fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Why I did not celebrate Freedom Day
By: Transformative Health Justice
Tags: South Africa, Human Rights, Health

DR EV RAPITI. GENERAL PRACTIONER AND AUTHOR.

So it was freedom day.

What a sad day, when you think how our freedom was taken away this past year. The government decided what’s best for us. We were never consulted.

We faced lock-downs upon lock downs with little tangible benefit. The poor were hit the hardest. News was sanitised. Opposing views were not tolerated by government, mainstream media and the medical profession.

There was no platform for free and open debate. Anyone, no matter how sincere, with an opposing view was demonised and labelled a lunatic. This abhorrent attitude was most rife in the medical profession.

Medicine, as a science, used to encourage robust debate with dignity. No one was called ugly names.

But during Covid, any doctor or scientist, no matter how highly qualified, was referred to as a lunatic and ostracized, if he/she challenged a prevailing view. Medicine suddenly, became like a new religion. Anyone who had a contrary view was charged for spreading misinformation.

Thinking was totally stiffled and shut.

Journalists in mainstream media were gagged. Major adverse events from the vaccines was hardly mentioned. Deaths and major complications associated with the vaccine were dismissed as minor.

People, who experienced a major adverse event, were denied any form of compensation. Their families were left totally destitute.

Doctors, who tried to expose the adverse events in public were threatened. They were asked to shut up or face dismissal.

Then frontline workers, without their consent, were made to take the vaccine or face punitive action if they refused. Many suffered severe adverse events like death, bleeding and blindness.

The well established drug, Ivermectin, with an unassailable excellent safety record was overlooked and disregarded in favour much more expensive, toxic and less effective drugs. Families had to run judges to compell doctors to treat their dying loved ones with Ivermectin. During the pandemic, almost the entire Medical profession was in denial about the efficacy and safety of Ivermectin, resulting in the loss of so many lives.

I could not help but ask, if if this is a democracy with so much restrictions, how different is life in a dictatorship?

Today I realized how our freedom was wrenched from our hands. We had to submit to Draconian laws with no opportunity to express ourselves.

Today, I did not celebrate freedom day but mourned the loss of our freedom in a democracy.

27 April 2021
Transformative Health Justice (THJ) supports the critical C19 statement issued by UNITRALESA today
By: Transformative Health Justice
Tags: Thj, Leadership, Education, Southafrica, Health

Transformative Health Justice (THJ) supports the critical statement issued by UNITRALESA (United Indigenous Traditional Leaders of South Africa):

“ Press conference date: 07/09/2021

Venue: Uncle Toms Hall Soweto

We are meeting in this venue today as South African Amakhosi, Amakhosana, Princes, Princesses, Izinduna, and the public of this country. As of today, we have been under a covid 19 pandemic that has lasted for more than 1 year 8 months and having resulted in demise of more than 80 000 of our loved ones. It also resulted in expenditure of our government of billions of rands in poverty alleviation, expanded hospital setups and vaccine agenda. After a series of consultations with black medical academics of this country, we as indigenous leaders of this land came with the following resolutions.

We would like our people to stop being subjected to experimental vaccines by our government with immediate effect, unless they are clearly advised that these vaccines are still experimental and should be given all relevant information and allowed to decide without threats or coercion . The government should make all proven available repurposed drugs for covid 19 management such as Ivermectin, hydro chloroquine and supplements such as Zinc and vitamin D, available to all the inhabitants of the country in need. The government should also speedily finalize research on herbal products that would help in the management of Covid 19. Other measures meant to contain Covid 19 should continue to be observed. Vaccine passports should not be entertained in all circumstances.

Thank you.”

The ethical and practical position adopted by UNITRALESA is grounded in wisdom, science and courage. As such, THJ stands in full support of:

A. UNITRALESA,

B. Black and all medical and other professionals raising their voices in truth,

C. Allies for truth, health, justice and freedom, in South Africa and globally.

Siyabonga. Camagu. We are thankful.

Mayibuye iAfrica. Forward to Africa

Solidarity for Health Freedom

Transformative Health Justice

7 September 2021

Info@THJ-Africa.org.za
Loop Structures: Opportunity or Risk?
By: Tarian Trust
Tags: Finance, Taxation, Fiduciary, South Africa, Financial Planning

What are the opportunities?

There may be many reasons for SA residents who qualify to benefit from Offshore Structures to wish to invest back into South Africa. One of the reasons may be that the Offshore Trust has grown considerably over time and now has sufficient funds to invest in opportunities in South Africa. Another reason may be that there is a need for the local assets to be held by the offshore structure for better efficiency or succession purposes, due to the CFC rules not being applicable. Whatever the reasons behind the inward investment into South Africa, opportunities for efficient growing of family wealth should be carefully considered.

Restructuring

If an Offshore Company owned by an Offshore Trust which has discretionary beneficiaries with no control or ownership by SA residents which reinvests into South Africa, it will not be subject to the CFC rules. If the Source of Funds that funded the Offshore Structure are “Authorised Foreign Assets” as described in the Manual, the transaction is likely to be reported to FinSurv.

This creates an opportunity for the establishment of a South African subsidiary of a non-CFC offshore structure (“the Subsidiary”). Assets owned by any SA resident can be transferred efficiently to the Subsidiary by way of asset-for-share transaction in terms of section 42 of the Income Tax Act. The structure will still provide asset protection similar to a South African Trust (as there is no individual ownership), but the added benefit is that there is likely to be an opportunity to be more tax efficient when surplus profit is remitted offshore as a dividend.

International Business Expansion

South African Family Businesses who trade internationally and who already have funds in a Trust offshore and that wish to expand their business globally have the opportunity to do so safely under the new legislation. A South African Headquarter Company can incorporate offshore subsidiaries as appropriate for the business growth and needs. In terms of the special tax dispensation for South African Headquarter companies, there may be a significant reduction of taxes where a South African resident company, which qualifies as such, earns prescribed global income, of which is included royalties and dividends. A South African resident company can elect to be taxed as a Headquarter company if certain requirements are met relating to the percentage of shareholding by each shareholder, the sources of income and the percentage ownership in other qualifying offshore companies.
How Responsive (to Students) Is Too Responsive?
By: Wayne William Berninger
Tags: Academic Advising, Teaching And Learning, Interdependence

.

In response to “The Quandary: How Available Should Faculty Members Be to Students Online?” — by Fernanda Zamudio-Suaréz and Megan Zahneis — Chronicle of Higher Education — April 22, 2020

Arthur Rothstein, “Instructor explaining the operation of a parachute to student pilots, Meacham field, Fort Worth, Tex.” Library of Congress. (link)

Good question. I get emails from students around the clock. I pride myself on being known as a good source of information. I remember at LIU Brooklyn, my advisees would sometimes bring their friends with them to appointments, and the friends would ask me questions, too, because their own advisors had proven less reliable. I will admit I took a kind of perverse pleasure in that. I do my best either to answer questions myself or to be able to point them in the right direction. Sometimes, of course, the right answer is telling them how to go and figure out the answer themselves. How much is not enough, or just right, or too much? Probably different for every student in every situation. Where is the balancing point between helping and hand-holding? Between learning to be independent and learning that we are always interdependent?

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Integrating the Arts into Rural Classrooms
By: Dr. Susan Hammack
Tags: Ruraleducation, Fine Arts Consultants, Teaching And Learning

Researchers found that learners attain higher levels of achievement through their engagement in the arts. Also, learning in and through the arts can help level the playing field for youngsters from disadvantaged circumstances. (The Arts Education Partnership and the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities).

Listening to a webinar today from a current rural school district superintendent, she mentioned that her district has not offered any of the arts for years, in any grade level…due to budget restraints. Wow, so sad! Children are missing out on many opportunities for growth in the arts and in all subject areas. And teachers and students alike are missing out on chances to connect in fun and exciting ways.

What would I do to help this school district? Teach teachers how to integrate fine arts into their content areas. Teachers can teach WITH the arts by having students explore subjects with the arts. Teachers can teach THROUGH the arts by having students express their learning in the arts. And finally, teachers can teach ABOUT the arts for students to add depth to learning.

The arts give teachers an expanded repertoire of activities, ideas, inspiration, and exercises for growth and development in all classes. During my dissertation research I had a high school algebra teacher add music to his classroom as the students entered each day. He found out that the majority of the students liked country music the best! The music helped set the mood and the students looked forward to coming to class. In this case, music was an important teaching tool. The teacher also had fun choosing the music for the classes.

MATH IN NATURE: Math, nature, visual art

Take the students outside and look at plants, especially flowers. Count the petals. Count the number of flowers in each group. Count the number of groups on each stem. Look for patterns. Compare flowers. Connect the numerical patterns of the plants with algebraic equations. Have students, with great observation and concentration, sketch a flower or plant. They will need to focus on drawing exactly what they see, in proportion. This can be challenging. Then they can color the drawings in with crayons, pastels, paint, etc. For extra fun, while outside, all students can count how many blades of grass are in one square inch. Then average the answers for the class with more math! Then the students can calculate/estimate how many blades of grass are in the entire area! The possibilities for this activity are endless!

The arts add so much to learning!

Rural ED Consulting is available to assist rural schools and school districts with providing the highest quality teaching and learning services. The firm specializes in educator recruitment, retention, and turnaround practice for low-performing schools and districts. Please find us at http://ruraledconsulting.com/.
Effective Turnaround Practice #1: Diagnose the Actual Student Learning Problem
By: Dr. James Hammack
Tags: Instructional Leadership, Data, Evidence Based Practice, Teaching And Learning, Ruraleducation

Effective Turnaround Practices for Low-Performing Rural Schools — Practice: Diagnose the Actual Problem(s): The old adage about assuming that you know something is applicable to this practice. Even the smallest school system is a complex organizational of people, beliefs, systems, structures, and practices. So, the challenge of “turning around” student academic achievement and growth is substantial in its scope and application, to say the least.

Therefore, let’s look at a first step in practice, diagnosis of the actual problem. My firm, Rural ED Consulting, defines diagnosis as a careful reading of objective accountability data over multiple years with the goal of being able to understand trends.

While reading data seems straightforward in its implementation, a few reminders will serve to provide for high-level work:

1. As with the scientific process, diagnosis of accountability data should be done without an end goal in mind. In other words, this is a stand-alone practice that is not attempting to align with an already determined solution. You simply want to understand the story that is created by your data.

2. Diagnosis of accountability data is enhanced by consideration of multiple sources of information. Rural ED Consulting recommends that your school/school district reviews all applicable accountability data for your state, as well as available national trend data.

3. As you engage in this review, it is important to create an organizational spreadsheet tool that is easily shared with all users. A Microsoft Excel spreadsheet is such a tool. The importance of this step is to ensure that all users are considering the same data in determining student learning trends.

In my next post, I will speak to the use of a Root Cause tool for moving beyond analysis and into the area of actual determining why a particular learning challenge exists and persists for a school or school district.

I invite you to contact my firm, Rural ED Consulting, for assistance with turnaround services to low-performing schools/school districts, especially recruitment and retention services and practices. Please see us at https://lnkd.in/gezKb-t.

#recruitment #retentionstrategies #schoolleadership #turnaround
Teacher Referred to a Psychiatry Hospital Because of Students
By: Sandra Aidoo
Tags: Remorse, Teaching And Learning, Apology Letter, Love, Depression

A teacher of Happy Home Preparatory School in Tamale, Northern Ghana has shared what caused his referral to a psychiatry hospital a few months back.

According to the teacher who identified himself as Maxwell Yankson, pre-informed his pupils about his relocation to another region. Initially, the pupils felt their beloved teacher was playing a prank on them as he seemed to have said that same statement the previous year, but was still with them at the school. As their vacation day drew near, they realized how serious their teacher was this time around and that was when the pupils started circulating their teachers relocation plans around.

With the intent of stopping the teacher from relocating to another region his pupils made a report to the community chief and his counsel .The issue escalated and the teacher was called to the palace to answer some question. The teacher was rushed to a hospital few days after his summon to the palace. At the hospital the doctor diagnosed him of depression and he was later referred to a psychiatry hospital for an expert review.

As the news of the teacher’s condition circulated, pupils of the school wrote an apology letter to Mr Maxwell Yankson expressing their remorse for being selfish.

Currently Mr Yankson is back home, depress free and full of joy for the love shown by his pupils and the community.
English Teacher
By: Don Congjuico
Tags: Teaching And Learning, Reflections, English Learning, English Language, South Korea

It’s a labor of love that helps others achieve something all humans need on a basic level: communication.

It never feels like work though. It feels like its something I’m supposed to do. To establish this connection and guide my kids slowly: teaching them how to learn more and give more while I pull back support. It feels like the equivalent to helping your child walk for the first time but in terms of language communication. There’s a sense of fulfillment that comes with it. I get how teachers and teaching is a never ending art that one needs to keep working on to keep improving it. It’s a labor of love that helps others achieve something all humans need on a basic level: communication. The action speaks to how resilient and dedicated the people that do this in the long term are. I’m lucky and grateful to be in a position to keep learning and making mistakes. Grace and forgiveness are so abundant when teaching kids. The clichéd expression of everyday being a new day for new things readily applies to this profession. And what a learning experience this can be to one who accepts its lessons akin to the young minds I am teaching.

“I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think”

― Socrates
New partnership helps DistroKid members connect with fans on Twitch
By: Philip Kaplan
Tags: Distribution, Musician, Twitch, Distrokid

Starting today, DistroKid is partnering with Twitch to offer qualifying DistroKid members — who have shown a level of dedication and success in music — the opportunity to join the Twitch Affiliate Program.

The Twitch Affiliate Program is open to Twitch streamers who meet select qualifications, and allows those who qualify to further build a community and earn income on Twitch. DistroKid worked with Twitch to extend their Affiliate qualifications to recognize the work that DistroKid members have put into creating music & building fans across music streaming services.

What’s Twitch Affiliate status? Among other things, it unlocks the ability to earn money on Twitch. You can earn money on Twitch through channel subscriptions, Bits, and ads:

Channel subscriptions — Earn revenue when someone pays for a subscription to your Twitch channel.

— Earn revenue when someone pays for a subscription to your Twitch channel. Bits — Virtual goods viewers use to “Cheer” a channel. When a viewer Cheers a channel with Bits, the streamer earns a share of the revenue.

— Virtual goods viewers use to “Cheer” a channel. When a viewer Cheers a channel with Bits, the streamer earns a share of the revenue. Ad revenue — Twitch Affiliates earn a share of revenue from video ads played on their channel. Twitch Affiliates can determine the length and frequency of mid-roll ad breaks.

Live streaming on Twitch is a great way to connect with fans, express yourself creatively, and generate income. We’re excited to bring this opportunity to DistroKid members. We hope you love it.

To get started, sign in here:

https://distrokid.com/twitch

Thanks for reading!
Among Us Mods. The mods are created by…
Tags: Among Us, Livestream, Twitch

Bakbak Mods

mods created by: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5dLONf1C4HwzSZQ8ptpETA

These mods can have more than 10 people and one of the following:

Placeable vents: There are no vents on the map but impostors can place their own

3 Impostors: There are 3 impostors but they’re all on different teams

Ottomated Mods

The mods are created by: https://twitter.com/ottomated_

They add a bunch of new roles to the game:

Jester (Pink name): Their objective is to get themselves voted out. If they do, the game ends and they win.

Phantom (purple name): The job of The Phantom begins when they die. The Phantom becomes nearly invisible. Your goal is to sneak around the map, avoid detection, complete your tasks, and push the meeting button. If you complete all your tasks and push the button, you win! But if someone finds and clicks on you, you lose!

Parasite: An impostor that can infect another player, which gives you control over their body and makes them look identical to you. You control both bodies until you press the Kill button, which finally slices the infected body

Sheriff: Crew that is able to kill other players. But if they shoot a Crewmate they both die

Snitch (yellow name): When they finish their tasks they can see who the impostor is.

Morphling: An impostor that can turn into another player for 10 second (they cannot vent)

There are also a couple that they don’t ordinarily use:

Guardian (Green name): The Guardian helps other crewmates by granting a one-time immunity to a kill. Guardians have extended protection cooldown.

Detective(blue name): Can analyse bodies and get information on them.

If you want to see what mods are currently active, you can see them on the screen in between games
Facebook Gaming App in depth
By: The Hardwaron Zone
Tags: YouTube, Facebook Gaming App, Twitch, The Hardwaron Zone, Facebook Gaming

You can also refer to my video:

Facebook has finally stepped into the gaming arena. Facebook has launched its game streaming app named Facebook Gaming. The app had been under development for around 18 months and finally, it is available in the play store. So currently, it is only available for android but as soon as they receive approval from Apple they will add it to the App store.

If you have been involved in this hype about Facebook Gaming then the hype is mainly because of “FACEBOOK” as of course, it is a very big company people want to know more about it although there are some features that set it apart from its rivals.

Many people have liked it very much and prefer it over the other, but there is also a large number of people who are facing a lot of difficulties due to high amount of bugs and lags in the app, but as the app has released recently I am sure that Facebook will make improvements and eliminate all these problems by more updates.

Another thing is that Facebook gaming will be focused on mobile gaming. The company’s vice president had told The Times :

“We don’t want to be the background window in a Chrome Tab while someone is doing their homework or doing something else. With mobile, if you have the app open and you’re using the app, it’s in the foreground. You can’t do anything else on your mobile phone, and that is extremely powerful.”

We can very easily do multi-tasking in chrome and other browsers so a mobile app would actually help to reduce a lot of distractions

Facebook Gaming vs Twitch etc..

Again, as Facebook Gaming App has launched recently we cannot really judge. The main feature of it is that we can watch other streams, we can play games and also join another game.

A very important feature that Facebook Gaming App has it that it has option (“Go Live”)through which we can directly stream gameplay to social media without the use of any third-party software.

The Big advantage that Facebook has is that it has a lot of ‘user-data’.Many people have their accounts on Facebook (not Gaming App plain facebook)and of course, Twitch will not have so many users as it is only for gamers(and all the gaming community), so this data can be very helpful for them to work on.

Facebook was going to release the app in June but launched it early during the lockdown as many people are at home and this will help them to gain a lot of audience.
Buying a capture card? Here are FIVE great options!
By: Andrew Whitehead
Tags: Gaming, Streaming, Twitch, Videogames, Live

But first… what exactly is a capture card?

A capture card is designed to take signals from one device, send a copy of that signal to a computer for processing, and then allow that same signal to pass-through to a display.

Let’s say you’re looking to stream games from your PlayStation 4 to somewhere like Twitch or Facebook. First, you’d take the HDMI from your console, plug it into your capture device, then use another HDMI cable go from your capture device to your display — this is called the signal pass-through. A copy of that same signal is sent via a USB cable from the capture device to your PC, and a program like XSplit or OBS will take that signal and process it for streaming or recording (or both!).

If you’re streaming games directly from your PC, you don’t need a capture card. Instead, you can stream directly from the same device and use an encoder like NVENC to help take the pressure off your CPU. You can read more about that here.

Now that we’re all on the same page, let’s work out which capture card is right for you! Also, on a side note, all prices are the recommended retail price, so be sure to shop around!
GVC Top Ten: 2/10–2/16
Tags: Esport, Gaming, League of Legends, Twitch, Blog

During a relatively slow week, a majority of the top ten most watched games were met with a decline in hours watched. While some titles managed to move up the charts, the top three games remained the same for the third week in a row. League of Legends, GTA V, and Fortnite continued their dominance even with only slight changes to their viewership.

League of Legends seems to have flattened out as the LCS and LEC seasons are in full swing. The game decreased by 1.55% to below 38 million hours watched. Even with the decline, LoL more than doubled GTA V’s hours watched last week. League of Legends is set to have a spike in hours watched as the most recent Twitch Rivals event just wrapped up this week. Plenty of influencers creating plenty of content for the game with definitely lead to a boost and increase their lead even more.

GTA V managed to fend off Fortnite for another week even though it saw a decrease of 4.41% to 18.6 million hours watched. The freedom for streamers and influencers to continuously pump out content is keeping GTA V extremely healthy in today’s diverse gaming market. Where the game might falter is if it ceases somewhat regular updates. With that said, it doesn’t seem as though GTA V will fall anytime soon; that is until GTA VI releases at some point.

Fortnite had a slight uptick in hours watched almost reaching 17.5 million at an 0.42% increase. Fortnite has been in a holding position for quite some time as Season 1 of Chapter 2 began to feel stale. That all changed today with the release of Season 2. Fortnite will undoubtedly reach higher viewership numbers and probably pass GTA V for the #2 spot on the list next week. Streamers are flocking back to the battle royale to create new content and provide their reactions to the new updates. Stay tuned to see how high Fortnite will fly in next week’s post.

Game Genres:

Battle Royale: 4 (Fortnite, PUBG Mobile, Apex Legends, Garena Free Fire)

(Fortnite, PUBG Mobile, Apex Legends, Garena Free Fire) MOBA: 2 (League of Legends, Dota 2)

(League of Legends, Dota 2) Open World: 2 (GTA V, Minecraft)

(GTA V, Minecraft) FPS: 2 (Escape from Tarkov, CS:GO)

Mobile vs. Non-Mobile:

Mobile: 2

Non-Mobile: 8*

*Games like Fortnite and Minecraft have mobile compatibility but are largely considered non-mobile titles.
Are Battle Royales successful in 2020 so far?
Tags: Esport, YouTube, Fortnite, Twitch, Blog

The battle royale genre has been at the forefront of the gaming industry for the past few years as games like PUBG, Fortnite, and Apex Legends have had massive success. But has the genre been able to carry over into the new decade with the same prosperity? Which games have contributed the most to the success thus far in 2020? This week, Stream Hatchet analyzes the top battle royale titles to identify which game led in hours watched and airtime on the North American streaming platforms during January.

Mobile games PUBG Mobile and Garena Free Fire generated 44.6% of the Battle Royale hours watched in January with just 6% airtime.

Fortnite was responsible for 62.1% of airtime for battle royale games but only generated 29.5% of the total hours watched.

PUBG and PUBG Mobile generated 40.8% of the total hours watched and 15.6% of the total airtime for the battle royale genre last month.

For more information regarding live streamed game or genre data, please visit www.streamhatchet.com or contact sales@streamhatchet.com.

Want to read more stories about the industry? Subscribe to our newsletter at www.streamhatchet.com/newsletter.
Live role notifications are here!
Tags: Discordapp, Twitch, Announcements, Discord

We’ve got some brand new features for Live Role that were first suggested by people in our Discord server. At the time of writing this, the suggestion now has 53 upvotes. We finally implemented this idea, and now you can set up TwitchBot to send a message when someone shows the streaming status on Discord. On the TwitchBot dashboard, you’ll see that the Live Role section has been given an upgrade.

Live role notifications are meant to provide a fast and mainstream way to send out messages when a user goes live. Messages are instant, meaning that as soon as someone is shown with the streaming status in Discord, the message will be sent. This is entirely linked to Live Role, and will have the same limitations, meaning that you cannot individually blacklist people from being announced. Live role notifications will only work if a member shows the purple streaming status.

This may be useful for communities that like to promote streamers. Live role notifications will also honor the filter role, allowing you to fine-tune which members are announced.

An example message.

Live Role’s new capabilities should be available to all servers now, along with fixes for previous bugs (because it broke with an earlier update).
A Guide to Buy Twitch Channel Views — the Dos and Don’ts
By: Stefan Mikalson
Tags: Twitch

Acknowledged to be one of the top sources of Internet traffic in North America, Twitch helps in fan engagement by users across the globe, primarily through real-time gameplay. However, with over 2 million broadcasting accounts, it can be extremely difficult if you go solo to make a mark and ensure that your content stands out in the crowd. Fortunately, there is a way out. If you buy Twitch channel views, you attract engagement and attention from authentic viewers, thereby increasing the ranking of your content.

But do not start on the wrong foot. While there are a lot of third-party sites where you can buy Twitch viewers, the quality of most is so bad that you will only damage the reputation of your channel. You should only align yourself with a company that can provide high-quality Twitch viewers.

Why should you buy Twitch channel views?

When you want to make a great impression on people who are checking your streaming, you should buy Twitch channel views. It is because you will get the social proof and positive endorsement that your account badly needs. Top companies can give a leg-up to your account via their Twitch followers. With high-quality viewers engaging with your streams, new entrants that come to your channel will be straightaway impressed with your content. More views mean a higher viewing rate and you have the chance to go viral in no time.

Your reach too will increase exponentially when you buy Twitch channel views. It is not difficult to pinpoint the right places from where to get quality viewers as they will be featured on the trending pages. Do not take shortcuts to get viewership for your channel. The use of bots to get viewership is illegal on Twitch. You might get a lot of viewers but the standard will be very poor. It means a bad retention rate as viewers will stop watching your channel after some time. Nobody wants to be associated with a spammy channel that wants to get ahead by unfair means.

Attributes of sites to buy Twitch channel views

How can you tell the difference between sites that are out to make a quick buck and one where you will really gain from superior viewers? Here are some attributes to look out for.

· Quick delivery: Be realistic about what third-party sites can offer. If you want to buy Twitch channel views in small numbers, you will get almost instant delivery. But it might take a couple of days to get delivery from large companies. Make sure that they mention the delivery schedule in advance.

· Refund guarantee: Good sites offer a refund guarantee if they cannot deliver what you expected.

· High retention rate: Excellent Twitch viewers will have a high retention rate and will stick around to watch more of your streams in the future.

· Customer support: Top companies offer excellent customer support.

Follow these guidelines to buy Twitch channel views and you cannot go wrong.
Pretzel Weekly Update #76 — The “Meet Rini” Edition
By: Nate 'Knaught' Beck
Tags: Pretzels, Music, Live Streaming, Twitch, Weekly

A couple of weeks ago, we told you about our acquisition by Songtradr. This has opened the door for new possibilities and given us room to grow.

We excited to announce the promotion of our own Support Manager, Rini, to the position of Pretzel Product Manager.

Rini… rocks.

You know Rini as the voice of our Twitter account, as well as the friendly face who answers all of your support questions in Discord, via email, DMs, and even on Facebook. They’ve been a content creator since 2002 and fully immersed in the Twitch space for over a decade. In their new role as the Pretzel Product Manager, they will be making sure all of your needs with the player are met and your voices are heard. They will be the circuit board that connects all of the different teams together, like support, engineering, marketing, and curation, and will represent your voice through each process.

Rini is extremely passionate about helping others, and cannot wait to dive in to push the Pretzel player further as the best music provider for content creators. The first things they will be tackling are updating the UI, integrating with a couple of streamer tools you know and love (and have been asking for years about!), and a really cool new feature that will blow playlists out of the water with these new customization options.

Want to share your thoughts or ideas with Rini? Reach out to them via Twitter or hello@pretzel.rocks. They’d love to hear from you!

Product Updates

This week has mostly been spent planning out our product roadmap, we did however implement a few things.

Pixel Chat Integration

We worked with ACPixel to enable Pretzel support for Pixel Chat. Check it out.

Updates to our What’s Playing JSON API

In order to support Pixel Chat. We added the artwork URL of the currently playing song to our JSON What’s Playing API. Currently, the API is not well documented, again something we’re currently planning as part of our product roadmap. But you can access it here: https://api.pretzel.tv/playing/twitch/22609615/json

Where the number is your Twitch User Id.

Basic Pretzel What’s Playing API

Weekly Spotlight — Muscle Beach by Ace Marino

Ace Marino… so hot right now.

Ace Marino comes to Pretzel from FiXT and brings with him fresh synthwave that is both modern and a mulleted nod to ’80s nostalgia.

Muscle Beach is just one such track and one that never hesitates to bring a smile to our faces. If this doesn’t make you want to grab some neon leg warmers and get you up and on your feet, we’re not sure what will.

You can find all of Ace Marino’s tracks here.

I love lamp!

As always, try Pretzel Rocks now, follow our Twitter and chat in our Discord. We’ll see you next week!

Cheers,

The Pretzel Team
Ironhack Prework : Wireframing “Twitch”
By: El Younsi M
Tags: Streaming, UI Design, Wireframe, Twitch

Photo by Caspar Camille Rubin on Unsplash

Twitch is an American video live streaming service that focuses on video game live streaming, including broadcasts of esports competitions. In addition, it offers music broadcasts, creative content, and more recently, “in real life” streams. It is operated by Twitch Interactive, a subsidiary of Amazon.com, Inc. It was introduced in June 2011 as a spin-off of the general-interest streaming platform Justin.tv. Content on the site can be viewed either live or via video on demand.

The task analysis i chose is an overview of a common use of the app to navigate into the mains menus we got first. The principal activity is to watch live content but also on demand.

App landing page with followed channel and proposal based on interest.

Account setup a live, access to settings and stats.

Friends and messages.

Search by category, language or key words.

Overview by catégory, here : Esport

This was a really good start to understand how the app actually works and how to mimic it using Figma. Also wireframing is a powerfull tool as it can be changed really easily and give a really first impression about the flow and the user experience.
Update on Wrap Tokenomics In Response to Community Feedback
By: Bender Labs
Tags: Tokenomics, Ethereum, Tezos, Cryptocurrency, Defi

Wrap is a decentralized bridge between the Ethereum and Tezos blockchains that enables anyone to wrap native ERC-20 tokens from Ethereum into native FA2 tokens on Tezos.

Wrap Protocol is an open-source, community-owned project, and in the spirit of community ownership, the Wrap Community has debated on a key aspect of the tokenomics of the Wrap Protocol over the last week. The centerpiece of the debate was on the need to disincentivize the multiple wrapping and unwrapping of the same token and to apply more of the wrapping rewards to incentivize the WRAP/XTZ liquidity pool.

We listened to the community and allowed them to weigh in on a poll which lasted 72 hours.

The poll asked:

What portion of the original 40% of users’ share of $WRAP distribution should go to the LP staking contract for the WRAP/XTZ pool?

At the end of the voting period, we took an average of all votes: (9*0+10*10+12*20+32*30+37*40)/100 = 27.8%.

As a result, we have rounded up the percentages to apply 28% of the $WRAP distribution to the LP staking contract for the WRAP/XTZ pool, leaving 12% of $WRAP distribution left to reward wrapping.

The 28% of $WRAP distribution to the LP staking contract for the WRAP/XTZ pool and the 12% of rewards wrapping together makes up the original 40% of $WRAP distribution allocated to users of the Wrap Protocol.

On the actual implementation of liquidity mining incentive changes based on the community’s vote

This week we added 28% of $WRAP distribution to the new rewards to WRAP/XTZ liquidity pool — it means that users will earn more rewards by providing liquidity starting this week.

This week we have also changed the amount of $WRAP distribution to be earned by wrapping tokens to 12% of $WRAP distribution — it means that users will earn less WRAP starting next week, and as usual, these $WRAPs will be distributed 4 weeks later.

Already calculated wrapping rewards up until this week won’t change, users will receive what they already see here https://info.tzwrap.com/rewards.

We will continue to listen to the community and improve the Wrap Protocol for the benefit of all.

Happy Wrapping,

Bender Labs
Mclaren Racing And Tezos Become Partners To Bring NFT Fan Experience In A New Multi-Year Official Partnership
By: The Crypto Basic
Tags: Cryptocurrency News, Finance, Tezos, Cryptocurrency, Crypto

Mclaren Racing And Tezos Become Partners To Bring NFT Fan Experience In A New Multi-Year Official Partnership The Crypto Basic Follow Jun 17 · 2 min read

McLaren Racing and Tezos blockchain have entered into a new technical partnership. Together they will create an NFT platform that will explore the fan experience. Tezos was selected by McLaren for its energy-efficient proof-of-stake consensus protocol.

McLaren Racing has selected #Tezos to become the team’s Technical Partner in a new multi-year official partnership. @McLarenF1 will build a new #NFT fan experience on @tezos across F1, INDYCAR and e-sports. https://t.co/FZfRqGIAwX - Tezos (@tezos) June 17, 2021

McLaren Racing teams up with Tezos to create a new multi-year technical partnership between Formula 1, INDYCAR, and esports. Thus, Tezos has now become the official blockchain partner of McLaren Racing.

The racing brand specifically chose Tezos to represent its debut on the NFT blockchain, thanks to its energy-efficient network and updatable technology. Specifically, they intend to create a non-fungible token (NFT) platform while keeping the “fan experience” at its core.

Lindsey Eckhouse, Director of Licensing, e-commerce & esports at McLaren Racing, said:

Tezos and McLaren Racing uniting to create a unique fan-focused NFT platform is an innovative step in an exciting and rapidly developing industry. At McLaren, we are known for putting fans at the heart of everything we do, and this is another partnership which allows us to enter a space where fans can own key pieces of our team. We are looking forward to launching the platform with Tezos to create bespoke NFTs with our Formula 1, INDYCAR, and esports teams.

Ultimately, the partnership confirms that Tezos will represent the McLaren Formula 1 and Arrow McLaren SP teams. Likewise, McLaren will represent Tezos in all of their racing suits. In particular, these suits will be worn by the McLaren F1 drivers Lando Norris and Daniel Riccardo and also by AMSP drivers Pato O’Ward and Felix Rosenquist.
Global Leader ‘Huge’ appointed as the Marketing Agency to work on Tezos
Tags: Blockchain, Marketing, Tezos

Global Leader ‘Huge’ appointed as the Marketing Agency to work on Tezos AJ Follow Jun 8 · 3 min read

Today, global experience agency Huge (NYSE: IPG) announced that it has been named Agency of Record for the Tezos Foundation. In a first-of-its-kind appointment, Huge will work with the Tezos ecosystem to help define go to market strategies, brand expressions, developer engagement, and create engaging experiences for community members, developers, builders and media.

In its AOR capacity, Huge will accelerate Tezos marketing efforts including brand identity, integrated marketing, creative, event activation, partnerships, marketing innovation and PR. This is the first AOR agency relationship in the Tezos ecosystem, and follows the recent appointment of Mark Soares as CMO & Founder of Blokhaus.

“Huge has a long history of helping new economy brands enter the market, helping people connect in new and exciting ways.” said Huge Brooklyn President, Matt Weiss. “The blockchain space represents a fascinating and entirely new frontier — and Tezos is right at the forefront of innovation in the space. Helping grow awareness for Tezos is exciting and exactly the kind of opportunity we look for to create experiences people love today and in the future.”

Tezos is a leading open-source blockchain and a pioneer of the more energy efficient Proof of Stake design. Tezos consumes over two million times less energy than Proof of Work networks like Bitcoin or Ethereum, allowing developers and companies to prioritize innovation without compromising sustainability. Secure and resilient, the network reached over 1.2 million contract calls in both April and May of 2021, signaling fast-growing adoption of the open-source software to power a global suite of NFT marketplaces and DeFi applications. Furthermore, Tezos is fast becoming the blockchain of choice for global brands and institutions such as F1 team Red Bull Racing Honda, iconic gaming publisher Ubisoft, financial services giant Societe Generale, and more.

“Looking for an agency adept at the intersection of technology and culture to handle a nuanced engagement such as with an open-source decentralized blockchain network, there was no competition — Huge was really the only choice — we recognized them as having the perfect mix of capabilities needed to truly increase Tezos awareness within this fast moving space” shared Blokhaus Founder and CMO, Mark Soares. “The Tezos ecosystem is leading the Clean NFT movement and attracting global brands at a breakneck pace. As crypto further reaches mainstream, we are thrilled to have the Huge team on board to help drive initiatives and awareness for Tezos.”

This AOR appointment comes after Huge Global’s recent client partnership announcements with SubZero, Nikko AM, Wakefern and Coppertone in Q1-Q2 of 2021.
Wrap Protocol is now live!
By: Hugo Renaudin
Tags: Bender, Blockchain, Tezos, Crypto, Defi

Wrap Protocol by Bender Labs launches at 2pm UTC on April 26th, 2021. We’ve put together some useful information to help you get started.

Official Links

To wrap assets, go on the Wrap dApp: https:// app.tzwrap.com ⚠️ Beware of scams, check the URL twice!⚠️

To chat with us, use Telegram: https://t.me/benderlabs

Or Discourse: https://community.benderlabs.io

Our code is open-source and can be found here: https://github.com/bender-labs

Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BenderLabs_ and https://twitter.com/Wrap_Protocol

⚠️ These are the official Bender Labs / Wrap Protocol links ⚠️ We will never ask you for personal or private key information, beware of scams.

Wrap opens at 2pm UTC on April 26th, 2021. Usage statistics (and $WRAP attribution calculation) will start at this time, not before. $WRAP tokens will be distributed 4 weeks later.

You can watch TVL and wrapping/unwrapping activity on:

The Ethereum Locking Contract on Etherscan

The Tezos FA2 mutli-token contract for wrapped tokens on Better Call Dev

Smart Contracts

Below is the list of Wrap Protocol smart contracts. Again, beware of scams! Do not send funds to an unknown address

Tezos Contracts

Dev Pool: KT1SN87btphRCwGXFTbzndMVQzrpZ165XutV

Fee Safekeeping (temporary): KT1K7L5bQzqmVRYyrgLTHWNHQ6C5vFpYGQRk

Wrapped Tokens Contract: KT18fp5rcTW7mbWDmzFwjLDUhs5MeJmagDSZ

WRAP Governance Token: KT1LRboPna9yQY9BrjtQYDS1DVxhKESK4VVd

Quorum Contract: KT1DLif2x9BtK6pUq9ZfFVVyW5wN2kau9rkW

Minter Contract: KT1MTnKjFSN2u4myPRBqnFuCYCPX8kTdUEnv

Ethereum Contracts

Locking Contract: 0x5Dc76fD132354be5567ad617fD1fE8fB79421D82

WRAP Governance Token: 0x7421A18dE2eE1dC8b84E42Eb00D8B73578c23526

Signers Quorum

The quorum will begin with 4 signers and a 3-of-4 governance. The fifth signer will be added in the next few days. The list of 4 original signers is:

Bender Labs

Blockscale

Baking Bad

Bake N Roll

$WRAP Liquidity

We’ve used the first allowance of our dev pool to provide liquidity on the $WRAP/XTZ pool on Quipuswap. Before using the pool, make sure that you check the WRAP token address, which should be KT1LRboPna9yQY9BrjtQYDS1DVxhKESK4VVd.

WRAP token address: KT1LRboPna9yQY9BrjtQYDS1DVxhKESK4VVd

Liquidity pool address: KT1FG63hhFtMEEEtmBSX2vuFmP87t9E7Ab4t

Quipuswap Pool link

Happy wrapping !
This Week in Blockfolio Signal — Aave, Tezos, Elrond, Enjin, ICON, Orion Protocol
By: Jason Hamlin
Tags: Tezos, Aave, Crypto, Enjin, Defi

Aave Working with Ethereum Layer-2 Polygon (MATIC)

“Aave will be implementing the first wave of exploring new scalability frontiers with Polygon, a sidechain of Ethereum that allows for quick and cheap transactions.” Read More — Isabel Kivlighan, Digital Marketing Manager

Summary

Aave Protocol will enter the scalability phase and bring decentralized finance back into everyone’s hands, even those with 3 figure portfolios.

The Aave Protocol has a multi-market approach and will implement it to scalability solutions in a “New Frontiers” exploration.

The first implementation of the exploration of New Frontiers will be with Polygon (formerly known as MATIC). This scalable sidechain of Ethereum allows fast and nearly-free transactions.

The Polygon Bridge is available to transfer assets from Ethereum to Polygon. Thanks to the integration of EIP-3085, switching from Ethereum to the Polygon network is as easy as one click for every Metamask user.

Significance

This move will drastically reduce fees to interact with Aave, opening up the DeFi platform to users that were previously priced out. It is a win for Aave, DeFi users, and for the advancement of the DeFi sector overall.

Price at the time of Blockfolio Signal: $381. View AAVE on Blockfolio.