fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Bullying in the Workplace — 1. Bullying isn’t something that ever…
Tags: Jobs, Work, Work Life Balance, Bullying, The Job Auction

Bullying isn’t something that ever really goes away. Not the nicest way to start a blog post but there’s a sobering truth that bullies aren’t just stamped out during school. Protecting kids from bullying is common sense but in the workplace, grown-ups, too, need someone to turn to when someone just won’t let them be. It’s not okay and if anything less acceptable as an adult to actively bully someone. Here are some instances of how the workplace could witness bullying.

Rivalry

Bullies are often defined by their own insecurities and a colleague who performs reasonably well may, depressingly, end up as a target for bullying. Those who feel less confident in their abilities or are more likely to begin to belittle someone who seems to embody traits they do not possess. This sort of bullying often happens on a one-on-one basis and as such isn’t likely to be seen by many people. In this case, it’s best to make note of instances you feel you’ve been bullied or singled out. It isn’t fair for anyone to be picked on, and there is a fine line between healthy competition and career sabotage.

Group

Sub-groups will always form within large pools of people. Pack mentality is born out of the desire for self-preservation. And when these sets form, someone is likely going to be left out. Perhaps this person refuses to play politics in the office or isn’t as technically competent as everyone else, whatever their anointed flaw is it can lead to bullying. It makes people feel more included, to know that someone else is excluded. It’s confirmation that you’re not bottom of the heap, however, if you resort to bullying to make yourself feel better, you are.

Hierarchical

They say that the weakest form of power is authority. To resort to pulling rank in order to get what you want is not the sign of a boss who knows how to engage with their subordinates. Bullying from a superior often stems from someone unsure of how to navigate a managerial role. Abuse of power is perhaps the worst sort of bullying and one that can get extremely distasteful especially if the employee feels they have nowhere to turn. Do be on the lookout for abusive bosses and know your rights as a worker. And to any budding managers out there I’d say: being nice doesn’t have to mean being a pushover.

Hierarchical (Inverse)

The flip side of this is that your boss is a person too. Yes, I know, you read that right, who knew the person paying your wages has feelings? So they aren’t impervious to nasty comments and may feel boxed in if an employee tries to knock them down a peg unnecessarily, as getting emotional isn’t often seen as professional. Being the boss does mean you have a target on your head and it takes an incredibly thick skin to sit at the head of the table. It’s not that thick, though, and, by the way, you do not impress anyone by belligerently tearing into every one of their instructions. There’s a fine line between being assertive and being malicious.

https://blog.thejobauction.com/bullying-in-the-workplace-1/
A man experimenting with the colour PINK!
By: Ayush Agarwal
Tags: Articles, Colour Pink, Bullying, Masculinity, Pink

I had this aversion towards the colour Pink since I was a little boy. At that point I accepted it as a fact. I made it quite clear to my family that I don’t want anything that is remotely close to this colour or any shade of it. Keeping in mind the side of the bed we used to sleep on, the room that my sister and I shared was carefully painted half-blue-half-pink .

I refused to carry a pink bag, tiffin box, water bottle or even a pencil box to school. So much so that I fought with everyone when they were buying a pink tee shirt for me. My mother tried to talk sense into me that pink would really bring out my colour. She used to give me examples of the men in our family who absolutely rocked pink. But no, I couldn’t. I just couldn’t.

Over the years I have told everyone that this is the one colour I hate and it has nothing to do with sexism. I have been going over this since a while now. Though I still don’t have a definite answer to what made me hate this beautiful colour, I now have a few possible reasons. I call it beautiful for the fact that I realise that I have always liked the colour; I had nothing against it. The problem was owning and carrying an object, which had this colour on it.

Even though I claimed that it had nothing to do with sexism, in retrospect, it seems quite obvious to me now that it has always been about that. The society perceives this colour a certain way and I didn’t want to fuel that thought process. It wasn’t easy for me to come to terms with the fact that I too fell victim to this vicious mentality without even realising it. You have to conform to the general opinion of what belongs where lest you want to be mocked at.

Now that I have broken a lot of shackles, this one seems too important. I was a little effeminate since my school days, which gave the power to numerous merciless bullies to mock me. Obviously I was far away from all that toxic masculinity. This now feels like an unconscious decision I made to avoid the constant bullying that I had to go through. How could I be seen carrying something pink and give others a chance to mock me even further than what is anyway being thrown at me constantly?

To hell with all of that bullshit! I am going to start experimenting with the colour pink and all the beautiful shades it comes with. Maybe I’ll start with buying a pink tee shirt. Oh! I can’t wait to see the look on my mother’s face.

Maybe she’ll be delighted or perhaps now that things are way too different, she might even be shocked. Why now? What does he want to prove? Now that, time will tell. But for now, let’s start with accepting Pink. I hope all other boys who are subjected to this spiteful thinking, come around sooner or later and accept the wonders that this world offers. It might be as small as choosing a colour but that is where it all starts.

Let’s raise a toast to the colour Pink!

Photo by Diego PH on Unsplash
Anti-Bullying, but Only Until You Get to The Working World
Tags: Work, Work Life Balance, Bullying Prevention, Bullying, Bad Management

Growing up in the early 2000s there were so many anti-bullying campaigns and agendas that our schools pushed down our throats. And while the schools tried prevent the inevitability of bullying in elementary and middle schools, children are mean — children pick on each other.

I was a chubby child growing up, so I’ve had my fair share of bullying throughout the years. But having lived in that insecure point in my life, I’ve become somewhat of a protector for those who don’t know how to deal with their own bully’s. In fact, I get enraged when I see or hear someone getting picked on. Not everyone can stand up for themselves, and while I know it is not my responsibility to do so, it pains me seeing someone in distress like that.

So what happens when you are told to “just hold your tongue” and “take it” when you are the one getting picked on in a working environment. So many before me have experienced the suffering that is having a bad manager. And there will be disagreements in the working world among associates. But how do you grow up with the full enforcement of anti-bullying policy and let your manager treat you as a puppet to fondle and control in any way they wish?

My manager, who is highly unqualified for her position, has directed her insecurities towards me. With accusations and blame, she repeatedly attacks me on levels that I cannot even begin to understand. With the same knowledge about the industry that I knew coming out of college, she has experienced a power trip that is fueled by her lack of knowledge about our account. But because of her uncertainty in herself, she pours her discomfort onto me by micromanaging, yelling, attacking, telling me I failed, and then coming back to me to answer all of her questions that she should not have to ask an entry level employee about.

One attack was worse than the others. I captured it and sent it to my director, but I went to speak to her about it in person — horrible decision. Not only did she disrespect me in a chat, but she disrespected my time and my humanity in person. When returning to my seat, I noticed that she tried turning the history on our chat off. I captured that too.

My director agreed to meet with me about the interchange. I spilled all of the gorey details about the innapropriate treatment I have been receiving, and her advice to me, was “just hold your tongue” and “take it.”

So after all that empowerment and confidence I have built up over the years to combat anyone who tries to pick on me, I have to hold my tongue and “take it.” So is there a line between bullying in the corporate world and in schools?
Troubled Twosome
By: Madonna Deverson
Tags: Short Story, Shame, Personal Narrative, Bullying, Memoir

Troubled Twosome

Little Miss Sunshine, Roger Hargreaves, image: Madonna Deverson

When I was seven years old, I got into serious trouble at school and took my friend down with me.

Principal Stevens, a stern and physically imposing man, told the entire school at morning assembly about our alleged crime. He spoke into a microphone from the top steps of the library, broadcasting the news over the loudspeaker system, through the corridors and across the ovals. The mysterious “two girls in trouble,” their crime and likely punishment was the talk of the playground before the bell sounded.

Sitting in terror outside the principal’s office, we waited to meet our fate. Our favourite French teacher stopped in surprise when he saw us “oh no, it was you two…what did you do?” he asked. He was very “désolé” for us and, even though I could only relay the gist of it in my beginner’s French, none of us truly understood why this was such a big deal.

Flustered, my face tomato-red and throat choking on angry tears, I described the events in question. That morning, fueled by the threat of losing my borrowing privileges, I rushed to return my library books. I focused on my mission to get to the returns desk before school started. Not knowing about the etiquette of doors, I didn’t see the large man approaching ahead until he was shouting down at me. Not much taller than his kneecaps, I had squeezed past him to get inside the open library door just as he reached it to exit. Recognising Mr Stevens in his too-tight pale grey suit before I did, Jill* didn’t even make it over the doorstep before I got nabbed. She was guilty by association for blindly following my lead, got the “if your friend jumped off a bridge, would you?” speech at home and reminds me often that I’m a terrible influence. I believe Mr Stevens spitefully sped up his steps but I’m an unreliable witness.

I do a dance at doorways as if I’m Dr Dolittle’s pushmi-pullyu

While I knew how to say please, thanks, eat with a closed mouth and keep my legs together when seated in skirts, I may have missed a manners lesson about always letting adults go first. To this day I still do a dance at doorways as if I’m Dr Dolittle’s pushmi-pullyu, unsure of who should get the right of way.

Shame was our only real punishment for being “ill-mannered, disrespectful and rude little girls.” After this incident, I was notorious in the staff room and Jill was my reluctant sidekick. I never used to put my hand up yet teachers would call on me first to answer questions, find chalk for the board and later remove their words with the duster. I asked my mother how new or substitute teachers knew my name before they even marked the roll. She said they weren’t picking on me, “you’re either very good or very naughty.”
Middle School…(age 11–14) — Well, the Beginning.
Tags: Middle School, Dating, Mental Health, Bullying

This might be a tough one to write but…here it goes.

This is really when things got…well, bad. 6th grade started out okay, I think? Actually, no…not that great at all but it got better until I’d say the middle of second semester? Anyway, it basically started with me making friends with a girl who was coloring her tongue with markers because she saw I was eating a lunchable and she had one too (yea…should’ve guess this friendship might go south at some point? I’ll get into that later).

Anyway, I got close with her and we ended up becoming best friends — boys, bands, school, everything we got along well on, it was great! I even started “dating” someone (hah — dating at age 11, what even is it? WHY?) — meaning we texted and hung out like once. My best friend also had an interest in a guy during this time — maybe a month or two after I started “dating” my first boyfriend (I’m beginning to regret this terminology but like I don’t know how else to explain it). She asked me to talk to him, see if he had any interest in her — no big deal, right? WRONG.

* Oh, lemme just say something I haven’t mentioned yet. My “boyfriend” had this friend (a girl, necessary to know) who I’m pretty sure he was “cheating” on me with — they always were together, whatever we were 11 and he made me feel special (over text because again, we hung out like once in person, wtf).**

So, I went and talked to the guy, asked if he had a minute to talk. Turns out I should NOT have done that because people like to taaaaaaalk at age 11 (who knew kids were rude to each other?). Anyway, my “boyfriend”’s friend (the girl) saw me talking to the other guy and went and told my “boyfriend” that I was cheating on him. He then told my best friend (interested in the guy I talked to FOR HER) — she believed him for like a hot second but talked to me about it (wow, a mature 11 year old) and she trusted me that nothing happened because you know, NOTHING did, kids just suck.

Things just flew down hill at this point. I started getting called names and things I had never even heard of before?? The “boyfriend” had a cousin who was in 8th grade (ms. big shot over here) who basically got the entire school to hate me, except my best friend so luckily I still had one person on my side and her other friends I soon became close with.

This was the first time I had ever had the need to block a phone number (why did I even have a phone, I was 11???). I got texts just calling me “bitch,” voicemails telling me all this shit I had no idea what it even meant, even at P.E. while we were running a mile I got called a tweaker (had to ask my mom what that meant — I didn’t even know what drugs were at that age, how did these kids know???). SO. MUCH. SHIT. But, I dealt with it…no idea how, I told my mom about it, the school did absolutely nothing to stop it. Luckily, the school year ended quickly after…but I did have another two years at that shit hole — great.

This is getting hard, I’ll continue on later.
Breaking Out of Bullying
By: Jessica Tames
Tags: Schools, Harassment, Bullying

I don’t remember much about school. In fact, what I do remember, I wish I could forget. I was never “popular.” I was never “cool.” I wasn’t even considered “okay.” I was a loser, plain and simple. And the people around me made sure I never forgot that.

I’m not sure exactly when it started — probably even before middle school. I would get tormented on a daily basis, pretty much just for existing (at least that’s how I see it — I never found out the exact reasons). I don’t know who started it, or why; all I remember is that I woke up one day and suddenly I was the school reject.

Rumors were spread, taunts were made — I guess I should consider myself lucky that it never got physical, but you can bet I expected it to. I was harassed for everything, from how quiet I was, all the way down to my eyebrows.

There’s one particular incident that sticks out most to me, back in the days of MySpace. A girl had posted a bulletin, one of those “pc4pc” notes. So, me being the clueless idiot I was, thought that maybe if I left a nice comment on one of her pictures, she’d leave a nice comment on one of mine. I typed out something sweet, and sent it, and over the next few minutes, comments started rolling in — but not the ones I was hoping. Post after post was made, laughing at me for even daring to compliment one of the cool kids. As if I was so beneath them, I wasn’t even allowed to speak to them, nicely or otherwise. I was baffled. That was the point where I knew that I truly was not welcome in that school.

My family moved the summer before high school, and while it was a definite change from the previous years, it was not necessarily for the better. I was, in short, traumatized from my middle school years, so I barely spoke to anyone. I didn’t want my past to catch up with me, so I basically became selectively mute. And it sucked.

Don’t get me wrong; there were a handful of nice people in high school, who didn’t make me feel so small. But I was so afraid to get close to them, that I just didn’t. I’m not sure where they are now, but I hope they know how much they helped me.

Recently, I’ve come to the realization that what happened to me was not my fault. I did not choose to be bullied, nor did I ask for it. Nobody deserves to be bullied, no matter how different or easy of a target they may seem. And although my bullies did not see that, I do, and breaking the cycle is the most important thing to me — and I’d say I’ve done a pretty good job of it.
BULLYNG LIKE A SOCIAL SYSTEM
By: Wild Box
Tags: Opinion, Bullying, Essay

In the world always It has existed like a way to social category, we can see similar behaviors in chimpanzees, they live in groups of 120 approximate, their social system is based on temporal small communities: adult males, adult females with their breeding. Those groups have hierarchies, eventually they have an alpha male, as well to be a dominant, he should have a coalition with other chimpanzee, in the same way wolfs get an alpha male and other species of animals, Humans have this hierarchy?

In ancient Greece, when Socrates have a conversation with Glaucon in one chapter of his book “The Republic” they were talk about the fair and the unfair, Tasimarco said: the unfair people are happier than fair people; in that book we discovered the unfair like a false advantage , but based on Socrates the unfair people looking for the fair people , important conclusion for the end of this article

“Is it fair to say that in Platos Republic he answers this by relying on virtue, that is the guardians refrain from selfishness (they guard themselves from themselves) by relying on the noble lie? That is they are taught by the educators of the city to not act in their own interests, but the interests of the whole”

So we know about the unfair in that age , our society ,like others , has a hierarchies divided in small groups of people .

In the graphic above there are characteristics of a social groups we try to discovered; where do our society come from? like chimpanzees we need a lead, that’s why the rules and laws exist. What I mean about bullying? the bullying is a normal behavior between us, in every group of people someone is the lead, someone dominate a decision; I am not justifying a bully behavior.

The unfair is connected with the bully behavior because, the human nature to be in a society, the alpha organize social characteristics, even this is put into practice in a small group, rolls, structure, interest topics, values, etc.

The bullying could be this organization but in the worst way to put in practice this social structure where this communicator skills are converted in a tyranny.
All you need to know about the types of financial guarantees
By: Rnr Trade Corporation Company Limited
Tags: Thailand, Finance, Financial Guarantees, Guarantees, Financial

As you know that there may create a situation when you may have to take payment guarantees for your business. Why don’t you look for financial guarantees? Many businessmen prefer financial guarantees in Thailand. It can help you continue your payment in business that may have stopped because of financial crisis. It is a warranty that may help you get loan or payment form bank or non-bank financial company.

When you will go to apply for financial guarantees, you may explore different guarantees. So, before contacting a bank or other financial institutes, learn about different financial guarantees discussed below.

Different financial guarantees

A financial guarantee is a contract or warranty by a bank or non-bank financial companies. It helps an individual or a company to repay their debts to investors. It will assure you to pay your liabilities and debts when you cannot make it done.

Go through the following description to learn more about types of financial guarantees. It will help you determine the type which suit you condition. They are:

1. Guarantee of payment- it involves a security of payment to the seller from its buyers.

2. Advance payment return- It is the obligation of the bank to repay the advance payment after receiving if the seller does not perform contractual obligations.

3. Execution guarantee- In this process, the bank gives the security to pay the liabilities or debt timely according to the contract so the individual or the company can deliver their goods or services in time.

4. Tender guarantees- This contract will help you or your company when you will do not execute its obligations to the tender companies or other parties.

5. Guarantees to the customer authority- it represents the obligation to security of the company that performs import and export business to the customer authorities. It helps an individual or a company to pay the taxes and duties.

6. Warranty execution- this guarantee plays an essential role in to security of quality to deliver terms of contracts.

7. Credit return- It assures you repayment of credit.

Avail financial guarantees in Thailand here

RNR Trade Corporation Company Limited provides one of the best services regarding financial guarantees in Thailand. If you are facing some difficulties or issues related to payment or debt to your business, contact them. They will help you out from the issue. So, what keeps you waiting!!! Visit rnrtradecorp.com to learn more about their services.
Patent Newz Box- Stay on top of global patent news- Nov 1, 2020
Tags: Masks, Vaccines, Intellectual Property, Coronavirus, Patents

MIT Researchers applied patent for a heated face mask

foxnews

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have filed a patent application for a mask with heated copper mesh. The face mask disclosed in the patent application is built to blast the coronavirus particles with heat.

Canon patents lens attachment for smartphones

ubergizmo

The recently granted patent of Canon discloses a lens accessory attachment for a smartphone. This lens accessory disclosed in the patent accommodates a larger glass to improve the overall image quality without relying on the smartphone’s camera.

Researchers secured a patent to improve efficiency in power electronics

news.uark

Researchers at the University of Arkansas have received a patent for a flip-chip wire bondless power device. The power device explained in the patent facilitates higher power efficiency motor drives, solar inverters, and hybrid electric aircraft as an example of its widespread utility.

Read more global patent news and stories…
What does the research say? Masks and emotion inferences
Tags: Masks, Psychology, Pandemic Parenting, Research, Social Emotional Learning

Photo by Atoms on Unsplash

For the past 8 months, we’ve been wearing masks in public to protect ourselves and those around us. As schools and daycare centers started to reopen, many parents have wondered whether seeing adults and peers wearing masks will impact their child’s ability to notice emotions.

Luckily, we weren’t the only ones who wanted to learn about this. Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison just published research on this very question in the journal PLOS ONE. Dr. Ashley Ruba showed pictures of sad, angry and scared faces to 81 children between the ages of 7 and 13 years. In one third of the photos, the models’ eyes were covered with sunglasses. In another third of the photos, the models’ mouths were covered with a surgical mask. In the remaining third of the photos, the full face was visible.

Children identified emotions most accurately when the faces were uncovered, but the difference in accuracy was small and masks did not interfere with emotion identification any more than sunglasses did. The younger children were just as accurate as the older children.

The study authors pointed out that making inferences about emotions in real life is different from looking at 2-dimensional still photographs in a lab setting. When interacting with mask-wearing peers and teachers at school or daycare, children also have access to context, gestures, and tone of voice, which all provide important clues about emotions. And remember that children have plenty of time around unmasked faces at home!

So overall, good news! Masks keep us safe, and they don’t stop children from recognizing emotions. And whether or not we’re in a global pandemic, it’s important to teach children about emotions from a young age. Here are some tips from the KidTalk team:

Read books about feelings: Stories provide powerful learning opportunities for children. They provide language that children can use to name their own and others’ feelings, and start conversations about how to respond to our big feelings. The Huffington Post has a list of 35 books to teach kids about emotions, and BookRiot has a list of books about emotions for all ages.

Make it a game! Take turns acting out different scenarios and feelings, and guessing the emotion. More about this activity from Perkins School for the Blind.

Check out these simple yet powerful tips from the National Association for the Education of Young Children for building social and emotional skills at home.

Tell us in the comments: What are your favorite ways to teach children about emotions?
Not really a success.
By: Miguel Cabeza
Tags: Masks, Codiv 19, Politics, Sustainability, Innovation

Image by Mylene2401 from Pixabay

In 2020 humans have agreed to wear masks to avoid COVID spread. I acknowledge this as the biggest human coordination exercise ever executed. It is a success.

We solved it with unsustainable disposable masks. With typical economies of scale from huge volume demands and low wages in Asia. With single point of failure by not been able to scale manufacturing fast enough in the Western territories.

This shift to power laws is driving a huge increase of wealth and income inequality to levels that are even beyond the previous peak of the early 1900s. Inequality beyond a certain level is socially corrosive, as people start to live in a world that is disconnected from the problems faced by large parts of the population. (Excerpt from the book World After Capital)

We didn’t leverage local manufacturing of reusable (sustainable) mask. Everyone can manufacture reusable fabric masks. Anyone can invest in 3D printing, pickup open sourced mask design blueprints and locally manufacture at low/mid scale sustainable products. Capitalism has completely removed our will to build.
Importance of wearing mask
By: Waseela Mushtaq
Tags: Use Of Mask, Mask

coronavirus disease (COVID-19) awareness to public: Why and where to wear masks:

Masks should be used as part of a comprehensive strategy of measures to suppress transmission and save lives; the use of a mask alone is not sufficient to provide an adequate level of protection against COVID-19.

If COVID-19 is spreading in your community, stay safe by taking some simple precautions, such as physical distancing, wearing a mask, keeping rooms well ventilated, avoiding crowds, cleaning your hands, and coughing into a bent elbow or tissue. Check local advice where you live and work. Do it all.

When should masks be worn by Public?

Masks should always be worn in a crowded area. The place where you cant be at least 1 meter away from others, while attending covid-19 victims and in the areas of poor ventilation. When you having indoor and outdoor activities where it is almost impossible to maintain social distancing.

How to wear a mask:

Clean your hands before you put your mask on, as well as before and after you take it off, and after you touch it at any time.

Make sure it covers both your nose, mouth and chin.

When you take off a mask, store it in a clean plastic bag, and every day either wash it if it’s a fabric mask, or dispose of a medical mask in a trash bin.

don't make use of mask valves.

How to reuse and disinfect mask:

Most face masks are disposable and are for one-time use only. Ideally, face masks should not be used once they are soiled or the inner lining gets moist. Rarely they can be sterilized for limited reuse. If you want to reuse the mask, it should be kept dry so that it can last long. While taking out the mask please do not put it under the chin so that germs there will not attach to the mask. Please don’t leave used masks on any surface as it will be a source of infection. It should be properly stored so that it can be reused.
Best Sites for Freelance Video Editors
Tags: Video Editing, Social Media, Freelancers

These days the vast majority of users post recordings on their social media (YouTube, Instagram, Facebook… ) however not every person realizes how to alter a decent video.

The response to this issue is truly straightforward, utilize a Freelance Video Editor !

Most influencers utilize a Freelance Video Editor who alters their recordings for them. This way they can have great recordings on their social media without the should be a specialist in video editing aptitudes.

Exist a wide range of sites for freelance video editors and the best results are from asian nations.

An uprising independent site right presently is Armeniawork.com. On this website you can locate each sort of consultant, uncommonly Freelance Video Editors.

ArmeniaWork.com says to be outstanding amongst other Freelance Marketplace for video editors. Created simply by armenian specialists it’s a commercial center in consistent development

I hope this was valuable and that it wa useful for you to locate the best site for freelance video editors!

Have a good day!
Announcing our cooperation with Heev
By: Manuel Meurer
Tags: Freelancers, Cooperation, Community

Time and again we observe lively discussions in our Slack about the best freelancing tools. The range of tools for accounting, invoicing, or tracking your expenses and time is constantly growing. Many services try to cover the whole range of possibilities. The solutions can often be used by solo entrepreneurs, start-ups and also corporate organisations. However, the issue here is that those tools quickly become overloaded, like huge management tools.

The guys from Heev started working on an alternative solution, as they could not find any tool that really worked for them.

What is the vision of Heev?

We started working on Heev 3 years ago because we couldn’t find a satisfactory solution as freelancers. Our idea was a lean, elegant, intuitive, modern software that facilitates our everyday life as freelancers. Smart, intuitive and reduced to the absolute essentials! Most tools seem dusty, overloaded and more like huge control tools than a lean facilitator.

Currently, the service is only available in German. Translations are already in progress and Heev will soon be available in English as well. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact Justin and his team directly! 💪

Of course we also negotiated a great deal for our members: Uplinklings receive a 30 % discount on all offers for the first three month. Check out the cooperations section in the member area for details.
fear and doubt
Tags: Freelancers, Doubts And Fears, Poem, Medschool

never feeling good enough for anyone

sick in my mind with fear and doubt

wondering if i’ll ever make it out

deleted myself online

comparison too much for me

tried lots of different things

creative writing and poetry

nothing ever good enough

for me, or for you

rejection in my mind

wishing my life wasn’t mine

hate myself for feeling sad

too cautious to be happy

wondering if i’ve made a mistake

and thrown it all away

freelance writing drained me out

never tasting success

failure waiting on every corner

watching me pour my heart out

my mama doesnt believe in me

feel like god has turned his back

isolated and alone

is this really all there is to me?

self-perpetuating cycles

almost breaking out

until i feel sick in my mind

with fear and doubt

shouldve gone to med school

just like my mama said

at least then i wouldnt be

selling my soul to feel content

so much pressure placed upon me

eighteen and this is all i’ve got

never wanted to reach this age

to just be forgot.
How to practice self-care so you can live your most productive and happy life
By: Helen Wallace
Tags: Self Care, Freelancing, Self Care Tips, Freelancers, Freelance

Our careers are important, and often *super* demanding, which means that it can filter over into our personal lives as well. This goes for freelancing as well, which also has the tendency to be all-consuming, impacting other areas of your life. But, by practising self-care and prioritising down-time, you can bring about some much-needed balance. Here are fives ways to do it.

1. Factor rest into your schedule

Freelancing tends to come with flexible schedules. This is one of its perks, but it can also become a problem if you are always available. This is why setting aside time for rest in your schedule, from your daily breaks to days off, is important as it forces you to unplug, even if just for a few minutes.

2. Cultivate healthy habits

Eating a (mostly) healthy diet and getting regular exercise is good for us and can extend our lives. We know this. But it is also one of the best ways to ensure that your mind and body are healthy and, as such, more productive. And keep healthy snacks on hand to keep you going.

3. Connect with other people

Being a solopreneur can be an isolating experience. But, as social creatures, it’s crucial that we take the time to connect with other humans, on a professional and personal level, on a regular basis. This can be grabbing a coffee with a friend or sharing insights in an online freelancing community.

4. Check in with yourself

Life can become chaotic, so you need to force yourself to check in with Number One on a daily basis. One easy way to do this is to practice mindfulness or meditation. Studies have shown that just 20 minutes a day can improve your cognitive function and overall wellbeing.

5. Set — and enforce — boundaries

Boundaries are something that we all claim to have but are not all equally skilled at enforcing. Follow your intuition when it comes to setting yours: if something doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t for you, and saying ‘no’, while difficult, is a lot less painful than committing to a mind-numbing project or overbearing client!
Another expert article tells us about “our propensity for risk distortion”.
By: Andy Chen
Tags: Co Vid 19, Risk, Coronavirus, Health, Epidemic

Another expert article tells us about “our propensity for risk distortion”.

Mathematical incompetence

Basically, the article confuses things that move which things that don’t. It’s called fat-tails in statistics, something only studied in extreme value theory. Epidemics come from this branch of statistics.

Diet isn’t contagious. The number of people dying to bad diet doesn’t change much year-on-year. And people enjoy eating junk food — they want to trade short-term satisfaction for long-term health. Their choice, but I’m not affected by it.

Seasonal flu also is largely consistent year-on-year. We have statistics on it, and we have established protocols. And if an outbreak starts to get worse than usual, then we can reclassify this into the group of “unknown epidemics”, and we move into epidemic preparation mode.

COVID-19 isn’t consistent at all. Unknown epidemics are highly variable — so variable that it is impossible to talk about a “typical” severity of an epidemic. An epidemic can kill a local community before it has a chance to spread it to other communities. It can also infect vast populations globally. These epidemics are driven by highly contagious diseases. This means that the numbers move — often exponentially.

Let’s “get some perspective” — we look at the one given here.

To date, there are a total of 60 cases in the United States — and zero deaths. In contrast, humble influenza thus far this year has infected as many as 40 million of us (about 1 in 9) and caused as many as 40,000 deaths (a fatality rate of 1 per thousand).

60 cases in the US! Even Wuhan once had 60 cases, now it has tens of thousands! Forget exponential growth, the perspective here is blind to moving numbers in general

Fatality Rates

And then the piece tries to use low fatality rates to downplay the outbreak. Unfortunately, case-fatality rates don’t matter when hospitals are full and people can’t get access to treatment.

Containment Measures

Wuhan used draconian measures to contain the outbreak. Many people were sacrificed to achieve this. Are western countries prepared to take the same measures? Unforunately, we will have to, if we listen to this article.
Cost of having a large event in the realm of COVID-19 outbreak
By: Alex Yakunin
Tags: Co Vid 19, Statistics, Coronavirus, Epidemiology

I decided to write a short post explaining how to estimate the cost of a large event in terms of new COVID-19 infections —to consider whether it makes sense to cancel it or not.

Let’s assume we’re talking about a large contest for kids — let’s say, we expect to see ~250 kids and ~250 parents, all of them are from random parts of California.

As of today, there are 79 confirmed COVID-19 cases in California; combined with ~10 explosion of the number of cases in the U.S. over the last week and ~ a week of a no-symptom period for the infected ones, the multiplier for yet unconfirmed cases might be 10x or more. So ~800 people in California are expected to be contagious today.

The chances a random Californian is contagious is ~ 800/40M = 0.002% — seems small, but if you’re in a room with 500 people, there is a 1% chance one of them is contagious.

Let’s assume a single infected person infects 50 other people on such an event in average (that’s a rather pessimistic estimate, though if these people are always working in small & changing sub-groups, it’s totally possible). Taking into account a 1% probability of this scenario, the expected number of new infections is 50 * 1% = 0.5.

Now, let’s factor in the families — if you’re infected, it’s almost certain your whole family will be infected too. And in our example case:

the factor for the number of families per participant is 0.5 (most likely attendees are parent + child)

an average family size with at least one child is ~4.

So we get 0.5 (the expected number of infections on the event) * 0.5 (number of families per participant) * 4 (average family size)= 1 new infection as the expected cost of the event, or, taking into account the mortality rate, 0.04 human lives — not counting any chain infections (except for the family members).

In other words, it’s an event with ~1/25 chance of fatality.
A short glimpse of Covid-19
By: I Am M.Niroshan Croos
Tags: Covid 19, Corona, Awareness Intelligence, Detail About Corona

People are with the mask in China (Photo-website)

Coronavirus is a large family of viruses that cause common cold to severe illness such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. The deadly virus was first identified from Wuhan, China on 31 December 2019. On 30 December 2019, three Broncho alveolar large samples were collected from a patient with pneumonia of unknown etiology, following the SARS outburst of 2002–2003 in Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital.

The novel corona-virus is a zoonotic disease (transmitted from animals to people). The investigation found that SARS-Co V transmitted from cats to humans, MARS-Co V transmitted from camels to humans and corona-virus also first spread from the Wuhan animal market most probably from bats but it has not yet been confirmed.

The deadly virus is also called COVID-19 which means; CO:-Corona, VI:-Virus, D:-Disease and 19 stands for the year 2019. As I am writing this article there are may be another thousand new cases might have identified around the world and another set of death results updated in this movement. On the other hand every day hundreds of people are cured. My sincerer thanks to all the doctors, nurses, sanitary workers, polices and all the others who are risking their life during this pandemic situation in public service.

There is currently no vaccine to prevent this disease coronavirus 2019. The best way to prevent ourselves is by not being exposed to the virus as much as possible. However, the W.H.O. instructs us to take everyday safety measures which can us for getting infected from this deadly virus. Regular hand washing, covering mouth and nose when coughing and sneezing, thoroughly cooking meat and egg, staying at home when you are infected by this virus, not being exposed to the outside world, the infected people must use a facemask, clean the surface that you touch especially in a household can prevent this virus from spreading from one to another.

What are the symptoms for this virus; fever, cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties. The doctors say, most of the victims are more than 60 years old and those who are weakened by other illnesses. There is no specific antivirus recommended for this virus. Once you are exposed to the virus, consult your medical adviser. The identified victims are kept in isolation for treatment.

The whole world is shaken by this virus and every country has taken a lot of safety measures to save their people from this virus. The UN has released US$15 million to help vulnerable countries battle the spread of the Covid-19.
Why people outside Asia are so against wearing masks?
By: Angel Lau
Tags: Co Vid 19, Plurality, Coronavirus

From their perspectives, wearing masks mean that YOU ARE SICK. A couple days ago a friend from Holland wrote to me and told me that people in their country along with other European are educated to only wear masks when you’re severely sick or when a doctor told you to wear one. Only wearing masks when you’re sick is a rooted concept for these people. Therefore even if they are under weather, most of them will only rest enough, wash their hands and cover themselves with clothes when they cough and sneeze.

Secondly, let’s discuss about function of masks. Surgical doctor wear mask is to protect patients from getting infected by their splits rather than protect themselves from patients. Only N95 masks can effectively protect one from getting infected and those are for medical personnel. Nevertheless, COVID-19 is devastating for being spread by Infected with no symptoms. Even if you feel healthy but you might carry virus and pass it on to people around you. Therefore, to play safe logically we should all wear masks. Yet the fact of virus is spreading by Infected with no symptoms is not well known among many Americans. And what CDC told everyone as below:

What do you mean by this is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads????????????? After the lesson we learnt from Wuhan, we all know that this way of spread is most horrendous. The reason of we block down cities and stop people from going to work and school is to prevent this way of spread. To summarize, not having enough perception about this virus leads to the unpopularity of masks.
Why is the CDC Suppressing Coronavirus testing in Washington State?
By: The Wallstreetranter
Tags: Coronavirus, Covid, Outbreak, Cdc, Covid 19

As many of you may know, Washington State has been ground zero for the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak in the US. As of this writing 16 of the 17 deaths in the US are from Washington State (and 15 from a single county in the state). Below is total attributed deaths worldwide. You can view the most recent numbers here.

Washington State also makes up the largest portion of confirmed cases in the US.

These numbers will change by the time I post this since some more limited testing is finally starting to take place but in reality these ‘confirmed’ numbers are pretty useless at this point because they are grossly under-reported due to a complete and total lack of testing.

It wasn’t only a problem of test kits….it was also a problem of policy.

Until very recently the CDC only allowed people to be tested if they had visited an affected foreign country or could prove they were in contact with someone who had. A completely idiotic policy.

“The new criteria allow people to be tested who have severe respiratory illness with no other explanation, even if they have not traveled to affected countries or have been in contact with a known coronavirus patient, he noted.”

Ok, that sounds promising right? It’s obviously on US soil so we should be testing a much broader range of people to better gauge the spread, right? However, not even a week later local hospitals are ALREADY putting a break on testing at the guidance of the CDC for a completely opposite reason.

H/T to twitter user @Noneya_Mindyers (highlighting is mine)

That is from EvergreenHealth which includes the hospital in Kirkland, WA where the majority of Coronavirus deaths in the region have occurred. EvergreenHealth also has a network of outpatient clinics and urgent care locations throughout the region.

So at first the CDC doesn’t want people tested because they don’t think it has spread enough to warrant testing unless you have traveled…..but NOW they don’t want people tested because IT HAS SPREAD TOO MUCH?!?

After seeing that post I went to look for myself and saw the message described in that tweet. But now this is what you get….

However, google still has it indexed

And fortunately the internet rarely forgets. While I wasn’t able to pull-up that exact page….I was able to get their Community Message for 3–4–20 from the way-back machine internet archive which contained largely the same message https://web.archive.org/web/20200307153209/http://www.evergreenhealth.com/community-message-3420

The more concerning questions is WHY WAS THIS MESSAGE DELETED? I have received no response via twitter. It doesn’t appear that it is because this policy has been reversed….it appears that it was deleted because it had received attention and they don’t want the policy on public display.

Why is the CDC so set on limiting testing? Would love for EvergreenHealth to clear up this confusion…..As they should know, communication is key during a public health crisis.