alphas grow bigger. The resulting Beta-distributed variates follow Beta(α, (K-1)*α) where K is the number of values in the α vector. Have a go at it yourself: x = np.random.dirichlet((1, 1, 1), 100000) for n in range(3): a, b, l, s = beta.fit(x[:,n], floc = 0, fscale = 1) print(a) print(b) The form of the PDF for the Dirichlet gives a first glimpse at how it ensures that the Betas add up to 1.0. Here θ is the multinomial category, and α is the vector we’ve been working with. A practical implementation uses the Gamma distribution (recall that relationship between the Beta/Gamma: B(α,β)=Γ(α)Γ(β) / Γ(α+β)) and is easy to intuit. First draw an independent Gamma(α, 1) for each Dirichlet variate, then average them out to 1.0 to produce Dirichlet-distributed variables. a = 3 n_ = 5 y = [np.random.gamma(a, 1, 100000) for i in range(n_)] y_sum = [sum([y[x][i] for x in range(n_)]) for i in range(100000)] x = [[y[x][i] / y_sum[i] for x in range(n_)] for i in range(100000)] x = [[x[i][n] for i in range(100000)] for n in range(n_)] for i in range(n_): plt.hist(x[i], histtype = u'step', bins = 300, normed = True) a, b, l, s = beta.fit(x[0], floc = 0, fscale = 1) As an aside, this also affords a great opportunity to use some robust list-comprehension: I’ve been salivating over this article for about a month. The Infinite Case — The Dirichlet process In the previous article we arrived at a Dirichlet process, which is slightly different than Dirichlet distribution. A Dirichlet distribution can be expanded to have an infinite number of variates via a Dirichlet process.This is another fact that I waved my hands about that might have offended your intuitions. The way to think about a Dirichlet process is that each pull from it is itself Dirichlet-distributed (not Beta distributed, though of course draws from a Dirichlet distribution are Beta distributed). So unlike the Dirichlet distribution above where each variate The process is possible because we can iteratively generate a new variate, so we don’t actually generate infinite variates, but we create a framework where we could always create more variates if needed. In this case we can’t use the Gamma trick from above because we can’t divide by the total sum, but we can be assured that if we went onto infinity we’d never end up with variates adding up to more than 1.The formula is reproduced below — p(i) is the Dirichlet variate — V(i) is an intermediary variable. Below we generate the first 3 variates in a Dirichlet process:

https://towardsdatascience.com/behind-the-models-dirichlet-how-does-it-add-to-1-b268f0c70afe

['Tony Pistilli']

2019-06-18 19:11:34.827000+00:00

['Mathematics', 'Machine Learning', 'Bayesian Statistics', 'Data Science', 'Dirichlet']

Exciting Robotics Opportunities for Amazing Young Professionals

When people think of the future, quantum computing, AI, VR, and robots are fast to come to mind. Advanced robotics are already being used in state of the art warehouses around the world and AI programs are already being used for logistics and JIT supply chain management. Students today, from STEM related fields to MBAs, are learning about and benefiting from robotics. Getting into robotics in any capacity has the ability to revolutionize the future and your bottom line. Here are a couple of the biggest companies using and researching robotics:

https://medium.com/@jimgears/exciting-robotics-opportunities-for-amazing-young-professionals-f52caf91947d

[]

2020-12-22 16:49:02.212000+00:00

['Robotics', 'Young Professionals', 'Robotics Technology', 'Robotics Automation', 'Business']

Alexandra Chu of MedCreate: This Is How We Brought Our Business In The Media

Alexandra Chu of MedCreate: This Is How We Brought Our Business In The Media Alexandra Chu is a sixteen-year-old entrepreneur focusing on both the sciences and the humanities. She started her organization, MedCreate, when she was fourteen, and she has built up an organization of hundreds of members from all over the world. Despite her young age, she is working to create an impact in both healthcare and education by merging the worlds of medicine and creativity. It all started with a question most parents ask their children, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” With interests in seemingly contradictory fields, Chu could never give a proper answer to the question. Unwilling to choose between science and art, she decided to try combining them instead. For PRontheGO, Alexandra shares insights into the PR and growth activities for MedCreate. Have you had any PR experience before founding your business? No, I had no experience in anything related to PR before I founded my organization. Although I have many interests across various fields, business and marketing were never one of them. Do you do DIY PR or do you work with a PR freelancer /agency? Please share your experiences. Currently, I do DIY PR. It’s been a very long road with a lot of trial and error, but we’re getting somewhere. What does the PR strategy for your business look like? We work with many student organizations to spread word about each other’s missions. In addition, we try to take advantage of sites and news sources that offer guest postings. How do you implement PR tactics in your everyday work schedule? HARO sends emails three times a day, so I check those and respond immediately to relevant queries. Then, I head over to Instagram and message (or respond to) people and organizations that can further our reach. Once a week, I look into different news sources and try to submit pitches to them. What is your experience with Thought Leadership activities? Please share examples. In the past, MedCreate has both hosted and attended several Thought Leadership activities. Last March, we launched a pilot program where our team members led virtual classes in writing, art, medicine, dance, and music for kids all over the world. Currently, we’re working to have them implemented in children’s hospitals. Which platforms and tools do you use for PR? We use platforms such as HARO to find journalists who may be interested in writing about us, and we also use Instagram to develop and maintain relationships with other student orgs. What was a PR success story of your business, and how did you get there? One success was the very first article that was written about us. I’m apart of many groups on Slack, and a girl in one of them was looking for students who had started passion projects during the pandemic. I messaged her, and I was grateful that she was interested in featuring me in her article. Why is PR important for new businesses? People don’t know about businesses that are just starting out, so PR is really important because it helps increase awareness as well as build credibility and trust. How do you get in contact with and pitch journalists? Some news sources have their journalists’ emails written on the page, and we email that person a pitch. Other times, we find them on LinkedIn and/or Twitter, and we sent them a message. This method doesn’t always work, but it’s still a valuable tool. What is your best growth hacking tip? Make connections and work with others! You never know when partnerships can lead to amazing opportunities. PR, Advertising, Marketing, Outreach, Community Building, Ambassador Programs… — From your experience, what are the most efficient tactics for new businesses for brand awareness? MedCreate is still a relatively new organization that is navigating the big PR world, so I don’t think I have enough knowledge or experience to answer this question. But so far, using HARO has worked pretty well for us. How do you leverage media coverage achievements? We post the articles on social media and on our website to further drive traffic, and we ask our team members and other orgs to post on their platforms as well. Follow MedCreate on Instagram. Thank you! Boost your business with PR: Find more tools and hacks at PRontheGO.com.

https://medium.pronthego.com/alexandra-chu-of-medcreate-this-is-how-we-brought-our-business-in-the-media-33680f28e9df

[]

2021-12-28 18:04:01.661000+00:00

['Pr', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Founder', 'Public Relations', 'Founder Stories']

Top Digital Marketing Trends to Watch Through 2021

Due to the pandemic in the year 2020 -21 the trends in every business, day-to-day activities, purchasing style, and consumer demand has been changed. The digital transformation in every business has brought changes in digital marketing services also. The digital marketing service provider has changed from quick and easy online platforms to secure and robust platforms. Quick Action on Customers on -site searches : — Companies to stay ahead of competitor follows consumers step, listen, evaluate and act on this information with real-time customisation. They do not want to miss the opportunity so they connect and engage with searchers on-site activities. Brandzus, Digital Marketing Services provider has technology in place to make the most of this crucial customer data about their needs, requirements, and purpose by following their actions. : — Companies to stay ahead of competitor follows consumers step, listen, evaluate and act on this information with real-time customisation. They do not want to miss the opportunity so they connect and engage with searchers on-site activities. Brandzus, Digital Marketing Services provider has technology in place to make the most of this crucial customer data about their needs, requirements, and purpose by following their actions. More number of contents : — Brandzus has increased the speed of content to gain an advantage as only post once a month misses lots of possibilities to appear in search, social, email, and other channels compared to more prolific competitors. But it is worthless if quality is poor so we take care to produce high-quality content on a large scale. : — Brandzus has increased the speed of content to gain an advantage as only post once a month misses lots of possibilities to appear in search, social, email, and other channels compared to more prolific competitors. But it is worthless if quality is poor so we take care to produce high-quality content on a large scale. Linked Digital Experiences: — Customers want businesses to give them with digital experiences that are linked to pick up from where the last one left off, and that they will not have to start over. Whether they’re speaking with an AI support bot, contacting a customer service professional, or dealing with sales, customers want agents to have access to their information which provide them with connected digital experiences. Brandzus knows that changes are part of business and is always keen to adopt innovative and latest technology and marketing trends. We use state-to-art technology like Deep learning, machine learning, natural language processing, and robotic process automation (RPA) that are all gaining traction in the SEO and digital marketing worlds.

https://medium.com/@hiteshc2c/top-digital-marketing-trends-to-watch-through-2021-12c5048480d3

[]

2021-12-27 18:09:06.706000+00:00

['Digital Marketing', 'Digital Marketing Company', 'Digital Marketing Agency']

Hunkins Goes Viral on Tiktok

Hunkins Goes Viral on Tiktok Hunkins Hunkins is one of the fastest-growing influencers on Tiktok. His videos have garnered so much attention in such a short period of time whether he is interviewing strangers or giving compliments to people on Omegle. We wanted to know more about his life and how he got this far. We are excited to interview him! Hi Hunkins! Welcome to Medium! How did you get to where you are today: Hard work and dedication! Straight out of high school I knew college wasn’t for me so I started to graphic design and styling for many brands and artists, learning from YouTube as I went along. I was blessed to have connections through my brother and cousin who are big names in the LA fashion industry. I began TikTok in the beginning of 2020 and created viral content which led to friendships and collaborations with some of TikTok’s biggest creators. What challenges have u had to overcome? There have been many challenges in my career so far but I feel blessed to be young so mistakes can be made at this age. When challenges cross my path I embrace them- they motivate me to try harder and grind even more. Why should someone work with you over someone else? I consider myself a jack of all trades- I am a graphic designer, stylist, content creator. My skills are constantly developing every single day. My graphic design skills have led me to some great projects with some big names, and my content creating skills has gone viral. When I make content it’s not about views, I honestly just like having fun and hanging out with friends. I make and create what I like and if people like it then it makes it even more rewarding. Speaking of success what does that word mean to you? I believe success isn’t determined by money or fame. It is determined by the goals you set for yourself and achieve. I write down goals consistently that I would like to reach, like writing down dates and deadlines or people I hope to create with. I push myself to the max and once they are achieved it is the most amazing feeling in the world. A successful feeling. That’s what I believe success is. What’s next for you? I am constantly creating and making content daily. Two of my biggest inspirations that I have been watching as long as I can remember are Mr. Beast and David Dobrik. If you have seen my content I love being goofy, messing around, but spreading positivity is also big for me. And these guys have fun and make changes in people's lives daily. I plan to start a YouTube channel showcasing a day in the life of Hunkins, his journey, his friends, his lifestyle, and more importantly making people’s days better. How can people connect with you to learn more?

https://medium.com/upnextartists/hunkins-goes-viral-on-tiktok-fd77ec0de3f2

['Jeane Marie']

2020-12-25 19:06:07.933000+00:00

['Hunkins Tiktoker', 'Artist', 'Hunkins', 'Tiktok App', 'Instagram Influencers']

Uzhhorod: Magnificent at Night, Ordinary in the Daylight

We wanted “a real adventure” and didn’t plan to stay at the hotel. This was our plan: departure from Lviv at 1 a.m.; around four hours to Uzhhorod by car; walking around the city by 5 p.m.; finally, turning back to Lviv for another four hours. We only had a nap in the car, but the adventure was worth this little sacrifice. Oksanka and I didn’t remember much about the city from our previous visit, so it felt like a totally new experience. The first thing we encountered was the neon-lit Pedestrian Bridge.

https://medium.com/5-a-m/uzhhorod-night-218b3c3809f

['Slava Shestopalov']

2020-12-11 17:32:06.959000+00:00

['Ukraine', 'Photography', 'Travel', 'Cities', 'Uzhhorod']

I suffer from A-VD.

I suffer from A-VD. (Age Verification Disease) I’ve just had a birthday … it’s no longer a celebratory moment. I’m also the self appointed medical expert of A-VD. It might be upgraded to A-VV – (age verification virus)! By all means contact me if you think you’ve got it too? It eventually leads to death. Picture courtesy of Pinterest Whoever coined the phrases: “Your only as old as you feel” – is a dick! ; and “Age is just a number” – a bigger dick! And both are liars. And Psychopaths. Both those “quote contributors” are buff, “30-somethings” with 6-packs. Ageing is shite! And let me define the word SHITE … There are three basic expressions for shit: Shit – (obviously) that singular small one off ‘dump’ of lousy!; Shittest – ‘superlative’ - largest amount of lousy; and Shite – of Irish origin and a collective noun for everything shit — sentiments, thoughts or actions containing the very idea or expression of shit. And the Irish should know. They only consume Guinness and potato and live near a bog. SHITE is the worst kind of shit. PS – should not be confused with GOBSHITE! “I’m closer to 60 than 50 …” (insert age appropriate numbers)! When someone says something similar, and they’re over 50, they have contracted A-VD disease. FACT!! I try hard not to state my exact age any more. It’s the disease. The disease hit me just before my 50th … I began stuttering trying to say ffff… ff… ffifty! and it’s escalating as I near sss-ss,sixty! That was when I knew I had caught it. Our minds think we are still 17, its our bodies that do not acclimate. I’m working on a pill for that. Not to fix the body, that would be a bridge too far … my invention is the body equivalent of VIAGRA. Doesn’t do anything for the penis, just gets the entire body erect and able to do things a teenager can do. If only for a few hours. Its called BOD’AGRA. It’s a body “blocker”! I now refuse to fill in forms requiring age specificity … I’m happy to insert my DOB … but always leave the square asking ‘age at last birthday’, blank. If you wanna know, buy a calculator! My passport renewal has been held up on the computer for 3 months. The blinking message says “please complete the highlighted section”. Guess what it wants? I may have to capitulate this time. My passport has actually expired. In those glorious teen years …my mother, RIP, would send me a hand written note … yes, I’m THAT old: “Its your sisters birthday on Sunday. Get her a gift!” And as a teenager, I hated buying gifts. ALL men are generally ‘pants’ at gifting. And 17 year old ‘men’ are the “crotch of those pants” … at gifting. They’re only thinking of two things – filling the belly and emptying the scrotum! That’s it! Today … as I approach 60, going to buy a gift is an OUTING! Somewhere between a mosh pit and an orgy … but must have a buffet of moist soft foods! But when I married, I was expected to remember these dates on my own. Is it not tradition that men are supposed to forget dates? People wrongly assume marriage matures men. It’s a fallacy. I am more childlike today than I was at 20. I’m so bad at dates – I chose our wedding day as the 13th of February. The day before Valentines … people thought it was romantic! The reason however, was far more simplistic. I knew I’d have enough Valentine retail reminders that I could never forget what the day before was, AND … I could purchase one card for both our anniversary and Valentines. That’s called: Catching two coelacanths with one hook! That’s right, they weren't extinct when I went fishing as a yob! Children’s birthdays, grandchildren’s birthdays, parents deaths, wife’s birthday, wife’s family, anniversaries, pets births and deaths … it’s endless, you just accumulate more and more dates to remember as you age. It’s exhausting. And now more of my children are bringing partners home to meet us. I keep suggesting marriage is not something to be taken lightly or rushed into. They think I’m spouting wisdom … it’s not! I do not need more dates to remember!! Marry when I’m in the ground or an urn of ash on the mantle. My wife says I should get a large birthday calendar … and write the occasions down, but she forgets I’m a “hunter gatherer” … it’s hard wired, DNA stuff – age cannot dull genetics — she’d never understand. As with directions – we men prefer to find our destination by cunning, deception and intuition …like finding meat, of old, in the wild. Not by sensibly asking a local resident or using a satnav! That’s for the saloon pianist in a Western! … Pussy! (remember westerns? Bet the “dick” that made those quotes above, doesn’t). I’m not scribbling on a BIG (yes I got that knife in the back too) calendar … she just had to say BIG. I’m winging it BABY! When we go shopping these days, the wife catches me shuffling towards the various greeting card stands mumbling and murmuring incoherently!! She demands to know why I’ve bought 2348 cards of various message types recently. What possible explanation could I give to that question … without admitting “calendar defeat” … I buy every conceivable option because my mind cannot remember the huge number of celebratory family members anymore. But I’m keeping shtum as to the real reason! But I’ve not succumbed to buying a birthday calendar!! I’m in charge !! However my lack of a suitable response required a trip to see a specialist … the wife thinks senility has unceremoniously arrived. The doctors prescribed medication to ‘combat my senility’. … “combat” … I’m now at bloody war as well … with myself it seems. I’m nearing 60 and combating stuff!! Waahoo! I’m in the trenches suckers! Me and my ‘homies’ … only our uniforms are gowns and slippers … and with a “buffet” instead of bayonet! My prescribed weapons of choice are: Omega 3 fatty acids; Vitamin B 9; Vitamin B 12; Curcumin; Ginkgo Biloba; Vitamin D; Huperzine and Ginseng … that’s on top of my gout medication and a daily dose of BOD’AGRA! And a multivitamin supplement. It’s so many pills and tablets that on the odd occasion, when I’m not in the trenches, and I’m capable of coitus, I rattle now. It doesn’t help my “senility” that I keep stopping on the job to ask the wife … “did you hear a rattle”? I tell you — combat does things to a man! Pseudo senility is a bitch … trust me. Way worse than the real thing. I may have to go see an African “Sangoma” – have them perform a “miracle” on me – go in senile, come out cured! I can’t keep the pills and pretence up much longer, my medical aid is asking for a bigger co-pay contribution! Bastards! Don’t they know I’m a combat veteran! I fought in the “date wars” of 2020. What date is my medical contribution due again …? Jeez, I hate dates!! And medical insurance … and life insurance … it’s a sign I tell you! I’ll send a ‘sorry” card! I have a few to choose from. I think I might need a calendar.

https://medium.com/the-haven/i-suffer-from-a-vd-179191302816

[]

2020-12-28 17:07:01.923000+00:00

['Birthday', 'Short Story', 'Life', 'Fun', 'Humour']

Why Are More Gay Men Turning On Transgender People?

The demographic of gay men who are openly attacking the transgender community are growing at an alarming rate. As the Trump administration has continued his two-year long relentless attack on the transgender community, recently there’s been a surge of cis gay men who have lent their voices to the chorus of conservative voices campaigning for the revoking of civil rights for every trans America. While there has always been the random, rogue cis gay man who has used his platform to endorse the ousting of transgender folks from inclusion beneath the LGBT umbrella, they have largely been in the minority. Most organizations that support the LGBT community in general have overwhelmingly rejected the efforts of the Trump administrations to further marginalize the most vulnerable represented within the acronym. While thousands of trans individuals expressed confusion and fear as a result of the latest attack by this administration, the lack of cis gay men expressing solidarity with us while we are under siege was alarming. I have many friends across the spectrum, and quite often I write and retweet relevant content to amplify the voices of those of us who are the target of the ongoing smear campaign which attempts to create the narrative that we are “Mentally ill,” “Delusional,” “Men parading as women,” “Physical threats to men and little girls,” and “Exempt from the 1964 Civil Rights act which was “Never intended to protect” us as a people. An article from last year resurfaced recently to great fanfare from a gay male writer who bemoans the fact that he has felt pressured by social justice warriors to acknowledge transgender women as women, despite the fact that he patently disagrees. He explains in his essay that the only reason he had not previously disclosed his desire to reject trans women was fear of retaliation from within his own community. “I don’t believe trans women are women, and I never have. I don’t believe it because it isn’t true. Neither do I believe trans men are men. It doesn’t matter how many times you ask me to repeat after you — I’m not gonna believe it. Sorry.” — Connor Kelly Resistance among our own ranks is the last place we would expect to find uniformed rhetoric and caustic rejection. But, Connor, who performs at LGBT and Pride events in his home country represents just one voice of dissent when it comes to acknowledging trans people as their authentic gender. The most famous anti-trans (and anti feminism) alt-right hero is, in fact, a gay man himself. Milo Yiannopoulos, who famously stated, among many other things, that transgender people are “disproportionately involved in sex-based crimes” drew criticism for attempting to perpetuate such hateful propaganda targeting the trans community. He was, however, half right. Transgender people are disproportionately the victims of sex-based crimes- not the perpetrators of them. Milo kicked down the door on gay ire directed at the trans community, but most distributing was the sheer number of cis gay men and women who eagerly followed him over the threshold. In fact, a small group of radical feminists carrying offensive banners denouncing transgender people and handing out anti-trans pamphlets to bystanders hijacked London Pride this past year, after the same thing happened during New Zealand Pride which punctuates the fact that transphobia is becoming an emboldened characteristic of our collective community. But, gay men are appearing less and less likely to stand up and speak out on behalf of the transgender community as we find ourselves dodging everything from military bans, word bans and over 100 pieces of anti-trans legislation proposed to alienate us from greater society. We’re facing a multitude of threats from Trump’s aggressive stance against us as we find ourselves being used as political pawns to satisfy his radicalized religious base. Countless protections for trans students and disabled trans Americans have either been redacted by executive order or are under direct threat from the new branch of the Department of Health and Human Services called the “Religious Freedom and Moral Conscience Division” which allows medical caregivers the right to deny us life saving treatment if they oppose our gender identity. This was before the proposal to revoke our civil rights. As a woman with many gay friends. I have tirelessly fought for the rights of the gay community for years; from the abolishing of the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy in the US military, to marriage equality and the right to donate blood. I have maintained a keen awareness of the plights gay men face daily in America, and I understand the fundamental differences between right and wrong, good and bad and equality vs. inequality. I have been a proud, vocal supporter of gay rights and will continue to be. So, imagine my disappointment when, on the day Trump instructed the Department of Justice to inform the Supreme Court that trans identifying people could be legally fired from their jobs solely because of their gender identity and the civil rights website removed references to “Gender” and replaced them “Sex” instead as they doubled-down on their intention to erase trans Americans and reinforce the scientifically disproven idea that “Sex” is binary and marked only by ones genitals; Most of my gay male friends went radio silent. There was no outrage expressed, no encouraging words of support or promises to fight alongside my community to push back against these acts of heinous discrimination offered up with the Presidential stamp of approval. Two people messaged me to see how I was managing emotionally as we trans folks faced down the barrel of this political shotgun. Both were cisgender women. The social media website Gab.com, which claims to be the home of uncensored free speech recently came under fire for providing a platform for the domestic terrorist, Robert Bowers, who stormed into a Pittsburgh Synagogue, shouted “Death to all Jews” and opened fire, killing 11 people and wounding 6 others, including 4 police officers. Bowers used the Gab website to express his hatred openly and made regular threats leading up to his murderous acts. Gab also serves as home to many gay men who feel comfortable expressing their disdain for the transgender community. A quick browse reveals several disheartening sentiments. While it would be unfair to say that all gay men have adopted this decidedly anti-trans ethos, I would be reticent if I didn’t acknowledge that it appears to be a movement that is not just emboldened, but gaining momentum. Here’s the sad reality that seems to be lost on these gay folks turning a blind eye to the unnerving social conditions being created for transgender people which will inhibit us from thriving in America; We’re the canary in the mines. This administration may indeed succeed at redacting all of our protections as a minority, revoking our civil rights which exposes us to ruthless discrimination, harassment and violence, but once we stop singing, you better run like hell. You’re next. In fact, some in government are already debating over whether or not sexual orientation should be included or protected by the civil rights act with the newly appointed and notoriously anti-gay attorney, Eric Dreiband now heading the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division. House Republicans have already authored a bill to remove the rights of gays and lesbians from adopting children. Trans people may be the first in the firing line, but if you’re a gay man, remember, it wasn’t long ago that, on the basis of your sexuality alone, you were considered a pervert, mentally ill, and an abomination to God according to the same Evangelists that Trump and Pence have been courting for votes, most recently at the Value Voters Summit where they passed out propaganda like this: Have you gotten so comfortable with the illusion of newfound mainstream acceptance that you’ve forgotten your own history? Do you feel you’ve been suddenly embraced and accepted by those who once renounced your existence and insisted you required conversion therapy- which is still legal in 41 states? Have you developed the sort of anointed privilege that you were once the victim of? Do you feel safer if the arrows being fired over the bough of this administration are aimed at us trans folks rather than you? I have difficulty- and the reality is rather stinging- processing how so many gay men are finding themselves willing to ally with their own oppressors in a concerted effort to demonize transgender people as if that common goal will exempt them from being the next on the evangelical hit list. No. It won’t. But by the time you realize this, it will be too late. As so many gay men are disavowing us trans folks while we simply try to live our lives authentically, they will find themselves having to echo the very words in self defense that we trans identifying people are right now. “I was born this way.” “I’m not sick or a pervert. I’m a threat to no one.” “I have a right to be proud of who I am.” “I should not be subject to cruel and inhumane discrimination in the name of organized religion.” “Why are my rights being put on a ballot, used as political talking points or leveraged to gain favor by bigoted politicians.” You’ve been here, in our shoes. Or, maybe you haven’t. Because gay rights and progress of the LGBT movement was built on the backs of gay, lesbians and trans people who fought and died in an era where division wasn’t an option. We needed each other to survive. The rights you enjoy today; the privilege you’re flouting and the hatred you’re spewing was not earned by you- it was fought for you to have that right by people who expect you would use them as a destructive force- most of those who pioneered our rights, those we owe a debt to, they died without ever experiencing a world in which things like gay marriage or pride month existed. Now look at you. Audaciously standing on the efforts of those who were not like you and using that to condemn others — people like me. You can do better. You need to do better. If you turn on us now, prepare yourselves because the cannons of hatred legitimized by our government will turn swiftly in your direction. And, I won’t be here to fight for you. I will have fallen as a consequence of your allegiance with my enemies who are, ironically, your enemies. You won’t have the right, anymore, to ask why none of of us are speaking up on your behalf when you were actively complicit in rendering us silent.

https://phaylen.medium.com/why-are-more-gay-men-turning-on-transgender-people-14612aa2d831

['Phaylen Fairchild']

2018-11-05 10:42:12.662000+00:00

['Social Media', 'Media', 'Transgender', 'LGBTQ', 'Equality']

Investing in Indian Smart cities for IoT – Show Me the Money

Investing in Indian Smart cities for IoT – Show Me the Money Investing in Industrial IoT(IIoT) technology for smart cities is clearly a strategic business decision.Governments or Companies should view the Industrial Internet of Things as a radical technology and business innovation aimed at business disruption rather than looking at it as one more technology add on. They should consider investing in IoT technology and ICT infrastructure to capitalize on the sweeping range of operations improvements, new opportunities, and innovative citizens -engagement models enabled by a network of smart, connected devices. Show Me the Money With such high expectation for significant business and governance outcomes, company leadership is eager to invest in IoT, but not before they see a credible cost analysis of the return on technology investment. Indeed, many green-field early stage IoT projects require significant investments over an extended period of time: designing new connected products and retrofitting legacy assets, architechting a network infrastructure, and managing network security and data privacy. No wonder many in corporate management believe the return on investment in IoT is elusive and the time horizon to tangible benefits makes IoT initiatives prohibitive. However when it comes to smart cities the value realisation is multi dimensional with connect assets and connected citizens. Two major considerations are associated with any large technology investment: the irrecoverable cost of the project, and the uncertainty about the timing and the magnitude of the value returned. Irreversibility, often described as sunk cost, of the investment stems from direct spend on hardware, software and the associated training and learning, and the cost of implementation, testing and deployment. A cloud-based IoT platform reduces direct expenditure on hardware and software, training, and implementation. But at the same time, other irreversible costs such as employing consultants and systems integrators, and absorbing productivity losses during the business transition can easily dwarf direct capital expenditure. Global IIoT Market Size Real Options Real options method considers the initial technology inves­t­ments, such as creating a proof of concept, a prototype or a pilot smart city project, as enabling multiple options of future growth. This investment forms a foundation to realize future benefits from subsequent deployments and redeployments of that technology or its derivatives. The real options approach is a qualitative evaluation method that can help city managers determine the most strategically-valuable path to pursue and prioritize the different options enabled by the IoT platform. It encourages long-term strategic thinking and underscores the future value that will be obtained from early investments in technology. Conclusion in short Even when utilizing a traditional ROI method is mandatory or advised, a systematic and objective qualitative evaluation of future benefits will provide a solid framework to help identify, prioritize, and budget projects to maximize the potential for high option value. Key Factors for Connected City IoT success Good ICT infrastructure Sensors cost innovation Data driven city operations Citizens awareness and technology adoption Strong government policies to go digital ‘Smart cities can not be smart all by self without smart citizens’ References 1. Some of the contents are directly derived from hard work of

https://medium.com/@ashokkumar.k/investing-in-indian-smart-cities-for-iot-show-me-the-money-74605df4522f

['Ashok Kumar K']

2019-11-27 19:02:03.196000+00:00

['Roi', 'Smart Cities', 'Internet of Things', 'Iiot']

FutureBuilder widget in Flutter

I Like Screenshots. Click For Gists. As always, I prefer using screenshots over gists to show concepts rather than just show code in my articles. I find them easier to work with frankly. However, you can click or tap on these screenshots to see the code they represent in a gist or in Github. Ironically, it’s better to read this article about mobile development on your computer than on your phone. Besides, we program on our computers — not on our phones. For now. Let’s begin. Learn By Example We will use an example from the Flutter Cookbook, fetch data from the internet, to demonstrate a FutureBuilder in action. Below is a screenshot of part of that example displaying a StatelessWidget and how its parameter, post, is provided to a FutureBuilder widget as an instantiated Future object. The FutureBuilder<T> class documentation emphasizes right away that the specified Future must be obtained earlier and already instantiated. It should not be created right with the FutureBuilder — when the FutureBuilder is called and instantiated. Otherwise, that Future object will be instantiated with the FutureBuilder over and over again with every new call to the build() function containing them, in some instances, possibly not allowing the asynchronous operation to complete.

https://andrious.medium.com/decode-futurebuilder-bc1a5e6507d4

['Greg Perry']

2020-11-09 23:14:58.925000+00:00

['Ios Development', 'Programming', 'Flutter', 'Software Development', 'Android Development']

Submit to From the Library

Submit to From the Library Please join me in celebrating books, writing & writers About From the Library celebrates books and writers. I publish articles and poems about writing, authors, books, and other literary topics. I am also inviting book reviews, reading lists, literary analysis, and medium author biographies and/or resumes. Request to Contribute To be added as a new writer, please request as a comment below. Tag @lauramanipura to get my attention, then link me to your user handle using the @ sign. Tag Your Drafts Please tag your drafts. Submit

https://medium.com/from-the-library/submission-guidelines-6c2237849492

['Laura Manipura']

2020-11-10 14:54:00.623000+00:00

['Readinglist', 'Book Review', 'Writing', 'Reading', 'Books']

Learn English with The Big Bang Theory: The Best Episodes

Learn English with The Big Bang Theory: The Best Episodes According to Data Science Using data to find which 279 Big Bang Theory episodes are the best for you to learn English with. Image created by author in Canva. Image of Kaley Cuoco and Jim Parsons via Amazon Prime Video The Big Bang Theory is a good TV series to increase your English vocabulary. Throughout 12 seasons, it covers a good number of topics by using cultural references in their dialogue and telling jokes that include lots of sarcasm! In this article, I’ll analyze the dialogues in 279 Big Bang Theory episodes to find the best episodes to start learning English with. I’ll also compare the vocabulary used in this sitcom with other shows such as Friends and Game of Thrones to know which TV show would be the best option for you to improve your English. Bazinga! The words not included in the dictionary Before you start watching this sitcom in English, keep in mind that — like in any comedy — you’ll find vocabulary that isn’t in the dictionary but is used by the main characters. You won’t need most of those words in everyday conversations, but you need to recognize them to understand the dialogues (especially the jokes). The wordcloud below contains the most common words spoken in The Big Bang Theory, which you won’t find in the dictionary. The most common words in TBBT that aren’t on the dictionary — Image by Author For example, words like bazinga and meemaw are only used by Sheldon in the sitcom. He uses the first to tell jokes, while the second is an affectionate term to call his grandmother, so you probably won’t hear them elsewhere. On top of that, the most repeated word is Darth Vader. This makes sense because the main characters talk about comics and superheroes most of the time. As a result, other words such as Aquaman and Kryptonian were mentioned many times in the sitcom too. What Big Bang Theory (TBBT) episodes among the 279 are the best for you to learn English? If you’re a Big Bang Theory fan, you probably had a hard time trying to under what Sheldon says. He’s a theoretical physicist, so even native speakers will have problems understanding him. That’s why I ranked the 279 episodes by difficulty of vocabulary. Like in most sitcoms, some Big Bang Theory episodes are unrelated to each other, so you can watch them in English in any order. However, I recommend you start with the easiest episodes in terms of vocabulary. For example, I found that The Separation Oscillation (S9E2) and The Bat Jar Conjecture (S1E13) are the episodes in which characters used the simplest and most complicated English vocabulary, respectively. Watch them both and test your English level! You can find more Big Bang Theory episodes with basic and advanced vocabulary by searching them in the following box: Image by Author You can also find all Big Bang Theory episodes ranked for each English level in the plot below. The episodes furthest to the right cover more basic English vocabulary on each level. The code behind this analysis is available on Github — Image by Author. The best episodes to learn English with The Big Bang Theory Based on the analysis, the following are the top 10 episodes with the easiest vocabulary among all Big Bang Theory episodes aired. Re-watch them without subtitles and you’ll understand dialogues more than in the average Big Bang Theory episode. S9E2: The Separation Oscillation S12E4: The Tam Turbulence S11E14: The Separation Triangulation S9E1: The Matrimonial Momentum S7E24: The Status Quo Combustion S11E23: The Sibling Realignment S12E22: The Maternal Conclusion S12E3: The Procreation Calculation S12E15: The Donation Oscillation S7E11: The Cooper Extraction Don’t forget to check the vocabulary used in every episode before you watch them. You can easily do so by checking the chart “Every Word Said in The Big Bang Theory” below. Which TV Series is The Best to Learn English With? It’s a good idea to choose a TV series based on your English goals. If your goal is to develop an advanced vocabulary, then, as shown in a previous article, The Simpsons would be the best option. However, Game of Thrones would be a better option for someone who wants to develop a British accent, while Friends would be more helpful for beginner or intermediate English learners because of its simple vocabulary. By analyzing all episodes of The Big Bang Theory, I can say that the vocabulary difficulty in the average episode is intermediate. That being said, keep in mind that — as we’ve seen before — TV series have many ups and downs in terms of vocabulary difficulty. That is, some episodes might be easy to understand while others would be hard to follow. This shouldn’t be a problem though, after all, you already know which are the easiest episodes! Image by Author What hard words are they saying in 279 episodes? I increased my vocabulary in 3 foreign languages by using a table similar to the one below. There you can find which difficult words you’ll hear in any Big Bang Theory episode. You can filter by word, episode or season! Image by Author Conclusion The Big Bang Theory is an excellent show to increase your English vocabulary and get to know some pop culture jokes. It gets better when you know what the episodes with the easiest vocabulary are, so you can watch them and understand more than in a random episode. Before you watch a new episode, make sure you check the advanced vocabulary used in the episode in order to check the meaning of words and get used to their pronunciation. In this way, you’ll increase your vocabulary and understand even more Big Bang Theory jokes! The code behind this analysis is available on Github.

https://medium.com/learn-languages-with-tv/learn-english-with-the-big-bang-theory-the-best-episodes-according-to-data-science-50cb0ce659ad

['Frank Andrade']

2020-11-30 22:42:54.851000+00:00

['English', 'English Learning', 'Data Science', 'Data Visualization', 'Language Learning']

PE Weekly | News and Events in Chinese PE Market (2020.12.14–2020.12.20)

This week (2020.12.14–2020.12.20), PE Weekly covers Fundraising and IPO news on PE market. Fundraising Shanghai Sci-Tech Innovation Center Fund II Looks to Raise $1.2B 18 December 2020 — — Shanghai Sci-tech Innovation Center Fund II, co-launched by Shanghai International Port Group (SIPG), has witnessed the signing of letter of intent. SIPG will contribute CNY 460 million ($70.3 million) to the total commitment of CNY 8 billion ($1.2 billion). The new fund will focus on investments in fields such as AI, biomedicine, integrated circuit, industry internet, 5G technology, and fintech. Read more… Shanghai Launches $1.5B Aviation Industry Fund 18 December 2020 — — Shanghai Aviation Industry Fund, initiated by Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Information, Shanghai Municipal Development & Reform Commission, and Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality, has officially been launched, targeting at China’s large aircraft manufacturing and aviation supporting industries. The fund aims to raise CNY 10 billion ($1.5 billion) in total with the first phase of CNY 1.5 billion ($229.5 million). The commitment comes from main investors including Shanghai Industrial Transformation and Upgrading Specialized Fund, Shanghai Pudong Sci&Tech Fund of Funds, Shanghai Electric Group Co., Ltd, and China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone Lin-gang Special Area Administration. Read more… Shanghai Launches $7.6B Biomedical Investment Fund 18 December 2020 — — Shanghai’s municipal government launched an investment fund dubbed “Shanghai Biomedical Industrial Equity Investment Fund”, which is initiated by and under the helm of Shanghai Industrial Investment (Holdings) Co., Ltd. The biomedicine fund aims to accrue CNY 50 billion ($7.6 billion) in total, with a first phase of CNY 10 billion ($1.5 billion) already closed. The municipal industrial fund will aim to empower local industry and drive the development of more high-end, intelligent, and international businesses. The main investors of the new vehicle include Shanghai Industrial Investment (Holdings) Co., Ltd, Shanghai Pharmaceuticals Holding Co., Ltd, GTJA Securities, and Shanghai International Group. Read more… Shanghai Sets up $1.5B Fund for Smart Manufacturing 17 December 2020 — — The financial hub of Shanghai has set up an industry investment fund to raise an aggregate CNY 10 billion ($1.5 billion) for investments in smart manufacturing. The vehicle, whose first phase has hit CNY 3 billion ($458.9 million), will mainly invest in the smart manufacturing industry in the Yangtze River Delta, covering provinces like Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui. The creation of the billion-dollar vehicle also underscores the local government’s efforts to promote tech development in the city. Read more… China’s Decheng Capital Looks to Raise $650M for Global Life Sciences Fund IV 17 December 2020 — — Decheng Capital, an investment firm that focuses on the life sciences and healthcare sectors, is raising $650 million for a new fund, Decheng Capital Global Life Sciences Fund IV. The Fund IV, if successfully closed, will be significantly larger than its predecessor fund Decheng Capital China Life Sciences USD Fund III, which targeted to raise up to $450 million. Read more… Shanghai Sets up $1.8B Fund for Culture Industry 17 December 2020 — — Shanghai Industrial Investment (Holdings) Co., Ltd, joined hands with Shanghai Municipal People’s Government, Pudong New Area Government to initiate and co-launches an investment fund for culture industry with Shanghai Guosheng Group Co., Ltd and Shanghai Pudong Kechuang Group Co., Ltd. The fund targets CNY 12 billion ($1.8 billion) in total and CNY 5.55 billion ($849 million) at the first phase. It will mainly focus on investments in fields such as film and television, internet culture, creative design, art product trading, animation and games, as well as tourism and sports industry. Read more… China’s Befor Capital Raises $107M Via First Closings of Fund III and Fund IV 15 December 2020 — — Chinese venture capital firm Befor Capital has raised a combined CNY 700 million ($106.8 million) in capital commitments across two funds to continue its investments in the consumption upgrade, advanced technology, and modern services fields. The capital commitments include a corpus of CNY 500 million ($76.3 million) raised in the first closing of the firm’s Fund III, and its Fund IV’s first closing at CNY 200 million ($30.5 million). Existing LPs of Befor Capital’s Fund I and Fund II collectively invested over CNY 100 million ($15.3 million) in the two new vehicles. Nasdaq-listed solar cell maker Canadian Solar Inc is the major limited partner (LP) in Fund III, along with other investors including government-guided funds backed by the local governments in northern China’s Inner Mongolia and Hohhot. LPs of Fund IV include investment platforms backed by the government of eastern China’s Jingkai District, Wuxi City, and Chinese state-owned investment firm Wuxi Capital, among others. Read more… IPO China’s P&G’ Blue Moon Cleans up in $1.2B Hong Kong IPO 17 December 2020 — — China’s biggest detergent maker, Blue Moon Group Holdings, cleaned up in its debut on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange with its shares closing 13% higher, spurred by significantly increased profits from Covid-19 demand for disinfectants. Backed by private equity firm Hillhouse Capital Group, Blue Moon raised HK$9.58 billion ($1.24 billion) in the IPO, selling 747million shares at HK$13.16 apiece. That gives it a valuation of HK$85.5 billion ($11 billion). The funds raised could increase to HK$11 billion if international underwriters, including BNP Paribas and Citigroup, exercise over-allocation options to issue up to 15% more of the total shares. Read more… Chinese Chip Designer Bestechnic’s IPO Debut on SSE STAR Market 16 December 2020 — — Bestechnic (Shanghai) Co., Ltd, a fabless IC company with a focus on smart audio system-on-a-chip (SoC), started trading on the Shanghai STAR Market at a public offering price of CNY 163.07 per share, raising CNY 4.86 billion ($743.5 million). Its initial listing shares account for 25% of total outstanding shares. IDG Capital, Xiaomi, Alibaba, Oriza Hua, Shenzhen Capital along with other investors had made an undivulged investment in Bestechnic in 2019. Bestechnic’s portfolio backers also included PE firm Jundu Investment, AIoT Innovation platform Arm Accelerator, and Tsinghua Holdings’ THG Ventures. Read more…

https://medium.com/@fofweekly/pe-weekly-news-and-events-in-chinese-pe-market-2020-12-14-2020-12-20-30edcc76fa9c

['Fof Weekly']

2020-12-14 00:00:00

['Private Equity', 'VC', 'China', 'Fundraising']

Wedding Ceremony Under A Budget

Getting married is one of the biggest joys in life and despite many people rolling their eyes when they hear of such an event, this step has an incredible symbolic and emotional meaning for all the people involved, not just the couple. Love celebration hits a spot in the hearts of even the most rational and cerebral type of people. It is about the sacred bond between two people that decide to share their lives until death will separate them. But let’s be honest here for a moment: organizing a wedding is surely not an easy task and it sure doesn’t come cheap either. If are running under a tight budget and you want to tie the knot with all your loved ones joining your, here’s how to organize a wedding ceremony under a budget: 1. Make your own wedding favors Make Pinterest boards and crafting videos your best friends. There are so many DIY solutions for almost any decor or wedding memorabilia that you will definitely find something to suit your tastes. You can create amazing handmade favors for your guests with such a small investment that it will seem useless to go buy some mass-market souvenirs instead. You can plant some small decorative trees ( it is a very relaxing hobby as well), if you want and offer them as a token of appreciation, or buy some liquor and bottle it yourself. Inspiration comes in all shapes and sizes if you have time to do the research and steal some great ideas from other weddings. Or you can mention that there will not be a wedding gift list where the attendees should register and that you want things to be as laid back as possible, without any treats for your guests at the end of the party. It’s all about how you feel most comfortable celebrating your union with your significant other. You can also outsource this task by looking for people with a talent for drawing in your extended circle of friends, who would be happy to help you with offering a sketch to your wedding guests after the party is over. People are very modest when it comes to their talents and so, you shouldn’t feel ashamed of asking them for help, they will probably have a great time as well. 2. Postpone if possible! If you don’t have any other ways of saving money by cutting the extra-expenses, try and postpone the date of your wedding as much as possible. As counter-intuitive as it sounds, if there is no emergency or pressure from your in-laws, you can take your time and search for a date in the far future that is usually cheaper to rent for venues and bands. Pre-booking a ballroom/ musician can come with a discount. Click the following link for more affordable wedding tips. Also, don’t forget to ask for alternatives for some of the services you are requesting and keep a clear situation of all the offers you receive so you pick the most convenient one. 3. Call a Dj instead of a live band Music is mandatory at any type of ceremony or reception that you have in mind. Make sure to bring an energetic DJ that will compensate for the lack of a live band that is usually responsible with jazzing up the atmosphere. Not only will you have more room for your guests, less menus to pay and less phone calls to make, but you will also be able to change the music styles quickly to offer an eclectic experience. Final Thought It always seems impossible until it’s done! When it comes to formal events, there is nothing you can’t achieve! Bring your negotiations skills to the table and be ready to have a hands-on approach for your wedding preparations. You will be amazed to discover how much money you can save if you decide to have homemade cookies and handmade bouquets instead of asking professionals to manage the organizational tasks for you. It will surely be tiring as well, but, hey, the more effort you invest, the more satisfied you will be with the final result.

https://medium.com/@eventsured/wedding-ceremony-under-a-budget-31d700cbea98

[]

2021-07-15 09:34:26.214000+00:00

['Wedding Planning', 'Weddings', 'Ceremony', 'Events']

What to Stop and Start Doing in SEO in 2020

Dead SEO Strategies Putting your website in directories and stuffing your post with links This was a good idea in the past. Where the off-page SEO efforts were just as basic as putting your website links into directories and in forums. While for on-page SEO, you just stuffed in backlinks from various sites and wait. There weren’t as many websites, and people were not trying to rank as much either. So, whoever knew these strategies sat comfortably at the top. There are still many people putting their websites in directories, but you have to be smart about it. Put your website links in niche-focused directories. Keyword stuffing Adding keywords is still a top SEO ranking strategy. But it is way different now. Google is like a delivery man that tries to deliver quality content to whoever makes an order for content via Google search. So naturally, they would show the best article for the particular search term. When the Google crawlers check your page and see the keywords and what’s it’s about, you would rank, but if your article is not easily readable, Google will bury your article. Why? Because you didn’t produce quality. You should focus on putting out the best quality and relevant content rather than trying to rank. Stuffing your post with keywords is dead. You should just use about two keywords and mention them not more than five times in the post. Google is more sophisticated, and they can tell if you stuffed in keywords. So, an article with stuffed keywords wouldn’t even be given a chance. Paying for backlinks This has more disadvantages than benefits. In an attempt to try to play on Google, people used to pay for backlinks so they could rank. But when you do this, you put yourself at risk of getting blacklisted. Blackhat SEO practices People used to get away with Blackhat SEO practices in the past. Not anymore. Some of these practices include: Cloaking involves showing one piece of content on the search engine while having another article on the page. Comment spamming. This is one of the oldest tricks used by digital marketers. You know those links on your comment sections that look like if you click on them, you will get hacked? When you continuously do this on different sites, your page and website, in some cases, would be blacklisted. Sneaky redirects. It is keeping links that redirect you to results other than what you wanted to get. Most websites that use these are download websites which have been paid for an ad or something. Blackhat SEO practices automatically make your website blacklisted. So, you shouldn’t expect to rank doing them.

https://medium.com/better-marketing/what-to-stop-and-start-doing-in-seo-in-2020-dd68d6cf25d9

['Tochukwu Okoro E.']

2020-03-28 18:07:37.858000+00:00

['Marketing', 'Content Marketing', 'Writing', 'Copywriting', 'SEO']

What Is QA Testing? Why it is important in Software Development?

There is absolute agreement that the quality of services & products is what brings any organization to success! Quality management has been part of many industries over history but was brought into software development cycles relatively late. Nowadays it is a survival component for every business! When it comes to software development companies, Quality Assurance is a part of software quality management held by a QA team that ensures the procession and delivery of flawless products that align with the business goals and regulatory standards. Although The term QA is often related to its fellow quality control, software testing, and automated testing, they are very different with different roles and scopes. It often drives confusion of what is quality assurance? What roles does it play? and how it fits in today’s fast-paced development process? Simplifying concepts What Is Quality Assurance Testing? Quality assurance testing(QA or QAT) is a continuous process of proactively identifying defects, bugs, and errors in developed applications, websites, or any software in order to take relevant measures and ensure the improvement of the development & maintenance processes, the consistency of products & brand reputation, the alignment with the initial requirements, application of regulatory standards and eventually the delivery of flawless software. What is the difference between QA and other phases of software quality management? Quality control or QC: is a process that ensures the quality of the developed product yet is different from QA, as QA operates during the entire development lifecycle while QC interferes in the end and focuses on the final outcome only. is a process that ensures the quality of the developed product yet is different from QA, as QA operates during the entire development lifecycle while QC interferes in the end and focuses on the final outcome only. Software Testing: Testing refers to the actual final activities taken to test a product to meet QC standards and make sure it reacts according to the development inquiries. Unlike QA that takes a general approach of improving the product throughout the development lifecycle, ST only explicitly identifies defects in functionality and security before the product goes live. Why is QA so important in Software development? It is unfortunate that sometimes customer-centricity can get often lost through battles to keep up with market demands and delays. But QA is to address different issues, even usability issues that might not be technical in nature. QA testing for software is centered on delivering the best possible outcome. It is not only about technical defects, it also involves any problem that impacts the end-user experience and can negatively affect customer satisfaction Concept and design cannot justify any structural flaws which would have been avoided easily. Here are The reasons why quality assurance is crucial to the success of software development: QA is cost-effective: A faulty digital solution can cause huge financial losses to both the development and the customer’s company. Prevent those defects help save costs of repeating and reviewing the development process A faulty digital solution can cause huge financial losses to both the development and the customer’s company. Prevent those defects help save costs of repeating and reviewing the development process Boosts reputation and trust in the product: A default digital solution can not only cause financial losses but also your reputation. QA testing builds trust in both the company and the products which leads to boosting reputation and long-term partnership. A default digital solution can not only cause financial losses but also your reputation. QA testing builds trust in both the company and the products which leads to boosting reputation and long-term partnership. Elevates user experience: software development should be customer and user-centric. The user experience is a major decisive factor in the success or failure of an IT product. QA ensures to provide the best user experience possible. software development should be customer and user-centric. The user experience is a major decisive factor in the success or failure of an IT product. QA ensures to provide the best user experience possible. Increase profits: A satisfied customer means a better reputation that leads to higher profits A satisfied customer means a better reputation that leads to higher profits Avoid the waste of time: The proactivity of QA enables the company to operate smoothly and more productively without wasting time on unpredictable bugs. How QA and software testing work together? To ensure a product is free of defaults, digital products go through different rounds of testing with different purposes and scenarios to prevent hacking attempts or bugs end-users’ dissatisfaction. Software testing and quality assurance testing go hand in hand in ensuring product quality but they act differently QA’s process is ensured by a QA team and consists of making estimations and developing a plan with the necessary documentation for finishing a products Agile QA testing is less about performing the tests and more about providing the understanding of how to perform the right tests to meet expectations, establish quality standards and implement the checks and balances needed to ensure the end-product standards Meanwhile, software testing is performed as a sequential step to code development, software quality assurance spans the entire software development life cycle, right from the planning stage till the very end. Our quality assurance services at IndiaNIC At IndiaNIC we prioritize quality over any other aspect we quote prevention over regretting. Our QA Testing services are integrated into our software development lifecycle. We work on delivering successful solutions throughout relying on our QA experts and our rigorous software testing practices to ensure functionality, security, performance, scalability, compatibility, etc. here’s a glimpse at our QA services

https://medium.com/indianic/what-is-qa-testing-why-it-is-important-in-software-development-1a72d4e9ce18

['Rania Mdimagh']

2020-12-29 12:40:50.176000+00:00

['QA', 'Security', 'Software Testing', 'Software Development', 'Quality Assurance']

The importance of meaningful questioning during EDA

Introduction At the start of any project, it is useful to have a clear framework to not deviate from the main objective, find the most efficient solution to a given problem. As more projects are developed, it is clearer to see what data science process fits the most with our own personal preferences and way of work. So far, I have been very comfortable following the OSEMin model which stands for: Obtain, Scrub, Explore, Model and iNterpret. The first part of every project is to define its goal, understand what is the purpose of taking on the project. Once this is clear, you start by gathering all data related to the project, it could be organically obtained or sourced from external databases. As you start gathering this data, is common that it will not be perfect and some kind of cleaning or preprocessing must be performed. I want to focus in what happens as we go through exploring our data. Assuming we have obtained relevant data, and have started the cleaning and preprocessing stage, is time to explore it. At this point is very to start asking relevant questions that have real-life applications to uncover hidden value in the data. Finding hidden value in the data Let’s take for example the Kings County data set, (https://www.kaggle.com/harlfoxem/housesalesprediction), what questions can be answered with the variables given in this data set? This dataset contains house sale prices for King County, between May 2014 and May 2015. The objective of our project is to create a house price predictive model, but that does not mean we cannot try to solve other relevant questions since we already have access to the data. Some relevant questions I thought might be useful to the stakeholders of the project are: * Is it worth renovating your home? * What zip codes have seen the most price increase over time? * Does having a higher grade translate to a higher price? I derived to this questions, since the project is targeted towards homeowners, developers, and real estate agents who want to know the relevant features that determine the price of a house. Home renovations I will only take the first question as an example, Is it worth renovating your home? The variable ‘id’ is per home and each record is a transaction. Hence, an id can be repeated if a home has had more than one transaction, in other words, sold more than once. I found out there were 353 duplicated id’s, however not all of this homes had information regarding their year of renovation. Actually only 4 homes had information about the year they were renovated and sold more than once. Also, no home had a transaction before and after the renovation, hence a direct comparison between before and after renovation prices was not possible. This situation did not prevent me for carrying out further analysis trying to arrive to a decent answer. Therefore, realizing that I did not have enough data to derive a significant analysis, I went ahead and compared overall prices of houses without renovations and houses with renovations. From the box plots above it is noticeable that there is a clear difference between median prices of homes with and without renovations. Houses with renovations sell for a median price 35% higher than without renovations. This is very important information for a home seller. Apart from that, looking at the very low values of home with renovations, made me delve deeper into the variable plotting its histogram. I found out that most homes do not have renovation information. From the variable name and the initial data scrubbing stages, it was clear that it was a discrete variable. However, I might have just created dummy variables for each of the values and input them into the model. By looking deeper, a better solution was to transform it into a binary categorical value. Has the home been renovated or not? This way, I will at least have more data in the dummy variable rather than a lot of dummy variables filled with mostly 0 values. Conclusion By posing meaningful questions while exploring the data, hidden value can be uncovered by providing relevant answers to project stockholders apart from the final model. This, also, helps to understand the nature of the data, as well as bring up vices contained in it and finding the appropriate measures to fix it.

https://medium.com/@feraguilari/getting-to-know-your-data-through-eda-8e9c1ecec90a

['Fernando Aguilar']

2019-04-12 22:41:56.577000+00:00

['King County', 'Data Science', 'Flatiron School', 'Eda']

Traveling soon? Talk to your Virtual Assistant!_Design Thinking Exercise

How to solve this problem It is trascendental to give answers to these bank customers, to support them not just while they are away, but actually to recreate for them the “whole” experience of traveling. To accomplish that, the bank needs to know who this segment of people are. They belong to the Generation X, they were born between 1965 and 1980, so they are between 40–55 years old. Some of their characteristics are: They have lived the analog era and now they are moving into the digital one. They are independent, self sufficient, resilient and love to give back. “ 74% use the internet for banking, 72% use it to research products and companies, 81% have made purchases online” (3) As mentioned above, digital bank customers expect a lot from their banks, they want to keep the combined benefits provided by their traditional credit cards like: No international transaction fees ( American Express, Chase, Capital One Venture or Venture Travel) No annual fees ( Charles Schwab, Discovery, Capital One Venture) No ATMs fees ( Bank of America, HSBC) Transfer Miles ( Capital One, Chase Sapphire Preferred) $100 credit for Global Entry ( American Express, Capital One Venture) VIP lounges access ( American Express, Avianca Silver or Gold) Exceptional Customer Service ( American Express) Education for customers ( HSBC, Barclays) Extra rewards, discounts, cash back( American Express, Apple Pay) Others (Better chairs in the airplanes, travel assistant services, travel accident insurance) It is important to assist the customers while they are traveling, as it is important to do it before and after. The way the Whole Bank is going to solve this issue is through a voice-first banking, intelligent o virtual assistant that will allow them to manage their money anywhere 24/7, 365 days. Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash Let us see some points of reference about where the digital banking experience is moving towards: “ Most financial organizations will move to doing transactions using voice commands: Include being able to execute payments using voice commands, accounts transfers, establishing account alerts. …the integration of voice, long-term transactional analysis, geolocation and current contextual learning combined with preferences and behaviors outside of banking overtime is where the power of AI and voice commence becomes really exciting” (4) ”Some experts believe that in the next five years 50 % of the banking interactions will be via voice-first devices” (5) To activate the virtual assistant the customer will open the Bank app, and once there, he will tap the phone screen and a microphone will show up and it will enable him to talk and ask to open the travel app. Besides voice banking the app will be using voice authentication, fingerprint or biometric recognition, in that way the bank industry will be able to add value to their customers transactions. It will provide them with a sense of safety and trust. The virtual assistant menu: Set up an alert for the bank As a preparation for their trip the bank customers may set up an alert for the bank about where, when and how long the vacations will last. The bank will send an email or text message to confirm the alert is on. 2. Accounts Activity Whole Bank customers will be allowed to check their accounts balances, recent transactions or to make transfers when they need updated information to make financial decisions. 3. Load Cash Card Customers at Whole Bank will be able to load a cash card from their debit card money to have it available in case they want or need it, so they will no have to carry cash from their country of origin. It works basically as a gift card, charging it with the amount of their choice. They can redeem it on ATMs where the bank has agreements with, no fees will apply. The card will be embedded on the app for their use or they can request a physical card too, which will work linked to a pin number predetermined for safety. 4. Setting a budget for their trip They will be allowed to create a budget for a specific vacation, financially it will be smart to set up an amount to expend and no have regrets later on. 5. Payment Options Whole Bank customers will be capable to pay from the app, they will have more than one alternative available just to ensure they will not have any issues, and accordingly with the technology available at the point of sale (POS). The bank wants them to be stress free about money and will support them to be able to pay everywhere . 5.1. Digital Wallet Photo by Christiann Koepke on Unsplash 5.1.1. They might choose to pay from Apple Pay, Samsung Pay or Google Pay at (POS) through a contactless payment (NFC) or magnetic secure transmission (MST). Additionally , the app will require validation of the transaction via fingerprint, biometric or passcode to complete it. 5.1.2. QR code The QR code is printed on the bill or check of the POS, the client will confirm the amount, and will proceed to scan the QR from the receipt and confirms payment. A second method of confirmation will be used to protect the customers identity. 5.2 Voice command This option will be ideal for payments everywhere, but this is a technology that is still in process to be implemented. The voice recognition system will be able to identify the client, and he will be linked to his credit card, and it will be charged by the amount of the service or product bought. The client will confirm if the amount is correct and will authorize to pay for it. It will need a second method of validation to be completed. 5.3 Physical Credit Card Depending on the POS technology available, this will be the last source to pay with, just in case the establishment will not have other option. Customers traveling to Europe will be giving a Pin to use with their credit cards. Regardless the method of payment, the information of the transaction will remain in the app with the purpose of creating daily reports about their expending, what category they belong to, and they will be compared with goals set up at the beginning of the trip. 6. Rewards Incentives will be given to the bank customers that will match the benefits offered by their credit cards, and more. As a virtual bank, Whole Bank,will not spend as much money trying to attract clients as traditionally, so it will be able to pass those savings to its people. The rewards will include: No fees Global entry credit for $100 VIP lounges access Accumulation of miles Discounts at restaurants, entertainment , parking Excellent Customer Service Education for customer 7. Tips AI will grant the bank information that their clients may want or need for their trips. It will include activities related with their preferences, weather feature, new attractions etc.

https://medium.com/@frg0827/traveling-soon-talk-to-your-virtual-assistant-design-thinking-exercise-38b063ad707d

['Fanny Ruiz']

2019-09-24 00:04:46.270000+00:00

['UX', 'UX Design', 'Ui Ux Design', 'Banking', 'Design Thinking']

Unpaid UX Work Disguised As “Design Exercises”: How To Handle It

After a very enjoyable initial call where I had a great rapport with the interviewer, she explained that the next round of interviews was a design exercise: I was to redesign a section of their existing product. If the CEO liked it, I’d move on to the next round of interviews. This is a request I hadn’t heard in years. They were seriously expecting me to redesign a part of their product for free. All those traumatic memories and emotions I experienced in my first years of working (and being exploited) as a designer came welling back up. I was livid. How could they be so exploitative? And this was a company making software for churches, no less! They should know better! Many people have written about why you shouldn’t do this kind of work. In this article, I want to cover how to elegantly handle these requests. How To Handle Requests Like This Ask For Details About The Exercise There is a fine line between ethical and unethical design exercises. You want to make sure you keep calm and ask for more clarification around the design exercise and what it entails before deciding. An ethical design exercise: Takes less than a day to complete Is unrelated to their current company needs Pays you for your time (ideally) However, if it’s unrelated to their company needs, you have the problem of not fully understanding what it is like to work together. The hiring manager often will not have a design background, so they don't understand how to transfer over the outcomes of the design exercise to their company needs. The compromise here is to do a one-hour brainstorming/whiteboarding session together on a current problem. Many people disagree with me on this, but I think a one-hour consultative session about their problems is time and energy you can invest in the right situations, for the right company. The goal of design exercises should be to get a feel for your chemistry when working together, not to assess if you can design or not. By the time you are in this step of the hiring process, a good interviewer ought to know whether you have the hard skills. The goal of design exercises should be to get a feel for your chemistry when working together, not to assess if you can design or not. Try To Steer Them Away From This Request After I heard the rough scope of this design exercise request, my first instinct was to tell them to fuck right off. But that was the years of pent up rage from being treated poorly early in my career flaring up. You want to assume goodwill, or at least cluelessness, on behalf of the company making such a request. Try to educate them about what exactly they are asking for. During our call, after hearing their request about redesigning a section of their product as a design exercise, I told them they are walking a fine line here, and that this is something you rarely see asked for in the design industry. She brushed me off and said, “Ah don’t worry, this won’t take too long, let me send you over the full exercise and you can decide then”. Scope The Work, Then Send Them A Proposal I let her send over the design exercise. It was even worse than I thought it would be. It wasn’t one design challenge; it was two. Exercise 1: redesign their availability tool for volunteers. Here is the deck they sent over for that. The expected deliverable is an InVision prototype. Exercise 2: Redesign their blog. Deliverable is a set of high fidelity mockups. So many emotions welled up inside me when I read this. It’s a hilariously bad request, but also sickeningly exploitative. My first instinct was to write up a profanity-laden email to the hiring manager. I already knew by this point that these are not the kinds of people you can have a good working relationship with, so why not tell them off? “No, I’m an adult now, I need to handle this differently”, I told myself. I sent them this message back: Hi *name*, thanks for sending this over. I’d really love to work with you guys. These two exercises would take me 8–16 hours to complete. It’s also spec work, which is considered highly problematic (some even call it unethical). I’d be happy to take this on as a small paid project. Let me know if that works for you. J This way, you are giving them one last opportunity to steer the relationship into a more productive direction, while also setting boundaries and explaining why their behavior is not okay. Of course, a company that behaves like this is likely not going to suddenly change course and behave ethically. She politely made clear that other candidates will do the exercise and that she will move forward with them. What To Take Away From This Most companies will try to achieve the highest possible financial outcomes for themselves, even if this means putting their workers at a disadvantage. It’s very unfortunate and frustrating that many people are in a situation where they have no other choice but to enter into such a exploitative relationship: 4 out of 5 american workers are living paycheck to paycheck. I recently encountered a similarly exploitative situation: a company approached me about creating a curriculum for a 10-week UX design course. They gave me 4 weeks to do it and offered me $5000. This is a course that costs $4000 per person, and they will profit from it for years. I’d have to work 80-hour weeks to even have a chance to hit such an unrealistic deadline, and I’d walk away with not even enough money to cover the cost of living in San Francisco for a month. I made them a counteroffer asking for 50k plus 10% of course sales for 2 years. They declined(lol). However, when I checked their website the other day, I saw that a very skilled and well-respected former coworker of mine ended up taking that terrible offer. That’s also why I can’t name this company — I don’t want to put this colleague in the spotlight. But it really pissed me off to see that this company not only found someone to take that terrible offer, but they also got someone who is really good. You can’t stop companies from behaving like this, but you can decide to not play that game. You need to know your (self-)worth and have the courage to step away from toxic opportunities, even if you need the money. There are other opportunities out there where you don’t have to lose your self-respect. If everyone in the design industry were unified in saying “no” to these types of requests, companies would have to change their behavior.

https://medium.com/truthaboutdesign/unpaid-ux-work-disguised-as-design-exercises-how-to-handle-it-462925fea00c

['Jamal Nichols']

2019-05-07 21:32:52.931000+00:00

['Work', 'Design', 'UX Design', 'User Experience', 'UX']

Introducing Bounty Ninja

Today we’re excited to launch our free service Bounty Ninja at bounty.ninja You can read the full introduction of Bounty Ninja at http://bit.ly/2yxGJyf If you’re a big fan of some tokens, please feel free to share Bounty Ninja to your group admin and ask them to try it out. This service is 100% free. Join Bounty Ninja’s community and keep updated with it! Facebook: facebook.com/ninjabounty Twitter: twitter.com/ninjabounty Telegram: https://t.me/bountyninja

https://medium.com/bounty-global/introducing-bounty-ninja-87bc3ca2381

[]

2018-10-19 13:05:08.487000+00:00

['Airdrop', 'Bounty Program', 'Token', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Blockchain']

8 Best Travel Gadgets to Consider for Any Trip — Money Saved Is Money Earned

Even the most experienced travel enthusiast can find it tedious to pack travel essentials as you must get all the details right to make the trip worth your time and money. Packing right can make the difference. Unfortunately, you will often not know what you are missing until it’s time to use it. Some less experienced travelers may not know what’s out there and the best travel gadgets to include in your itinerary. Get started on your journey by packing essentials and gadgets that will improve your experience away from home. You definitely want to avoid the dread of lacking something critical during a holiday. While there are many travel gadget possibilities out there, we’ll be discussing some products that will help solve annoying problems and make your trip more enjoyable. Whether it be a road trip, a luxury resort, or camping inside a National Park, these 8 travel gadgets will help make your trip better. These may also make great travel gifts for a frequent traveler in your life. 8 Travel Gadgets to Consider for Any Trip 1. A Wash Bag First up on the list of useful travel gadgets you should prioritize is a wash bag, especially for road trips, van life, or camping. Cleaning your clothes on the road is never fun, but when you have a gadget to help you with the work, it can feel more doable. A wash bag is a travel gadget you need when making those long trips that could take you several days or even weeks. It’s especially ideal if you don’t stay in a fixed location to access washing amenities. The benefit of wash bags is that they are portable as most weigh less than 5 oz. You can find pocket-size bags perfect for light packing, giving you the most compact “washing machine.” The bag is ideal for boating, outdoor adventures, travel, and even laundry at home. It makes it easy to wash your clothes whenever and wherever — all you need is fill it with water, add the clothes and soap, roll and clip the bag, release any air, rub to clean your clothes, then rinse and dry. There are even wash bags with nodules that enhance efficiency to give machine-quality wash. Designed with a transparent window, you can see filling levels, and it’s easy to tell if you did a good job. 2. A Sand-Free Beach Mat A sand-free mat is a must-have travel gadget if you love lying around on the beach or camping in the countryside. These mats quickly remove sand, mud, and dust from your surroundings by allowing particles to pass through. Being able to sunbathe without getting sand in your snacks is great and improves your experience on vacation. Similarly, if you love to enjoy an alfresco picnic in the country, sitting on a sand-free mat prevents dust from getting in your food. You can buy these mats in different sizes, so you can pick the one that most satisfies your needs. For example, you could order a small mat that is good enough to accommodate a family of two, for instance. When buying this helpful travel gadget, consider features such as UV stabilization to prevent fading. The mat should be resistant to mold and water and must offer fast drying. Because the mats are often made of polyethylene, sand does not stick but falls through naturally. This makes the mats perfect for outdoor enthusiasts who want versatility and durability. 3. Text and Location Communicator When you are in the backcountry, you want to stay connected. A text and location communicator is one of the best travel gadgets for hiking as it allows you to send texts and show GPS location. Besides packing sports shoes for your adventures, you also need to stay connected even when off-grid to ensure your safety if something were to happen. The communicator sends messages via text rather than voice, making it a better option than a walkie-talkie. Furthermore, nobody will listen to your conversation as the message goes to specific recipients, and the texts are unambiguous. You also want small and light units for connectivity, which is perfect for light packing when traveling. However, these devices also have a few limitations. Their range is limited, so you might not be able to communicate in deep forests or hilly terrain. 4. Compact Purifier Bottle This is a travel gadget that will help you when you visit places you cannot find clean water and is especially helpful for camping and hiking. The device offers a fast and powerful purification mechanism that makes water safe and clean for drinking. You can purify water from any source in under 30 seconds, so you will not need to buy bottled water. You can choose a purifier bottle designed for travel and backpacking to save space for your packing needs. Using the purifier, you can remove 99.99% of viruses (e.g., SARS, Hepatitis, Rotavirus) and bacteria (e.g., salmonella, E. coli). It also removes protozoan cysts, and through an ultra-powdered activated carbon filter, it can get rid of heavy metals and chemicals. For usability, you can order a purifier with a replaceable purifier cartridge, which is rated at 300 uses before replacement so that you can use the bottle indefinitely. When touring an outdoor environment or don’t have easy access to water, you want a gadget engineered to stand up to tough demands or emergencies, outdoor adventure, and international travel (camping, hiking, backpacking, and fishing). 5. Waterproof LED and Flashlight Flask If you want a travel gadget for cold winter, a waterproof LED and flashlight flask would be a good option. This is a multifunctional travel gadget designed for harsh environments. You can pack a spirit of your choice and travel with it into the wilderness. The flask is perfect for camping, off-grid living, and emergencies. Equipped with a flashlight, this travel gadget is a must-have if you are touring snowy terrain and expect to camp overnight. Most such flasks offer impressive 4 LED modules with SOS, Red, Bright, and Dim with up to forty hours of burn time. The flask can carry up to 9 oz of liquid, and it comes infused with glass to preserve your drinks effectively. It’s strong enough to ensure you don’t lose your drink during your adventure. Besides, you get two stainless steel glasses, each holding 1.5 oz. 6. ThermaCell Rechargeable Heated Insole If your travels take you to colder climates, you can keep your feet warm and toasty using a ThermaCell rechargeable heated insole. It is operated wirelessly via remote control. The gadget is built with a foot warmer, which you place inside your shoes or boots — no wires or extensions to worry about as the batteries are packed intricately to ensure your comfort. You can recharge the batteries, so no replacement for the insole is required. Most rechargeable heated insoles allow you to pick from three temperature settings, including medium, no heat, and high at 111 degrees. Since the batteries may not run for many hours, you can use the insole for short periods, say 15 minutes, to warm up. Leaving the heater on longer could cause your feet to sweat, which introduces another challenge. Whether you’re exploring a cold environment or get cold feet, these heated insoles will help keep you comfortable throughout your travels. 7. Solar Inflatable Light Another packing essential for your travel is a solar inflatable light. When you buy travel gadgets, you should consider suitability for your trips. A solar inflatable light can pack flat, and you can inflate it to create a waterproof, lightweight lantern. Most of these lamps offer up to 16 hours of LED light. The best part is that recharging takes about 7 hours in direct sunlight, so this could be a good item to carry if you are camping or otherwise in an environment where you may need light. Besides, you can use it as an emergency source of light at home when you are not traveling. Such a product can give you service for many years because the battery does not need replacement and it’s made from durable materials. Like any other electronic gadget, when you are done with your trip, you should first fully charge the battery before storing the inflatable light. 8. Travel Iron & Steamer Traveling does not mean incurring more expenses on laundry. Even when staying in a hotel room, you can still handle all your clothes yourself if you have the right equipment. One gadget that can be essential to handling clothing while traveling is a 2 in 1 travel iron and garment steamer. Find a steamer that gives impressive steam, and its sole-plate is ceramic coated for less resistance and long life. One with a heat-resistant carrying case makes it portable so that you can use it almost anywhere. You also want to choose one with a soft-touch grip, locking the iron in your hand when in use. The other benefit of using the travel iron and wash bag described above is that you’ll save space by not having to pack as many clothes because you’ll be able to wash and reuse them! Conclusion There are tons of travel gadgets out there for almost every aspect of your trip. Unfortunately, some of the more popular and flashy gadgets can cost almost as much as your trip! Luckily, there are many great options on the market that are practical, useful, and fairly inexpensive. Of course, what travel gadgets you get will largely depend on the type of travel you primarily do and what you’ll need to make those trips convenient and safe. However, for those that may take a variety of trips or aren’t sure what’s out there, we’ve presented 8 of the best travel gadgets that you can use in a variety of settings and locations. What other travel gadgets can you recommend? Is there something else that you can’t live without on your trips? Follow us on Pinterest! Thomas Nemel

https://medium.com/@moneysavedblog/8-best-travel-gadgets-to-consider-for-any-trip-money-saved-is-money-earned-8db36489734f

['Money Saved Is Money Earned']

2021-03-08 16:14:32.926000+00:00

['Travel', 'Travel Tips', 'Hiking', 'Best Travel Gadgets', 'Traveling']

Learn Scrapy In Detail

What is Scrapy? Definition:- Scrapy is an open-source framework written in python. Scrapy is made for web Scrapping only but it can also be used in extracting data using APIs. Scrapy is a complete package when it comes to downloading the webpages, processing, and storing the data into databases. Scrapy is an application framework for crawling websites or web pages and extracting structured data which can be used for a wide range of useful applications like data mining, information processing, or historical archival. Scrapy can be used for API,s and Generic Crawler. Two main Concepts in Scrapy. Crawling Scraping Crawling:- Is the act of programmatically retrieving and downloading a web page’s data, extracting its hyperlink, and following them. Is the act of programmatically retrieving and downloading a web page’s data, extracting its hyperlink, and following them. Scraping:- Is the act of programmatically retrieving and downloading a web page’s data, extracting very specific information from it. Some Python Libraries for Scraping BeautifulSoup Requests URLlib Html.parser LXML Selectolax Scrapy is not a library it’s a Framework o There is a huge difference between framework and library let’s see the difference: Scrapy has two pillars on which it works: - 1. Asynchronous 2. Control 1. Asynchronous:- Ø This is the most important and defining feature of scrapy. Ø Without Asynchronous it’s not possible to run multiple Spiders jobs at the same time. Ø Scrapy is written with twisted which is a high-level network event-driven framework for python. Ø Asynchronous works to connect multiple URL and crawl to different pages 2. Control:- Ø The Data flow process needs complete control and it’s possible by its modular design. Ø This is the engine of scrapy which handle the crawler request from the Spiders Ø And then past to the downloaded module and execute. Ø Then we get the result as items. Ø There are the multiple control data flows working at the same time to execute the module in a loop and get data multiple times from multiple URLs. Advantages of Scrapy · Fault-tolerant · Parallel execution · Reliable · Control · speed Scrapy Architecture In the below image we can see the architecture of scrapy. 1. Spiders:- These are custom classes written by developers to parse responses and extract items from sites. 2. Engine:- This is responsible for the data flow between all components of the system. And interfere when sudden action is happening. 3. Scheduler:-This receives the requests from the engine and incuse them to feeding them later when the engine requires them. 4. Downloader:- This is responsible for fetching the webpages and feeding them to the engine which return feeds them to the Spiders. 5. Items:- This is responsible for processing the items once they have been extracted by the Spiders. Items represent the data that is retrieved from the websites. It also does some typical tasks like cleaning, validating, and data persistence such as storing the item in the database. There is another example of scrapy architecture and the workflow of architecture. Spiders Spiders are classes where custom behaviors are defined as crawling and parsing pages. How Scrapy implemented Spiders · What can be crawled means which URL or which webpage you wanted to crawl and get data from that page. · We have to find out our way to crawl the website or webpage. · And the last one is how we parsed like we want to parse in which format JSON, XML, HTML, etc. Types of Scrapy Spiders 1. Scrapy.spider:- This is the simplest spider and the one on which other spiders must inherit. This spider doesn’t provide any special functionality. It just provides the default request method implementation which sends requests to start URL attribute and call the parse method for each of the result. a. Name:- Defines the name of the spider b. Allowed_domains:- List of the domain that the spider allowed to crawl. c. Start_URLs:- List of URL where the spider begins to crawl from d. Start_requests:- A method that must return an iterable object with the first requests to crawl for the spider. Parse:- default method used by Scrapy to process downloaded response when their requests don’t specify a callback Example: #it imports Scrapy Libraries import scrapy #it creates the default class named by your project class CoolSpider(scrapy,spider): #your project Name name = ‘website.com’ # Domain from you extract data allowed_domains = [‘Website.com’] #url from you start scraping start_urls= [ ‘http://www.website.com/page.html’, ‘http://www.website.com/page2.html’, ] #function to parse data and response parameter which holds the data of your webpage. Def parse(self, response): For h1 in response.xpath(‘//h1’).getall(): #yield freeze your page till data will extract Yield {“title”:h1} #xpath helps to extract the exact data you want from the webpage For href in response.xpath(‘//a/@href’).getall(): Yield scrapy.request(response.urljoin(href),self.parse) 2. Generic Spider:- Purpose of this Spider is to provide convenient functionality for few common scrapy use cases such as following all links on-site based on specific rules or calling for site maps or parsing an XML or CSV data fields. Scrapy has four different types of generic spiders a. CrawlSpider:- Follows all links on a site based on certain rules. b. XMLFeedSpider :- parses XML feeds by iterating through nodes. c. CSVFeedSpider:- parses CSV feeds by iterating through rows d. SiteMapSpider:- crawl a site by discovering the URLs using sitemaps Crawl Spider 1. Rules:- list of one or more rule object 2. Rule:- Defines behavior for crawling a site 3. Parse_start_URL:- This method is called for the start_URLs responses. 4. Link_extractor:- Define how links will be extracted from each crawled page. Example:- #import scrapy library Import scrapy #import scrapy spider library to crawl on multiple pages and assign rules From scrapy.spiders import Crawlspider, Rule #This library extract all the links found on the website or webpage From scrapy.linkextractors import LinkExtractor #class of project Class CoolSpider (CrawlSpider): #project name Name = ‘website.com’ #website from we extract data allowed_domains = [‘Website.com’] # URL from we start searching and extracting data start_urls= [ ‘http://www.website.com/page.html’, ‘http://www.website.com/page2.html’, ] #Rules which give instructions to the crawler that what we want and how Rules = ( Rule(LinkExtractor(allow=(‘product\.php’, )),callback=’parse_item’), ) #parser class to parse the HTML page Def parse_item(self, response): Item = scapy.Item() Item[‘name’] = response.xpath(‘//td[@id=”prod_name”]/text()’).get() Item[‘link_text’] = response.meta[‘link_text’] Return item XMLFeedSpider XMLFeedSpider [source] XMLFeedSpider is designed for parsing XML feeds by iterating through them by a certain node name. The iterator can be chosen from internodes , XML, and HTML Example: #importing Libraries for XMLFeedSpider from scrapy.spiders import XMLFeedSpider # class to call the library class ExampleSpider(XMLFeedSpider): # name of the project name = ‘example # Taking URL of website in variable namespaces = [ (‘x’, ‘http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/'), ] itertag = ‘x:td’ iterator = ‘xml’ # function to get data by using XPath def parse_node(self, response, node): self.logger.debug(node.xpath(‘text()’).extract_first()) CSVFeedSpider 1. Delimiter:-Represents the separator char for each field in the CSV. Defaults to, 2. Quotechar:-Represents the enclosure char for each field in the CSV. Defaults to, Headers:-Column names within the CSV Example: #import Scrapy Import scarpy #CSVSpider receive each file as CSV and store data From scrapy.spiders import CSVFeedSpider #Represents the stock of a particular product at a particular location From project.items import ProductItem #class of project Class CoolSpider(CSVSpider): #project name Name = ‘website.com’ #website from we extract data allowed_domains = [‘Website.com’] # URL from we start searching and extracting data start_urls= [ ‘http://www.website.com/products.csv’] #delimiter is the comma character, which acts as a field delimiter = ‘:’ #It refers to the single-character string that will be used to quote values if special characters (like delimiter) appears inside the field. quotechar = “ ’ “ #Headers contain protocol-specific information which appears when a connection request sent headers = [‘products’ , ‘price’] #Parser function for parsing the HTML data def parse_row(self, response, row) item= ProductItem() item[‘product’] = row[‘product’] item[‘price’] = row[‘price’] return item SiteMapSpider 1. Sitemap_URL:- List of URLs Pointing to the Sitemap 2. Sitemap_rule:- [(‘/product/’,’prase_product’)] 3. Sitemap_follow:- list of sitemap regular expressions that should be followed. 4. Sitemap_alternate_links:- Alternate links for the specific URL Sitemap_filter:- Filters to select sitemap entries based on attributes. Example: #import Scrapy Import scrapy #SitemapSpider allows you to crawl a site by discovering the URLs using Sitemaps. From scrapy.spiders import SitemapSpider #class of project Class Coolspider(SitemapSpider): #Sitemap URL from we engaged the sitemaps Sitemap_urls = [‘http://www.website.com/sitemap.xml’] # Assigning the rules which follow by the crawler Sitemap_rules=[ (‘/product/’,’parse_product’), (‘/prodcategory/’, ‘parse_prod_category’), ] # parser function

https://medium.com/@lakebrains/learn-scrapy-in-detail-2e207e27dfec

['Lakebrains Technologies']

2020-11-26 14:37:52.953000+00:00

['Web Scraping', 'Scraping', 'Scrapy', 'Data Ingestion', 'Crawler']

The Legendary Romantic Poet Who Was Obsessed with Dieting

The Legendary Romantic Poet Who Was Obsessed with Dieting Lord Byron; Source- Society of Classical Poets Lord Byron was a celebrated Romantic poet and satirist who is the author of one of the most iconic works in literature, Don Juan. If you love him, he’d be the Byronic Hero for you and if you dislike him, you’d call him an evil genius and a psychopath. Trust me, there is nothing in between. His personality has been criticized and enthralled at the same time. American critic, Hoxie Neal Fairchild, made an attempt to capture an aspect of his personality and said, “Byron was too idealistic to refrain from blowing bubbles and too realistic to refrain from pricking them.’’ As the heading says, he suffered from ‘’Anorexia Nervosa’’ which according to science is ‘’characterized by a distorted body image, with an unwarranted fear of being overweight. Symptoms include trying to maintain a below-normal weight through starvation or too much exercise.’’ Byron once said — “Don’t you think I get thinner? I am as thin as a skeleton — thinner than you saw me at my first arrival in Venice, and thinner than yourself!” Byron claimed that he had a “morbid propensity to fatten’’, and this unhealthy obsession with getting thinner and the fear of getting fat put him on his deathbed. He felt that becoming fat would lead to lethargy and stupidity. In his last years, he used to starve himself and would often weigh himself on hanging scales, which could be easily available in London’s wine merchants ‘’Berry Bros. & Rudd’’. According to reports, ‘’their records show that Byron’s weight fluctuated rapidly, ranging from his heaviest, which was about 194lbs in 1806 to his thinnest, which was 124lbs in 1811. Average weight for a man Byron’s height (5 foot 8) would be between 140–170lbs.’’ Well, let us take a peek at his life that will hopefully answer all our questions. His Childhood and Upbringing George Gordon Noel Byron is called ‘’Mad, bad and dangerous to know’’ and this is associated with his scandalous private life and love affair. He was born and brought up in Aberdeen, Scotland. He grew up with his mother who was schizophrenic and an abusive nurse. But, Byron did not forget his abandoned father, rather he idealized him in a way. He was born with a club foot in his right leg, which caused him physical misery and inconvenience, throughout his life. His ‘’growing up’’ as we read was only surrounded by women — his mother, his nurse, and the women of his family. He was overweight in his school days, and a doctor asked him to lose weight. It is said that his lameness prevented him from sports that involved speed and up to the age of eighteen, he had been overweighed. ‘’By the autumn of 1806, he weighed 14 stone 6 pounds (90 kg) and his height was 5 feet, 8½ inches (174 cm) ‘’ (Baron). Byron thought his weight was an obstruction, he figured out it was not a good physical quality to be a Romantic hero. His image was more important. From that day, he decided to lose weight. From November 1806 to April 1807 he was on a crash diet that was prescribed by a well-known physician Benjamin Hutchinson (Eisler 120). The diet included exercise, hip baths, and medicine, it also required the elimination of all malt liquor and white wine, animal food was allowed only once in a day, no supper was permitted except a biscuit. Hutchison also suggested that Byron should change his sleeping habits. Byron became obsessed with his dieting and kept some of his friends informed about its results (Eisler 121). It is said that by April 1807 he was in a different shape. His peers were very astonished by his transformation. He believed he was ‘’metamorphosed’’. Trelawny was one of Byron’s friends and he said, ‘’He said everything he swallowed was instantly converted into tallow and deposited on his ribs. He was the only human being I ever met with who had sufficient self-restraint and resolution to resist this proneness to fattiness. ‘’ He got married to Annabella Milbanke and since then he started drinking heavily also he fell prey to depression. Trelawny, said ‘’ He was the only human being I ever met with who had sufficient self-restraint and resolution to resist this proneness to fatten.’’ Byron said he lived on green tea, hard biscuits, and soda water (Eisler 694). His Scary and Harmful Diet Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley were very close friends and they shared one thing in common, and that was a strange relationship with food. PB Shelley, the Romantic poet is considered to be the first Celebrity Vegan. In 1816, Byron went to Lake Geneva, Switzerland where he befriended Percy Bysshe Shelley, a fellow poet. Shelley was a strict vegetarian. Byron adopted some of Shelley’s habits, which consisted of eating a thin slice of bread and tea (no milk or sugar) for breakfast and vegetables and water for dinner. He smoked cigars or chewed tobacco to appease his pangs of hunger. If we talk about Byron’s diet, in 1816, Lord Byron was said to be living on just a thin slice of bread, and a cup of tea for breakfast and light vegetable dinner with a bottle or two of seltzer water tinged with Vin de Grave. In the evening, he preferred a cup of green tea, that too without sugar and milk. Apart from the harmful effects of bingeing, starving, constant smoking, and consuming high quantities of stomach-agitating ingredients like vinegar, added the fuel. Not just that, his clothing was very unusual. He wore numerous layers of clothing, often heavy wool sweaters in order to sweat as much as possible. Adult Byron took pride in himself for starving himself and felt it appealed to women. Edward John Trelawny said “He seldom ate at stated periods, but only when hungry — and then like the birds […]. His drink was water, or milk if he could get it, bread was literally his staff of life; other things he thought superfluous.’’ In 1818, we get to know that his biggest nightmare came alive. One of his friends wrote a letter to him and said he had become bloated. From that day onwards, it is said that he restricted himself to a ‘’menu of red cabbage and cider; his apple cider vinegar and water concoction’’. Yes, if we talk about vinegar, there is a separate ‘’Lord Byron’s Vinegar Diet’’. But it is very harmful and you must NOT try it. Apple cider vinegar is still advocated as a weight loss aid but there’s no evidence whether it works or not and in large doses, vinegar is dangerous and Byron swigged so much he had stomach problems. By 1822, he starved himself and his poor health set alarm bells ringing. After two years, at 36, he passed away due to malaria. His weak immune system couldn't beat the disease and the constant weight fluctuations worn out his body. From being a ‘’fat school kid’’ to a “leguminous-eating Ascetic”, Lord Byron’s obsession with weight loss was fascinating in a way but VERY detrimental and the next paragraph shall frighten you, for sure. In 1823, Dr. Millingen was very worried for him and he should be. The following account said ‘’He not only avoided nourishing food but had recourse almost daily to strong drastic pills, of which extract of colocynth, gamboge, scammony were the chief ingredients, and if he observed the slightest increase in the size of his wrists or waist…he immediately sought to reduce it by taking a large dose of Epsom salts….’’These intakes by Lord Byron were damaging his organs, eventually. He said himself that he’d rather not exist than be fat and bloated. Lord Byron in his deathbed; Source- Fine Art America Did Lord Byron Suffer from Any Mental Disorder? Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison wrote in his book Touched With Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament, he said “Symptoms consistent with mania, depression, and mixed states are evident in the descriptions of Byron given by his physicians, friends, and Byron himself. His mood fluctuations were extreme, ranging from the suicidally melancholic to the irritable, volatile, violent, and expansive. ‘’ Byron was suicidal and it has been witnessed in one of his letters, in 1817, which said “I should, many a good day, have blown my brains out.” His intake of alcohol became very severe. He talked about suicide to his family and friends and they were literally concerned. Leicester Stanhope, one of his friends said that his mind was like a volcano, he wrote “Full of fire and wealth, sometimes calm, often dazzling and playful, but ever threatening.’’ But until now, no such theory has been surfaced that confirms that he had bipolar disorder. There are many psychological parameters that need to be verified and many of the critics have overlooked them. One of the research papers said that after examining ‘’Major Depressive Episode, Manic Episode, and Mixed Episode, it soon became evident, for a very singular reason, that Byron’s behavior did not meet the diagnostic criterion for Bipolar Disorders. It said that the alcohol he consumed so freely during the height of his rages, would take him away from being diagnosed with Bipolar. According to Differential Diagnostic exclusionary data, used for establishing boundaries between diagnoses, a Substance-Induced Mood Disorder is distinguished from a Manic Episode, Depressive Episode, or Mixed Episode by the fact that a substance (drug, medication, or a toxin) is judged to be etiologically related to the mood disturbance. The same criteria pertain to all the Bipolar Disorders.’’ This clearly explains the fact that Byron did not have Bipolar Disorder. But we do see signs of attachment disorder and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. His desperate need for intimacy and love was one of the symptoms. His upbringing was very chaotic and so he clung to the nearest object of attachment. This gives us an idea that Lord Byron’s troubled childhood, his scandalous love affairs, his limping problem, his malnutrition, and his bisexuality caused a lot of turmoil in his life. All in all, he lived a very disorganized life and we can't blame him completely.

https://historyofyesterday.com/the-legendary-romantic-poet-who-was-obsessed-with-dieting-54de45bb38aa

['Anuska Guin']

2021-09-17 06:07:17.604000+00:00

['Romanticism', 'Anorexia Nervosa', 'Diet', 'History', 'Eating Disorders']

And Then She Danced

And Then She Danced A Free-Verse Poem Exploring the Mystical Science of Love As A Lightning-Bolt Event Photo by David Hofmann on Unsplash The sky shudders a long, low sigh loosening stars as infatuated blimps onto a solitary space — a fortress her stolid, steady walls built from a lack of knowing love and its fluidity through steely resolves A touch of rhythm breaks and enters her body in a thrum of light her limbs swaying as gossamer curtains in wind to follow life, and its amorous trail in the color of raindrop on never-loved skin Rising to surface a core — tender as a broken verse of a life sitting out dances in waiting snugly wrapped in the lyrical strain of an old Floyd song stifling a rumble within her stillness in moveable bolts through a sky’s cerulean.

https://medium.com/literary-impulse/and-then-she-danced-e2a9c6ee4246

['Shalini C']

2020-08-14 09:59:19.208000+00:00

['Rain', 'Nature', 'Poetry', 'Dance', 'Literary Impulse']

Become a Better (Healthier) Developer

Know when to pause Focus has become a truly valuable resource in today’s world, where it’s not easy to make up for the time we waste doing “non-productive” activities. Not only does it help us achieve progress, but it also makes the process to this objective a lot smoother and easier. Photo by Max Saeling on Unsplash We all know this moment where we just can’t get to do something and feel like going to sleep at 5pm. In this scenario, being able to take a break seems like a dream come true. On the other hand, I’m sure you’ve also experienced the opposite: you are fully focused on what you’re doing, being productive and getting stuff done. Just thinking about stopping feels like a betrayal to ourselves, since we believe that we must make sure to make the best out of this rare moment of focus. Furthermore, we love getting breaks and being able to do enjoyable things, yet when someone on our team takes one, the world is falling apart for everyone else. We tend to see relaxation as a coin with two sides; either something extremely lazy, or something extremely lucky, but I believe that we should see breaks as something that helps us be productive. Some time ago, I remember reading about “productive procrastination”. I know, it sounds like it doesn’t make any kind of sense (isn’t each the complete opposite of the other?). But if you think about procrastinating in the sense of doing some other activity which is not work related, but is still something productive, it stops being procrastination and instead it becomes an activity which provides value to your day while giving a reset to your mind. This activity can be anything you want as long as it gives you some sort of value. Some examples of this can be: Going for a walk. Talking to colleagues or friends. Reading or listening to podcasts. Learning something new or practicing a skill. As much as we like to be productive and focused on our tasks, we must realise that rest from now and then is as important as completing the tasks themselves. If you were to “be productive” for 10 continuous hours a day, in the best scenario you’d likely find yourself burned out and out of ideas. When it comes to programming, you definitely don’t wan’t this to happen.

https://medium.com/swlh/become-a-better-healthier-developer-72c2038e8e62

['Fernando Mendoza']

2020-11-28 19:13:16.145000+00:00

['Health', 'Programming', 'Software Development', 'Learning', 'Improvement']

Textarea Auto Resize [by ImpressiveWebs]

On a current project, I was trying to find a way to auto-resize a textarea according to some content that would be loaded in dynamically via Ajax. I didn’t know the height of the content and the textarea element doesn’t resize naturally like other HTML elements, so I needed to update the height of the element with JavaScript each time the content changed. It seemed like a simple task. After doing a search to see what types of plugins and scripts were floating around to do this, the examples I found seemed a little overly complex. While most solutions seemed to incorporate some complex math calculations, I thought of a better way. Using a Hidden Clone Element A <div> element will naturally stretch to fit the height of its content (assuming no floats or absolutely positioned elements are involved). So to get the height of the textarea, I just need to do the following: Grab the content loaded into the textarea Create an invisible clone div Give the clone the same width and typographical properties as the textarea Place the content into the clone Get the height of the clone Apply the height of the clone to the height of the textarea The Code One of the keys to this solution is the CSS. As mentioned, the invisible clone needs to have the same typographical properties as the textarea. Not only does this include stuff line font-size and font-family , but also the white-space and word-wrap properties of the clone need to be set to mimic what happens inside the textarea. First here’s the CSS for the textarea: textarea { width: 500px; min-height: 50px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; color: #444; padding: 5px; } .noscroll { overflow: hidden; } Take note that I’ve added a separate class with overflow: hidden , to prevent scrollbars from appearing. Normally this would not be a good thing to add to a textarea element, but because I’ll be resizing it with JavaScript, it’s fine. This class will be added to the textarea with JavaScript, to ensure that if JavaScript is turned off, the textarea will scroll normally. Here is the CSS I’ll be applying to the hidden clone element: .hiddendiv { display: none; white-space: pre-wrap; width: 500px; min-height: 50px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; padding: 5px; word-wrap: break-word; } A quick break-down: First, I set it to display: none because I don’t want it visible to the user. I believe this should be fine for screen readers, because I don’t want it read out to them either. If anyone has a better solution for hiding it for assistive devices, let me know. I’ve also set the white-space property to a value of “pre-wrap”. This ensures that lines will wrap correctly, but everything else gets pre-formatted. I’ve also set the width to be equal to the textarea, and duplicated a few typographical properties. In both examples, I’m giving the clone and the textarea a min-height so it will always start out at a standard, usable height. Now for the JavaScript (which is using jQuery, sorry ): $(function() { var txt = $('#comments'), hiddenDiv = $(document.createElement('div')), content = null; txt.addClass('noscroll'); hiddenDiv.addClass('hiddendiv'); $('body').append(hiddenDiv); txt.bind('keyup', function() { content = txt.val(); content = content.replace(/ /g, '<br>'); hiddenDiv.html(content); txt.css('height', hiddenDiv.height()); }); }); This code assumes we’re targeting a single textarea element on the page. If you need this to affect more than one element, then just change the first line inside the function that defines the element we’re working with. I’m dynamically changing the height based on jQuery’s keyup event. You could easily change this to respond to an Ajax request instead, if you happen to be loading the content that way. Using keyup , however, is a good solution because it’s the most likely reason that you’ll want to auto-resize a textarea — user-entered data. What About IE6-8? I almost didn’t write this article, because the code wasn’t working at all in IE6-8. The reason for this had to do with the poor way IE handles grabbing content using innerHTML . So after I had written this simple solution that seemed to work in all the newer browsers, I came across this jQuery plugin . That solution uses the exact same method that I’m using (the cloned element), and it worked (mostly) in IE. So the line that I borrowed from that example that (mostly) fixed mine in IE was: // fixes the IE innerHTML problem content = content.replace(/ /g, '<br>'); But even after adding this line, there was still an issue: Long, unbroken strings of text wouldn’t affect the height of the textarea (which isn’t a big problem, really). A simple fix was adding word-wrap: break-word to the CSS for the clone element. Bugs? Problems?

https://medium.com/goksel/textarea-auto-resize-by-impressivewebs-1fb6b9b02e5e

[]

2016-11-14 14:09:50.042000+00:00

['Jquery', 'Out Source', 'JavaScript', 'Css3', 'Tips And Tricks']

I’m a 34-Year-Old Diagnosed With Heart Failure

Having spent the last five years growing a consulting side gig into a thriving full time business working with practitioners in the health and wellness industries to brand and market themselves, I was a busy 34 year old entrepreneur and working mom, living with my husband and son in Calgary, Canada. I had a lot to be proud of. In my first year full time I’d brought in over six figures in revenue and was easily on track to do the same in 2020. I had big plans to scale, build a more effective sales funnel and hire a team to support me. My goal was to increase revenue to $250,000+ through building a signature program for private clients, while expanding my reach to small business owners through an online teaching and coaching program. This would see me work with 100s of new clients.

https://medium.com/the-ascent/im-a-34-year-old-diagnosed-with-heart-failure-418f7841691a

['Shannon Hennig']

2020-12-24 14:01:14.055000+00:00

['Heart Health', 'Health', 'Heart', 'Healthy Lifestyle', 'Lifestyle']

Let’s Talk: Ethereum Smart Contracts

Into the possibilities smart contracts offer the world and how software engineers can prepare to launch powerful, ground-breaking startups utilizing this technology Let’s rewind to 2017: Bitcoin is running wild, Ethereum has broken above $1,000 dollars, and tokens deployed on Ethereum during the now infamous ICO offerings are making millionaires everywhere. Just kidding. Let’s fast forward. This isn’t a price speculation article. We’re engineers — for the most part, we don’t care about internet tokens (unless they’ve made us rich or are making us rich). The purpose of this article is to discuss the technology known as smart contracts. While Bitcoin is the pioneer DLT (distributed ledger technology) we all know, it does not offer us the capacity to execute complicated, real world smart contracts, and those that it can foster are costly. We’re here to talk about Ethereum based smart contracts. This article is geared towards software engineers without a background in the blockchain space. What is a smart contract? First, let’s talk Bitcoin. In the case of Bitcoin, the distributed ledger act as a great, big Excel spreadsheet (tremendously minimized explanation). I pay you, you pay me. Money in, money out. We distribute the task of maintaining this immutable spreadsheet record across nodes who are incentivized to maintain these records through “mining”. Eureka! We have solved the double-spend problem and centralized fiat currency inflation. Smart contracts are a bit different. Instead of just maintaining records for a payment network using DLT, Ethereum lets us deploy tamper-proof, decentralized financial applications and computer code. Ethereum (the token) is simply what you pay miners to deploy and spend in fees to interact with these decentralized applications. Okay, cool story, bro. You probably don’t care, and I didn’t either, for a while. To really come to appreciate what this means, let’s use Uber as an example of a “what if” Ethereum based spin-off utilizing an oracle network, Chainlink. In the above diagram, we examine Uber — a closed, centralized network for connecting passengers to drivers. To participate in the network, a driver must apply to Uber, at which point they are approved or denied. A passenger requests a ride, receives a quote from Uber, accepts the quote, pre-pays Uber for the ride, and is connected to a driver who will pick the passenger up. Upon successful trip, the Uber network will relinquish a portion of the money quoted by Uber to the driver, keeping the remainder for itself. Awesome! We all use Uber, and we love it. But is there a better way? Why can’t the driver set the price they’d like to accept? Better yet, why can’t drivers begin bidding on a ride request as they come in near by, and the end user have the option to weigh reviews of the driver + price in their decision? Ride sharing commissions have been reported to range between 25% — 43% of total ride cost. This is a massive network participation fee. This fee touches the end user and the driver themselves. Let’s flip this model on its head. We’ll get into the technicals of how later. In this scenario, there are only two parties — the drivers and the passenger. The smart contract is just a piece of code deployed to the Ethereum blockchain which the two parties are interacting with, most likely, without even realizing it’s blockchain technology they’re using. The oracle network is a third party decentralized network our contract utilizes to get API data from off-chain into the blockchain. We pay an oracle network a service fee for the resilient, aggregated data provided. In this case, the data we are retrieving is user location data. The driver gets the majority of the ride share fee. The only network fee collected is the tiny gas fee from the Ethereum Network itself, and the cost of running the smart contract (paying the oracle data services). We’ve just given ownership back to the driver and passenger. Okay, cool story again bro, but this isn’t realistic. What about making sure the ride is fulfilled in a timely manner? What about passenger security? What about insurance? What about refunds? I don’t want my user to pay in Ethereum, or drivers to be paid in Ethereum Answers: Oracle networks can ensure this (see Chainlink) If the passenger has not reported a safe passage within “x” time limit, oracle networks can reach out to local authorities with all details of both passenger and driver Etherisc Kleros On the fly currency swapping using Uniswap If you’ve started asking yourself these questions, you’re on the right track to understanding why this is the tech area where you need to be now. There’s a reason this model hasn’t overtaken ride sharing apps already. We are currently in a place that these technologies are like the early internet. No, not that internet. I’m talking about ARPANET early internet. Gas fees are too high, decentralized insurance protocols haven’t reached vehicles yet, off-chain retrieval and validation of credentials aren’t sophisticated enough yet. These missing decentralized protocol utilities are being developed as you read this for use in smart contracts. The big “if” you need to ask yourself is “if this infrastructure is built, will I be ready to jump in at the forefront of the dApp revolution?”. I think the next generation of game-changing startups are going to come in the form of dApps. Infrastructure is a work in progress, but it’s growing daily. Closing Thoughts Does this article seem like a bait and tease? Don’t be so sure about that. If you are ready and knowledgeable about the capabilities of this technology when it nears maturity, you will be in the same position the early innovators of the web were in nearly twenty years ago. You’ll already know about writing in Solidity and utilizing oracle networks. Minimizing gas costs for your end user. You’ll build the next game changing application. An application built on Ethereum that has really solidified my belief that the space is becoming more mature is Aave. It’s production ready and you can use it today. TLDR; LEARN ABOUT ETHEREUM LEARN AND PRACTICE WRITING SOLIDITY USE TRUFFLE SUITE LEARN HOW TO USE CHAINLINK DEPLOY ON TEST NET FOR FREE! This is your chance to be at the forefront of a revolution as an innovator of next generation applications. You could wait, say, ten more years before jumping in and just working at a company that is built on this tech stack, or you could prepare today and be the person who builds it.

https://medium.com/@heysameerdewan/lets-talk-ethereum-smart-contracts-d150192a31e4

['Sameer Dewan']

2021-02-22 22:27:53.464000+00:00

['Blockchain', 'Solidity', 'Ethereum', 'JavaScript', 'Programming']

Unlock Your Glutes — Conversion Monster!

Unlock Your Glutes — Conversion Monster! Dear Friend I’m not going to pull any punches. You’re going to be angry and shocked by what I’m about to share with you. When you stick to a program by the letter and do everything your trainer tells you, you expect results, right? Well, what if you discovered all your hard work was causing you to be MORE prone to injury, was having ZERO effect on the shape of your butt and was leaving you with LESS strength and power? What if you discovered you were ALWAYS going to fall short of the body you want, because… You’ve been LIED TO about how to train your body’s BIGGEST muscle… And it’s cost you in your performance, your health and even how you look. For more information

https://medium.com/@wazimrev/unlock-your-glutes-conversion-monster-e1a027f37b86

['Wazim Rev']

2020-12-19 04:42:41.427000+00:00

['Women', 'Fitness Tips', 'Monsters', 'Fitness', 'Men']

Tips to Decorate Living Room: Perfect Guide

Furniture is an integral part of any home decor, and there are so many different furniture types to choose from that it can be tough to make an informed selection that perfectly complements your house. So keep in mind before selecting any furniture that you must first define the style of the space. Today, in this article, we will see Tips to Decorate Living Room. An empty room is the ideal setting for your fantasy. Wooden furniture is the first item that goes into an empty room. The presence of furniture gives you peace of mind regarding use and beauty, resulting in a pleasant and relaxing overall experience. With so many different types of furniture, we constantly want to be comfortable. Tips to Decorate Living Room Sofas to armchairs, desks, and much more are things to have in your living room is the first thing that people see. All these things should be well-maintained at all times, with all furnishings retained. All of this necessitates attention to convenience, style, aesthetics, and richness. Although furniture companies offer a whole living room set with coordinating decor, this is not something you should do. Coordinating furniture in a classic lounge might give the impression of sophistication and discipline, but if we need our living space to seem comfortable and welcome, mix and match the colours. Lighter weight desks, benches, & even accent armchairs, which can be readily adjusted over our living area, are much comfier, offering a variety of alternatives for resting your toes up, placing a drink down, or sitting an extra visitor regularly. There are several methods to bring wood into a place; all of these will make it seem more welcoming. A few of the numerous possibilities are fitted with glass, picture frames, moveable seats, photo frames, couches, and handcrafted works of art. Soft textures that attract the feel and rougher textures that create contrast are necessary to make a living room seem warm. Get as numerous textures as you want to, such as velvet, fabric, woollen, steel, marble, glass, and plants. Pillows placed on the sofa are a fantastic place to start, particularly when expecting cheap. Add additional materials to the range with different objects and furniture, even in little quantities. Read More: What is Google My Business Conclusion So bear in mind that before you choose any furniture, you must first determine the space’s style. The perfect backdrop for your imagination is an empty room, and the first thing that goes into an empty room is wooden furniture. The way a place appears and operates is influenced by its furniture. Organizing a place that appears amazing and functions effectively for you is artistry. Therefore, when deciding on a living area makeover, prepare yourself with some professional designer advice. Furniture is an important part of any home’s design. There are so many kinds of furniture to choose from that making an informed selection that will appropriately suit your house may be challenging. So keep in mind that before you buy any furniture, you must first decide on the room’s design.

https://medium.com/@guestpostmagzine/tips-to-decorate-living-room-perfect-guide-198547d1982b

['Sofiya Hayat']

2021-12-20 19:16:45.964000+00:00

['Tipstodecoratelivingroom', 'Livingrool', 'Furniture', 'Tipstodecorate']

Partially Woke Older White Men, Part II

Partially Woke Older White Men, Part II “What is bullying you ask? Oh, that’s an easy one…” Photo by: Jeena Paradies A comment was posted today on my Facebook page by an older white man. (His post has some typos so I have made some edits.) He said, “I’m beginning to look at my fellow left-leaning friends, in real life here in ID, where tension (has) been high over a couple who sell their produce in the local farmers market.” “This couple has been accused of (being) white supremacists. It’s possibly true. What concerns me is the vilification of people that don’t automatically want to drive this couple from the market. A lot of talk about you must be Nazi sympathizer if you don’t want to drive them out.” “It looks like bullying to me. It’s got me thinking about looking through the lens of (what) is bullying in other situation (s). But I don’t really have a good working definition of what bullying is. Have you thought about it?” Yes, I have thought about bullying. I want to approach my response by stating my own priority here; my hope that I can exhibit compassion for older white men. There are challenging assumptions in this man’s questions, but please know I am not berating anyone. How can I not understand how he feels? He grew up in the same world I did. My response: What is bullying you ask? Oh, that’s an easy one. Bullying is a polite term for what white supremacists would do to you if your skin was not white. Bullying is the result of those who believe in dominance as the right and proper expression of their advantages be it class, race, religion or gender. It’s not done to counter aggression, it’s done to glorify aggression, typically against the weak or defenseless. It is domination for its own sake. My work speaks extensively about how we bully boys out of emotional expression using violence to slot them into hierarchical masculinity of dominance. The alpha males of masculinity bully any who are different, any who are outliers. Bullies seek to punish difference and force conformity in a culture of domination. They express their own brokenness by hurting others. But you are after a very different definition of bullying, I think. At times, you have seemingly implied that anyone who calls out male privilege, demanding that millions of silent men take action to end violence against women, feels to you like bullying them. And even more surprising, you seem to be hinting here that we shouldn’t bully white nationalists, even though they are most certainly ready to bully all of us. Rest assured, the only thing constraining white nationalists is that white nationalism is not yet openly the law of the land. But they would happy have it so. And THEN, I assure you they would happily kick in all our doors. THEN you would see some bullying. But of course, it will be too late to do anything about it because we didn’t want to, as you seem to be calling it, “bully” them at this earlier stage. Also, your language, “fellow left-leaning friends.” I can find you plenty of conservatives who would happily run white nationalists out of town. This is not a left/right thing. This is a fundamental moral issue. Racism is evil. Period. Full Stop. When you frame opposition to white nationalists as “left-leaning” you do white nationalists’ work for them, reinforcing a false political binary that serves their purposes. Be careful about how you use language. It is dangerous to chip away at moral clarity by inserting doubts. White nationalists are not burdened by your need to question in these ways. They have no doubts as to their goals. They have children in cages at the border. Right now. While we partially woke white men have a nice debate about bullying. Honestly, I wish you could spend six months as a woman or as a black man. It would clear up all these doubts you have about who is actually doing the bullying very quickly. Ultimately, what I see here is white male discomfort. Millions of white men of our generation find all this upheaval deeply uncomfortable. We didn’t grow up in the great depression. We didn’t bare-knuckle battle to build unions. We didn’t fight in the great wars. Men like you and I grew up in the easy times. When America was fast cars and dependable jobs. When white men like us just had to pick a good college. Today’s constant calls to take action on behalf of others represent an intrusive discomfort in our otherwise comfortable lives. It may seem easier to ask everyone to just calm down instead of confronting the ugly truth of white supremacy or the epidemic of abuse against women. But THIS is the work of white men like us. We must learn to lean into our discomfort. The good old days are gone and they aren’t coming back because the women, LGBTQ people, and people of color who made our easy lives possible aren’t having it anymore. We don’t ask black men to lean into their discomfort because they live discomfort every day of their lives and much worse. We don’t ask women to lean into discomfort because they live discomfort daily and much worse. Women, LGBTQ people, POC can NEVER EVER step out of inequality/ oppression. White men like us can take a nice break whenever we like. No one is coming after us daily. We are not the targets. My ask of you is to look at your own discomfort when others loudly oppose what you yourself suspect are white nationalists participating in your local farmers market. Is your discomfort about bullying? Or is your discomfort about your wish for life to not be uncomfortable for you? The world is in upheaval not because people oppose injustice. It’s because we have white nationalists in the White House seeking to subjugate us all. The right to openly oppose them exists for now. So, let’s be real clear about what’s at stake before we lose this fight. You want a comfortable world? Then older white men like you and I, we have to help make a comfortable world happen, not just for ourselves (we already have that) but for everyone else who does not. You want a comfortable world? Then wake up. Stand up. And fucking fight for it. The thread this post is based on is up on Twitter here:

https://remakingmanhood.medium.com/partially-woke-older-white-men-part-ii-1e14032c734d

['Mark Greene']

2020-03-26 16:15:02.641000+00:00

['Bullying', 'White Supremacy', 'Masculinity', 'White Privilege', 'Politics']

Use Case: Limitation of Physical Assets on the Blockchain

Humans want to stand out of the crowd. They want to be unique and they want to possess things others don’t have. This behaviour brings us along to speak about the term of scarcity. Scarcity describes the limited availability of resources of some kind of asset. Like for example time. Time is scarce, because we have only a limited amount of time available each day. We have to differentiate between natural scarcity and manufactured scarcity. There are some natural resources which are scarce in their supply. Take for example gold, we know that there is only a limited amount of it available. Then there are produced goods that are manufactured in a way that they are scarce. This group includes for example coins, stamps and other collectibles. Photo by lasse bergqvist on Unsplash But the scarcity of manufactured goods relies heavily on the public trust in the manufacturer of the good. Because who knows, if the manufacturer really produces only the 100 pairs of limited sneakers that he announced? Or if the central banks will print another $500 billion in the next years? How to prove the scarcity of a manufactured object on the blockchain? This brings us to the big question: “How can it truthfully be proved that there is only a limited amount of this object or asset available?” And moreover: “How can we ensure that the initially stated amount of the assets stays the same forever?” Not that the issuer just simply creates another batch of those super limited sneaker editions, once their market price increases. Following, we are describing the process of how the true limitation and scarcity of a manufactured object can be ensured, utilising blockchain- and NFC-technology. (1) The first important point to cover is NFC-technology. Many projects developing solutions in that direction are using the standard NDEF messages of NFC chips to communicate with the consumer device. We think it is important to use a crypto enabled NFC chip. It has the ability to store public-private-keypairs and can also sign transactions with its private key. Whereas a standard NFC chip could only communicate a unique ID, just like with an QR-Code but without the camera. Without proper methods of strong key protection no successful blockchain system can be established. By using a security controller as NFC hardware the highest possible security level can be achieved. It protects the public-private-keypair even of micro-architectural and physical attacks. (2) Now, when an asset is produced it gets instantly equipped with a crypto NFC chip, which has a public-private-keypair stored. Afterwards the manufacturer has to create and publish a list with the public keys of all the objects to be sold. Additionally, this list is stored in a smart contract on the blockchain. (3) Then, in order to register the object on the blockchain it is important to write a transaction to the blockchain containing the object number (for example asset #42 out of 100) and the list with all the public keys (this can be skipped, if the list is also stored in a smart contract). The hash value will be needed later. Afterwards, the transaction is signed with the private key of the NFC chip on the object and it is written into a public blockchain. The asset is now officially registered on the blockchain. (4) When a customer gets or buys the desired object with the built in NFC chip, he can first verify if it is one of the limited assets. Therefore, not only the asset itself is needed. The customer also needs additional information about the available amount of the assets. Everyone can verify his own object. But one would never know if there is really just a limited amount of objects available or if there exists an exact copy of the object somewhere else in the world. In order to gain this additional information the customer can look at the list with all the public keys, which was published by the manufacturer. In this way, a customer can easily verify, if the public key of the object he is going to buy is included in the official list. If the list is also stored in a smart contract, this process can be easily sourced out and automated on the blockchain. (5) When a customer gets or buys the desired object with the built in NFC chip, he can easily verify the integrity of the object. The NFC-chip on the object needs to make a signature with its private key and the customer can then check, if the signature corresponds to the public key of the chip. Because otherwise there could also be a normal NFC chip which only stores the public key. But by creating the signature, the chip proves to the customer that it also stores the according private key. (6) And because the hash value of the list is also included in every transaction it is also assured that the list has not been manipulated afterwards. If the list is also stored in a smart contract, this is automatically ensured. Therefore, the manufacturer does not get any chance to sell any objects that are not included in the initial list of public keys. Why use Blockchain? What are the important aspects of blockchain technology in this application? First of all it is decentralization. Because all the data (or specifically the hashes of the data and the transactions) is stored on a public blockchain, there is no single central authority which can compromise the data. Furthermore, there is no single point of failure, it is absolutely no problem if one node of the blockchain shuts down. Moreover, the data is immutably stored on the blockchain. Because the hash of the list with all public keys is included in every transaction, the list can not be altered anymore afterwards. Any change in the list would also affect the hash in the list. And the customers would recognise the change. Blockchain technology also provides an open ecosystem which can be adapted and extended easily. The use case could be extended in a way that also the ownership of the asset is stored on the blockchain. And additional information regarding the asset can also be added. Like for example manufacturing details or the used raw materials. Furthermore, new business models could be created by paying the manufacturer of the asset a small percentage, every time the item is resold. Basically, the presented use case is only the minimum version which creates a basis for further applications. Conclusion Scarcity of an asset drives value. But in a digital context it is hard to prove scarcity, since nearly everything that is digitally represented can be easily duplicated. By using blockchain technology combined with NFC technology it is possible to create physical-, as well as digital scarcity for manufactured goods. And more importantly, the combination succeeds in assuring that the manufacturer is providing the same limitation as he promises his customers. Let us know what you think about the use case and which assets come to your mind that can be limited using the combination of blockchain- and NFC-technology. You can contact us here.

https://medium.com/block42-blockchain-company/use-case-limitation-of-physical-assets-on-the-blockchain-fc29acabf122

['Jakob Gmoser']

2020-07-22 09:38:00.945000+00:00

['Decentralization', 'Crypto', 'Business', 'Blockchain', 'Use Cases']

Impressions of the 2011 SharePoint Conference, Part 6 (Expert Best Practices)

This article was originally posted on October 13, 2011. The second “Best Practices” type of session I attended was SPC245, “Making SharePoint 2010 Collaboration Rock by Increasing Findability” presented by Jornata’s Scott Jamison. Although he is a principal at a competitor, he is also a top-notch presenter, and I always enjoy and get value from Scott’s presentations. Clearly vying for the title of “ Hardest Working Man in Show Business,” Scott, in his third presentation of the day, blitzed through many specific, practical tips on how to make SharePoint more usable and information more findable, including the following highlights: Folders (great for contributors, especially incumbents who have a general sense of where things belong via “tribal knowledge”) vs metadata (great for consumers who understand metadata, but can be tedious for contributors if they have to tag content manually). One key “Go Do” item Scott frequently advises is to create separate user experiences (via default views) for contributors vs consumers . (great for contributors, especially incumbents who have a general sense of where things belong via “tribal knowledge”) (great for consumers who understand metadata, but can be tedious for contributors if they have to tag content manually). One key “Go Do” item Scott frequently advises is to . Improving search results by paying attention to how things are named (especially the critical “Title” field) and where stored (e.g., the fewer slashes in the path, the higher-ranked in search) (especially the critical “Title” field) and where stored (e.g., the fewer slashes in the path, the higher-ranked in search) Improving search results by measuring their effectiveness with out-of-the-box reports from SharePoint: search queries that returned no results or no best bets. by measuring their effectiveness with out-of-the-box reports from SharePoint: search queries that returned no results or no best bets. Changing default navigation in simple but effective ways like getting rid of the default left-hand navigation where it works counter to how users will find their way through a portal. All of the techniques that Scott related were in response to common user challenges that each of us has seen “in the wild,” and they were crisply and artfully presented.

https://medium.com/@mikegilronan/impressions-of-the-2011-sharepoint-conference-part-6-expert-best-practices-c6c12dd0372c

['Mike Gilronan']

2020-11-25 00:49:02.310000+00:00

['Sharepoint', 'Conference']

A Letter I Hope in the Future, Doesn’t Need to be Written

I sent the following letter on January 20, 2021 to the National Endowment for the Arts to share with them my experience as a Yup’ik womxn and artist with Jedidiah Wheeler, Executive Director of Peak Performances at Montclair State University. I’m publishing it here so that we — artsworkers, audiences, presenters, funders, and a broader public — can examine what exists. And so we can build processes and relationships forward that are equitable, justice centered and decolonized, rather than stay in systems and experiences that perpetuate violence and extraction. January 20, 2021 To: Brandon Gryde, Presenting & Multidisciplinary Works and Artist Communities Director | Multidisciplinary Arts Division (Artists Communities/Folk & Traditional Arts/Presenting & Multidisciplinary Works) at National Endowment for the Arts and Sara Nash, Director of Dance | Programs and Partnerships at National Endowment for the Arts Dear Brandon and Sara, I hope you are feeling healthy and well and that you felt safe during the insurrection last week and the ongoing effects. I am sending you calm and ease for the next many weeks. I am writing, many months after our conversations, to inform you that I have decided to forego any funding and further entanglement with Peak Performances. As you are aware, Peak Performances received a grant from the NEA for $25,000 in support of my residency and project, Being Future Being. As you are also aware, this grant comes with the federal requirement that Peak Performances match your $25,000. Acknowledging the uncertainty and collective loss of this time, it has become even more clear to me through this year that my work — its values, intentions, its very meaning — cannot, and should not, be realized within institutions where its transformative goals are not genuinely supported by leadership. I cannot accept funds knowing my work, my name, might be used to signal to funders, colleagues, communities and audiences a set of values that an institution does not actually adhere or aspire to. I am upset I have to write this letter. I am upset you have to receive it. I am upset I have spent a year contemplating unpleasant knowledge and the implications regarding each decision I might make regarding that knowledge. What brings me to write is the unfortunate irony of company. Unfortunately, I am not alone in the kinds of situation I will describe through this letter. I offer gratitude to and am in solidarity with Nana Chinara and Anthony Hudson — who shared publicly their individual experiences with depth and clarity. I am with every artist interviewed and quoted — anonymously or named — in the Creating New Futures phase one document. And I am with every artist who has a story, but not the platform to share it publicly. We are powerful together, powerful enough to change the racist, unjust, inequitable and harm inducing systems and power structures in the performing arts world and the world at large. I am inspired by artists and friends, Demian DinéYazhí, S.J Norman, Merritt Johnson, Amber Webb, Nataneh River, and others — who speak, write, draw, dance their truths — and generously and with courage, offer their stories to the world. I have courage because they all have courage. Quyana Nana, Anthony, Demian, S.J, Merritt, Amber, Nataneh. What do I want from sharing this story, this letter? Do I want a personal resolution with the named presenter/institution? No. Not anymore. Do I want to gather empathy for my story and the realities it shares with other Indigenous, Black and other arts workers of color? Yes. Absolutely. Do I want to change the racist, extractive and harmful systems we live in? Yes. Always. Do I want the $100,000 commission we were offered and I think we have earned, outright? Yes, of course. Do I think this letter alone will accomplish this? No. But I offer it because I believe in our collective stories and experiences. I hope the more artsworkers and others share these stories, the more clear and obvious the focus on change becomes. Most of all, I hope there are artsworkers in the future who won’t have to write such letters. As you know, I became fully aware of the $25,000 NEA grant and the matching requirement after submitting a Freedom of Information Act request, as Peak Performances was not forthcoming with this information nor with what information they used to receive the funding. Brandon and Sara, I am thankful for the conversations we have had regarding what I will outline below. I understand from our conversations that the NEA (currently) has no avenue for recourse when an individual artist, whose work is meant to be supported with grants from the NEA, is met with unethical and harmful situations with the presenter or institution who is granted the funds. Maybe this is something we can endeavor to change, too! Shifting the burden of risk away from individual artsworkers must be part of our collective path forward. I believe in the power of transformative relationships. And I know that the process of creating and sharing performance can shift consciousness, center community knowledge, and bring us to equitable and just futures. In my creative work, this takes deep commitment from all involved, including community members, collaborators, performers, audience, and presenting and residency partners — who most often want to engage in the community building and systems change processes my work depends on and requires. I understand this kind of commitment from a presenter can be challenging, and I’m fine with that. Work that deeply respects and involves community takes a long time… it is expensive… and it can be difficult for leadership in some institutions to engage in the long form, multi-layered, community based processes required. It can be difficult for settler-run institutions to navigate necessary processural shifts, guided toward a decolonised structure and practice. This can be especially challenging for larger institutions that are often founded on and therefore engrained in white supremacist and colonial values of extraction, capitalism, racism, and perseverance of perceived power. But I am honored when individuals working within such institutions want to try. And of course, they should try. The processes and commitments to decolonisation I am writing of are embedded within the creative practice and the presentation of dances I make. It is a consistently and necessarily changing process that is different with every performance offering and with every new institutional partnership. The challenges and difficulties noted above can become obvious in many forms. Fear, anger, rage, discomfort, obstacle, obfuscation, refusal. We can work through these challenges. No process of decolonisation that is worthwhile would come without deep structural, emotional, and systems wide change. I am here for these processes. And I am remarkably proud of my many Indigenous colleagues and accomplice and ally colleagues who are also. There are, however, boundaries regarding health and safety that must be respected. I have to make clear that my choices to engage in this work are not nor should be the expected choice of any other artsworker. I have to make clear that it SHOULD be expected that institutions have done and are committed to consistently dismantle systems of oppression. I refuse to participate in a creative process with a violent and oppressive individual who, while may be experiencing some of the challenges noted above…fear, anger, rage…, cannot control them in a professional manner and chooses instead to be verbally abusive, demonstratively condescending and controlling, and then wield the weight of his position and institution in continued abusive, unethical and punishing measures. In October 2018 I began meeting with Jedidiah Wheeler, Executive Director of Peak Performances at Montclair State University. We met at a coffee shop on the Lower East Side and began conversations about decolonisation processes and the possibility of a presenting and commissioning partnership. We had not met in person prior, but he was knowledgeable about my work on stage and with communities of people in process. Previous to meeting, I wrote an essay titled, Land, Indigenous, People, Sky for the PEAK Journal, invited by editor Claudia La Rocco - for Marrugeku’s performance of Cut the Sky in Peak Performances’ 2018–2019 season. I knew Marrugeku from my work in the country currently called Australia and was happy to write the essay. By the end of 2018, George Lugg, who works with me as creative producer, was in commissioning and contract conversations for my new dance work with Peak Performances. Public announcements about the commission were made at NPN, APAP and Under the Radar conferences. The 2019 workflow consisted of, among other relational aspects, George working to cultivate a commissioning consortium with Peak, helping them to fundraise, and working to advance terms and contract. Although a contract was not yet signed, we were in an exclusivity agreement, based on Peak Performances’ terms. Any process forward with Peak meant declining any performance opportunities within 100 miles of Montclair, New Jersey including, of course, New York City where I live. My relational conversations with other organizations in my home city, who wanted to be part of a creative process, included Jedidiah’s exclusivity preferences. While I recognized the limitations embedded in an exclusivity agreement, and it hampered other potential processes, I also knew the scope of the project I wanted to make and the fees I wanted to be able to pay my First Nations and ally collaborators. Weighing this, I decided to remain in an as yet un-contracted, but promised process toward a commissioning agreement with Peak Performances. In October 2019 we were offered (without contract) a $100,000 commission and a residency process, with $15,000 payable in FY 2019/2020. In January 2020, during the Association of Performing Arts Professionals conference, Jedidiah and I were in the same room twice. The first was at a panel on Indigenous Residencies at the APAP conference, hosted byAdvancing Indigenous Performance, a program of Western Arts Alliance. Jedidiah stated in his public introduction that he was “the luckiest person in the room” because he got to work with me for the next year plus and that he was there to learn. Well that sounded fine! Following this meeting, Jedidiah attended a meeting I co-hosted and facilitated at Abrons Arts Center called, Forms of Relationship Building: Longevity and Commitment — an Indigenous led meeting geared toward supporting First Nations artists and building a First Nations touring network. According to minutes taken at the meeting, Jedidiah said, “I want to address this question of what do you need — it is not a new question — it’s a question that should be asked to anyone no matter what their needs are, it is important to get an answer. This question is specific to the world arts community — if one has the ability, this is a fundamental question, and leads me to believe in universality — the Indigenous person needs to ask for what they want.” George and I began conversations with Peak Performances staff about residency engagements with community members and students, we outlined themes and values of the intended creative process and production, set me up as a business entity in the state of New Jersey, and made plans for a no-tech residency in the theater at Montclair State University. And tried to get a contract agreement signed. Still without contract, but with “confirmation” that the $15,000 that could be paid in FY 2019/2020 would be paid, and with full access to the dark stage, plus flight and hotel support for my collaborator who was coming from their home community in Abiquiu, New Mexico — we planned and held an onstage creative development residency with two collaborators, some prop elements, and meetings with potential on-campus collaborators from January 14–23, 2020. Jedidiah came through once while we were rehearsing, giving a tour to another artist. I met with an on-campus social architect who I hoped would be part of the ongoing creative process. Backstage bathrooms at Peak Performances are not gender-neutral. My performance collaborator is a trans Diné womxn, and she and I worked out what was comfortable, safe, and best practice during our residency. I did not bring it up, but noted that prior to coming back to the theater, it was something we would want to address with all curatorial, administrative, technical, and maintenance staff. In late January 2020, George sent a request for an update on the contract and was told we needed to finalize spring campus activities first. So, we set up a call to organize and brainstorm details for campus engagement through the spring. Given the collaboratively robust and relational nature of our intended residency process, George asked that Jedidiah be on the call, so that we could all be part of the process from the beginning. Great idea! The call began fine. There were five of us on the line, myself, George, two Peak Performances staff and Jedidiah. Jedidiah was very excited, describing what he imagined I would be bringing to audiences based on ideas I shared about creating a sustainable structure to support community self determined action and relationship. Being Future Being intends to activate from the performance moment forward and this is something my collaborators — Indigenous scholars with expertise in gathering, care, listening and kinstillatory methodologies — and I are working on. He said he loved that I kept using the word, ‘gather.’ When I begin hearing exclamations like this, I listen, too. There is usually a subtext. I become careful to be clear that this work is not about me, but about relationships and commitment to process and to what can be exciting change. We continued to discuss ideas. I proposed speaking with First Nations students on campus, building a process that could include regular meet-ups, visioning processes, and thinking together about what students might want for their own self-determined sovereignty, health and well-being on campus. We discussed collaborators, including the cast of ‘more than human creatures’ adorned in quilts; an Indigenous, Black and other artists of color ‘chorus’ — who might sing or might not, but who will gather their energy and the energy of the collective, guiding us toward activation — the architecture of the overflow. I love these kinds of conversations and I got very excited. Getting to matters of protocol, George asked where Peak Performances was in their process of Land Acknowledgement. Jedidiah said it was not something Peak Performances was concerned about, that the University was engaged in a process of making a Land Acknowledgement and Peak Performances would do what the University modeled and told them to do. I said that is one way to go about it and many institutions do it that way, but here we are, in this process together. I said I understand cultural — and especially performance institutions — to have a particular relationship with audiences, with potential, and that given the right attention, can really drive change. I went on talking about Land Acknowledgments. I explained what I respect about them — that when they are truly action oriented, when they are living processes committed to decolonisation — that respect Indigenous people and land locally and globally — that they can be a first step toward powerful, honest, real change that guide us into relationship, toward justice and equity. I suggested that since we were committing to a residency process together, it would be powerful to begin a Land Acknowledgement that Peak Performances could be in process with, that the process of decolonisation is ever changing and never ending and we could start with staff and I working together. And that with their help, we might create new pathways for relationships with other Indigenous artists and generate processes — like with the First Nations students on campus — that the larger institution could follow. I requested a personal commitment to a decolonisation process and said that I can’t and don’t do it myself, I need help and we need to do it together. Jedidiah responded immediately and violently. His yelling relayed that he “calls the shots.” That we are going to have “a problem” if I continue to “come in here” and make “demands.” He screamed, “I don’t even know what this word, “decolonisation” means.” He yelled, continued yelling, and did not stop yelling until he hung up on us. One of his staff members asked if I was okay. I knew Jedidiah had been in the rooms and in the discussions noted above, in this letter. I knew he had engaged my work for the possible outcomes it produces beyond staged performance, and I knew he was excited for me to offer my perspectives to audiences. And so I understood his last particular phrasing and tone: “I don’t even know what this word decolonisation means, ” as specifically aimed to demean and make lesser — in the presence of himself, his staff, and my producer — me, my work, my heritage, and my ethics. He said he would revoke the commission if any “requests of this nature” are part of the creation process. In an overly generous reading, I could take this aggressive beratement as pure narrative: he was asked to join a process that required commitment toward decolonisation, and even though he knew my work was rooted in such processes, he didn’t know much about it and the not knowing enraged him. I have seen white rage before. We all have. While I could have said no to any further dealings with Jedidiah Wheeler, I decided to think and to reach out to a trusted colleague and my closest friend, a professor who through her projects and teaching also works to end institutional racism and to protect Indigenous knowledge and data sovereignty. While we did not condone his anger, we agreed that this is exactly what white supremacy looks like. And so, this is exactly where it must be undone. I decided to try to continue, rather than back away. I wrote a letter which I sent to Jedidiah Wheeler, cc’ing everyone who was on that phone call. That letter is here: Emily Johnson <emily@ — — .com> Wed, Feb 12, 2020, 4:36 PM to Jedediah, Jedediah, George, Jill, Chrissy, me Hi Jed, Hope your day is alright. I am responding to what happened yesterday, with this email. I’m sorry that was a difficult conversation. It was certainly surprising. I do think what was said was from some uncertainty — and I understand this. The work of decolonizing can be difficult. Creating change and healing can come via pathways that are painful. That said, it can also be joyous and fulfilling. To be part of a global effort that is bringing justice and equity through the specific Indigenization and decolonization work that is required and happening locally is/can be rewarding beyond measure. I think that you do understand decolonisation. And must be excited by the prospect of that work to be engaged with me as an artist. Our first conversation, before we began speaking of the commission, was certainly about the broader consciousness shift I work toward through my art and my decolonisation/Indigenisation work with colleagues and accomplices globally. My efforts to create gatherings that bring people together that we might reconfigure how we function in this world require deep partnerships. We have been on this path together for a good portion of time already and we were together in rooms at APAP and Abrons in January — rooms that centered Indigenous voices, relationship building and decolonized processes. All of which takes time. And many conversations. And deep commitments. To my understanding, we have all already committed to a process. I am encouraged by and invite you to think alongside me in imagining what this could look like in an ongoing professional partnership,but even more so, in a broader engagement with students, audience and participants; with Peak Performances, Montclair, the local, regional, and national communities this work could reach and impact. Decolonisation is not a metaphor. It is real and needed and something that is alive and personal. It is the practices, learnings, unlearnings, and ways we find ourselves through a new equitable politics and way of being. It needs as many of us individuals and organizations as possible, committed to it. I don’t want to walk away from the work that we have already begun together with you on this path. Nothing I spoke of yesterday in terms of decolonisation has a specific timeline. Nor is it something I need outlined in a contract (though I know many Indigenous artists who do make that a requirement). To me, it is a living and creative process and as such depends upon the people working together. I ask for a good faith commitment to this work from everyone and every organization we work with and I do ask it of all of us embarked on this project together. I am known for this way of working. There were questions about what decolonisation looks like. I appreciate the question! Because if I knew, or anyone knew — then, wham! that is what we’d be after. It (fortunately) has more nuance than that, but there are initiatives that nurture decolonisation — like the meetings we held in January, staff cultural competency trainings, discussions with Indigenous and accomplice leaders in the field; plans toward adding to board, advisory councils, or staff First Nations/Indigenous representation; plans for ongoing, future inclusion of Indigenous artists in programming model; Embodied Land Acknowledgement processes; equitable relationships with local Indigenous community and here in Lenapehoking, specific pathways that address the forced displacement of Lenape peoples. The action steps taken come from the learning/unlearning process and that is to me why it is a creative and exciting path and also why I don’t have answers, only desire to find that path, in this decolonized process we are already in. As one concrete example, this is the language we work with in Catalyst’s tech rider. It was shared amongst us all in a handout at the meeting at Abrons in January: Working With Catalyst Catalyst requires all Presenter and all Presenting Partners collaborating on the presentation of Then a Cunning Voice and A Night We Spend Gazing at Stars (note: for internal communications only, we abbreviate “TACV”) to comply with Indigenous Protocol and acknowledgement of its host Nation/s in all announcements and press that includes TACV or reference thereof. This includes communication with, commission of, and permission sought from Nations, elders, appropriate consortia, etc. Within the scope of a contracted performance of TACV, Catalyst can and will help connect and direct these efforts, but the presenter must be prepared to engage directly with Indigenous community, leadership and agencies. Presenters seeking training and support in preparation for working with Indigenous communities can contract with Catalyst for additional consultation, separate from the performance contract. I am hoping we can continue the conversation and this good work together, Emily (and George) I did not, nor have I yet received any response from Jedidiah Wheeler. I do not claim to know why he has not responded. What I do know is that he was verbally abusive. And that the abuse went on with continued requests for updated timelines and proposed outcomes from me and George. These requests came from Jedidiah’s staff members. The ones tasked to do his work. The requests became so blatantly tedious and provoking that I eventually asked that I be removed from any correspondence. The continued erasure and non-response to the violence that had been directed at me, coupled with the continued expectation (and desire?) of my commitment and work, without a mediated (or contracted) process forward was unsafe and disrespectful. On March 31, 2020 we were told the $100,000 commission, including the $10,000 we were owed from the January residency — was “postponed.” The reason given was COVID and a delay in our response time. In June 2020 we were told the entire commission, residency support and presentation commitment were revoked. The request for a document from Peak Performances noting said loss of funds so that I could apply for COVID relief went unanswered. Meanwhile, Peak Performances has engaged a new COVID era series called PEAK HD. By Spring 2021, PEAK Performances will have featured 7 full productions, from artists including Elevator Repair Service, David Gordon, Zvi Gotheiner, Bill T. Jones, and Heidi Latsky. In a statement online, Jedidiah Wheeler writes, “You can turn the lights on and off without artists, you can check the electricity, but the hot current on any stage is transmitted by artists performing under those lights. So instead we’re opening our stage doors and making something happen, bringing artists into the environment where they thrive — and paying them, for their sake and yours!” I think it’s great that an organization can find a way to implement new strategies for sharing work and paying artists. I think it’s kind of gross he calls what we do a ‘hot current.’ I don’t think it’s great the list of artists does not include an Indigenous or First Nations artist and I don’t think it’s great that Peak Performances brags about paying artists while this artist — and every collaborator I would have employed — expected, and due to the exclusivity clause depended, for over a year, on receiving payment from Peak Performances. Here is a letter, written by George Lugg, in response to a request from Peak Performances (in September 2020, six months after postponing and three months after cancelling the commission) that I engage with students: George Lugg <george-@ — -.com> Fri, Sep 18, 2020, 3:13 PM to Jedediah, Stephanie, Chrissy, Regina, me Hello All, I am glad to hear of the campus enthusiasm for Emily’s work. In our last conversation, I noted that we had no clear written communication about Montclair/Peak Performances commitment to Emily’s project. I provided Stephanie, Crissy and Regina with all my notes and emails from my last exchanges with Jill, so that we could seek clarification, and get a written agreement in place before further planning continued. I hope the need for that is clear. We have worked in good faith since late 2018, but that cannot continue. There remains an unexecuted contract from last fiscal year for $15,000 (of which, Jill found a way to pay $5,000), and in June, Jill conveyed in a phone call that the originally communicated commitment of the $100,000 commission, and all of residency support and presentation commitment, had been revoked. She mentioned on that call that Montclair had received $25,000 from the National Endowment from the Arts which she intended to provide in the form of a commission, but no written agreement was put in place. That award also requires grantees to a 1-to-1 match to be fulfilled, and I did not receive any indication of how that additional investment of $25,000 would be made by Montclair. I understand the financial uncertainties and the difficult decisions you may face, which is all the more reason for me to ask for explicit terms, and a solidly executed contract before any planning takes place. On our end, the loss of that commission was devastating not only to the project, but made even more vulnerable an individual who I am meant to support, protect and represent. These are hard times, all around. But this not a situation where equal partners are equitably sharing impact. In this country, the fact that agreements and promise made by institutions to Indigenous people are routinely broken is not news — covid or not. This is not lost on us. That truth is embedded in Emily’s work, and in the calls to action that she makes to individuals and institutions alike. If you are up to the call, and can set forth in clear and binding terms your material commitment to the work, I hope we can find a path forward. Respectfully, George This brings me to the letter I am writing now and the further reasons I am choosing to forego the funding and current “offer” from Peak Performances. Though Peak Performances has cancelled my commission, they are under contract with the NEA to pay me $25,000. They have proposed I provide two zoom sessions, or talks with collaborators, for their students and faculty. The $25,000 that the NEA requires Peak Performances to match will, we are told, be represented by “staff costs.” I was a contributor to the phase one document, Creating New Futures: Working Guidelines Towards Ethics and Equity in Presenting Dance and Performance. I understand the abusive, punishing, and unethical behaviour I have witnessed and experienced from Jedidiah Wheeler and Peak Performances to be part of a field wide system that continues to root itself in extractive capitalism and white supremacy. I find the offering of $25,000 for two zoom meetings to be an excuse for Peak Performances to get out of real commitment or association with me and my work. And to do so without a necessary acknowledgement of our labor or the emotional and monetary harm caused. All while messaging to their University, staff, and students that they are engaged with me and my collaborators in processes, methodologies and scholarship. The aggression, the refusal over the course of 15 months to move a commission to contract, and a refusal to make full payment for delivered work leads me to understand Peak Performances as an unsafe and unethical place to work. I cannot bring my collaborators into process at Peak Performances, even if it is for a well-paid zoom gig. Remember when Jedidiah said, “the Indigenous person needs to ask for what they want”? I want Jedidiah Wheeler to read this letter. I want the Office of the Provost of Montclair State University to read this letter. I want the Office of the Provost to determine what apology and monetary remuneration will be offered. I want Montclair State University to commit to anti-racist and decolonial processes and trainings and to set up a reparations and real rent fund for Lenape people and to commit to Land Back. I want Peak Performances to commit to anti-racist and decolonial processes and trainings and set up a reparations and real rent fund for Lenape people, to hire Indigenous and Black curators and other staff, and to engage the work of Indigenous artists each season (perhaps best after Jedidiah has undergone anti-racist training and anger management, or some other solution for his behaviour is found). I want the NEA to consider new paths of funding that do not lead to nor encourage institutional power over artists. I wrote the following after that phone call in February 2020. I still feel it. How vicious and pointed he was. And it reminds me of so many other vicious men. I wrote the following while thinking of my Indigenous kin from everywhere: Along with many of you, I have stood at the front lines protecting our lands and water. Facing bullets, water hoses, threats of and/or actual arrest, and certainly heartbreak at the fact we have to protect what is ours in the first place. Along with many of you, I have been at other front lines asserting equity, and centering Indigenous artists, knowledge and process. Facing white guilt and anger, bias, cancelled gigs, ‘translation fatigue’ (thank you for that, Dr. Twyla Baker), lateral violence, and certainly heartbreak. Back when she was growing up, my grandma was not allowed to attend Yuraq. I feel it’s my right and responsibility. To do work so that my dances, the dances of other Indigenous artists, and the dances that come from future Indigenous artists are supported, protected, celebrated. That we’re never in a time again where we cannot, are not allowed to, or are punished for dancing, for making, for speaking, for being. And I know this work comes with fallout. And I know this work comes with the very real possibility of deep structural change and broad consciousness shift and this is why I do it. When a white male presenter yells at me, belittles the importance of this work, threatens to cancel a commission that will employ numerous Indigenous artists and creative council members because he “calls the shots” and will, under no circumstances engage in or commit to decolonisation efforts because he “doesn’t even know what that is,” yells that we have 24 hours to respond, and then hangs up on our five person conference call… I remember looking into the eyes of men who held assault rifles pointed at us. I remember being raped twice. I remember our Missing and Murdered Indigenous women, girls, trans, and two spirits who cannot remember being raped because they are dead. I remember seeing anger and knowing in my heart each of those men had a choice. They could, in fact, put their guns down. Leave sacred ground they were trespassing. They could, in fact, not rape. Or take. Or kill. I remember thinking each of those men probably had someone in the world who loved them. I remember our singing in the face of violence. I remember saying their names. I champion all of us at all of the front lines. And I champion our allies who become accomplices. We build kinstillatory relations. We sing and make plays and dances and artworks and gather and write. We break down the literal and figurative walls colonizers built, build and hide behind to destroy us. We are the future, now. Settler colonial violence has no place here. I, along with so many of you, say yes to this work because it needs all of us, together. I am encouraged by artist centered groups like Creating New Futures, Dance Artists’ National Collective and individual artsworkers who are guiding paths toward equity and justice and away from harm. I am hopeful for a just future and look forward to being in sustainable and ethical relationships that center Indigenous, Black and other artists and communities of color. Quyana. Many thanks, Emily Johnson Director, Choreographer. Emily Johnson/Catalyst CC: Willard Gingerich, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Academic Affairs. Montclair State University This letter is also published in slightly edited form, by the author, on Medium. Thank you Tanya Marquardt for editing help. Thank you to everyone collaborating with me, named and not named. Thank you Karyn Recollet for your ongoing thinking and our continued collaboration with the kinstillatory.

https://medium.com/@emily-72967/a-letter-i-hope-in-the-future-doesnt-need-to-be-written-52e1d6fd5350

['Emily Johnson']

2021-01-22 06:19:28.540000+00:00

['Performance', 'Dance', 'Indigenous', 'Justice', 'Decolonization']

Top 3D Printing Money Saving Benefits

Additive Manufacturing, also known as 3D printing service, has advanced from being a sci-fi concept to a common technological innovation. In changing the way manufacturing industries produce and manages its production components additive manufacturing expands the limits of traditional methods. If properly utilized When used properly, additive manufacturing could produce items with greater performance and efficiency. But the advantages of 3D printing quote don’t end with the physical aspect; there are also financial benefits which range from less waste to higher cost savings. What do you mean by Additive Manufacturing? 3D printing in india, also known as additive Manufacturing is a technique that transforms a computer-generated template into a tangible object. While conventional printers read the file and prints an unflattering, 2D replica on fabric or paper, 3D printing generates an actual object using a digital file. It does this by layering materials until it is a fully 3D model. Additive manufacturing technology creates three-dimensional structures by layering them one at each step. Each layer of melting material bonds to the prior layer. Ceramics, metal powders glass, thermoplastics and even chocolate are all able to be used to layer materials. Therefore, 3D printers don’t come in a single size that fits all. In fact, there are many online 3D printing service options and the shape of printer will vary based on the specific application. The 3D printer has been praised for its groundbreaking manufacturing capabilities however not as much for its benefits in cutting costs. But there are plenty of savings that come with 3D printing that make it an invaluable instrument in the manufacturing sector. What are the Cost-Effective Benefits of 3D Printing? The benefits to the financial side of 3D printing technology are apparent in many fields which include: Lower Development Costs Due to its initial cost, this modern manufacturing process has been criticized for being costly. But the savings of lower production costs far outweigh the cost. The capacity that a 3D printer is the determining factor in the price of operation. For instance, the majority of desktop 3D printers utilize identical power levels as laptops. However, commercial 3D printers consume significantly more. However, their capability to produce complex objects in one step can result in higher efficiency and speed. One of the main advantages that comes with online 3D printing india is the reduced cost of labor. In addition to post-processing, the majority of 3D printers are self-sufficient and require little or no help by an administrator. In contrast to traditional manufacturing, where skilled workers are usually required, the costs of labor for 3D printers are virtually non-existent. Additionally, when it is done in small amounts additive manufacturing is cheaper in comparison to traditional manufacturing. 3D printing models are cheaper than other manufacturing processeslike injection molds, traditional dies milling, molds, and milling. Reduced Product Waste Complex structures that are too costly or difficult to create using conventional manufacturing techniques can be constructed by using additive manufacturing. It is possible to complete the process faster and with cost less by using traditional methods like molds and dies that are used to design and make prototypes. Additionally, there is less to waste because molds that have rebuilding are discarded. Because 3D printing uses only exact measurements for the material used and the time it takes to working with materials that aren’t needed for particular items. The time needed to create and produce innovative designs can be drastically decreased by creating drafts using the computer program and then sending them for printing. Additional steps in between traditional prototyping can be eliminated using this technique of digital-to-digital. In addition, 3D printing has improved speed of production. Due to its ability to make rapid iterations 3D printing uncovers manufacturing defects that could take several weeks, or even months to find in traditional manufacturing. Corrections and adjustments can be completed faster than in the past due to additive manufacturing. Final design decisions for components can be made much faster due to the fact that the time required for the development and design process to be successful is cut down. Overall, additive manufacturing allows for the most reliable and efficient design process, with reduced waste and lower cost. Product Quality Improvements The advantages of 3D printing can be applied to better-quality design of products and process design. Since issues like bad ergonomics are easily identified and corrected early in the manufacturing process additive manufacturing allows manufacturers to create high-quality products. This means that with an improved final layout and printing 3D, the effectiveness of the components will be enhanced. Additionally, this technological advancement allows engineers to design complex and intricate components that are not feasible with other techniques. The limitations of traditional production equipment hinder engineers. components that were previously required welding and assembly can now be constructed as one component. This reduces waste and increasing the strength and endurance. 3D printing may also be employed to make materials from many different materials, including thermoplastics. All of these materials could be considerably lighter, while maintaining strength and integrity. This is particularly beneficial for engineers who want to preserve the strength of their materials while reducing weight. Because of its higher effectiveness, additive manufacturing could be an effective method of making durable products. Is Additive Manufacturing a Good Fit for Your Company? 3D printing has exploded in popularity and is now an essential component in the rapid production of products. Additive manufacturing allows the needs of users to be tailored. If your project is large as well as small, there’s a lot of advantages to 3D printing that go beyond cost savings. But, choosing the best 3D printer to meet your needs in manufacturing technology is crucial. Examine the various 3D printing technologies available on the market and select the additive manufacturing printer for the benefits of increased product quality and savings in manufacturing.

https://medium.com/@makenica/top-3d-printing-money-saving-benefits-7f712bcb084d

[]

2021-10-27 08:00:57.533000+00:00

['Money Saving Benefits', '3D Printing', '3d Printing Service', '3d Printing Market']

Indiegogo: One money-saving hack that every online shopper should know

With ParcelX, worldwide parcel delivery can be easier, more efficient and cheaper. Find out how. Global e-retail sales is projected at a whopping $4.8 trillion for 2021. If you are an online shopaholic, you are not alone. To think in 2017 alone, there were 1.66 billion online buyers according to Statista and this number is expected to skyrocket to 2.14 billion by 2021. What’s more — global e-retail sales is projected at a whopping $4.8 trillion for 2021! Common problems of logistics and delivery With such huge volumes of ecommerce, it is therefore no surprise that logistics and delivery are common concerns. Then again, inefficiency, data opacity, and high costs were already key issues in one of the world’s oldest industries — cross-border logistics. Do you know that the typical cost for express cross-border parcel delivery from China to the US, for example for a 10-kg parcel is USD 240 and for a 20-kg parcel is USD 462? Enter ParcelX — the world’s first blockchain-powered parcel network As an innovative third-generation logistics service provider, the cross-border parcel delivery network of ParcelX is based on the blockchain technology which can establish a decentralised, highly effective cross-border parcel delivery ecosystem to resolve these fundamental issues. For a start, the ParcelX team developed a user-friendly service interface for traditional logistics service providers. On this service platform, the sellers (e-commerce retailers) or consumers can also choose the best service provider, as well as the fastest, most economical delivery route. While lowering their delivery costs, it also guarantees the timeliness and high quality of the delivery services. Transparent, efficient and inexpensive service for all In view of the difficulties in tracking the parcels and obtaining timely information during the whole process, ParcelX’s cross-border parcel delivery network will connect shippers, logistics service providers, logistics integrators and consumers in a well-balanced ecosystem, based on trust guaranteed by blockchain and seamless interactions which ensure optimal security, transparency and traceability of delivery package information. In fact, with blockchain technology, ParcelX aims to achieve a price reduction of up to 70% of the cost of a typical delivery route after the establishment of its global network eventually. But backers of ParcelX’s Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign can utilise this privilege immediately once the routes are opened up progressively. In this way, blockchain-backed ‘delivery-hailing’ platform, ParcelX, can provide a radically transparent, efficient and inexpensive service for consumers. Support ParcelX on Indiegogo today and get perks such as e-coupons for free cross-border parcel delivery!

https://medium.com/@GlobalParcelX/indiegogo-one-money-saving-hack-that-every-online-shopper-should-know-6137c1fb1643

[]

2019-04-12 13:07:59.753000+00:00

['Parcelx', 'Blockchain', 'Delivery', 'Shopping', 'Ecommerce']

Yash Dhull to Lead India in 2022 Under-19 World Cup

Batsman Yash Dhull will captain the 17-member Indian team in the next edition of the Under-19 World Cup. Which will be in four countries in the Caribbean from January 14 to February 5 next year. Delhi’s deputy is Andhra Pradesh batsman SK Rashid. Also Read: Scott Boland has been Included in the Ashes Squad India placed in Group B along with Ireland, South Africa and Uganda. And will start his campaign against South Africa in Guyana on 15 January. This will be followed by matches against Ireland on 19 January and Uganda on 22 January. Both these matches will be in Trinidad and Tobago. https://twitter.com/Cricosphere/status/1473208518572449795 Yash placed in Group A with defending champions Bangladesh, Canada, England and UAE Defending champions Bangladesh placed in Group A along with Canada, England and UAE. Afghanistan, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea and Zimbabwe make up Group C and Group D. Consists of Australia, Scotland, Sri Lanka and hosts West Indies. New Zealand are the only major side that will be missing this edition of the tournament after they decided to withdraw due to “widespread mandatory quarantine restrictions on minors returning home “. Scotland, which had initially missed qualification in the Europe qualifiers, became the 16th team to participate in New Zealand’s absence. Also Read: Ryan ten Doeschate Appointed as Kent’s Batting Coach Most recently, in November–December, India’s two Under-19 teams, A and B, faced off against Bangladesh. Under-19s in a triangular tournament in Kolkata. But lost, the visiting team won all their matches, except for one, which washed away en route to the title. India’s core team now the Under-19 Asia Cup to be in the UAE from 23 December — details to be correct. U-19 with Yash Dhull have been the most successful team in the history of the World Cup India has won the title four times. Yash Dhull the most successful team in the history of the Under-19 World Cup with Australia in second place. With three crowns, followed by Pakistan, who have won it twice. India last won the tournament in 2018, when they were led by Prithvi Shaw. And were runners-up in 2020 to Bangladesh, who won the title for the first time. India’s other successes came in 2000, when he was led by Mohammad Kaif, in 2008. When Virat Kohli was the captain, and in 2012 under Unmukt Chand. Also Read: Rishabh Pant Appointed Brand Ambassador of Uttarakhand for Sports and General Health Squad: Yash Dul (Captain), SK Rashid (Vice-Captain), Harnoor Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Nishant Sindhu, Siddharth Yadav, Anishwar Gautam, Dinesh Bana (WK), Aaradhya Yadav (WK), Raj Angad Bawa, Manav Parakh, Kaushal Tambe, RS Hangargekar, Vasu Vats, Vicky Ostwal, Ravikumar, Garv Sangwan. Stand-by players: Rishi Reddy, Uday Saharan, Ansh Gosai, Amrit Raj Upadhyay, PM Singh Rathore.

https://medium.com/@babacric/yash-dhull-to-lead-india-in-2022-under-19-world-cup-83429632061d

['Baba Cric']

2021-12-21 10:03:57.340000+00:00

['Cricket', 'Yashdhull']

Windows Privilege Escalation using sudo su?

If you have ever used linux, then probably you are aware of sudo command.This command basically let us run a command as different user,mostly as the root user.On certain linux distros, by using su command we can login as the root user. However this command is very dangerous, hence it is disabled by default in most of the linux distros such as Ubuntu. So the question is what about windows? Well, unfortunately most users are logged into windows as Administrator user. Which is nothing but same as root user in Linux. However, Microsoft has tried to lessen the risk of being logged in as an Administrator user by enabling User Account Control(UAC). So that the Administrators will not by default inherit the privileges of NT authority/System user unless it is manually authorized by the System user. So while Linux users have the sudo command to switch user account or run commands as super user, what does Windows users have? Is there a sudo command for Windows too? Okay… Not really though. But we have below alternatives to that. Runas command Powershell script for switching user So now we know there exist something similar to sudo su in windows, but when can we use this? Not a big deal, suppose we have hacked into a windows system through any of the vulnerabilities of network or web application and have low privileged user shell. And also we have got some Administrator credentials through hacking any other system in the domain by hashdump, wce.exe, fgdump.exe or any other tool. Suppose credentials are b33f:b33fpassword And this admin user also exist on the newly hacked windows system.That is where we can use windows switch user functionality and escalate our privileges. So the point to be noted here is — There maybe times when we know the credentials of admin user, but will have a low privileged shell as some other user, Also remote desktop will not be enabled to login as other user. Unlike Linux, we cannot sudo on windows machines, hence we use switch user functionality. Lets learn how do we do that. Suppose we have the low privileged shell of alice.And b33f user also uses the same system. So the first thing we always check after getting low privileged shell on windows system is whoami? The next thing we will check is what privileges i have? Then the next thing would be to check all the user accounts and the privileges given to each of them. As we can see b33f user has administrator privileges.And we already have credentials of b33f user from some other machine in the domain. So let’s switch user to b33f and escalate privileges. We can use runas command to switch user, however sometimes with low privileged user shell, it will not prompt for password input. So in that case our runas command will fail, so there we can use our powershell script to gain high level privileges. Runas is a very useful command on Windows OS. This command enables one to run a command in the context of another user account. Command: runas /user:username program If above command ask password, well and good.We can enter the password and get privilege escalated, else if it does not ask for password input then we will have to try our powershell script. Create below 2 files and transfer them to low privileged shell along with nc.exe After transferring files with meterpreter upload or any other means such as ftp,tftp,vbscript,powershell script etc to the local shell. We can start a listener on our kali machine and execute the powershell script as shown below on the local shell and gain access to the admin user i.e. b33f in our case through reverse shell. References -

https://medium.com/@asfiyashaikh/windows-privilege-escalation-using-sudo-su-ae5573feccd9

['Asfiya', 'Ha Kh']

2019-04-27 15:50:53.803000+00:00

['Hacking', 'Windows', 'Penetration Testing', 'Privilege Escalation', 'Cybersecurity']

Inside SYZYGY: press for progress with Charlotte Bilton

Our Inside SYZYGY series celebrates the International Women’s Day #pressforprogress campaign. In this third part of the series, we bring you the story and aspirations of Senior Data Analyst, Charlotte Bilton. How did you get into Data? I kind of fell into it! Maths was my strongest subject at school and my Dad encouraged me to pursue it. He’s an accountant and we bonded over our love of numbers. I graduated with a maths degree from the University of Reading in 2010 and joined the brokerage team at Touch Financial. I showed an interest in reporting and quickly began analysing Salesforce reports, creating a role for myself that didn’t really exist at the time. What led you to Digital Marketing? After my first job, I joined a customer insights consultancy which was my first introduction into applying my analytical skills to marketing. From there I joined LIDA, an M&C Saatchi agency, as a Data Analyst working on CRM databases and knew that agencies were a good fit for me — the fast-paced nature keeps me on my toes and challenges me to keep learning. I moved to SYZYGY because they had created a centralised data team which caters for the whole company and allows me to work on a variety of clients. Who are your role-models? At work, my former manager at LIDA, Natasha Joslin. She built the Data team from scratch and, as a Board Member, ensured that what we delivered was recognised and valued by the agency and our clients. In life, I admire Malala Yousafzai. After the assassination attempt, her voice grew louder and she turned an awful event into her biggest strength. Her life experiences are vastly different to mine but I’m inspired by her courage. Have you faced any challenges working in Data? No, not personally. I’m one of two women in a team of seven but I don’t see gender as a barrier or divide. We each have our skills to contribute and our own personalities to match and if we’re going to clash, it’ll be over personality! I feel comfortable working with men as I grew up with my two older brothers and three male cousins so I’m used to being in the minority — it’s not something I’ve really paid attention to. What is the future for women in digital? I think the next few years will bring more transparency. Already, the gender pay-gap reporting is highlighting an imbalance in the senior positions held by men and women. However, I still think that we should employ the best person for the job, regardless of gender. From my own experience at University, men outnumbered women on my degree so if there aren’t as many women coming through the education system with the right skills and experience then how can we expect an even split? How will you ‘Press for Progress’? I would start with education. I remember the stigma around maths when I was at school, we didn’t understand how algebra could be applied to the real world and I think it’s viewed as rigid. For me, maths isn’t just about getting the right answer, you still have to show your thinking and methodology, even when you’re wrong. It’s like writing an essay, the final sentence doesn’t determined the overall message.

https://medium.com/syzygy-london/inside-syzygy-press-for-progress-with-charlotte-bilton-15e008b0f42b

['Emma Grant']

2018-03-29 10:39:04.642000+00:00

['Women', 'Digital Marketing', 'Women in STEM', 'International Womens Day', 'Data']

Peter Andre admits he’s had racism ‘thrown at him’ for years

Peter Andre has opened up in regards to the racism he has confronted through the years amid the Black Lives Matter motion. The singer backed Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid after they grilled lawyer Earl Grey on Good Morning Britain. Early Grey is defending Minnesota police officer Thomas Lane after he was charged in relation to the homicide of George Floyd. What did Peter Andre say about racism? Sharing a clip of the interview, Peter wrote on Instagram, “Each my mother and father are Greek and we had racism thrown at us left proper and centre for years. “Whenever you see or expertise racism. Whenever you see it occur to folks over and over. “Whenever you see what occurred to George Floyd, you’ll be able to’t simply sit again and say nothing. It’s not proper, it by no means has been. #endracism #blacklivesmatter.” Pete is of Greek first rate and lived in London till the age of six, when his household moved to the Gold Coast in Australia. He added, “Seeing this man smirk and smile made me so mad. Change is coming although. “Now that individuals can lastly movie these atrocities, signifies that we’re lastly waking up and seeing what has been taking place for years. “Racism has been rife for a whole bunch and 1000’s of years in opposition to many cultures and races. “What’s infuriating although is when folks nearly disregard what’s being protested and are available again with ‘All Lives matter’. “Nobody ever questioned that. However for all lives to matter signifies that BLACK LIVES MATTER. Oh man.. very unhappy occasions.” Presenter Piers had been left livid when the lawyer stormed out of the dwell interview on GMB. After being questioned by Piers on why his shopper ‘didn’t shield’ George Floyd, the interview grew to become heated and Earl angrily mentioned, “Should you suppose I’m going to sit down right here and take heed to you discuss dangerous about my shopper, I’m not listening to that. “Should you had informed me that an hour in the past after I did agree to remain up, I’d haven’t agreed to it,’ earlier than slamming down his laptop computer and ending the interview.

https://medium.com/@sarfrazqamar00/peter-andre-admits-hes-had-racism-thrown-at-him-for-years-d65bbe0ba618

['Sarfraz Qamar']

2020-06-17 07:23:46.976000+00:00

['Admits', 'Racism', 'Peter', 'Thrown', 'Year In Review']

What is the best SEO tool to find useful and valuable keywords?

1. What Is Keyword Research? Keyword research is the process of finding all of the possible search engine queries which may be relevant to your business and your customers. Keyword research includes not only finding these keywords but also sorting and prioritizing them into logical, related groups, which can then inform how you might change existing pages on your site or create new content. Why Keyword Research Is (Still) Important for SEO While some SEOs may argue that keywords are no longer important or won’t be essential in the future, they are still crucial not only for search engine rankings but for understanding the search intent behind a given query. As long as people search using the search engines by typing a query into a search box or making a voice query on an “assistant”, it will be crucial to understand the following: What those queries are. How important they are to your business. How you might create the best content to answer the intent of the query. Even as search trends change, if people are looking for an answer to “something”, keywords will continue to matter. Understanding Keyword Themes (Groups of Related Keywords) Some may refer to groups of related keywords as topics or themes, but at heart, they are groups of individual keywords that signal a similar need or intent by a searcher. As such, keyword research should never be left as simply a list of keywords, but rather used to form various segments of interrelated keywords. A single topic or theme might lend itself to a single piece of content that can answer all of the needs within that topic, and thus a single page is “optimized” for the entire group of keywords. Or, the topic may be broad enough to signal that you should have an entire section of your website with many pieces of content targeted at answering the user intents. For example, if you were writing a post about “how to fry an egg”, one single article might satisfy the intent for all the keywords around that “theme”. Example: How to fry an egg How to cook a sunny side up egg How to cook an egg over medium How to fry an egg for a sandwich How to fry an egg in the microwave How to fry an egg over easy How to fry an egg over hard How to fry an egg over medium How to fry an egg sunny side up How to fry an egg with oil How to fry an egg without oil Keyword/Query Trends Some SEOs argue that individual “head” keywords aren’t going to matter anymore because of voice search — which leads to long, natural language search queries. Search queries, in general, are becoming much longer, in part due to voice search. But, that doesn’t mean that shorter “head” keywords can’t form the basis for starting your keyword research and helping to uncover many longer-tail keyword variants. This is partly because, at least for now, there really is no separate voice search results or database. Google, for instance, simply returns essentially the same results for a voice query as if you had typed that exact query into the search box on the Google web interface or search app. For many of these long longtail queries, Google is simply going to parse out the most important terms in the query and return the results for that. For instance, someone may search for “Hey Google, what are the best running shoes for a person who has flat feet?”. Looking at Google search results, it is easy to see that Google returns the exact same result set for that query as it does for “best running shoes flat feet.” So just because someone is making the longer more natural language query doesn’t mean that it isn’t important to know that people are making queries related to “best running shoes flat feet.” 2. How to Do Keyword Research Keyword research for SEO consists of gathering all possible variants of keywords that might be relevant to your current site, content, products, services, etc. and/or relevant to your ideal customers or users but not directly related to your current offerings. An example of keywords that are of interest to a site’s users but not directly related to the site’s products might be keywords related to marketing or hiring for small businesses when the site you are doing the research about sells accounting software for small businesses. In this case, small business marketing keywords might not seem relevant to the current site, but they are relevant for the same people the site is attempting to attract. After an initial list of all possibly relevant keywords is built (most tools will generate large lists of keywords which may or may not be relevant for you) the list needs to be trimmed down to those terms that are truly relevant for the site you are doing the research for and its potential users. Then the terms need to be grouped, sorted, and prioritized. Note that we are focusing here on organic keyword research as opposed to keyword research for PPC. While the two can be similar, there can be significant differences, particularly where it comes to competitiveness. If you are a very small, new site and your competition on a particular search term is sites like Wikipedia and Amazon, ranking on that term might be a much longer-term strategy, or a lower priority, in the short term for organic rankings and traffic. Whereas for PPC, the decision you have to make is simply whether you can afford to bid competitively on the term. Building Your SEO Keyword List Step one in your SEO keyword research is simply amassing your initial keyword list. There are numerous sources for possible lists of keywords. You need to decide which sources are right for you, but you should find that the ones below get you most of the way there. When I am building my initial list, I attempt to capture, at minimum, for each keyword: The keyword Monthly search volume Keyword difficulty Competitiveness CPC Current rank Example: In some cases, you may have to “normalize” some of the data to be able to compare data from one source to another. For example, some sites rank competitiveness or keyword difficulty of the term on a scale from 0 to 1, whereas others use a scale from 0 to 100. When merging this data into a single spreadsheet, you may have to multiply or divide one or the other sets of data by 100 so that the scale is at least similar. Ideas for initial keyword discovery: Spend at least a couple of hours exploring and using the website and make notes of keywords that may be important. Send an initial “SEO keyword discovery questionnaire” to the client or main stakeholder asking questions and for information, such as: List of business objectives. Is there any seasonality to your business or traffic? Do offerings or content change seasonally? List what you believe are your most important keywords. Are you launching or discontinuing new categories of products, services, or content in the near future? List your target audiences. List your main competitors. What geo-locations do you operate in? Consider interviewing marketing managers, salespeople, product specialists, or even current/potential site users or customers to fully understand the possible variations of how a product or service may be referred to and what problems they are trying to solve by visiting the site. PPC Keywords If you already have keyword lists compiled for pay per click advertising like Google Ads, that is another great place to start. As previously mentioned, not all of these keywords may be ideal in terms of competitiveness for your organic keyword list. Some obvious terms to include, and ones which should be high priority in your list, are those that are currently generating conversions. If you are paying to get traffic on those terms and the traffic converts, you really need to be trying to rank on those terms organically and get that traffic for “free”. You can get Google Ads PPC data from your Google Analytics account, as long as your Google Analytics and Ads accounts are connected. Go to Google Analytics and navigate to “Acquisition > Google Ads > Search Queries” and export the data for the time period you wish to analyze. The timeframe you want to analyze will vary based on the amount of traffic and conversions the site gets (usually, the higher the traffic, the shorter the time period you can use), on seasonality, the variety of keywords, etc. Simply export the data to your spreadsheet medium of choice: Excel (XLSX), CSV, or Google Sheets. You will want to exclude branded terms as you likely are already “optimizing for them.” You want to look for terms which show positive metrics like low bounce rate (they are relevant for users), and which have good conversion, transaction, and/or revenue numbers (they are essential for the success of the site). You may want to look at terms with poor conversion rates to see if they are actually relevant to the business. If they are, there may be other business or site usability reasons they are not converting; you should still include the terms in your list. For example, in the graphic below, the branded terms are in orange (they obviously have good traffic, engagement, and conversion numbers). The term in red gets lots of traffic and averages more pages per session than other terms, but it is not converting. That is one that you want to look at more carefully to see if it is relevant. The term in green may be one to really look for more variations of, as it gets a higher conversion rate than most. Google Analytics Keywords You may not think that can give you meaningful data in the way of keywords, particularly organic keywords, due to the fact that the vast majority of your keywords going to be reported as “not provided”. To get all the terms a site is currently ranking for, just input your domain into the domain overview search box in the SEMrush tools, scroll down to the Top Organic Keywords section, and select “View full report”. Note that you will need to sign up for a free trial or have an SEMrush subscription to use this. Depending on your time and resources, and how deep you would like to go, you can filter this list in various ways. For example, my particular account is limited to the top 10,000 keywords, and in this case, the results come back with over 75,000 available keywords. Use the filters at this point to filter out any obvious groups of terms that may not apply. For example, if you wanted to exclude all of the branded terms from this list on the basis that you don’t really need to “try” to rank for, you could use the filters to exclude branded terms. Here I am excluding “rush”, as that would remove terms that include either “SEMrush”, “SEMrush”, or “SEMrush.com”. Make your Business Visible- Boost your Local Rankings with SEMRush Competitor Keyword Research Just as mining your own site for possible keywords can be useful, mining competitor sites can often be even more useful. Looking for terms where competitors rank reasonably well and where you may not, or even where you both rank on the same term, can definitely help you build out your keyword list. How do you find or define keyword competitors? This can often be a stumbling block, particularly with higher-level managers on in-house teams or with clients for consultants. Often the client will insist that a particular list of sites are their “competitors.” However, it is often the case that these business competitors are not actually very competitive in terms of organic search. You can certainly include some of these competitors when mining possible keywords, but far more critical is to find “search” competitors — those sites ranking on the same terms and types of terms as the site for which you are building your organic keyword list. A business may not see Amazon as its competitor from a business perspective, but if they are ranking above the site in search for a relevant term, they are sure as heck a search competitor. Finding competitors can consist of asking business stakeholders their opinions about who they feel the competitors are (remember this is one of the things we asked in the original discovery questionnaire). You can also find competitors by simply looking at the search engine results pages for the top sites ranking for terms you know are relevant for the site in question. You can also use the SEMrush “Main Organic Competitors” report. At this point, the process is fairly similar to mining keywords from your own site. You can download the “common keywords” here, which are only the ones for which your site and their site both rank. But keep in mind, to capture keywords you may be completely missing, you should download the entire list of search engine keywords from your competitor. As with your own site, you can do this in both Google Ads and SEMrush. But within SEMrush, you can also limit the download to terms where your competition ranks above a certain point, say 20th or 30th, on the supposition that if they rank worse than that, it perhaps isn’t the greatest term for you to pursue. I prefer downloading the whole list and assessing the terms individually. Within SEMrush, this is also a good place to filter out any terms which include your competitions’ brand names. Moz is likely going to rank for a bunch of terms that include “Moz”, but they really wouldn’t be very relevant in a keyword strategy for SEMrush to pursue ranking on organically. Keyword Gap Analysis Another great way to find keywords where you either overlap with your competitors or find terms where they are ranking and you aren’t is through keyword gap analysis. This strategy allows you to input one or more competitors and find terms where there is either common ground or where one or more of those competitors rank and you do not. Simply enter your site and the sites you want to analyze, select the type of keywords, and get back your list of keywords. You can also enter a specific word and see where you rank versus your competitors on the term, and see pages that rank the highest. You can review the pages where your competitors rank higher and see what related keywords they included that you may have forgotten. Unique Keywords The list below shows “unique” keywords, which are keywords where only one of the sites ranks for them, and the others do not. You can play with the advanced filters here to set parameters and see only see keywords where one or more competitors rank in the top 10 or 20, and your site does not. Another way to segment this is to look for keywords where you are “close” to the competitor but not quite there yet. This keyword data can help you determine whether you should optimize existing content or create new content, but those terms should certainly be on your list. One way I use this is to look for terms where my competitor ranks in the top 5 and where the site I am analyzing is ranking between 6 and 10. 3. Keyword Research Tools Google Ads Google Ads isn’t perfect, but it is still a tool to use — it is a source that has an awful lot of keyword information and provides variations of keywords that may be relevant for you. Google Ads tends to be a little bit biased towards keywords that are bid on in PPC rather than the entire universe of organic keywords, but it is still worth using. As previously stated, you aren’t going to get very good data unless you are using a Google Ads account that spends a reasonable amount of money. If you don’t have access to one of these, see if you can make friends with someone who does. The Google Ads Keyword Planner Tool is pretty straightforward. Go to the main Google Ads interface > Tools and Settings > Keyword Planner > Discover new keywords > input your keyword or keywords > Get Results. The Keyword Analytics > Overview report will give you pretty deep insights into the data around a single keyword and links to “phrase match” and “related” keywords. Of more use at this point is the Keyword Magic Tool. Just input your keyword and select your region (country) if you wish, and SEMrush will generate a list of keywords where you can modify the match type by broad, phrase, exact, or related keywords. You can also select individual keywords at this point. Export all of the keywords in the list to Excel and use them to continue to build your initial organic keyword list. Topic Research Tool One more option provided by SEMrush is the Topic Research tool. By inputting a particular keyword, the tool will return a massive set of related topics and concepts in different formats. Frequently these can be used to further expand the root keywords you might want to input into the Keyword Magic Tool. Below you can see that by entering a keyword, you are given related keywords and recent headlines related to those keywords. Also, notice that “Cards” is selected. If you click on a card, you are given recent headlines, questions frequently asked, keyword difficulty, and more. Both the headlines and questions will allow you to see what topics matter to those searching for this keyword. Notice the plus signs above? They are available across the tool so you can add the topics and questions to your “favorites”, which allows you to save a lot of data for keyword research. The tool allows you to see data in many different formats, including the mind map: Summary Building a comprehensive, relevant keyword list is one of the most important SEO projects you can undertake. Keyword research should be one of the first tasks you undertake when starting a new SEO project; it is the basis for your on-page content optimization and new content creation. Of course, the next step is putting that plan into action and creating the best of the best content to satisfy the search intent of each of your potential readers or customers. Don’t forget to update your plan regularly and monitor your progress taking over the SERPs!

https://medium.com/@sagarneupanee/what-is-the-best-seo-tool-to-find-useful-and-valuable-keywords-333e18a09b7

['Sagar Neupane']

2020-12-25 07:11:52.578000+00:00

['Startup', 'SEO', 'Business Development', 'Business Strategy', 'Business']

Content Security Policies need to stop being a money dump

Content Security Policies need to stop being a money dump CSPs are not bad, but IT Security and Developers need to change the way they are implemented Lukas Oldenburg Jan 21·7 min read Let’s start with one of the many examples. Somebody from Analytics writes an email to IT: This email is great because it contains pretty much all the issues I have experienced with Content Security Policies in the last year. I am not alone… I estimate that I alone spent at least a full week (42 hours) last year on Content Security Policy issues. Add to that: the time my clients needed to read my messages/listen to me and then communicate this forward to Development / IT / agency teams the time these teams needed to read, understand it and then fix it the time needed to explain to all kinds of folks why they have missing data from x to y and why that data won’t come back the money lost due to data being not there and that leading to bad decisions all the time that we did not have for the really beneficial things we actually wanted to do etc. And you end up in a looot of money being essentially dumped! This “escalation, fixing and patching” money is 100% wasted, because it is 100% unnecessary, and the client had zero benefit from the hours I billed to them because of it. Don’t get me wrong: Content Security Policies do have their benefits, but they need to be implemented in a professional manner. What are Content Security Policies? Content Security Policies can be useful for IT security. They prevent requests from leaving a user’s browser on your website if these requests do not pass a whitelist. So e.g. if your Analytics tracking script needs to be loaded from www.google-analytics.com, and www.google-analytics.com is not in the whitelist, there will be no tracking. Having to file a JIRA ticket for a CSP issue can show the root cause of CSP issues: No awareness of their impact on the side of those who implement the CSPs. If you work with Online Marketing tools, especially Display Ads, the number of domains you need to whitelist for “full functionality” can be quite long, and it is even hard to keep an overview over which ones are actually needed (similar to Cookies), because the ad networks tend to change the domains sometimes. In any case, the good thing about CSPs is that you can prevent e.g. hi-jacked third-party scripts injecting other scripts from malicious domains that could install harmful software, track data from your website to places you don’t want etc… So all in all, CSPs are a reasonable thing. But… Go-live, blind-folded Some of my clients have no issues with CSPs. They don’t need them or have a proper process. Others keep having issues again and again. Some learn, and the issues have been reduced lately. Others seemingly don’t learn. Every month, another CSP issue. Most of the issues are minor ones luckily. One LinkedIn tracker being blocked is not a big issue usually if it is quickly fixed. Some of the issues however are devastating: Going live with Analytics while not going live really because the CSP is still blocking all your Analytics (even after warnings that this needs to change) Just the other week, a client went live with a fresh new website and Adobe Analytics on top of it. During testing on the staging server, we discovered that the Content Security Policy did not allow the Analytics tracking script (AppMeasurement.min.js) to be loaded. We thus were unable to test the implementation. We alerted that. Too late — they went live with the untested Analytics implementation. But actually they did not go live with Analytics, because they also did not change their CSP. So the whole Analytics was blocked anyway, and the impact of the costly launch campaigns for the new site could not be evaluated. Other examples: An IT security consultancy did an audit and came to the conclusion that the client’s website needed a CSP. The client’s development agency implemented one — without talking to anybody, since — so practical! — this does not even need a release. It is just a central setting somewhere on the server. After the CSP was switched on, weeks of escalations and data losses ensued. Weekends broken, holidays interrupted. A client wanted to test a new NPS tracking tool. We had the implementation done, but could not go live with it for months because it took so long to get to the IT security person who was able to do the CSP changes. I also could not even test it on a staging website or in a Tag Management System’s Preview mode in my local browser without applying some really tedious Fiddler tricks. Sometimes even such tricks are not an option, e.g. with the SEO team’s PoC mentioned in the initial screenshot. A new website was launched with all kinds of marketing money thrown around. All kinds of tracking pixels failed. Took weeks to change, some did still not fire after months. An international player tested its Content Security Policy only from Switzerland. Some ad companies (e.g. Google Remarketing) use different domains (e.g. google.fr) for their trackers depending on the country you are coming from, so any remarketing was blocked for folks outside of Switzerland. Why not block your entire Google Tag Manager and thus basically everything? What strikes me most: How is it possible this happens so frequently when the most glaring issues are so easy to spot and these policies are usually implemented by tech-savvy folks? Just open your browser console , deactivate your Ad Blocker , and look at all the red lines your browser spits out. It even explicitly tells you it is red due to the Content Security Policy directive (see examples above). when the most glaring issues are and these policies are usually implemented by tech-savvy folks? Just , , and look at all the red lines your browser spits out. It even explicitly tells you it is red due to the Content Security Policy directive (see examples above). Why does it take so long to change a failing CSP, especially if that does NOT require a release? The lack of urgency in some developers and IT security folks (in data-immature organizations) is breathtaking. Just the other week, we reminded a developer that this one Twitter Pixel which would tell Marketing if the tens of thousands of ad dollars spent on Twitter ads is good for anything is still blocked by the CSP (for three months now). His answer: “Ah yes, I was going to do that tomorrow.” In data-mature places, a failing CSP is a picket-service emergency case. In data-immature orgs, you need to file a Jira ticket and then escalate that one three times until anything happens. And then weeks later, people ask you why there is no data in that week. What should be done differently Before implementing a CSP, do the browser sanity check (see “what strikes me most”) to collect domains to be whitelisted in a central list accessible to any relevant stakeholder at your company. Show that list to Marketing and Analytics and give them some time to check (sometimes agency help is required) which of those domains are really needed (for what) and if others need to be added. Not all scripts are loaded on all pages! Some only load on the order confirmation page, others only on product pages, others only after certain interactions (add to cart) etc… So opening the console on the homepage will not be enough, you need to talk to people! Implement a fast process to allow for CSP changes within a maximum of a day or a week (depending on what is common at your place) so Marketing, Product Management or Analytics are not blocked for weeks or months just because of 10 characters that need to be added to a CSP. CSP changes that break existing things need to be part of the emergency picket service. Lost data won’t come back and creates all kinds of issues even months after the loss: E.g. you cannot compare certain weeks/months to each other, you have to explain in graphs that the data for this month is incomplete etc… Allow people from your organization to switch off/circumvent CSPs e.g. on staging systems, or with a certain setting/password/ cookie/parameter/login even on production (production is better because especially in tracking, not everything works the same way if your domain is different). Otherwise people like me cannot test new tools or changes that require requests to not-whitelisted domains in their local browsers. Define a Reporting Endpoint in your CSP Headers so you become aware quickly and automatically of issues. As so often, Dr. Urs Boller had a valuable addition: Within the CSP header, you can set a reporting-API endpoint. This could be your Server-Side Tag Management System’s URL endpoint (e.g. Tealium Collect Server URL) which would then forward the data to Analytics for reporting, or anything that IT teams like to work with (a Google Cloud Function, a Slack channel etc.). That means every issue with the CSP is reported to a defined API endpoint, where you can setup some rules to watch for e.g. Analytics tags. This was really useful for Urs because they detected issues in the CSP changes really early (before they were put into production). Read more here. That’s all, folks. CSPs seemingly became popular in Europe about 1–2 years ago. Now they need to grow up.

https://medium.com/@lukas-oldenburg/content-security-policies-need-to-stop-being-a-money-dump-33525867ec52

['Lukas Oldenburg']

2021-01-21 10:07:03.858000+00:00

['Content Security Policy', 'Google Analytics', 'Tag Management', 'It Security', 'Google Tag Manager']

An A to Z Guide to Personal Branding [Infographic]

Image via Unsplash by Barry Feldman Bruce Springsteen doesn’t send me email often. Okay, he never has. But if he did, I promise you I’d open it. What’s on your mind, Boss? I have to know. Why would I be so receptive to email from Bruce? I like him. I trust him. His name means something to me — something special (to put it mildly). You probably know the name Jay Baer. If he’s a master songwriter, he’s kept that from me. However, thanks to his books, blog, videos, podcasts, speeches, and so forth, I’m a fan. Jay does send me email. You better believe I open it — with high expectations. I expect Jay’s going to share useful lessons about social media, content marketing, and customer service. I recognize Bruce Springsteen as a master storyteller about the human condition, whose stories are set to music. I recognize Jay to be a master storyteller about marketing, sales, and service. Would I Open Your Email? If your email lands in my crowded inbox, I may or may not open it. Chances are I’ll open it if I recognize you as someone I trust — someone who can deliver some sort of value into my life. So there’s the crux of what I’m trying to tell you today: You want recognition from those with whom you can have mutually beneficial relationships. In 1997, Tom Peters wrote for FastCompany, “It’s a brand new world.” He continued, “We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You.” “Personal branding,” as a term, was born. Tom explained, “When everybody has email and anybody can send you email, how do you decide whose messages you’re going to read and respond to first — and whose you’re going to send to the trash unread? The answer: personal branding.” The question remains as valid today as it did in 1997, but 20 years later, you can apply the same sort of deliberation to your blog, online program, any social media channel, or any form of communication. If you want an audience to know your name and attach meaning to it, you have work to do. Personal Branding by the Letters There are quite a few pieces of the personal branding puzzle, both digital and traditional. Many broach topics you’ll study and practice for any kind of brand. Others apply strictly to you and the things you do as an individual. Suffice to say, the topic is worthy of a thorough guide. I’m proud to tell you I’m co-authoring The Road to Recognition: The A-to-Z Guide to Personal Branding for Accelerating Your Professional Success in the Age of Digital Media. My co-author’s Seth Price, and the book features a foreword by Jay Baer and insightful contributions from numerous accomplished personal branders, marketing and sales professionals. Stay tuned for a forthcoming release date. Check out the launch site here. And have a look at the infographic we’ve designed to give you an A-to-Z preview. Courtesy of: The Road to Recognition Originally published at www.convinceandconvert.com.

https://medium.com/convince-and-convert/an-a-to-z-guide-to-personal-branding-infographic-fe06830e80f2

['Convince']

2017-08-03 14:15:24.416000+00:00

['Authenticity', 'Thought Leadership', 'Brand Strategy', 'Personal Branding', 'Digital Marketing']

Base Protocol Update: July 2021

Acknowledging the community’s feedback on the BASE 2.0 proposal and providing an update on Base Protocol’s future direction. BASE Direction As many of you know, the Base Protocol team recently released materials on what we’ve referred to as “BASE 2.0,” a potential version of BASE that seeks to achieve the crypto market cap price peg by different methods than network-wide supply adjustments. The merit to this idea is that it opens up a way for BASE to be “backed” and allows for better compatibility across popular DeFi platforms and centralized exchanges / lending platforms. However, it requires more dev support to maintain the peg, requires more effort for users to benefit from supply expansion events through participation in auctions, and it is a major fundamental change to the original Base Protocol experiment that the community has supported so far. We’ve tracked everyone’s feedback since the release of the BASE 2.0 proposal, and a majority of the vocal community favors pure rebasing. The team is committed to act in the interest of BASE holders. That’s the reason we made efforts to consider new approaches to the protocol — to be thorough in exploring every option for BASE to become the leading crypto market tracking asset. But we consider BASE holders a part of the team, and the team has made its position clear that it wants to continue as planned from launch. That being said, BASE will continue on as a rebase token! 🎉 Market Outlook The Base Protocol journey has been a roller coaster of extreme circumstances. BASE’s explosive first week set the stage for a market frenzy of new launchpad projects through platforms like DuckDAO, Polkastarter, Ignition and more. This ecosystem has made way for communities that often jump from project to project, maintaining enthusiasm at launch and dropping off shortly after. We’ve noticed a lot of the BASE community migrate away from the project in favor of new presale opportunities. Members of the BASE community often reflect back on the “heydays” with expectations that the project can achieve the same rate of growth again in the future. Our hope is that moving forward, holders will adopt a more sensible outlook. In the same vein, we should also openly acknowledge some of the challenges we will face moving forward: Future compatibility with rebasing tokens in DeFi is unknown and difficult to predict (i.e. Uniswap V3 not supporting rebases). It will take considerable time to integrate cross-chain functionality with reliable cross-chain rebases. Centralized exchanges hesitate to make integration efforts for listing rebase tokens. The challenges listed above are likely reasons we haven’t seen many new rebase projects emerge in the market lately. These challenges are by no means fatal to the future of BASE, but might hinder its potential to grow in certain ways. We and most other teams in the algorithmic price peg ecosystem have acknowledged rebasing as an experiment. Our plan is to continue making the most out of this experiment, leaving no stone unturned. Our goal in this blog post is to make the direction of the project clear and ensure that all holders are aware of the risks / challenges moving forward. It’s possible that, at times, the market determines that rebasing isn’t valuable. It’s also possible that, at times, the market determines rebasing is valuable. Regardless, we will ensure that BASE is able to support continuous functionality throughout any market conditions. Team Member Update About three months ago, we onboarded our friend JR3 to oversee the financial modeling and economics behind the BASE 2.0 protocol. Given the decision to move forward as a rebasing token, JR3 will be stepping away from the project. As the mastermind behind BASE 2.0, we greatly appreciate his contributions and note that they are his to pursue separately without any involvement or expectations from the original members of the team. We wish him the best in his future endeavors! BASE Plans We will continue in our efforts to make the most out of what rebasing has to offer. Given the continued success of the original / popularly adopted rebasing asset, AMPL, there is certainly room for new BASE adoption. Currently, BASE is championing the movement towards fully decentralized and automated rebasing. We recently became the first use case for Chainlink Keepers, an integration that now automates daily rebase transactions for BASE. A major focus this year is to build BASE into a truly decentralized and self-sustaining ecosystem for crypto market cap tracking. Other plans include the release of a new front end (referred to as BASE+), follow ups with DeFi lending platforms and possibly cross-chain functionality. Along the way we’ll be offering opportunities to get the community more involved, with the end goal of Base Protocol becoming a truly community-driven project by the one-year anniversary. You can expect activities, airdrops, and awesome staking options this year! Cheers everyone 🍻

https://medium.com/@BaseProtocol/base-protocol-update-july-2021-6e752d32f3b5

['Base Protocol']

2021-07-06 18:00:38.043000+00:00

['Uniswap', 'Ethereum', 'Blockchain', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Defi']

Focus on the details and take the shot! 3 steps to capturing the moment!

As a leader or manager in the Health and Social Care or Voluntary Sector, are you waiting for things to get better before getting down to making some changes in your life, developing your team, starting a new project? Do you feel that starting a business, looking for a new job, signing up for a course would be awesome but maybe in 2021, when conditions should be improved? Procrastination (noun): the action of delaying or postponing something. Photographers need to take the shot when they see it, lose the moment and they might never have that opportunity again. Why don’t we make the most of opportunities and take the shot? As leaders and managers, we could actually lose a great deal of valuable time waiting for the ideal situation (which probably never comes)! The real issue is that life is never going to line itself up into neat boxes so that a perfect space opens up for your dreams. Thinking back, has everything ever been ideal? In March of this year, I saw an opportunity to start an ILM Level 7 Coaching Leaders and Managers Diploma. The problem was, I could not afford it and I really did not have the time either, so it was impossible (or so I thought). However, I found out more about it, there were some different payment options and I could move some things around because it was online. I decided to go for it. I had to take an informed risk and believe that this was an opportunity I should grab with both hands, I could easily have missed the shot! Sometimes a photographer takes a perfect shot, they can see its potential and no matter what is going on around them (other people, terrible weather, distractions, feeling tired or hungry), they just point the camera, examine the view and take the shot. They might even take several shots because they know they can take a look later and select the best one. How about our role at work, are we plodding on and just trying to crawl through the week (maybe things will get better next week — the diary looks a little easier then)? Really, we already know that by next week, it will have filled up again and another week will roll by. How can we be proactive instead of procrastinating? Step number 1: What do you really want? Over the last year, I have been setting aside time to think (I know it sounds dangerous)! I had a reasonable job teaching English and I was making a living and I was able to work from home too, it didn’t seem to be necessary to rock the boat by trying to develop a business as a Leadership and Management Coach. However, when I thought about the future and what I wanted to be doing in 5 years, I knew I needed to make a commitment to study and develop myself and to consider how to start a coaching practice. Really, now is the only time we have to make change because tomorrow, next week, next month — they are beyond our grasp. Back in February, I was dreaming of having my own successful coaching practice — what would that look like? Well I would be working with inspiring people, improve my work-life balance and really loving the satisfaction of supporting and encouraging my clients, I would be a qualified coach and have time to study and improve and develop myself and my networks (this would be an 8 on my scale — see below). This was what I really wanted. Today, could you set aside some time to consider where you want to be in 5 years, what would you be doing, how would you feel, what would be different? Write it down, this really helps. I find scaling really awesome — on a scale of 0–10 with 10 being a perfect life, where would you be if you achieved all of this? If you send me an email, I will send you my scaling tool, making it easy to use and re-use (see below for my contact details). Step number 2: Where are you right now? While dreaming is awesome, we also need to keep it real. You know where you want to go but where are you now — on the scale, what score would you give to the here and now. I am sure that there are things you are doing as well as things you have done before that have contributed to bring you to this point — write them down on your scale. If I looked at where I was back then, I would put myself at a 5 because I already ran my own business teaching English so I didn’t have to hand in my notice, my work was flexible, I had a background in Voluntary Sector Management and I had already coached many clients and seen positive change, I had a Management qualification (ILM Level 5), I was an experienced Project Leader so I felt able to tackle a new challenge — even though there is a huge gap between 5 and 8, I thought I could make a reasonable start. How about you, I am convinced you have already achieved things and built up your skills and resources to get to this point. You know where you are now and you are ready to build a new and exciting future on the foundations you laid before. Step number 3: What would be one small step towards your goal? Dreams are achievable step by step. Standing still will certainly never move you closer to your hopeful future and especially mentally, getting started takes a huge amount of courage, just one point up the scale, what would that look like, what would you be doing, how would you feel? For me I needed to get to 6 (to show myself that I was sick of passive acceptance and I was ready for an adventure), I made an enquiry about the course and although it was going to be a financial commitment, I knew I could work some additional hours in the short term and pay for it, I talked to my husband about it and he agreed to support me too — I was accepted on the course and got moving! What do you need to do to move one point up your scale? Who can support you? What changes do you need to make to get there? Looking back, I am so pleased that I took my first step. I enjoyed my course, passed the assignment part and now I am coaching clients in the sectors I love, I have launched my own website: www.juliebcoaching.co.uk, I have published some Blogs to encourage others, I have a growing network of some of the most inspiring people in the sectors on LinkedIn. I have been able to reduce my hours as an English tutor too and will continue to do this as my business grows and develops. I am currently coaching 5 clients — including a Management Graduate looking for their first senior role, a Quality Assurance Lead in an Educational organisation and a Voluntary Sector Middle Manager. To be truly resilient, we cannot just sit still, we must just take the shot because if we don’t, things will move on and we could lose the perfect picture! Be adventurous, point to the future (what does it look like for you), where are you now and start moving! You will certainly not regret taking control of your own future. One step at a time (as long as you know what you are aiming for)! If you are a leader or manager in the Voluntary or Health and Social Care Sector, why not take advantage of the gift of a RESILIENCE CONVERSATION or a COACHING CONVERSATION with me? It will be a win-win situation because you will be able to meet me on Zoom and share some of your hopes for the future and ideas about your next step and I will hear more about how you are being resilient (which will help me with my research on the topic) or you could experience some of the benefits of a coaching session? How to get in touch: find me on LinkedIn, visit my website: www.juliebcoaching.co.uk or email me: joolieb1@hotmail.co.uk

https://medium.com/@joolieb1/focus-on-the-details-and-take-the-shot-3-steps-to-capturing-the-moment-679039d07bb6

['Julie Buckingham']

2020-11-22 17:35:59.919000+00:00

['Personal Development', 'Leadership', 'Growth', 'Goal Setting']

Angel Protocol — building a world where all charities are financially free

Angel Protocol — building a world where all charities are financially free Angel Protocol Jun 16·3 min read Angel Protocol is a global social enterprise that leverages revolutionary decentralized finance (DeFi) yield mechanisms such as Anchor Protocol’s 20% ‘Earn’ functionality to create perpetual charity endowments. By doing so, we build a world where all charities can have financial freedom. In short, Angel Protocol enables charities to get a better return on their deposits, and donors get to know their money is being put to more efficient use. Powered behind the scenes by the incredible possibilities created by ‘DeFi’ and importantly, Angel Protocol abstracts away the complexity of crypto for the everyday user. Rather than have to go through multiple steps and have an in-depth knowledge of DeFi and Cryptocurrency, prospective donors will engage with a simple interface that allows them to donate to a charity or cause of their choice by selecting from a menu. In the MVP launching in the coming months, donors can choose to donate to a basket of charitable indexes aligned with the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). Importantly, charities will have a very easy onboarding process to enable them to collect the donations and benefit from a sustainable and continual source of income with as little fuss as possible. Each charity will have their own page that includes additional information on that charity or cause (background, supporting information on the cause, data on charity’s use of user funds). Charity leadership dashboards will be developed to help highlight community giving “heroes” with NFT badges available in the future thanks to partners such as Talis Protocol. Angel Protocol provides easy access to endowments with no on-boarding cost or setup fees. An endowment is a donation of money or property to a nonprofit organization, which uses the resulting investment income for funding. Endowments are designed to keep the principal amount intact while using the investment income for charitable efforts. To borrow phrasing from Terra’s defining white paper, there is demand for a decentralized, price-stable and transparent charity protocol in both fiat and blockchain economies. If such a protocol succeeds, then it has the potential to be the largest community-owned charity in the world. Between the power of, initially, Anchor’s Earn yield and the magic of compounding interest, Angel Protocol has the potential to be the most effective charity protocol the world’s ever known.

https://medium.com/@angelprotocol/angel-protocol-redefining-social-giving-ffd4e5b561b5

['Angel Protocol']

2021-06-16 16:11:27.649000+00:00

['Giving', 'Charity', 'Fundraising', 'Defi', 'Cryptocurrency']

Are you resilient?

Why should you care about protective factors Humour contributes to resilience. Credit: Kate OSeen via Unsplash By Mia Eisenstadt If you imagine any adverse event, such as being caught in a natural disaster or enduring a years of brutal bullying by peers; afterwards, some of us will move forward with our lives, relatively unscarred. Others will not be so lucky. Some people may be haunted by the experience for years to come, or maybe develop a condition, such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) (involving flashbacks or numbing) or develop other conditions, such as anxiety or depression. Researchers have studied the phenomenon of why some people bounce back from adverse events and others do not. Careful study has enabled the identification of what separates resilient individuals from those that are less resilient. Those who overcome adverse events positively tend to have the presence of particular protective factors. Those that bounce back easily may have also had less difficulties (or factors that increase risk) in their lives at the time of the event (or over the course of their development) described as risk factors. What are protective factors? Protective factors are factors that increase our mental well-being or mental health positively or those factors that reduce the risk of developing any mental heath condition (such as PTSD, anxiety, depression) or reduce the risk of a negative outcome, such as alcohol addiction. A range of protective factors that increase mental wellbeing and mental health positively have been discovered. Protective factors include having high levels of optimism or positive self-esteem. Within our lifestyles, protective factors include having a committed romantic partnership or engaging in regular exercise. Some protective factors begin in childhood, such as having a close bond with parents, as well as growing up in warm, and loving family climate. Or, growing up having grandparent support. Renowned psychologist and pioneer of attachment theory, John Bowlby (1969, 1988) formulated the notion that a child needs to be able to find a “safe haven” in her relationships with her parents. Bowlby hypothesized that from this supportive parental base, a child is able to explore the world. Since Bowlby’s period, substantial evidence has supported the ideas of secure and insecure attachment. For example, children that are not securely bonded with their parents are more likely to have depressive symptoms both in childhood and adolescence. Growing up in the context of close and warm parental relationships is good for mental health. Credit: Bruno Nascimento via Unsplash During my PhD research at the Evidence Based Practice Unit, I’ve had the opportunity to interview early adolescents (aged 10–13 years)as part of the evaluation of HeadStart. Through listening to young people’s perspectives, I’ve tried to understand young people’s lived experience of protective factors in relation to everyday and severe difficulties that they describe. The young interviewees talked about various factors that helped them to manage stress and difficulties. Protective factors included cuddles with a beloved pet, confiding in a peer mentor, spending time with close friends after school and both deep breathing and counting to 10 to release angry feelings. Many more factors were described too, and exactly what factors were helpful and how were unique to each individual. To know more about what we found, you can read more about these factors and coping strategies through these hyperlinks. However, it’s important to point out that we don’t all start out on a level playing field. Some individuals may have experienced more difficulties than others. By way of contrast, a child that has lost a parent to bereavement or abandonment living with a single father on a council estate, will likely have a very different experience of childhood compared to a young person that grew up in a leafy suburb with two married parents that had an absence of stress. There is a vast array of situational characteristics (parenting style, parental monitoring, parental health issues, family financial standing, presence or absence of harsh discipline, presence of or absence or maltreatment, availability of social support, housing quality, neighbourhood characteristics) that contribute to each individuals’ unique combination of risk and protective factors. These parental factors occur as an additional setting before an adolescent’s own personality and character traits is added to their capacity for resilience. Incredibly, some of the risks a child will face is set in motion before a child is born from the environments they are born into. What influences how resilient we are? Resilience is widely agreed to refer to the capacity of an individual or a system to bounce back from an adverse event and adapt positively. There are many influences on our levels of resilience. Factors are neurobiological, genetic, temperamental, and environmental. It is difficult to consciously alter the neurobiological and genetic factors that we are born with. It is also difficult to change the experiences of parenting we may have experienced growing-up. Studies have shown that growing-up with experiences of harsh and rejecting parenting, is likely to negatively affect mental health in adulthood. Difficulties in early life is studied as adversity or Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES). The more ACES a child endures, the higher the likelihood that they will developing a mental health disorder, an addiction or even a physical health condition in adulthood. Comparison of the number of ACES reported as experienced compared with health outcomes in adulthood has demonstrated this link. For instance, a key study by Vincent Felitti found that American adults who reported four adverse childhood events were 390% more likely to have Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) than a person with an ACE score of zero. However, adverse experiences cover a specific range of experiences that may narrower than the full range of difficulties that adolescents experience. Another approach is to examine all possible risk factors that may not be adverse, but, statistically change the odds of a particular outcome occurring. For example, being female can increase the risk of developing anxiety and depression. Or, being male can increase the risk of internet addiction and being female can increase the risk of smartphone addiction, research finds. Fortunately, whilst adversity changes the odds of physical and mental health conditions, it do not determine them. Further more, there are factors that can be changed both in childhood, adolescence and adulthood that can boost our resilience. What can we change? Some protective factors are highly specific to a social group. For example, the protective factors to lower the risk of depression for low income African American mothers (such as access to quality housing and food security), will be different to those for affluent American white women. It is important to remember the specificity of protective factors. However, there are a number of factor that even if they vary by ethnicity or gender to some extent, they are relevant to us all. A recent study by Zimmerman et al (2020) found protective factors that can be changed included social support, coping, and physical activity, as well as seeking help from a professional for other psychological problems. Vigorous physical activity was found to lower anxiety symptoms more than light physical exercise (e.g. walking). This means these are all things we can actively do to reduce the risk of depression. However, the authors suggested that more research is needed to understand which risk factors can be changed and have an impact. Other factors that can boost resilience include: Self efficacy. This refers to an “individuals’ beliefs in their capabilities to mobilize the motivation, cognitive resources, and agency to exert control over a given event” This refers to an “individuals’ beliefs in their capabilities to mobilize the motivation, cognitive resources, and agency to exert control over a given event” Self awareness. This refers to awareness of self and emotions This refers to awareness of self and emotions Optimism. This refers to our beliefs about a positive future for one’s self. This refers to our beliefs about a positive future for one’s self. Gratitude. This refers to being thankful for aspects of life. This refers to being thankful for aspects of life. Humour . This refers to jokes and the capacity to draw humor from circumstance This refers to jokes and the capacity to draw humor from circumstance Religiosity or Spirituality. This refers to an individual’s belief in a higher power, spiritual belief system or religious belief system. This refers to an individual’s belief in a higher power, spiritual belief system or religious belief system. Life satisfaction. This refers to an individual’s positive assessment of their quality of life. This refers to an individual’s positive assessment of their quality of life. Social support . This refers to “the extent to which an individual believes that his/her needs for support, information, and feedback are fulfilled” (Procidano & Heller, 1983, p. 2). . This refers to “the extent to which an individual believes that his/her needs for support, information, and feedback are fulfilled” (Procidano & Heller, 1983, p. 2). Psychological flexibility. This idea refers to accepting emotions adjusting needs and desires in light of situational demands (Hayes et al., 2006) Key take away The good news is that we can influence our mental health outcomes. It is helpful to know about research on protective factors so that we can modify them. Boosting protective factors matters, particularly in the context of adversity. Whilst it is true that some people are born more with more natural extroversion and a more cheerful demeanour than others (that can be protective), we are each situated in a unique intersection of risk and protective factors. We can identify factors that we would like to increase, either through therapeutic interventions, working with a therapist, or our own efforts at self-directed learning and personal growth. For children, protective factors can be increased by the people who care for them, or through parents modifying behaviours, through parenting programs. Protective factors matter, they can change how we may respond under stress. In fact, increasing the protective factors associated with resilience, may be more impactful than decreasing risk factors. A study led by Ji Hee Lee at Korea University found that some factors: such as positive emotions, self-efficacy, optimism, social support, self-esteem, and life satisfaction, had a bigger effect on an individual’s resilience than other factors such as risk factors and sociodemographic factors. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA.

https://medium.com/an-idea/are-you-resilient-7ae45c71b56b

['Mia Eisenstadt']

2020-10-10 08:35:44.725000+00:00

['Mental Health', 'Mental Wellbeing', 'Protective Factors', 'Resilience', 'Mental Health Awareness']

3 Ways Hope Empowers Big Presentations

Three Ways Hope Empowers Big Presentations You take a deep breath, stand up, move to the front, and speak. Each step requires you to overcome fear. Which leads to the question: Why are you doing this? Why take the risk? It takes courage to stand up and speak up. There must be a “why” that moves you to overcome fear and make your voice heard. So, what is it? What is important enough to move you out of your seat and up to the front? What is your hope? Notice that these questions do not focus on the topic of your presentation. Your hope is bigger than the topic. Your hope empowers the topic. This presentation is just one step along the way toward your hope. Examples of Hope What am I talking about? Here are a few examples. Kelle hopes to achieve mobile work that will allow her to work from anywhere while not worrying about her ability to pay the bills. Hope empowers her work. Audrey hopes to build nursing experiences that will equip her to travel globally while providing services in places where quality health care is unavailable. Hope empowers her daily service. Larisa hopes to build a counseling career that will help couples achieve maintain healthy relationships. Hope empowers her study. I hope to provide educational products that produce passive income leading to financial freedom and the freedom to travel. Hope empowers my writing and teaching. How Hope Empowers Hope Looks Beyond the Present All moments are not created equal. We all have good days and bad days, fun tasks and tedium, things we look forward to, and things we dread. Hope looks beyond the present task and holds to the belief that no matter how good or bad the present, the future is going to be better. The hope we are reaching for will create a better tomorrow. Hope empowers optimism. Hope Creates Perspective When facing challenges and failures, they will threaten to fill your field of vision. The difficulties can cause you to squint in ways that blur the bigger picture. It is easy to lose sight of the reason for all this work. Hope empowers. When we keep our hope in mind, it creates perspective. It reminds you to step back, look around, stop squinting, and see the challenges as small when compared with the glorious hope before us. Hope empowers a bigger perspective. Hope Provides Meaning Because… Hope fills in the blank. Why are you doing this work? Why are you putting in the time and putting fear behind you? Why are you making sacrifices? When others ask. When frustrations make you question your decisions, hope provides meaning. Hope empowers perseverance. It allows you to say, “Because…” and then fill in the blank with your hope. What Hope Moves You? Your hope is what moves you to push back that chair and step to the front. When fear threatens to distract you, remember your hope. It is the reason you are here. It is bigger than the fear. As you pursue your hope, Big Presentations can provide encouragement and guidance. Do you want to learn even more? Order Big Presentations in Small Rooms. So, what about you? What is your hope? How does your hope empower you?

https://medium.com/@michael-gibson/3-ways-hope-empowers-big-presentations-c4de87abc4ea

['Michael Gibson']

2020-12-21 16:05:50.134000+00:00

['Meetings', 'Leadership Development', 'Presentation Skills', 'Public Speaking']

Overwrite Strings in an executable

This is a quick and dirty POC with no frills, no guard rails and almost no testing 😊. It looks for things like “mimikatz” and “sekurlsa” in the executable and replaces it with a string like “mimifish” and “sekufish” but in the executable rather than the source code. Helpful if you don’t have the source code! All this does is takes an EXE and turns it into a HEX string. It converts the string to search for and string to replace into HEX and then searches for it in the HEX representation of the file. Then replaces the value and converts it back to a file. In this POC, the FIND string size needs to be the same as the REPLACE string size. This is what normal mimikatz looks like from Benjamin Delpy and Vincent le Toux. And here is what it looks like after I replace some strings in the executable. Notice it didn’t find “sekurlsa” because I replaced it with “sekufish”. Also I’ve butchered the the ASCII art (I believe I once read that some AV’s look for the ascii art of mimikatz). And when I run “sekufish” instead of “sekurlsa” it still runs like normal and I’m dumping credentials on my machine. Hooray I didn’t destroy the functionality. Here is a quick virus total look of the binary before the string replacement. After here is virus total after the string replacement. It made a difference! I only spent an hour on changing a few of the strings so it is likely, with some effort, this might fare better in Virus Total. One thing to note, when I ran DITTO on the binary (and cloned notepad) it also dropped the detection rate further. Here is the POC code for a console program. I hard coded the input and output files (sorry I’m super busy). feel free to follow me on twitter https://twitter.com/_markmo_ @_markmo_ reference code: C# https://codereview.stackexchange.com/questions/3226/replace-sequence-of-strings-in-binary-file Linux https://everydaywithlinux.blogspot.com/2012/11/patch-strings-in-binary-files-with-sed.html?m=1

https://medium.com/@markmotig/overwrite-strings-in-an-exe-av-evasion-maybe-f28935078911

['Mark Mo']

2020-02-14 14:24:31.601000+00:00

['Infosec', 'Blue Team', 'Red Team']

Monte Carlo Methods. This is part 5 of the RL tutorial…

Chapter 5 — Monte Carlo Methods Unlike previous chapters where we assume complete knowledge of the environment, here we’ll estimate value functions and find optimal policies based on experience. We start looking at model-free learning, where we don’t have knowledge of the state to next state transition given our actions. In general, Monte Carlo describes randomized algorithms. In this chapter we use it to describe sampling episodes randomly from our environment Monte Carlo methods require only experience. Meaning, they sample states, actions, and rewards, while interacting with the environment. They are a way to solve RL problems based on averaging sample returns. And since we are going to average returns, the book focuses on Monte Carlo for episodic tasks (if we would have a continuous task it will be difficult to compute the average). Once an episode ends, the value estimates and policies change. How chapters 3 and 4 worked To see how the previous chapters updated the value of states, let’s look at the Bellman equation again In those cases, we knew how state “s” transition into the next state “ s’ “ because we had a model of the environment. In model free learning, we don’t have the transition function p(s’, r | s, a). Instead, we update the states by averaging the returns we experience while traveling through those states. Basically, until now we knew all the transitions (s → s’) so we could just update a state value by calculate them. Now however, we have to actually explore, starting from state “s”, see what the next state and action look like from experience (i.e. sample a state and action), and update that state “s” value by averaging the results as we’re exploring. How the sampling returns differ from before Sampling returns (left) vs backup diagram vπ (right) [ref] In sampling returns, we update the value of state “S” based on samples of episodes going through the state (left image). In comparison, in the backup diagram before we looked 1 step ahead to all of the next states S’, and used that to update state S. Monte Carlo (MC) Prediction Here we’ll see how we can learn the state value function for a policy. Different from previous model based RL methods, is that here we’re changing how we’re evaluating the policy and estimating the state-action values. From previous chapters we’ve seen that the value of a state is the expected return starting from that state and then following a particular policy. An easy way to estimate it based on experience, would be to average the returns we observe after visiting a state. As we interact with the environment more and observe more returns, the average should converge to the expected value. That’s the idea behind all Monte Carlo methods. Suppose we want to estimate the value of a state Vπ(s). Each time we visit state “s” in an episode is called a “visit to s”. Clearly, we may visit “s” many times in a single episode. Let’s call the first time we visit “s” in an episode the “first visit to s”. In first-visit MC, we estimate the value of state “s” by averaging the returns we observe after our first visit to “s”. In every-visit MC, we estimate the value of “s” by averaging the returns after all visits to “s”. First visit MC [ref] Monte Carlo Estimation of Action Values As we’ve seen, if we have a model of the environment it’s quite easy to determine the policy from the state values (we look 1 step ahead to see which state gives the best combination of reward and next state). But if we don’t have a model of the environment, state values are not enough. In that case, it is useful to estimate action values (the values of different actions in a state) rather than state values. Thus, a main goal of MC methods is to estimate the optimal action values q∗. To obtain q∗, we first look at policy evaluation for action values. Which means that we’re going to estimate qπ(s, a), the expected return when you start in state “s”, take an action “a”, and then follow a policy π. This is similar to what we talked about with state values (Vπ), except that now we’re talking about visiting a state-action pair, rather than just a state. You can think about it as being a little more specific. A single state may have several actions. So by visiting a state we have several options (i.e. actions) we can take. However, when we talk about state-action pair, we are always talking about taking that specific action in that specific state. In the first-visit MC method we average the returns after the first time we took that action in that state. In the every-visit MC method we estimate the value of that state-action pair by averaging the returns that have followed visits to it. The only problem is that many state-action pairs may never be visited. For example, if we have a deterministic policy we’ll only get one action per state (the one that the policy favor). And hence, we’ll only observe returns for one action. This is the general problem of maintaining exploration — for policy evaluation to work we need to make sure that we visit all actions in every state. One way to go about this, is to specify that every episode will start in some state–action pair, and that every pair has a probability > 0 to be selected as the start pair. The book called it the assumption of exploring starts. But this assumption doesn’t always work. For example, if we learn directly from the interaction with the environment, starting conditions are not very useful. A more common way to go about it, is to only consider stochastic policies where the probability of every action in every state is not 0. Monte Carlo Control We now look at how our MC estimation can be used in control. Meaning, to approximate optimal policies. The idea is to follow generalized policy iteration (GPI), where we will maintain an approximate policy and an approximate value function. We continuously alter the value function to be a better approximation for the policy, and the policy is continuously improved (see previous chapter). The policy evaluation part is done exactly as described in the previous chapter, except that we’re evaluating the state-action pair, rather than states. The policy improvement part is done by taking greedy actions in each state. That is, for any action-value function “q”, and for every state “s”, the greedy policy chooses the action with maximal action-value: Monte Carlo Control without Exploring Starts To make sure that all actions are being selected infinitely often, we must continuously select them. There are 2 approaches to ensure this — on-policy methods and off-policy methods. On-policy methods: we try to evaluate or improve the policy that we have. Off-policy methods: we have 2 policies, and we try to evaluate or improve one of them, and use the other for directions. This section focuses on on-policy method that doesn’t use the assumption of exploring starts. The policy is generally soft in on-policy methods. Meaning, π(a|s) > 0 for every state “s” and action “a”, but gradually moving closer to a deterministic optimal policy. The policy is also ε-greedy (see part 2). On policy first visit MC [ref] Off-policy Prediction via Importance Sampling Suppose now that we have episodes generated from a different policy (i.e. off-policy method). The way we go about this is by keeping a target policy π — which is the policy that will try to behave optimally, and we’ll also have a behavior policy b, which is our exploration policy. And the idea is that we’ll use episodes generated from the behavior policy to go and explore the environment, and then use this to update our target policy π. We do that to estimate Vπ or qπ. For this method to work, we have to align π and b with importance sampling. Which is a method of estimating the expected values for one distribution, given samples from another distribution. Basically, we are going to weight the returns based on the relative probability of their trajectories occurring under π and b. We call this the importance-sampling ratio. Example: Consider the 2 vectors below: π (left) and b (right) [image taken by me] Looking at the target policy π, we see that we have 20% chance of taking action A1, where the behavior policy b have 70% chance of taking A1. These kind of different probabilities for actions is why we need to weight the actions differently in π (left) and b (right) So let’s see how importance sampling is used to align the probabilities of 2 policies, so that we can update π even thought we’re behaving using b.

https://towardsdatascience.com/introduction-to-reinforcement-learning-rl-part-5-monte-carlo-methods-25067003bb0f

['Sagi Shaier']

2020-11-21 15:57:27.972000+00:00

['Rl Tutorial Series', 'Data Science', 'Reinforcement Learning Tutorial Series', 'Machine Learning', 'Reinforcement Learning']

Bugs, Bounties & Peace of Mind

As a Bug Bounty Hunter, finding Bugs or security vulnerabilities in websites always feels like finding some hidden treasure in unknown territory. These bugs are like Gems of imperfection, ready to be found by the worthy and get disposed of. The rare the bug or the difficult it is to find the more enthusiastic and proud you feel. If you have found a bug that is difficult to find or by employing some creative techniques you have found a hidden flaw(the hidden gem), even if reporting that bug does not provide you with bounty or anything, you feel accomplished and proud and your skills sharpened by the experience. But this article is about my emotional experience with those bugs that I found easily(without any efforts) and got rewarded(by bounty) for some of those. I was lucky enough that in the first few days of starting bug hunting I found a technical bug, from starting I was keen to not report any bug like SPF or DMARC record misconfiguration, or any scanner founded vulnerability that does not have any immediate great practical impact, that's when I found the bug Parameter tampering on which I wrote my very first article. Even if I did not get rewarded by bounty or swag, I was happy and excited for more, this finding boosted my confidence and give me the subtle motivation that I am not just a wannabe and am capable of contributing to cybersecurity. After this I found similar bugs in some websites with their own VDP and reported them, they awarded me with monetary reward. After these came a slump in my bounty hunting, I was unable to find any bugs so I resorted to reporting LHF(Low Hanging Fruit), the same type of vulnerabilities that I did not wanted to report, Interestingly I reported the SPF misconfiguration for a banking organization bounty program and get awarded with the largest amount of bounty I have ever received, for that LFH finding, but instead of being proud of that high reward, I was dissatisfied and became a victim of Impostor Syndrome. Due to this slump, I tried getting an Internship in Cyber Security to get direction and guidance, It was a badly managed organization with no defined future goals, this internship further swelled my self-loathing, as for saying I was employed but did not learn anything new apart from a little android application pentesting. I again switched and found another internship, this company was a startup but professionally managed, here I started slow-paced but when I found XSS on file uploads, XSS on uploading files with XSS payloads in name, and some other cool vulnerabilities, I felt that adrenaline rush that I experienced in the starting days, I felt back on the track, I learned comparatively more in this internship and enjoyed my time there, it helped in restoring my self-confidence as a Cyber Security Enthusiast. The conclusion of this article can not seem fit for all the intellectuals reading this, but I think the conclusion will seem fit for a majority of people working in this highly competitive domain. I think we should not thrive exclusively for the bounty amount and the numbers of LFH or dupes that we can add and flaunt on to our social media account, instead, we should work on the essence that is securing and learn from those ideals working in cybersecurity, the message of giving back to the community and contributing towards a much more educated Cyber World. 𝒜𝓂𝒶𝓉𝑒𝓊𝓇 𝒜𝓇𝓉𝒾𝓈𝓉 𝓌𝑜𝓇𝓀 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒸𝑜𝓂𝓅𝑒𝓃𝓈𝒶𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃 𝑜𝒻 𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝒶𝓇𝓉, 𝒢𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓉 𝒶𝓇𝓉𝒾𝓈𝓉 𝒻𝒾𝓃𝒹 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒸𝑜𝓂𝓅𝑒𝓃𝓈𝒶𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃 𝑜𝒻 𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝓌𝑜𝓇𝓀 𝒾𝓃 𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝒶𝓇𝓉. 🙏

https://medium.com/@suneets1ngh/bugs-bounties-peace-of-mind-f8a885fb75ec

[]

2021-06-08 11:05:46.306000+00:00

['Cybersecurity', 'Inspiration', 'Peace Of Mind', 'Mindfulness', 'Bug Bounty']

THE 16 THINGS I LEARNED ABOUT SOCIAL NETWORKS

1. Every generation accuse the following ones to be lazy, weak and/or dissolute. 2. When someone accuse you of being “narrow-minded”, it is simply because you don’t agree with him/her. 3. If someone accuse you to go against the “common sense”, be sure everything this someone does or says fits perfectly in the definition of “common sense”. 4. An aphorism may prove a point as well as another aphorism may prove its opposite. 5. When you’re not sure about who actually said something, just write down it was by “A.Einstein” or “Oscar Wilde”. Nobody is going to check. 6. Write down “in my humble opinion” first, and then you can say whatever the hell you want: it doesn’t matter how unscientific, discriminatory or stupid. 7. When you do a grammar mistake, don’t blame the autocorrect (it’s not what people do anymore). Just self-diagnose yourself with dyslexia. 8. Good-looking users will get more engagement than the average, but don’t you dare to say that loud. 9. “Motivational quotes” never really motivated anyone. 10. Everybody has got “haters” to whom dedicate at least a weekly post. 11. Write down more than 6 words, and be sure there will be something that someone may find offensive 12. Despite the vaste majority of people say they’re uninterested in physical appearances, photo filters are overly used. 13. If you get some weird message by some creepy guy, don’t block him! Keep chatting, then screenshot and post it. “Name and shame” are the best for getting engagement! 14. People that tell you to “think with your own mind”, usually spread theories they read in some blog (or watched on Youtube). 15. When you see “Media don’t cover this” as a premise to a news, usually that news either is all over the place, or is a total bullshit. 16. Last but not the least: mocking the average social network user (even writing down semi-serious lists), won’t make you any smarter.

https://medium.com/@giulio-3557/the-16-things-i-learned-about-social-networks-f5cea6caf1ab

['Giulio Virduci']

2020-09-06 07:02:30.632000+00:00

['Social Media', 'Social Network', 'Social Networking', 'Social']

Europe starts Covid-19 vaccination as new virus strain spreads

Europe starts Covid-19 vaccination as new virus strain spreads Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email licensing@ft.com to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be found here. A 78-year-old French former cleaning lady, a 96-year-old Spaniard in a care home and a 29-year-old Italian nurse became some of the first people in the EU to receive the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine against coronavirus, as a new, more infectious strain of the virus spreads across the bloc. In co-ordinated actions on Sunday, countries including France, Germany, Italy and Spain began vaccinating older, at-risk people and frontline medical and care staff, while warning that in the immediate future restrictions were likely to be tightened rather than relaxed. France launched its vaccination programme on Sunday morning with elderly patients and medical staff in Sevran near Paris — the first to receive the injection was Mauricette, a 78-year-old retired cleaning lady — to be followed by a geriatric ward in Dijon in Burgundy in the afternoon. Others vaccinated on Sunday included Araceli Rosario Hidalgo, a 96-year-old in a care home in Guadalajara, who became the first to receive the injection in Spain, and Claudia Alivernini, a Rome-based nurse, the first person in Italy to receive the jab. Araceli Rosario Hidalgo, a 96-year-old in a care home in Guadalajara, became the first person to receive the injection in Spain © Pepe Zamora/POOL/AFP/Getty Images In Germany, Edith Kwoizalla, a 101-year old woman, had already been vaccinated on Saturday in the state of Saxony-Anhalt — leading the national health ministry to complain that the regional authorities’ decision to start the jabs a day early undermined the co-ordinated EU rollout. The vaccination campaign started after the EU’s medicine regulator approved the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine, the first Covid-19 shot to get the green light, on Monday. UK and the US regulators have also authorised the vaccine and begun its rollout this month. The EU has ordered 300m doses of the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine — enough for 150m people, as two doses are required for each person, as well as hundreds of millions of doses of vaccines yet to be approved, including those made by AstraZeneca, Sanofi-GSK, Johnson & Johnson, CureVac, and Moderna. “If you had told me six months ago that it would happen this fast, I wouldn’t have believed it,” Olivier Véran, French health minister, was quoted as saying in Le Journal du Dimanche. But he also warned the French government could not rule out a third national lockdown to slow down infections and called on people not to celebrate New Year’s Eve. German authorities issued similar warnings, calling on citizens to refrain from the tradition of setting off fireworks to avoid large gatherings in the street and jamming up hospitals with injuries. France, like Germany and Italy, has already detected a case of the new, highly transmissible variant of coronavirus that has become widespread in parts of southern England and has led several countries to restrict or ban travel with the UK. Spain on Saturday said it had identified four cases, all of them people who had arrived from Britain. The new variant has also been detected in other countries including Israel, where prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided on a third nationwide lockdown starting on Sunday evening. Israeli residents will be restricted to within a kilometre of their homes, but schools up to fourth grade and after the tenth grade will remain open. There is no definitive evidence yet that the new vaccines offer protection against the new variant. But experts maintain it is highly likely to do so, since the part of the virus that the jabs target, the so-called spike protein, is likely to not have changed. However, scientists have also cautioned that vaccination campaigns and lockdowns are likely to inflict “evolutionary pressure” on the virus in the long run, meaning tweaks to highly efficacious vaccines will still be needed. Health authorities have already reckoned that vaccination campaigns are likely to be necessary yearly to offer lasting protection against future outbreaks. There also remain questions about how many citizens will ultimately accept vaccination. France is among the most sceptical countries in the world about vaccines. In a 2018 study, one in three disagreed that vaccines were safe, the highest proportion of any country. In Germany, according to a YouGov poll, about two-thirds of people are willing to take the vaccine, while about 19 per cent are against a vaccination, and another 16 per cent are undecided. Of those who said they were willing to be vaccinated, 33 per cent said they would take the vaccine after waiting to see the impact on those first vaccinated. But Jens Spahn, health minister, trumpeted the vaccine as a national achievement. “The vaccine was developed by BioNTech, a German company,” he said. “This vaccine, made in Germany, means hope for us and for the world.” Additional reporting by Donato Paolo Mancini, Davide Ghiglione in Rome and Mehul Srivastava in Tel Aviv . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

https://medium.com/@fionacowsix/europe-starts-covid-19-vaccination-as-new-virus-strain-spreads-1997271a0a83

[]

2020-12-27 23:15:43.877000+00:00

['Europe', 'Startse', 'Covid 19', 'Virus', 'Vaccination']

4 Steps to Reach Exceptional Levels of Performance

2 — If You Cannot Be The Best, Focus on Being Unique Do you think you cannot be great because you failed at winning a gold medal? or because you lose a contest of the best painting? Did you come last at the annual competition of the entrepreneur of the year? Another misconception that many of us have is to think that, to become great, we must become the best in a particular field. This is not necessarily true. Evidence shows that another way to achieve tremendous success is to offer a unique combination of several valuable skills. A combination that is rare or that no one else has. Scott Adams, the author of “How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big” says the following: “Everyone has at least a few areas in which they could be in the top 25% with some effort. In my case, I can draw better than most people, but I am hardly an artist. I am not any funnier than the average standup comedian, but I am funnier than most people. The magic is that few people can draw well and write jokes. It is the combination of the two that makes what I do so rare. And when you add in my business background, suddenly I had a topic that few cartoonists could hope to understand without living it”. By mixing three different skills (i.e. drawing, comedy, and business), Scott Adams made himself truly unique in the market. He then managed to launch a great career as a cartoonist. You can follow the same strategy in life. If you can’t win by being the best at a particular field, you can focus on being unique. If you combine three different skills that you are fairly good at (i.e. each skill puts you in the top 25% of the population), you can create a profile that is rare and valuable in the workplace (25% * 25% * 25% ~ 1.56%). With this system, your set of skills puts you in the top 1.5% of the population! You drastically reduced the level of competition and it is easier for you to stand out.

https://medium.com/illumination-curated/4-steps-to-reach-exceptional-levels-of-performance-ab7af2aa6c77

['Younes Henni']

2020-12-09 12:04:42.064000+00:00

['Life Lessons', 'Self Improvement', 'Productivity', 'Education', 'Personal Development']

GENETIC ALGORITHM

A simpler approach to understand genetic algorithm with example in a fun way. Before understanding genetic algorithm, lets understand ‘what is optimization technique ?’ Optimization Technique : Optimization techniques are the techniques that are used to discover the best solution out of all the possible solutions available under the constraints present. Now understand ‘Genetic Algorithm’ : Genetic algorithm is one such optimization algorithm that is built on the basis of the natural evolutionary process of our nature. They are commonly used to generate high-quality solutions for optimization problems and search problems. Genetic algorithms simulate the process of natural selection which means those species who can adapt to changes in their environment are able to survive and reproduce and go to next generation. The genetic algorithm is based on the genetic structure and behavior of the chromosome of the population. Foundation of genetic algorithm : Each chromosome indicates a possible solution. Thus the population is a collection of chromosomes. Each individual in the population is characterized by a fitness function. Greater fitness better is the solution. Out of the available individuals in the population, the best individuals are used for the reproduction of the next generation off-springs. The offspring produced will have features of both the parents and is a result of mutation. A mutation is a small change in the gene structure. Life Cycle Of Genetic Algorithm : Life Cycle Of Genetic Algorithm Initialization of Population : Every gene represents a parameter (variables) in the solution. This collection of parameters that forms the solution is the chromosome. The population is a collection of chromosomes. Order of genes on the chromosome matters. 2. Fitness Function : Out of the available chromosomes, we have to select the best ones for the reproduction of off-springs, so each chromosome is given a fitness value. The fitness score helps to select the individuals which will be used for reproduction. 3. Selection : The main goal of this phase is to find the region where the chances of getting the best solution are more. 4. Reproduction : Generation of off-springs happen in 2 ways: Crossover : A random point is selected while mating a pair of parents to generate off-springs. Mutation : It happens to take care of diversity among the population and stop premature convergence. 5. Convergence (when to stop) : When there is no improvement in the solution. When a hard and fast range of generations and time is reached. Till an acceptable solution is obtained. So, the genetic algorithm works like : The algorithm begins by creating a random initial population. 2. The algorithm then creates a sequence of new populations. At each step, the algorithm uses the individuals in the current generation to create the next population. To create the new population, the algorithm performs the following steps: Scores each member of the current population by computing its fitness value. These values are called the raw fitness scores. Scales the raw fitness scores to convert them into a more usable range of values. These scaled values are called expectation values. Selects members, called parents, based on their expectation. Some of the individuals in the current population that have lower fitness are chosen as elite. These elite individuals are passed to the next population. Produces children from the parents. Children are produced either by making random changes to a single parent — mutation — or by combining the vector entries of a pair of parents — crossover. Replaces the current population with the children to form the next generation. 3. The algorithm stops when one of the stopping criteria is met. To concrete our understanding, lets understand it with more realistic way : Open this link below and spend 30 seconds to just watch it: http://boxcar2d.com/ In this application, we have to build a simple car model to traverse this terrain. Put some number of wheels on it somewhere, add a set of triangles as a chassis, and off you go The farther it goes, the better the car is, and the goal is to design the best car you possibly can. First, the algorithm will try some random solutions, and, as it has no idea about the concept of a car or gravity, it will create a lot of bad solutions that don’t work at all. However, after a point, it will create something that is at least remotely similar to a car, which will immediately perform so much better than the other solutions in the population. A genetic algorithm then creates a new set of solutions, however, now, not randomly. It respects a rule that we call: survival of the fittest. Which means the best existing solutions are taken and mixed together to breed new solutions that are also expected to do well. Like in evolution in nature, mutations can also happen, which means random changes are applied to the DNA code of a solution. We know from nature that evolution works extraordinarily well, and the more we run this genetic optimization program, the better the solutions get. Application of Genetic Algorithm : Traveling and Shipment Routing − Traveling salesman problem is one of the major application of the genetic algorithm. For example, when a trip planner is asked to plan a trip, he would take the help of a genetic algorithm which not only helps to reduce the overall cost of the trip but also in reducing the time.GE is also used for planning the delivery of products from place to place in the best efficient way. 2. Neural Networks − GAs are also used to train neural networks, particularly recurrent neural networks. 3. Image Processing − GAs are used for various digital image processing (DIP) tasks as well like dense pixel matching. 4. Robot Trajectory Generation − GAs have been used to plan the path which a robot arm takes by moving from one point to another. 5. Vehicle routing problems − With multiple soft time windows, multiple depots and a heterogeneous fleet. Limitations : Genetic algorithms do not scale well with complexity. 2. The “better” solution is only in comparison to other solutions. As a result, the stop criterion is not clear in every problem. 3. Operating on dynamic data sets is difficult, as genomes begin to converge early on towards solutions which may no longer be valid for later data. 4. GAs cannot effectively solve problems in which the only fitness measure is a single right/wrong measure (like decision problems), as there is no way to converge on the solution. 5. GAs have a tendency to converge towards local optima or even arbitrary points rather than the global optimum of the problem. This means that it does not “know how” to sacrifice short-term fitness to gain longer-term fitness. CONCLUSION : Genetic Algorithm Optimization techniques are the techniques that are used to discover the best solution out of all the possible solutions available under the constraints present. So the Genetic algorithm is one such optimization algorithm that is built on the basis of the natural evolutionary process of our nature. The idea of Natural Selection and Genetic Inheritance is used here. It uses guided random search, unlike other algorithms, i.e., finding the optimal solution by starting with a random initial cost function and then searching only in the space which had the least cost (in the guided direction). Suitable when you are working with huge and complex datasets. REFERENCES : WIKIPEDIA GOOGLE SEARCH GOOGLE IMAGES YOUTUBE

https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/genetic-algorithm-494ac5be18bb

['Rakib Ansari']

2020-09-29 13:18:51.733000+00:00

['Deep Learning', 'Machine Learning', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Data Science', 'Genetic Algorithm']

Machine Learning with PHP: using Support Vector Machine (SVM) via ext-svm

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash PHP is a very popular language, and when something gets very popular it usually happens that someone come out and just says “that’s not cool”, and it’s ok, it happens. I read lots of articles saying “PHP is not cool for machine learning” or saying “just move to language X to perform this, there will work better” (I’m not gonna flame another language, just talking about random stuff on the internet). I’m a PHP lover, I won’t negate that, I tried different languages, frameworks, developed native applications, I love to try new things but I also love PHP. But sometimes I’m held back by the fact that the PHP ecosystem is missing some extremely interesting features like powerful Machine Learning libraries. Last time this happened was during my PhD thesis writing. My thesis was about “Indoor Localization”: I had to study the various techniques, delineate a possible approach to perform the localization, and finally, I had to build an experimental system composed of a web interface to handle the localization and a client to use it. To study Indoor Localization, I got many papers from IEEE Explore thanks to my university access, studied different approaches, and I finally picked a combination of techniques to approach my localization, but that’s not the purpose of this article. And what does this have to do with PHP and Machine Learning? Well, it’s kinda curious, all tests I performed to learn how SVM works were in python because the engineer helping me with my development was skilled with Python, but I had to write a web application and that engineer wasn’t practical writing backends, so I got an idea, I google for “PHP svm” and the first result was “SVM — Manual — PHP” from PHP.net documentation. Ext-svm: what and why And here will come the critics, PHP just approached Machine Learning, other languages has it from years and, why should I pick it? It’s easy because ext-svm is just a wrapper for the libSVM library (check libsvm on Github) that’s written in C++, this means that every time you want to perform an SVM operation using PHP, this will be executed at a lower level and the results will be propagated to PHP thanks to the ext-svm interface. LibSVM is an efficient solver for SVM classification and regression problems. The svm extension wraps this in a PHP interface for easy use in PHP scripts. As of version 0.2.0 the extension requires PHP 7.0 or above. For me, that was awesome! That was everything I needed to move from Python (python devs please don’t hate me) that I didn’t know so much, to PHP on which I‘m more skilled. Installing ext-svm First of all, the extension is available on Pecl, this means that if you have access to a command-line with administrator permissions you can just pecl install svm Please note that ext-svm is currently in Beta, so if you got problems with pecl, to install it any way you can just: pecl install svm-beta The output will be something like: downloading svm-0.2.3.tgz ... Starting to download svm-0.2.3.tgz (130,776 bytes) .............................done: 130,776 bytes 7 source files, building [... skipping the whole output ...] Build process completed successfully Installing '/usr/lib/php/20190902/svm.so' install ok: channel://pecl.php.net/svm-0.2.3 Extension svm enabled in php.ini If you want to check if the extension has correctly been installed just launch: $ php -m | grep svm svm The extension is now installed and you’re ready to go! Build your first classifier To build our first classifier we’ll just stick to the documentation example and check if it works. Our classifier will be trained from an array, and we’ll check if it can predict a value from the training dataset. <?php $data = array( array(-1, 1 => 0.43, 3 => 0.12, 9284 => 0.2), array(1, 1 => 0.22, 5 => 0.01, 94 => 0.11), ); $svm = new SVM(); $model = $svm->train($data); $data = array(1 => 0.43, 3 => 0.12, 9284 => 0.2); $result = $model->predict($data); echo $result; If you save this file and then run it via console, or put it in a web server and access to it, the result should be -1 . Why? Let’s decompose our code to understand how it works. On the first two lines, we found our array of array representing the data $data = array( array(-1, 1 => 0.43, 3 => 0.12, 9284 => 0.2), array(1, 1 => 0.22, 5 => 0.01, 94 => 0.11), ); If you focus on the inner array, every row can be split into two parts: the result and the features for training. The first value of the array (at index 0) is the classification result, followed by features, so for array(-1, 1 => 0.43, 3 => 0.12, 9284 => 0.2) the classification result will be -1 and the following values grouped as key/value couples are features. Later we instance the SVM: $svm = new SVM(); The SVM instance can be tweaked by calling setOptions , for example, you can change your kernel before training: $svm->setOptions([ SVM::OPT_KERNEL_TYPE => SVM::KERNEL_SIGMOID ]); Constant values to tweak options can be found in the SVM Class Documentation on php.net. Now that we have our SVM ready, we can train a model: $model = $svm->train($data); This line outputs an SVMModel which we can use for predictions. If you have a very big model, you can just save it to a file with save(string $filename) and reload from the filesystem with load(string $filename) this way: $model->save('model.svm'); // later... somewhere in the code $model->load('model.svm'); Please note: save and load will return a boolean value, you can check it or drop it, it’s up to you! Latest three lines are the testing code: $data = array(1 => 0.43, 3 => 0.12, 9284 => 0.2); $result = $model->predict($data); echo $result; You take the features you measured and wanna check against the model and put them into an array, in this code the array is called $data . That features will be processed from SVM by using the training set. Once our data are ready, we can call predict to classify the data passed as input and get a float output corresponding to the prediction. Finally, we can echo it, or use it somewhere else. Built, trained, predicted Photo by Stephen Dawson on Unsplash Now your system has the PHP SVM extension installed, you can train a model, save it, reload it and make predictions, everything from now, it’s up to you! Gain Access to Expert View — Subscribe to DDI Intel

https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor/machine-learning-with-php-using-support-vector-machine-svm-via-ext-svm-37ef9c3027cd

[]

2020-12-27 16:48:09.574000+00:00

['Support Vector Machine', 'Machine Learning', 'Web Development', 'PHP', 'Svm']

Python Trojan (undetectable). I am going to be showing you how to…

I am going to be showing you how to create a trojan horse virus using python, I have chosen to show a very basic trojan as it will be easier to understand. I will be using python version 3.8 in this tutorial. This program we are creating also only uses standard libraries that come with python. A trojan horse virus is a type of malware which disguises itself as a legitimate piece of software, this is to mislead the user so that it can perform tasks undetected. Trojans can enable cyber criminals to create backdoors on your device and steal sensitive data. The example I will be using today is a trojan disguised as a number guessing game. Tutorial: First we will use python and the random library to create a simple number guessing game. We will be storing this under a function called “game”. We will save this file as client.py. Game function This game generates a random number from 0 to 100. The user is then given as many attempts as they need to guess the number. This is a very simple program. However, this is not going to be the only function running in our program. We also need to make the trojan function. This will be done using the socket library. This is the client.py. Trojan function This is the trojan function, first we declare a few vital variables. These are the host IP address and the port that the client will be connecting to. Choose the IP of whatever device you will be hosting the server on and chose a port that is not in use. Then I created a tuple object of the IP and port stored under “ADDR”, this variable will be used to make the connection. We must then create the socket object “client = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)”. Then create the connection. Once this is done we will check for any commands received from the server which the attacker will be sending. This is all happening in the background as the game is running and therefore, there are no outputs. I have created a command called “cmdon” and this will be used to give the attacker access to the terminal on the victims machine. The victim will not see any of this happening. When the attacker wishes to stop using terminal commands they can then send the command “cmdoff”. To finish off the client file, we use the threading library to run both functions simultaneously. threading functions We must now create a server script. We must create a new file and call it “server.py”. This is the script that the attacker will use to initiate the attack. Server file The image above is a screenshot of the code we will be using for the server.py file. This is a very simple socket server which listens for connections and offers the user input to send to the victim. This is where the command will be sent to execute on the victims machine. Make sure the server.py file is running on your machine and then run the client.py file on the victims machine. Using Virus Total I have scanned the client file and it is undetectable.

https://medium.com/@spencerroffey/python-trojan-undetected-aab801af272e

['Spencer Roffey']

2020-12-23 14:38:29.457000+00:00

['Ethical Hacking', 'Python', 'Hacking', 'Trojan', 'Python3']

Top Fire Protection Solution Companies

Fire protection companies Firefighting is undoubtedly employment that entails numerous life-threatening risks. However, new technologies like sensor-assisted fire fighting, personalized vocal smoke alarms, and drones are increasingly helping firefighters to reply faster and make better judgments in critical situations. for instance, incident commanders can now monitor fire personnel’s location and wellness using sensors that are attached to the private protective equipment and self-contained breathing device employed by firefighters. In addition, with the assistance of drones — quadcopters — firefighters and first responders can detect hotspots and receive real-time data, including images and video of the hearth without putting themselves within the harm’s way. Another new technology showing immense promise is sensor-assisted fire fighting. Using real-time information from sensors installed during a building, firefighters can accurately identify and predict how a fireplace could develop over time. With a comprehensive understanding of those new developments, Enterprise Technology Review has compiled an inventory of top 10 fire protection solution companies to guide organizations in harnessing the facility of new-age fire prevention technologies and make sure the safety of their people. We are glad to feature Texas-based Emergency Solutions, Inc. as our cover story. Emergency Solutions creates a value-bound workflow and reporting solutions that deliver comprehensive services for fire departments to reinforce their operations. The cutting-edge solution enables the corporate to uniquely identify, understand firsthand, and solve the issues that firefighters face every day. With several innovative technological capabilities and success stories up its sleeves, these firms are constantly proving its mettle within the field of fireside safety and protection. We hope this edition of Enterprise Technology Review helps you build the partnership you and your firm must foster a secure working environment. We present to you Enterprise Technology Review’s “Top 10 Fire Protection Solution companies— 2020.” Top Fire Protection Solution Companies Emergency Solutions, Inc. — Emergency Solutions is 100% firefighter owned and operated. Combined, the firm holds over 48 years of firefighting, 54 years of medical, as well as 40 years of IT experience. They are making technology and training solutions that are both affordable and easy to use. The products and services offered by the company are Responsemaster, Phone Service, Cost Recovery and Billing, Grant Writing, Consulting, Technology Solutions, and Access Control & Security Solutions. They ensure that small and medium fire departments have access to the same solutions that are currently only available to large departments. They also provide more efficient, cost-effective solutions for large departments. Apollo Fire Detectors — Apollo Fire Detectors are well known as a world-class fire solutions provider. With regional offices in America, the UK, China, Dubai, Germany, and India, plus a network of partners and distributors on five continents. Apollo America specializes in the design and manufacture of high-quality fire detection solutions for commercial, industrial, life safety, and HVAC applications. Apollo fire safety products are used in prestigious locations across the globe: The Statue of Liberty, New York; The Royal Albert Hall, London; The Kremlin, Moscow. They produce analog addressable, conventional, duct mounted, wireless and two-wire detectors coupled with system components and remote accessories, approved to local standards and regulations from across the world Apollo Fire Detectors ASM Integrators — Founded in 2006, ASM Integrators is a New York-based security integration Company. The company has expertise in Fire Alarm, Access Control, CCTV, Burglar Alarm, Video Surveillance, Fire Alarm Installation. ASM Integrators serves several industries such as Commercial & Business, Hospitality, Property Management, and Educational Facilities. The security partners include security alarm systems, fire alarm systems, access control systems, CCTV & security camera systems. The ‘ASM’s three key metrics approach; loss prevention, risk management, and business operation management. They serve products like Video Surveillance, Burglar Alarm, Fire Alarm, Access Control, Phone Systems, Intercom, and Data Network ASM Integrators Flame Guard USA — Flame Guard USA markets, manufactures and distributes innovative X-Tinguish fire suppression technology all over the world. The distributors and sales representatives are located strategically across the globe. Flame Guard USA only offers fire suppression solutions that are proven efficient, innovative, and friendly to our environment. The products served are X-Tinguish FST, Mircom, Protectowire, and Pxyreduct by Wagner. These products are used in several industries such as transportation, mining, wind turbines, control room, heavy industry, marine and commercial fishing, industrial machinery, UPS, and archives & museums. The company operates from its home office Lake Barrington, IL USA and has over 30 distributor sales and service locations in Europe, Asia, the Americas, and the Middle East Flame Guard the USA Globe Sprinkler — Headquartered in Michigan, Globe Fire Sprinkler is a family-owned fire sprinkler manufacturer firm. The company has expertise in Fire Sprinklers, Fire Protection Valves, and Fire Protection. The products served by the company are pressure switches, electric bells, solenoid valve, water flow detectors, butterfly valves, tamper switches, V1 wet system valves, valve accessories, preaction system, sprinkler and many more. Globe developed the earliest lever-fulcrum dry pipe valve, Globe Save All center strut sprinklers, and eventually became the first US company to utilize 5mm and 3mm Glass Bulbs in its commercial and residential sprinklers Globe Fire Sprinkler Mircom — Headquartered in Vaughan (Toronto), Ontario, Mircom is a global designer, manufacturer, and distributor of Intelligent Building Solutions. The portfolio of Miecom includes Fire Detection & Alarm, Mass Notification, Communications & Security, Building Automation & Smart Technologies, Nurse Call, and ‘’’SmartCondo’ Solutions. ‘Mircom aims to make buildings worldwide safer, smarter, and more livable. From small multi-unit residential apartments to commercial office towers or institutional facilities, Mircom offers a wide range of Intelligent Building Solutions to meet any requirement. The services provided by the company are maintenance, inspections & site monitoring service, and system sales Mircom PROTENG — PROTENG USA is striving to change the industry by providing adequate, environmentally friendly fire protection to the masses that stop the fire at the source to save valuable assets and priceless lives. PROTENG has created a patented, fully automatic fire suppression system like no other. It is entirely self-contained and is heat-activated. This revolutionary system is environmentally friendly and meets the highest world standards. It minimizes fire damage by effectively extinguishing a fire at its initial stage by eliminating heat. The devices were designed to protect machinery, engines, computer systems, electronic equipment, and other high-value assets PROTENG Purvis Systems — PURVIS Systems is a privately held company that provides innovative solutions for defense and space. At PURVIS Systems, they develop, integrate, and modernize reliable technology and communications solutions that support the life-critical missions of Public Safety organizations, and have been doing it for nearly four decades. The company supports some of the public ‘sector’s most sophisticated organizations, such as National Institutes of Health, Boston Fire Department, NATO, Washington DC Fire and Rescue, and others. PURVIS tackles some of the most demanding communications and systems challenges that our defense and public safety customers face PURVIS Systems Seek thermal — An unseen world of energy surrounds us. It’s part of everything we touch, see and feel. This unseen world provides important information, useful in solving everyday problems. Seek Thermal™ products let you detect and visualize energy through thermal imaging solutions, sensors and devices — on the job and beyond. It connects this into your everyday life to solve real problems. Our purpose is as focused as the infrared imaging technologies we create: to make thermal imaging an accessible, everyday tool, so users can do their jobs faster, smarter, safer and more profitably. We’re helping a global audience see the advantages of thermal imaging — by helping them See the Unseen™ Seek thermal Viking Group — For over 90 years the name Viking has represented global leadership in fire protection. Today, the companies of the Viking Group (Viking Corporation, Viking SupplyNet, Viking Fabrication Services, and Viking Plastics) provide independent fire sprinkler contractors with integrated solutions for any fire protection challenge. The portfolio of the company consists of Viking Fire Sprinklers, Viking Valves & Systems, Viking Foam Products, Flexible Sprinkler Connections, Steel Pipe & Fittings, Hangers & Fasteners, Related System Valves, Viking CPVC Piping System, FDC Equipment and many more. The Viking Group provides customers with quality, availability, innovation, and support Viking Do Check Us In Social Media Enterprise Technology Review | Facebook Enterprise Technology Review | Linkedin Enterprise Technology Review | Twitter

https://medium.com/@enterprisetechnologyreview/top-fire-protection-solution-companies-2f3337f1bb94

['Enterprise Technology Review']

2020-02-21 08:53:31.438000+00:00

['Technology', 'Fire Protection', 'Fire', 'Startup', 'Company']

The Seldom Taught History of the Coal Wars

The Seldom Taught History of the Coal Wars A labor struggle that pitted miners against each other, the US Army, and private security forces Coal miners circa 1915 (Library of Congress) Coal was a dirty business, in terms of the physical aspects of the mining itself as well as the way it was handled following the American Civil War. In the face of a growing economic revolution that was continuing to transform the United States from a rural society into a modern industrial nation, companies saw an opportunity to exploit immobile workers and poor communities for personal gain. The result was terrible working and living conditions for vast swaths of people living in the Appalachian and Rocky Mountains which eventually degraded into violent clashes and civil unrest that left dozens of people dead. The so-called Coal Wars raged from the 1890s through the 1930s and were concentrated around exploited mining communities mainly in West Virginia and Colorado. This chapter of US history is rarely studied despite being an important part of the history of organized labor and a glimpse into an era run by out of control monopolies. This story involves private police forces, overzealous detectives, suspicion and mistrust, a thirst for violence, full-scale battles, and a willingness to put everything on the line for better pay, reasonable hours, and a chance at a better life for one’s family. These are the Coal Wars. Sowing the seeds of unrest (1880–1900) Standard West Virginia company town (Library of Congress) The years following the Civil War were transformative in America. Tens of thousands of young men had seen battle and had returned to their homes to try and settle back into a normal life. Slavery was no more and the country was in the throes of an economic transformation. The demand for raw materials such as iron, coal, and oil was going through the roof while the demand for historically prominent goods such as cotton and tobacco was on the decline. The result was the rise of the company town system. This was an exploitative system that began to take hold in the years after the Civil War. Large, wealthy companies would move into rural, poor, and remote areas and begin setting up their business ventures. Today, this sounds like a good opportunity for economic growth and jobs but in the late 19th century it was cruel and exploitative. Instead of offering workers fair wages, good hours, and a steady job, these companies would come into small towns and buy up all of the local real estate. In places such as West Virginia, where this practice was all too common, there were no other sources of jobs or wealth in these towns other than the local mines. If a company came in and bought the mines, the town was at the mercy of the majority shareholders. These companies would not only buy the mines, they would also buy the grocer, the church, the general store, and many of the other vital services in these towns. Suddenly, the local grocer was only taking company currency rather than US dollars. The company town system isolated and monopolized small towns, beginning to pay the workers in a fictitious currency that could only be spent within the town or at company-owned locations. Today, it would be like working for McDonald’s but instead of being paid by the hour, you got a token at the end of the day which you could trade-in for a box of food. The problem was, many times, the locals had no recourse to combat the exploitation. They could not travel very far, they could not afford to quit, or move or strike, and they did not have the firepower or legal power to stand up to these mining conglomerates. As these companies grew in size and power, they began to hire professional private security firms to maintain order in their company towns. These private security forces, like the Pinkertons and Baldwin–Felts, were trained to keep unrest down via intimidation and violence. They were professional strikebreakers and they would sweep into towns where rumblings of unionization or uprising were taking place and swiftly stamp them out, by force. Anyone who was caught fraternizing with labor organizers or who were seen as sympathetic to unions were fired from their company positions. Since the companies owned the towns these workers lived in, the workers were often also subjected to eviction as well as having any possessions of theirs that were deemed “company property” confiscated. This often left them with nothing. Soon, there were tens of thousands of underpaid miners who were getting increasingly frustrated and desperate. Efforts to unionize were often met with heavy-handed violence and the government appeared to have no interest in helping the common worker. This situation quickly turned large swaths of rural West Virginia and mountainous Colorado into pressure cookers for labor tension. Unsurprisingly, violence soon followed. A rise in violence (1900–1921) These horrible business practices and exploitative labor policies quickly led to a dramatic spike in worker unrest. Some communities tried to organize into unions which could leverage collective bargaining power to break the hold of the mining companies on the local laborers. Others tried to strike to drive their point home. The results were mixed and the front was not always united. A victory for one community would lead to anger, jealousy, and knee jerk action from neighboring communities. Some towns welcomed union organizers while others did not want the union to take control either. Strikes and organization efforts were often broken up with severe violence by third-party strikebreakers. In 1912, a strike broke out in Kanawha County, West Virginia, which lasted for over a year. The miners refused to work unless their demands were met. Today, their demands seem reasonable but at the time they seemed radical to the monopolistic mining operators that controlled the coal veins. Their demands read: 1. That the operators accept and recognize the union. 2. That the miners’ right to free speech and peaceable assembly be restored. 3. That the operators accept and recognize the union. 4. That compulsory trading at company stores be ended. 5. That cribbing be discontinued and that 2,000 pounds of mined coal constitute a ton. That scales be installed at mines to weigh the tonnage of the miners. 6. That miners be allowed to employ their own check-weighmen to check against the weights found by company check-weighmen, as provided by law. 7. That the two check-weighmen determine all docking penalties. Basically, an end to the company town system, the ability to independently weigh quota counts instead of trusting the company’s weights, and to give them back their right to assemble and organize. Simple right? The strike left fifty dead by violence and dozens more dead from exposure, starvation, and malnutrition. Baldwin-Felts sent in over 300 “mine guards”, strikebreakers, to go in and rattle the cages of the miners and harass them until the strike ended. This was a precursor to greater violence which was yet to come. The seeds of distrust between the miners, the unions, the coal operators, and the private strikebreakers were reaching an all-time high and it quickly boiled over into atrocity. Battle of Matewan (1920) Photo of Thomas Felts and D.O. Baldwin. (Library of Congress) In the spring of 1920, a group of Baldwin-Felts detectives entered the small town of Matewan, West Virginia. They were there to evict a group of families living in and on company property. Private detectives were seen with heavy mistrust and hatred by the miners and as they went about their unsavory business in Matewan the town got increasingly agitated. On the evening of May 19th, the armed detectives had finished their work, had eaten dinner, and were making their way to the train station to leave the town and move onto their next assignment. They were intercepted in the street by Matewan’s chief of police who claimed to have a county warrant out for their arrest. As the detectives argued with the chief of police, they were slowly enclosed by a large group of armed and angry miners. No one knows who shot first. Shots quickly rang out and the main street of Matewan turned into the scene of a shootout usually found in the Wild West rather than a company mining town in West Virginia but the results were no less bloody. Within minutes ten people were dead. Seven of the Baldwin-Felts detectives and three locals were killed, including the mayor, in the ensuing gun battle. The battle caught the attention of the governor who declared martial law in the town and sent in state police forces to secure it and prevent any more hostilities. In the aftermath, unrest and violence spread outwards leading to clashes between Baldwin-Felts agents and miners across the region. Battle of Blair Mountain (1921) Two miners man a WWI machine gun during the battle. (Public domain) In 1921, the tensions and violence reached a fever pitch which led to the largest armed uprising since the Civil War. Following the end of World War I, thousands of troops began to return home from Europe, in 1919 and 1920. After getting a taste of war, battle, and freedom many of these young men returned to the squalor of company town living and were instantly incensed. The problem was, now they were trained, armed, and had seen the outside world for what it was. Despite inroads being made across the state by labor activists and unions, Logan County was still staunchly anti-union. Led by Sheriff Chafin and supported financially by the Logan County Coal Operators Association, the county had dug in and refused to give an inch on the unionization front. Frustrated by recent violent spates such as the Battle of Matewan and seeing other areas of the country begin to slowly receive better working conditions the miners of Logan County and of the surrounding areas began to get impatient. On August 7th, plans were made to seize Logan County by force and set up the union under the threat of arms. This call to march was met by 13,000 eager workers and lines were drawn. Sheriff Chafin set up his defenses on Blair Mountain and dug in with 2,000 heavily armed private militia and security forces including a handful of private planes that were outfitted with leftover munitions from the Great War. After posturing, skirmishing, and hesitation on both sides the two armed forces began to slowly be drawn into an inevitable conflict. On August 25th, seeing the situation as out of control, then-president Warring Harding threatened to send in federal troops to put down the uprising by force if necessary. At first, this convinced the thousands of miners to turn back and go home but rumors began flying that in the wake of their retreat Chafin and his private goons had begun shooting unarmed union sympathizers. This caused them to return to the front lines. A sketch of the situation at Blair Mountain (Public domain) The full battle was pitched on August 29th between Chafin’s private anti-union forces and the amassed group of miners. The battle broke out using World War I era weapons, including rifles, machine guns, and even planes. By the end, nearly 200 people were dead on both sides. The number of people engaged in the violence and the size of the front, which according to local papers stretched nearly seven miles, caused the president to send in the United States Army to reassert control over the region. Even after the main battle had concluded on August 29th, people continued to be killed in clashes following the battle. The army arrived on September 2nd and urged the miners to return home. Fearing a bloodbath and a loss of good workers on both sides, they obliged. Three army troopers were killed when a surveillance plane crashed after a flight observing the miners that were returning to their homes. The result was a huge win for the miners on a large scale. After the Battle of Blair Mountain, fearing similar and increasing rates of uprising and violence many places began to enact labor laws, allow for union organization, and put an end to the company town system. A few more strikes and clashes would continue through the decade but by 1930 an equilibrium was met. Coal was still being mined at a rapid rate and the miners had better working conditions, though coal mining rarely has had anything approaching good working conditions. After forty years of distrust, anger, and violence, the Coal Wars finally ended and the era of wholesale labor improvements began in earnest.

https://medium.com/history-of-yesterday/the-seldom-taught-history-of-the-coal-wars-131aa0f18e7a

['Grant Piper']

2020-11-09 12:02:04.778000+00:00

['Energy', 'Society', 'Industry', 'Labor', 'History']

Transforming the Gaming Experience on ZED RUN with Biconomy

Zed Run is a digital horse racing platform where users can own, trade, breed and race their unique NFT racehorses for real ETH and rewards. It provides the whole experience of racing, winning and owning something valuable that lives and breathes in a virtual world. However, they realised that this experience was severely hampered if the user had to pay gas and wait for an eternity before every transaction. The digital racing user journey requires a ton of quick transactions to enter and compete in races as seamlessly as possible. If at every stage the user had to pay a hefty fee and wait for 20–25 minutes, then they wouldn’t enjoy the whole experience. Moreover, a new non-crypto savvy user that loves the concept of digital racing may want to give Zed Run a try. However, they might run away from all the blockchain transaction complexities involved in buying horses and entering races. Thus, Zed Run wanted to provide gasless transactions and zero racing transaction fees. They wanted the ability to sponsor the gas themselves to enable the users to quickly onboard and have a gasless experience. They decided to integrate Biconomy as the transaction infrastructure to make this possible. They also enabled lightning-fast buy-in’s thanks to Matic. Gasless Gaming Experience How Biconomy is adding value: Smooth racing experience: Users don’t have to worry about crazy fees while taking part in races. The blockchain bits remain at the backend, ensuring the user don’t need to worry about it too much during the races. MetaMask proficiency not required: Thanks to Biconomy’s network agnostic transactions, you don’t have to switch the network on MetaMask every time you move funds between ETH and Zed Balance. Future implementations: Move funds from ETH balance to Zed Balance on layer 2 instantly without waiting for hours to make the transaction happen Biconomy helps provide a seamless virtual gaming experience As you can see, Zed Run could provide a gasless seamless experience thanks to Biconomy. Instead of wasting development time and costs in building such a solution themselves, they saved precious resources by leveraging Biconomy’s plug-n-play tool. This improved user experience, lightning-fast transactions, and no gas fee will help Zed Run grow their community. Their product also leads the way in how delightful gaming experiences on the blockchain will have to be going forward.

https://medium.com/biconomy/transforming-the-gaming-experience-on-zed-run-with-biconomy-df8f9bafb673

['Aditya Khanduri']

2020-12-10 17:17:59.790000+00:00

['Dapps', 'Gaming', 'Ethereum Blockchain', 'Blockchain Development', 'Horses']