fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Do You Love Humanity?
By: Susan Hanniford Crowley
Tags: Opinion, Love, Masks, Humanity, Coronavirus

Photo Courtesy by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash

It’s a simple thing to do, but so many people are not wearing masks.

First, we were told that a mask basically keeps our germs to ourselves. Some masks are better at it than others.

Now, we’ve been told that masks can offer some protection.

Why the conflicting information? Maybe it’s because the medical authorities are learning as they go. Covid 19 appears to be a newer beast than the other viruses. They are only now learning all the cruel ways it hurts its victims.

Are there not enough masks? How do we get everyone masks?

I’m not a doctor or medical professional. But due to recently fighting cancer, I am in the high-risk group. Until there is a vaccine, that might mean I am under quarantine for a very long time. I wear a mask and gloves when I have no choice but to go someplace, and I social distance like crazy.

I know some people either don’t believe in the virus or don’t care to wear a mask. What if you thought of it as helping someone else? It is such a little thing to do.

I’m asking the authorities that be to make more masks available to people. I’m also asking that if you love even one human person that you wear a mask. Consider it a way of saying, “I love you.”

Thank you.

Susan Hanniford Crowley
Does mask use affect the coronavirus spread?
By: Mark Salzwedel
Tags: Masks, Infection, Coronavirus, Covid 19, Safety

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have recommended that in addition to keeping social distance, we should wear something to cover our nose and mouth. A lot of people misunderstand why that helps.

Unless you are using an N95 medical mask, your surgical mask, bandana, or other cloth mask is mostly there to protect others. It absorbs most of the aerosolized droplets of saliva when you exhale, even when a lot of air is forced out suddenly, as during a laugh, yawn, sneeze, or cough. It also can serve as a reminder not to touch your face until after you have thoroughly washed your hands.

Without a mask, most saliva droplets will eventually settle less than six feet away from you. A sneeze or cough, however, will send the droplets 25 feet or more away. Since you never know when you might need to sneeze or cough, wearing a mask whenever you’re around others is a good idea.

An N95 mask can protect the wearer as well, because it has a filter you breathe through that can trap particles as small as viruses. (Viruses can make it through woven cloth.) Since the supply of such masks is still limited, it is important to make sure there are plenty for doctors and nurses and paramedics who are at real risk, because they are constantly around people known to have COVID-19. That need outweighs your fear that one of your neighbors may possibly be infected.

And N95 masks are not reusable. The filter becomes less effective the longer you use them. If you use them more than a day, they are not better than a cloth mask.

Cloth masks can become less useful if you don’t follow some simple guidelines:

If you take your mask off to smoke, drink, eat, or talk, make doubly sure you’re not near anyone else, and put it back on when you’re done. If you wear your mask only over your mouth and not your nose, it has almost no benefit. If you adjust your mask in any way, be sure you haven’t touched any common surfaces (ATM pads, door handles, railings, etc.) since the last time you washed your hands. If you don’t wash or replace your mask regularly, its ability to absorb your saliva droplets decreases.

Please remember that the main disease vector for coronavirus is that over time, enough of it gets deposited on a surface that when you touch it and then put your finger in your nose or mouth, you risk infection. Airborne viruses are unlikely to cause an infection, because the amount you encounter is so small.

No one method of decreasing your risk is a panacea. A combination of mask use, social distancing, and good hygiene will help increase your odds of keeping you healthy.
The Flow
By: Simply Wesley
Tags: Masks, Performing, Eruption

Performing and playing music in front of my peers was always a treat, but to do so with someone I resented is hard. Luckily after surviving the storm, I knew how to pretend to be content with my situation for the sake of everyone else’s enjoyment. I took time before each night we would play to meditate outside in the heat to mentally prepare myself in case I would need to put on my mask. Every night after we performed I put away gear (as well as my mask) and did a lot of the work while she simply just turned off lights and stuck to herself instead of with the team. And what was more is that I would receive these negative comments from her and slowly every week the negativity grew and grew. I continued to climb but witnessed lava flow down the ravines beside me. She would not be dormant for much longer.

Photo by Ben Klea on Unsplash

Like a dormant volcano, she would soon erupt onto anyone nearby without warning or reason. From how I played a single chord incorrectly or anything outside of perfection I would have my night ending with complaints by her every week. I mean, she was far from perfect herself but I kept my emotions reserved and didn’t want to respond and simply ignore her. But I can’t ignore the weight I felt each week growing. So I told her father about the situation I was facing. I needed help if I was to survive the volcano’s eruption.
7 Famous Pop-Culture Masks You Will Love
Tags: Masks, Movies, Culture, Cult, Pop Culture

Pop-culture has a knack for creating cult followings over various attributes of famous films. There are a few accessories that evolve to define the whole premise of a movie. Masks are one of the greatest examples of this phenomenon. Let’s take a look at the most famous pop-culture masks.

Zorro’s Mask (Zorro series)

Zorro’s mask is definitely the most simple out of any on this list, but it’s so iconic they made an entire movie based around it (The Mask of Zorro). It’s all about how whoever picks up the mask assumes Zorro’s mythos and all that jazz, but really it’s about watching the beautiful mask.

Hannibal’s Muzzle (The Silence of the Lambs)

It’s not so much a mask as a jail cell for Hannibal Lecter’s mouth, but it’s by far one of the most terrifying ones on this list. It physically restrained Hannibal from eating people’s faces, but it never did contain him for long. Also, another great mask from Silence of the Lambs is the guard’s face that Hannibal uses to escape.

Scream Mask (Scream)

The Scream mask is certainly one of the most iconic masks in a genre full of them, but its Munch-esque design made it truly memorable. But as it turns out, it’s just a bunch of different people wearing it running around with knives, so it’s much less terrifying than say, Freddy Kruger invading your dreams.

Predator’s Mask (Predator)

An ancient mask from out there in the galaxy, Predator warriors use its many HUD features to stalk and kill prey, and also to conceal their horrendously ugly faces.

Guy Fawkes Mask (V for Vendetta)

It’s quite rare for the protagonist of the film to wear a mask, and it’s even rarer for that person to never, ever remove it, even at the end. But V’s Guy Fawkes mask has become the stuff of legend in a very short time since the film’s release.

Batman’s Cowl (Batman series)

We cannot say that the specific mask from Batman Begins is the quintessential Batman mask, but it is one of the better looking. It’s the only superhero mask worthy of making this list and has always been iconic no matter who was wearing it. Yes, even George Clooney.

Darth Vader’s Mask (Star Wars)

Most definitely the most iconic mask in movie history, Lord Vader’s helm went through many concepts before arriving at the final product we know today. And yes, it kept him alive, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t look sweet. But as slick, as it was, it only concealed the decay inside, as we saw at the end of Return of the Jedi.
The optimistic side of Bangkok air pollution
Tags: Masks, Air Pollution, Bangkok, Ev Cars, Environment

Bangkok traffic and air pollution

The air pollution in Thailand has become worse than ever before. The dusky mist engulfs the sky, resulting in hard-to-breath condition. A mask becomes an important accessory of the people of Bangkok.

Let’s look into the cause of the problem. CO2 from an industrial factory, diesel-engine cars, and weather, all combined, make it be like this. This makes me think, is it the time for us to consider using EV car seriously. All of us are aware of this bad condition, including cases like this in the neighboring country and around the world. A country like China and India have faced it too. And all of this push forward the transition of EV car to be faster.

Support from the government and cooperation from private sectors drive EV charge station and development of EV cars. We see Nissan Leaf, in Thailand, from Nissan motor and MINE from Mine Mobility. It is a good start for the adoption of the next-gen car. Even though there are limitations, e.g. the high price of EC cars, short battery duration, limit number of charge station and the charge time.

We should see more up-trend in EV car as a result of more pushing from the government. Thinking in a good way, perhaps the dusty air could speed up the process of creating a greener environment for our society.
The Caring Mask
By: Mike Abbages
Tags: Poetry, Care, Masks, Peace, Hope

I realized recently I wear a mask.

How long has this been on my face?

Will I ever remove it?

Am I a stranger to myself?

I allow the character to play itself,

Sitting in the backseat, tired

Until it becomes too much

Yes, that is me, but I’m also me

Why can’t you see, me?

I care too much.

Is there such a thing?

Valuing others above myself

Is it at my own expense?

Some friends tell me to care less.

I wonder if they’re right.

No.

Caring with one’s whole heart is our duty.

It’s my duty at least.

Perhaps my mask is caring?

I pretend to be oblivious, because people laugh.

I pretend to have it together, so others see it’s possible.

I pretend not to care because showing how much I do… who knows what would happen.

I pretend for the same reason others act it seems,

Wearing a mask for the benefit of others,

Receiving back a portion of what I put out to the world.

I think I get enough back.

Perhaps there’s no mask after all.

Maybe I’m just caring.

We’ll see, I suppose.

In the meantime,

Peace
5 Reasons Why Most People Wear a Mask
By: Shreya Roy
Tags: Reality, Life Lessons, Masks, Life Experience, Life

We all wear masks of our own.

In the current generation, we are all afraid to show our real selves to the world. Why? well, there is a large section of people, namely ‘judgmental people’ in the society that we are living in. They will be after us no matter how we are or whatever opinions we may have. This is precisely why we cannot expose our insecurities to the world. The fear of not being accepted for who we are is what makes us want to wear our masks.

But what are really the main reasons behind the majority of us wearing masks?

Let’s find out.

I. Fear of Being Judged: We are all afraid of being judged, let’s face it. None of us want to show our real selves to the world since we feel 99% of people won’t like us for who we truly are.

II. Fear of Non-belonging: Most of us want to get a feeling of belongingness wherever we go, and whoever we interact with in life. Precisely why we tend to mask ourselves from reality.

III. Hiding our Weakness: It’s unfortunate to find ourselves hiding our flaws so as to blend in with our kind. Most of us have to hide our weakness in order to succeed in life. If only that was not the case, the world would have been such a different ball game!

IV. No Self-satisfaction: We are never ever satisfied with ourselves, and hope to be someone we aren’t. Perhaps the reason behind this is low self-esteem due to various pressures from the society in itself.

V. Please to Fit in: We often want to please others so as to fit in with them. We put on the masks so as to be liked by others and thereby meet the social standards. Not something to feel good about, but in reality, at times we have no choice.
A couple of possible explanations:
By: Clayton Craddock
Tags: Masks, Dear Prudence, Slate

Dear Prudence: I want to kiss him on the lips and not through a piece of fabric. Dear Prudence, I have been married to a great guy for five and a half years. He is handsome, sexy, funny, and kind. It’s true that he has always been a little “prissy” about illnesses, but I never thought it was a real problem. However, during the pandemic, his terror about getting sick has reached new levels. For the last year, he has refused to take off his face mask, even when we are at home — just the two of us. This is true even now that he is fully vaccinated for the virus. He wears it to sleep, to do most of his bathroom activities, and, yes, even during lovemaking. To eat, he pulls it up to expose his mouth, and then quickly pulls it back down between bites. While he does not insist that I do the same, I can tell it bothers him that I don’t — especially because I have now started going maskless outside, per the CDC guidelines, and plan on restaurant dining inside soon for a girls’ night out.

A couple of possible explanations:

1) He is simply following David Hogg’s lead and feels the need to continue wearing his mask because the inconvenience of having to wear a mask is more than worth it to have people not think he’s a conservative.

2) His breath stinks and he doesn’t want to offend her.

3) She stinks, and he’s protecting himself (and others?)

4) He’s been a loyal follower of the C.C.P., I mean CDC, and will wear his face covering “until it’s safe. Safe means when 80–85% of the 7 billion people on planet earth are fully vaccinated.

5) He is trolling Trump supporters.

Should she just let him keep wearing it and not mask shame him?

What do you think?
Seriously, Who Harasses Kids?
By: Missy Fant
Tags: Washington, Protest, Skyview, Mask, Vancouver

This morning, when I spoke to the group, I was shown videos of the right-wing group surrounding them, yelling at them and attempting to push them around. One of the members was a recognized member of Patriot Prayer, Joey Gibson’s girlfriend, Lindsey Nicole.

While I went out today to see both groups, I am happy to report that only the group supporting the school and the students were there. Not to mention security at every gate and a visual presence of Clark County Sheriff officers. I hope that law enforcement looks into the videos that the members have to prosecute possible assault.

Breaking news this afternoon is that Clark County Superior Judge, Suzan Clark, granted an injunction prohibiting disruptive protests near school campuses.

Per my Mary:

“Court injunction granted against protests at Skyview and other schools On Sept. 7, Clark County Superior Court Judge Suzan Clark granted an injunction prohibiting disruptive protests near school campuses. The injunction requires that “protests, rallies, gatherings on or near school premises that disrupt educational services, immediately cease and desist and not be allowed to convene on or within a one-mile radius of any Vancouver School District building or grounds.” The injunction is effective as long as state-issued mask mandates are in effect. “Our district understands and supports free speech and the right for people to be involved in peaceful protests,” said Superintendent Jeff Snell. “However, our first priority is to ensure student and staff safety and an educational environment free of disruption. This responsibility prompted us to present our concerns to the court.” The injunction comes after community groups protested outside of Skyview High School about the state mask mandate for schools on Sept. 2 and 3. Protests also were scheduled for Sept. 7, 8, and 9. On Friday, Sept. 3, Skyview went into lockdown when protesters left the public sidewalk and came onto the campus. As a precaution, the Skyview incident triggered lockdowns at neighboring Alki Middle School and Chinook Elementary School. To mitigate the spread of COVID-19, Washington state has mandated that all students and staff members wear masks or other appropriate facial coverings in schools and on school buses. This state requirement was a legally binding decision by the governor and cannot be overturned by local districts.”

Another main reason I went out there was that I heard that the students wanted to make sure that their voices were heard. They made signs and were standing in support of Mary and protest to the anti-maskers and right-wingers. However, I was only able to head out that way while they were in school, but the group proudly showed off their signs to me!
Please, break me…
Tags: Help, Poetry, Love, Masks, Save

I wear masks, ya know, life hurts me everyday so much so that it hurts to just live but my sacrifice feels justified when I go about seeing other people smile back at me whenever I wear mine!

I dare ya to break my mask for me? Can you look at the ugliness beneath just to smile as I do for you once you do break it? Could you understand what it means to be me? Will you understand? Or will you turn around to disappear from my life completely like everyone else has done in the past?

Can you please break my mask just to peer at the monster that lurks within? Will you peer at the monster for awhile than find yourself able to smile? Will you please save me by obliterating me completely?

Please, I’m begging you to save what once was for what could be by breaking this mask to uncover the broken, battered monster hiding beneath!

I want you to do this more than anything else! I need you to break me so that I might feel once more!

I require beauty to save the beast before I admit defeat… I require beauty to do something ugly and destroy me completely! I desperately need beauty to be the beast for me!

Yes, I will rip your heart in two for you but only if you promise to shatter my own heart for me? I’ll even smile a little when you do break me down to the core…

I’ll even smile for ya after you’ve broken this mask I wore…
How to make stalker masks
By: Caroline Buttet
Tags: Exhibition, Masks, Kinect, Switzerland, Tracking

Through my former job as an interaction designer in Switzerland, I had the chance to develop the storytelling of a six-month-long exhibition that took place in the museum Art et Collections, in Crans Montana.

The pieces that were displayed are traditional Swiss masks, carved in the Lötschental valley, in Wallis. This tradition has been ongoing for centuries now, and those masks are beautiful, fascinating and strange at the same time, not to mention really creepy.

So, in order to highlight the strangeness of those masks, we decided to give the impression to the viewer that they were watched by the pieces. To illustrate this idea, we decided to do 2 different projects.

The first one was really simple: we projected moving eyes on the masks as if they were looking around. This was made by video mapping.

We mapped moving eyes on some masks to give a feeling of strangeness and uneasiness to the viewer.

The second project was to give actual motion to the masks and give the impression that they were following the viewer around. To do this, we used a Kinect to track people’s movement, and then we transmitted the data to a microcontroller that would move motors, to which the masks were attached. As a result, the masks would spin in a way that they would constantly face the viewer.

Here is a video of the first prototype we built. We are using a Kinect for tracking, and the mask is mounted on a spinning motor, to give the impression that it is following the viewer around.

Here is a video of the first prototype we built. We are using a Kinect for tracking, and the mask is mounted on a spinning motor, to give the impression that it is following the viewer around.

Here is a shaky video of the exhibition opening. You can see the masks are following the viewers as they walk past.

The event was covered by Swiss TV who did a short video about it. You can see the tweet here.
CSS Only Tilt-shift Photography
By: Tiago Almeida
Tags: Filters, Masks, CSS, Tilt Shift

It’s almost 2020, and web standards have come along more than what most people give them credit for (go forth and spread the good word to your backend friends)! 😇

While implementing my new portfolio site (www.menosketiago.com), I thought with would be cool to have a “frosted glass” effect on my modal veil instead of a duller semi-transparent fading color. Not so long ago, this was only feasible in native applications and via pre-fabricated images and trickery that was always more pain than the gain.

Alas, thanks to the CSS backdrop-filter property, this is now rather easy to do. Unfortunately, it’s also very performance-intensive, and since I already had an animated translation on the modal, the result was a somewhat jaggy animation (due to frame drops).

While I had to skip the awesomeness to keep the site experience flawless, it got me thinking… How far could we stretch this? Can we combine it with the also recently supported CSS masks?

The answers, my hopefully full of suspense and anticipation friend, were — pretty far, and yes, we can!

The old man is me, no mistakes here 😅

What I set my eyes to recreate was the ever so trendy tilt-shift photography effect, where we blur a part of the image to simulate the feeling of a macro photo of a small scale model.

Below you can check the code and the resulting bowser rendering.
These Are Not The Masks You Are Looking For
By: Jeremy Garnett
Tags: Investigation, Masks, Australian Fires, Fire Fighters, False News

Photo by Zoltan Tasi on Unsplash

When I was a young kid, of 8 years old or so, one night I was bundled out of bed to see orange flickers above the trees this side of the horizon. One of the many fire-fronts that crossed Cape York Peninsula, Queensland that year had changed direction and was now bearing down on the homestead. Though I was nary an adult, I was a spare set of hands.

With wet hessian feed sacks and Tea Tree saplings I chased down many a spot fire, while the adults tackled the main blaze and set up a back burn. The fire-front by passed the homestead and the horse paddock that year, and as far as I know, all the years since. My family, we left Cape York soon after, and my fond memories of fighting fires passed into memory.

But these memories are of fire in northern Australia, where fire management techniques are slowly returning to those practiced before colonisation, where Wet Season burns are used in landscape renewal, and where burn-offs are scheduled in the colder parts of the year. Fire in the north is simply accepted as part of the landscape, and is dealt with if and only if it needs to be.
New COVID-19 variant hits Washington State, but Washingtonians know how to handle it.
By: Washington State Department Of Health
Tags: Masks, Social Distance, UK, Covid 19

Today, almost a year to the day after the very first US case of COVID-19 was diagnosed in Washington, we learned that the COVID-19 variant that has been spreading in London, has arrived here too.

The UW Medicine Virology Lab found that two people in Snohomish County who knew they had COVID-19, actually have this new variant. So far it seems like this variant is pretty rare in Washington, although it is likely that there are other people here who also have this variant. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicts that this new variant will be the most common strain in the coming months.

What, exactly, is a new variant? Viruses are constantly changing. Part of the reason we need to get flu shots every year is because the influenza virus changes slightly. Similarly, the virus that causes COVID-19 is constantly changing. When enough changes happen, it starts to act a little different and we track it as a new variant. We expect new variants of a virus to occur over time. Sometimes new variants emerge and disappear. Other times, new variants emerge and persist. Multiple variants of the virus that causes COVID-19 have been documented in the United States and throughout the world.

Does it have a name? Well, yes. It’s known as B.1.1.7 or SARS-CoV-2 VOC 202012/01. That’s why we usually just say “new variant.”

If you get COVID-19, does it make a difference what variant you have? Not for you! According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there is no conclusive evidence that it causes more severe illness or increased risk of death. But, this variant does spread more easily and quickly than other variants, so we all need to be extra careful to do our best to protect each other.

Does the vaccine work on the new variant? So far, it looks like it does. This is great news, but it is a topic that is still being studied, so there may be more information soon.

How do we protect ourselves from the new variant? By doing all the same things we’ve been doing, as consistently as we possibly can:

Wear a mask, even with people you see regularly and in your smallest social circles;

Keep gatherings outside whenever possible;

Avoid any social gatherings indoors, but if participating, wearing a mask and ensuring windows and doors are open to maximize ventilation;

Wear a mask while in the car with other people, including with family who do not live in your household;

Wash hands often, not touching your face, and carrying hand sanitizer for use when water and soap are not available;

Stay home if you are sick or if you have been exposed to COVID-19; and,

Get tested for COVID-19 if you have symptoms or were exposed to someone who tested positive.

Practice compassion. Viruses mutate inside your body. Preventing yourself and others from getting COVID-19 also helps to prevent new variants from arising.
ChainSwap $TOKEN Public Sale and Airdrop Details
Tags: Solstarter, Chainswap, Helmet, Westarter, Mask

After announcing the success in closing our strategic round with the backing of top-tier institutions, we are excited to announce the details of ChainSwap public sale and Airdrop for AntiMatter ($MATTER) holders.

ChainSwap is launching its own native token with the ticker $TOKEN at the end of April. The public sale is going to be a multi-platform event happening on several platforms simultaneously.

Public Sale details

ChainSwap is introducing the world’s first Uniswap Liquidity Bootstrapping Event, a new public offering model created by ChainSwap.

More information about this innovative Uniswap LBP will be published in a separate article.

In addition to the Uniswap LBP, TOKEN is going to have a multi-platform initial offering. The IDO platforms are as follows:

Initial Twitter offering (MASK) (ITO — Initial Twitter Offering)

Helmet insurance offering (IIO — Initial Insurance Offering)

WeStarter — (IDO — Initial Oversubscribe Offering)

SolStarter — (Initial Delayed Offering — Late May)

TOKEN airdrop details for MATTER holders

As promised, 1% of the TOKEN total supply (This is 25% of initial circulating supply) will be airdropped in the form of token options redeemable for TOKEN on the BSC blockchain after listening to our communities feedback on gas fees. The airdrop will be claimable from the ChainSwap website.

Parties eligible for TOKEN Airdrop include:

MATTER/ETH LP holders and farmers,

MATTER holders,

OptionRoom COURT farmers

and ChainSwap users

More information will be published in the upcoming week.

TOKEN, the mechanics

The ChainSwap token TOKEN serves as a tool to facilitate platform governance and boost platform utility.

TOKEN utilities will include:

Node staking for ChainSwap nodes (Building and securing the ChainSwap smart chain that is cross-chain by default)

Asset staking rewards (Providing asset liquidity — the hub)

ChainSwap, Application Swap and The ChainSwap Hub fees used to buyback TOKEN

ChainSwap fee system

ChainSwap liquidity and usage incentivization

More utility will be added and adjusted along the road. Token economics is a dynamic subject that evolves with the project development and product usage.

Protocol Rewards: 50% , emission schedule will be published closer to launch

, emission schedule will be published closer to launch Foundation: 10% , one year cliff 25% vested every 3 months

, one year cliff 25% vested every 3 months Strategic Contributors: 20% , 10% initial then 10% vested per month

, 10% initial then 10% vested per month Public Sale: 1% , 100% unlocked. This amount might vary depending on the Uniswap LBP amount, more details will be published closer to the TGE.

, 100% unlocked. This amount might vary depending on the Uniswap LBP amount, more details will be published closer to the TGE. Team: 10% , one year cliff 25% vested every 3 months

, one year cliff 25% vested every 3 months Airdrop: 1% , fully unlocked

, fully unlocked Liquidity: 8%, fully unlocked on TGE, used for exchange liquidity

An update on the recent development work and soft roadmap:
Did CDC Delays in Up-To-Date Masking Advice Cost Health Workers’ Lives?
By: Joaquim Cardoso
Tags: Masks, N95

Kaiser Family Foundation (KNN)

By Christina Jewett, MARCH 12, 2021

Since the start of the pandemic, the most terrifying task in health care was thought to be when a doctor put a breathing tube down the trachea of a critically ill covid patient.

Those performing such “aerosol-generating” procedures, often in an intensive care unit, got the best protective gear even if there wasn’t enough to go around, per Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.

And for anyone else working with covid patients, until a month ago, a surgical mask was considered sufficient.

A new wave of research now shows that several of those procedures were not the most hazardous.

Recent studies have determined that a basic cough produces about 20 times more particles than intubation, a procedure one doctor likened to the risk of being next to a nuclear reactor.

Other new studies show that patients with covid simply talking or breathing, even in a well-ventilated room, could make workers sick in the CDC-sanctioned surgical masks.

The studies suggest that the highest overall risk of infection was among the front-line workers — many of them workers of color — who spent the most time with patients earlier in their illness and in sub-par protective gear, not those working in the covid ICU.
The Definitive Ranking of Commercially Available “Hellboy” Masks
By: Robin Brunelle
Tags: Beauty, Masks, Comics, Halloween, Comedy

It is October once more. The Halloween season has cometh, and the societal need for a definitive ranking of commercially available masks has arisen from its annual slumber.

You may remember the previous installment in this series, the runaway hit “The Definitive Ranking of Commercially Available ‘Venom’ Masks.” What a simple world (mask-wise) we lived in then. O, how I long for those times.

How naive of me to think there could not possibly exist any commercially available masks worse than the eleven variations of Venom I discovered a young twelve months ago. How naive indeed.

For you see, dear ‘weener (short for “Haloweener”), I have stumbled upon a twisted presence that has swiftly and covertly overtaken our once bucolic domain (again, mask-wise).

I am referring, of course, to Hellboy masks.

Now, I know what you might be thinking: “What is a hell boy? I’ve only heard of Batman, Iron Man, Elongated Man, and Venom! You mean there are more comic book characters out there?”

Yes! And Hellboy is one of them. And they made masks. Lots of masks.
HealthCare Family’s Newest Kickstarter Launch: The Vadur 360 Back-braced Shield Hoodie
By: Fiat Financial
Tags: Masks, Healthcare, Health, Crowdfunding, Healthy Lifestyle

HealthCare Family has yet again created another washable and reusable product to both combat the growing wastes and landfill caused by one-time use products, as well as provide a more fashionable, stylish & trendy alternative with a newly launched Kickstarter Campaign: The Vadur 360 Back-braced Shield Hoodie. Famously named after its full 360° head coverage, our newest innovation in the face shield market will make you feel your best You in the outside world.

Be unique in your own way because you are! Inspire yourself and live a better life with HealthCare Family’s Vadur 360 Shield Hoodie. A handmade craft specifically made just for you.

Get HealthCare Family’s Washable & Reusable Vadur 360 Back-braced Shield Hoodie with a very low Kickstarter relaunch price: As much as 70% off for you and your whole family!

Exclusively on Kickstarter

HealthCare Family, a Pioneer in the Healthcare Industry, wishes for your support with the initiative of helping to provide more protective items to the general public in dire need by designing an easily washable, reusable and cost-efficient alternative to disposable surgical masks and expensive N95 masks.

Please contact admin@healthcarefamily.org for more information or visit our new website at https://www.healthcarefamily.org/ or https://www.hbotcareus.com/. You may also visit any of our crowdfunding platform pages:

Kickstarter: http://kck.st/2z0cvr4

GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/healthbot-care-?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link-tip&utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet

IndieGoGo: https://igg.me/at/healthbotcare/x/23594749#/

Please like and follow our Social Media Channels to get the latest updates:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/HealthCareFami

Facebook: https://fb.me/officialhcfamily

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/healthcarefamily

Medium: https://medium.com/healthbot-care
One Problem with Masks
By: Ethan Seavey
Tags: Masks, Nonfiction, Covid 19

One problem with masks (and please, dear readers, dear God, do not let your minds slip into the chaos of the political) is my inability to smell. Honestly I can declare that oftentimes I wish it blocked out scents a bit better, living in New York, where garbage piles on the street for lack of a better infrastructure and you can smell the dog park from miles away, if you stand just right downwind. But something went missing when my sense of smell (in public, at least) disappeared.

There were no more of those moments where the air of a place rushes against your cheek, filling your lungs like a plastic bag swung into the sky, and you’re hit with that wall of realization: that you are here, in New York, but dig deeper; you’re in the Bowery, you can smell the spray paint and the pot; you’re in Chinatown, you can smell the 50¢ blueberries and the aquarium at the supermarket; you’re in little Italy, you can smell the cannolis and the grandmothers screaming down from their windows.

I haven’t had that feeling in a year. The locations I’ve been have been nonexistent, defined only by the spaces I take off my mask (a handmade cotton one; a denim one from Rag and Bone; a layered mask; KN95s). A house in the middle of high-altitude pine trees; a house that once was a convent read: drenched in holy scents; a house on the edge of a cliff overlooking a heavenly, dreary sound; an apartment owned by a smudge-stick-burning, essential-oils-drenching Czech woman.

The world doesn’t exist beyond the windows. You cannot smell through glass. And it’s cold outside.

March 2021
Is it really so difficult for you to consider that having EVERYONE in public wear masks reduces…
By: Michael Murphy
Tags: Masks, Coronavirus

Is it really so difficult for you to consider that having EVERYONE in public wear masks reduces contagion due to the limitation masks provide to the distance that droplets are expelled by the mask wearer? If you have an honest interest in this topic do a little searching yourself and I promise that you will find plenty of good studies in this regard. Just Google something along the lines of “peer reviewed studies supporting everyone wearing masks”. Youtube also has many interesting slow motion videos in environments where droplets are visible which show direct evidence of masks limiting the distance droplets spread.

Here’s an example of a good study about the benefits of having everyone wear masks:

Leung, N.H.L., Chu, D.K.W., Shiu, E.Y.C. et al. Respiratory virus shedding in exhaled breath and efficacy of face masks. Nat Med 26, 676–680 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-0843-2

If you have any issues with the data presented in this study, let me know.

If, instead, the idea of mandating mask-wearing by everyone in public just bothers you politically then please be up-front about that.

Because focusing on masks primarily as a block to droplets being dispersed by the wearer instead of a filter of particles from being inhaled by the wearer (more common in a medical setting), you might not find many of these good recent studies actually peer-reviewed yet. You have to realize that that in the past asymptomatic carriers have not been a big concern, and the R0 levels of the flu is not as high as for coronavirus, so officials have not been as willing to mandate everyone wearing a mask as they are now. If the President of the United States can ramble on and on for hours in a manner much less coherent than I am capable of about non-peer-reviewed treatments, then why should you be so demanding of peer-reviewed proof from a fellow citizen about masks, which on the face of things (pun intended), appears very logical? By the way, it is interesting to note that Hong Kong’s coronavirus response (including everyone wearing masks) also led to a sharp drop in flu cases.
Love Your Neighbor: Wear Your Mask | Life in Every Limb
By: Leslie Hunley Sholly
Tags: Masks, Christianity, Pandemic, Covid 19

Once upon a time, a man was given the opportunity to pay a visit to both Heaven and Hell, accompanied by a guide.

Upon arriving in Hell, he was amazed to see a long table laden with a banquet of every delicious food imaginable. But rather than enjoying the food, the residents of Hell were arguing, complaining, crying. It was then that he realized the only utensils available to the would-be diners were spoons so long that it was impossible for anyone to eat with them. The condemned were doomed to suffer an eternity of longing for food they were unable to eat.

Next his guide led the man to Heaven, where he was surprised to see a nearly identical scene-the delectable banquet, the extra-long spoons. But instead of the wailing and gnashing of teeth he had witnessed in Hell, he saw that the inhabitants of Heaven were smiling, talking with one another, even laughing-and EATING. The difference? In Heaven, everyone was using their long spoons to feed their neighbors on the opposite side of the table.

I read this story over 40 years ago in one of my grandmother’s old Readers Digests, but I’ve never forgotten it and have often repeated it. And it rose into my mind abruptly this week when I read a local reporter’s account of the failure of most people to wear the masks that have been recommended while in public as long as pandemic conditions continue.

Every day I read online diatribes from those who refuse to wear masks because this is America or because they are so uncomfortable or because they don’t like being forced to do anything or even because no one should tell them what to do with their own bodies. Do I even need to tell you how ridiculous it sounds when professed pro-life Christians go around saying such things?

Here’s the real reason people aren’t wearing masks: mask-wearing has a negligible protective effect upon the wearer. What masks do well, though, is prevent a potentially ill wearer from spreading germs to others. I wear a mask to protect you, and you wear one to protect me. Some especially vulnerable folks- like my friend’s medically fragile son -have difficulty wearing masks and are especially counting on the goodwill and compliance of the rest of us.

The freedom and individualism prized by Americans diametrically oppose the idea of being required to do something that only benefits others, not themselves. However, some 75% of Americans claim to be Christians and should therefore be ready to love their vulnerable neighbor by wearing masks even if it were not required.

Instead, it would appear that we Americans are a selfish bunch doomed to a Hell of our own making.
What to consider when building an MVP
By: Stefanie Bialas
Tags: MVP, Minimum Viable Product, Agile, Consulting, Salesforce

I get my coffee at the train station, we board the train, find our seats and get comfortable. I am looking at my coffee cup. Maybe I took the wrong cup from the counter? This one is for a person called “Stafinea” and that’s certainly not me.

At this point, let’s talk about assumptions. When I moved to the UK, I was convinced there will be lots of challenges but spelling my first name will not be one of them: Stefanie. Simple and lots of people carry that name. It’s a well-known name. I then realised that in the UK the most common way to spell my name is with ph: Stephanie. Internationally there are indeed lots of ways to spell my name: here a short collection: Stefanie, Stephanie, Stefania, Estefanie, Stephania, Stef, Steph, Steffi and many more.

So what does that teach us about a minimum viable product? We want something. We ask someone to help us with that and we explain what we expect. The person we talk to will have their own experience, knowledge and background. They will listen and some listeners are definitely very good. But the listener is not the person setting the requirements and asking for help. They might still interpret things slightly different from what was actually requested. I still got my coffee. It was hot, it was tasty just my name was spelt wrong. The core of the product was right but the overall experience wasn’t quite the thing I was asking for.

The user story. Something that the group agrees upon to determine what the actual built should look like. For example, as a coffee buyer, I want to be able to get a freshly made, hot coffee in a cup so that I can walk to the train and consume it there. I never mentioned anything specific about the packaging and that I expect that my name is spelt correctly. Does it impact the taste of the coffee? Does it impact the functionality of carrying my coffee to the train without spilling it? No, it doesn’t. Nevertheless, we discussed it on the train and my project manager made a beautiful comment: “This is what happens when you have a feature request. You say something but the outcome is totally different.” We both laugh. In the coffee case, it wasn’t so bad. Just the labelling was wrong, the rest of the experience was fine.

But people can really get hung up on labels. So, acceptance criteria. I could have confirmed the spelling of my name if the labelling is that important to me. We should communicate as clearly as we can on what the expected outcome of the built should look like. Acceptance criteria are there to test if the product meets the requirements and can go into production. They are not meant to discuss new features, e.g. I am in the coffee shop and after getting my coffee I am asking to also have tea. I can certainly have one but that’s a new project and I will pay for it separately.
How technical debts gets piled up in your customer service function
Tags: Technical Debt, Salesforce Platform, Customer Service, Customer Service Function, Salesforce

How technical debts gets piled up in your customer service function Tecnologia Jun 17·2 min read

By the passing of time, enterprises leveraging platforms like Salesforce have been spending significant amounts on the Salesforce platform, and many times fail to get the ROI from the Salesforce investment.

The huge spends are primarily for licensing, releasing new features, maintenance, fixes, and troubleshooting, in order to remain competitive and deliver a superior customer experience in the digital economy era.

All these changes over a period, results in Salesforce function to accumulate technical debt with respect to performance, complex customizations, under-utilized out-of-the-box functionalities, code and data quality, and point-to-point integrations making it difficult to manage and scale Salesforce. We need proper Salesforce implementation for it.

Technical Debt

In fact, the technical debt increases difficulty with areas that consume lot of time to maintain such as:

1.Security and governance

2. Process enhancements

3. Reports and dashboard

4. Governor limits

5. Code and object complexity

6. Integration challenge

7. Performance

Many times, multiple architectural and implementation approaches make Salesforce extremely complicated. This eventually resulted in performance issues, hitting Salesforce Governor limits, also running into issues related to SOQL queries and bulk Apex exceptions. This forces enterprises to consider the need of implementing a complete health check and identifying areas for improvement.

Brillio’s ForceClinic solution is a health assessment tool that analyzes and diagnoses the Salesforce org and AppExchange implementation and gives a detailed report across ten most important essential dimensions. The assessment ensures business agility with faster releases, higher user adoption, better experience, and more secure application.

So, in order to achieve the best on your technology investments in customer services, ensure your Salesforce implementation partner has the modern technology tools empowering and accelerating your capabilities to unlock Salesforce potential.
Publish & Release & Host your Angular 7 (latest version) app onto Salesforce
By: Shan Ke
Tags: Publish, Angular 7, Releases, Angular, Salesforce

I’ve been learning Salesforce development for a while and the pain in the ass is there are a lot of web technologies that Salesforce platform is adopting, Apex, Visual Force page, Aura Components, Lightning Web Components and etc, and there is no standard or guidance to say which one is supposed to use.

First question?

Then the first question is what I should use for developing some custom web features? When I decide to use Lightning Web Components to develop some cool features, I browse the relevant documentation and click a link to know more suddenly I have been navigated to Aura Components documentation. And when I am browsing Aura components I might be navigated to VisualForce. Damn it! It’s so messy. I’ve had enough. I decide to use Angular 7.

Second and last question?

The second question is how to deploy your Angular 7 build to Salesforce? If I figure it out, I probably know how to develop everything with Salesforce other than leaning Apex, VisualForce, Aura, Lightning, etc. Then this is probably the last question I need to figure out.

Standing on the shoulders of giants

I found Andres Rutnik’s article here and click to know more, please.