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Do You Know The Difference Between CBD Isolate, Full Spectrum and Broad Spectrum?
By: Starr Contributor
Tags: Cbd Oils, Hemptoday, Hemp, Cbd, Cannabis

When shopping around for CBD products it can be a bit overwhelming you are faced with the choice of products that contain full spectrum, broad spectrum, and isolate CBD. The importance is understanding the difference between the three then checking the product to confirm which type of CBD it uses. The difference between each type is the cannabinoid extraction process.

· CBD Isolate is pure 99+% CBD. This CBD is extracted from the hemp plant and then isolated from the other cannabinoids present. When considering isolate it is important to verify the purity while most have no identifiable amounts of THC there are lower purity ones on the market that may still have a trace of it that can show up on lab results. You can find isolate oils that typically consist of a carrier oil, such as MCT oil, infused with the crystalline isolate powder. It is also available in a raw CBD crystalline powder or slabs.

· Full Spectrum CBD is CBD extracted from the whole hemp plant in addition to CBD it contains terpenes which are a large group of volatile unsaturated hydrocarbons found in the essential oils of plants. This CBD also contains other cannabinoids such as CBG, CBN and trace amounts of THC. The THC found in full spectrum hemp oil products is less than 0.3%, there is a possibility the small amount of THC could show positive on a drug test.

· Broad Spectrum CBD is a mix between both CBD isolate and Full Spectrum CBD. This CBD contains an array of cannabinoids and terpenes but NO THC. This is an excellent product for individuals that can’t have any traces of THC in their system. Broad Spectrum products often go through an additional process to ensure the removal of THC while maintaining the other cannabinoids and terpenes.

If drug testing is a concern, you may want to look more into CBD isolate or broad spectrum products instead of full spectrum. We hope you find this information helpful!

For more informative blogs on cbd go to https://www.agiftfromnaturesupplies.com/blog

Article contributions: CBD oil users, CBD brand reviews, Dictionary
Saks Fifth Avenue’s CBD Beauty Store Within Salon
By: Starr Contributor
Tags: Hemp, Cbd, Cannabis, Health, Beauty

Photo: Creeds Collective’s Evie Phillips, The Salon Project’s Joel Warren and CocoCanna’s Anna Pfleghaar teamed up to create the CBD Beauty Corner in-store shop.

The oldest commercial corporation in North America luxury department store Saks Fifth Avenue introduces a CBD beauty store within their salon! Celebrity colorist, Joel Warren’s The Salon Project at Saks Fifth Avenue in New York discovered CBD two years ago, he claims he started using CBD to help with his insomnia. The experience had such a life changing impact it inspired him to incorporate CBD with what he calls an iconic institution of fashion and beauty.

The New York store called CBD Beauty Corner is stocked with skincare, body-care and bath products containing the non-psychoactive cannabis ingredient. It is roughly a 500-square-foot installation featuring the brands CocoCanna, Mary’s Nutritionals, Humble Flower Co., Stylefox Beauty, Wildflower, Kiskanu, Fine Healing Goods, Kana Skincare, Ambika Herbals, Highborn, Papa and Barkley, Tonic and Undefined Beauty. A sampling of services is also offered such as aromatherapy, top cannabis transdermal tech, and mini massages.

For more blogs on CBD go to: https://www.agiftfromnaturesupplies.com/blog

Article Contributions: Forbes, Wikipedia, Hempindustrydaily, Beautyindependant
Sustainable fibers FTW: hemp (1)
By: Sebastian Loghin
Tags: Sustainability, Sustainablefabrics, Hemp Fiber, Hemp, Hemp Product

Hemp used to be a staple of many industries before 1900s, and remained so in many non-western countries throughout the 20th century. With the advent of plastics and regulations against cannabis plants, hemp was almost forgotten. But the last few years the logic of cultivating and processing hemp has become evident, to all sides involved. Hemp is almost a wonder material, incredibly versatile and probably the most sustainable crop one can cultivate, very fast growing, much like bamboo.

Natural Fiber is a Lithuanian company specialized in growing and processing of raw hemp material to produce high-quality hemp fiber of various grades and yarn for global textiles and fashion industries. They also commercialize hemp shives used for construction, animal bedding, gardening, as well as hemp pellets for biofuel boilers as alternative to wood pellets. Natural Fiber also sell their own line of hemp fiber bath towels.

“Our vision — To make sustainable hemp fiber one of the main natural fibers used in 21st century sustainability-driven textiles and fashion industries. Our mission — To restore and stimulate the use of hemp fiber in textiles and fashion industries as a high-quality, sustainable, environmentally-friendly material, while simultaneously upholding the long-standing cultivation tradition of hemp in the Baltics, Europe.”

Are you using hemp products? What other companies using hemp do you know?
TOPICAL USE OF CANNABIS
By: Shivanand Kaurav
Tags: Marijuana, Cannabis Industry, Hemp, Cannabis, Cannabis Medical

Apart from its well known inhalational and oral routes of administration, Cannabis can be effectively used topically to treat various skin conditions such as acne vulgaris, allergic contact dermatitis, asteatotic dermatitis, atopic dermatitis, hidradenitis suppurativa, Kaposi sarcoma, pruritus, psoriasis, skin cancer, and the cutaneous manifestations of systemic sclerosis.

Cannabinoids have shown to inhibit keratinocyte proliferation which is induced in psoriasis. They also have shown anti-inflammatory properties that may be beneficial for treatment of psoriasis.

Certain clinical trials are under study to establish the safety and use of cannabis and its active constituents such as Cannabidiol and THC for certain skin conditions, some clinical trials include:

A Phase I, Double Blind, Randomized, Placebo Controlled, Maximal Dose Study to Determine the Safety, Tolerability of Topical Cream Containing MGC (Medical Grade Cannabis) in Healthy Volunteers Study to Investigate the Efficacy and Safety of Cannabis Oil for the Treatment of Subjects With Hidradenitis Suppurativa

There are numerous patent applications filed to protect the novel findings of cannabis compositions in treating various skin conditions; such as:

PCT application WO2020129045 discloses novel cannabis lines and extracts for treating skin disorders; Another US application US2020188348 discloses Cannabis-Based Extracts and Topical Formulations for Use in Skin Disorders; Yet another Chinese patent application CN110236998 discloses a composition containing cannabis sativa extract and application of composition to skin care products; and Another Korean patent KR102056620 discloses an external composition for skin containing cannabis sativa extract.

Considering the interest of researchers towards conducting clinical studies and filing patent applications in the area of utilization of cannabis for skin treatment, it can be sensed that Cannabis has a good future in medicinal treatment of skin disorders of a wide range.
The Trouble with Free Speech
By: Matthew Barad
Tags: Censorship, History, Politics, Democracy, Free Speech

Discussion around free speech in the United States is almost always argued in the abstract. The kind of overt government suppression used against Debs (and regularly against the left) is rarely mentioned, nor is the fact that the same government is willing to protect rightist speech with lethal police forces if necessary.

It may be worthwhile to consider whether, in an ideal world, the role governments, corporations, or individuals should have in regulating or protecting speech. In that debate, regarding the abstract idea of free speech, there are a few popular positions.

“Free speech absolutists” insist that all people, businesses, and especially governments have a moral duty to never impede or infringe speech in any way. On the flip side, Germany has a slew of laws against Nazi speech, while many corporations use their status as private businesses to control speech on their platforms. Between these groups, some individuals opposed to hate speech have rallied behind the refrain “freedom of speech is not freedom from consequences” — in other words, you can say whatever you want, but don’t be surprised if you get mocked, ostracized, or punched in the teeth.

This last suggestion — that free speech is not freedom from consequences — is interesting because of how effectively it cuts through the ideals and hypotheticals. Whether or not we should give each other space to say anything and everything, the reality of human life is that certain statements will offend while others ingratiate. After all, it would be difficult to argue that ending a friendship because you were insulted constitutes a breach of free speech, and yet in that case you would be using your social power to punish another person’s speech.

Of course, most conversations about free speech center on institutional repression rather than individual action; however, even drawing a line between the individual and the institutional does little to clarify the situation.

Is it a violation of free speech, for example, to deny a speaker use of a public theater for their event? How about a private one? Can a township create “free speech zones” outside of which penalties can apply? And, perhaps most crucially, are we entitled to state protection if or when our free speech is likely to incite violent reprisal from others?
False: This video of figure skating “ice prince” Yuzuru Hanyu with Winnie the Pooh dolls is not censored in China
By: Kylee Chan
Tags: China, Winnie The Pooh, Censorship, Fake News, Fact Checking

False: This video of figure skating “ice prince” Yuzuru Hanyu with Winnie the Pooh dolls is not censored in China Kylee Chan Follow Feb 20, 2020 · 3 min read

By Kylee Chen Xiaojun

A video of audience members throwing a large number of Winnie the Pooh dolls and other gifts onto the rink after Japanese figure skater Yuzuru Hanyu finished his performance at the ISU Grand Prix Final on Dec. 7, 2019, has circulated on the internet.

A post on Instagram has been viewed more than 49,000 times and has 11,000 likes. On YouTube, the same video posted by Radio Free Asia (RFA) has more than 10,000 playbacks.

Both posts claim the video has been banned in mainland China, where Winnie the Pooh has been used to reference Chinese President Xi Jinping.

RFA writes that the footage “hurts Xi Jinping” and claims relevant videos from the sporting event in Turin, Italy, “have been blocked by the Chinese Communist Party” (archived here).

The claim is false, although the video footage itself is authentic.

The two-time Olympic gold medalist Hanyu, often referred to as Japan’s “ice prince,” is known to carry around a tissue box decorated with Winnie the Pooh; it’s been a tradition for a decade now for his fans to throw a stuffed plush toy of the “silly old bear” onto the rink after his performance.

Videos of Hanyu at the ISU Grand Prix Final can still be viewed online in mainland China on many platforms including Pear Video Sports and Sina Sports. The video caption on Pear Video Sports also mentions “Winnie rain” in Chinese, describing the shower of stuffed bears.

It was also Hanyu’s birthday, according to Pear Video Sports.

This Sina Sports post has more than 14,000 likes.

Hanyu, a heartthrob among fans in East Asia, and his fondness of Winnie the Pooh are well known in mainland China and there have been plenty of news reports on this from state-controlled media such as People’s Daily Online and CCTV.

People’s Daily Online asks, “where do all those Winnie the Pooh dolls go?”

CCTV5 Sports News reports these Winnie the Pooh dolls could “fill 38 bags.”

Many other media outlets also posted a video of Hanyu with the dolls.

User-generated videos from the audience are also available on Chinese social media.

It is clear that these videos, as well as the words and phrases referring to Winnie the Pooh (小熊维尼) in video descriptions, are not censored in mainland China.

A Weibo post by Youth Shanghai

Another Weibo post by CCTV Sports

Bilibili is full of user-generated videos that refer to Winnie the Pooh and Hanyu

Disclaimer: This is a student work. Although JMSC faculty members have done everything possible to verify its accuracy, we cannot guarantee there are no mistakes. If you notice an error or have any questions, please email us at contact@annieasia.org.
Youtube Bans Limitless Mindset (Again!)
By: Jonathan Roseland
Tags: Biohacking, YouTube, Health, Censorship

Natural or preventative health competes with the giant pharmaceutical-hospital industrial complex that spends billions advertising with Silicon Valley. Silicon Valley elites really are leftwing technofascists, keeping the masses dumb, sick and dependant on the system is part of their future vision of technological mediated global communism.

Youtube and Pinterest have decided that they will be the global ministry of truth when it comes to your health, Facebook censors those who are skeptical of state-mandated vaccination and even Keto diet groups.

My channel was almost totally non-political, I think the edgiest stuff on my channel was some of the chapters of my audiobook that I had uploaded. Furthermore, on every video about Nootropics, I included a disclaimer…

[This educational video advocates responsible, SAFE use of legal supplements. Please see my guide on How to Biohack Smart and Safe www.limitlessmindset.com/blog/1510-biohack-safe]

In the past, Youtube had this three strike system that gave you ample warning when you were doing something naughty, now it appears that system is gone, they can just pull the plug anytime without warning. Youtubers who have any remotely interesting to say perpetually have a sword of Damocles dangling over their channels.

Call to Action

If you don’t already please follow me on some of the alt-tech platforms, Minds.com, Bitchute, Telegram and join my weekly newsletter. I’ll continue publishing videos to Minds and Bitchute. Silicon Valley has built some amazingly convenient software and apps, so convenient that in the case of social media it can be extremely addictive, but all the convenience comes at a high cost our freedom of speech. Silicon Valley is engaged in a modern-day digital book burning of content and communities that spread knowledge that can empower our health. I urge you to get outside of their information suppression platforms and venture back out onto into the wild wild west of the world wide web.

Read my book, How to Be Cross Eyed, a memoir and lifehacking manifesto this entertaining read encapsulates all my best biohacking and lifehacking content.

Recommend me as a guest on other podcasts and shows. A good way for me to rebuild and expand my audience is to be a guest on other health and personal growth related podcasts and shows. As you can see here, on my appearance on The Public Space, I’m a very witty and informative podcast guest.

I’m going to submit the form asking Youtube to restore my channel. Who knows if they will but I would really appreciate it if you can send them a message on Twitter @TeamYouTube, tell them that you loved my channel and would like to see it restored. I have a little bit of hope that Youtube (who just lost Google $70 billion!) will eventually see the folly of trying to police the thought of its billions of users and may be restored as a place for free speech if that happens I’d love to still have my Youtube channel.
Belarusian independent media and Telegram channels outperform state media on Facebook
Tags: Telegram, Belarus, Social Media, Censorship, Facebook

By Givi Gigitashvili

Since being blocked by the Belarusian government and labeled as “extremist,” multiple independent media outlets in the country have experienced a surge in followers on Facebook and maintained their leading positions vis-à-vis pro-government outlets.

Amid protests over the summer of 2020, the Belarusian Ministry of Information blocked 85 online resources on August 21 of that year, including websites of independent media outlets, websites of opposition politicians, various VPN services, and privacy apps. At the time, the Belarusian Association of Journalists stated that in doing so, the Belarusian government intended to disrupt the spread of information on post-election protests and police brutality against demonstrators. The move was seen as a censorship and the obstruction of the legal activities of the media in Belarus. In addition to blocking websites, authorities detained 480 journalists in Belarus in 2020, with 27 journalists still behind bars as of June 2021.

During the August 2020 protests, Telegram channels became an important source of information and a venue for coordination among pro-democracy protesters. The channels’ follower counts grew rapidly. When the Belarusian government disrupted internet access in Belarus, Telegram enabled anti-censorship tools to ensure that the app would remain accessible to the majority of users in the country. This made Telegram an even more reliable and essential tool for Belarusians to receive information about the protests. As these independent channels flourished, however, forces connected to the Belarusian government started to use Telegram more actively to disseminate counter messaging. Soon after, the Belarusian government declared around 30 opposition Telegram channels “extremist material,” and accused them of publishing information inciting riots.

Despite these efforts to suppress the reach of outlets critical of the government, however, these channels’ Facebook pages have largely outperformed the pages of state-controlled outlets in Belarus.

Methodology

In order to analyze the performance of the banned outlets on social media, the DFRLab selected six media outlets with the highest number of followers on Facebook that all had their websites blocked by the Belarusian government in 2020 or earlier: Belarus Partisan, Charter 97, Euroradio, Belsat TV, Naviny, and Tut.by. The majority of these outlets were founded in Belarus, with the exception of Belsat TV, which was founded in Poland but focuses exclusively on Belarus. After these websites were blocked, people in Belarus started to use various tools such as TOR, VPNs, and proxy servers to bypass the ban and access prohibited content.
Internet Censorship: A Story from Azerbaijan
By: Charles Kapelke
Tags: Internet Censorship, Azerbaijan, Internet, Censorship, Internet Blocking

Azerbaijani President, Ilham Aliyev, has been ruling the country since 2003. He assumed power following the death of his father, Heydar Aliyev. The country has been under the rule of Ilham Aliyev and his inner circle for almost 20 years now.

In 2017, a court in Azerbaijan made the decision to block several independent websites. Those websites included some of the most important independent news media sites, such as Meydan TV, OCCRP (Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Unit), Azadliq Radio (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Azerbaijani Service), Kanal13, and several others.

While Azerbaijan authorities’ reasoning is that these websites pose a threat to Azerbaijan’s national security, their actual goal is to suppress information that could be embarrassing to the regime’s interests.

One of the blocked websites is Meydan TV, a Berlin-based independent online multimedia platform. This non-profit outlet was founded in 2013 by Emin Milli, a human rights activist from Azerbaijan. As an independent reporting organization, Meydan TV reports on issues concerning Azerbaijani society in Russian, Azerbaijani, and English.

Another blocked website is Azadliq Radio (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Azerbaijani Service), which is a United States-funded organization that calls attention to issues in Azerbaijan and is often critical of that country’s authoritarian regime .

OCCRP (Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Unit), is also on the list of blocked websites. OCCRP, an investigative reporting platform for a global network of independent media centers and journalists, has posted articles about president Ilham Aliyev and other government authorities’ bribery, suspicious funds, and money laundering,

While all the traditional news media platforms in the country are controlled by the authorities in Azerbaijan, these independent news media sources provide an objective view on the issues in the country. Hence, they are being blocked. Try to access these pages from within Azerbaijan, and they simply will not load (see screenshot).
Budgeting & finance stuff isn’t scary — here’s how you can play it smart.
Tags: Investment, Finance, Budgeting, Taxes, Goals

Budgeting can feel a little intimidating if you are just starting your journey to financial independence. However, this stuff isn’t actually that scary. It’s not a code you can’t crack. In fact, you can follow these 5 simple tips to ace the art of budgeting.

Start Investing Early

It pays to start early. Literally. If you start investing Rs. 2000 every month in an equity mutual fund, it can grow to about Rs 20 lakh after 20 years. Or you can start off with a small amount of Rs. 1000 and let the power of compounding do wonders and multiply your investments over time.

2. Watch Your Taxes

There should be a mandatory course on taxes for college students, right? The happiness of receiving the first paycheck comes with the painful burden of taxes. This is when you realize that a chunk of your income is taxable and if you are feeling completely clueless, start by doing your research on investment plans for tax savings. Our suggestion? Hire a professional to file your taxes for you initially.

3. Keep Emergency Funds

Stay out of financial troubles and save money to use later for emergency purposes. Life is unpredictable and so are our expenses. Instead of panicking when an unexpected emergency hits you out of nowhere, you will have enough to keep you afloat. Put aside a portion of your salary in a high-interest savings account. You can always use LazyPay for your instant credit needs.

4. Set Your Financial Goals

Setting long-term and short-term goals is crucial to your financial health. Goals like saving for a trip, buying a car or even buying that vintage watch, gives you the motivation to keep hustling & work towards achieving it. While you are at it, don’t forget to have long-term goals like saving for retirement.

5. Track Your Monthly Expenses

You might have to put in some extra effort but it’s going to be worth it when your savings come to your rescue at some point in your life when you are running low on funds. Categorise it into living expenses, transportation, OTT subscriptions, groceries, medical, EMI, shopping, etc. and record it in an excel sheet or a diary.

Budgeting is not rocket science. You can track your finances easily if you just put your mind to it.
How To Triage Your Finances Now To Save Money and Get Organized
By: Rebecca Shepard
Tags: Money Management, Budgeting, Save Money, Money, Personal Finance

How To Triage Your Finances Now To Save Money and Get Organized

Eliminate unnecessary charges, get fees waived, and find the best discounts with this action plan Rebecca Shepard Jan 20·8 min read

Photo by Katie Harp on Unsplash

Sometimes I looked at my expenses and felt a sort of disorganization anxiety — I knew there were inefficiencies, but I didn’t know where to begin. It seems like addressing one issue creates a domino effect, and before I know it, I’m down the rabbit hole of online chats and tiresome hold music while I wait to speak with a representative.

They’re counting on you losing steam. Don’t.

Triaging your finances is a lot like Marie Kondo’ing your belongings (or Swedish Death Cleaning — have you heard of it?) When was the last time you shopped your car insurance rates? How many subscriptions are you auto paying? If you’re not sure, it’s time to triage.

I stuffed this article with the ideas that worked. Break them into a one-per-day schedule, or do what I did and devote a day, apply insane focus, and get it all done. Whatever you decide, I hope these suggestions lead to big money savings for you. They did for me.

(Note: I have no affiliation with any of the companies or products listed in this story. These are my personal experiences.)
Lay buy your health & wellness procedures
Tags: Healthcare, Budgeting, Barefoot Investor, Naturopathy, Wellness

Are you desperately wanting to undergo certain health or cosmetic well-being procedures, yet struggling to raise the funds? Well, what if someone told you there is a way to put money away (and keep it away) all whilst growing interest until you have saved enough for your procedures.

Saving for big health procedures like dental, hospital or cosmetic well-being surgery can be a hassle. Particularly for younger people or students aged 18–25 with low to moderate incomes. One minute the money is there, the next it’s been spent on rent or whatever social event was on last weekend.

Vspry Live Well Cover encourages saving by providing a DIY platform where you can save for your desired health and well-being procedures, all whilst earning interest and rewards! Unlike traditional health funds, with a Vspry Health Saver account, you choose how much you want to save and which practitioners you want to spend it on. To encourage you to hit your savings goals, you will earn interest based on how much you save and also be awarded Voints (reward points) from using your Vspry account. Voints can then be used towards redeeming services or procedures, saving you money as you go.

To further encourage Vspry account holders to hit their savings target, any money saved on the Vspry platform requires 30 days notice to be withdrawn if your not spending on health or well-being. No temptation here to use your savings on a shopping spree!

So, when should you use Vspry to lay buy your health & well-being procedures?

For dental surgery or cosmetic dental e.g. teeth whitening;

For gym memberships and sporting club fees;

For alternative therapies such as naturopathy, pilates, tai chi etc.;

For cosmetic procedures such as wrinkle reduction, lip enhancement, breast augmentation, a face-lift, microdermabrasion etc.; and

For veterinary and pet-care services for your furry family members.

Many health insurance providers limit you to only being able to use certain services on their plans. At Vspry, we want you to make the choice on what health and well-being means to you, whether that be a new set of pearly whites, an elective surgical procedure, or a mindfulness weekend retreat - you make the decisions.

The best way to reach your health and well-being goals is to get started. So what are you waiting for? Register your interest now at https://www.vspry.com

Save lots, live well and be very spry!
Use 22seven to ace your tax return 💪
Tags: 22seven, Finance, Taxes, Budgeting, South Africa

We all know how 22seven works as a budgeting tool, but did you know that it can also help you complete your tax return? Don’t let tax season be a time of angst and admin. Here’s how to use the app to get your return done fast and efficiently.

Set the date range

22seven’s intelligent transaction categorisation helps you track your monthly budget. Take it one step further by using the date range filter in the advanced search feature on the Transactions page to set the dates for the tax year in question. This will show you all your income and expenses within the relevant timeframe, to streamline your tax return experience.

Donations tax

Do you regularly contribute to charities, or donate to other causes or individuals throughout the year? Donations can be deducted from your taxable income, so be sure to add all relevant amounts to the Donations category. Donations is a default category in the app, so you can use the category filter in the advanced search feature to see how much you can deduct on your return.

Medical expenses

You’re allowed to deduct certain expenses that your medical aid didn’t reimburse you for. Make the medical part of your tax return simpler by creating custom categories for all your medical expenses. This will help you work out how much you can deduct without having to scramble through doctor’s emails and receipts. For example:

Monthly medical aid contributions.

Expenses that your medical aid paid for or reimbursed you for in full.

Expenses that you paid for, or which were only partially settled by your plan. The expenses in this category are the ones that you can deduct on your return.

Do you earn commission?

If you earn more than 50% of your annual income in the form of commission, you’re allowed to claim all expenses directly related to earning that income. Use custom categories to separate your expenses accordingly, then export all the data from the relevant category to an Excel worksheet, which will allow you to tally up the total deductible amount. Separating your expenses like this also makes it easy to give details to a tax practitioner or SARS.

What about your side hustle?

Use custom categories to separate personal transactions from any transactions related to a new business venture. For example, buying school stationery can be categorised as “Stationery — Personal”, whereas paper and printer ink for your freelance gig can be allocated to “Stationery — Business”. This will help you identify which expenses you can deduct. If you have a dedicated side hustle or business account, you can also filter transactions for that account only, which lets you see all expenses and income at a glance.

More tax tips!

A tax-free savings account is a great way to invest without having to pay any tax. This article explains what you need to know.

Have you been working from home? If so, you’re entitled to certain tax deductions. This article explains the pros and cons of claiming for your home office and gives you advice on how to get it right.
Slice from a Sven: Unwrapping the gift (category) 🎁
Tags: 22seven, Finance, Financial Freedom, Budgeting, South Africa

With Father’s Day just behind us and Mother’s Day shortly before it, I thought now would be a great time to unwrap that all-important Gifts category in your 22seven budget.

Now, I don’t know about you, but my budget’s certainly been thrown off once or twice in the past because of an unexpected gift. But, the thing is, oftentimes we do actually have all the special gifting dates available to us…we just fail to plan in advance. And suddenly, Father’s day creeps up on us and we have to scrounge around in the piggy bank to make a plan (sorry for another pair of socks, dad!).

Plan ahead

I like to check my calendar for the full year, and mark off any special days where I may need to spend a little money to spoil someone. Then, I use 22seven’s future budgeting feature and plan my gift budgets for the year. You could also plan your gifts on a monthly basis, checking your calendar (or Facebook) each month and budgeting accordingly.

Just in case

If planning is not your thing, you could try setting a standard budget for gifts each month, say R500, for example. This method definitely involves less work, but it’s also less accurate.

If you want to cover all your bases, you could plan your gift budget ahead of time and add a little extra on top of that for anything unforeseen. Or even better, put that extra amount towards an emergency savings fund. Then, if you don’t use it, it will grow, and if you do use it, well that’s what emergency savings are for!

At the end of the day, budgeting is a very personal thing, so it’s best to do what works for your lifestyle and personality.

Which Spending Group do I choose?

We Svens get this question surprisingly often, and again, I’ll stress that your budget is personal. If you usually spend on gifts every month, then Day-to-Day is probably the group for you. If it tends to be a rare spend for you during the year, you might want to consider allocating your gift spend to your Exceptions Spending Group. You can read more about our Spending Groups and how to use them here.

It’s the thought that counts

It’s cliche, but that usually means it holds true. The important thing is to show the people in your life that you care, without breaking the bank. You can always find a budget friendly way to spoil your loved ones, whether it be a homemade card or a picnic in the park.

Remember that your financial journey is exactly that — a journey! You might slip up and forget to plan for gifts, or you might end up spending more than you bargained for. The important thing is that you learn along the way and ultimately make your budget and the different categories work for you!
Which grocery loyalty card is best? 🛒
Tags: 22seven, Personal Finance, Slice, Budgeting, Loyalty Program

Do you know how your grocery store loyalty card works, how you can benefit from it, and which ones can save you the most? Let’s investigate!



Pick n Pay Smart Shopper



The basics: When you swipe your Smart Shopper card, you earn one point for every R2 spent. You’re also able to link all Smart Shopper cards in your household and earn more points collectively.



The benefits: You can convert your points into rands and help pay for your next shop. (Tip: Check your points balance at the bottom of your till slip.) If you provide your contact details, Smart Shopper also offers personalised discounts on the items you frequently buy. These discounts are refreshed every two weeks, and discounts need to be loaded onto your card before you shop.



PnP has various clubs you can belong to in order to receive more specific rewards. These include a Pet, Wine, Coffee, and Baby Club. The retailer has also partnered with a bunch of brands like Netflorist, Ster-Kinekor, and Vida e Caffè — you can save at these stores by exchanging your Smart Shopper points for vouchers.



You can even use Smart Shopper points towards your next fuel purchase if you have more than R20 accrued.



Bonus: You can donate your points to one of the charities that PnP has partnered with.



Checkers Xtra Savings



The basics: Checkers decided to do things a little differently. You don’t earn points on their loyalty card, you can simply save up to 25% on selected groceries by swiping at the till.



The benefits: Checkers allows you to link your card to charities like The Lunchbox Fund and The Animal Anti-Cruelty League — you donate by swiping. Giving back while earning rewards? Win-win! Another unique incentive is their Planet Bag, made from recycled and recyclable plastic. Each time you reuse a bag, you get 50c off your shop, or R1 if you swipe your Xtra Savings card.



Bonus: Every time you swipe your card, you stand a chance to win your shopping free.



SPAR Rewards



The basics: You get an instant rand value off your total shopping spend at the till. This programme doesn’t have points or levels.



The benefits: You can earn discounts on selected items in store. The items that qualify for a discount can be viewed on the SPAR app or via an SMS sent to you. If you have any items in your basket that match the SPAR rewards available to you, you’ll receive a discount. The SPAR website claims that you can save more than R2,500 a month.



A few snags are that you can only redeem points at SUPERSPAR outlets and not at all SPAR stores, SPAR doesn’t have any partners for further savings, and the card doesn’t allow you to donate to charities either.



Think smart



Although loyalty programmes offer great deals, it’s not a good idea to spend just to earn points. In other words, think of any loyalty programme as a bonus, not as an incentive to spend more.



All of these cards work best for your wallet if you get rewards for simply buying items you would have bought anyway. Swipe and enjoy, but don’t let the points take over your life!
Do you still need a car if you work from home? 🚗
Tags: 22seven, Slice, Budgeting, Vehicles, Personal Finance

Do you still need a car if you work from home? 🚗 22seven Sep 7·2 min read

Many companies have adopted more pandemic-friendly work policies, including allowing employees to work from home. If it’s unlikely you’ll have to report to an office every day in the future, you might want to reconsider owning a car.



First, ask yourself whether you’d have access to another car if you were to sell your own? If not, are you comfortable using services like Uber, Bolt, inDriver or public transport? If you are, the next step is to think about how much your wheels are costing you.



The cost of your car

Owning a car isn’t cheap. It costs money even if you don’t use it. If you’re financing your car, you’ll have a debit order and an insurance premium going off each month. You’ll also need to consider fuel and maintenance costs, like replacing tyres or taking the car for a service.



Then, there’s depreciation. A car loses value the older it gets, even if you don’t drive it much. In some cases, if your vehicle is financed, you might find that you owe more in repayments than your car would be worth if you sold it!



The alternatives

Now that you know how much owning the car is costing you, you need to think about the cost of getting around without one.



Using services like Uber and Bolt can be expensive if you travel long distances every day. Luckily, most apps allow you to see what a trip will cost upfront, so you won’t get a fright at the other end. InDriver allows you to propose a fare, so it could work out cheaper in some cases. Total up your expected trips for the month and compare. If it’s less than your car repayments, insurance, and other monthly vehicle costs, selling your car could save you money.



Other considerations

The obvious benefit of owning a car is the convenience of being able to travel whenever and wherever you like. Having a car might also be safer than other options, such as public transport. A car canf also mean freedom and independence.



If your car is paid-up, you could sell it and invest the money you receive. That way, instead of holding onto an asset that depreciates, you’ll own one that could earn you a return. Alternatively, you could use the money from selling your car to settle other debt.



At the end of the day, owning a car is a personal decision. You’ll need to weigh up all costs and other considerations and make the choice that works best for you. Get out the calculator and do the sums — calculating how much your car is costing you is an interesting exercise, even if yours is staying snugly parked in the garage.
Improve Your End to End Tests with Cypress Intercept
By: Jonathan Thompson
Tags: JavaScript, Programming, Cypress, Testing, Tdd

Stubbing Responses

A stub is a canned answer to a request. Stubs are useful in building test state within an end-to-end test by simulating data which may or may not directly affect the test. In this instance, the books endpoint returns a JSON object of data. Each individual book within the JSON object is listed within the books table.

What if this request takes a long time to load? Or, what if the table displays an error statement until the request has finished?

When writing end-to-end tests, it is critical to curate your testing environment in order to reduce flake. I have experienced the above at Pendo.io, specifically a table which returns an error statement until a request has fulfilled. We determined that we had two options to solve the problem:

Wait for the request to finish Stub the data

We chose to stub the data as the table data does not directly impact our test. We can do the same with the books endpoint as the table data does not matter to the overall user journey. What matters is that a user is able to add a book to their profile. As long as there is at least one table entry, our user journey will be able to proceed.

If a stub is a canned response to a request, then our test requires a response object to be built ahead of running our test. We can do so by copying a good response object and trimming it down to a more manageable state. In this instance, we are taking the response to the books endpoint and removing all but one entry.

A book fixture.

We can stub the table data by providing a fixture to the intercepted request. This will replace the response body with whatever data is found within the fixture file.

Our test featuring a stubbed response for the books endpoint.

Our table will now be populated by a single entry titled Designing Evolvable Web APIs with ASP.NET. We can assert against this prior to taking our next action.
You Should ThrowYour Unit Tests Away
By: Joe Eames
Tags: Testing, Tdd, Angular

I don’t mean that you shouldn’t write unit tests. You definitely should.

But you shouldn’t feel bad deleting unit tests when you have some that are no longer relevant. This usually happens due to refactoring, but also happens due to requirements changes. In these cases, your first impulse should be to torch your tests.

If this feels wrong to you, then ask yourself why?

Usually, we hate getting rid of something because it has meaning to us. Things that have meaning to us usually have meaning because of the time we put into them.

So if you hate throwing away some tests, that might just be because you spent so much time writing them. And that’s the key here: if you spent a lot of time writing a test, something is probably wrong.

In the practice of TDD (writing your tests before you write your code) tests have to be cheap and easy to write. TDD is about feeling better. It’s about zen. It’s about flow and coding. Effective TDD reduces cognitive load, and makes coding more pleasant, and faster.

On the other hand, tests that take a long time to write probably took a long time to setup, to understand, and to get correct. In fact tests that take a long time to write may have a reasonable chance of being incorrect. They’re also probably very closely tied in with the code they test. These are all reasons that it takes a long time to write a test, and are all indications that your unit tests aren’t very effective.

For more about this, see my recent video on why you’re probably writing your unit tests wrong.

This often happens because the tests are written afterward, so they’re an afterthought. Whether the code is easy to test or not is coincidental.

So let me make a bold statement here: You get 60% of the value of unit tests when you write them, and only 40% by keeping them around.

This may sound crazy, but when you TDD, it’s crafting the test that helps craft the code and makes the coding easier. It’s the scaffolding that makes building simpler and faster. After the building is built, it can still guide and document and create safe refactoring, but you’ve gotten SO MUCH value out of the test just by writing it, and letting it guide the implementation of your code.

Tests should be easy to write, and easy to throw away. Tests that don’t meet these criteria become friction. Tests that do meet these criteria increase velocity.

If you’re interested in learning more about how to do Test Driven Development in Angular, come attend my one-day workshop on TDD in Angular at ng-conf 2021.
Decouple Your Styling and Tests With Data Attributes
By: Dieter Jordens
Tags: JavaScript, Programming, Angular, Testing, Tdd

Decouple Your Styling and Tests With Data Attributes

Photo by João Silas on Unsplash

Let me introduce you to a problem I had a while ago while developing a large front-end application.

In our team, we created lovely components in Angular. Afterwards, our designer would often style the components or update them for a better user experience.

However, when we applied those designs on the functionality previously created, tests would often fail. This led to a lot of time lost, causing frustration for both developers and the client.

It was very frustrating because we didn’t test styling.

So, why did our tests fail? Well, we used class selectors to identify elements in our code. Sometimes, not intentionally, somebody would use a selector that was also used to style components.

When we would change the styling afterwards, tests would fail, of course. The HTML that worked so well before suddenly broke.

An example of this could be the selector .container .message that changes to the selector .container-fluid .message as you can see in the gist below.

But on the other hand, nothing prevented the designer from adding styling to the CSS used by our tests either. So, it is an issue in both directions.

Example of a possible styling change: container -> container-fluid.

Before I hear you think: “Well, that was not the best example of test-driven development, was it?”

Well, you’re probably right. But let that not distract you from the problem we are having here. In some sense, our JavaScript selectors and our styling are strongly coupled.

In this blog post, I will give you a solution to the problem above. The solution was originally an idea of one of my colleagues and I did some research on it to get the most out of it.
A Trip into Test Driven Development
By: Isaiah Mann
Tags: JavaScript, Testing, Nodejs, Jest, Tdd

Test Driven Development (or TDD) is the methodology of writing tests first. More specifically, it follows this pattern:

Write a failing test Write only enough code to make the test pass Repeat

Read more here.

I’m a strong believer in the value of unit tests. However, until recently, I’d never attempted this approach. My general development pattern is:

Write source code Add unit tests Revise source code to address errors Refactor to clean up code

My Project

Adhere to Test Driven Development principles to build Tic-Tac-Toe

A Disclaimer

The remainder of this story takes a more technical focus. If you’re interested in learning more about the topic first, consider this post on Test Driven Development I wrote for a wider audience.

Technical Details

Project Tech Stack

Language: JavaScript (Node.js) Test Framework: Jest Test Coverage Reporter: Coveralls Package Manager: Yarn Bundler: webpack Source Control: GitHub Continuous Integration (CI): GitHub Actions Web Host: Heroku

Results

Practicing Test Driven Development was challenging. I caught myself wanting to clean up source code, then recalling I first needed a failing test.

However, the methodology was valuable. It caught a bug in my board data structure. Originally, I’d used this line to create a nested array:

board = new Array(boardSize).fill(Array(boardSize).fill(null));

As some may notice, this misuse of Array.fill adds the same inner array to to the outer three times. I fixed this by using a for loop to fill the outer array:

for (let column = 0; column < boardSize; column++) {

board[column] = new Array(boardSize).fill(null);

}

My tests provided confidence in my algorithm to check for a win. I was able to confidently refine my checkForWin function by testing a comprehensive range of cases.

Building the game as a web app made lightweight UI testing difficult. My solution was to programmatically generate the UI via document.createElement. I structured my view.js module to return references to HTMLElements and wrote assertions against their properties (example test). I decoupled this logic from adding elements to the page: which occurs in index.js via document.appendChild.

Overall, using Test Driven Development made my source code more concise. The entire application is under 400 lines of JavaScript. For future projects, I’ll consider a hybrid approach: writing enough tests to define API contracts, then refining my code.

Stray Thoughts