title stringlengths 1 200 ⌀ | text stringlengths 10 100k | url stringlengths 32 829 | authors stringlengths 2 392 | timestamp stringlengths 19 32 | tags stringlengths 6 263 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
How to Write an Essay Everyone Wants to Read | How to Write an Essay Everyone Wants to Read
My colleague Harris Sockel and I recently facilitated a workshop about essay writing as part of Medium’s Creator Workshop Series, and we wanted to share some of the takeaways here. (The workshop was recorded, too — you can watch it here, and we’re embedding it below.) As editors at Human Parts and other publications, we’ve read (and edited) (and written!) a lot of personal essays. Here are some things we think are useful to keep in mind when crafting a work of creative nonfiction.
Of course, you probably aren’t actually going to go through these step-by-step — and almost certainly not all in the first draft. But if you eventually address each of these elements, you’ll be on your way to creating something great.
1. Be a noticer
Also known as keep a notebook. But the notebook doesn’t have to be a notebook notebook. It can be the notes app in your phone, a scratch pad, a wad of scribbled-on envelopes in your pocket, or a stack of notecards. The important thing is to keep writing down observations and ideas and scraps of dialogue and sensory detail and stray thoughts so that eventually you will be able to see the patterns and connections. Read a ton, too; that’s part of it. Look at art, listen to music, watch movies, do freewriting — most of all, pay attention to the world.
Be a notebook, really.
By the way, this is a step to go back to every time you feel stuck or blocked. Get out there and experience and observe. (And then don’t forget to get back to the page eventually — the actual writing part is pretty key too.)
Here are two writers, Carley Moore and Susan Orlean, breaking down why notebooks are so crucial to the process:
Writing exercise #1: Take five to 10 minutes to free-write a list of things you’ve noticed today or notice around you right now. Don’t edit or censor yourself or try to write sentences or make it pretty. Just list as many observations and details as you can.
2. Start with a question
This doesn’t have to be an actual question, although it can be. But really we mean that it’s a good idea to start with an inclination or a feeling or something you’re personally trying to figure out. That’s what will keep you interested and motivated to finish. “Why can’t I stop thinking about X? I’m still trying to figure out how I feel about Y. How can I make sense of Z?”
How this manifests is most often in a messy first draft of something. That’s totally fine. If you knew from the start what you wanted to say, you would likely be writing an article or an instruction manual. While those things certainly have their places, a personal essay is a bit different. You’re probably not writing to share some knowledge. More likely, you’re writing toward the knowledge.
Maybe the larger lesson here is this: Don’t freak out if your first draft is really messy. It’s supposed to be. That’s why it’s just the first draft. Besides, if your first drafts were perfect, all the other writers would hate you.
Here are two essays that clearly start with questions, from writers Sophia Smith and Anthony Ford:
Writing exercise #2: What’s something you can’t stop thinking about? Free-write about it for 10 minutes. Again, don’t censor or judge — just write.
3. Tell a story
You’re going to have to forget everything you learned about five-paragraph essays in high school (Sorry, Mr. Wentz, but we’ve moved on.) You’re also going to have to shake off, a little bit, the classic craft advice to “show, don’t tell.” A great personal essay contains both showing and telling.
A great personal essay also, instead of proving a point, tells a story. If a traditional plot sounds like too much for what you’re trying to write, think instead in terms of movement or change. What will the reader know by the end of the essay that they didn’t at the beginning?
It’s important to maintain balance. (We mean in a piece of writing but probably also in life, come to think of it.) Scenes combined with summary. Showing combined with telling. Reserve the scene for the part that’s really important, the things you really want to show the reader because that’s where their attention should be.
This means you can open your essay the same way you would open a short story or a screenplay — with a scene or a scrap of dialogue. Just because it’s an essay doesn’t mean you don’t need it to be vivid, to paint a picture in the reader’s head.
While a bit of scene can be a great way into a piece, if you’re still in the drafting stage, just remember that you don’t have to start writing at the beginning. Don’t labor over your first line in a first draft. It probably won’t stay your first line anyway.
Here are two essays that combine showing and telling (in two very different ways), one by Emily Kingsley and one by Jude Ellison S. Doyle:
Writing exercise #3: Take whatever you wrote about in exercise #2 and create a scene related to it. What scene comes to mind when you remember this incident or think about this idea? Where and when are we in time and space? Try to write something vivid enough that your reader can put themselves there. Extra credit if you include at least two lines of dialogue.
4. Write about you but for the reader
In a personal essay, it’s probable that you, the writer, are also the main character. But the reader (most likely) has never met you. They aren’t going to necessarily start out on your side or even know what you’re talking about or where you’re coming from. You need to develop a persona for the page, and you can do this by taking a step back and looking at the piece as if this person were a character.
Don’t worry about voice or style. Just be honest. Everyone’s honesty is different, and that’s where the voice and style will come from. You’re the expert in being you. And if the reader senses you’re being honest, they will go anywhere you want to take them.
A lot of people don’t write this way because they don’t think they’re interesting. But everyone has a totally unique experience of the world and thus will have a totally unique and valuable story to share. On the flip side, some writers will plow into an essay assuming the reader knows what they, the writer, have been thinking about or experiencing. Nope. The reader is a stranger — a stranger, mind you, who has lots of other options for entertainment. Make it worth their while. Give them something they can take home with them, like a goody bag for the brain.
In other words, meet the reader where they are.
Here are two essays where the writers paint themselves as compelling characters and trustworthy narrators:
Writing exercise #4: Complete the sentence “The thing I’ve never told anyone is…” and take it from there. It’s okay if this is something you really never want to tell anyone. You don’t have to include it in an essay or show it to anyone if you’re not ready. This is more of an exercise in building up your honesty muscle memory.
5. Remember there are two stories in every essay
When we think of all the personal essays that have really made us feel, think, and get goosebumps, they almost always have a couple of different layers to them. Yes, there’s a personal story, but it connects to something larger, or else there’s some attention in the essay to what the personal story meant. Sometimes these are woven together in alternating sections. Sometimes the bigger picture only becomes clear in the last paragraph.
The “bigger picture” may be that part you didn’t quite know or fully understand when you were starting with your question. This is true of short stories and novels too, by the way — there’s often an internal (smaller, maybe invisible) conflict and an external (bigger, more obvious) conflict, and each reveals something about the other.
The big story is important because it often is the element of the piece that gives the reader something to really chew on.
Like with a lot of these steps we’re suggesting, this probably doesn’t all happen in the first draft. This is something to keep in mind as you go and then hone during revision. Sometimes you can’t figure out the connections right away, and you need to give it some time — maybe look at it the next day — or read it aloud or have someone else read it. You might have to write one more paragraph than you thought you needed.
Here are two essays that interweave small, personal stories with larger overarching narratives, one by D.Morgan and one by Lisa Lee Herrick:
Writing exercise #5: Take the scene you started writing in exercise #3. Now add to it — what was really happening below the surface or just offstage? (You’re adding the bigger story to the personal anecdote.)
If you do any of these writing exercises, post it on Medium and use the tag “SCW Essay.” Search that tag to read the work of fellow writers, too! We can’t wait to see what you come up with. And if you start to lose your nerve, just remember: Someone out there really wants to read your story. You’ve lived it. Now go write it.
PS: You can also join The Medium Writers Challenge if you’re so inclined! Details below: | https://medium.com/creators-hub/how-to-write-an-essay-everyone-wants-to-read-5ed133ea0bd3 | ['Amy Shearn'] | 2021-08-07 13:28:57.940000+00:00 | ['Scw Essay', 'Writing', 'Creativity', 'Personal Essay', 'Creative Nonfiction'] |
‘Mission: Impossible — Fallout’ is a transcendent, flawless action masterpiece | Fallout sends Cruise HALO jumping into Paris, swinging from an airborne helicopter, flying said helicopter (while also operating the film camera), running and jumping and climbing and motorbiking and being beautiful and hilarious and fully committed during every minute. The man has never given a half-assed performance in his life, but Fallout sees him double down on the energy audiences have adored for decades; if he was physically allowed to do every job on this movie, you know he would.
Yet McQuarrie reigns in Cruise’s more narcissistic, indulgent instincts (see: The Mummy) in this film, allowing Cruise more than ever to disappear into the role of Ethan Hunt (the one flaw of Brad Bird’s outstanding Ghost Protocol is that Cruise is effectively playing himself throughout). And Hunt is incredibly interesting now, getting a less muddled version of the Bond/Skyfall treatment (Fallout is very much the Skyfall of the series, and it’s an even better film) that allows for the return of his ex-wife (the delightful Michelle Monaghan) in the third act. Where Fallout succeeds most impressively is in the intersection of solid emotional beats with a very Nolanesque set of clinically-staged set-pieces (a near-silent 25-minute stretch of outdoor action in Paris is an improvement on anything in the Dark Knight movies). There’s a Sicario vibe to a premonition Hunt has of a violent extraction that climaxes with him — clad in black and surrounded by mercenaries — murdering a cop; it’s strikingly dark and morally complex material for a movie with as silly a title as Mission: Impossible. Not that the series’ trademark silliness isn’t present: Simon Pegg’s Benji and Ving Rhames’ Luther are a sparkling pair of lightweight:heavyweights providing not just expected comic relief but a constant base point for Hunt’s resilient humanism, reminding other characters (and the audience) of how much — while endlessly defying death — he values life.
Fallout’s plot doesn’t need to be summarised — it provides a bedrock for the action and is best experienced in context — but involves a nuclear threat, stolen plutonium (yay) and the return of Rogue Nation’s big bad Solomon Lane (the deliriously nasty Sean Harris). Hunt and co. are dispatched by The Secretary (the great Alec Baldwin, having an absolute blast) to retrieve said plutonium under the supervision of a suspicious CIA suit (Henry Cavill), leading them to adrenaline-fuelled pit-stops in Paris, London and Kashmir.
In Paris, prepare to forget what breathing feels like as Hunt races into oncoming traffic, and as Cruise and Cavill engage in a staggeringly-choreographed nightclub toilet brawl. In London, watch Cruise work those city rooftops like nobody since Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins. Not to forget the aforementioned HALO sequence, so astounding and unparalleled in pure tension that it renders Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity effectively pointless. In Kashmir, things get really crazy and the audience in my screening became to just giggle hysterically at the outlandish boldness of every frame, every twist and every gag McQuarrie and Cruise have packed into this relentless and riveting work of art.
In light of both this and Brad Bird’s Incredibles 2, it simply feels like Hollywood will either have to stop making blockbusters or try a lot harder. I can’t see myself voluntarily paying to watch Ant-Man & The Wasp or several inferior incoming releases when two such fine examples of top-tier, mega-budget movie-making are still showing on big screens nationwide. Fallout is the film large cinema screens, IMAX and otherwise, were invented to display. It’s a magnificent ballet of excellent screenwriting and brutally engaging physical performance by Cruise and his ensemble (we haven’t even mentioned the terrific work done by Rebecca Ferguson and Angela Bassett) cut by a great editor to a great score (shoutout Eddie Hamilton and Lorne Balfe).
Find me in 10 years when my Blu-Ray of this movie is long since worn out from repeat viewings; see if I’ve thought of a bad word to say about it. I’ve oft used Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol as a barometer by which all movies should be measured, such is its significant place in my heart. I have zero quibbles or reservations in saying that Fallout is better, a lot better, in a lot of surprising and interesting ways. McQuarrie my friend, welcome to the big leagues. | https://medium.com/luwd-media/mission-impossible-fallout-is-a-transcendent-flawless-action-masterpiece-9465dcfc2c9a | ['Lucien Wd'] | 2018-07-26 22:46:54.479000+00:00 | ['Film Review', 'Mission Impossible', 'Christopher Mcquarrie', 'Movies', 'Tom Cruise'] |
SPIT, POET! 5 Spoken Word Collectives You Should Know | divine fabrics collective
photo: http://divinefabrics.tumblr.com/
Who They Are
divine fabrics collective (DFC) was founded in the fall of 2012 at an iHop on the Lower East Side. Safia Elhillo, Camonghne Felix, Sean Des Vignes and Aziza Barnes make up this crew of young blk poets, whose aim is to write with nuance, artfully shit-talk and deliver new work at high octane levels.
What They Say
Divine Fabrics Collective Interview
Safia Elhillo — Self Portrait With a Yellow Dress
Camonghne Felix — Meat: A Reflection on Street Harassment
Sean Des Vignes — Mother
Aziza Barnes — Aunt Jemima
Why I Like Them
These young blk/brown poets are inspirational, how they hold fast to their truths and speak them unapologetically.
Where To Find Them
http://divinefabricscollective.tumblr.com
http://thestriversrow.com/divine-fabrics-collective/
Dark Noise Collective
photo: https://fatimahasghar.com/projects/
Who They Are
Dark Noise Collective is a nationwide, multiracial, multi-genre collective featuring some of the most exciting, insightful, and powerful poets writing today. Dark Noise is comprised of Fatimah Asghar, Franny Choi, Nate Marshall, Aaron Samuels, Danez Smith, and Jamila Woods. These poets, diverse in content and form, find common ground in their commitment to using art as a site for radical truth telling. They explore themes of identity, intersectionality, trauma, and healing in accessible forms without sacrificing the highest standards of poetic craft. Dark Noise explodes archaic notions of page vs. stage with their dynamism in all arenas of verse. Dark Noise poets have been featured on film and television projects including HBO’s Brave New Voices, TV One’s Verses and Flow, and Louder than a Bomb. They are also well-published poets who have garnered honors such as Ruth Lilly Dorothy Rosenberg Fellowships, Pushcart nominations, and a host of publication awards.
What They Say
Fatimah Asghar — For Jonylah Watkins
Franny Choi — For Peter Liang
Nate Marshall — Prelude (R.I.P)
Aaron Samuels — Covered in Grass
Danez Smith — Genesissy
Jamila Woods — Black Girl Soldier
Why I Like Them
They’re like Avatars the way they genre-bend. From poetry, to prose, to music, they are killin’ the game.
Where To Find Them
https://www.facebook.com/TeamDarkNoise/
https://twitter.com/teamdarknoise
Reparations
Who They Are
Reparations is a poetic performance collective who will take over the world without the help of white folk. They don’t need you. Unless it’s monetary. Then, give it to them. These radical, black, queer poets perform and teach workshops around identity, activism, trauma, and healing. Reparations, comprised of Ashley August, Timothy DuWhite, Roya Marsh, and Taylor Steele (yours truly!), became a collective after winning the 2015 Northbeast Underground Tournament Slam.
Individually, they have performed at The Nuyorican Poets Cafe, The Bowery Poetry Club, The Triad Broadway House, The Apollo, Cherry Lane Theatre, BAM, the United Nations, and many slam venues and universities across the nation. They have been published by such distinguished journals as Apogee Journal, Huffington Post, Blavity, The Body is Not an Apology, Blackberry: a magazine, The Rumpus, and many more. Their faces have been featured on Button Poetry, SlamFind, Def Jam, and “Orange is the New Black” — well, only one of them. They are ready to start a revolution. As a wise woman once said, “Pay me what you owe me!”
What They Say
Ashley August — The Game
Timothy DuWhite — Auntie Pearl
Roya Marsh — Blk Grl Puns
Taylor Steele — All These Bodies
Why I Like Them
I’m a little biased. So, I’ll leave it to you to decide.
Where To Find Them
teamreparations@gmail.com
Mayhem Poets
photo: mayhempoets.com
Who They Are
“Let’s go see a poetry show.” That is a sentence rarely proclaimed and usually responded to with cringes and excuses. The Mayhem Poets is comprised of writer/performers Mason Granger, Scott Raven, Mikumari Caiyhe, and Kyle Rapps. They are on a mission to change that. Having been dubbed “an amazing ride” by the New York Times, this mind boggling performance has been described as “The Simpsons meets Malcolm X at a Notorious B.I.G. concert”. These theatre-trained, comedically-gifted, lyrical virtuosos seamlessly blend raw elements of hip hop, theatre, improv and stand-up comedy to tell gut-wrenching truths that leave audiences forever changed.
What They Say
My Name Is
Martin Luther Queen
Mikumari Caiyhe — Sunshine
Why I Like Them
Their work transcends age. I’ll be laughing at them when I’m 50 and when, somehow, I’m 12 again.
Where To Find Them
http://www.mayhempoets.com/
https://www.facebook.com/MayhemPoets
The Other Black Girl
photo: http://www.otherblackgirl.com/Media
Who They Are
The Other Black Girl Collective is a Brooklyn-based black feminist poetry duo comprised of nationally acclaimed award winning authors Angel Nafis and Morgan Parker. Despite popular belief, we are not actually the same person. We aim to celebrate black female expression and sisterhood, honor and highlight the multiplicity of the black female experience, and push against tropes and stereotypes that smother and limit us, from Pootie Tang to Olivia Pope. Our work, deeply personal and individual, explores 21st century black American womanhood and its complexities: performance, depression, isolation, exoticism, racism, pop culture, femininity, family and politics. With energy, brutal honesty, dark humor, anger and pride, we aim to create a new Black Girl mythology– one centered around possibility and freedom.
We are finished being the only black woman– or worse, the only person of color– in a lineup for a poetry reading. We’re finished being the alternative to each other. We want to be called by our names.
What They Say
Angel Nafis — Conspiracy: a Suite
Morgan Parker — Brooklyn Is Masquerading As The World
Why I Like Them
Black Girl Realness Factor: 100
Where To Find Them
http://www.otherblackgirl.com/
https://twitter.com/OtherBlackGirl | https://medium.com/anomalyblog/spit-poet-5-spoken-word-collectives-you-should-know-7c48255187e7 | ['Taylor Steele'] | 2016-06-19 16:22:47.757000+00:00 | ['Slam Poetry', 'Poetry', 'Spoken Word', 'Featured'] |
How Will The Use Of Blockchains Accelerate The Pharma Industry? | How Will The Use Of Blockchains Accelerate The Pharma Industry?
Pharmaceuticals are one of the industries the world is talking about, particularly in pandemic times, when the entire world is looking to the latest vaccine, there will be a need for a system that can ensure that the same is delivered seamlessly. Although traditional platforms are adept at this, they are not as powerful, and a more efficient system will therefore be needed. Here, Blockchain can prove helpful. Well, it’s not just that, Blockchain’s function is spread through numerous segments, and we’re going to explore how and why Blockchain is the pharmaceutical industry’s right solution.
The issues that we have to tackle:
We need to consider the main issues of the pharmaceutical industry that are staring us in the face before we go to understand how Blockchain can help the system. Here’s a couple of them:
1. Drugs that are counterfeit
2. System of supply chain
3. Management of inventories
Although the pharmaceutical industry still has other problems, these are the main concerns that need fast answers.
Blockchain, why?
The distributed ledger system is Blockchain, and it works to build a platform where all the data is freely available and traceable. The main features of Blockchain technology that will make it a panacea for the pharmaceutical industry and other industries are immutability and transparency.
Do we understand how this is happening?
Drug safety: It is not new to the problem of fake drugs; it is one of the greatest issues needing the right solution. The problem is serious, and it needs a solution. In 2012, 11 people near Boston were killed by contaminated steroids, and 100s of people were left sick. No active ingredient in cancer medicine has been detected in the US. Such concerns are inevitable. In fact, counterfeit drugs can claim the lives of people, and we therefore need a system that can make it easy to track and trace them. We can allow the tracking of APIs used in drug production with Blockchain. By monitoring this, one can easily find out whether or not there is a device problem, and it can be tracked immediately if there is a problem.
Supply chain management: The next pointer where Blockchain will prove advantageous is supply chain management. With Blockchain, monitoring and tracing of data is simpler, and this functionality can be used by the pharmaceutical industry to monitor the supply of medication and other health supplies.
Inventory management: Again, this is an important matter that needs to be solved by Blockchain. I should still be providing medication and other medical aids, but that is only possible when there is a good system of inventory control. The information is easy to upload with Blockchain and freely available to all people in the system. It would then become easier for them to access this and to know if the inventory of medication and other medical aids is insufficient.
With all these benefits, Blockchain is one of the leading support schemes to boost the functioning of the pharmaceutical industry. Although there are many other use cases, such as clinical trial management, and others, there is also a need for Blockchain experts that can build ready-to-use integrated platforms and can synchronize them with the current market segment.
Ahead of the Way:
To match the rising demand, there is a need for professional people who can exploit this technology. The Blockchain Council is the best choice for you if you are also ready to make a strong impact on technology and are searching for the right learning platform. For more information on the best online certification program in the Blockchain and Related fields, contact the Blockchain Council. | https://medium.com/@yashasvi-9094/how-will-the-use-of-blockchains-accelerate-the-pharma-industry-fc77c9d38261 | ['Yashasvi Gupta'] | 2020-12-23 04:47:17.886000+00:00 | ['Blockchain Training', 'Blockchain Technology', 'Blockchain Education', 'Blockchain Platforms', 'Blockchain Development'] |
Here’s to ‘Him’ | Poetry about the men we need.
Photo by Brittani Burns on Unsplash
Here’s to him
who stands up for fellow humans
irrespective of the labels society graciously provides
Here’s to him
who shows his strength through kindness and empathy
even when expected otherwise
Here’s to him
who is intelligent and has a wonderful sense of humour
without berating or un-dignifying others
Here’s to him
who is truly gentle and knows how to treat women well
and not just his wife, sister, daughter or mother
Here’s to him
who loves wholeheartedly
without reserve or shame
Here’s to him
who owns himself, his virtues, his faults
and doesn’t put ‘male ego’ to the blame
Here’s to him
who shares his beliefs
doing his bit to save humankind from ruin
Here’s to the ‘man’
who truly believes that above all else
it’s most important to be human. | https://medium.com/@renitasiqueira/heres-to-him-67fff54ca37d | ['Renita Siqueira'] | 2020-11-19 06:47:15.032000+00:00 | ['Men', 'Internationalmensday', 'Poetry', 'Masculinity', 'Gender Roles'] |
Lymia — From ideation to a AI-powered recruitment product | Lymia, a tool that leverages data science to respond to one of the HR industry’s main challenges, is an interesting use case that shows how communication between experts in different areas allows an isolated AI experimentation to become a deployed product. Let us demystify the way AI powered products can be built and appreciate how a good product means much more than an algorithm that gives amazing results.
There is a justified intuition that HR processes can be optimized using data science (as among other industries). A lot of businesses try to hack the HR industry’s challenges, but the user is rarely satisfied. The data is available, algorithms have been created, there’s a business need. So what’s missing ?
Don’t invent the need for your algorithm — Understand the need from the needy
One of the most common data science problems in HR is the task of matching job offers with corresponding resumes. Downloading a dataset comprised of job offers and matching resumes, training an algorithm to produce the best matching performance for this dataset, and then building a subsequent product is possible, but a backwards way of doing things the right way.
The first thing we did is partner up with a big shot in recruitment, who knows the industry inside and out, its processes, its reasons, its limitations. He tested numerous tools on the market, however was unsatisfied. Reducing a candidate to a matching percentage, without an explanation is not an acceptable way to recruit.
He knows the problem because he experiences the problem: identifying, acquiring, categorizing, and selecting the right candidates is a long and manually intensive process that requires a lot of human intuition that is accumulated throughout a career.
So how do we hack this sector and target an exact need, whether the need already exists or not? Not even he knows exactly what is needed. It is the dialog between experts, designers and data scientists that helped us fashion a useful solution for recruiters.
By exchanging ideas with an industry expert, the data scientist identified the data needed and the way to use it. Showing figures, graphs, and insights from the data that the expert did not know about opened his eyes about the potential data leveraging has on solving this crucial issue within the HR industry.
By inquiring for more data insights, in depth studies, and testing hypotheses about the value data could bring to his job, he then started connecting the dots.
“W ow, you can do that? So can you do this then? Just use this over that to compute this, it might be better”
Meanwhile, the designer captured the HR experts and potential users feelings, and as the need became more defined was able to create an interface with processes and features that enhance the recruitment workflow.
And voila, the solution to our problem : a visual way to represent and easily search through a pool of candidate profiles, enabling the recruiter to identify a relevant shortlist in seconds. The current way of talent picking: using a keyword search and/or having to know candidates and careers by heart was too laborious and inefficient. When looking for candidates for a given job, a recruiter often has a real person in mind whom he thinks would be ideal, based on their understanding of the candidate’s specific experiences. A recruiter has an expert understanding about the context surrounding a position title that helps him make judgement calls.
Our goal was to bring structure to a raw list of profiles by creating a grouping mechanism that associates similar candidate profiles. We thus needed a similarity measure between profiles that was going to be the cornerstone of the “AI” used in the product to be.
Putting together the algorithm
The most exciting part of data science begins. How do I go from textually described sequences of career experiences to a similarity measure between them (one profile being represented by one sequence of several experiences)? There are many factors that a recruiter takes into consideration to assess the similarity between candidate profiles. The similarity between job positions, the nature of companies, career trajectories, years of experience and more… these parameters and more had to be included in our model in different ways that may or may not satisfy our recruiting expert. He then helped us find the right way to grasp how these parameters should be considered in the model. Like how designers conceive user experiences and interfaces by exchanging with users, data scientists design their models with domain experts. When working on any data science project, the greatest outcomes come from the dialog between different worlds. Any data scientist sees the value of communicating with an expert on the data they manipulate.
Once a model was in place, it got a lot of feedback that the data scientist needed to consider. The goal is for the product to be useful and to always use the best model, not to hold on to the algorithm we initially crafted. “Don’t fall in love with your algorithm” they say.
This means that the previous modeling choices were maybe not the best and that some areas or the entire model needed to change. Our way of easily accepting proposed changes was to build the model from small data processing and machine learning components, and organize the code into detachable small bricks that can easily be replaced or modified almost independently. The modularity of the model makes it easier to master and refine.
Make the model usable
The algorithm is not the product. The user does not know or need to know the details of the implementation, the methods used or code design. Things that matter during research and ideation are not relevant anymore. The details of implementations started to multiply and became crucial for production. The algorithm consists of lines of code that need to be made available to the backend (through an API for instance) and work with the other components of the product. The AI part of the product needed then to be resilient towards edge cases and run with other data apart from the sample it already saw.
When building other product components such as databases, data sources and backend, data pipelines became structured and therefore the algorithm needed to connect with data sources the right way. You can’t just load data from local csv files, change the data locally in your session to make something work in your algorithm, deliver graphs or reports and forget about the code afterwards anymore. The data manipulation pipeline needs to work every time when restarting the system, and not only once in order to generate graphs or performances and then kill the session. Due to these requirements the raison d’être for automated tests, dockerization, and continuous integration became obvious.
There was then another kind of problem we had to deal with. Not the kind you’d expect when hearing about data science, machine learning and AI, but the kind that naturally arises when building a product, i.e code that will be usable by users other than yourself. Which docker image should we use? Which libraries does the project need? Which versions of them? How can we interact with the production database? Shouldn’t those variables be made into environment variables? What parameters actually have to be made settable for the backend?
Making an algorithm production grade consists of solving these issues one by one in order to have a standard functioning product in which to iterate for improvements. The help of a strong full-stack developer was necessary to provide guidance for these solutions. Prioritizing and encouraging the team to work together required a product manager who juggled with backend, frontend, data science, and design issues that needed to be organized
Team work makes the dream work
Building an industry specific product that uses AI requires way more than applying an algorithm to a specific data set and having it work. Identifying the problem to be solved, defining the way to solve it and actually solving demands a collaborative squad of data scientists, domain experts, designers and developers who are prone to communicate with one another, lead by a product manager. Working on a data science proof of concept on a specific dataset is like one individual going to test the temperature of the lake water one day, while building a product is like regularly training to win the rowing olympics, category ‘quadruple sculls’.
https://lymia.eu/ | https://medium.com/jalgos/lymia-from-ideation-to-a-recruitment-ai-powered-product-adb9c824cf6b | ['Alexandre Tadros'] | 2020-03-01 11:01:01.468000+00:00 | ['HR', 'Product', 'Data Science', 'AI', 'Algorithms'] |
Find the perfect balance between Build and Run. | Today I want to talk about how to find the perfect balance between the BUILD and RUN for your company or your team.
BUILD, which means the new use cases, new business opportunities, first in the market, or the battlefield to win or lead the business market place.
RUN, which means Keep The Light On (K.L.O.), makes sure your application runtime safe, meets the business defined Service Level Agreement(S.L.A.), supports your business line or stakeholder is mostly the operationalization.
These 2 are totally different games; however, they are also relative to each other so badly and directly impacting each other and equally important for your business or your team.
Who build it, and who fix it.
This is the most popular saying to describe the relationship between the two; however, this focuses on the technical angle. In the real world, you will find out this is not going to works. Why?
The business context, priority, and different reality.
Most of the companies, medium or large size. The most popular delivery and operational model is:
By having a delivery team (A.K.A project team) deliver the feature to the market or the stakeholders, then transfer it to the operational team to run; however, the main challenges are:
Lagging the process of knowledge transfer, especially when the project planning phase, due to timeline or operational team always in action, can sometimes not include the operation team in the first place. Project team lagging the knowledge of operation reality and complexity.
When production incidents happen, the Ops team sometimes, besides looking at the logs, missing documentation, missing the application context, which leads to SLA breach, and impact the business.
Screenshot by Author
Start-up seems to handle this much easier and better; it has a much lean structure setup, easy to fetch any engineer needed in the company, with a fast engagement process. However, the impact will be mostly for the feature deliverable. Imaging engineer is focused on the deliverable, suddenly switch to the operation debugging, more or less, will impact the current deliverable. | https://medium.com/dev-genius/find-the-perfect-balance-between-build-and-run-55ab7fcd219d | ['Wei Huang'] | 2020-11-30 09:16:47.916000+00:00 | ['Balance', 'Team Building', 'Operations', 'Leadership', 'Build'] |
Recognise What Skills You Have | It’s very easy when you are working in the arts, where jobs are often short term, self-generated and poorly paid, to recognise that amount you have achieved and the skills you have developed.
Every now and then, in particular at a time like this, it is worthwhile looking at your skills and your achievements from a non-arts perspective. You have to be in the right frame of mind for this, otherwise you can end up like me a few weeks ago, where I essentially wrote — “I’ve wasted years of my life and achieved nothing!” But when you approach this with more detachment and self-love (!), you will recognise that you’ve actually achieved an awful lot and demonstrated a hugely valuable and varied set of skills.
Try to detach your skills from the immediate job that you do and describe them in transferable terms. For example, when I say I’m a theatre director to someone not in the theatre industry, the most common response is: “At which theatre?” To which I have to politely explain that I don’t director a theatre building, I direct the productions that go into those theatres, which entails (amongst other things): recruiting and building a team; creating a shared vision for that team; empowering the team to make creative and innovative decisions; building an environment of trust, respect and support; managing budgets and timelines; liaising with multiple departments; managing expectations; managing people with sensitivity; interpreting text; identifying patterns and themes; managing a project from initial idea, through experimentation and testing, to delivery. I could go on and on. And when you list what you do like this, you suddenly realise just how much you are capable of and how valuable your skills are.
And what I’ve done there is just for directing. Most of us in the arts have many job titles on the go at once. Director, Actor, Dramaturg, Coach, Facilitator, Company Director, Workshop Leader, Social Media Manager, Poster Designer, Copywriter, Editor, Blogger.
So, at this time when the arts feel so undervalued and under-supported, just remember that you are incredibly highly skilled. What you do is incredibly difficult and requires a great deal of self-motivation and resilience. Take a moment to be proud of your skillsets and of your achievements. | https://medium.com/@marcus-bazley/recognise-what-skills-you-have-1bdb5fe7f523 | ['Marcus Bazley'] | 2020-11-26 17:27:51.195000+00:00 | ['Work', 'Arts And Culture', 'Personal Development', 'Skills'] |
資料視覺化之 contour ( matplotlib.pyplot ) 教學與用法 | 資料視覺化之 contour ( matplotlib.pyplot ) 教學與用法
前言
資料視覺化 ( Data Visiual ) 對於 Machine Learning 是非常有幫助的方法
特別是一些 Model 結果 ( Predict ) 的呈現
而 python 的 matplotlib 中， pyplot.contour ( contourf ) 可以用來呈現等高線圖，深度 ( Z ) 或是顯示不同的 Y ( output ) 值 ( 意即有多種 Y 輸出 )，我們會透過本文的範例來觀察 ( 使用 sklearn )
本文之教學範例主要使用 Jupyter 來執行，如果是其他方式使用須注意 plt.imshow 之類呼叫
Contour / Contourf 基本介紹
直接先看範例程式
左圖為 contour / 右圖為 contourf
解說
基本上 plt.pyplot 的 contour / contourf 使用上其實是大同小異，主要差別是是否會填滿色塊 （ contour 為線條， contourf 為填滿的色塊），因本人比較喜歡使用 contourf ，故後以 contourf 為主
我們這邊使用上有 X, Y, Z 這三個值，分別是 X 座標，Y 座標，Z 深度（如前述，用來表示等高線很合理）
題外話 : 我們要產生出平面的大量 X, Y 與 Z 其實是很麻煩的，所幸 numpy 有個方法叫做 meshgrid，透過 np.mashgrid ( X, Y ) 就可以得到 contour 所需的座標，可以想像是產生出
p = [
[(0,0), (1,0), (2,0), (3,0)],
[(0,1), (1,1), (2,1), (3,1)],
[(0,2), (1,2), (2,2), (3,2)],
[(0,3), (1,3), (2,3), (3,3)]
]
( 類似這種形式 )
不使用 meshgrid, 要將上述的 p 套用的話還需要以下方法轉換
x, y = zip(*[list(zip(*l)) for l in p])
x = np.array(x)
y = np.array(y)
示意圖
當需要更大個範圍時很麻煩，所以我們使用此方法方便些
回到正題 :
x = range(4)
y = range(4)
x, y = np.meshgrid(x, y)
range(4) 可以看作是解析度，當我們需要更多的描繪點只要改動這邊即可
z 矩陣就是我們的深度 ( 可以是 Y 輸出結果 )
如果不用 contour ，使用單純的 plot 只會得到點，而且還要過濾 Z 值分開上色 ( 如下範例程式與圖 )
z = np.array(z)
for idx, color in [
(z == 0, '#000'),
(z == 1, '#F00')
]:
plt.plot(x[idx], y[idx], '*', color=color)
只使用 plot 不使用 contour
Python Matplotlib 之 Contourf 應用
再暸解基本的 contour / contourf 應用之後，我們搭配 sklearn 來做簡單應用示範，以下皆是亂數即時產生，所以相同的程式碼所產生的圖表不一定會和本文相同
準備資料
這裡我們使用 make_moons 來做資料示範，這可以使用 from sklearn.datasets import make_moons 來產生，此測試資料包含了一個座標系與 0 或 1 的結果 ( x1 + x2 = y )
Model 預測
其實用什麼 Model 都行，我們這邊用 RandomForestClassifier 來做示範
範例程式
直接看以下範例
make_moon 得到的預測圖
解說
import 與 資料準備我們就不多做介紹，我們直接看到這段
resolution = 50
dx = np.linspace(np.min(X[:, 0]), np.max(X[:, 0]), resolution)
dy = np.linspace(np.min(X[:, 1]), np.max(X[:, 1]), resolution)
dx, dy = np.meshgrid(dx, dy)
其實就等同我們上面基本教學的
x = range(4)
y = range(4)
x, y = np.meshgrid(x, y)
只是我們有技巧地透過 numpy min / max 去找出適當的值，resolution 相當於我們基礎教學裡 range 的數值，然後使用 linspace 來做節點分割，大家在跑範例程式時可以改看看 resolution 會發現 contour 精度的變化
再來看 test_x = np.c_[dx.flatten(), dy.flatten()]
其實這是因為 model prdict 需要 x1, x2 ，所以我們將 x, y 合併
然後送入 model ( clf ) 得到 z
最後 z 輸出的 shape 並不符合 contour 使用，所以我們要 reshape
z = z.reshape(dx.shape)
我們就可以畫出簡單的圖
# draw
plt.contourf(dx, dy, z, alpha=0.2)
plt.contourf 結果
然後我們還需要看一下原始資料 ( dataset )
確認我們的 Model 運作是正確的，所以我們使用 plot 來把原本資料繪上
# draw all dataset
colors = ['#FF0', '#000']
for i in [0, 1]:
idx = y == i
plt.plot(X[idx, 0], X[idx, 1], '*', color=colors[i])
就會得到類似這樣的結果
底色就是我們 Model 訓練的分類結果
另外
plot_z = clf.predict(test_x)
colors = ['#F00', '#00F']
for i in [0, 1]:
idx = plot_z == i
plt.plot(test_x[idx, 0], test_x[idx, 1], '*', alpha=0.3, color=colors[i])
也可以將預測結果 plot 在圖上，可以透過配合改變 resolution 來觀看
這是 contour 與 plot 比較
透過降低 resolution ( 下圖降為 10 ) 可以發現， 和單純 plot 將比，contour 明顯在資料視覺化上面容易許多
左圖使用 contour / 右圖單純只用 plt
結語
希望以上教學有幫助到大家
參考資料 : https://matplotlib.org/3.3.2/api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.contourf.html
https://www.python-course.eu/matplotlib_contour_plot.php | https://tree.rocks/python-matplotlib-plt-contour-or-contourf-tutorial-with-sklearn-e4497f76280 | [] | 2020-10-19 01:55:34.117000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Sklearn', 'Datavisualisering', 'Matplotlib', 'Python'] |
Here is how to recieve Free baby products annually | Home > Freebies > Free Samples >
I compiled a list of the top 3 websites i recommend and which I still use to this very day .They work for me all the time.Here they are.
1) Free Baby diapers and Products worth $300 from Huggies and Pampers
i recieved this boxes full of baby diapers without any hustle on this website just this month.
fee paid:$0
time taken for delivery :3weeks prior to applying
All you need to do is make a free baby registry on the website to get annual baby boxes with baby stuff worth $300. They’ll ship the box to you for free. No costs involved at all!
(A baby registry is a wish list of items you want. You aren’t required to buy them.)Anyone can make a baby registry even if you are still pregnant or gave birth even 4 years ago.
You can even ask your relations to help you out and make free baby registries and then give you the boxes of free baby stuff they get.Thats how i afford to stock up my closet full of baby products like this every year.
in less than a month i was able to stock up my closet like this
Free Monthly Baby Product Samples & Daily Sweeps!
EveryDayFamily is one of the largest, most popular communities for moms with over 2 million members.
When you join for free, you’ll get FREE baby product samples EVERY MONTH from TOP brands!
The website also runs DAILY FREE to enter sweepstakes with GREAT prizes including cash, expensive baby carriers, baby strollers, baby toys, hundreds of baby diapers and more! You can win something every day.
You’ll also get great coupons and savings each week.
Join and get FREE baby stuff each month!
Box of Free Baby Stuff Samples
On this website, you can get FREE baby product samples from top brands.
You can request as many samples as you want.
You can get free baby healthcare products, free baby diapers, free baby food and more!
Signup and request the free baby products you want.
Tons of FREE Product Samples for Babies & Moms
Here is another great resource for free stuff for babies.
Go here to get various FREE samples of products for moms and babies from top brands.
You can get a box of baby diapers, baby wipes, baby lotions, baby toys, and baby food.
FREE Baby Stuff worth $200!
Join this website to get free baby products worth $200!
The free baby stuff box you’ll get comes with free Gerber baby formula food, a free baby bottle, free baby monitor, free baby bib, free baby diapers and wipes, and more. It’s free to join and the signup is pretty fast.
How does it work? In return for the free baby stuff, you’ll need to write a review about each product you get. This is why brands give away so much free stuff on this website, because they need reviews for their marketing campaigns.
Get FREE Diaper Samples!
Free baby box with diapers
Diapers are so expensive and your baby needs so many diapers.
Go here to get FREE diaper samples from top brands!
Win $1,000 of Pampers Diapers!
Win free pampers diapers!
Enter to win free Pampers diapers for a year. Save lots of money.
About | Contact | Blog | Sitemap | Privacy | TOS | Disclaimers
OfferJoy.com © Copyright 2020, All Rights Reserved | https://medium.com/@ayandankala45/websites-i-use-to-get-an-annual-supply-of-free-baby-products-1c6c308bb9f0 | [] | 2020-01-25 07:57:31.079000+00:00 | ['Baby', 'Baby Boomers'] |
Sometimes I still think about you | Sometimes I still think about you.
The day we first met in June. The heat was overbearing so we began paddling in the small stream that ran between our houses. I had just moved in and you were the first person I had met. Our faces were shiny with sweat and water the humidity suffocating when it hit midday forcing us home. But I didn't want to leave. So you invited me over.
Time after time we would go to your house. For years. We bonded. We grew up together. So that day you invited me over I didn’t suspect a thing. You were my best friend Josh. My. Best. Friend.
But you didn’t think twice did you?
You’d planned it all in fact. You asked me for a drink, you’d planned on spiking it with your mothers old sleeping pills. But she got better, didn’t she josh? She didn’t need them anymore so she threw them away without you knowing. I heard you cursing from the living room, so I came to check you were okay.
I remember hearing you rustling through the medicine cabinet, looking for something. You said you had a headache Josh, a headache. But when you couldn’t find anything you just went for it, didn't you? I felt your body on mine knocking me to the floor. As we fell I thought this was another one of your games. But as soon as I felt the absence of your hand behind my head as it slammed against the cold wood I knew that you were no longer playing. The game was over for us. For me.
Sometimes I still think about you and how you pulled the knife from your pocket.
Your hands were trembling and your eyes looked distant. However, you looked more pathetic than terrifying at that moment. I don't remember feeling scared…Because I wasn’t. I didn’t think you’d actually hurt me.
The first strike I didn’t really feel anything, just saw the blood begin soaking my clothes dripping onto the floor. Then came the next and the next and the next. But still nothing. I was numb.
I thought about how your poor mother would have a hard time cleaning up the mess you made. How she would have to go back to those pills because of you. How could you do that to her josh? The warmth of the red liquid pooled around us staining our skin. You began apologising, but it was too late and you knew it. I think I saw you begin to cry, your eyes, glossy with regret.
Sometimes I still think about you and how the police went to your house.
They searched everywhere for us. Followed the drag marks the body made until they disappeared into the stream that ran between our houses. Your house was taped up for weeks, police in and out with forensic teams hot on their tails. The news covered our case, told everybody how they couldn’t find anything, neither you nor I. It only took a few months for the case to go cold, the news moving onto fresh stories and the police onto the next murder.
Sometimes I still think about you…
and how they never found your body. | https://medium.com/@holmesgracenatasha/sometimes-i-still-think-about-you-8fe3fbb33d80 | [] | 2020-12-23 16:22:43.640000+00:00 | ['Betrayal', 'Short Story', 'Friendship', 'Short Read', 'Murder'] |
Rosie the Riveter’s Pioneering Predecessor | Bessie Van Horst is an American essayist and author, whose best-known book The Woman Who Toils: Being the Experiences of Two Ladies as Factory Girls, published in 1903 included a preface by President Theodore Roosevelt.
Bessie and her sister-in-law Marie went undercover in various factories in the United States, ostensibly to reveal the poor working conditions for women and under-age children in American factories.
Born of money and educated in New York City private schools, Bessie worked for the Saturday Evening Post and co-wrote one book with Marie prior to undertaking their undercover expose.
They began to publish their factory work experiences in a column published in Everybody’s Magazine. The popular series caught the eye of President Roosevelt and he wrote a letter to Bessie suggesting a compilation into a book and that he would write a preface for the publication.
One of Roosevelt’s primary concerns for America at the time was the idea of race suicide (link to Wikipedia definition). As such, Roosevelt used Van Horst’s book as a platform to promote his cause, saying in part: | https://medium.com/illumination/rosie-the-riveters-pioneering-predecessor-1ff5ced50d68 | ['Timothy Key'] | 2020-04-17 18:20:02.748000+00:00 | ['Leadership', 'Self Improvement', 'Quality', 'Business', 'Innovation'] |
Ad agency philosophies and taglines of the global 700 | An agency philosophy is one of the most distinctive features of the ad industry. But to understand it is to first recognise the point of one.
People have tried to predict the future since the dawn of time. Relying on tools as varied as the Oracle at Delphi to the Farmer’s Almanac. But most predictions are plain wrong. Some are right, as a matter of coincidence. Like a stopped clock, that gets the time right at least twice a day. But that hasn’t stopped us from trying to predict with certainty, what lies ahead.
The reason we’re attracted to certainty, despite its probability, is biology. Our primitive brains haven’t evolved to deal with the complexities of an uncertain world. So they use up every available neuron to regain control. Making sense of the world through tools like beliefs, patterns and models that offer confidence, direction and hope.
An ad agency philosophy is a tool to predict advertising successes. You’ll find 700 agency philosophies below. But to truly understand what an agency philosophy is is to first recognise the point of one.
Put simply, the job of an ad agency is to make something desirable. You can make something desirable by changing perceptions. You can change perceptions by persuasion. So the ad industry is basically in the business of persuasion.
People are persuaded when they’re convinced something has been demonstrated. That’s why Aristotle described persuasion as a form of demonstration. There are three ways to persuade someone, he observed. Demonstrate something that appeals to the character (ethos). Demonstrate something that appeals to the context (pathos). Demonstrate something that appeals to the logic (logos).
Ad agencies persuade people using those three ways, in different combinations. They articulate a distinguishing feature about a brand or product and demonstrate its appeal. Such distinguishing features serve as cues for people to pick one brand or product over another.
Just as people need distinguishing features to pick one brand or product over another, ad agencies need distinguishing features that make them desirable for clients and talent.
The agency philosophy, often manifested in a tagline, is one of the most distinguishing features of the advertising industry. Each agency develops a unique philosophy about their advertising process, and proclaims that it would guarantee the best solutions for clients. Some codify their theories and add all sorts of frameworks around it, which act as proprietary tool for ideas that work.
In reality, advertising, like meteorology, is based on predictions. It’s an industry where you’re more likely to be wrong than right. Rightfully, as the legendary adman Paul Feldwick observed, that there’s no point agonising over getting it too right. For even when something’s right, there’s no guarantee it would be effective. Let alone that fact that all advertising theories are fundamentally wrong.
Similarly, the practice of coming up with ideas in advertising, much like the practice of coming up with discoveries in science, is anything but a linear process; one thing does not lead to another.
Whether it is the process or the outcome, nothing in advertising is clear-cut. So how could there possibly be a set philosophy or step-by-step framework that guarantees effective solutions?
Actually, this has to do with the transaction of ideas. Between those who come up with the ideas — the agency folk — and those who buy the ideas — the clients. Or as the Nobel-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman would put, between ‘System 1’ and ‘System 2’ thinkers. The former is characterised by its fast, nonlinear and unconscious way of thinking. The latter characterised by its slow, linear and controlled way of thinking.
Indeed, Ogilvy’s Vice Chairman Rory Sutherland observed that clients, with their backgrounds in management, finance and economics, suffer from a trait which scientists refer to as ‘physics envy’ — the need to appear more mathematically linear than their disciplines require.
In which case, an efficient way to persuade such linear thinkers to see the value of dancing ponies or singing cats is through what Feldwick calls ‘showmanship’ — the ability to present something in an attractive, structured and confident manner.
Therefore, just as how scientists skilfully lead their audiences to believe that their discoveries were arrived at through a sequential process, ad agencies have to post-rationalise their ideas based on philosophies and frameworks before they can be accepted by their physics-envious clients.
By bringing a sense of structure and reasoning to the chaotic advertising process, agency philosophies ultimately help agencies sell their ideas better, whilst influencing the kind of work an agency does or hopes to do. Indeed, they dominate the first slides of pitches; even if they’re all fundamentally wrong.
Like Aristotle's persuasion rhetoric, agency philosophies come in three types. Ones that represent a type of thinking (ethos). Ones that represent the context that influences a type of thinking (pathos). Ones that represent the value a certain type of thinking could bring (logos).
Having looked at hundreds of agency philosophies, the key observation remains; that although ad agencies may be good at articulating distinguishing features for brands and products, they struggle, and are in most cases lazy, when it comes to articulating a distinguishing feature i.e. an agency philosophy for themselves.
There are a few reasons for this.
There’s little difference between what one agency offers from another. Since every agency uses creativity in going about their business, creativity as an invariable distinguishing feature comes across as hollow. It’s hard to articulate a narrative for success for a business that’s inherently based on predictions.
Whether an agency represents the end or the means to an end, there’s little to work with. But there are exceptions, as you will observe.
The statistician George Box famously observed that all models are wrong, some are useful. The point being, we’re better off focusing on whether something can be applied in a useful way rather than debating if an answer is correct in all cases. Similarly, ‘the opposite of certainty isn’t uncertainty. It is openness, curiosity and a willingness to embrace paradox,’ wrote the writer Tony Schwartz, in his eloquent plea against absoluteness. Therefore, the real test of knowledge is utility, not truth; doubt, not certainty.
That’s why good advertising comes from the type of people and agencies that recognise that they can never fully understand it.
The long list of agency philosophies and taglines:
&Co. — Collaboration is as important as strategy and creative. +27 — We’re producers of interestingness. 11:21 — Only two things matter: being simple and creative. 18 Feet & Rising — Be different from the sake of being better. 180 — Getting the world talking. 22squared — We help brands become a welcome intruder. 23red — We change behaviour for the better. 34 — We believe in creating bold, curious, effective work. 360i — Powered by curiosity. 4août — Useful and pleasant. 72andSunny — Make brands matter in culture. 99 Enterprises — We design experiences that connect with people. 99c — We believe in work that sells. Above & Beyond — The creative agency for the audience age. Accenture Interactive — The world’s largest digital agency. Achtung! — Agency for the connected era. Ackerman McQueen — The most expensive marketing is marketing that doesn’t work. adam&eveDDB — Make brilliant work that works. Adex — We create dreams. Adjust Your Set — Content at the speed of culture. ADK — Motivating consumers. Advance — Care more. Nothing less. Advance comunicação — We combine data, brain and heart. Africa — Relay and shift. Agencia Tudo — Think. Do. Propagate. Agency Brazil — Creative pragmatists. Agency Sponge — An ad agency, a design house, an ideas factory. Agency3 — Best is possible. Aggrey & Clifford — Unexpected, pioneering and above all, relevant. AJF Partnership — One of Australia’s most effective agencies. AKQA — The imaginative application of art and science. Alfred — Everything begins around a table and ends with a glass of champagne. All Contents — We like to cultivate singularity. Allen & Gerritsen — Creativity is no longer king. Our new king is inventiveness. Alpha Century — A creative agency for entrepreneurs. Altmann + Pacreau — An agency of ideas. Amazon — Bonding progressive brands with forward-thinking consumers. Amelie — Make a positive impact on people’s lives. Amélie Company — Good works. Amsterdam Worldwide — We create cultural connections for brands. Amusement Park — We’re not an ad agency, we’re a manufacturer of creative content. AMV BBBO — UK’s most creative agency. AnalogFolk — Use digital to make the analog world better. Anomaly — A deviation from the norm. Anorak — Be straightforward and to the point. Another Company — Exceed client expectations. Antidote — Dare mighty things. Aqua — Making it awesome. Aquatro — Modern. Simple. Advertising. Arcade — Creative entrepreneurs. Archer Malmo — Big ideas don’t require big heads. Argonaut — We make things that surprise and delight the world. Armando Testa — Cross vision. Arnell Group — To get consumers to say wow. Arnold Worldwide — Great work works. Artbox — Centre for creation. Artplan Agency — Ideas that open conversations. Arts & Letters Creative Co. — We don’t know what we’re doing, but we’ve done it a thousand times. Asahi Agency — Applying Japanese spirit and Western intelligence. ASDG — We think out of the box and experiment. Asterix — Heart and soul can transform your brand. Atnetplanet — Innovate and adapt to create viral ecosystems. Atomic — Never quiet. Austin & Williams — Come for the ideas, stay for the results. Australie — The agency that sees things differently. Avail — Taking brands to new heights. Avrett Free Ginsberg — We inspire brands to own who they are and live it bravely. AZE/FBR — Create work that sells. B.B.E — Driving growth through creative technology. Babel — Give back to communication the power to create value. Badkoobeh — Go beyond your farfetched goals through our creative, scientific and authentic advertising methods. Bailey Lauerman — Made for America. Baldwin — Don’t do anything just for the money. Baldwin& — We’re not really sure, and we’d like to keep it that way. Bandujo — We give smart, unexpected, creative solutions that get results. Banjo — Independent in spirit and thought. Banujo — Be imaginative. Barbarian — Break conventions. Barker — A true alternative to the big slow battleships. Barker & Christol — We believe in world peace, rainbows and fluffy kitties. Barkley — Add something good to the world. Barnes, Catmur & Friends — We do whatever we can to help our clients do whatever it is they want to do. Barton F. Graf — The enemy is irrelevance. Bates United — Let our ads speak for themselves. BBDO — The Work. The Work. The Work. BBH — When the world zigs, zag. BD — Murder the mediocre. BDDP — Breakthrough ideas. Beber Silverstein — Weaving brand stories into the personal culture. Becon — Humankind. Being There — For brands that love people. Berlin Cameron — A boutique agency for building brand cultures. Bernstein-Rein — We care about impact. BETC — Great work. No nonsense. Big — Turning ideas into reality. Birdman — Create something no one has ever experienced. BJL — Stand for something. Take on anything. Black Labz — We deliver with creative care. Black River FC — Work that’s not only remarkable, but worth remarking about. Blackbird — Prepare to take off. Blast Radius — Creatively driven. Digitally focussed. Bleublancrouge — We’re more than just an ad agency. Blue 499 — The open source media agency. Blue Pencil — We will help you get straight to the point. BMB — We create ideas that generate their own energy. BMedia — Happy combination of multiple skills. BMF — The home of the long idea. Bob — Dialogue is at the heart of everything we do. Bob the Robot — Creativity is the most important single success factor for companies. Bold + Beyond — Inspire and connect. Bolero — Round ideas for a square world. Bonjour — Forward-thinking ideas for premium brands. Boomtown — Creativity. Possibility. Bounche — Deliver wow. Bowery — We can help you. BPD — Making brands beloved. Brave — Because courage counts. Bravo — Win tough fights. Bray Leino — Whatever it takes. Brilliant & Million — Passion drives everything. Broadbent & Williams, Inc. — Defining. Focusing. Establishing direction. Brokaw — We help brands rise above the blah blah. Brothers & Sisters — Revolutionising our clients’ businesses in revolutionary times. Brown — Success depends on the success of our clients. Brunner — We’re in pursuit of what’s next. BSUR — Be yourself to be original. Bunglow Circus — We create emotions driven by data. Bunglow25 — Do not sit still. Burrell Communications — Creating transcultural work. Burns — Strategically led. Creative at heart. Forward thinking by nature. Buutvrij for life — Make nice things. Buzzman — Ads are unwanted, so if you’re going to crash the party, bring champagne. BVK — We believe in the refreshing power of honesty. BWM Dentsu — Creativity transforms brands. Camden — We’re a human-scale agency. Camp + King — We made brands conversation-worthy. Campbell Ewald — We create emotionally charged, culturally relevant ideas. Campbell Mithun Esty — Achieve dominance. Carmichael Lynch — We create unfair ideas that give our clients an unfair advantage. Cerebrus — Branding worth loving. Cernuto Pizzigoni & Partners — We make ideas, which is different from having ideas. Change — Benevolence. Channel T — Be bold, be brave, be brilliant. Chapter SF — We exist to solve wicked problems facing pioneering businesses. Cheetham Bell — The power of simple. Cheil — Ideas that move. Chemistry — We tell stories that create a reaction. CHI&Partners — Game-changing creativity. CJ Worx — The new breed of agency for the digital era. Clarity Coverdale Fury — Feeding the emotion between brands and people. Cloudfactory — Creativity is collective. Code d’Azur — Stand out. Fit in. Cogent — Built on the power of togetherness. Cole & Weber — Strategically focused. Creatively ambitious. Digitally accomplished. Collective London — We create powerful, emotive and cut-through digital experiences. Conill — Propelling brands into the heart of the conversation. Contagion — Change today to own tomorrow. Contagious Communications — We help companies create braver marketing. Contagious London — The all-in-one creative agency. Contract Advertising — We believe in building brands from the heart. CoolGraySeven — Great work comes from collaboration. Copacino + Fujikado — Find that thing. Cossette — To go beyond. CP+B — To create outrageously dramatic work. cramer-krasselt — Made friends, not ads. Cream — Creativity is our effectiveness strategy. Creative Mindworks — We offer not just services. We create solutions. CreativeRace — No barriers. Creativos & Medios — Let’s make mischief. Creature of London — The home the intelligent misbehaviour. CRI Agence — Incite interest. Critical Mass — Relentless focus on the customer. Cubo — Outsmarting problems by making brands stickier in the mind. Cult — We’re at the intersection of creativity and technology. Cummins&Partners — Nothing’s more valuable than independent thinking. Cutwater — We build brands to move quickly through culture. Dada — We craft bold, creative and strategic business solutions. Daiko — Ideas win. Dailey — We love advertising. Dare — Digital design engineering. Darewin — Helping brands reach their targets with entertainment. David — A first-name agency that believes in the personal. David Guillaume — Killing indifference. David&Goliath — We help challenger brands outsmart and outperform the competition. Dawn — Make stuff people want. Dawson Pickering — Great creative ideas drive exceptional business results. DDB — Imagine. Inspire. Influence. DDFH+B — Ideas company that delivers great work that works. Deloitte Digital — The creative digital consultancy. Delphys — Don’t be bound by rules. Des Cheval — A no-limit agency that takes a fresh and impetuous view of everything. Designate — The agency that lives, thinks and breathes brand. Deutsch — Human spoken here. Devito / Verdi — We give our clients what they want but never what they expect. Dewynters — Experience is everything. DF London — For the age of influence. DGWB — The values economy. Different — Together we make a difference. DigitasLbi — We’re a modern, data-inspired agency. Dim Canzian — Make it deep. DiMassimo Goldstein — Inspiring action. DMC — Access to success. Dolly Rogers — Be human. Don’t Panic — Contagious ideas. Doner — We do audacious things for ambitious brands. DPS les indés — Dependence leads to indifference, independence creates difference. DPZT — To join the right letters. Driven — Creating ideas that sell. Droga5 — Creatively led. Strategically driven. Technology friendly. Humanity obsessed. Drummond Central — Takin’ care of business. Duke — Fight indifference. Duncan Channon — Unearth, unfurl and unleash truly distinct identities. DWGB — The power of shared values. East House Creative — Madison Avenue creative without the Madison Avenue attitude. Ebony & Ivory — Making a difference to brands and people’s lives. Echo — Communication that resonates. Edelman — Connecting, informing and creating inspiring work. Ego White Red & Green — Without narration there is no communication. Elvis Communications — We turn audiences in fans. Energize — Humanise brands. Engage — Data is human. Ensemble — Creating content that people want to watch, experience and share. EON — We believe in upholding truth for good. EP+Co — Unthink everything. Epicosity — An idea factory that gives brands a voice. Escala — Connecting companies to their audiences with impact. Essence — Making advertising more valuable to the world. Et Vous — Transforming brands. Exp — We create energy. Fabrique — Challenge reality. Factory — We’ll make things. Fair&Square — Less money requires more guts. Fairly Famous — Amplifying the messages of progressive companies. Fallon — For clients who’d rather outsmart than outspend the competition. Famous Innovations — Innovation is the difference between popular and famous. Fancy — Great work can do great things. Farrelly — Beyond expectations. FCB — Never finished. FCB Inferno — The world needs more interesting. FICC — Leading brands to digital. Figliulo & Partners — Agency for the information age. Fischer — Innovative solutions. Fitzroy — Make brands adaptable to change. FKC — Might to will. Think to do. FleishmanHillard — The power of true. Fold7 — Relentlessly relevant. Footsteps — The motion and culture agency. Forever Beta — Relentless improvement. Forsman & Bodenfors — The Floor: Swedish consensus. Fortune — CORE (Connected, Organised, Related, Effective). FOTW — A blend of creative excellence. Founded — We move people. Fox Kalomaski Crossing — Small but mighty. FoxP2 — Chemical. Here atoms and ideas collide. Fred & Farid — State something. Freeman — Building meaningful relationships. Friendship — Unboring life. GA — Brands that resonate. Geometry Global — We help brands thrive in an omni-channel world. George & Dragon — A family business. Giant Spoon — Ideas through the lens of culture. Gish, Sherwood & Friends, Inc. — We expose the truth and inspire action. Gloo — Onwards and upwards. Glory — Audacity is a vector of efficiency. Golin — Relevance obsessed, relevance equipped. Good — We work for good. Goodby, Silverstein & Partners — We make things that reach millions, but seem to speak only to you. Goodness MFC — Uncover the goodness. Goodstuph — Never ‘no’ but ‘why not?’ Grabarz & Partner — Participative creativity. Grafik — We define and develop great brands. Gravity Road — Clever with content. Greatest Common Factory — Make things better. Grenade & Sparks — We support companies in their transformation. Grenadier — Creativity and innovation can change the world. Grey — Famously effective. Grid Worldwide — Disruption for brand. Grok — We create emotional connections. Growmint — We’re creative adventurers and changemakers. Grupo Gallegos — Fortune favors the brave. GSD&M — Purpose-driven creative agency. GTB — Artful. Stealthy. Unexpected. gyro — Create ideas that are humanly relevant. Hakuhodo — People centred, data-driven creative agency. Hamiltons Advertising — The Jill-of-all-trades agency. Happiness Brussels — Spread happiness. Happiness Saigon — From 30 to 3.0. Hasan & Partners — Make our clients famous. Havas — Creating meaningful connections between people and brands. Hellocomputer — More human. Hello Monday — Happy people create joyful digital experiences. Herewecan — Connecting creativity and digital business. Herezie — The power of choice. Hey — It’s a fun corner. High concept — More fun. More smart. HighCo Avenue — The power in big, the agility in more. Hill Holliday — Humble, hungry, humans. Home — Feel good. Hometown — Move at the speed of culture. Hot Mustard — Intelligent communication. HS AD — A creative agency with a difference. Hub — We provide world-class creative across every channel. Hudson Rouge — We are pioneers who never settle. Huge — Make something you love. Humanaut — A creative agency making things that humans love. Humanseven — An agency on a human scale. Humdinger and Sons — A creative agency for the common good. Hummingbird — Where ideas fly. Hungry & Foolish — Less blah, more action. Hunt Adkins — We blow shit up. Hunterlodge — We start at the end. Hyde — Creative thinking always. HZDZ — Your best story, simply told. IBM iX — We study the intersection of strategy, creativity and technology. Ici Barbes — Start social. iCrossing — At the crossroads of pretty and gritty. Imagination — Transforming business through creativity. Impero — We make tired brands famous. Indie — Fresh views on all kinds of issues. Innocean Worldwide — Discover beyond. Inside Out — Driven by passion. Insign — Business hacking. Instinct — We find unconventional solutions to common tasks. Intermix — Create value for our clients. Interplanetary, Inc. — We find the humanity at the heart of your brand. Intro — Get noticed. Invnt — Challenge everything. iProspect — Giving businesses a tangible advantage in today’s world. Ireland/Davenport — We create amazing things. Iris — We build participation brands. Isobar — Ideas without limits. Isobel — We supercharge brands. IW Group — Crafting content for diverse consumers. IXM — Creative Engineering: design and devise ideas that create wealth. J. Walter Thompson — The world’s best-known agency. Jack Morton — Do something extraordinary. Jacobs Agency — Here’s to the idea. Jandly — We break boundaries. Jesus et Gabriel — The agency for anything drunk and eaten. JLA — We solve marketing problems for a living. Joe Public — The audience is everything. Johannes Leonardo — The consumer is the medium. Joint — We’re a creative business. Josiane — An agency. With lots of ideas in it. Joy. — Make brands into favourites. Jung von Matt — Emotional is the only rational. Karmarama — The home of good works. Kastner & Partners — We build. KesselsKramer — Make it meaningful. Ketchum — Break through. Khanna \ Reidinga — Be interesting or die. Kindred — Understanding people. Kinetic — Connecting with audiences on the move. King James — Making brands spectacularly memorable. King of Hearts — To the point. Kingdom — We are the agency because we build relationships. kirshenbaum bond senecal + partners — Inspired by tough. KKBC — Keep moving. Kokoro — Heartvertising. Kolle Rebbe — Quite simply, believes in common sense. Krieg Schlupp Partner — Change the world with ideas. Krow Communications — Where leaps are made. KWP! — Ideas that are impossible to ignore. La Chose — Indefinable. La Comunidad — Cultural fluidity. La Famille — A great family of talents. Lachlan McPherson and Friends — Create positive change. Lateral Aspect — This way to intelligent creativity. Laundry Service — Make amazing sh!t. Le Fil — Agile agency for creating lasting relationships. Le Nouvel Opera — We believe French brands could have Frenchitude. Leagas Delaney — Smart thinking. Beautiful work. Leith — Bold ideas that work. Lemni Scata — Using the head. Lemon Scented Tea — We use stories to build brands. Leo Burnett — Creating stuff people love. Les Evades — Great big ideas. Les Fraises Sauvages — Smart agency for smart brands. Les Gaulois — An agency on a human scale. Les Gros Mots — The problem with the little words is that we do not see them. Les Pirates — The agency for sports and extreme sports. Libertine — The free-thinking agency. LIDA — Powered by data, technology and creative prowess. Lime — The boutique creative agency. Linney — Restless. Little — Design is everything. Live & Breathe — Considered maverick response. LMWR — Be work and roll. London Advertising — Be Brilliant. London Strategy Unit — We stop companies sliding into irrelevance. Lopez Negrette — Powered by cultural insights. Loveurope — Producers of great advertising. LRXD — Two weeks to truth. Lucky Generals — A creative company for people on a mission. Ludwig — Reveal creative value. M&C Saatchi — Brutal simplicity of thought. Mad & Woman — The future is female. Made — The audience is in charge. Mademoiselle Scarlett — When nothing goes right, go left. Madras — We seamlessly weave together story and delivery. Makheia — To win the battle of commitment. Manasian — A project based agency. Mangos — Helping brands participate, boldly, in the world. Marc USA — Uncovering radical insights that incite powerful reactions. Marcel — We make things that change things. Marcus Thomas — Seeking impossible. Markvardig — Crazy but sensible ideas. Martin Agency — Good and tough. Martin Williams — Create activists for brands. Marvelous — Entertainment is king. Matador — Ideas for all places. Maxmedia — Bring the best together. Maxx — Make everything greater. MBA — Where digital and direct connect. MCC — Building thoughtful brands. McCann — Truth well told. McGarrah Jessee — We create emotional connection between consumers and brands. mcgarrybowen — Clients deserve better. Mediar — Our clients come first. Meerkats — Purposely successful. Mekanism — To create shareable and provocative campaigns that engage audiences. Mendeleiev — People belong to categories of know-how. Merkley+Partners — We make connections that stick. MetropolitanRepublic — Do things differently. MillerVolpe — Giving life to brands. Mindgruve — Expect amazing. Mintz & Hoke — Powerful ideas that change the way people think and act. Mirum — A borderless digital agency. Miss Noï — Creative cell with free spirit. Mistress — Brand building in modern media culture. MKTG — The power of shared experience. MNSTR — Opposites attract. Moblaze — Agency for the mobile age. Modern Climate — Be significant. Moma Propaganda — A disciplined agency. Mondo — Search for solutions through analysis and meditation. Monumenta — The world is fluid. So are we. Moreandme — We bring sexiness, desirability and modernity to brands. Mortierbrigade — We fight creative mediocrity. Mortimer Harvey — We put heart and smart together. Moses Inc. — We solve problems before most realize there is a problem. Mother — Make great work. Mr. President — Question bravely. Answer boldly. MRY — Rooted in Culture. Enabled by Technology. Driven by Relevancy. MSI Advertising — Experience matters. Muh-Tay-Zik / Hof-Fer — Professionally outrageous and outrageously professional. MullenLowe — A different kind of beast. Mutt Industries — Beauty. Truth. Simplicity. MXO — Enrich and simplify. N=5 — No-nonsense. Nail — An advertising agency that hates advertising. Naked Communications — Challenge conventions. Natwerk — Absurdly effective. NBS — No bullshit. Needleman Drossman & Partners — We believe in the power of an idea. New Digital Noise — A collective of minds who strive for the very best. Nexlabs — Make a measurable difference. Nikkeisha — We connect people with fresh ideas. Noble People — Straightforward, upright and no-bullshit. Nomads — For borderless thinking and ideas that travel. Nova/SB — The popsynergy agency. Now — The advertising agency for a restless world. Nuworks — Storyteching. O’Keefe Reinhard & Paul — Big brand creativity, startup ingenuity. Odd London — Beautiful effectiveness. Ogilvy — We Sell. Or else. Oliver — Inside intelligence. Olson — Think like people. One Show — Don’t get lost. OpusMultipla — Creativity is the best way to generate results. Organic — Everything is interactive. Oricom — Communication that grasps moving consumers . Our Man in Havana — We’re not for everyone. Out of the Box — Bullshit in, bullshit out. Pable — Home of the humble radicals. Pablo — Creating brands that come alive through radical ideas. Partners & Partners — Boston Consulting meets Ideo meets Droga5. Partners Andrews Aldridge — Rethink. Penguin — Helping sell more products, to more people, more often. People and you — Develop brand values to create valuable brands. People Culture & Ideas — Be small and nimble not big and bloated. People Ideas & Culture — Agency for the 21st century needs. People we like — We blend sense and style. Pereira & O’Dell — Creating cross-disciplinary campaigns for progressive marketers. Perfect Fools — Agency for the digital era. Perfect Storm — Be useful or be obsolete. Periscope — Do things people love. Phelps — We help deserving clients find their voice. Phibious — Playful and thoughtful / Be the unfair advantage. Pilot PMR — Tell your story in a compelling way. PIMO — Welcome to the age of real. Piston — Where strategic leadership and start-up mentality intersect. Plan B — Big enough to do it right. Small enough to do it better. Poke — An ideas company for a connected world. Pool Worldwide — Bringing the Internet to advertising. Porter Novelli — We find greatness in everything. Possible — We create experiences that keep brand promises. Preston Kelly — Home of iconic ideas. Principles Agency — More than just a name. Prodigious Norge — Brand logistics. Promise — Let the most effective idea lead. Proof — Nothing watered down. Propeg — We sell ideas. Prophet — Grow better. Proximity — Creative intelligence. Psona — Can do. Publicis — Lead the change. PwC Digital — We drive business transformation. Quai des Orfèvres — Goldsmiths of communication. Quaras — We enhance corporate value. Quiet Storm — Purveyors of exquisite mind bombs. Quirk — Brave curious minds. R/GA — Agency for the connected age. R9 — Post-digital thinking. Rabbit’s Tale — Break the norm, build the tale. Radioville — Radio is a different place. Ramel — Made to measure. Rapier — To make customers’ lives better. Rascal — Think curious. Razorfish — Here for tomorrow. Recess Creative — Play is built into our day. Recipe — The UK’s freshest independent agency. Red — Everything begins with an idea. Red Baron Werbeagentur — To be sure to score is to think focussed. Red Brick Road — Go above and beyond. Red Fuse — It’s a brave new world. Red Lion — The best advertising isn’t always advertising. Red Urban — Strong ideas that work. Redder — We make brands redder Republik — Produce outstanding work. Resn — Infect minds with experiences that amaze and stupefy. Rno1 — Together, we can make waves. Robert/Boisen & Like-minded — Together we’re better. Rockfish — Born out of tech, embedded in start-ups, fueled by strategy. Romance — We work hard and we are nice to people. Rosapark — Fresh ideas for great business. Rosbeef! — We are creative and we have common sense. Rothco — We produce ideas that change fate and fortune. RPA — People first. RPM — We believe brands connect with people when they entertain. Rubin Postaer and Associates — People first. Saatchi & Saatchi — Nothing is impossible. Sanders\Wingo — We use behavioral science to hack the human OS. SapientNitro — Redefining storytelling for an always-on world. 546. Satumaa Family Business — Nordic thinking. Schafer Condon Carter — Think again. Scholz & Friends — We are the orchestra of ideas. School Boulder — Purpose in action. Seagull — Ideas that soar Select — We deliver magic with logic. Selmore — The small big agency. Sell! Sell — Extraordinary ideas make commercial sense. Serviceplan — Turning brands into best brands. Setu — Bridging the gap. Shout — We create conversational topics. Showpony Advertising — We make ads that people talk about. Sid Lee — Agency for the modern age. Siren — Advertising that works. Sivans — Because we’re different. Six Tokyo — Mixing unconventional and cool. Smith Brothers — Deliver big ideas with flawless execution. Snap London — Ideas that bite. Socialove — We help customers fall in love with your brand. Solve — We sell solutions not services. Somo — Rapid actionable innovation. Southpaw — Caution doesn’t make headlines. Spark Foundry — We bring heat to brands. Spawn Ideas — We don’t settle for good enough. Special — Make things that matter. Spirit — We love to start fires. We ignite emotions. Splash — We believe in the power of connections Sponge — Where narrative, firepower and innovation absorb into one. Spring — We brands at the forefront of cultural conversations. 574. Squat New York — The brand crafters. SS+K — Born to lead brands through moments of change. St John’s — Restore integrity in communications. St. Luke’s — Home of agenda setting ideas. Stack — We turn time into money. Steve — Pop culture agency. Stevens & Tate — We make things happen. Stink Studios — A creative studio for a digital-first world. Story — The best selling agency. Story Worldwide — The world’s first content-driven agency. StrawberryFrog — The world’s first cultural movement agency. Sugar & Partners — Making brands famous. Sullivan Higdon & Sink — Stand out from the flock. Sunday — We create beautifully crafted, brilliantly effective brand stories. Sunshine — A next-generation entertainment company. Super at the Spree — Super is not just a name. It’s what our ideas are. Superhero Cheesecake — Raise the bar. Superheroes — Save the world from boring advertising. Superunion — Agency built on a spirit of creative optimism. Sylvain Labs — Our tools are science and whimsy. Syzygy — We create happiness. Tabasco — Be real. Tank Top — Put simply, we add value to brands. Tattoo Projects — No, we’re not a tattoo parlor. TAXI — Doubt the conventional. TBWA — Disruption. Team One — The new affluence is calling. Terri & Sandy — Woman-owned, strategic & creative advertising agency. The & Partnership — A modern agency fueled by the power of ‘&’. The Ad Store — We are the human network. The Adventures Of — Rules only rule out the brilliant exception. The Allenby — Change the world or put a smile on your face. The Brand Agency — We’re agents of change. The Brooklyn Brothers — Home of blockbuster branding. The Cheese has Moved — The small agency that thinks big. The Circus Works — Make people stand up and take notice. The Clan — We’re an agent of change. The Community — We build brands for a culturally fluid world. The Corner — We will. The Creative Council — Making ideas happen. The Escape Pod — Bringing brand propositions to life dramatically. The Full Service — Bold. Brave. Beautiful. The Gate London — Breakthrough work. Boundless culture. The Good Kind Of Crazy Inc. — No secret formulas. The Hallway — Creativity is effectiveness. The Hardy Boys — We’re problem solvers at heart. The Hub — Good things happen when unexpected things come together. The Jupiter Drawing Room & Partners — Beautiful mayhem. The Magic Pencil — Meticulous with details. The Minimart — Good people, fierce thinking. The Mission — Concinnity. The Monkeys — Creating entertaining and provocative ideas. The North Alliance — We create new paths to growth. The Old Shanghai Firecracker Factory — Small agency with big ideas. The Partners — We create, cultivate and inspire brands for those who aspire to lead. The Royals — The most interested agency in the world. The Secret Little Agency — We move culture everyday. The Union — Where effectiveness meets creativity. The Works — The creatively-wired agency. They — Be seen. Think — The digital transformation agency. Thinkerbell — Measured magic. TM — Woman-owned indie agency. TM Advertising — Independent, female-owned creative agency. Tokyu Agency — Create amazing experiences. Tombras — Connecting data and creativity for business results. Tongal — Crowdsourcing creative work. Tracy Locke — Applying design thinking to motivations. Trailer Park — All brands have a great story to tell. Transform — Creative entrepreneurs. Tree — Be specific. Tribal Worldwide — Creating the world’s most loved digital experiences. Tricycle — We make stuff people want to watch. Triverse — Ideas cause change. True — Being true. TSR & Partners — Defining experiences for the digital age. TUX — We are a fearless partner in creativity. Über — Over, above, beyond. Ultrasupernew — Free-thinking but focussed Uncle — Simplicity and creativity have the same mother. Uncommon London — Building brands that people actually wish existed. Union — Built for where our industry is going. Not where it has been. Urja Communications — Distinctive, digital, fast. Utopia — Changing the fortunes of brands, people, and planet. UWG — We are insight driven storytellers. Vandejong — Dream, experiment and realize change. VCCP — Transformation partners. Venables Bell & Partners — Honest. Fearless. Independent. Verygoodchoice — An idea tank. VIA — We help clients grow through creativity. VIRTUE — The creative agency by VICE. VML — Champions of the human spirit. VMSD — Create something extraordinary that tells a story. Volontaire AB — Our work never interrupts people. Volt — Moving brands and people. Voskhod — To move beyond. VSA Partners — There’s always a better way. W — Start with the reality. Wieden+Kennedy — Find the brand’s soul and reveal its truth. Walker Agency — We like to keep things creative. WARL — First person conversion. we are pi — Never settle. We Launch — We launch everything. We, The Citizens — To create interesting communications that’ll make stop. Weber Shandwick — Engaging always. Wetpaint — The little big agency. Wexley School for Girls — We’re simply an ad agency. What’s Your Problem — Creative brand solutions for a digital world. Who Why What — Three times the question brings a real answer. Will London — There’s always a way. Williams Lea Tag — To create value for our clients. Willis Collaborative — The agency for progressive marketers. Winter — We push digital boundaries. Woedend! — Relentlessly curious. Wolf & Wilhelmine — Obsessed with what it means to be alive today. Wolfe Doyle — Comfortable ads should make you nervous as hell. Womenkind — Built on the wisdom of women. WPN Chameleon — We move people. Wunderman — Creatively driven. Data inspired. X3M Ideas — perception. XXS — Challenge conventions. Y&R — Resist the usual. You — An ad agency that thinks about what is best for you. Zambezi — Take bigger bites. Zimmerman advertising — Welcome to the growth machine. Zubi Advertising — To erase stereotypes. Zulu Alpha Kilo — We’re the 10% more agency, charge and quality.
(Image courtesy of BBH) | https://medium.com/@v_praveen/ad-agency-philosophies-and-taglines-of-the-global-700-7149864b8cf3 | ['Praveen Vaidyanathan'] | 2018-08-09 21:07:43.704000+00:00 | ['Agency', 'Marketing', 'Brands', 'Advertising', 'Philosophy'] |
The Sorry Tale Of A Project Fail | The Sorry Tale Of A Project Fail
Photo by Daria Shevtsova from Pexels [cropped]
Welcome my friends, do gather round
For a grizzly a tale as can be found,
OK, not quite grizzly but still a tale
Of mistakes and woe and a project fail.
Perchance you’ll blanch when I confess
Our project seemed like a success,
We iterated and delivered,
At release sign-off I barely quivered,
Confident all would be impressed,
Imagine, then, quite how distressed
I was to find they did not care,
They behaved as if I wasn’t there;
Photo by Marcelo Jaboo from Pexels
When I returned to face the team
I tried to smile and make it seem
As if their work was well-received
But I could see they weren’t deceived,
We had done well yet somehow, sadly,
I’d failed my team extremely badly.
With time gone by I can look back
And see the places I lost track:
To start with, I was not courageous,
I found low-trust meetings were contagious,
The managers saw a Scrum Master
As a whip to make the teams work faster…
Add to that a weekly forum
Where we all maintained utmost decorum,
Dare to paint your project un-green
And you’d be seen to contravene
The sacred code of reporting status
And find your career put on hiatus;
Photo by Pixabay from Pexels
Such was the climate of cold fear
But that’s no excuse to be unclear:
A green project has no meaning,
In fact, it’s rather overweening,
If it means we all pretended
Until the project nearly ended,
When the truth bursts overnight:
Green flips to red in an almight-
-y mess of apparent sudden failure
Of the most catastrophic nature;
Remember it runs in both directions:
From red to green as we make corrections,
Our project’s red did dim to amber
Breathless to true green we did clamber;
But they didn’t care for I didn’t say
What really happened on the way;
I learned that it’s imperative
To tell an honest narrative. | https://medium.com/serious-scrum/the-sorry-tale-of-a-project-fail-4e28daf015ff | ['Farah Egby'] | 2020-12-01 08:35:07.043000+00:00 | ['Courage', 'Transparency', 'Poetry', 'Serious Scrum', 'Agile'] |
Suit Filed Cases & Wilful Defaulters Explained | Reserve Bank of India(RBI) has entrusted TransUnion CIBIL to perform the role of collecting and circulating information on suit-filed accounts & list of defaulters. RBI has also directed banks, FIs & State Financial Corporations to submit a list of all the Suit Filed Accounts to TransUnion CIBIL as well as RBI.
Summary:
Suit Filed cases are petition or complaint, made by banks or notified financial institutions or state financial corporations, to a court that initiates a lawsuit
Suit Filed cases are cases on companies who are wilful defaulters, and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has classified “wilful” and “non-wilful” defaulters.
It is categorized by RBI for those who deliberately use the banking system to not pay back dues from those who are genuinely fallen on debt trap
TransUnion CIBIL Limited maintains a database on suit-filed accounts of Rs.1 Crore and above & suit-filed accounts(wilful defaulters) of Rs. 25 lakhs and above
Filing suit is a formal document called a petition or complaint presented to a court that initiates a lawsuit. In the petition, the person/bank filing the petition alleges a Cause of Action against a defendant/company for which they seek economic relief.
Suit Filed Case
A Suit Filed Case is a case where any bank, or notified Financial Institution(FIS), or State Financial Corporations(SFCS) lends money to a company and when the company defaults in paying back the loan, the bank files a complaint in a court of law.
Wilful Defaulters
Banks and government-owned lenders are coming under heavy pile of bad loans. Most Companies and Individuals who are not able to repay their loans, have a slowdown and are faced with factors beyond their control. However, there are some companies and individuals, who despite having the capacity and capability to pay back the money, do not repay or they divert the funds availed from lenders or they don’t utilise the funds for the specific purpose for which the loan is issued. They are truant borrowers and are alleged to be doing it wilfully. They are called Wilful Defaulters.
As per RBI, a wilful default may occur in four cases:
When there is a default in repayment obligation by a company/ individual to the lender even when it has the ability to repay the obligation. There is a deliberate intention of not paying back the loan. The funds were not utilized for the specific purpose for which the loan/finance was availed. The money was diverted for other purposes. When the funds have been siphoned off and not been utilized for the purpose for which it was availed. Further, there are no assets available to justify the usage of funds. When the asset that is bought with the funds that were given by the lender are sold off without informing the bank or the lending party.
Reporting about Suit Filed Accounts & Directors
At the end of every quarter, banks and financial institutions need to submit the list of suit-filed accounts of wilful defaulters to the TransUnion CIBIL Limited formerly known as Credit Information Bureau(India) Limited. TransUnion CIBIL Limited is the leading credit information company in India and maintains one of the largest collections of consumer information globally. Currently, TransUnion CIBIL maintains a database on suit-filed accounts of 1 crore and above and suit-filed accounts(wilful defaulters) of 25 lakhs and above. This information is available on an application developed with the parameter search process to enable users to access data. It is across banks and companies at various geographical locations.
Banks & FIs are required to report the names of current directors as well as directors who were associated with the company at the time the company account was classified as a wilful defaulter. The list also includes independent and nominee directors. It helps to safeguard other banks and institutions from such directors.
Consequence of a Wilful Defaulter
If a company is labeled as wilful defaulter then, the worst thing that can happen is they do not get any additional credit lending/facility from any source be it Banks or FIs. A wilful defaulter is not allowed to start any new venture till 5 years from the date of being declared as wilful defaulter. Lenders need to initiate a legal process, including criminal proceedings if needed, against the borrowers to get the recovery of dues.
How to check Wilful Defaulter Status
For checking all suit-filed cases you have to visit Suit Filed Cases and search accounts with parameters more than 1 Crore suit-filed accounts and above 25 lakhs suit-filed accounts (wilful defaulters).
You can also approach InstaFinancials, where we provide the latest wilful defaulter status along with list of Suit Filed cases against each company along with company financials and non-financials insights about each company. View our sample InstaDetailed Report. | https://medium.com/instafinancials/suit-filed-cases-wilful-defaulters-explained-e22c4dfa42d7 | ['Raji M'] | 2019-02-12 11:38:17.147000+00:00 | ['Instafinancials', 'Finance', 'Business', 'Company', 'Corporate'] |
A SERENDIPITOUS ENCOUNTER IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DESERT | Edge of the world, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
TWO MEN WALK INTO A HOTEL IN SAUDI ARABIA FOR A GLASS OF WATER
Enjoying the views over edge of the world in Saudi Arabia
“Johan and I first met at a hotel in Saudi Arabia where the air conditioning was stuck on low. A couple of winter coats to keep warm, water in place of wine due to the alcohol ban, talking about life plans……in the middle of the desert. The perfect setting for two single gay guys.”
I’m Brett, and with my partner Johan, we’ve embarked on this wild journey of setting up and now running The Origins, which offers a hand-picked, curated collection of luxury villas and residences. But how did we go from meeting in KSA to starting a travel company?
Way back in 2015 before we had met, the opportunity to visit Saudi Arabia didn’t come to many non-Muslims. Saudi wasn’t necessarily high on my list of places to go, but given the chance to go there for work it seemed like an interesting opportunity to travel, spend some time in the region and see if everything that we had each heard about the conservative Kingdom was real.
I’m originally from Australia and was working for the Boston Consulting Group as a management consultant and came to Saudi to work on a transformation topic. Johan was a consultant engineer based in New Zealand and had a FIFO (fly-in-fly-out) role on the Riyadh Metro Project. We were thrilled by the opportunity to expand our horizons and the chance to see the often-misunderstood region.
We both planned to return to Copenhagen and Auckland after finishing the topics though one day by chance, we struck up a conversation. Talk about an anticlimax. We met in a freezing cold hotel, drinking only water because of the country-wide alcohol ban and stuck in a winter coat because of the malfunctioning air conditioning. We didn’t envisage a relationship forming in that moment, though it was clear chemistry was formed early and a relationship started to bloom.
With Copenhagen and Auckland being quite a long way apart — even for those who love to travel — a move to the UAE offered both of us exciting professional opportunities as well as the chance to continue working and travelling. So we both rolled the dice, unbeknown where this would take us but willing to take a risk!
SO WHAT’S NEXT? INEVITABLY MORE TIME SPENT IN CORPORATE ROLES, DISCUSSIONS OF PURPOSE, PASSIONS AND WHETHER THE GRASS IS GREENER ELSEWHERE COMES UP
“It was a “is this it moment?” after several months of commuting between the United Arab Emirates and KSA that got Johan and I talking about the future, where our passions lay and ultimately where are we going. Heavy stuff for a newly blossoming relationship.”
Despite the travel and trappings of a comfortable lifestyle, we concluded that it wasn’t going to suffice in the long-term. Achieving lifetime Marriott titanium elite status and lifetime gold frequent flyer status at the age of 33 is all very well, but there has to be more to life. Surely. Hopefully. Please?
Corporate life is exciting in your early professional years; the promise of a strong career path and money is great, but if it’s not what you’re passionate about, you risk sleep-walking through your thirties, and suddenly you’ve missed some of the best years to take a risk.
I lost my father at 47 to bowel cancer. This had a devastating impact on me as a son and also on my family… though I have to say that it’s given me a firm first-hand impression that you only get one shot. We’re not here for a long-time and we need to make the most of it. My Dad did and I want to embrace this legacy. I pushed myself early, moving from the comforts of growing up in a small rural town to boarding school, moving overseas to study, driving from London to Mongolia on a whim and uprooting everything to then take a Masters degree and subsequently a job with BCG in Copenhagen.
Our shared passion of travel was discussed often. Cliché I know, right? But you’ve got to start somewhere. I always loved when I was able to find that one-off unique hotel, help a friend out or just find the perfect place that captured the essence of a destination. The issue I found was the incredible amount of time it took to get through the noise and make a decision. But where to from there?
From Right to Left: Johannes, Brett
SO YOU’VE GOT THE ITCH, BUT TO DO WHAT? TRANSLATING A BROAD PASSION TO BUSINESS IDEAS AND THEN A START-UP ISN’T THAT EASY
“We certainly took our time. I made the most of my employer’s generous flex-leave and various working models to help clarify what we were going to do. And you know what? It ultimately didn’t help. When you have the comfort of a job, commitments to maintain, it’s hard…at some point you just need to break free.”
Knowing you want to do something else, or that that you want to start your own business and actually knowing what the underlying business is are not completely related. We had agreed that we wanted to explore something in the travel space — it was something that we both had a lot of fun doing — but taking that idea and translating it to a business was a challenging journey. Johan talks about the problem we had of “start, stop, repeat.” We looked at many options… things like a home hotel concept, pop-up or mobile hotels, theme based tours, glamping concepts… the list goes on.
While we edged into the start-up world slowly, taking eight weeks unpaid leave to explore ideas and work out the future, it was clear that making a decision to actually quit our jobs was the only thing that was going to create the right focus to get something happening. There is nothing like the sudden reality of having no regular pay-cheque to instil some motivation!
Quitting led us to distil where we would focus and through this journey there were some funny lesson learnt. At one point we spent a week on a family member’s 600 acre farm in Australia playing with a pop-up dome concept. We needed inspiration and wanted to think outside the box by just doing. While the dome was beautiful, the hard reality of operationalising a pop-up stay, and particularly one with limited protection to the natural elements was just a non-starter…. also, I love the country but after that week I’d had enough of dirt and cow shit. Lessons learnt, some ideas captured and on we went!
The most important thing we’ve realised along the way is that a business is a constantly evolving and changing beast, and what the product or service looks like on day one is different from a month later, and a year later. No-one comes to you and says, I have a fully baked business plan, stakeholders engaged and just ready to hit the go button. Even if you achieve these things whilst you’re working there’s still so much to learn and so much unknown.
Thinking outside the box and getting practical
“We started to appreciate that having a vision and strategy anchors us but starting requires looking for the point of least resistance, running for it and then evolving along the way.”
THE CREATION OF THE ORIGINS HAS BEEN A FLUID PROCESS BUT AT ITS HEART ARE OUR LEARNINGS
“Speaking with stakeholders, reflecting on our own learnings and by understanding where the market is we aligned on three key principles.”
1) There are a tribe of customers that want to find an interesting, curated list of places to stay, though there are two challenges that they face: one is time investment and one is the risk of the unknown and being disappointed.
2) Creating a community of like-minded people is fun, engaging and self-fulfilling. If not, creative networks like SoHo house would not exist.
3) Guests should be able to simply enhance their stay with a series of interesting and curated experiences. A memorable holiday lies at the intersection of the perfect place and a destination defining moment. Making the process simple and fun is a must.
These are the fundamentals that have helped shape our strategy and guide us as we build out the company.
Business and pleasure whilst doing field research
THE ORIGINS HAS LAUNCHED A COLLECTION OF HANDPICKED LUXURY INDONESIAN VILLAS AND RESIDENCES
“It’s been a busy period curating the first collection of luxury villas and residences in Indonesia. Currently we have access to around 150 villas and residences in Indonesia and are ensuring, as we say,
There’s a space, and place, that’s the perfect setting for your holiday.”
Villas and residences are a perfect expression of the types of stays that The Origins like. Small scale, unique, authentic and of course, luxurious. Each of the properties in the collection is personally selected by The Origins to make sure it lives up to these aspirations.
Our first priority is developing the best collection and a bespoke service model. We’ll then enhance the tech element as we look to scale. There’s some exciting plans in the works, especially with dining and experience enhancements (a detox & retox concept is in the works), as we believe the key to the perfect stay and a memorable time is the intersection between a unique stay and a signature experience.
The important thing, right now, is that we have a solid collection, at the best rate available, and are eager to ensure our guests enjoy their stay.
We’ve also just launched the insider series which takes a sneap peak at our curated collection and features, yours truly. Sometimes you’ve just got to throw your hat in the ring!
SEVEN REFLECTIONS FOR THOSE LOOKING TO START THEIR OWN VENTURE, HERE ARE A FEW THINGS WE’VE LEARNT SO FAR:
“I wanted to take the opportunity to share my lessons learnt. If you’ve heard some of these before then great, it means I’m not alone and there’s a commonality of experience. Hopefully this helps you navigate your own venture.”
1) The business model must stack up: dream, dream and dream, but ground and prioritise these ideas by the numbers and market,
2) Take time, reflect, discuss the options but then take a decision! No one will do this for you,
3) Don’t underestimate passion and purpose, this is what sustains you. This should be a big factor in making a strategic decision,
4) You just need to start, the learnings will come. You’ll never have the finished product from the start (nor is it ever finished). Most importantly, look for a point of least resistance, even if it is tangential to what you ultimately want to be,
5) Roll up your sleeves and throw yourself at new learning opportunities, it helps grow your thinking of the overall business. Don’t be quick to outsource. We’ve internalised core website development initially as this has helped us refine our understanding and be more specific on what outsourcing we require. We’ve also started playing with our own content creation. The flip side is also true, know when to outsource. Websites like fiverr.com are GREAT at finding skilled professionals (and a third arm for the basics). Use it,
6) Always focus on the customer but realise everyone has an opinion — distil these quickly and move on,
7) Choose a business partner who can share the ups and downs. Yes having a business partner that is also your life partner is risky but we’ve found a cool working rhythm, we have varied skillsets and we really enjoy sharing the highs and the lows. There’s a real sense we’re writing this chapter together. Life partner or not I think this should be the aspiration for all partnerships.
— — — —
To view the original post: https://the-origins.com/inspirations/a-serendipitous-encounter-in-the-middle-of-the-desert/
For more information on The Origins visit us at www.the-origins.com | https://medium.com/@brett_the_origins/a-serendipitous-encounter-in-the-middle-of-the-desert-187dfccb61ca | ['Brett Diedrich'] | 2020-04-08 09:46:35.895000+00:00 | ['Startup Lessons', 'Travel', 'Saudi Arabia', 'Startup', 'Entrepreneurship'] |
Maybe Your Art is not Good | Lessons from being a professional creative.
Photo by Travis Hoskin at “Comedy in a House”
Art is hard. Art is subjective. The ability to make a living as a creative professional is at an all time high. It is an awesome time to be alive.
To make money from your craft you have to subject it to the opinions of potential buyers. In order to do this you have to transition your art from being a personal endeavor that serves you, into this thing that can serve and solve problems for other people. This means you have to be actively focused on making your art “better”.
I have thrown my hat into many arenas. I performed stand up comedy multiple times a week for four plus years. I was in a band for years. I made short films in high school and I am now currently working as a free lance creative consultant and videographer. I never figured out how to “make it” doing the first three.
The creative process is much the same for a lot of people. You see someone doing something and it inspires you. You go out and try it yourself. You are excited to do something new. Then you try it and when the excitement wears off you start to become aware of how bad you are at the medium you are expressing yourself in. Generally when people stay in a creative medium for long enough this level of self awareness humbles them and they start getting better over time. It is an exciting thing to watch. There however are some people who never improve and they are wildly unaware or so it seems. These people are always blaming the audience for jokes not working, clients for hiring someone else, venues for not booking them.
There are two potential truths when your art is not working. You either have not found your people or what you are making is not good, yet. Art does not have to be subjectively good. If you derive joy from what you are making then keep going at it. If you want to deliver it professionally it has to serve someone else. If your art is not doing that right now that is fine, but you can not just keep trying the same thing over and over. Adapt, improve and redeliver.
Self awareness is crucial for self improvement. Being self aware does not make you a better artist. What it does do, is it allows you to see the parts of yourself that you can work on and improve.
The creative process is best summarized by Ira Glass. Every time I explain it I think of this short clip. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbC4gqZGPSY&t=12s | https://medium.com/@jonjkuhn/maybe-your-art-is-not-good-dfc409125227 | ['Jon Kuhn'] | 2020-12-19 13:24:17.680000+00:00 | ['Freelancing', 'Stand Up Comedy', 'Creative Process', 'Creative Professionals', 'Self-awareness'] |
Satechi 108W Pro USB-C PD Desktop Charger REVIEW | Mac Sources | Satechi 108W Pro USB-C PD Desktop Charger
8.7
Charged all my stuff during a four-day trip
January 18–22 I was in Nashville, TN for Imaging USA, a photography convention. During this time, I knew the hotel I would be staying would not have enough outlets for me to power all the camera gear and gadgets I would be dragging along with me. So, I brought along the Satechi 108W Pro USB-C PD Desktop Charger. Now just to be frank, I also brought along a surge-protecting power strip because I had way more gear with me to charge than what this particular Satechi charger can do at one time. That being said, I did use the Pro USB-C PD to power my MacBook Pro, my iPad, my Apple Watch and my iPhone. I had even used it one time to charge up my Canon EOS-R.
DETAILS
The Satechi 108W Pro USB-C Desktop Charger features dual USB-C power delivery ports (90W and 18W) that will charge your devices at full power. It’s equipped with additional USB-A ports. With the charger, you can simultaneously charge up to four devices (charging cables are not included). The charger is housed in durable, heat-resistant materials and it complies with CE, ETL, USBIF and FCC standards.
SPECS
Compatible With: 16-inch 2019 MacBook Pro, 13 and 15-inch 2018/2017 MacBook Pro, 2018 MacBook Air, 2018 iPad Pro, Microsoft Surface Pro 7/Surface Laptop 3/Surface Go, iPhone 11 Pro Plus/11 Pro/11, XS Max/XS/XR, Nintendo Switch, iPad Air/Mini, Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus/S10/9 Plus/S9 and more.
16-inch 2019 MacBook Pro, 13 and 15-inch 2018/2017 MacBook Pro, 2018 MacBook Air, 2018 iPad Pro, Microsoft Surface Pro 7/Surface Laptop 3/Surface Go, iPhone 11 Pro Plus/11 Pro/11, XS Max/XS/XR, Nintendo Switch, iPad Air/Mini, Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus/S10/9 Plus/S9 and more. Connector Type: AC 100–240V 50/60Hz 1.5A (Max); Cable length: 4 Ft
AC 100–240V 50/60Hz 1.5A (Max); Cable length: 4 Ft Dimensions & Weight: 4.75 x 1.19 x 3.13 inches , 14.7 oz
4.75 x 1.19 x 3.13 inches , 14.7 oz Speed: 1 x USB-C PD port (90W), 1 x USB-C PD port (18W), 2 x USB-A ports (total 12W)
1 x USB-C PD port (90W), 1 x USB-C PD port (18W), 2 x USB-A ports (total 12W) Guarantee: 1-year
USER EXPERIENCE
Satechi is one of the brands that always seem to have wonderful packaging. If I was to see it in a store, I would be attracted enough by it to check it out. They have a nice photo of the product on the front and include some basic details like its name and how many watts it can handle. On the back, there are small descriptions of how the charger can be used. When you pick it up, you will notice right off the bat that this is a hefty beast of a USB charger. It is not light. It’s made from good material and a standard-sized power outlet/plug. I have had a few that for whatever reason have giant outlet/plugs and it just looks hideous.
Before the trip I mentioned, I did test this unit out at home. I didn’t notice any heat coming off of it and my devices charged up quickly and efficiently. This is why I felt that it would be a must-have charger to power my devices on the trip.
It was quite useful to have both USB-C and USB-A ports on this charger. Even though I try to avoid USB-A as much as I can, there are still some devices that require it. As it happens, I ended up utilizing all four ports throughout the duration of my trip. It was great to be able to leave the wall chargers at home and be able to use this charger instead. That saved me a lot of space in my luggage and weight in my bags.
CONCLUSION
Satechi makes some wonderful gadgets and when it comes to devices that will power my gadgets I will only use brands I feel safe with. Satechi is one of these brands. The only ‘issue’ I had with this device was its price. At nearly $80, I would really love to see some additional USB ports included. The design is slick and the product is top-notch quality. After all, it’s housed in heat-resistant materials to keep you and your gadgets safe from the heat.
But, since it only has four ports, I found myself needing to use the aforementioned power strip to make sure ALL my devices could be charged at night. If the charger would have had a few more USB ports I might have been able to get away with just taking it. But for $80 you can buy three really nice surge protecting power strips, now they won’t be space gray and look classy like this Satechi but they will get the job done. I really do like the 108W Pro USB-C PD and think it’s a great tool for me but the price is something that would hold me back for sure.
For more details, visit Satechi, Facebook, and Twitter. | https://medium.com/@macsources/satechi-108w-pro-usb-c-pd-desktop-charger-review-mac-sources-5e9fb142b4b1 | [] | 2020-01-30 18:45:45.695000+00:00 | ['Desktop Charger', 'Usb C', 'Charger', 'Satechi', 'Power'] |
5 Ways Empathetic Listening Works in Youth Sport | 5 Ways Empathetic Listening Works in Youth Sport
Photo by Brandon Mowinkel on Unsplash
Having empathy is NOT the most important skill to have when you coach youth in sport.
While having empathy for a young person is noble and involves your understanding of a young athlete’s thoughts and feelings, this alone will not make you a great coach of young athletes.
Knowing something is one thing but actively putting it into place is quite the other. To become a great coach of youth sports you need to show active empathy. As the old saying goes:
“Actions speaks louder than words”
and this is very true with empathy.
Empathetic Listening:
By listening to a young athlete you are showing patience. If you don`t agree with what they say it can be challenging to continue to listen in a non-judgmental way, but this is exactly what is required with empathetic listening. Using small phrases like ‘I understand’ and ‘ah-ha’ is acceptable when using this skill as it reassures the speaker that you are actively listening and not just shutting off your brain when they are speaking.
All people want to be heard but young people are especially used to not being heard. Growing up is a tough time for many and having an older role model present should give them a firm sounding board to bounce things off. By using active listening properly you need to act as if you are a mirror to the other person. Try to tap into your experiences of being that age and the interest or talent you had for the sport that they play. Of course, it’s tough to align your values and experiences exactly with the experiences of the young people of today, but there are overarching similarities that you must continue to keep front of mind. Among these are:
Photo by Quino Al on Unsplash
1.Young athletes want to be part of a team:
The well-worn phrase of:
‘together everyone achieves more’
describes TEAM perfectly. The beauty of being young is that you have a natural inclination to connect with others. Many of these connections are new and it’s fun to meet new people. Having a sense as a young person that your natural inclination to connect in this way can bring about the power of many people together that actively changes something for the better is an exciting thing to be part of for anyone of any age. But experiencing it for one of the first times in life elicits a deep commitment to believe it is possible to be successful. This blind nativity is one of the best characteristics of young people and it motivates their positivity and energy to be invested in their sport. That means they are full of interest in investing in their coach’s ideals too.
If the coach decides to actively show empathy it reinforces the young athlete’s natural feelings that positive teamwork will result in success.
The great Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie explained it all well when he said:
“Teamwork is the ability to work together towards a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results”
By coaching young players and actively listening, a coach has the power to bring these results about.
2.All young sportspeople want to be assured they are performing well. They require an affirmation that their efforts are appreciated by their coach.
However, the reality is they may not be performing to the best of their ability or they simply may not have the skills that you thought they could develop at this stage of their development. You may be tempted to say this to them when you are adopting the empathetic listening technique but this will not help them at that time. For them, just entrusting to you that they are willing to speak and you are willing to listen is huge during the early stages of this form of listening. This can build trust with them and their coach even if nothing more than you sitting and properly listening takes place.
Photo by Keith Johnston on Unsplash
3.Being part of a team for a young male athlete aligns with their sense of what positive masculine values ought to be:
Although there is much written in the modern-day about equality there are still distinct differences between most males and females. When it comes to young males who play a sport they often equate their playing of sport to their sense of masculinity.
I can recall when I was that age and how all the lads were different shapes and sizes and I was towering above them in the locker room. I felt natural respect from my peers simply because of my huge size and I knew that many of them wanted to be bigger, and stronger and still had hopes of growing this way.
It’s natural to want to improve, and for a young male in sport, they often understand that being bigger and stronger is a sign of being potentially more mature and closer to being an adult. And all young truly competitive sportsmen want to play at the highest level of their game.
4.Playing youth sport is a positive outlet for physical frustrations:
Youth is a time of development. This development happens in many ways. One of these ways is the changing hormonal feelings brought on by puberty. Sexual arousal becomes a thing for young people and this can be an awkward awakening for many young people. Many embarrassing experiences can occur for young people as they begin to come to terms with their newfound feelings, and this can cause social unrest between them and their peers. Of course, no young person wants to experience this form of unrest and so many young sportspeople use sport as a positive outlet for physical and sexual frustrations that they may feel.
5. Being involved in youth sport is a positive social outlet among peers:
In many villages and towns across the world, there are sports that light up the local communities and give hope and something to follow to the residents of the area. For example in the US, Friday nights can be a hugely significant time for young sports stars as they showcase their talent in front of their family, friends, school, peers, neighbors, local business people, and many others.
The pressure of perfuming well in front of all of those close-knit people in their lives motivates them to improve and do their best. Having the courage to perform in front of these people is admired by many of the young people’s peers and this builds a sense of respect and admiration. It vindicates the reason why they work so hard and become committed to improving at a sport in the first place.
Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash
Two ears are better than one mouth:
So it’s clear that being a great coach of youth sports requires much patience and understanding. Knowing it all and communicating that to the players is not the most important thing. Being there for a young person and winning their trust is not only active empathy on your part but, it is the seeds to success for all youth sport. | https://medium.com/@drconorhogan/5-ways-empathetic-listening-works-in-youth-sport-b4d16dc5bc7c | ['Dr. Conor Hogan Ph.D.'] | 2020-12-27 00:14:38.314000+00:00 | ['Youth Sports', 'Empathy', 'Sports Photography', 'Empathy In Sport', 'Listening Skills'] |
The Borrowed Breathe | The Borrowed Breathe
Life after lockdown in Singapore
आज बाहर के रंगो को देखकर एक अलग सी घुटन
आज आज़ाद होकर भी एक अलग सी उलझन
image from Author
Now I am not worried that my hair has the texture of dried grass and my eyebrows have become bushy. Now I don’t miss the regular parlour appointment for a head massage or the foot reflexology.
Now my priorities are different. There should be a book to read, in the morning I should do one or two hours of writing followed by home chores, the evening is for a walk if I can manage.
In my home, I am happily settled like a stranger, each day I am learning to fall in love with the colours of the sky and the noise of the raindrops, the only guests I can attend at my home.
image from Author
This post is not about this strange life which I am living since the past few months, this post is about the outing which happened today.
Now that rules are being relaxed in Singapore today we went for grocery shopping and also had coffee at my favourite place but instead of being happy I was sad. I felt suffocated, I failed to recognize my city which reminds me of colours. Today it was bleak, there was no warmth. I felt I am in a box surviving on borrowed breathe.
I can’t think of travelling in this situation whenever we do, I missed my home and that freedom, for the first time I felt caged like a bird. | https://medium.com/illumination/the-borrowed-breathe-f1f9347fe133 | ['Priyanka Srivastava'] | 2020-06-20 21:20:57.165000+00:00 | ['Personal Essay', 'Singapore', 'Hindi', 'This Happened To Me', 'Writing'] |
6 things that you can do to keep your car healthy | CAR TIPS
6 Things That You Can Do to Keep Your Car Healthy
Photo by Jairph on Unsplash
Taking good care of your car might look difficult if you’re not a car mechanic.
But it’s not.
Machines are a bit like the human body, they need to exercise, and also, it’s a good idea to get them checked every once in a while.
Here are some basic steps to keep your car running smoothly.
1. Start the engine at least once a month.
Not using the car in a long time can be a battery killer, because the battery will slowly discharge until a point where the car won’t start.
And that might happen when you need to use it the most.
Also, this is good for joints, to keep them from getting dry, so you will avoid those nasty oil leaks. And, in the long term, will prevent the engine from rusting.
It’s also vital for the cooling system because it prevents it from getting obstructed.
2. Start the A/C system every few days.
Fun fact: In older models, you can turn on the compressor without the cool air getting in
A/C systems need oil to stay lubricated, if the A/C compressor stays dry for long periods, it will be eventually damaged.
Also, it’s a great way to remove the fog of your windscreen in winters, because it will make outside and inside temperatures match.
3. Use the electric windows.
Up and down, down and up
Electric windows can break for two reasons: Overusing them, or not using them enough.
By using them from time to time you will prevent the motor from rusting.
Bonus tip: If it doesn’t work, check the fuse box, sometimes it’s just a blown fuse.
4. Use the windscreen washers.
Avoiding also tap water will prevent obstructions
Some windscreen washer detergents can create a “dust” over time.
You can prevent this by using the screen washers, that way, the liquid will flow and the jets won’t get obstructed.
5. Go for a drive.
What do you have a car for if you don’t drive it?
Going for a drive is a fun way to prevent damage to your car.
You can plan a short trip anywhere, and spend the day with your family or friends.
Or simply enjoy visiting other places.
By doing this you will use every part of the car
This will prevent the gearbox from rusting.
Rusting happens because part of the components are not covered in oil when the car is not moving.
It will also prevent the tires from deforming, something that happens when the car is parked for long periods in the same spot.
6. Perform periodic checks as stipulated by the carmaker.
Check the threads of your new filter before trying to fit it in.
Important: Always use the oil prescribed for your car.
Even if you do not use your car a lot, periodic checks and oil changes should be done, on average, every year.
Those include:
-Oil change.
-Oil filter change.
-Petrol filter change.
-Air filter check/change.
-Check transmission oil.
-Pollen filter change.
-Verify coolant level.
-Check brake fluid.
-Examine brake pads.
-Check the tyres.
That should be enough to keep your car in running order.
Bonus: How to check a dead battery
If you have a multimeter, you can check your battery by setting it into volts and placing its ends on the battery’s terminals.
You should do this about an hour after the engine has stopped because the results will be more accurate.
A good car battery should have around 12.6 volts, if it gives less than 10 volts, that battery is probably dead. | https://medium.com/the-snail/6-things-that-you-can-do-to-keep-your-car-healthy-fc15f5bf2afe | ['Jm Miana'] | 2020-09-23 12:09:37.853000+00:00 | ['Car Maintenance Tips', 'Automotive', 'Car Maintenance', 'Cars', 'Mechanics'] |
Audeze LCD-1 planar-magnetic headphone review: The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth | Audeze LCD-1 planar-magnetic headphone review: The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth Mark Jan 15·9 min read
Audeze is one of the only headphone makers devoted exclusively to using planar-magnetic (PM) drivers in its products. The company offers a wide range of models, from reference over-ear designs to gaming-specific cans to in-ear monitors, all of which are based on PM technology.
I have little experience with planar-magnetic headphones. Many years ago, I reviewed the Stax SR-007 MK2 electrostatic headphones, which use a somewhat similar technology, but they require a special amplifier and are extremely expensive. But I’ve never spent any quality time with PM headphones. So, when I got the opportunity to review the Audeze LCD-1, I jumped at the chance—and now that I’ve given them a good listen, I’m very glad I did.
This review is part of TechHive’s coverage of the best headphones, where you’ll find reviews of the competition’s offerings, plus a buyer’s guide to the features you should consider when shopping for this type of product.Planar-magnetic technologyMost headphones use dynamic drivers to generate sound waves. In these drivers, an electrical audio signal is sent through a coil of wire—the voice coil—which creates a magnetic field around the coil that oscillates according to the waveform in the signal. The oscillating magnetic field interacts with the static field of a permanent magnet mounted nearby, which pushes and pulls on the voice coil, causing it to vibrate in response. The voice coil is attached to a diaphragm, which vibrates along with it, sending sound waves into the listener’s ear.
Vendor-provided art. Audeze wraps the headband and earcups of its LCD-1 planar-magnetic headphones in super soft lambskin.
Planar-magnetic drivers are similar in principle but different in implementation. Instead of a voice coil, the diaphragm in a PM driver is directly embedded with a flat conductor that snakes back and forth across its entire surface (see Fig. 1). That conductor carries the audio signal, and the oscillating magnetic field interacts with the static field of permanent magnets mounted very close to the diaphragm. That causes the diaphragm to vibrate according to the audio signal, generating sound waves that enter the listener’s ear.
Vendor-provided art. In this rendering, you can see the “voice coil” (labeled “circuit trace pattern”) on the ultra-thin substrate of the diaphragm. You can also see a magnet and Fazor on both sides of the diaphragm, but the LCD-1 has a magnet and Fazor only on the inner side of the diaphragm.
In this “exploded” rendering of an Audeze earcup, you can see the circuit-trace pattern (aka, “voice coil”) on the diaphragm. You can also see the magnet and Fazor structures, which are discussed in the next section.
Mentioned in this article iFi Audio hip-dac Read TechHive's reviewSee it The main difference is that a PM driver has no separate voice coil per se; the “voice coil” and diaphragm are a single component. As a result, the entire diaphragm vibrates more uniformly than a dynamic diaphragm, which is pushed and pulled at its center by the voice coil.
Also, the magnets in a PM driver are generally larger than those used in dynamic drivers, because they must be roughly the same size as the diaphragm. That makes planar-magnetic headphones generally larger and heavier than dynamic designs.
So, what are the advantages of PM headphones over dynamic cans? Generally speaking, planar-magnetic headphones tend to have tighter, more accurate bass response. And because the entire diaphragm moves uniformly, the planar soundwave creates a better soundstage with a more immersive quality, and there tends to be less distortion at high levels. For these reasons, PM headphones are often preferred by critical listeners such as recording engineers and audiophiles.
Audeze Audeze planar-magnetic headphones are well known among recording engineers for their neutral, revealing sound quality, a legacy that the LCD-1 easily upholds.
Audeze LCD-1 featuresThe LCD-1 is an open-back, circumaural (over-ear) headphone. It’s more compact than many PM headphones and weighs just 8.8 ounces. It sports memory-foam earpads and headband covered in lambskin leather and comes with a nice carrying case into which the headphones fold. The included premium braided cable terminates with a 3.5mm connector, and a 1/4-inch adapter is included.
[ Further reading: The best high-res digital audio players ]Interestingly, the plugs for each earcup are TRS (tip-ring-sleeve), which I thought might mean that the drivers are wired for balanced operation. But I was informed that they are not balanced; instead, the three-conductor connectors are used to automatically determine which signal is left and right, so it doesn’t matter which one is connected to each earcup. Clever!
Audeze An ingenious design means you can plug either cable into each earcup, and the left signal will be played by the left earcup and vice versa.
With an impedance of 16 ohms, sensitivity of 99 dB/mW (calculated at the eardrum), and a power-handling capacity of 5W RMS, the maximum sound output is rated over 120dB SPL with THD less than 0.1% at 100dB SPL. The frequency response is specified from 10Hz to 50kHz (no tolerance given).
Audeze designs and builds its headphones in the United States and touts several enhancements it has made to planar-magnetic technology. One of them is its ultra-thin Uniforce diaphragms, which are very lightweight, presenting very little resistance to movement for improved transient response. And its large size of 90mm in diameter facilitates deep bass reproduction.
The company makes all its drivers in its Southern California facility, using a vacuum-deposition process to coat the diaphragm film with conductive metal that is then etched to form the “voice coil” on the surface. To achieve a uniform magnetic force across the entire surface area of the diaphragm, Audeze actually varies the width of the voice-coil tracing depending on the strength of the magnetic field at different locations.
Vendor-provided art. The LCD-1 earcups fold so the headphone fits in a small, hard-shell travel case.
According to the company’s website, “Audeze uses ‘a genetic algorithm-based heuristic optimization technique together with magnetic simulations to optimize trace widths to achieve Uniforce.’ For those of us who don’t speak Martian: we use advanced computing techniques to get the most uniform distribution of force possible on the diaphragm.”
Another Audeze innovation is its Fluxor magnets. The description on the company’s website gets pretty technical, which I won’t go into here; if you want to dig deeper, click here. Suffice to say that Fluxor neodymium magnets increase the magnetic field strength at the diaphragm without adding more weight to the assembly.
In the company’s flagship headphones, each diaphragm is suspended between two Fluxor magnet structures, as seen in Fig. 1. But in the LCD-1, there is only one magnet in each earcup, located between the ear and the diaphragm. This is less efficient than a double-sided design, requiring more amp power, but it allows the headphones to be lighter. And the Fluxor magnet is more efficient than a conventional magnet, focusing more of the magnetic field toward the diaphragm.
Why place the magnet between the ear and diaphragm rather than the other way around? Two reasons—to protect the diaphragm and to allow damping material to be placed on the other side.
In most planar-magnetic headphones, including those from Audeze, the magnet is a slotted structure that allows sound to pass through the slots. As you might recall from basic physics, when waves pass through parallel slots, they cause interference patterns (see Fig. 2), which can degrade the sound quality. Audeze solves this problem with its Fazor waveguide attached to the magnet structure. According to the company, this eliminates the interference patterns, corrects the phase response, and improves the acoustic impedance. For more on Fazor technology, click here.
Audeze As the diaphragm vibrates, it sends sound waves through the slots of the magnet structure, causing interference patterns as they emerge. Audeze’s Fazor waveguides eliminate this interference. In this generic diagram, there are magnets and Fazors on both sides of the diaphragm, but in the LCD-1, they are on only one side of the diaphragm.
Without the Fazor waveguides, sound waves emerge from the slots and interfere with each other, degrading the sound quality. The Fazor waveguides eliminate this interference. In this diagram, there are magnets and Fazors on both sides of the diaphragm, but in the LCD-1, they are only on one side.
PerformanceThe LCD-1 is quite lightweight, and the earpads are very comfortable; my ears fit nicely in them, and they are super-soft. The earcups provide a surprising sense of isolation, despite being their open-back design. My only complaint here is that the headphone feels a bit flimsy.
As usual, I played high-res audio files from the Tidal Master library on my iPhone XS, using the iFi hip-dac (reviewed here) as the DAC/amplifier. First up was “In Too Deep” by Jacob Collier from his most recent album Djesse Vol. 3. The vocals are accompanied mostly by synths with some super-low bass, all of which was rendered beautifully by the LCD-1—clean and clear with an open soundstage and natural, present vocals. The deep bass was exceptionally well represented without bloat or congestion, and it balanced the rest of the spectrum perfectly.
I haven’t seen Pixar’s latest movie Soul yet, but the soundtrack album is now streaming from the Tidal Master library. I listened to “Collard Greens and Cornbread Strut,” a very short but hard-bopping piece played by a jazz combo of piano, bass, drums, and horns, including a smokin’ tuba. It sounded clean and open on the LCD-1; I could hear each instrument clearly within a unified whole.
This year, composer Max Richter wrote and recorded a haunting musical backdrop entitled All Human Beings meant to accompany the reading of the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. On his album Voices, the piece begins with Eleanor Roosevelt reading the Preamble in a 1949 recording, after which many other modern voices continue reading the Declaration in a wide variety of languages. It’s a lovely tribute to basic human rights that are all too often ignored in today’s world.
In addition to Voices, Richter also released a related album called All Human Beings, which includes a six-minute version of the piece played five times. Each one starts with the Eleanor Roosevelt recording that morphs into a modern voice reading Article 1 in one of five different languages—English, Spanish, German, French, and Dutch. (I wish he had included some languages from places other than western Europe.) I listened to the English version on the LCD-1, which sounded gorgeous, with a wide soundstage for the orchestra and choir, and the voiceover sounded completely natural and present.
Vendor-provided art. The Audeze LCD-1 planar magnetic headphones are quite transparent in their audio reproduction.
Next up was “Starlight” by guitar legend Lee Ritenour from his album Dreamcatcher. Most of the album is simple solo guitar—in this case, an acoustic guitar tuned quite a bit lower than normal. The folky, fingerpicked piece sounded clean, open, and well-balanced on the LCD-1, with a wonderful low end and no hint of congestion.
For some throwback fun, I listened to “Money For Nothing” from Dire Straits’ 1985 album Brothers in Arms, which was just released in MQA format. The LCD-1 presented a big, open soundstage in which the stereo drums really bounced around. Once again, the sound was clean, and I could hear each instrument and voice clearly, including Sting’s unmistakable guest vocals.
Lately, I’ve been listening to a lot of The Manhattan Transfer, one of my favorite vocal groups, so I cued up “Cantaloop (Flip Out!)” from The Junction. The music is based on the classic Herbie Hancock tune “Cantaloupe Island” with lyrics by Us3. It’s a richly produced track and a wonderful mix with deep bass and an infectious groove. As I had come to expect, the LCD-1 did it full justice with a clean, open sound. The deep bass was perfectly balanced with the rest of the ensemble without becoming overbearing.
I always include some classical music in my review listening. This time, I started with the first movement of Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for String Orchestra in C Major, Op. 48, from the album Serenades by the Zürcher Kammerorchester under the direction of Daniel Hope. Once again, the sound of the LCD-1 was clean, open, and well-balanced. The strings sounded vibrant, and I could clearly delineate each section within a cohesive whole.
Finally, I listened to the fourth movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92, as recorded by the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Lahav Shani. The LCD-1 had a nice, open, wide sound with excellent balance.
Vendor-provided art. Most people will use the 3.5mm cable, but Audeze provides a 1/4-inch adapter in the box as well. | https://medium.com/@Mark38958323/audeze-lcd-1-planar-magnetic-headphone-review-the-truth-the-whole-truth-and-nothing-but-the-8f6215f93ac1 | [] | 2021-01-15 07:10:16.486000+00:00 | ['Lighting', 'Connected Home', 'Home Tech', 'Entertainment'] |
I Wrote a Pipeline to Publish the Best of Reddit to Instagram | I Wrote a Pipeline to Publish the Best of Reddit to Instagram
Here’s what I learned
Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash.
If you’ve been on Instagram long enough, you’ll have seen profiles posting screenshots of interesting Reddit posts. That makes sense if you think about it: Reddit is heavily moderated. This ensures only quality posts show up on your feed.
Combine that with Instagram, a social medium with over 1 billion active accounts per month, and you have a recipe for success.
Now if you see a sample post from one of these Instagram pages, you will realize that it takes quite a bit of effort to create these posts:
A whole lot of effort
First, the owner of the page has to scour Reddit to find posts worth posting.
They will judge the Reddit posts by relevance and pick the ones worth posting. Then, they have to take a screenshot of a post and paste it on a black background to give it Instagram-friendly dimensions. They have to think of a caption that is related to the post and will drive engagement. They have to come up with hashtags to boost the visibility of the post. And, trivially, they have to remember all the posts they have made — it would not make sense to post the same content twice.
I started wondering, “Is there a way we can make their life easier through… automation?” | https://medium.com/better-programming/i-wrote-a-pipeline-to-fetch-posts-from-reddit-and-post-them-to-instagram-d073e55fd258 | ['Surya Shekhar Chakraborty'] | 2020-07-07 14:41:29.791000+00:00 | ['Programming', 'Software Engineering', 'Automation', 'Software Development', 'Python'] |
What Does Forgiveness Look Like in the Workplace? | Forgiveness is not a term that many of us associate with the workplace. There are a number of reasons for this, I think, starting with the fact that it just sounds so soft. We believe that running a productive and efficient workplace means holding people accountable for their actions — and indeed it does. But does that mean there’s no place in your company culture for forgiveness?
I hope the answer to that is no. Because while I whole-heartedly affirm the need to ensure your team members are doing their job — and understand the consequences of not doing their job — I also think it’s important to make forgiveness a key workplace value.
Why Forgiveness Matters
Why? Because a lack of forgiveness can cause your employees’ sense of confidence to become completely eroded. Your team members need to feel like you trust them to do their job well — but if you spend all your time documenting their wrongdoings and keeping track of every screw-up they’ve ever made, how are they supposed to feel trusted? How are they supposed to feel empowered?
A lack of forgiveness in the workplace, then, doesn’t just hurt people’s feelings. It can actually lead to much higher employee turnover, as the members of your team increasingly fret that you’re focusing too much on their wrongs and not enough on their achievements — that perhaps they’re not cut out for the job you’ve given them after all.
Bringing Forgiveness to Your Workplace
So how do you ensure that your workplace culture is one that embraces forgiveness? I’m not going to offer any easy answer or silver bullet here. I think forgiveness is something you work toward daily. With that said, I think it’s worth considering these questions:
Do you have an overzealous documentation process, keeping track of all your employees’ wrongdoings to the extent that it does more harm than help?
Do you regularly practice forgiveness — even if that just means offering a second chance or cutting employees a break for an honest mistake?
Do you expect your employees to forgive you, when you mess up? Is forgiveness something you ask for?
Maybe meditation on these questions can point you toward a workplace that’s built on forgiveness — and, thus, a workplace that empowers its employees! | https://medium.com/@drrickgoodman/what-does-forgiveness-look-like-in-the-workplace-9b79f677e342 | ['Dr Rick Goodman'] | 2020-12-08 16:26:20.466000+00:00 | ['Employee Engagement', 'Entrepreneur', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Leadership', 'Forgiveness'] |
Top Five Study Abroad Destinations: A Pakistani Student’s Guide | Every year millions of students graduate from various universities over the world. A lot of these students explore their options and look for an international destination to pursue graduate and postgraduate education.
This trend has recently been gaining pace in Pakistan. Many of these students want to study abroad, but only a small number of them have enough exposure or guidance at their expense. This blog is dedicated to the rest of the students who need to find their options out.
Study Abroad Destinations
There is a lot of information. This article will cover the highlights of the most attractive and suitable options for Pakistani students. After gaining a basic idea of things, you’ll need specific information according to your inclinations. For this purpose, there are a lot of education consultants in Pakistan which you can visit, and gain further knowledge.
Your grad-school destination can be one of the following countries:
1. USA
Oldest universities in the world, with most profound labs and research opportunities, all of this in one country means a lifetime opportunity. The Fulbright scholarship is offered for around a hundred and fifty students by USEFP every year.
Apart from that, there are numerous other scholarships and merit-based financial assistance which universities in the US offer. Direct admissions are also very promising. Financial assistance opportunities are abounding. There’s a lot of breathing space for new fields and amalgamation of various fields. Faculties are super-talented and very embracing of international students.
Hence the US for higher education is every student’s dream destination!
2. UK
The United Kingdom is the second most attractive grad-school destination for most students. In a society like Pakistan’s people romanticize studying in England a lot. And rightly so. The United Kingdom houses the best schools for political science, economics, law, etc. There are a lot of scholarships that can lead you to a good university in the UK. The Chevening and Commonwealth scholarships are just two top examples.
3. Canada
A very peaceful country like Canada is an attraction of international students everywhere. The same is the case for Pakistani students. Canada offers a lot of opportunities for international students. Canadian university accommodates more than 200,000 international students every year in. This is possible with a higher education system which is one of the strongest in the world.
Research opportunities are immense. Governments and business organizations collaborate to fund researchers coming to Canada. Thus if you’re aiming higher education abroad, Canada should be one of the top destinations to consider in your list. It is also a very rich country in terms of culture, art, history, and literature.
4. Australia
The biggest Island of the world accepts international students with wide opened arms. About half a million international students get admissions in Australian universities every year. It is the third-highest higher education destination for students from around the world. The universities of Australia enjoy an outstanding reputation all over the world. And they offer an extensive range of academic programs. S
The student visa procedure is also very accessible as it’s been a priority of the government of Australia to invite a large number of international students.
5. Malaysia
Malaysia’s skyline, while landing in its capital, is just one factor among many responsible for the increase in its popularity among people over the world. Its climate is neither very cold nor too hot. It houses a lot of islands and a lot of tourist attractions.
Talking about education, tuition fees are very low. With a fallen value of rupee, Pakistani students can manage to pay for tuition in Malaysian universities. Despite low tuition fees expenses, the quality of education is impressive. The system of education is not very different from that of the US and the UK. If you are interested in research-based Master’s, then there are countless opportunities in Malaysian universities for you.
All of this, collectively, makes Malaysia one of the top suggestions to students that education consultants in Pakistan offer. If you choose Malaysia for your Masters, rest assured, you won’t regret your decision.
Are you still confused about your study destination?
It is very normal. Very few people have guidance at home or in a close circle. This article and a lot of education consultants have got your needs covered. They have all the essential information that you require. Hence, you must consult one of them to secure your future. | https://medium.com/@sigmaeduconsulting/top-five-study-abroad-destinations-a-pakistani-students-guide-f759aea3386 | ['Edu Consulting'] | 2019-10-19 12:43:44.233000+00:00 | ['Study Destination', 'Education', 'Study Abroad', 'Pakistan', 'Study'] |
Twilio: upward and onward, rounding out its business | Jeff Lawson, Founder, CEO, & Chairman of Twilio Inc., rings the opening bell to celebrate his company’s IPO at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., June 23, 2016.
According to Seeking Alpha, Twilio continues to remain in the top 1% of strongest stocks in the market. Despite also being in the 99th percentile based on growth metrics, many analysts are bearish the stock, some more recently calling it an egregious bubble. When a growth company like Twilio is undergoing rapid acceleration, it is only natural for people to become skeptical, seek shortcomings and claim the company overpriced — remember Amazon and Netflix?
Argument against Twilio — not about the company’s product and operations
As analysts have suggested, Wall Street’s pessimism on Twilio does not extend to its products and operations. Twilio provides intuitive and innovative communication products that help developers reach users in one line of code. More specifically, Twilio helps customers — platforms like Uber, Lyft and WhatsApp — communicate directly with users through its cloud-based Application Programming Interface or API.
For example, Uber works directly with Twilio to notify riders that their drivers have arrived via text message. This is majorly helpful to Uber’s development team. Instead of building an in-house system that integrates the many intricacies of carriers, regulation, hardware, and software, Uber developers simply need to plug into Twilio’s API to connect with customers directly.
So what’s the problem?
Bears on Wall Street are concerned that Twilio relies too much on a few, large customers like Uber, Lyft and WhatsApp to generate revenue. In 2015, for example, WhatsApp accounted for a solid 17% of the $166 million in revenue generated by Twilio. Moreover, in 2017, Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson announced that Uber, which accounted for 12% of Twilio’s revenue at the time, would be moving away from Twilio as its principal communications infrastructure provider. As a result, Twilio stock plummeted 30% during after-hours trading.
Why the pessimists are wrong?
Twilio has recognized this vulnerability. Diversifying its customer count last week was a move made to launch Twilio for Salesforce — a Twilio app that is now available on Salesforce Appexchange. This newly introduced application allows small businesses, non-profits and large commercial organizations using Salesforce to add out-of-the-box SMS to their existing workflow in Salesforce CRM.
As their partnership with Salesforce extends customer scope, Twilio’s $3 billion acquisition of SendGrid this past February will increase demand for the company’s services. With the SendGrid acquisition, developers and businesses can use Twilio to reach their customers over any voice, SMS, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, video and now email. | https://medium.com/@tjdono11_18174/twilio-upward-and-onward-rounding-out-its-business-8f10585232c7 | ['Tim Donovan'] | 2019-04-12 15:37:43.436000+00:00 | ['Uber', 'Salesforce', 'API', 'Lyft', 'Twilio'] |
What we’re planning to do with our seed investment | We’re excited to announce today that we’ve closed a £330,000 investment raise, bringing together institutional and angel investors from the US, UK, and Australia.
More than the money (no really), we’re chuffed about the calibre of investors who’ve decided to jump on board with us: from expert recruitment business leaders, to gender advocates, to social impact investors, to some of the world’s leading behavioural scientists.
If we’d run our investors through an Applied recruitment process, we probably couldn’t have hoped for a more varied or impressive group of people.
We’ve got the likes of Nesta Impact Investments, Carol Schwartz of the Trawalla Foundation, Public and six angel investors (including Adam Grant, Wharton School professor and bestselling author of Give and Take, Originals, and Option B, and James Callander and Adam Clements of recruitment consultancy, Freshminds). This follows some excellent support we’ve had from Nesta, BIT, and the Cabinet Office developing the product to date.
The raise comes at a busy time for the team and will give us the space to really spread our wings.
Applied’s now being used by over 1,000 people in 40 organisations in 5 continents. Since we launched, over 19,000 candidates have applied for over 700 jobs through the platform.
These jobs range from the people who drive the forklifts in warehouses at Penguin Random House so we can get the books we need, to the people who write speeches for UK Government ministers, to designers who make beautiful products at Made by Many, to hungry grads and interns who make light work at L.E.K. Consulting and BCG’s Center for Public Impact.
But money is just a means to an end
Here’s a taster of a few of the things we want to use it to do:
Expanding our reach within the US, UK and Australia, including through our partnership with Freshminds to radically improve testing tools for graduate and apprenticeship hiring. Most grads are put through automatic screeners that are woefully out of date: they don’t test any of the things you actually do on the day job and they don’t care if the end up inadvertently screening out more diverse candidates through poor design. We’re keen to shake that up.
Most grads are put through automatic screeners that are woefully out of date: they don’t test any of the things you actually do on the day job and they don’t care if the end up inadvertently screening out more diverse candidates through poor design. We’re keen to shake that up. Continuing to experiment with empowering the candidate with feedback. We already give every candidate that isn’t successful for the job access to feedback. But we know we can do more. So we’re working with Adam Grant and his team of researchers at Wharton to A/B test all kinds of improvements to the feedback process.
So it’ll be a big time for product development and growth for the team; which is partly why we’re hiring for a new Head of Growth and also for another exceptional full stack developer to join us in what is sure to be a wild ride.
A note to our early adopters
It’s not easy building products — you hit lots of dead ends and have to be OK knowing you don’t get things right the first time round (or even the second, sometimes!). But it’s made a kazillion times easier when you are lucky enough to have great partners in your clients and users. We’re one such lucky product team: our users have given us countless hours of their time providing feedback, breaking early versions of features, and helping us to constantly improve what we do. We wouldn’t be in this exhilarating point without you, so thanks.
PS: Why did our investors invest, you ask? — In their own words
Adam Grant — Author: Give and Take, Originals, and Option B; Wharton professor; NYT writer
“If more companies used behavioral science, it would be much easier to identify and attract a diverse pool of talented people. Kate and her team at Applied have done brilliant work on how employers can pique the interest of applicants and neutralize the biases of recruiters, and I think they’re poised to have a big impact.”
James Callander — MD, FreshMinds
‘It is rather rare in the recruitment world that you find such a healthy combination of a worthy social mission, great technology, and a stand out leadership team as the Behavioural Insights Team’s new spin-out Applied.
Using cutting edge behavioural science, savvy design and a genuine desire to change outmoded recruiting methods. Not only will it reduce unconscious bias from recruitment processes but bring a much need enhanced user experience to corporate recruiting applicant tracking systems.
I am very excited to be supporting them as they grow to the next stage of their development.’
David Halpern — CEO, Behavioural Insights Team
“The solution to a policy problem isn’t always a new policy. Sometimes it’s a tool that organisations can use that enable them to make better, more efficient decisions. We are incredibly excited about the potential for Applied to do just that — by helping organisations to remove implicit bias from their hiring decisions”
Carol Schwartz — Businesswoman, Philanthropist, Member of the Board of the Reserve Bank of Australia, and Chair of the Trawalla Foundation
“We are all unfortunately subject to the influence of unconscious bias. Applied enables organisations to undertake the recruitment and assessment of employees largely bias free. It’s very exciting software which takes advantage of the latest innovative technology, and most importantly, allows us to recruit from 100% of the talent pool.”
Helen Gironi — Investment Director, Nesta Impact Investments (A £17.6 million impact investment fund supported by Big Society Capital, Omidyar Network and Nesta. The fund is run by Nesta Investment Management, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nesta)
“There is a natural tendency to hire those who look good on paper and individuals without traditional qualifications, peer group support and industry experience can be filtered out of the candidate pool early on without being properly considered. Our due diligence confirmed that Applied’s robust and intelligent use of behavioural science sets it apart from the competition. We are really excited to have invested in Applied and believe that the platform will hugely benefit individuals by opening up job opportunities much more widely.”
Read the full press release here!
To find out more about Applied, pop us an email at: hello@beapplied.com.
Kate Glazebrook is co-founder and CEO of Applied, a SaaS platform that increases hiring precision and reduces bias. | https://medium.com/finding-needles-in-haystacks/what-were-planning-to-do-with-our-seed-investment-90e615e58dd1 | ['Kate Glazebrook'] | 2018-09-27 19:48:12.464000+00:00 | ['Venture Capital', 'Recruitment', 'Diversity', 'Diversity In Tech'] |
The Fall of San Fernando Valley: How Silicon Valley F*$%ed Over Silicone Valley | You probably do not realize this — officially because you have never watched porn, in truth because you do not read the fine print of the porn sites you visit — but online porn is, for a significant part, owned by one company today: MindGeek. And that company is run by a bunch of computer nerds in an office building in Montréal — people who have never been anywhere near San Fernando Valley, let alone a porn set. (MindGeek nuances it owns just three of ten most visited adult websites, which it says collectively account for about a quarter of all adult website traffic. It also claims that it is, in fact, headquartered in the European tax haven Luxembourg, with ‘additional offices’ in Canada and a number of other countries.)
In his outstanding 2017 podcast series The Butterfly Effect, British journalist Jon Ronson blames one man for most of that: Fabian Thylmann, a German web entrepreneur who lives in Brussels. It was Thylmann who started buying tube sites in 2010 with one simple plan: analyzing user data, increasing traffic, optimizing banners, making more money. Thylmann was not interested in producing or selling porn. If there would have been anything else on the World Wide Web that no other computer programmer dared to touch, Thylmann could have just as easily gotten involved in that. He was interested in creating traffic and understood better than anyone working in porn how to turn that into a profit.
“But the notion that, by doing so, Thylmann created a butterfly effect that led to the disappearance of almost all of the big players in porn is a bit of a leap,” says Mike Stabile, who has been reporting on the adult entertainment industry for the past two decades. “It is not completely untrue, but it is not completely accurate either.” For starters, Thylmann is not the one who invented free tube sites, Stabile points out. Websites like Pornhub, YouPorn, RedTube, and xHamster all saw the light of day around 2007 — three years before the German entrepreneur appeared on the scene with money he had earned from NATS, an apparently ingenious piece of software that accurately maps out which type of online banners drive people to porn sites.
“Porn producers want to blame the downfall of the industry on tube sites and piracy, but there was simply a lot more going on” (Mike Stabile)
“2007 was, however, also the year the first iPhone hit stores,” says Stabile, “and all of a sudden people could watch high-quality videos online whenever and wherever. They could even make their own — with their phone!” Admittedly, before 2007, digital camcorders were already on the market, but they weren’t that common. Moreover, there was no platform to distribute your own sex tapes. There was no ‘YouTube for porn’. “Even Tumblr and Twitter barely existed,” continues Stabile, “two social media channels that porn stars use because Facebook and Instagram do not even allow a female nipple.” (As of December 2018, Tumblr also doesn’t allow adult content anymore, leaving just Twitter as the last major social media network to still feature nudity and porn.)
“Porn producers want to blame the downfall of the industry on those tube sites and piracy,” according to Stabile, “but there was simply a lot more going on. Piracy has always been a problem — even in the VHS era, and later with LimeWire and other torrent sites. And while it’s true those tube sites significantly contributed to that problem, porn producers would have gotten in trouble even without Pornhub or xHamster, which actually featured primarily user uploads. The real revolution in the industry was that, come 2007, everyone was able to make and distribute his own content — content that was much more, well, real than those slick porn films the big studios used to produce. And those studios simply did not respond to that change, or know how to, until it was too late.”
// Ella Nova on the set of a custom video © Emily Berl
To be fair, at the time, the porn industry had little reason to change. Just like the Hollywood studios — a few of them you actually pass as you drive from LA to San Fernando Valley — porn producers were still selling tons of DVDs. And despite torrent sites or the emerging tube sites, millions of people worldwide were still paying for access to porn sites. The industry was rolling in money, and stars like Jenna Jameson, whose website ClubJenna alone made thirty million dollars a year, got profiled in mainstream newspapers and magazines, they appeared in music videos by Eminem and Madonna, and they lent their voice to popular video games like Grand Theft Auto. In the noughties, porn had become a legitimate business, just like the movie and music business, and legitimate business don’t just disappear, right?
Besides, who else would make all of those porn movies, other than a few hundred porn professionals in the Valley?!
The answer nobody really thought of: a few hundred thousand porn amateurs in the world.
“We’re doomed”
In the past, a shift of both distribution and means of production had already caused a bit of a stir in the porn industry. During the 1980s, the Supreme Court in states like Oregon, Indiana and even California still regularly discussed the definition and legality of pornography, making its distribution so precarious that only a few companies ventured into it. But then the legal battles stopped — almost at the same time video cameras took off and easy-to-copy VHS tapes set the home entertainment market going — and those few companies saw their monopoly shrivel faster than Shawn Islander’s erection at the end of each sex scene in Shaving Ryan’s Privates.
These days, the porn industry in Budapest is as big as what remains of the industry in California
In recent times, however, there is no denying that digital disruption has hit San Fernando Valley especially hard. “Even though, being so close to Hollywood’s infrastructure and expertise, it is still the ideal place to run a somewhat professional movie operation,” according to Don Parret, who also admits that porn production has expanded to states like Florida and Nevada in the past ten years, and that Europe is doing remarkably well too. Apparently, these days, the porn industry in Budapest is as big as what remains of the industry in California.
The disappearance of the big porn studios in San Fernando Valley (and thus also of the big budgets and paychecks) obviously has a lot to do with that shift — as does the rising cost of living in LA. But there are two more reasons why some porn stars have moved to Las Vegas in neighboring Nevada. The first one is probably the most obvious: ‘the business of companionship’ — or how ‘prostitution’ is described rather euphemistically by people in the adult entertainment industry. In Sin City, it’s still a booming business, and if porn movie salaries go down, new sources of income must be found. Although few porn stars actually admit to this particular extra source of income. Prostitution is still very illegal in the US. Even in Las Vegas.
The second reason is also of a legal (or illegal) nature, though probably a lot harder to guess. In 2012, residents of Los Angeles County, which includes both the city of Los Angeles and San Fernando Valley, voted on Measure B — a bill that requires the use of condoms in porn movies. Despite loud protest of almost the entire adult industry, which does not care for rubbers, the measure was surprisingly approved.
// Ela Darling © Emily Berl
Political correctness gone mad, or pure bullying? Almost everyone you talk to within the industry will tell you it’s the latter. “You would think that a liberal city like LA would be open to adult entertainment, right?” It is pretty much the first thing 33-year-old Ela Darling tells me when we meet up in a coffee shop in Highland Park — a rapidly emerging, yet still relatively affordable neighborhood in the northeast of LA. “This is the only place where I can live. As a porn actor, you cannot really submit a recent pay stub to your landlord, and as soon as anyone finds out what you’re doing professionally, you’re out. I’ve had that happen to me in my previous apartment. As soon as word got out I was working in porn, everyone in the neighborhood starting treating me like garbage. Someone even egged my car.”
Mike Stabile does not act surprised when I tell him Ela Darling’s story. “There are people in Los Angeles who view porn as part of the history of the city, part of its DNA. There are even conservatives who want to keep the industry here because it provides jobs and tax dollars. But there are also lots of people, including important players from the movie and music industry, who would rather not be associated with porn — at all. That causes tension. And incomprehension.”
And nonsensical laws such as Measure B. Nonsensical, not so much because there is anything wrong with condoms — quite the contrary — but because the law has since been completely overtaken by reality. By 2012, the major porn studios in San Fernando Valley were already in decline, and more and more actors were starting to produce content for their own websites. Or for video sites like Clips4Sale, where users pay to see specific (fetish) videos. Or for apps like OnlyFans, which allows porn actors to sell monthly subscriptions to exclusive content. And then there was also the explosive growth of cam sites like Chaturbate, which enables anybody to make money from the comfort of his own home by being naked or having sex in front of a camera.
“Measure B’s basic notion was that an employer must protect its employees, but who is employing who when you’re taping yourself having sex with your husband or wife?” (Mike Stabile)
In short: at a time when the porn industry was evolving from big studios to much smaller independent players, Los Angeles County implemented a law tailored to ... big studios. “Measure B’s basic notion was that an employer must protect its employees,” says Stabile, “but who is employing who when you’re taping yourself having sex with your husband or wife?”
“Nowadays, it’s almost a running gag,” laughs Casey Calvert. “If you get into a relationship with a porn star, you quickly become involved in the industry too. Either as a cameraman or as a stunt cock for a POV video.” For clarity: ‘POV’ stands for ‘point of view’. I will let you figure out ‘stunt cock’ for yourself.
“But it’s not just those domestic situations that make Measure B baffling,” stresses Ela Darling. Apart from the fact that porn scenes with condoms are considerably less popular, she says, “working with a condom is just very unpleasant. Because despite what most people seem to think, porn stars do not have sex because they want to fuck each other or because they are attracted to each other. It is a job, and so generally my body does not produce the natural lubrications to, well, aid in things. And when it doesn’t, a condom starts to irritate quickly, which would actually increase — not decrease — the likelihood of me contracting a sexually transmitted disease. Of course, you can use lubricant, but there’s really only so much you can use. So, if your aim is to protect people, Measure B is not the way to go.”
// Nina Hartley © Emily Berl
“Do you know when was the last time someone contracted HIV on an American porn set,” Nina Hartley asks us — almost militantly. “2004! And do you know why it’s been such a long time? Because we actually don’t want to get infected and we have set up our own system that works — very well! Everyone is tested at least twice a month, and in case of doubt, we quickly do an extra test. Within 48 hours, the result appears on iknowmystatus.com. And guess what: when nobody in the pool has a disease, you do not get diseases!”
And when an actor does test positive — which last happened in April of 2018 — all production in the US is immediately halted, until everyone with whom that man or woman recently worked has also been tested. Though the important question today is how you can continue to monitor this in an industry that seems to have completely gone under the radar, with the disappearance of the studios and the introduction of ‘that condom law’?
In San Fernando Valley, film permits have dropped by more than ninety percent since 2012, when Measure B was voted into law. However, there are few people who believe that production has likewise decreased by ninety percent. Part of it has undoubtedly moved to Nevada or — somewhat closer — Ventura County. But, in reality, you can still rent an Airbnb in San Fernando Valley, shoot a porn movie on the premises without condoms, and no one would ever know. Or as Don Parret somewhat reluctantly responds to that hypothesis after a five-second silence: “That’s accurate.”
But while that does most likely still happen, Parret admits to “having no knowledge of anyone ever having been prosecuted for not wearing a condom. And I do not see it happening anytime soon. If anything, the condom law made sure no one knows anymore where porn is being shot — contrary to ten years ago, when big studios were even inviting journalists on set.”
The only thing he might still get an invitation to in Los Angeles is the taping of a lesbian scene, “because that does not require the use of a condom.” Fortunately, the most popular category on Pornhub for three years straight now has been … ‘lesbian’. Though it is doubtful lesbian porn will be enough to save San Fernando Valley from its, well, erectile dysfunction. | https://medium.com/pulpmag/the-fall-of-san-fernando-valley-part-i-how-silicon-valley-f-ed-over-silicone-valley-a64b8a60d072 | ['Ben Van Alboom'] | 2020-12-29 03:46:43.934000+00:00 | ['Porn', 'Movies', 'Los Angeles', 'Adult Entertainment', 'Pornography'] |
🤩 Meet the team 🤩 | We find immense pleasure to release the Team Video that introduces people working at Mobigraph, the company behind PEP Network
Enjoy!
➡️ https://youtu.be/U0iKEu0x1nk | https://medium.com/pep-ico/meet-the-team-b7458abac5b0 | ['Sharik Khan'] | 2018-06-13 12:44:32.429000+00:00 | ['ICO', 'Blockchain', 'Ethereum', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Cryptocurrency'] |
6 Times Printer Companies Tried to Screw People Over | …And the 5 Times People Won
Image by Arek Socha from Pixabay
Let’s be frank. If businesses can get away with exploitation, they’re not going to stop out of the goodness of their hearts.
Through the years, printer manufacturers tried to make people to buy more of their ink and more of their printers than necessary.
The Tug of War Between Consumer Rights and Consumer Exploitation
In 2006, Epson lost against a class action lawsuit. Plaintiffs claimed that Epson inkjet printers and inkjet cartridges suspend printer function due to “empty” cartridges even when usable ink still remains. Epson denied these claims and decided to settle to avoid further costs in legal actions. Their settlement includes giving $45 ecoupons in Epson’s E-stores to people who have bought Epson inkjet printers and Epson inkjet cartridges from April 8, 1999 to May 8, 2006.
In 2010, HP lost against three class action lawsuits and have to pay $5 million in settlement. The first lawsuit claimed HP inkjet printers give false low ink notifications. The second one claimed that cyan ink is spent upon printing with black ink. The last suit claimed that ink cartridges are disabled even when they are not yet empty.
In 2015, Canon settled a class action lawsuit of $930,000 after being sued for printhead defects that commonly occur in their printers after the one-year warranty. Fixing the printhead would be more expensive than buying a new printer. The plaintiffs stated that if they had been informed of the defect, they would not have purchased a Canon inkjet printer in the first place.
In 2017, a French legal organization, Halte à L’Obsolescence Programmêe (HOP) — End Planned Obsolescence — filed a lawsuit against Brother, Canon, Epson, HP and other companies for intentionally shortening the lifespan of both their printers and ink cartridges. Planned obsolescence forces consumers to spend more on repairs or replacements, causing more waste in the environment. The companies were fined modestly of €15,000.
In September 2018, HP and the plaintiffs ended a class action lawsuit in US after reaching a $1.5 million deal over printer firmware updates that caused fake error messages upon using third party ink cartridges.
In October 2019, a class action complaint was filed against Epson for printer firmware updates that prevent their printers from working if third party ink cartridges are used. There is no updates for this case yet.
Big businesses never learn. If they can get away with it. They will. Unless people will call them out on it. Unless we realized we’re being played dirty.
Your Right as a Consumer
In 2010, Thom Brown, HP Marketing Manager, explained that they don’t disclose the volume of ink cartridges because it would confuse customers. First of all, that’s an insult to the intelligence of customers. Even if different printers use this amounts of ink for the same surface area of paper, knowing the volume of ink in a cartridge can help people compare unit costs.
As a customer, you should have the right to know actual information about products in order to make better buying decisions. In 2014, the “Hamon Law” was passed in France that fines manufacturers if they are not transparent about their product’s longevity to their customers.
If you own a product, it should be your right to decide how and what to use it with. If you own a printer, it should be your right to decide what ink cartridge to use it with. Printer companies that use strategies to force people to buy their ink over cheaper third party ink do not respect that.
It’s not surprising that people wonder if ink cartridges are a scam. In fact, there are a lot of things printer manufacturers don’t want you to know and when you do, it’s often too late.
Multitudes of Small Defiances Can Move Mountains
You don’t need to grab a pitchfork every time you want to call out unfair practices of a big company.
Below are things you can do to be consumer savvy.
Contact the Seller
Before you file a complaint to others, know first if it can be settled with the company.
Customer feedback is important to the companies in order to know what makes customers happy. Every call is recorded and/or documented by a customer service representative.
Tell them your consumer problem and what action you would like to be taken to solve it. Please keep in mind to document actions taken and keep its receipts or screenshots if possible.
You can ask for the call’s ticket number if the issue cannot be solved within one call. This way, when you call again, you can tell them the ticket number so that the next representative would know what actions have been taken and what actions can be done next.
Depending on what the printer manufacturers have trained their customer support, you may get a refund, a discount or representatives may try to make you spend more by presenting their products as a form of solution.
If you’re not satisfied with the resolution assigned to your case by the customer service, you can ask to speak to their supervisor. Or their “customer retention” department if they have one.
You can even send an email complaint to CEOs’s email addresses.
If you get ignored, give them a reason not to ignore you. By doing the other things below.
Send a Complaint to Your State or Local Consumer Protection Office
You can look for your State and Local Consumer Offices here.
After you have stated your complaint and all actions that were taken, these offices will investigate your complaint. They will open up a communication with the company and will ask the company to explain their position to your issue.
Businesses that ignore complaints often settle cases once they caught the attention of government offices. Or state attorneys general (AGs) or municipal district attorneys (DAs) if the company is not under any government agency.
Either way, they regulate and investigate the claims made by complaining consumers. These offices depend on consumers to be informed of unfair practices. They may not be able to help settle your case, but they can use it to stop illegal business practices.
If the printer manufacturer is out of state, you can do the next step.
Submit a Complaint to A Federal Government Agency
The Federal Trade Commission can provide you with what steps to take if you file your complaints to them. This agency encourages people to file their complaints in order to detect patterns of unfair practices.
Their complaint form will ask how it started, if you lose money, who the complaint is about and what happened. It is up to you how much personal information you are willing to provide.
You can also call them at 1–877-FTC-HELP (1–877–382–4357); TTY: 1–866–653–4261.
And if the government doesn’t respond?
Submit a Complaint Through an Organization
You can file a complaint to the Consumer Watchdog Organization if you’re in the US. You can even call them in 310–392–0522.
Consumer complaints can change the tides in laws and make corporations be held accountable. With a third party intervention, you are represented by people with more expertise and resources that risks the company with bad publicity and lost business.
Speak Up in Social Media
After you have done what you can, you can encourage other people to do the same.
A tweet on HP’s Instant Ink went viral when the twitter user posted how his ink cartridges were disabled after he cancelled his subscription.
A Youtube video got over 6 million views on sharing his experience and knowledge as an ex-employee of a printer manufacturer company.
Create a Ripple
All it takes is a pebble to create a ripple of people sharing the same experiences of what you’ve gone through. The more people that would speak up, the stronger a potential case can be filed against consumer exploitation, the more companies would get the message to stop exploiting consumers and, instead, take action to improve their products.
Go ahead and tell your story. | https://medium.com/compandsave/6-times-printer-companies-tried-to-screw-people-over-dbc0e1eb5149 | [] | 2020-01-31 09:07:08.977000+00:00 | ['Consumer Rights', 'Ink Cartridges', 'Consumer', 'Consumer Exploitation', 'Consumer Behavior'] |
How many calories in steak? | How many calories in steak?
Most of us are well aware that eating a steak is an essential part of a balanced diet.
The question of how many calories in steak is often a tricky one to answer.
Several factors go into the total amount of calories in a steak, and it is essential to know those, so you know what foods to limit and how much to eat regularly.
Also read: Steak Nutrition
Steak is lean meat, usually sliced across the muscles’ connective tissue, most likely including a bone. It can also be grilled but is commonly pan-fried instead.
It’s often examined to mimic the natural flavor of meat cooked on hot coals.
The first step is to figure out the number of calories in your steak. To do this:
Take a steak filet, and slice it crosswise, then remove the fibrous membrane from the center.
Take a serving of salad dressing and mix it with a tablespoon of mayonnaise.
Add a teaspoon of garlic powder, and mix the sauce and mayonnaise.
You’ll need to figure out how many calories in that dressing are due to the dressing’s high-fat content.
This will help you determine how many calories in steak. If the steak is marinated for at least eight hours, you can assume that the marinade is responsible for all the extra calories.
You could then divide the marinade in half and use half of the sauce.
If the steak marinates for a longer time, the marinade may play a small role in contributing calories to the steak and subtracting from the total number.
When you’ve figured out the total calories in a steak, you can then look at the number of calories in each source of fat to see how many calories in steak you should cut from your diet.
The most common sources of calories in steak are butter and lard. Both of these add a significant amount of calories and should be limited.
The more expensive beef cuts, such as sirloin, tend to have a lot less fat. Which makes them an ideal choice for those trying to eat healthier.
The next step is to compare the fat content of the different cuts of meat.
Grilled steak, along with other grilled steaks, tends to have the highest fat content. It makes This the most difficult to cut out of your diet.
Grilled chicken is about average, while the lower-priced cuts of beef are not only easier to trim down. But are also generally lower in fat.
You can easily cut the fat content from your diet by making your own meals. You can buy inexpensive cuts of beef, chop it up, and marinate it to create a low-fat marinade.
When cooking it, reduce the amount of liquid you use so the marinade doesn’t stand out, reducing the fat content.
Cooking times and cooking methods can vary dramatically. So you may need to consider all of these factors before you start cooking to ensure you are getting the best results with your steak.
Once you have figured out how many calories in steak you want. You can then make adjustments to your diet and cook your steak the way you want.
Another trick to cutting calories in steak is to buy leaner cuts. Lean cuts of steak are often lower in fat and are also usually cheaper.
The good thing about buying the lower-priced cuts is that you can replace them in your meal rotation with a different steak.
It’s straightforward to find new recipes and ways to cook with lean steak. Just remember to watch how much fat is used and how often to serve it in your meal.
Lastly, don’t forget to set a calorie count for yourself before you begin cooking for yourself.
By using a tool such as the Atkins plan or other plans, you’ll be able to see how many calories you’re actually burning off while eating your meals.
You can then tweak the plan to help you reach the target goal you set.
Steak is the right choice for many people, but there will always be certain people who prefer other meats.
It’s important to learn about healthy, what you need to be watching, and how to adjust your eating to eat healthily. | https://medium.com/@adeelabbaas4777/how-many-calories-in-steak-294541aee30f | ['Adeel Abbas'] | 2020-12-22 12:57:59.722000+00:00 | ['Health', 'Steak', 'Nutrition'] |
The future of Overwatch and what it means for collegiate eSports | It’s been over two weeks since Overwatch League was announced. Much of the player hype and debacle has faded, however the industry leaders and decision-makers are still pondering over the ramifications this has for our industry and the culture of eSports or “Esports”. We a-dults now b o y z. This has lead to a chain reaction with publishers and leagues rethinking their 5 year plans.
Overwatch moving forward
With Overwatch’s immense growth this was an inevitable. The debatable eSports failure that was Heroes of the Storm left Blizzard Activision with an uneasy feeling of defeat. In addition to HoTS losing its unique fandom Starcraft has lost its prominent Korean league. Their much needed traction as a relevant eSports publisher/organizer truly was and is hinged on the success of Overwatch as not only a casual game but a competitive global league.
For players it facilitates a truly global competition with players across the world uniting under one banner to play for fame glory cash and prizes. For businesses and brands it facilitates the ability to get into eSports while it’s hot. Purchasing coveted chartered memberships. There is a lot of anticipation and truthfully everyone’s watching including Riot Games. Just recently, a source close to the situation noted an estimated 90 million dollar (USD) partnership between Riot Games and MLBAM to stream LoL eSports.
A deal which certainly has been in the works for months if not years now, but this couldn’t have come at a greater time.
Riot Games and the boy who cried wolf
Riot Games have been under immense pressure from Lol sports team owners, in a leaked document team owners came together to demand more transparency, stipends, prize pool and opportunities of earning money including enfranchisement, broadcast and itemization revenue sharing as-soon-as-possible. It’s very clear that they are looking for more ways of making money to keep them afloat as most, if not all are running in the red this fiscal year.
If the market continues to over-saturate player earnings they will continue to rise while the organizations who aren’t-ventured-back will continue to lose an incredible amount of money. They’ll have to cut back staff members, cut whole teams or even forfeit spots if they can’t pay for them.
Debate aside whether you believe Riot should franchise now, tomorrow, or never, the 90 million annually will certainly help keep LoL eSports’ team owners happy if that comes their way. In no shape or form is Riot hurting for them to keep that 90 million, with their valuations and profits estimating to remain within the high 6 figures, this deal will certainly indulge the luxury of their LoL eSport’s ecosystem. Reaping the rewards and solidifying deals with decision-makers across the traditional media pond, keeping LoL eSports alive and well for years to come.
Overwatch can be the next best thing
But let’s jump back to Overwatch League. They plan on franchising, revenue sharing, globalizing teams, all altruistic in nature. With their tenured experience as a game publisher and the critical success that was Overwatch World Cup, it was the sign they needed to green-light this new ambitious venture. What we know now is simple — eSports just took 10 steps forward in the right direction.
The industry is self-reliant on sponsorships from endemic companies. Without them, they can’t afford to keep the lights on at the end of the month. With new venture capitalists and angels entering the scene there have been a fortunate handful of who forego the tradition of relying on sponsorships.
By introducing chartered spots you allow new players to enter the fold, who are ready to invest into the industry, or allow the veteran players to imprint their brands for years to come. Advertisers and sponsors in and out of eSports won’t be afraid that an LCS team will be relegated to the Challenger Series to lose the brand exposure or sales they needed. Their worst nightmare now finally in the process of disappearing into the past.
I’ve written about the future of eSports at least a dozen or so times now. The narratives are the same, but depending on the game I associate the write-up with, minuet changes are made however the foundation always remains the same.
You get the best of both worlds. Everyone makes money. Players are secured and protected. Organizations, publishers, and partners share a piece of that oh so good pumpkin pie. What about collegiate eSports, how will that be affected?
Collegiate eSports will expand or integrate into the league circuits
Photo credit: Riot Games
As chartered memberships (enfranchisement) and other outside supportive partnerships form you’ll see a large debate about balancing and filtering old from new. Worthy from unworthy. Money talks and for that reason many have raised their pitch-forks contesting enfranchisement in eSports. To keep the competitive integrity alive by rewarding those who come here to be the best, not those with deepest pockets.
We in eSports are akin to nothing and we are constantly going through the process of trials and tribulations figuring out how to implement a strategy correctly that works for everyone.
With relegation and promotion looking to be fazed out we’ll be hit with a dilemma that could jeopardize the competitive integrity of the LoL & Overwatch League. One way I see this being tackled; turning collegiate eSports into combines (scouting grounds) or competing in smaller circuit leagues for scholarships and prize pools leading up to collegiate event equivalent of ‘Worlds’.
As I said earlier only time will tell, but we’re heading in a good direction. Rocky but every rocky road leads to safe ground.. we hope.
—
Managing Director @eSportsRDANet. I like food and good screenplays. I don’t hold my tongue, sorry mom. Inquiries w.sosa@esportsra.net or Tweet me @MellowWalt for updates. | https://blog.starters.co/the-future-of-overwatch-and-what-it-means-for-collegiate-esports-78108b5c4cc2 | ['Walter Sosa'] | 2016-11-18 03:14:53.256000+00:00 | ['Esports', 'Gaming'] |
Best Reading Rooms in Guntur | Omkars reading Hall | Best Reading Rooms in Guntur | Omkars reading Hall OmkarsReadingHall ·Dec 25, 2020
We know you want the best reading rooms in Guntur, a space that’s peaceful enough to get you the best results possible for your career. So, keeping in mind about all your needs, we have come up with a quiet and best study halls that lets you focus on your education and goals to achieve. | https://medium.com/@omkarsreadinghall/best-reading-rooms-in-guntur-omkars-reading-hall-432b1e74ed34 | [] | 2020-12-25 17:54:22.324000+00:00 | ['Brodipet', 'Students', 'Omkars Reading Room', 'Ca Final', 'Ca'] |
girlhood | Shot by a wonderful girl, Olivia Bee.
girlhood
I remember what my girlhood was
I remember when it began
I remember how it lasted
and that my girlhood
has a sister now
womanhood is her sister
and when sisters sit together
they brush their hair
and hold hands
sometimes they smoke cigarettes
on the windowseats
sometimes on the football pitches
where boys get dirty
they get dirty there too, when no one is watching
they climb fences and pick apples from trees
they hide flowers in their pockets
sometimes skirts
their knees are bruised from falling off from bicycles
or roller skates
they hide them under the clothes
while baking elderberry pies with their mothers
making pear jams with lemon peel
you sit straight in white socks and tennis shoes
while your mama braids your hair
bubble gum splashes in your mouth
your whole lips are covered
with the sticky flavour of youth
the girlhood begins
when you see
a cherry sized stain
on your tomboy jeans
when you take your father’s shaver
and you sit in a bath with bleeding legs
like this would be enough for the boys to stop teasing you
for being a girl
the girlhood begins
when men and boys look at you
like you’re something on sale
a cream pie on a platter close to sugar hill
the girlhood begins
when you start putting tape
over your young breasts
the girlhood begins
when you don’t know
if you can still run in the grass
and make yourself dirty
because they want you to be a good girl now
only the sky is the same
sometimes grey
sometimes cerulean
my girlhood
was like a sweet bee
I tried to keep it in a jar filled with flowers
making holes on the top with my nana’s fork
you know, on a good summer day
you stick your nose there
and for few seconds, before the sleepy bee wakes up
you can smell the real sweetness of this world
everything’s real for this short time
and you don’t have to get lost anymore
the womanhood
tells you
to let your bees free, out of the jars
you can’t keep ’em there
you can’t keep it anywhere
every little thing has to be right
it ain’t right to be you right now, you’re a lady now
you, always dressed for every occasion
the clear stockings on your smooth legs
the make up, the hair, the glowing hands and feet
food on the table
kids cleaned
money in the bank
you leave your girlhood where no man can see it
but
there’s a secret in it
the sisters
keep all their jars with the syrupy bees
in the midst of their hearts
where the longing of girlhood
and the need for womanhood
mix and dance together in those small fractions
of your world
where boyhood
and manhood
doesn’t dare to enter | https://medium.com/poets-unlimited/girlhood-ab2dca246f9f | ['Kamila Zguzi'] | 2017-03-23 20:50:49.875000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'Women', 'Girls', 'Life', 'Short Story'] |
[Canvas] Particle - 01 | Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more
Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore | https://medium.com/gavin-zeng/canvas-particle-01-7af8094e5584 | [] | 2020-12-05 05:29:33.876000+00:00 | ['Canvas', 'Memories', 'Particle', 'Frontend', 'Html5'] |
Best Electromaker Community Projects November 2020 Edition | Best Electromaker Community Projects November 2020 Edition
Check out the best maker, tech, DIY, and IoT projects from the Electromaker community in November 2020! Electromaker Follow Dec 7, 2020 · 3 min read
In addition to our thriving staff blog that’s filled with great content like reviews, editorials, news pieces, and tutorials, we’ve got a fantastic community projects page. Anyone, yes even you dear reader, can (and should!) make an account on Electromaker to leave comments as well as share your recent maker, tech, and DIY builds. Check out the best Electromaker community projects, November 2020 edition!
One of the most exciting do-it-yourself arenas is artificial intelligence (AI). With real-world applications such as object detection, there are tons of use cases for AI. This people and facial detection system is Intel OpenVINO toolkit-powered. It’s easy to build, features sample code, and works extremely well. You could use this as a means of creating a DIY home surveillance system.
Are you finding that your beerpong matches have become too easy? Try taking your beerpong game up a notch with an automated beerpong project. Now, you’re not only challenged by attempting to lob a small plastic ball into a Solo cup (Kobe!) but you’ll need to contend with…moving cups? No, you’re not drunk (well, you might be). Powered by an Arduino, this beerpong table automatically moves the cups around for an even greater challenge.
Robotics are extremely fun. And while there are plenty of robot kits available, you could always design your own. This Blynk app-controlled robot boasts gesture-control onboard using an accelerometer. It’s a seriously cool little robotic vehicle that looks as if it could be store-bought.
NVIDIA makes some of the best hardware on the market for both consumers and makers. Its NVIDIA Jetson Nano and Xavier single-boards are excellent for at-home AI applications. If you’ve got an NVIDIA Jetson Xavier NX, this guide will help you get started. From what the Jetson Xavier is to setting up software, adding an SSD, and setting up your first projects, it’s an incredibly detailed getting started tutorial.
Adafruit NeoPixels allow you to incorporate gorgeous LEDs into your maker projects. This 8 x 8 WS2812b NeoPixel LED matrix features a completely flat surface and a 1.67mm height. It’s slim and attractive as well as easy to make. You just need a bit of soldering, a few components, and you’ve got a lovely NeoPidel LED matrix.
Do you miss maker faires? Yeah, us too. But please keep staying home, staying safe, staying inspired, and wearing your masks! This super cool robot designed by our good friends over at 8BitsAndAByte is designed to travel to maker faires, measure atmospheric information, save the data, and return home.
While you can buy an off-the-shelf smart doorbell, you can make your own instead! This inventive wireless doorbell is Arduino-powered and incorporates features such as a camera, video recorder, and completely wire-free installation.
Best Electromaker Community Projects — November 2020 Edition
These were our favorite Electromaker community projects uploaded in November 2020. Want to be featured in our December 2020 roundup? Upload your project and share it with us in the comments below for consideration! Have a non-Electromaker DIY project from around the web you’d like to share? Drop a comment below! | https://medium.com/electromaker/best-electromaker-community-projects-november-2020-edition-bb9bd168957d | [] | 2020-12-07 23:43:45.363000+00:00 | ['Raspberry Pi', 'Arduino'] |
Effective Ways to Build Your Startup with PPC Services: | With the rising number of choices in the market, it could be intimidating to choose one kind of marketing tactic which will benefit your business. However, we do agree that PPC or pay per click is the most underrated yet the best way to boost your startup.
You can choose a top PPC company in India, and the services that can be expected are most often impressive. However, before we talk about one such option, we must clarify why we think, PPC form of marketing is viable and does wonder for your startup.
Best Ways by Which PPC Boosts Your Startup:
If you are skeptical and want to know the best ways in which PPC helps your business to grow, the most convenient ones include:
Staying in The Budget: The major concept of PPC is that you need to pay per click. Hence you never overspend and shell out as much money that is required. Other forms of marketing are a bit more expensive, and if you are just starting, PPC is the best option to consider. A good PPC company will ensure that they put enough research on the keywords, and whatever money you sent will fetch you good returns.
Appear On The Top of Google Pages: To give your startup that bit of boost, it is essential to appear in the top tier of the search engine. Why so? Well, there are numerous websites online. So, why would anyone take up the pain to keep on searching when viable options are sitting at the top? An effective PPC campaign will ensure that you appear at the top of the search engine, and hence you increase the possibility of getting tapped on. You must have an effective campaign as the power of PPC is immense, and in most cases, it will render good results.
Have Better Visibility: PPC campaigns are more about increasing visibility, and that is something you should keep in mind. PPC allows you to garner that extra bit of attention and that too quite easily. In a very short period, you will also be able to garner a natural ranking on the search engine and this will automatically have a much better impact on your business as well. PPC is the most convenient way to increase your visibility, and if done in the right way, you will be able to have a much stronger base.
Rely Only on The Experts for PPC services
When you decide on incorporating PPC as a viable form of marketing, it is equally important that you pick up a potent PPC service. Toffee Pvt Ltd is a great option to consider if you are looking for PPC & SEO services in Noida. They have the best strategies lined up for your convenience. Not only that, it is very important to pass on the responsibility to professionals as they have much more expert knowledge.
So, if you are a startup looking to boost your business and earn some potent clients, look no beyond Toffee Global experts. | https://medium.com/@toffeeglobal2/effective-ways-to-build-your-startup-with-ppc-services-4b35fc311ecd | ['Toffee Global'] | 2021-10-25 08:06:32.152000+00:00 | ['Online Marketing', 'Marketing', 'Digital Marketing', 'Advertising', 'PPC Marketing'] |
3 Deceptively Simple Life Lessons Every Ambitious Individual Needs To Learn Before They Turn 30 | 3 Deceptively Simple Life Lessons Every Ambitious Individual Needs To Learn Before They Turn 30
The view from the peak is more enjoyable when you’ve enjoyed each step of the climb.
Photo by bruce mars on Unsplash
Ambitious individuals often fall victim to their pursuit of success.
By constantly preparing for the future or analyzing the past, successful people restrict themselves from being fully immersed in the present moment.
Most individuals with a thirst for achievement fail to recognize the very traits that make them successful also prevent them from developing a greater sense of fulfillment.
Strategizing for the future and delaying gratification for long-term gains builds materialistic wealth. Consistent, quality habits lead to the conventional markers of achievement. But playing the game of wealth or influence robs most individuals of happiness by convincing them that their fulfillment is tied to achievement.
In truth, you cannot become happy through achievement. You can only be happy. And you can make that choice — of releasing suffering and accessing a deeper state of gratitude — in any moment.
While many have mastered the formula to acquiring material wealth, few have discovered the path to building inner wealth.
Read the list below to learn three ways to acquire inner wealth.
1. Recognize that you will never be satisfied
No matter how much money, fame, admiration, or power you earn, it will never satisfy your thirst.
Your mind is built to project into the future or ruminate on past events.
Thinking about the future may increase your drive and determination, but it also prevents your ability to soak up the nectar of this moment. It leads to anxiety, over-analyzing decisions, and cost-benefit analyses that reduce the complexity of human connection.
Even if you’re able to interrupt your constant thought-stream, you’ll likely still fall victim to the trap of tying your emotional happiness to external objects.
If the object you desire is a BMW, soon after acquiring the object, it will lose its specialness and you will feel driven to buy something else, something even more impressive.
The thirst of your ego is endless.
Learn to move your mind from the future to the present moment. See through the trap of materialism.
To be happy, you need to recognize that no matter what you have, your mind will always want more.
2. Realize that if you cannot be happy now, you will never be happy
Because the mind is always looking forward to bigger and better things, no amount of materialistic success or power will satisfy its hunger.
If the mind is always hungry, then the game you’re playing is futile unless you develop the ability to allow happiness to enter your heart.
Learn to meditate and cultivate true presence.
When you are fully immersed in the here and now, you are in a state of no-mind. When the mind is absent, fulfillment and happiness enter your heart, enabling you to enjoy what you have now.
There’s no need to stop acquiring material wealth if that’s what you feel called to do, but you need to recognize that if you fail to pay attention to your inner wealth, your successes will only magnify your inner emptiness.
3. Learn the language of true happiness
Dominant cultural narratives spread lies about happiness.
They tell us to acquire power over others, to earn lots of money, and to engage in all sorts of pleasure-seeking activities. Unfortunately, after eating that nice meal, making your first million, or getting that big promotion, life returns to normal.
True happiness comes from being in the present moment.
The words happiness and happens have the same linguistic root because happiness happens as a byproduct of full engagement with the here-and-now.
In a state of no-mind, there is no contemplation of the future or the past, there is only full enjoyment of whatever is arising in consciousness.
No matter who you are, where you are, what you have, or what you don’t possess, you have the ability to experience a deep sense of contentment in life.
Maximizing one’s inner richness to match one’s outer wealth leads to a greater integration of balance, health, and fulfillment.
Discover the blockages that are preventing your own enjoyment of the journey so that you can overcome all obstacles and enjoy your road to success.
The view from the peak is more satisfying when you enjoy each step of the climb.
(A previous version of this article first appeared in Inc Magazine) | https://medium.com/wholistique/3-deceptively-simple-life-lessons-every-ambitious-individual-needs-to-learn-before-they-turn-30-2d44da601dd5 | ['Dr. Matthew Jones'] | 2020-11-19 07:36:53.113000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Inspiration', 'Happiness', 'Self', 'Psychology'] |
5 ways to improve MongoDB performance | Ever wondered how will you process millions of records efficiently? Or do you want to improve the performance of your application by reducing database query time? Working on similar set of problems, I have identified few things which will definitely help you in improving performance of your application. These tips are simple, common yet very practical.
Without further ado, let’s start.
1. Design your schema
Even though MongoDB doesn’t enforce schema, it’s vital to design a schema in a way that it improves overall performance. One-to-One relationship can be easily achieved by single level schema but when designing a MongoDB schema for One-to-N relationship, you need to start with a question like:
Is there any need to access the embedded object outside the context of the parent object?
If not, then you can simply embed the N side into parent object provided that number of array elements well below four figures. If the N-side objects should stand alone for any reasons, you can use an array of references to the N-side objects.
Inside documents, it is best to keep the number of array elements well below four figures. Though MongoDB accommodate large documents of upto 16 MB in collections, it works best if you keep individual documents to a few KB in size. If the array is added too frequently, it will outgrow the containing document so that it’s location on disk has to moved. A lot of index rewriting is going to take place when a document with a large array is re-indexed, because MongoDB automatically creates a multi-key index if any indexed field is an array. This re-indexing also happens when such a document is inserted or deleted.
You might think that you could get around this by not indexing arrays. Unfortunately, without the indexes, you can run into other problems. Because documents are scanned from start to end, it takes longer to find elements towards the end of an array. Hence you should always design your schema on your particular application’s data access patterns.
2. Design & Manage indexes
Once schema has been created, next step is to design an index. Imagine you want to begin with the algorithms and you have a very large book of DSA from which you want one particular topic. Now what you will generally do is: go to the index, look for the topic and index will tell you the page number of the topic. But if book doesn’t have any index then you probably need to go through each page and try to find your topic — isn’t that a tedious?
Similarly, when you ask for some document in a database, the database tries to use an index to quickly find the results for you. If there’s no index to use as reference, it has to check each document, the same way you would have to if your book didn’t have an index.
Consider a below scenario to check how index help us in improving overall performance. Without the index, the query would scan the whole collection of ~1500 documents to return 24 matching documents. The ratio of documents examined to document returned is too high which means performance is poor.
Without index
When run with an index, the query scanned 24 index entries and 24 documents to return 24 matching documents, resulting in a very efficient query.
Single field index
There is a tremendous improvement in the query performance with just a simple configuration in indexing.
This ratio of documents examined to documents returned is 1 which is perfect. You are using a better approach, which is an index scan instead of the whole collection scan. This results in better performance.
The majority of use cases can be covered by single-field index but you can also create compound indexes on two or more fields. As shown below, again ratio of documents examined to documents returned is 1 for compound index of given query.
Compound index
Compound index considers the order of the fields when you create the index. You will have optimized the case when querying involves: release year only, or release year and title. Release year always needs to be specified first if you want to leverage the compound index you just created.
Once you create an index, it is very important to manage the index efficiently. When creating a compound index, ask yourself this question: “Which property of my find query is the most ‘unique’ one? The higher uniqueness you have for your first properties in the compound index, the better it will perform. Additionally you have to make sure that index fits in RAM available in the database server in order to prevent fetching it from disk. Also simply removing unused and redundant indexes can also boost in performance.
3. Analyze the queries
When you effectively design schema and create efficient index, performance of query should also be efficient. But What if queries are still insufficient and you want to find root cause behind them. You can use explain which reveals how a database operation worked.
collection.explain() method the cursor.explain() method the explain command
All three can be used to return information on query plans and the execution statistics of those query plans. This returns a large JSON result, but there are few values which can be helpful for evaluation:
explain.executionStats.nReturned : tells you how many documents in the collection matched explain.executionStats.executionTimeMillis : tells you how long it took explain.executionStats.totalKeysExamined : tells you the number of index entries scanned explain.executionStats.totalDocsExamined : tells you the number of documents scanned queryPlanner.winningPlan.inputStage.stage : displays IXSCAN to indicate index use. queryPlanner.winningPlan.stage : displays COLLSCAN to indicate a collection scan.
To manually compare the performance of a query using more than one index, you can use the hint() method in conjunction with the explain() method.
4. Identify order of aggregation stages
MongoDB does have a query optimizer (can be checked via profiler & explain()), and in most cases it’s effective at picking the best of multiple possible plans. However in the case of the aggregate function, the sequence in which various stages are executed is completely under your control. The optimizer won’t reorder stages into the optimal sequence to get you out of trouble.
You need to make sure that the data is reduced as early as possible in the pipeline as it reduces the amount of work that has to be done by each successive stage. data can be reduced by using $match and $project, sorts happen only once the data is reduced, and that lookups happen in the order you intend. Performance of query can be improved when below stages are efficiently designed.
$match: A document has to match the provided criteria in the query for it to pass to the next stage. In order to achieve the best performance of the $match stage, use it early in the aggregation process since it will:
Take advantage of the indexes hence become much faster Limit the number of documents that will be passed to the next stage
$project: In this stage, the documents are modified either to add or remove some fields that will be returned. Best performance of $project stage can be achieved when we project only indexed field or covered query is used.
Project lesser fields will not improve query performance unless all the returned fields can be satisfy using an index. An index can improve performance, but covered queries can level up your query performance. Covered query can perform faster than normal optimized query using Index Scan
$limit: Limit the number of documents which can be passed to next stage or result set using $limit. This can improve performance as next stage has to process less documents comparatively.
$sort: it is done in one of the final stages, after filtering the result, to reduce the amount of data being sorted. Sorting works effectively when you have an index defined on sorting field(s). Either the single or compound index defined would be suitable. If you don’t have an index defined, MongoDB must sort the result itself, and this can be problematic when analyzing a large set of returned documents since database impose 32MB memory limit on combined size of all the documents in sorting operation. Best performance from sorting stage can be achieved when:
Field on which sort needs to be performed is index fields so that MongoDB does not need in-memory sort. In case multiple fields used in sorting, compound index is created on all the fields.
$lookup: Lookups perform a similar function to a SQL join. To perform well, they require an index on the key value used as the foreign key
5. Use dedicated hardware, and SSDs / Rebuild Your Indexes
MongoDB doesn’t really have many bottlenecks when it comes to CPU because CPU bound operations are rare (usually things like building indexes), but what really causes problem is CPU steal — when other guests on the host are competing for the CPU resources. To eliminate the possibility of CPU steal, move mongoDB server on dedicated hardware.
In order to reduce the time complexity, you may need to increase the space complexity or perform pre-computation. Here also your server hardware plays very important role if you are working with millions of documents. Make sure hardware configurations are as per requirement. Also avoid problems with shared storage by deploying the dbpath onto locally mounted SSDs
If you’re satisfied your structure is efficient yet queries are still running slowly, you could try rebuilding indexes on each collection. I’d recommend a full backup before rebuilding index. This should be considered a last option when all other options have been exhausted.
Thanks for reading the article. I hope this article helps you in considering the right steps to improve overall MongoDB performance. With these configurations, you can easily boost MongoDB performance. Please let me know if you have further performance tips | https://medium.com/@sagarvasa/5-ways-to-improve-mongodb-performance-130fb4734472 | ['Sagar Vasa'] | 2020-12-06 15:15:02.370000+00:00 | ['Database', 'Aggregation', 'Nodejs', 'Indexing', 'Mongodb'] |
Akoin, BitMinutes, and the Future of African Entrepreneurship. | “Our relationship with BitMinutes provides the cornerstone for how we achieve our shared vision for bringing financial inclusion to rising economies such as Africa; starting with prepaid minutes as a medium of exchange was a clear pathway for us given the store of value people in Africa already recognize there, and is the first step in bringing more users into our blockchain-based economy we’re developing at Akoin.” -Lynn Liss, Chief Operating Officer for Akoin
Without a reliable currency, communities in Sub-Saharan Africa have turned to their local telecommunications companies for a strong way to store value. Many Sub-Saharans, hindered by economic corruption and fluctuating local currencies, use pre-paid cell phone minutes to pay for utilities, goods, and services because of their usable and immediate monetary worth.
BitMinutes is the first prepaid airtime token (BMT) to provide low-cost financial services to the world’s two billion unbanked consumers.
Through the integration of Bitminutes, Akoin users will have freely transfer money to 1.2 billion accounts and free mobile top-up for four billion mobile phones. Unlike traditional conversion of currencies via exchanges, multi-currency (prepaid minutes, crypto, fiat) transactions on the Akoin Platform happen instantly thanks to the integration of some world-changing technology by our friends at Stellar. Within seconds, an Akoin holder can top-up a mobile device and convert their Akoin to BMT to airtime for phone calls. Those who struggle to exist within the traditional fiat currency model will thrive using a model they’re familiar with: transacting with prepaid minutes.
BitMinutes has created and manages the Trusted Agent Network (TAN). The TAN empowers highly vetted individuals to become the financial centers of their communities, providing small loans for entrepreneurial development as well as cash in and cash-out services to those using the platform. BitMinutes and Akoin are facilitating crucial business funding where it’s needed most.
To the 2 billion unbanked individuals globally, we believe in your entrepreneurial spirit. | https://medium.com/akoinofficial/akoin-bitminutes-and-the-future-of-african-entrepreneurship-7f407aabcdf5 | [] | 2020-03-13 20:25:21.419000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Stellar', 'Blockchain', 'Akoin'] |
Instagram Growth Hacking 3.0/How to get 100K Followers | Learn How to Build a following on Instagram and Hack the Algorithm.
Grow your Instagram Accound from 0 to 100,000 Followers
This product is the best now to boost your Instagram business
-More than 1,200 Satisfied Clients
-Premium Instagram E-Book with Insight from the top pages
-Content creation Mastery Value
-The Instagram Acceleration Method
-IG Algorithm Growth Hacking Secrets
Get Access to the secret Formula from big accounts. learn how to grow faster than 90%. Hack the Instagram Algorithm
This E-Book is for you if at least one of the following statements fits to you
- You already have an Instagram account but don’t know how to get hundreds of Followers per week
- You have some experience on Instagram and you want to grow your account
- You already have dome Followers but your engagement is low
- You see other Accounts growing faster than yours
The Owner of this product mention that the Instagram growth hacking is the book that helps you to grow much faster on Instagram and let you become an Instagram Expert.
He also mention that he had shared his Strategies in this amazing product on how he grow his Instagram so fast, how he did?
this books or product will teach you how the creator had achieved his goals.
As an affiliate marketer we only share and promote after being research of the products and which is best for the users or clients.
we hope this product will surely help you in building your Instagram Account.
Click Here For More Info: | https://medium.com/@serhiirysiew18/instagram-growth-hacking-3-0-how-to-get-100k-followers-accdfd7a682 | [] | 2020-12-16 16:59:08.911000+00:00 | ['Instagram Marketing', 'Growth', 'Followers', 'Instagram', 'Growth Hacking'] |
Dear Funders: What Does it Mean to Care About Equity in Journalism? | Here at Democracy Fund, we’ve been focused on addressing our grantees’ shifting needs, and finding ways to support engaged journalism during the global coronavirus crisis. As this pandemic continues to impact our country’s most marginalized communities disproportionately, we’ve become more sure than ever that it’s crucial not only to fund journalism, but to fund equitable journalism.
What do we mean when we talk about equity?
The “E” in “DEI” — equity — is often overlooked when compared to diversity (bringing more voices to the table) and inclusion (making sure these voices are included and valued).
That’s because equity challenges us to see the need for change at a deep level — it calls for a shift in systems and structures to address inequality at the root.
We believe a just and equitable political system must eliminate structural barriers to ensure historically excluded communities have meaningful influence in our democracy.
At Democracy Fund, we are proud to be a systems change organization. We believe a just and equitable political system must eliminate structural barriers to ensure historically excluded communities have meaningful influence in our democracy. The same is true for all of our systems, but here on the Engaged Journalism Lab, we’re focused on what equity can look like — and how funders can support it — in journalism.
What is equity in journalism?
When we talk about equity in journalism, we mean:
investing in newsrooms led by and serving historically marginalized groups;
supporting organizations working to shift industry culture and leadership; and
closing historic resource gaps that philanthropy has helped to perpetuate.
For news to be trusted and responsible, it must incorporate a diverse array of community voices, particularly those that have been ignored or harmed by storytelling and stereotyping in media. Only then will historically marginalized communities be able to count on news and support it as a vital civic asset. This means shifting resources, access, and leadership to, and embracing the power of these groups.
Funders can and should take the lead in supporting this work. That’s why, over the next year, the Engaged Journalism Lab will focus on engaging funders to support equity in journalism.
Why equity in journalism is critical
Last year, we published a series of reports looking at media by and for communities of color. The research revealed unique challenges among them, but the main concern for all was sustainability — simply having the dollars to keep the doors open.
Unfortunately, these outlets are often overlooked by journalism funders. Our latest report, “Advancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Journalism: What Funders Can Do,” found that of the $1.1 billion journalism grants in the United States between 2013 and 2017, only 8.1 percent went to equity-focused efforts. This has deeply affected the stories that are told in this country.
We’ve sought to center equity throughout our Engaged Journalism strategy and across Democracy Fund’s Public Square Program. But we need exponentially more investment in this space if we’re going to correct historic inequities in philanthropic dollars. Here are three reasons why all journalism funders must invest in equity in journalism now:
1. It’s Good Business
America is rapidly diversifying, and newsrooms that want to remain relevant must learn how to serve all communities. As Martin Reynolds, co-Executive Director of the Maynard Institute, said at this year’s Knight Media Forum, “Let’s not say ‘voices from underrepresented communities.’ Let’s say ‘voices from your future audience.’”
A growing body of evidence shows a positive connection between the diversity of a company and its performance. For journalism, this means hiring and retaining reporters from different walks of life for more nuanced, creative reporting, and centering equity throughout senior management, who determine which stories are told and how.
2. It’s Good Ethics
Journalism’s equity problem has done significant damage. Color of Change’s 2017 report, “A Dangerous Distortion of Our Families,” examined representations of families, by race, in national and local media. It found that media disproportionately associated Black families with both poverty and criminality, stereotyping that has helped justify the historic over-policing of Black communities.
This biased reporting has existed for decades. In They Came to Toil, Dr. Melita Garza analyzes newspaper representations of Mexicans in the Great Depression, finding some of the same dehumanizing language being used today. This rhetoric has real-life consequences, from emboldening racist, anti-immigrant federal policies, to deadly violence against communities of color in places like Charleston and El Paso.
Let’s be clear: Journalists from historically marginalized communities should not be solely responsible for ensuring biases are checked in their respective newsrooms. All journalists should be aware of their biases and have the necessary tools at hand to recognize them in their reporting. There must be an equitable diversity of sources, stories, and staff which centers communities that have been harmed in the past.
3. It’s Good Journalism
What we’ve learned from supporting engaged journalism is that good reporting comes from deep listening. Listening not just to existing audiences, but to communities that haven’t been reached — particularly those that have been underserved by mainstream media.
News outlets must take into account the information needs of all communities, seek genuine input to determine those needs, and take time to develop trust. This investment in time and energy is critical, not only for serving communities more meaningfully, but also for producing the highest quality journalism.
What funders can do today to begin centering equity:
Over the coming months, we’ll be sharing more resources, approaches and stories about equity in journalism. We invite you to join the conversation — follow us on Medium, tweet us at @lmariahtrusty and @thedas, or share your thoughts with us at EJLab[@]democracyfund.org. | https://medium.com/the-engaged-journalism-lab/dear-funders-what-does-it-mean-to-care-about-equity-in-journalism-21e3f9e8189a | ['Lea Trusty'] | 2020-04-13 17:06:39.847000+00:00 | ['Civic Engagement', 'Philanthropy', 'Inclusion', 'Equity', 'Journalism'] |
What Happens When You’re on the Wrong Side of the Opioid Crisis? | Days passed. I was taking Ibuprofen 800 and extra strength Tylenol around the clock but it hardly puts a dent in the pain. I contacted the doctor asking for seven more Vicodin so I’m able to take one at bedtime for the next week.
I knew that if I could rest well at night I would have more tolerance for the pain during the day. I also knew that it would only be a matter of weeks before the pain steadily subsides on its own as my bones slowly begin to heal. I just need to get through the initial impact phase of my injury.
Do you know there is an opioid epidemic in America? This was the lecture I was given when I asked for seven Vicodin-not 30, not 90, not refills, but seven. This is the same doctor I have a history with. The same doctor who knows I did not ask for narcotic pain medication when he previously treated me.
I pleaded my case. It’s inhuman to allow me to suffer in this much pain, I exclaimed and, What about the damage being done to my body by taking 3,200 milligrams of Ibuprofen and 1,500 milligrams of Acetaminophen in a 24 hour time period every day?
I was told if I felt the pain was that severe I should go to the emergency room for a one time dosage of pain medication. I was basically told, run up a huge bill for your insurance company to cover so you can experience temporary pain relief.
As far as health insurance goes my husband’s coverage through his employer is a dream come true during a time when health insurance is a main topic of debate with the rising fear that millions may lose their coverage as the financial expense continues to rise as well.
His employer covers the monthly premium which equates to zero cost to us. As long as we stay inside their network we have no deductible or copay with the exception of $200 out of pocket cost for emergency room visits.
As unbelievable as this coverage is it also leaves me trapped. If I were to decided to receive treatment from a different doctor I would have to leave the network and therefore pay out of pocket, what I imagine to be a significant expense given the extent of my injury. This also presents a challenge in filing a complaint. | https://erikasauter.medium.com/what-happens-when-youre-on-the-wrong-side-of-the-opioid-crisis-d9249a3a7e03 | ['Erika Sauter'] | 2018-07-20 18:43:20.953000+00:00 | ['Health', 'Culture', 'Politics', 'History', 'Life'] |
SwiftUI in Clean Architecture | Clean Architecture diagram from https://commons.wikimedia.org/
I was building an iOS app with a reactive approach before it became mainstream. UI is the function from data, unidirectional data flow, Onion Architecture, and all other words that used to drive some of my colleagues crazy. 2019 has changed this. SwiftUI with Combine are powerful tools that Apple brought to us and nowadays more and more developers find themselves on this road.
I don’t want to dive into a discussion about the Clean Architecture, reactive approach, or MVVM — all of this just works for me. Maybe it will work for you too, maybe won’t. But we should talk in case we’re in the same boat.
As early adopters of new technologies each of us faced some issues walking on the uncharted road, but exactly this feeling makes the journey more enjoyable. This article is not a silver bullet but a step towards the discussion about where I am now and a hope that as a strong community we will find a good approach together. Let’s get started.
The idea of Clean Architecture is dividing the software into layers. (Clean Architecture by Robert C. Martin aka Uncle Bob). In case you are not familiar with this, I highly recommend taking a look. Otherwise, it will be a little bit difficult to catch all of the abstractions I will talk about.
Basically it looks something like this
View Model takes the composition of use cases for initialization. Use Case ⏤ is a protocol with only one concrete purpose method (e.g. observe user, save the document, etc); works with Domain Entities. Repositories are the implementation of Use Cases, operating with Platform Entities.
Usually, it is convenient to implement the Use Cases in Protocol Oriented way and don’t care what actual implementation of repositories are. Whatever responsible for store the document will be able to save it.
It works for me in the UIKit world with the stack: MVVM-RxSwift-DIP. DIP is a simple Dependency Injection Container, it provides rich functionality for DI containers such as auto-wiring, scopes, storyboards integration, etc. All of this helps me to be focused on a particular piece of responsibility and don’t care about the big picture.
Since SwiftUI rolled out I’d like to adopt this approach and keep all its benefits. But what is different in the SwiftUI world?
In addition to a bunch of different changes, the existence of Environment property wrappers was introduced. It allows us to inject arbitrary values into the environment so we don’t need storyboard integration anymore. It sounds like I don’t need third-party DI at all. Let’s try to take advantage of this.
We will define AppEnvironment, which will hold DIContainer with repositories as a property and make this DIContainer EnvironmentKey to get its value whenever we need it.
The implementation of Repositories is just a basic example here. You free to go implement it in any way to achieve weak retaining to destroy the instances you don’t need and all other improvements.
Next step, I’d like to generalize the boilerplate of initialization of ViewModel and subsequent initialization of View with this ViewModel something like this:
Now the creation of the View body looks short, easy to read, and brings nothing annoying to our sight. Cool.
Summary
As I said before this article isn’t a silver bullet with a unique approach rather an invite to the discussion in attempting to build a clear approach to build SwiftUI views. Because all I saw before looks quite messy, usually limited with Single State App approach and violate the separation of concern principle sometimes.
I put my code on GitHub. So if you have some ideas about improving it ⏤ welcome to join. | https://medium.com/@bigmotor/swiftui-in-clean-architecture-5b3e6bb6ca26 | ['Nikolay Fiantsev'] | 2020-12-21 22:02:19.243000+00:00 | ['Swiftui', 'iOS', 'iOS App Development', 'Mvvm', 'Clean Architecture'] |
Leetcode SQL | 178. Rank Scores
Write a SQL query to rank scores. If there is a tie between two scores, both should have the same ranking. Note that after a tie, the next ranking number should be the next consecutive integer value. In other words, there should be no “holes” between ranks.
+----+-------+
| Id | Score |
+----+-------+
| 1 | 3.50 |
| 2 | 3.65 |
| 3 | 4.00 |
| 4 | 3.85 |
| 5 | 4.00 |
| 6 | 3.65 |
+----+-------+
For example, given the above Scores table, your query should generate the following report (order by highest score):
+-------+---------+
| score | Rank |
+-------+---------+
| 4.00 | 1 |
| 4.00 | 1 |
| 3.85 | 2 |
| 3.65 | 3 |
| 3.65 | 3 |
| 3.50 | 4 |
+-------+---------+
Important Note: For MySQL solutions, to escape reserved words used as column names, you can use an apostrophe before and after the keyword. For example `Rank`.
Logic:
Start from the inner part, create the ‘Rank’ by using count(distinct Score) +1 as ‘Rank’ Add an outer query to join with another Scores table b so a.Score > b.Score, and then order by b.score desc
Solution:
select Score as score,
(select count(distinct Score)+1
from Scores a
where a.Score > b.Score) as 'Rank'
from Scores b
order by b.score desc;
Link | https://medium.com/jen-li-chen-in-data-science/leetcode-sql-be56ecc0ac1e | ['Jen-Li Chen'] | 2020-09-02 01:51:00.033000+00:00 | ['Sql', 'Solutions', 'MySQL', 'Leetcode'] |
Why a Smartphone is a Busy Parent’s Best Friend | When you become a parent, your notion of what it means to be busy can be completely uprooted. It can feel nearly impossible to get even half of your daily itinerary finished. Between scheduling appointments, making meals and returning messages, you may have trouble keeping your head on straight. However, there’s something in your pocket that might be a great help. These reasons will help you realize how useful a smartphone can be for a busy parent.
Awesome for Scheduling
One of the hardest parts of having a lot to do is staying on top of every item on your to-do list. Individually, these items tend to not be very difficult, but keeping track of everything can be. Thanks to smartphone apps, you can make schedules and set alarms that remind you when things are due, according to Shift. Interactive apps make creating to-do lists fun. You’ll also be able to realize just how achievable your duties are. These apps can boost your efficiency, which can help you to not procrastinate.
Relaxation
When you’re constantly barraged with demands and responsibilities, you can feel very overwhelmed very easily. Smartphones won’t completely eliminate stress and, if not used properly, can add to it. However, if you find soothing apps, such as ones based in meditation, you can give yourself a break from the tension. You can also opt to mute notifications for certain apps so that you aren’t feeling so overwhelmed by messages and alerts. Just because others feel like they have to be available to everyone 24/7 doesn’t mean you have to be.
Helps Manage Your Finances
Not so long ago, if you had no time to make a budget or otherwise figure out your finances, it likely took a large chunk out of your schedule. Now, thanks to smartphones, you can take care of your budget or pay your bills with the click of a few buttons. According to MX, banking technology is going to become more and more convenient with a focus on smartphone app development and data analytics. This technology enables you to avoid the stress of dealing with your finances on your own. Now you can easily check your balance, see what you’re spending money on, and adjust your budget in just a few minutes from your phone. In the long run, this will help you to not only save time but also make better spending decisions.
You’ve likely gotten so used to life with a smartphone that you’ve forgotten about just how convenient it is. Take the time to appreciate all the options these devices give you and how much time you save. Thanks to this and other technological advancements, you’ll be able to appreciate quality time with your family far more.
If you’re busy and need to relax, check out these sangria recipes that you can make and sip when you need a break!
Other articles you’ll love:
The One Word That Can Cause Psychological Harm To Your Children
Important Questions To Ask On a Preschool Tour | https://medium.com/paper-pinecone/why-a-smartphone-is-a-busy-parents-best-friend-7ca85ebadf00 | ['Paper Pinecone'] | 2019-08-27 09:50:46.889000+00:00 | ['Money', 'Children', 'Daycare', 'Smartphones'] |
Stories From A Climate Change Tourist In America | The flooded Platt in June 2019
As we glide through the Rocky Mountains on the Amtrak California Zephyr heading for Chicago, I realise how fortunate I am to bear witness to a view of North America that is only available to those travelling by train. This is a view that is at the same time magnificent and terrible, awe inspiring yet desperately sad.
We travel through beautiful, hidden areas, the black and red rocks of the Rockies with its wilderness of plants and animals that have lived together for millions of years. From the viewing car, phones and cameras snap and click at the scenery. I join in but soon realise that I simply cannot fit the vastness and beauty into a picture.
As night falls the atmosphere in the viewing car begins to change with the drama of the mountains gradually smoothing out into the lowlands.
The following day, we wake to a different landscape, the topography flat and far reaching. The boundaried edges of human habitation on first sight look like the British countryside, like home, but on closer inspection this is very different.
All of this, while an amazing experience, is well documented and to some extent exploited, not least by tourism. Amtrak sells itself on vast landscapes and impressive vistas. But there is another side of this stretch of our adventure from Grand Junction to Chicago that has left a deep mark on me. These are memories we take away that no one planned for us to have, that the posters with the faces of happy travelers at the Amtrak stations fail to show: the signs of climate change and the neglected communities of America..
We see dead cows dumped at the edge of a field where the farmer no doubt believed they would go unnoticed. In this far corner of his world, the train track cuts a scar through his fields allowing our mode of transportation, a line of connected metal boxes, to lumber across his property. A dinosaur in the transport history of America. What he forgot is the many faces peering out from behind the tightly sealed windows, witnessing the corpses of his secret.
The houses where the occupants are lucky to have a roof over their heads, or what remains of one. Back yards filled with broken children’s bikes and old rusty cars, a tarpaulin that once covered a valuable item, now ripped and flapping in the breeze. Items that have been abandoned, forgotten or ignored. I wonder if this is how the occupants feel about their lives; abandoned, forgotten and ignored by society. Perhaps this is the America that had hoped to be made great again.
For the populations in the towns we pass through, this metal dinosaur cannot be more than an annoying clatter interfering with the television. I know with time, even this will melt into the noise of everyday life. For some the track may represent a way out, a promise of a greater life somewhere other than here. I hope they succeed, everyone deserves at least one chance in life. For a few the way out could have a different meaning.
At 4.30 am last night I woke to the train screeching on the tracks as it came to a shuddering halt. Soon blue and red flashing lights surrounded the front of the train. The victim was a young woman who in the middle of the night found life too unbearable and stood waiting for this dinosaur to smash her into oblivion. Her way out.
A couple of hours and we were on our way again. With a somber surrealism the Amtrak commuters, met for breakfast. The conversations skirted around the question we couldn’t bear to ask: how do we carry on with our lives, when hers is scattered behind us? The devastation for the train driver and crew were an easier conversation to have. It was removed from our own pain.
Did this young woman realise the lives that would be impacted? I doubt in her desperation that this entered her mind.
As we bump along the track, the day dull and grey, a feeling of inactivity permeates me, with little energy I struggle to move or find any reason to do so. These types of days, when the sun seems not to exist, are days that go nowhere no matter how fast or how far we travel. On days like this my thoughts go deep, they search for meaning, drifting in and out of possibilities. The memories we have had so far on this adventure are projected onto the screen of my mind.
We had planned to arrive at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL) at a time when the spring flowers were in full bloom and pollinators would be busy accumulating pollen while searching for nectar. But as we prepared to leave the UK, we received an email with the news that a succession of unseasonable snow storms had covered the road to our destination and had made the passage impossible.
Plan B had quickly been activated by Nick and Mary, the friends and colleagues we were visiting. The decision was made that we were all to stay at the Rockey River Resort in Gunnison.
The snowstorms were the first evidence we noticed of the effects of climate change; unreliable weather, more extreme, hot or cold. As a novice (it’s my husband who is the scientist in our relationship), I have often thought that it isn’t so much a matter of us trying to coerce nature back to what we know it to be, but to become aware of the consequences of our actions and take responsibility; take action no matter how small they may seem. Adapting to fit in around nature, and not get in her way.
Gazing out of the window in our cabin, I remember a conversation I’d had as I sat watching the river which ran through the resort. The river was visibly swelling as the snow in the mountains melted in the day’s sunshine, the water running down, gathering speed and volume as it went. Dani, who owns the resort, sat down beside me; I was pleased for her company and her local knowledge.
“This is amazing, I don’t think I have ever seen anything like it.” I was loving being an observer of this powerful force of nature. Twigs as big as small trees making their way downstream, unruly twisting and turning. The water frothing around rocks that apparently were not part of the river only a few days before.
“Last year it was so dry there was hardly a stream to paddle in.” Dani has been here since her early teens, when her dad bought the resort, rescued a dozen or so 1950’s log cabins from an area that was doomed to be dammed, and placed them on this piece of land. Here they still stand in more or less pristine condition, having been cared for and lovingly maintained by her dad and now her husband.
“The villagers further down have had flood warnings n’ they’re sand bagging their homes in preparation. There’s still a lot more to come.” She looks upstream as if expecting a wave of water, a tsunami. I realise that while I am in awe of this amazing sight, an act of nature, for others this could be a matter of homelessness.
Unpredictability and extreme weather. That was part of the prediction for climate change and it is clearly visible from where I am sitting. It is a cold realization that as a tourist I see only the pretty snap shot, the holiday photo, and a take away memory. For the locals this is a story unfolding that they play a central role in, yet have little if any control over. I wonder if they are about to become climate refugees in their own country.
On the fourth day at the resort we got news that the road to RMBL had been plowed and was passable again. Mary and Nick packed for their journey up into the mountains, but it was too late for us. We packed the rental car and set out for Grand Junction.
Instead of driving straight there, we took a diversion through the mountains, via the Black Canyon route. It took us through some truly astonishing landscapes, the type of which I wanted to devour so they would always be part of me. The drama of the clouds gathering around the mountain tops and the breaking of thunderstorms, fork lightning the likes of which I haven’t seen even in the tropics. Perhaps the heat of the sun and the rise in altitude had an effect, but the intensity of this experience was beyond anything I had imagined.
The vertical cliffs of red and black rock sprouted pine trees whose roots had forced their way into tiny crevices, holding on tightly, allowing the tree to grow, precariously perched. Not many of them here were tall, but they were strong. Could this be a metaphor for our life now? Forcing our roots deeply into culture, holding on tightly and maybe we’ll survive, even though the future looks volatile and uncertain.
My thoughts come back to the views from our compact, airless train cabin. The sun has once again appeared in a sky that is now splattered with white puffy clouds. It’s time to move, stretch our legs and find a different environment.
The viewing car has gathered a wonderful selection of people, the buzzing of talk interspersed with laughter and the squeals of children. As we settle into a couple of seats, my mood begins to lift. A ‘Hi’ across the room to people we talked with over last night’s dinner, a restricted wave and a solemn nod to our comrades from breakfast.
A conductor has stationed himself in the middle of the cart with a portable intercom, the crackling occasionally broken by an official sounding voice. He must have been there for a while as we seem to have joined in the middle of his commentary.
The Missouri river flooded June 2019
“… and if you look to the left, you will see the result of the rain we have had over the last few weeks.” I didn’t realise; this is a guided tour through the flooding of North America. The car goes momentarily quiet, the atmosphere changes as we all reach to gaze out of the windows to the left. The devastation is clear; where there once were fields of wheat and corn, the river Platt has spread to at least twice its size. Climate change; the phenomenon that tourism hasn’t yet found a way to exploit, though the conductor is setting a superb example for this to be developed further.
Photos are taken. I’m not sure if it is with incredulity or sensationalism, but I do see the scuffle as some passengers climb to get the best picture.
A short while later, the river Missouri comes into view and the story is the same here; the flood has devastated a business park where the plan is now to ‘let it go to nature’, as the conductor puts it. A village which had been sitting prettily at the edge of the river was now under water. House owners had been told they could either sell to the Government or endure crippling insurance fees after the cost of rebuilding their homes. There would be no guarantees that flooding wouldn’t happen again in a year, a month, a week or even days.
Farm houses stranded on mounds, now surrounded by moats that didn’t exist before. Cattle feeders laying on their sides having been pulled over by the flow of the water. An elderly lady sitting next to me, leans over to say “those poor people, I can’t imagine what they must be going through.” I empathize together with her, though wonder what we will do with this experience. Are we facing hopelessness, and is humanity placing itself on the track with its back turned to the train of climate change, not wanting to face reality as it hits?
We are the fortunate who, for now at least, have homes and communities to go to. I cannot help the disgust that rises in me: we are mere climate tourists, taking in the visual destruction in pictures on phones and in memories, to share in awe with friends and family. But how much do we really understand of what has been lost, what has been destroyed?
Homes, yes, that is obvious. But what of the animals, farm, pet or wild? What of the biodiversity? What of the communities? The livelihoods? The families?
As we sit here bearing witness to the views that keep passing by, I feel so small and insignificant, like a flea in the scales of this metal dinosaur. Looking out, seeing it all, but powerless to the force of it. We collectively are just another train lumbering through on the same old track, aiming for a time to be in Chicago.
As we step onto the platform at Grand Union Station, a light wind plays with my clothes and I breathe in the station air. It isn’t what I would call fresh, but it is a welcome change from the stagnant air conditioned atmosphere we have been breathing for the past 36 hours.
The devastation we passed through is momentarily forgotten as we realise we have arrived just as the Chicago Blues Festival has begun. It is light relief from the helplessness that had enveloped me, but I know I will not forget or ever again question the force of climate change and what it means for people, their communities, and nature. | https://karink-blak.medium.com/a-climate-change-tourist-in-america-dbaf8c6fb07e | ['Karin Blak'] | 2019-07-27 11:16:33.659000+00:00 | ['Travel', 'Amtrak', 'Colorado Rockies', 'Climate Change', 'Maga'] |
Free Demo’s on SELENIUM WebDriver | in The New York Times | https://medium.com/@studentbuzz/free-demos-on-selenium-webdriver-1afeef5d8838 | [] | 2020-12-12 06:26:32.629000+00:00 | ['Online Training', 'Software Testing', 'Agile Methodology', 'Selenium Webdriver', 'Selenium'] |
Cloud9 vs. Samsung Galaxy Series Report | Game 1
The game started on a sour note as the Chicago crowd booed the Samsung team. Even though the crowd certainly favored Cloud9, the analysts did not share the same sentiment as they all chose Samsung Galaxy to win this series and advance to the semifinal stage. In the draft, Cloud9 banned two strong picks in Nidalee and Tahm Kench using their other ban to get rid of Crowns’ best champion in Viktor. Samsung did the same, banning out the strong picks in Kennen and Syndra while targeting Jensen with a Ryze ban.
The first action in the game was a gank mid lane that forced Jensen to use his ghost while Ambition also used his. First blood came from a mistake made by the C9 squad. Smoothie roamed up and joined Meteos for a gank mid lane. However, Crown outplays Smoothie by flashing and turning around to kill the C9 support. Off of the kill, Samsung are able to pick up an early ocean drake. Smoothie continues to be punished, as he is almost killed bot lane minutes later.
In the tenth minute, Ambition roams down bot as the Samsung bot lane sets up strong CC onto Sneaky, making for an easy kill. Meanwhile mid lane, Jensen starts off a fight by trapping Crown in his ultimate but Crown works his way around the Orianna ball using both summoner’s to outplay Jensen, but Jensen secures the kill almost going down himself. Samsung maintains a small lead but due to the strong farming from Impact and Jensen, the goal lead is only at one hundred gold.
The skirmishing continues as CuVee makes Impact use his flash top, Ambition fights mid with Meteos and uses Ragnarock to get away from Orianna ultimate and Sneaky uses flash bottom as he gets CC’d. After forcing the summoner usage, CuVee tower dives Impact to get the kill and transitions that kill into a Rift Herald take for Samsung. Cloud9’s bot lane also gets punished for using flash as they try to surprise CoreJJ with a brush-bait, but Ruler comes to the rescue and gets his first kill onto Sneaky. The gold lead expands to 300 for SSG as they take the first turret bot and a mountain drake. Samsung snowballs their advantages getting more kills and turrets around the map.
The game completely spirals out of control as Samsung stampedes their way to a quick win over the North American team ending the game in less than thirty minutes. Cuvee tried to finish the game earlier but was killed off by C9 when one more auto would have destroyed the nexus. A very commanding first game from Samsung as C9 will have to take the crowds energy to show better in the next game.
Game 2
Not much change to the bans in game two, as the only adjustment is an Olaf ban from C9 dropping the Kennen ban. Much of the same picks from last game are seen in this game as Samsung looks for a strong teamfight with Kennen and Orianna while C9 looks more for poke as they pick up Jayce and Jhin. Both teams have pick potential if a champion is miss-positioned in Skarner and Jhin.
The game starts off even in the first ten minutes as both teams are trading back and forth in lane and in the river, neither team gaining a big advantage. The first big confrontation comes at the eleventh minute as C9 takes the Ocean Drake while they zone off Samsung. Ambition attempts a few ganks, threatening Skarner ult, and getting flashes from top and mid lane. Trading continues as Cloud9 picks up their second Ocean Drake. Ruler and CoreJJ unleash their power as they take down Sneaky for first blood in the bot lane. A trade turns into a war, as Samsung emerges victorious in the bottom lane fight. C9 gets the top turret moments before Samsung takes bottom turret for the first turret gold. C9 is controlling the top of the map while Samsung has the advantage bottom.
C9 has a slight lead over SSG as the Infernal Drake spawns. C9 attempts to zone off Samsung with Nami ult and Jhin ult after Samsung starts up the drake, but Ambition smites it away from Meteos. The game turns on its’ head in the 27th minute as CuVee has a brilliant teleport behind C9 in topside and catches the carries in his ultimate. From there Samsung wipes C9 with only Smoothie making it out alive. SSG takes the Baron and has a huge advantage in the game.
As SSG pushes with Baron onto the bottom inner turret, a messy fight results in a 3-for-3 and stalls out the Baron. SSG commits a bit too hard after a good start to the fight for Cloud9. After taking the middle inhibitor turret, SSG moves to Baron and starts to take the objective. Impact tries to TP in as Meteos flashes to steal it away but fails and loses his Guardian Angel and dies. From that point Ruler takes over the game and helps lead SSG to a second victory, putting them at match point.
Game 3
In the third game bans remain largely unchanged, again, the only difference being a Jhin ban by Cloud9. Samsung takes advantage of the change in strategy and first pick Olaf for Ambition. Cloud9 pumps up the crowd by hovering Zac but picking Jayce for the time being. Samsung completely counters this move and grabs Poppy top and Tahm Kench support. Cloud9 goes ahead with the Zac pick anyway.
C9 commits three members bottom side to take the bottom turret. While the North American team takes the objective, CuVee gets first blood top and Ambition kills Jensen mid. Cloud9 earns a kill top but quickly trades it back. Meteos seems off his game and tries to force ganks too hard on the Zac and was ineffective.
A hectic fight erupts in top lane in the sixteenth minute. A Tahm Kench ult brings in Ambition where they engage onto Sneaky. Meteos is waiting in the bush and jumps out but ults on a Ragnarocking Olaf. SSG get two kills on Sneaky and Smoothie but Meteos turns it around and gets kills onto Ambition and Ruler. CuVee teleports in and cleans up the fight helping get kills on both Meteos and Jensen.
SSG engages a fight mid after a failed engage from Cloud9, they net themselves two kills on the ADC and support. CuVee continues to play amazing in this game. Nothing goes right for C9 as they lose four kills topside. C9 tries a very risky Baron and SSG brings four members to engage. CuVee ults Meteos out of the pit and chases C9 down to get three kills, only losing one, and the Baron from the fight.
From there, Samsung systematically ends the game against Cloud9, completing the sweep over Cloud9. Samsung was the better team from start to finish in the series and it showed in their play and their picks. Sneaky had a pretty poor series as well as Meteos. Every member from SSG played well and especially CuVee and Ruler had a great series. | https://medium.com/esports-now/cloud9-vs-samsung-galaxy-series-report-b30bb8a8c22c | ['Joe Tortorice'] | 2016-10-14 14:00:29.129000+00:00 | ['League of Legends', 'Esports', 'Cloud9', 'Chicago'] |
2020, The Year of Conscious Shift in Mind | What You Got, What You Missed in The Year 2020
Photo by Immo Wegmann on Unsplash
Hello all, you might have guessed it what my write up will be, based on the title of the story. Yes, it is all about 2020. But neither I am going to talk about Covid cases, remedy for Corona nor about vaccine. We have done that enough throughout the year. Here we are almost on the edge of bidding adieu to 2020 and it is the high time we look back to realize what you missed, what we gained.
There are mainly three categories of people emerging out in 2020.
Proactive and positive Balanced Worrying and negative
I want to explain three of these categories in details. You can see where you stand.
Proactive and Positive: These people have been disciplined, focused and always conscious in their lifestyle. Because they have been maintaining a healthy body and mind even before pandemic, saw a positive effect in 2020. They remained positive and focused. They utilized this golden time of staying inside into a fruitful one by enhancing their personal and professional skills. They accepted the whole deadly scenario as it is, saw it as opportunity and moved forward. They became happy as they got much time to stay with their families. They devoted their time in family, professional and personal life. They read less junk news about the outside scenario and took proper precaution while going out for necessary purpose. They tried out different and innovative ways to keep themselves motivated and work efficiently.
Photo by Melissa Askew on Unsplash
2. Balanced: The people in this category have been maintaining a balanced life. Even though they saw threatening scenario outside their home, they keep calm in their mind and work towards their goal. But they always keep a little fear in the mind about the Covid and usually restricted themselves in going out to most of the places. They have been keeping track of Covid cases and numbers yet did not let the information becoming a hamper in their day to day life. They are worried for their near and dear ones. Although they have done many of their pending work, enhanced their skill in their hobby but still at the end of the year, they feel that they could have done more.
3. Worrying and negative: These people are losing their time and energy big time this year. 2020 turns out to be a total waste for them. They have been worrying for unnecessary reasons and because of this attitude they have developed a negative mindset over a period of time. They got so much scared from the situation that they have restricted themselves in a cocoon which in turn affected their mental sanity in an adverse way. They see threat and fear in everything. They did not utilize the time in any progressive work and instead kept themselves busy in worry business.
Now with the above categorization, we all can identify ourselves where we fall. 2020 is the year to make a conscious shift in mind how to handle a complicated and pandemic situation like this. It may be virus today, it could be natural calamity tomorrow, it could be a family disaster in future. The better we handle our mental state, better will be the effectiveness of our time and energy and hence less will be the regret in future. We all realize by now how much important our health is which many of us were ignoring in the past.
Problem comes and goes but the mental health and sanity should remain undisturbed. But it is not easy. It takes long time and effort to establish that seed in your mind and let it grow to tackle life problems.
Those who are handling the global pandemic well have the trick to counter and tackle any such situation coming in their life.
Those who have wasted the whole year thinking what would happen, should start pondering that they still have time for progressive work.
We all wish 2021 would a peaceful year where fear and anxiety are less and more happiness spreading across the world.
I still believe people who are with humanity will win against all the evil minds of the world. | https://medium.com/illumination/2020-the-year-of-conscious-shift-in-mind-b7d2f5a72463 | ['Jaysankar D Talukdar'] | 2020-12-25 14:40:11.152000+00:00 | ['Happy New Year', 'Covid 19 Crisis', 'Covid 19', 'New Year Resolution', '2020'] |
@ National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence | So good today to visit the NIST Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE).
The cybersecurity solutions developed are aligned to the well-known Cybersecurity Framework (CSF).
Got to see some of the laboratories, including demonstrations for securing the Healthcare and Energy Sectors.
Interesting to hear about examples for securing hospitals records and even things like infusion pumps.
The medical devices are tricky to secure, because they are built to potentially last decades and are expensive to replace, but the underlying technology changes every couple of years.
Also, learned more about securing the energy sector and their industrial control systems.
One scary notable item mentioned was about the “big red button” for shutdown in many of these facilities, but apparently there is malware that can even interfere in this critical function.
It is imperative that as a nation we focus on critical infrastructure protection (CIP) and continuously enhancing our security.
Time is of the essence as our adversaries improve their game, we need to be urgently upping ours. ;-)
(Source Photos: Andy Blumenthal) | https://medium.com/@andyblumenthal/national-cybersecurity-center-of-excellence-da328a1b30d7 | ['Andrew', 'Avraham'] | 2019-05-09 22:06:49.887000+00:00 | ['Center Of Excellence', 'Best Practices', 'National Security', 'Cybersecurity', 'Standards'] |
Journalism Is Not Sexy | I was born inside the Beltway in 1974 a few days before Richard Nixon resigned from the presidency, a direct result of reporters exposing a vast government coverup. My dad had moved our family to Virginia from Texas to work for Senator Lloyd Bentsen, his first job as a press secretary. Previously, he had been a journalist. A broadcast journalist, actually. He hosted the evening news in El Paso, Texas, for many years.
Once, I asked him why he gave up the news and without missing a beat, he told me one Christmas Day he became depressed because he had to go to work and there was no news to report. He told me he wished for a murder or a horrible accident to help fill the hour.
Other than that, he never really talked about his time in front of the camera or reporting for various local newspapers. He had a bunch of Time magazine bylines if I remember correctly. This would have been the ‘60s? Anyway, he did tell me when he was first starting out when he got out of the army, he lived in his car for a while and ate nothing but donuts. I think his very first job was as a radio DJ, and he used to dedicate songs to my mom when they were dating.
He wanted me to know these jobs — radio, TV, newspaperman — weren’t reputable professions. If you were born to a good family you were likely encouraged to become a doctor or a lawyer. No one wants their kid to grow up to be a metro reporter with a drinking problem who's really good at annoying apparatchiks at City Hall. Let me say for the record: God bless metro reporters.
But the job is strictly for maniacs who love punctuation and sensitive souls with authority problems. Journalism is not sexy. Necessary, but not sexy. It’s like being a sanitation worker only you’re up to your waist in lies.
When I finally got a job at a national magazine I met small armies of unpaid interns. I didn’t understand how unpaid interns could survive in New York City without an income until I learned most of them came from privilege. I wondered why they weren’t, you know, lawyers. The truth is, they wanted to fight for truth and justice and take down the powerful. The job was sexy. It was powerful. Exciting. Lawyering is less so.
I didn’t go to journalism school. I am a failed playwright but I failed very early so I was able to learn another trade. Here’s how I became a journalist: I was a temp one day and the next day I was a fact-checker. There is no ceremony. If you want to become a journalist just say “I’m a journalist” into the mirror three times and then, presto!
After that, it’s a lifetime of late nights and questions and worrying about dangling participles. Early in my career, I got the price wrong for an expensive external hard drive I was writing about for a magazine about technology and small businesses. My editor was not pleased. You know that corny old adage, “Don’t sweat the small stuff?” Well, that editor told me to sweat the small the stuff.
My old man was a proud political flack. I remember that. He was the son of a preacher his whole life and prided himself on his honesty. Politics is ventriloquism but you could see his lips move. He loved reporters and was respected on Capitol Hill. But he also knew the best ones were junkyard dogs who needed to be fed truth daily or else.
I think that’s why he loved them.
All The President’s Men really sells the romance of a newsroom, circus-like open offices where journalists save the world. The last shot of Redford and Hoffman shows them in the newsroom hunched over typewriters, dramatically banging out the words that would save the Republic.
The problem with the movie is journalists aren’t superheroes. A good journalist knows power in any measurement — even a spoonful — corrupts. That sometimes rotten meat can smell sweet. A good journalist isn’t unbiased. They’re human beings. Which means they’re hugely biased assholes. A good journalist just knows that everyone is an asshole, including journalists. There are no creatures under heaven who excrete rose petals. Reporter, expose thyself.
Journalists are not sexy Robert Redford, with sensitive furrowed brows. Dustin Hoffman’s Carl Bernstein is a chain-smoking, barnstorming ladies man in All The President’s Men. Woodward and Bernstein were ex-hippies in tight pants with egos the size of Chevy Impalas — like the rest of their generation. The movie just made them rock stars and only rock stars are rock stars. All The President’s Men is a fun fantasy to watch for two hours and 18 minutes but it’s just make-believe. You know, bullshit. The Adventures Of Bob And Carl.
I don’t think journalism is a sacred calling. I don’t think it’s a religion, which is the best business model in the history of the world. It’s a job, and not a particularly well-paying job. It’s a job that’s easy to ignore or mock, especially when you don’t think you need it. I bet most people don’t really think about firefighters until there’s a grease fire.
You know a fraction of the truth and what little you know is a gift. Information is power and the powerful want to dazzle and hypnotize you with drama. News that shimmers and tickles. They fear any truth getting out, even a squirt. Did you know the strong steal from the weak every day? That preachers lie and police officers murder the innocent? Right now, as you read this, the rich dig spurs into the soft flanks of elected officials.
The world is on fire and the only reason you know about it is that journalists reported it. The process of finding that out and writing it up was likely boring and that person was probably insulted on social media afterward.
And yet tomorrow morning there will be headlines screaming truths — fact-checked stories written by serious-minded journalists with condiment-stained shirts uninterested in fairy tales or best-case scenarios — whether you want to read them or not. Assuming they’ve done their jobs ethically, you owe your freedom to those people — your freedom to think, to question, to point and shout, “Who do you think you are?” | https://medium.com/humungus/robert-redford-is-sexy-but-journalism-is-not-51f29f13489b | ['John Devore'] | 2020-10-30 13:25:10.897000+00:00 | ['Cinema', 'Culture', 'Film', 'Journalism', 'Movies'] |
Web 3.0 is a worldwide digital factory | It will be beneficial for the user to create a positive digital footprint. Not just a profile in a business social network, but links to existing projects, professional content, and recognition in virtual communities. With no need for authority regulation, the Internet will no longer stay anonymous, because users will be interested in gaining their reputation.
Decentralization matters
What technologies form the basis of Web 3.0 and continue development? Of course, these are AI, Big Data, and Semantic web which are already used in the recommendation and advertising systems. They allow us to analyze user behavior more accurately. Internet of things data enriches user-profiles and consumer habits information. Various personal and transport trackers, smart home systems, Bluetooth beacons in shopping centers allow services to create a comfortable environment for their users and retain the audience.
Decentralized technologies in relation to Web 3.0 allow us to get more information about users and improve their experience of interacting with services. For example, there are startups that adopt decentralized databases to store a user’s medical information, which they can share with institutions and services. Medical organizations will be able to provide better care to patients and add more data to their dossiers in a decentralized registry.
User location logs from various sources collected in the decentralized ledger can also be used by recommendation systems. Some services will help you find fellow travelers, and others will show you that there is a specialized hobby store along the way. There are startups that help users create their digital identity. In much the same way that you use your Facebook account to log in to other sites, you can give them access to your digital identity.
The global digital office will employ individuals based on more comprehensive information than their CV.
Even reviews and recommendations do not provide enough information and can be falsified. But graphs from social connections, contributions to projects, and open portfolios allow you to create an accurate profile of an employee. Such data, stored in a decentralized manner, will construct a digital twin. For example, a designer participates in open and closed projects using digital tools and services in which he is authorized through his decentralized digital identity. His digital profile will include a list of projects automatically generated by these services. Artificial intelligence will be able to evaluate the designer’s distributed portfolio and recommend it to suitable clients.
EVEN team works on a decentralized data source that will allow data owners to manage their digital profiles. This is a distributed database and file storage. A distributed file system is required for storing photos, scanned copies of documents, specialized data formats, and other content.
Such data will not be inputted manually by the user, but it will be generated as a result of their interaction with various services. Currently, such data is stored in silos, for example in social networks and other platforms. As a part of the Web 3.0 concept, data must be stored in decentralized storage to be manageable by its owner.
A user can block access by services to the data or easily transfer data to another service. The services will compete for the ability to access such data, which means that the user experience will improve.
We expect decentralized technologies to expand their scope from financial services to user applications. This will be the transition to Web 3.0. | https://medium.com/coinmonks/web-3-0-is-a-worldwide-digital-factory-97b60b1db448 | ['Even Foundation'] | 2020-08-25 13:50:40.014000+00:00 | ['Decentralized Web', 'Web', 'Decentralization', 'Web3', 'Decentralized'] |
The History of Internet Communities | History can be described as a power struggle between hierarchies and networks. Most history we learn about is hierarchical: it’s about kings, presidents, generals, and CEOs. It’s about states, armies, and corporations. It’s about orders from higher up.
Yet networks have always been with us. Throughout history, hierarchies housed in high towers have claimed to rule, but often real power resided in the networks in the town square below. For it is through networks that innovation and revolutionary ideas can contagiously spread.
The 21st century has often been hailed as the Age of Networks. While today we view the Internet as being centralized in a few gatekeepers like Google and Facebook, we forget that most early innovation was driven by grassroots organic communities rather than top-down central planning. Hackers and early adopters who spent their free time and weekends tinkering and living in online communities were the ones who ultimately brought the Internet to the masses.
To illustrate, here are five lessons from the early Internet that show why online communities are essential to the development of a new computing platform.
1. World Wide Web vs. Information Superhighway
In the early 1990s, there were two competing ideas for what the future Internet would look like. One was the Information Superhighway, the other was the World Wide Web.
The Information Superhighway was the futuristic dream technology of the media and telecom industries. The computer, television, and telephone would all be combined into one monolithic product such that consumers could shop online, video chat, watch movies, etc. all in front of their own TVs. Sounds like the Internet we know of today except with a “smart” TV.
A special edition of Time magazine in April 1993 was titled “The Info Highway: Bringing a Revolution in Entertainment, News, and Communication.”
There was so much hype around the Information Superhighway. Large cable, media, and tech companies such as Time Warner and Microsoft invested hundreds of millions of dollars into “smart” TV products. They assumed the living room was the logical place for the Internet revolution since that was where the existing infrastructure and entertainment were. Jerry Levin, then CEO of Time Warner, even proclaimed at one point that “I challenge anybody to say that video-on-demand isn’t what the consumer wants.”
Instead, he should have just asked the consumer. One by one, these “smart” TV products failed spectacularly. One reason was due to the generational bias of industry executives. They had all grown up during the television era and assumed that the World Wide Web was too technical and esoteric for mainstream consumers compared to the TV. While the executives were correct in their assessment at the time, what they missed was that the World Wide Web had a passionate community of early believers that the Information Superhighway didn’t have.
The early World Wide Web community of geeky hackers wanted the ability to not only consume more content but also create and share content. Upstart community members built tools and interfaces that made the user experience better for the average person. Netscape, for instance, was the first popular GUI browser that replaced the hideous user experience of reading text on a command line.
Improved UX greatly reduced the barrier to entry to the early World Wide Web community. Consequently, what started as a grassroots community of early adopters ended up growing exponentially to become the Internet we know of today. Instead of deciding on a top-down managed product, the old industry executives should have paid attention to the bottom-up organic World Wide Web community and help nurture its growth into a huge market.
2. AOL
One of the core features of AOL was online chat. There were public chat rooms organized by topic as well as private chat rooms where anything was fair game. It’s an open secret in business that sex sells — like the way porn movies drove adoption of VCRs and the way VR found an early use case in porn. Thus, it’s no surprise that the popularity of AOL was driven by lots of sex chat where anonymous users could talk dirty and role-play sexual fantasies.
The more users chatted, the more money AOL made. An October 1996 article in Rolling Stone estimated that half of all AOL chat was sexually oriented, which generated $7 million a month in revenue. By the end of 1996, AOL servers were so overwhelmed with traffic that service often went down for several hours.
By contrast, AOL’s competitors CompuServe and Prodigy were too serious and conservative for any hints of indecency. As a result, they missed out on the huge growth opportunity driven by sex chat communities, and by the time they realized their mistake AOL already had the online chat market cornered.
3. eBay
One unique feature of eBay in its early days was that it was just a marketplace. It didn’t store any inventory of goods unlike Amazon. Likewise, the only tangible asset eBay had was the goodwill of buyers and sellers and the reputation of its online community.
eBay’s creator Pierre Omidyar strongly believed in the libertarian ethos of not imposing governance on or policing a nascent Internet community. He relied on buyers and sellers to be honest, and when disputes arose he simply copied both parties onto the same email thread and told them to resolve the issue themselves.
With the need to self-regulate an online community, Omidyar created the Feedback Forum where buyers and sellers could rate each other and leave written feedback. Today ratings are ubiquitous in marketplaces like Uber or Airbnb, but at the time online reputation was a novel groundbreaking idea. eBay provided the training wheels for people to trust strangers online. Very quickly, a select group of users stepped up to the responsibility of being “experts” and trusted sources of advice. The strong emphasis on community was evident when Mary Lou Song, eBay’s community manager, always referred to users as “the community” as opposed to “customers.”
A lot of eBay’s early user growth came from antiques and collectibles because the Internet was good at tapping into niche communities that were historically underserved yet have passionate users. eBay was the forum where disparate communities of shared interests, no matter how obscure, could congregate and perform the fundamental hobbyist acts of trading and collecting.
At the beginning of 1997, antiques and collectibles accounted for 80% of all eBay listings. Beanie Babies, a popular collectible that lacked a secondary market for rare and discontinued stuffed animals, quickly grew to 6.6% of eBay’s sales volume, with some auctions netting thousands of dollars. What started out as hobbyists who sold spare items for supplemental income eventually grew into professional businesses that sell millions of dollars of goods on online marketplaces.
The success of eBay gives us two major lessons. First, an insane focus on community — on empowering anonymous users and allowing them to function based on reputation — can actually work in practice. Second, niche communities can serve as good beachhead markets before expanding into other verticals.
4. Wikipedia
Jimmy Wales had a vision that the web could create the largest encyclopedia conceivable where “every single person is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge.” To do so, he started the Nupedia project where everyday people, preferably “true experts in their fields and (with few exceptions) possess PhDs,” could contribute articles that would then be peer-reviewed by other experts.
The problem was that rigid quality control was highly inefficient. Fewer than two dozen articles were published in just the year 2000 alone. Frustrated with the lack of volume, Wales decided to crowdsource articles in a separate website called Wikipedia before submitting those crowdsourced articles to experts. The first crowdsourced article created was on the English letter “U”, which investigated the origins and usage of such letter.
As it turned out, those crowdsourced articles were extremely comprehensive, well-written, and — to the surprise of the expert editors — accurate. The few thousand users who contributed to Wikipedia in its early days had collectively submitted near-authoritative quality articles on a variety of different topics. The rigorous system of peer reviews was quickly abandoned.
What confounded everybody about Wikipedia was that crowdsourcing knowledge actually works in practice. If total idiots put fake news in an article, then others could delete those changes and edit them into something more accurate. The marketplace of ideas would eventually sort itself out and reach an equilibrium point on a set of facts that the community agreed upon.
5. Blogging
One of the killer apps of the Internet was the ability for users to freely generate content for others. Blogging enabled everyday people to publish in front of an audience without going through a gatekeeper like the New York Times. The Internet was the endless human storybook for people to share their own perspectives and experiences.
Politics was especially impacted by blogging. From the right side of the political spectrum, a group of conservative blogs such as Instapundit, Little Green Footballs, Power Line, and others advocated for an aggressive war on terrorism after 9/11. Conversely, opposition to the Iraq War fueled left-wing blogs such as MyDD, DailyKos, Eschaton, Hullabaloo, and others.
Blogging forever changed political campaigning and discourse. Mass movements can arise online and quickly take over the mainstream discourse — examples include the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street movements as well as the influence of Breitbart on the Drumpf campaign. Moreover, blogging can serve as a platform for an obscure individual to launch his or her own political media career. Matt Drudge (Drudge Report), Andrew Breitbart (Breitbart News), and Nick Denton (Gawker) all started as bloggers who quickly garnered an online community around them.
Blogs enabled online communities to form around certain political interests and affiliations, when previously everyone got the news from a few major outlets like the New York Times or CNN. Although today it’s debatable whether breaking down the arbiters of media has created political polarization and echo chambers, the power of online political communities cannot be understated. A spark generated from an obscure blog can fuel the fire for a mass political movement.
So what?
Most people view the success of the Internet as primarily driven by top-down decisions, but in reality it was the organic communities that formed around different projects that enabled the Internet as a whole to prosper and get mass adoption.
The Information Superhighway showed us the folly of top-down decisions that didn’t address what users really wanted compared to the World Wide Web. AOL showed us not to be embarrassed about sex communities as a driver of growth. eBay showed us that reputation is enough to govern anonymous users online and that niche communities are great first markets. Wikipedia showed us that crowdsourcing knowledge results in the truth winning out in the marketplace of ideas. And blogging showed us that online communities are powerful platforms for launching one’s public figure career.
As Mark Twain once famously said, “History doesn’t repeat itself but it often rhymes.” One new area we can apply the lessons of the early Internet to is blockchains and cryptocurrencies. Decentralized crypto networks represent a new computing paradigm just like websites did for Web 1.0 and mobile did for Web 2.0. With each computing paradigm, getting buy-in from an early passionate community of users is crucial for the ability of such platform to thrive long-term. You want others to be actively building on top of your platform.
In my view, the crypto projects that have a community-first as opposed to product-first approach are the projects that have the highest chance of being successful. Many projects today are underestimating the importance of building a community. Distributed ledger technologies (DLTs), for instance, are mostly driven by top-down corporate decisions but so far have failed to get meaningful adoption, a striking parallel to the Information Superhighway of the early 90s. This stands in contrast to open crypto networks, which have a higher chance of winning over DLTs like what ultimately happened with the World Wide Web.
Thus, as we move forward in innovation, it’s important to look back into the history of the early Internet and remember that many early projects that were insanely focused on community were the ones that were ultimately successful.
This article was inspired by Brian McCullough’s book How the Internet Happened. Fantastic book that explains the whole story of how the Internet evolved from Netscape to the iPhone. | https://medium.com/@rchen8/the-history-of-internet-communities-f0234db848b1 | ['Richard Chen'] | 2019-01-16 21:04:36.526000+00:00 | ['Internet', 'Digital Life', 'Internet Culture', 'Blockchain', 'Technology'] |
No, I Will Not Remove The Word “Dick” From My Family Film “Dog Dicks” | Photo courtesy of the author
My Dearest Motion Picture Association,
Thank you for the suggestion to re-name my studio’s film “Dog Detectives” in order to receive a G-rating. However, I insist that it remain titled “Dog Dicks.”
This picture is adapted from an adorable 1930s children’s book about a ragtag family of stray dogs who solve mysteries. Back then, “dick” was just slang for “detective.” I assure you, words that were innocent before will be innocent again. “Dick,” “hammer,” “shaft”… sure, they all mean penis today. But what about Dick Tracy, Mike Hammer, or John Shaft? Those aren’t penises, they’re famous detectives. I’m bringing “dick” back, and with your help, Dog Dicks will rise again.
I own the rights to the entire series, so I plan on making sequels starring Spotty, Minnie, Slobber, and Chomper, the beloved Dog Dicks. An uplifting cinematic universe, all with the original titles:
“Dog Dicks Get Licked”: the Dicks don’t solve their toughest case. It’s a cliffhanger!
“Dog Dicks Come Hard”: the Dicks put everything into finally solving the mystery. It’s triumphant!
“Dog Dicks Slide Down Smooth”: the Dicks investigate a water park. That book won a Newbury medal!
But, I cannot produce sequels until we resolve “Dog Dicks.” While I understand that you must consider the optics of “dicks,” this adaptation is clearly wholesome entertainment. In fact, the source material inspired the canine sleuths children know and love today, from Scooby-Doo to McGruff. If those dog dicks are acceptable, why not mine?
Please don’t slap an R-rating on a film which must be seen by every family. Let me tell you a story to illustrate why this means so very much.
It’s about a lonely orphan boy, whose only friends resided in the pages of books. In his local library, he discovered a section filled with Dog Dicks. He was only happy when he had Dog Dicks in his hands. They made him clever, resourceful, and upstanding because nobody stands up like a Dick. Why, acting like a Dick made him a billionaire.
Because that orphan boy… was me.
Please help me share those values with the general public. All my considerable resources have been put into this picture, because all my dreams are of Dog Dicks.
Fond regards,
Antoine Robb
Robb Studios
Los Angeles, CA
P.S. I will also not remove the dog penises from my film. Those are animal actors in their natural state. What would you have me do, put pants on my Dicks? | https://medium.com/slackjaw/no-i-will-not-remove-the-word-dick-from-my-family-film-dog-dicks-8633f89b6614 | ['Dr. Bill Bradley'] | 2020-10-06 12:57:43.273000+00:00 | ['Pets', 'Comedy', 'Film', 'Books', 'Humor'] |
Monitor the health of your application infrastructure with Elasticsearch & Kibana | Elasticsearch is an open-source, distributed search and analytics engine that is commonly used for log analytics, full-text search, and operational intelligence. Kibana is a free open-source data visualization tool that provides a tight integration with Elasticsearch and is the default choice for visualizing data stored in the latter.
How They Work Together
Data is sent to Elasticsearch in the form of JSON files via the Elasticsearch API or other ingestion tools such as Logstash or Amazon Kinesis Firehose. Elasticsearch then proceeds to store the document and adds a searchable reference to the document in the cluster’s index which can be retrieved using the Elasticsearch API. This data stored in Elasticsearch can be used to easily set up dashboards and reports with Kibana to gain access to analytics and additional operational insights.
“The ability to make sense out of data is no longer simply a competitive advantage for enterprises, it has become an absolute necessity for any company in an increasingly complex and statistics-driven world. The visualizations provided by Kibana on Elasticsearch data can quickly provide deep business insight.” — Brad Winett, TrackIt President
Helping ElephantDrive Take Advantage of Kibana Dashboards to Better Monitor their APIs
ElephantDrive is a leading service supplier that provides individuals and businesses simple but powerful tools for protecting and accessing their data. With ElephantDrive, ordinary people enjoy the peace of mind that comes from the type of enterprise-class backup, storage, and data management that has historically only been available to big corporations.
ElephantDrive wanted to improve its ability to store, analyze, and visualize log information, so they set up a basic ELK (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana) stack. The initial Kibana implementation was in place but without any of the dashboards that make it such a valuable tool, so ElephantDrive approached the TrackIt team and asked us to analyze ElephantDrives’s current Elasticsearch logs to recommend dashboards that could be set up to allow for better log monitoring. Two were created for this specific purpose:
A ‘data.operation’ dashboard that displays the distribution of requests by operation in a pie chart A ‘data.apiKey’ dashboard that displays the average response time per API key
“We were able to get the basic stack up quickly, but wanted to turn the data into actionable information — the Track It team not only helped us leverage the power of Kibana’s visualizations, but also provided the education, documentation, and tools for us to take the next steps on our own” — Michael Fisher, ElephantDrive CEO and Co-Founder
The following is a thorough tutorial that will first walk the reader through the general process of setting up dashboards using Elasticsearch and Kibana before illustrating the steps we took to set up these two dashboards for ElephantDrive.
Accessing Elasticsearch & Kibana
Communication with Elasticsearch is done via HTTP requests. We have used Postman in this example, which provides us with a more graphical interface to make requests. To access Elasticsearch, you can make requests in the following way using a curl in a shell script:
curl -v “http://ec2-XXX-XX-X-XX.compute-1.amazonaws.com:9200/_cat/indices?v"
To access Kibana, load this URL in your browser :
Logstash Ingestion Issue & How To Fix It
ElephantDrive had an issue with their Logstash. Under some rare circumstances, the Logstash ingestion was failing and the following error message was received:
[2020–03–04T22:34:52,349][WARN ][logstash.outputs.elasticsearch] Could not index event to Elasticsearch. {:status=>400, :action=>[“index”, {:_id=>nil, :_index=>”logstash-2020.03.04", :_type=>”doc”, :_routing=>nil}, #<LogStash::Event:0x16a5ee83>], :response=>{“index”=>{“_index”=>”logstash-2020.03.04", “_type”=>”doc”, “_id”=>”AXCnr_f9Ski653_WeeEo”, “status”=>400, “error”=>{“type”=>”mapper_parsing_exception”, “reason”=>”failed to parse [data]”, “caused_by”=>{“type”=>”illegal_state_exception”, “reason”=>”Can’t get text on a START_OBJECT at 1:171"}}}}}
This error was thought to be coming from a malformed log entry arriving at the exact moment a new Elasticsearch index is created. This would happen if the malformed log entry is the first one sent to Logstash on a new day since Logstash creates a new index each day.
Since the Elasticsearch mapping is dynamically created from the message parsed by Logstash, a malformed message will put a wrong mapping in the index, which will, in turn, stop the correct message from being ingested.
Fixing the Logstash Ingestion Issue
If you are facing a similar issue, the first step to take is to shut down Logstash. Once Logstash is shut down, you need to delete the incriminated index. The index name can be found in the Logstash log (and is typically “logstash-YYYY.MM.DD”).
Open Kibana, and go to “Dev Tools”:
Delete the index with the following command (using the name of the incriminated index) :
You can then restart Logstash and let it ingest new log entries.
Once Logstash has recreated the index, you will also need to refresh the field list to get the correct mapping (under Management > Index Pattern > logstash-*) :
Getting Started With Kibana
How To Create A Dashboard with Kibana — Pie Chart Example
In this initial example, we will walk you through the process of creating a pie chart dashboard that shows the most performed queries.
Go to the “Visualize” tab and click the “Create new visualization” button
2. Select “Compare parts of a whole” (Pie chart)
3. The data required to create this dashboard is located in the “logstash” database.
4. Select “Split Slices”
5. Under “Aggregation”, choose “Terms”
6. Select “data.operation.keyword”
7. Choose how you would like to order the data and also the number of slices with “Size”
8. Click on “Apply changes”
This is what the result looks like:
Creating the ‘Average response time per API Key’ Dashboard
The first dashboard we created for ElephantDrive is a data table that displays the average response time per API key. The steps to implement this dashboard are as follows:
Go to the “Visualize” tab and click the “Create new visualization” button
2. For this type of data, choosing “Data Table” is a relevant choice.
3. The data required to create this dashboard is located in the “logstash” database.
4. Now we need to add a row for the API keys, so under “select buckets type”, choose “Split Rows”
5. To find API keys, choose Terms under “Aggregation” and choose data.apiKey.keyword under “Field”
6. To add the average response time per API key to the data table, click on “Add metrics” under “metrics”
7. Under “Aggregation” choose Average, and under “Field” choose data.response.totalTime
8. Click on “Apply changes”. We now have a dashboard that shows us the average response time per API key:
Creating the ‘Average time per operation’ Visualization
The second dashboard we created for ElephantDrive displays the average time elapsed (in ms) by operation type. The steps to implement this dashboard are as follows:
Go to the “Visualize” tab and click the “Create new visualization” button
2. For this type of data, choosing “Vertical Bar” is a relevant choice.
3. The data required to create this dashboard is located in the “logstash” database.
4. We first want to see the average time, so in the “metrics” section choose “Average” in Aggregation and “data.response.totalTime” in Field.
5. Then we want to add a metric
6. Select “Dote Size”
7. And select “Count” as Aggregation, to be able to see how many times the query has been used.
8. Now, to see which method is used (GET, POST, PUT, etc..) we have to go in the Bucket section, and choose “Split Series”
9. And then “Terms” as Aggregation, “data.request.method.keyword” as field, and Order By “Average time” (created step 4)
10. Finally, to see where the operation has been made, we will add a sub-bucket
11. And create a “Terms” Sub Aggregation, with “data.operation.keyword” as Field
There you have it!
And you can see more details by hovering over a section with your mouse
Better Visibility & Enhanced Productivity In Log Monitoring
Cloud based infrastructure can sometimes feel like a black box with only limited visibility into its efficiency. Utilizing Kibana and Elasticsearch provides ElephantDrive with informative dashboards that provide insight into their compute environment, enhancing the efficacy of their log monitoring efforts.
About TrackIt
TrackIt is an Amazon Web Services Advanced Consulting Partner specializing in cloud management, consulting, and software development solutions based in Venice, CA.
TrackIt specializes in Modern Software Development, DevOps, Infrastructure-As-Code, Serverless, CI/CD, and Containerization with specialized expertise in Media & Entertainment workflows, High-Performance Computing environments, and data storage.
TrackIt’s forté is cutting-edge software design with deep expertise in containerization, serverless architectures, and innovative pipeline development. The TrackIt team can help you architect, design, build and deploy a customized solution tailored to your exact requirements.
In addition to providing cloud management, consulting, and modern software development services, TrackIt also provides an open-source AWS cost management tool that allows users to optimize their costs and resources on AWS. | https://medium.com/trackit/monitor-the-health-of-your-application-infrastructure-with-elasticsearch-kibana-586e09ace723 | ['Thibaut Burckel'] | 2020-05-15 09:28:15.874000+00:00 | ['Kibana', 'AWS', 'Elasticsearch', 'Logstash'] |
Why You Don’t Feel Like You Deserve Compliments | I have a real issue. When people say nice things about me, I don’t believe them.
Whether it’s how I look, an accomplishment I’ve recently achieved, an idea I had, or even just on cookies I baked, when people compliment me, I think they’re lying or trying to manipulate me somehow, or that they mean well but don’t recognize that what I’ve done is actually not that good. Like when your partner tells you you’re beautiful — they’re kind of obligated, so the meaning’s gone for you.
So when someone says to me, “Wow, your dress looks amazing today!” I deflect. I’ll say, “Oh thanks — I don’t know, I guess I like it. I can ride my bike in it, which is the important thing!”
Cue the classic: “Thanks, it has pockets!”
Often, if someone compliments me, I’ll immediately flash back to the one time someone said something negative about me instead. This might sound familiar to some of you — the ability to overlook fifty positive comments in favor of the one negative one that someone said to you, once, ten years ago.
It’s so easy to believe, dwell on, eternally reflect on the negative even when it’s overwhelmingly outweighed by the positive. Why does that happen? Why do we struggle to believe good things?
Science tells us it’s a loop.
There are three factors happening here, feeding into one another endlessly to make it hard to accept compliments: low self-esteem, cognitive dissonance, and high expectations.
It goes like this: you don’t think much of yourself, for whatever reason. Maybe it’s imposter syndrome, maybe you’ve only been valued for one aspect for most of your life, so it’s impossible to see your worth in others. Maybe you’re continually comparing yourself to others and coming up short in your own estimation.
Either way, you have low self-esteem. So when someone compliments you, this jars with the truth you hold about yourself. It’s uncomfortable for your mind, because you’re faced with two prospects: one, you’re wrong about yourself, or two, they’re lying. You can’t simultaneously believe you suck and believe someone else when they say that you don’t.
So while your brain is working furiously to justify the two things concurrently, your mouth will pop open and start to justify things to the other person.
“Oh, I just got lucky.” “I guess the stars aligned.” “Good thing they asked the right question that I knew the answer to.”
Just like that, the pressure’s off. This plays into the last factor: high expectations. Because you have low self-esteem, because you struggle to believe other people when they’re kind to you, you want to shirk any expectations as soon as possible. So you respond to the situation in a way that lets you off the hook if you don’t succeed next time.
This relieves a bit of the pressure and anxiety you feel when someone compliments you. You’ve successfully shucked off their expectation that you’re gonna do well.
But it’s unpleasant to constantly be second-guessing every nice thing people say. Sometimes, people are just nice.
It’s good for our brains to be told we’re good.
We’ve established why this thing happens — because we don’t believe in ourselves, and it’s more comfortable for our brains when nobody else believes in us, either.
But it’s healthy when, instead of forever dwelling on negative feedback, we linger on the positive.
Being able to experience happiness when other people notice you can be an important source of fulfillment. — Dr Whitbourne, Professor Emerita of Psychological and Brain Sciences.
It turns out that when you push those positive memories away, you’re actually losing the ability to experience happiness over positive remarks. You can tell they’re positive, but there’s no warm glow of pride accompanying them. Research showed that people who routinely dismissed positive comments actually had a harder time remembering the level of positivity of the feedback, more so than people who accepted them to begin with.
Accepting compliments can be hard.
It’s worth it to accept compliments, both for your memory and your mental health in the long run. But it can feel boastful, to accept that something you’ve done is good. Who wants to be the narcissist who says “Yeah, I’m aware,” when someone compliments you?
But even when you’re just trying to say “Thanks,” it feels like pulling teeth. The urge to justify or qualify your success is overwhelming. You want to buckle and say that it wasn’t you, that you just got lucky, that you won’t do so well next time.
I’m like that, so I know it sucks. Obviously, I’d rather just believe the other person, say thanks, and move on with my life instead of obsessing over the appropriate way to accept compliments. But I want to get better.
What happens when you stop self-criticizing?
For one week only, just while I was at work, I accepted compliments. I did not deflect, I did not qualify, I did not put myself down immediately after accepting it.
I simply said “Thank you,” to anything nice that people said about me.
If my success was partially due to someone else, I said thanks and acknowledged their hard work, too, but I didn’t say it was all them. If I didn’t agree with a compliment, I still took it, choosing to believe that someone else’s opinion could still be valid even if I didn’t think it was true.
In short, I tried to live for a week as though I could take credit when I did stuff well.
My brain tried to convince me that any would-be complimenters were just being sarcastic, or that I’d spectacularly fail the next time I tried at anything and embarrass myself.
But you know what? I didn’t spontaneously combust. I did not get fired. I didn’t become amazingly self-assured either, and my self-esteem wasn’t fixed overnight, but it felt good to accept that I might be good at some things. I didn’t get better at believing it — yet — but it did start to feel more natural to simply accept and move on. I hope in time I’ll find it easier to believe compliments, and not just give lip service to the idea.
Compliments can feel like just a minor form of social interaction. We all say them, we all receive them. But I believe that just as important as learning to give one, is learning to take one. | https://zulie.medium.com/why-you-dont-feel-like-you-deserve-compliments-5acd3bb28324 | ['Zulie Rane'] | 2019-06-12 08:38:58.725000+00:00 | ['Relationships', 'Lifestyle', 'Mental Health', 'Self', 'Psychology'] |
The Great Pretender | Photo by Mason Hassoun on Unsplash
Sometimes — not very often — the lyrics of a song just fire on all cylinders, and almost magically reflect something going on or even a specific person. We don’t even have to stretch to see the applicability. Here’s one of the few song lyrics that strikes me that way right now. Bolding is mine.
[Words and music by Buck Ram: the manager of The Platters, which was the first act to record it. It was released in November 1955. There is a great YouTube video of the original footage of the performance].
Oh-oh, yes I’m the great pretender
Pretending that I’m doing well
My need is such I pretend too much
I’m lonely but no one can tell
Oh-oh, yes I’m the great pretender
Adrift in a world of my own
I’ve played the game but to my real shame
You’ve left me to grieve all alone
Too real is this feeling of make-believe
Too real when I feel what my heart can’t conceal
Yes, I’m the great pretender
Just laughin’ and gay like a clown
I seem to be what I’m not, you see
I’m wearing my heart like a crown
Pretending that you’re still around
Too real is this feeling of make-believe
Too real when I feel what my heart can’t conceal
Yes, I’m the great pretender
Just laughin’ and gay like a clown
I seem to be what I’m not, you see
I’m wearing my heart like a crown
Pretending that you’re still around
Yep. If you don’t get it, maybe you’re also pretending. | https://medium.com/@gippolito-ndp/the-great-pretender-c2fb662ab0e0 | ['Gippolito Ndp'] | 2020-11-14 16:56:23.651000+00:00 | ['Election 2020', 'Music', 'Politics', 'Lyrics'] |
Metric’ulous life! | #OnePageStory | You won’t be surprised if I say, ‘metrics’ have slowly taken the hold of our lives.
Consider for an example, all the adults would’ve heard about these questions at different points in their lives.
(a) How many marks you have scored?
(b) How much salary you are going?
(c) How old are you?
(d) How many children do you have?
(e) How many years of work experience do you have?
Well, I’m not really what’s the original purpose of creating all the metrics that we see around today. Originally, they may have been created to help us understand the progress to our goals, track our performance, etc.
But, essentially they help us do one thing quite easily in our world today — To compare our metric with others quite easily!
Instead of working meticulously, we wish to work ‘metric’ulously, to see the results and to enrue that we are getting ahead of the others.
Metric can be a huge motivation at times — let’s assume a Cricket game without the scoreboard. Super boring right!
But you know what, in every Cricket game — they erase the scores once the game is over. However, the erasing part hardly happens in our lives! We stick to our metrics, we envision our metrics, we live our metrics, we showcase our metrics.
That’s one page. See you tomorrow!
One page is a metric too. A good start to the series, isn’t it? :P | https://medium.com/@aravindhan-in/metriculous-life-onepagestory-af39bd59204b | ['Aravindhan Anbazhagan'] | 2020-11-27 05:35:25.116000+00:00 | ['Article', 'Story', 'Series', 'Metrics', 'Life'] |
Live And Let Live | Strife, arguments: that’s the news cycle of today. It’s all for show, and unfortunately, more than ever before, that’s what politics in this country has become.
The quicker we take Twitter away from all politicians, the better. Then we only get to hear them occasionally, as opposed to all the time.
“What is objectionable, what is dangerous, about extremists is not that they are extreme, but that they are intolerant. The evil is not what they say about their cause, but what they say about their opponents.” — Robert Kennedy
Most of us want to live a simple life, with our focus being on ourselves, not denigrating or judging others.
If we consider how many hours humanity has spent worrying about what ‘others’ are doing and not focused on how they’re living their own lives.
We’ve taken comparisons and differences in our own lives and others’ as the constant pastime in history. It’s then been built upon to create tiffs, arguments, and war.
Photo by Pawel Janiak on Unsplash
It’s cost lives: in monetary terms, it’s probably cost more than feeding global humanity many times over. And for what — to soothe a few hurt feelings of their respective leaders, a disagreement of opinions, a dispute?
I live by the Live and Let Live mantra. After all, what choice do I have even if I don’t agree with others’ lives — look to control them? That would be a gross over-reach of my abilities, to know what’s best for others. And to change others to suit my view of life seems so obscene, truly.
National news media has now taken on the role of divisor-in-chief, and we find ourselves at an ugly stage in US history. Everyone has an oversized opinion, and boy, we all need to hear it. I am so put off by the news cycle. I can’t watch more than ten minutes. | https://byrslf.co/live-and-let-live-d0c8060210de | [] | 2020-12-07 17:29:38.136000+00:00 | ['Beyourself', 'Compassion', 'Kindness', 'Tolerance', 'Society'] |
YouTube Video | ReactJS Tutorial for Beginners -10 | We will learn to do React form handling in this part.
Please do like it and Subscribe to my channel for more videos. | https://medium.com/@nabendu82/youtube-video-reactjs-tutorial-for-beginners-10-b85f369fb08 | ['Nabendu Biswas'] | 2020-12-24 16:22:23.688000+00:00 | ['YouTuber', 'React Js Services', 'React Js Development', 'YouTube', 'React Js Tutorials'] |
‘Stop-go’ austerity may leave the public wondering what it was all for. | Austerity was supposed to be a mission with a definitive end. Or at least those of us who were part of the Liberal Democrats in the coalition-era believed as much. Following the 2008 crash and 2010 election the nation’s budget deficit and the plight of debt ridden countries around the world loomed large. In response the understanding between politicians and the people seemed to be one of necessary short-term pain to deal with the immediate problem summed up by Liam Byrn’s ill-judged note — “there’s no money left”.
I and many others envisaged that austerity would have a definitive end point. That end point was first supposed to come in 2015, George Osbourne’s original and unrealistic date for when budget balance would be reached. Then a sluggish economic recovery meant it was delayed. Under Theresa May and Philip Hammond fiscal targets changed and the mood music at times shifted towards austerity ending, but it did not end substantially. As Boris Johnson became Prime Minister that music trebled in volume — from the 50,000 nurses, to the 20,000 police officers, to the ‘infrastructure revolution’. Yet until only a few weeks ago then Chancellor Savid Javid was asking for ‘5% cuts’ from unprotected departmental budgets. The question we are left asking again following Javid’s departure, and with a new budget on March 11, is whether we are finally going to see a clean break from austerity.
The reason that may finally happen is that the public, after 10 years of spending reductions, are tired of cuts. Yet it is worth also reiterating that there are also good policy reasons to call time on austerity. The deficit is much lower than it was in 2010, interest rates are low and show no sign of going up and public services are far more strained across the board. All this has been true for a number of years. Most commentators now agree austerity is not a necessity. If you believed austerity was the right approach in 2010, then it has run its course. If you believed it was wrong, it is more pressing than ever to end it now.
Yet the ‘stop-go’ approach to austerity the last three governments have taken has denied the public a moment of closure — a point where the hardship imposed was recognised and a more optimistic outlook plotted. Instead austerity has drifted slowly out of the public gaze as Brexit has clouded all else. As the Government seems poised to reverse many of the cuts of the last few years — such as hiring the police officers and nurses it lost — the public may be forgiven for wondering what it was all for in the first place. | https://medium.com/nomansland/stop-go-austerity-may-leave-the-public-wondering-what-it-was-all-for-4e39dee0a672 | ["Steve O'Neil"] | 2020-03-11 11:13:45.463000+00:00 | ['Austerity', 'UK Politics', 'Boris Johnson', 'Uk Budget', 'Budget'] |
Benefits of static websites | You can think of a static site as of you sitting by a sushi-belt in a restaurant. Instead of waiting for the good bites to roll by your seat, you can pick what sushi-bites you like because all you wanted are just lying right in front of you, ready served.
Dynamic Single-Page Applications (SPA’s) or server-based applications are probably the most popular ways to create websites today, but also static websites have become very popular again in 2020.
If you need a fast, simple, secure, and cheap website, then a static based site might be your next project.
Static vs. dynamic websites
First of all, let us clear up what the main differences between static and dynamic website are:
A static website is where files are pre-built on the server and fetched once on the client without a server.
Static sites are just a bunch of HTML files. The server builds the files once when you update something on your site. Because of this, the website becomes fast, easy to work with, and secure! We will drill deeper into these benefits later on.
A dynamic website is where files are changed on the server and then fetched on the client on each change.
Dynamic sites consist of a backend with servers and databases. The site’s content changes dynamically and needs to interact with a database to generate the files on the fly. Also, the site needs to fetch the content every time someone revisits the site. Dynamic sites are harder to maintain and less reliable.
Benefits of static websites
Dynamic and static websites are suitable for different use cases. Static websites have some essential advantages when making websites that need few dependencies and business goals that have to do with being seen. Here you get eight benefits of what a static site that dynamic sites are not good at doing.
No need for a backend developer
You don’t need a backend developer to make a static site. To store and manage content, you can use a Content Management System (CMS), which can then be maintained by Content Administrators and Writers. A Content Delivery Network (CDN) is a great place to upload your static files too.
Better reliability
With static websites, you won’t receive irritating error messages like “500 Internal Server Error.” When your website can have downtime or be unavailable, the only possible time is when the hosting provider gets issues, and that happens rarely.
Simplicity
Static sites are simple. They require no servers or databases. Some JavaScript frameworks, like React-based ones NextJS or GatsbyJS, has build-in support and help you generate, minify, and bundle static HTML files at build time. The static files are easy to change or move from a hosting service to another.
Performance
Static sites have excellent performance and are fast. You won’t need to wait for a bunch of spinners [or skeletons] to tell the user that something is on the way and will replace it at some point.
You can think of a static site as of you sitting by a sushi-belt in a restaurant. Instead of waiting for the good bites to roll by your seat, you can pick what sushi-bites you like because all you wanted are just lying right in front of you, ready served.
Security
Since you don’t need a database or servers running, which is vulnerable to security breaches, static sites have much better security. Compilation of content ahead of time makes it impossible for hackers to access your databases, CMS, or servers. And, since there are no servers involved, the site is more resilient to DDoS attacks.
Lower costs
Hosting a static site is cheap and requires less bandwidth. Since it’s less vulnerable to security breaches, you may use that left-over-money, which was for security monitoring for other important business-goals.
Many hosting providers do have a free solution for hosting static files. Some of the hosting services you may choose to upload your static site to that also are entirely free is Netlify, Vercel, Amazon S3, Google Cloud Platform.
Improved SEO
Some of the most common problems with dynamic sites are that these are fast at first page-load, but most of the critical content is fetched and displayed asynchronously. Dynamic sites can be a big problem when optimizing for search engines if it’s crucial for your site and content.
Static sites have this significant advantage with fast page load and all the content ready to be displayed, making the site optimized for SEO.
Having good SEO-optimization will give you a low or decreased “bounce rate,” which is the proportion of visitors leaving the website. It also improves search traffic, better lead generation, and customer engagement.
Scalability
Scalability is something to always keep in mind when making websites.
What happens if you have a website that is commonly used by a small number of visitors and at some point may be used by tens of thousands of people at the same time? Such an event may cause an unexpectedly large number of server requests. It will generate dynamic content, which needs to be served to each of the thousands of unexpected users. That might get expensive, grow fast, and in the worst case, take down your servers.
With a static site, it’s different: All the content is already generated for each user. The users only need to download the content of the site to their client. That is faster and a lot cheaper.
Conclusion
You can have all sorts of web pages static, whether it is a blog, landing page, newspaper, hotel booking service, or any other e-commerce store. Sometimes you may even combine dynamic and static websites by, for example, creating public pages as static and more internal or user-oriented pages dynamic.
Another example: Let’s say you are running an online newspaper. The front pages can be of statical content; to present the page to the users as soon as they enter the page with main headlines and images. The articles can be fetched and rendered in a separate application that dynamically retrieves the content.
You should consider a static website above SPA’s, especially if any of the benefits described above are crucial for you or your organization.
Thanks for reading!
Code foh shizzle | https://marius-ibsen.medium.com/benefits-of-static-websites-5fb187d1ffe6 | ['Marius Ibsen'] | 2020-12-11 10:06:34.472000+00:00 | ['Static Site', 'JavaScript', 'SEO', 'Web Development', 'Front End Development'] |
Rest is Underrated | I can't help
but occasionally shed a tear
for my working parents
who struggle so hard
to fill three plates, not one
and pretend that they ate an early dinner.
Because behind the frugality is
the Beverly Hills lifestyle they have blessed me with
yet fail to realize they have cursed themselves to beg for higher wages
as I watch helplessly
at my parents’ bosses
tugged in Tom Ford.
The number of I Love Yous can only escape the mouth
so many times
till it doesn't enunciate that of its definition anymore.
Love is beautiful, yes,
but of what use to solving rental problems.
However, what does truly help
my parents,
you
and even me —
is Rest.
Rest has a multitude of definitions
and it can take many forms
not necessarily the Paris getaway
nor a night under the Auroras.
Sometimes,
in the hustles and bustles
of work and labor
we get weary
we burnout;
draining every shred of humanity left in us
leaving only mundane robotic movements
yet to serve the new day
with old tasks.
Even robots rust
and when their mechanisms stop working,
they recharge.
Likewise, sometimes
we ourselves
need to escape from this deafening cacophony
and for once
lie on the patch of empty grass
with children, parents or a simple accompanying cup of Moroccan Mint Tea
to escape from all the possible noises
even those in your head.
And as you finally get to throw your phone out of the window metaphorically,
ignore the buzzing notifications,
ignore the missed calls.
Just hug all that's beside you,
even if it's just yourself, and relish your desired Sabbatical
taste to the fruition of tranquility. | https://medium.com/know-thyself-heal-thyself/rest-is-underrated-e1adeb2da9bb | ['Daniel A. Teo'] | 2020-12-22 09:28:31.696000+00:00 | ['Self Improvement', 'Self', 'Poetry', 'Life Lessons', 'Life'] |
When and How did Humankind Figure Out that Sex Makes Babies? | When and How did Humankind Figure Out that Sex Makes Babies?
Photo Credits: Spiegel
Well, I think the answer is, since the beginning. While historians, scholars, anthropologists, and biologists can’t tell us the exact time, all the evidence shows us that human beings have been able to understand that there definitely is some relationship between sex and childbirth, since the homo sapiens walked on this planet probably between the unfolding of our breed and the evolution of human culture about 50,000 years ago.
There isn’t much material evidence on this matter. However, a plaque from the archaeological site of Çatalhöyük illustrates a Neolithic understanding, with a mother and child on one side and two figures embracing on the other. What we need to understand here is that all cultural groups had their own explanations for conception, but everyone acknowledged some sort of link between copulation and babies.
Photo Credits: Wikipedia
Now coming to how ancient human beings attained reproductive consciousness, this part is a bit gloomy. I think that it’s most likely that they closely observed animals around them, and how those animals reproduced. They must’ve also observed that the women who don’t sleep with men, do not get pregnant. But this in no way means that those people had any idea about the complete process of the sperm meets eggs. That knowledge is fairly recent.
In the early 20th century, anthropologists who worked in places like New Guinea and Australia noted that their subjects were unable to establish a relationship between sex and babies. Later, further research told us that those reports were biased were at best only half-true. Let’s take the example of what Bronislaw Malinowski claimed in 1927. He said that in the Trobriand Islands, the father had nothing to do with producing a child. However, subsequent research on the same group established that semen for necessary for the congelation of menstrual blood, the suspension of which was believed to ultimately from the fetus.
The explanations of conception by the people of the Trobriand Islands might seem weird or strange but there is no doubt that on some level they did recognize the relationship between sex and childbirth. And surely, before us Westerners who like to feel superior, get all proud, it should be noted that our views on conception haven’t always been consistent or rational either. The number of unplanned pregnancies in the U.S. says it all.
Cynthia Eller, a woman’s studies scholar say that wile,
“other events may also be necessary — such as the entrance of a spirit child through the top of the head (in the case of the Triobriand Islanders), or the entrance of a soul into a fertilized egg (in the case of Roman Catholics) … it is simply not believed that women bear children without any male participation whatsoever.”
The question arises that if human beings have always been able to understand that sex leads us to the delivery room, then did that information have any impact or consequences on our evolution as a society? What we call reproductive consciousness, we know that of the entire animal world, this consciousness is unique to humankind. And that special information might explain both our capacity to bend procreative abilities of nature to our favor in almost everything from animal breeding to family planning and the evolution of our taboos revolving around sex. | https://medium.com/lessons-from-history/when-and-how-did-humankind-figure-out-that-sex-makes-babies-d0ace7531816 | [] | 2020-11-30 19:04:53.730000+00:00 | ['Sexuality', 'Science', 'History', 'Sex', 'Pregnancy'] |
7 Places To See In Bangkok in 2 Days | Hey guys!
I started my “Round The World” (RTW) trip in Bangkok, Thailand sometime in July 2017 and ever since the travel bug keeps going on. This was my first time travelling overseas. The City of Angels is like home away from home but still so foreign. I spent 3 days traveling around Bangkok and created this guide of 7 Places To See In Bangkok. I did a research beforehand to maximise my time and to avoid overspending. So I’m sharing with you my 7 Places to See in Bangkok in 2 days!
Originally published in Paul Saqueton
Thailand is truly a central hub for backpackers! I simply love this vibrant city with all its buzzing life, delicious street food, markets, and of course, its friendly people.
WHEN TO VISIT BANGKOK
You can visit Thailand all year round even if the climate varies throughout the whole country. I went in July which is part of their wet season and it went fine as well.
Wet Season: April-October
Dry Season: November- March
THAILAND CURRENCY AND MONEY EXCHANGE
₱1= 1.63 Thai Baht
$1= 31 Thai Baht
€1= 36 Thai Baht
£1= 41 Thai Baht
BANGKOK WIFI, SIM, AND TRANSPORT
You can look and book for the wifi, sim, and transport here and pick it up at the airport.
GETTING AROUND BANGKOK
The best way in getting around Bangkok is to use train system, Tuk-tuks and the boat taxi. I love tuk-tuks. It was really fun!
DAY 1
I stayed at Glur Bangkok Hostel and Coffee Bar. Then I took a boat ride going to the Grand Palace, Wat Pho, and Wat Arun after having enough rest from my 3-hour flight. By the way, there’s a dress code when you visit these temples. Make sure your legs and shoulders are covered.
#1. Grand Palace Temple
Don’t miss out the Grand Palace the official residence of the Kings of Thailand since 1782. This temple is jaw-dropping and very elaborate. This one is on top of my places to see in Bangkok!
Address: Na Phra Lan Rd, Khet Phra Nakhon, Krung Thep Maha Nakhon, Bangkok
Na Phra Lan Rd, Khet Phra Nakhon, Krung Thep Maha Nakhon, Bangkok Opening Hours: 08:30 AM– 03:30 PM
08:30 AM– 03:30 PM Entrance Fee: THB 500
THB 500 Full Information: Grand Palace Temple Information
#2. Wat Pho
Just around the corner from the Grand Palace is also Wat Pho, or the Temple of the Reclining Buddha.
Address : 2 Sanamchai Road, Grand Palace Sub district, Pranakorn District, Bangkok
Open Hours: 8:00 AM — 5:00 PM
Entrance Fee: THB 100/PHP 153 (USD 3/EURO 3/SGD 4/MYR 13)
: 2 Sanamchai Road, Grand Palace Sub district, Pranakorn District, Bangkok Open Hours: 8:00 AM — 5:00 PM THB 100/PHP 153 (USD 3/EURO 3/SGD 4/MYR 13) Open Hours: 8:00 AM -6:30 PM
8:00 AM -6:30 PM Entrance Fee: THB 100
THB 100 Full information: Wat Pho Temple Information
#3. Wat Arun
I took a ferry across to the other side, where I marvelled at Wat Arun, or the Temple of Dawn from the riverbank near Wat Pho. Wat Arun is commonly known as the ‘Temple Of Dawn’.
Address: 158 Thanon Wang Doem, Khwaeng Wat Arun, Khet Bangkok Yai, Krung Thep Maha Nakhon
158 Thanon Wang Doem, Khwaeng Wat Arun, Khet Bangkok Yai, Krung Thep Maha Nakhon Open Hours: 8:00 AM -6:30 PM
8:00 AM -6:30 PM Entrance Fee: THB 100
THB 100 Full information: Wat Arun Temple Information
#4. Khao San Road
This place is the centre of the backpacking universe. I visited the Khao San Road at night after chasing temples by riding a tuk-tuk from my hostel. There’s a lot going on this area. It’s so busy, lively and you can literally find anything here.
#5. Sky Bar
It’s also an amazing place to see in Bangkok the Lebua Sky Bar. It’s located in Bangrak business district which is a walking distance from my hostel. This sky bar was featured in Hangover 2 so I just had to see it for myself.
DAY 2…
#6. Chatuchak Market
I visited Chatuchak Market the next day. It’s the largest market in the whole of Thailand! It’s that huge that you could spend your whole day here. This is literally shop ’til you drop. This is also a nice way to observe the daily lives of the locals.
#7. Central World Mall
Malls in Bkk are more than just malls — they are social hubs! A lot of life in the city happens in the malls so I just had to visit one. I opted to choose Central World which is the largest shopping destination lifestyle in Bangkok. That makes it my top 7 places to see in Bangkok!
Ahhh! Thailand is in indeed the travel hub of Southeast Asia. A place I will return to and a heaven for budget backpackers.
I hope you enjoyed reading this 7 Places To See In Bangkok In 2 Days Itinerary. I hope it has helped you in anyway. Please do share with your family and friends.
For hassle free bookings in Thailand, BOOK HERE. I mostly use this option when I travel alone and it’s awesome because I get to meet other people. I earn a little commission on each booking as a way to keep this blog going so I can create FREE content for you at no extra cost on your end.
’Til next time! See you on the Road! See original post here.
Best,
Paul | https://medium.com/@paulsaqueton/7-places-to-see-in-bangkok-in-2-days-c0af10df90bf | ['Paul Saqueton'] | 2019-06-16 08:40:44.143000+00:00 | ['Travel', 'Thailand', 'Backpacking', 'Asia', 'Bangkok'] |
CHOOSE — MOVING AWAY FROM PLASTIC PACKAGING | Karen Potter, Director of sustainability hub and ideaXme sustainability ambassador interviews James Longcroft, Founder and Managing Director, CHOOSE Packaging.
Plastic Free Packaging
James Longcroft, Founder and Managing Director, CHOOSE. Credit: CHOOSE
CHOOSE is a packaging development company that is leading the move away from plastic bottling to environmentally friendly options. CHOOSE uses biodegradable materials that are 100% plastic free in all their packaging and is working to help transition businesses from fossil fuel-based products to sustainable solutions.
James Longcroft, Founder and Managing Director, CHOOSE. Credit: CHOOSE
James started CHOOSE as a profitable business venture, in doing so he embarked on a journey with unexpected consequences. He began selling water in single use plastic bottles and evolved to a business committed to removing plastics from the economy and out of the eco-system. CHOOSE partners with organisations to provide solutions with a global impact.
Commitment to Sustainability
James graduated from Durham University, with a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and began his career working with oil companies. Shortly after, he followed his entrepreneurial drive and explored opportunities to begin his own business. From a career rooted in the fossil fuel industry, he now champions business commitment to sustainability and circular economic policies.
James Longcroft, Founder and Managing Director, CHOOSE. Credit: CHOOSE
Karen is a passionate environment and sustainability campaigner leading Government and Parliamentary efforts to promote Net Zero policy solutions as well as lead on COP26, business, community and civic action. She is a project development specialist with extensive experience in designing and delivering new initiatives to promote sustainability, social responsibility, smart energy, green economy and clean tech investment. Highly experienced in government, NGO and public sector communications, building and managing senior stakeholder relations and media engagement.
Advocate For A Plastic Free Future
CHOOSE Packaging
In this interview James shares: His journey from business entrepreneur to philanthropist to leading advocate for a plastic free future. James was moved to action after a trip to Africa revealed how effective modest contributions to safe water and development of infrastructure was in the region. He committed to providing more support and began to move into a sustainable and eco-friendly business model.
Credits: Karen Potter, Director sustainability hub and ideaXme sustainability ambassador.
Karen Potter, ideaXme sustainability ambassador
If you enjoyed this interview also check you Karen’s interview with Patrick Mallet founder of ISEAL.
ideaXme @ideaxm
Follow on Instagram:
sustainability hub @sustainhub2021
ideaXme @ideaxme
Find ideaXme across the internet including on iTunes, SoundCloud, Radio Public, TuneIn Radio, I Heart Radio, YouTube,Vimeo, Google Podcasts, Spotify and more.
ideaXme is a global podcast, creator series and mentor programme. Our mission: Move the human story forward!™ ideaXme Ltd. | https://medium.com/@ideaxme/choose-moving-away-from-plastic-packaging-6bc30f1cbb31 | ['Ideaxme', 'Move The Human Story Forward'] | 2021-03-22 12:47:41.354000+00:00 | ['Choose Packaging', 'Ocean Conservation', 'Oceans', 'Plastic Pollution', 'Ideaxme'] |
Monsters | Monsters
Submitted to Chalkboard as free-verse, part of the Write or Die Project
This poem was originally intended as lyrics for a song.
Photo from the web, signed. Thank you!
Temp or ary in san it y
Will not get the best of me
Now I know
The monsters I see
Are REAL!
REAL!
REAL! REAL! REAL!
I’m not seeking madness;
Like so many people are.
At least not with drugs or drinking;
These are not part of my thinking
This is not a pipe dream.
I’m in real distress
I am stone-cold sober.
And still I’m such a mess.
I’m on the edge of madness,
Adrenaline surging through my veins.
It saves me from the sightless Dark.
I have been there before;
The deep dark pit.
With sides slippery and smooth,
It was hard to climb out.
Not within my power.
I needed a miracle.
Of course
There was a price.
I had to give up
My children; my sons.
Hoping they would forgive.
My heart was broken,
Then I was nothing.
Stripped to my core.
To gain my sanity,
I had to have sobriety.
Something now
So dear to me,
Important as my heart
Beating.
Important as my lungs
Breathing.
I was no good for them
Or me.
Those many years ago.
If you hate
Your self
You can not love.
You’re a ghost.
Nothing more.
I may still
Sink into depressions,
Followed by the highest of
Highs.
Going
Round and
Round,
And back again
All in the blink of an eye.
I’m in a state of
Perpetual war;
Currently under a truce.
I must be ever vigilant
To keep the
Monsters from getting loose. | https://medium.com/@kebarneyogkristendagmarsdottir/monsters-70248a5b0974 | ['Kristenbarney Kristendagmarsdottir'] | 2020-11-15 01:13:43.069000+00:00 | ['Chalkboard', 'Free Verse Poetry', 'Lyrics', 'Addiction Recovery'] |
Culture Turns Strategy Into A Smoothie: The Meaning #1 | I’m a huge fan of affirmations. It’s my top love language so I give them and I like to receive them. I have found them to be an essential tool, when used intentionally with staff, to set the culture and boost morale. This Monday’s affirmation is, “I ask for and do meaningful, wonderful, and rewarding work.”
When I was a freshman in college, I had the opportunity to intern at International Trucks. Before my first day, my father told me my grandfather worked there, 40 years before my first day, when the company was called International Harvester. I felt an enormous sense of pride working there. The connection to my grandfather’s legacy provided a boost of pride. Knowing he worked in the manufacturing plant and that I was now working in the corporate office spoke to his legacy and the generational investment he made in my father’s education that trickled down to me. It made my work, even as an intern, that much more meaningful. It also taught me a lesson; I perform at my best when I find meaning in my work. Why do you do the work you do? What do you find most rewarding? As we think about working amid so many challenges, I encourage you to find your answers to these questions. It can fuel you to perform.
The painting posted below is called Heartfelt Waves. I painted it to represent this crazy balancing act we are all doing as we ride the waves of the VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous) world.
Heartfelt Waves By: Jeff Beckham (2020) Acrylic on Canvas
Jeff Beckham is a speaker, community leader, and artist who serves as Interim CEO of Chicago Scholars a non profit that serves over 4,000 first generation college students in Chicago, Illinois. | https://medium.com/@jefferybeckham/culture-turns-strategy-into-a-smoothie-the-meaning-1-730bdb40f34f | ['Jeffery Beckham Jr.'] | 2020-12-07 16:23:15.440000+00:00 | ['Nonprofit', 'Meaningful Work', 'Leadership', 'Organizational Culture', 'Vuca World'] |
Finding Faraway | by Phineas Phiddlephaddle
If you ever visit the island of Phiddle, you will likely see a chippen. Chippens are tiny animals with strong, sharp teeth who like to chip away at things. They chip away at their food. They chip away at their paw nails. They chip away at fallen branches, turning them into woodsy sculptures, flutes, or handy walking sticks for the humans.
Faraway was a young chippen. She was still learning to chip properly. It was taking her longer than most chippens because she was easily distracted. She always seemed to be daydreaming.
One delightfully sunny day, Faraway decided to go for a walk to the pond to enjoy a swim. On the way, she noticed a butterfly. This particular butterfly was unlike any she had seen in her short life. It had white wings with little golden rings on them. And it flew in a series of loops.
Naturally, Faraway forgot all about the pond and began following the butterfly. She wondered why it flew in circles and where it was going.
As Faraway followed the butterfly, she struck up a conversation.
“Why do you fly in circles?” Faraway asked.
“I am a twirler. That is what we do,” the flying creature answered.
“You are not a butterfly?”
“Of course not, silly chippen. Butterflies flit. Twirlers twirl.”
“Oh. My name is Faraway.”
“I’m Wilbur. Pleased to meet you, Faraway.”
“Where are you going, Wilbur?”
“Home. I have been on an adventure and am quite tired.”
“What kind of adventure?”
“The usual kind. Flying about, looking for interesting things.”
“Did you find any?”
“Any what?”
“Interesting things.”
“Only a curious chippen, I’m afraid.”
Faraway giggled.
“Where do you live?” Faraway asked.
“In the meadow by Phiddle Mountain. It is where all twirlers live. They have the most delicious pollen there.”
“I’ve never eaten pollen.”
“I should hope not. You would destroy our beautiful flowers with your teeth.”
“I wouldn’t want to do that. I will stick to Phiddleberries and crunch corn.”
“What is crunch corn?”
“They are the nuggets that fall out of the great trees.”
“Oh. Twirlers call those acorns.”
“So does my mother, but I like to call them crunch corn.”
“I see.”
They continued to chat as Wilbur twirled his way home. By the time they reach the meadow by Phiddle Mountain, it was well past lunchtime. Faraway’s mother, Snippet, was growing worried about Faraway. Faraway had never been gone this long. Snippet looked in all the usual places but didn’t find Faraway in any of them. So she walked over to one of the great trees and called out to Flutter, a large phiddlebird.
“Flutter! I need your help, please.”
Flutter flew down from his home in the tree.
“What is the problem?” Flutter asked.
“Faraway is missing. She left this morning and hasn’t returned for lunch.”
“Oh my. I shall take to the sky and find her. Don’t worry.”
“Thank you, Flutter.”
Flutter flew up into the sky and began scanning the surrounding area. As he passed other birds, Flutter recruited them to his mission. After a long search, a bird named Glide found Faraway in the meadow by Phiddle Mountain. He landed next to Faraway.
“Your mother is quite worried about you, little one,” Glide said.
“Oh, dear. I forgot about lunch. No wonder my tummy is rumbling. You wouldn’t happen to have any Phiddleberries, would you?” Faraway asked.
“I do not. But I am sure your mother will. Follow me, and I will lead you home.”
Glide flew up into the sky, and Faraway followed him back to her home. After feeding Faraway a late lunch, Snippet gathered a basket of Phiddleberries. Then she took them to the birds who had searched for Faraway. It was her way of saying “thank you” for finding her daughter.
The next day, Snippet went to see Rebecca Wellington and asked her to be her translator. Since Rebecca was only six-years-old, she could still talk to animals. Rebecca and Snippet went to Professor Tinkerhoffer’s workshop, and Rebecca told him the story of how Faraway wandered off. Snippet had Rebecca ask the Professor if there was anything he could do.
“Leave it to me,” the Professor said.
The following day, Professor Tinkerhoffer visited Snippet and gave her a twine necklace with a small metal cube attached. And a much larger cube made of wood.
“Have Faraway wear the necklace. If you can’t find her, push the button on top of the wooden box. It will make a beeping sound in Faraway’s necklace, reminding her to come home. The beeping will get louder as she gets closer to home, helping her find her way. Hopefully, as she ages, she will not need such reminders, but you never know.”
“This is marvelous. Thank you, Professor. Would you care for lunch?”
“I would be delighted to have some Phiddleberries, but I believe I will pass on the acorns.”
How Professor Tinkerhoffer was able to create such a mechanical homing device remains one of the many mysteries on the island of Phiddle. | https://medium.com/mark-starlin-writes/finding-faraway-8f2a0d4e7b54 | ['Mark Starlin'] | 2020-11-23 19:22:31.368000+00:00 | ['Childrens Stories', 'Island Of Phiddle', 'Fiction', 'Animals', 'Fantasy'] |
Real Leather Jackets in USA | Real Leather Jackets in USA
Zain leathers manufactures all kinds of Real leather jackets in USA Newyork and Europe and all over the world. Leather Jackets are the most favorable outerwear that can provide superb results in the winter season. It is available in many styles and of different materials like cowhide, goatskin, lambskin, full-grain, top-grain, etc. But Zain leathers jackets are unique because it is specially built to meet the quality standards of America. We always choose real leather and use only high-quality refined leathers to produce valuable styles.
we offer various jackets at very reasonable prices. Just like we have women’s vests and vests, women’s flight jackets, women’s tweed jackets, and so on. We have different types of leather jackets and are available in different sizes for men and women. Look around the website and take the time to choose the coat that suits you best.
Zain leather jackets has its unique that’s why we never compromise on choosing the quality leather for our jackets. We have experienced professional team who create jackets with great designing and stitching. That includes styles like motorcycle, superhero, cafe racer, and a biker.
Men Leather Jacket
Men Leather Jacket. The leathers are the symbol of power and protection wont to wear by the gladiators, soldiers armor, now became a jacket fashion. Mens Leather Jacket determines by its durability and quality, it’s must-have apparel in your closet, and you’ll style it with different trends.
Fashion Jackets in USA
Fashion Jackets — Zain Leather produce and manufacture Fashion jacket for men and women. If our customer needs their custom jacket then we will provide them
Real Leather jacket | https://medium.com/@globaldezigns0110/zain-leathers-a18850f1ac3c | ['Global Dezigns'] | 2020-12-25 06:48:49.835000+00:00 | ['Women Fashion', 'Fashion', 'Leather Jacket', 'Mens Fashion', 'Zainleathers'] |
What Slicing Bananas Taught Me About the Nuance in Change Initiatives | Banana peels
I’m gonna bet you wouldn’t recognize what those weird things are if I didn’t tell you. Who does this? What kind of abomination is this?
These are banana peels. Did you guess that they were banana peppers? Don’t be silly! Who puts banana peppers in oatmeal? No one.
This abomination is the result of me not paying attention to what I’m doing. And it also gave me an interesting topic to write about. So in this case, I’d say not being present was helpful. (Don’t tell Eckhart Tolle I said that.) It also reminded me when I am present for what I’m doing and when I think about why I’m doing it this way, I get much better results than if I just do things the way I’ve always done them.
Stay with me here…
Today, instead of first peeling the banana and then slicing it for my oatmeal, I first sliced the banana and THEN took the outside off of each piece of sliced banana. Why? Why did I do this, you ask?
Because I simply wasn’t paying attention. First, I had to cut off the end piece of the banana because I had saved half of a banana from yesterday’s banana. And then I just kept slicing because I really wasn’t paying any attention to what I was doing. I was all up in my head and had my mind on some annoying conversation I had that I was ruminating over, taking joy in how I had handled it and being annoyed by the other person. I was just not present.
So then!… I had to take the peel off of each banana slice, a completely inefficient way of doing things. I said to myself, “Well that was a silly way of peeling the banana.” And then I said, “Wait, that’s how I slice and remove the packaging from summer sausage.”
I said to myself, “Well that was a silly way of peeling the banana.” And then I said, “Wait, that’s how I slice and remove the packaging from summer sausage.”
What a great opportunity this presented for me! I decided I had a writing topic for today. Yay me. I had no idea where it was going to end up when I started writing this…It all began with this very profound question.
Why do I cut summer sausage differently than a banana? Both have an outside rind or peel. Both are cut with a knife.
I have the same desired outcome for both: evenly sliced products that I can consume, usually alongside something else. Sliced banana isn’t typically eaten by itself with a fork. If one is going to eat just a banana, one does that without cutting it first. I put a sliced banana in oatmeal or maybe eat it with my french toast…I eat sliced sausage with something else. I’m not gonna just cut the outer packaging off of a hunk of sausage and eat it like I would a banana.
Hold up. Something is not right here.
Why would I follow a completely different process for a banana vs. summer sausage if my desired outcome is essentially the same for both of them?
At this point, I could conclude that one of the processes is right and the other is wrong. I could start peeling the wrapper off the summer sausage first and then slicing. Or I could start slicing the banana first and then peeling it.
I feel this strong resistance inside of me that says, “No, I must not do the exact same process for these things, even though my desired outcome is the same!”
And then I say to myself, “Why?”
Obviously, it’s time to dig deeper.
Both things are ‘slicing’ processes.
A banana is an easy cut, and it doesn’t require me to touch the banana in order to slice through it. Bananas can also be a little sticky on the outside. Since I don’t have to touch the outside of the banana to hold it and slice it, having the banana peel still on it does me no good and actually reduces efficiency.
I have to handle each and every slice and I’m likely to get banana stuff on my hands. I can also use a dull or sharp knife without it being a big deal, although my risk when using a sharp knife is a little higher because I could cut myself.
He’s cute, but he’s not ready to use a sharp knife
If I’m the one doing the cutting, I don’t care which knife I use. But if the cutting is being done by my four-year-old son, I’m definitely going to choose the safer tool — the dull knife.
Banana Peeling
Considerations: Messiness, efficiency, sanitation
Tool: Dull or Sharp Knife, depending on who is cutting
Order of Operations: Peel, then slice
Sausage, on the other hand, is not an easy cut. To cut sausage, I need to hold it with my bare hands in order to cut through it. Usually, I’m sharing sausage slices with my husband or someone else so I don’t want to touch it with my bare hands because it’s not sanitary. I mean I’d wash my hands first and stuff, but I just don’t like to touch food directly with my hands if someone else is going to eat it. I guess it’s a remnant of a lesson I learned working in the food industry in my teens and early 20s…Also, I’m probably not going to let my four-year-old cut sausage because it requires a sharp knife and I don’t want him to cut himself.
Sausage Peeling
Considerations: Sharing, efficiency, sanitation, safety
Tool: Sharp knife
Order of Operations: Slice, then peel
So now that I’ve thought about why I do each thing in a completely different way even though the required outcome is the same, which way is the best way?
Well, they both are the best way because each of them has nuance. And that nuance matters.
So what’s the point of all of this?
When deciding on the changes you want to make in your life, in an organization, in a relationship, in parenting, etc. each situation calls for a different approach depending on the situation. No two children are the same. No two people or lives are the same. No two organizations are the same.
Thinking you can go in with a hammer and find exactly the same nails and just hammer on them to get the same outcome you got with your last client transformation — that’s just wishful thinking.
Be present to the situation you find yourself in. Have a diverse toolbelt available to you. Use the right tool for the job. Be open to doing things differently depending on the nuance of the situation.
Do these things, and you’re way more likely to get the outcome you’re looking for. No two people, organizations, teams, or food products are the same. Treating every situation with binary truths of right or wrong won’t get you the outcome you are hoping for. Looking at things with a broad perspective, and then zooming in can help ensure that the change you seek is lasting. | https://medium.com/iterative-musings/what-slicing-bananas-taught-me-about-the-nuance-in-change-initiatives-70e44d477759 | ['Nikky Perry'] | 2020-12-04 20:06:14.255000+00:00 | ['Change Management', 'Coaching', 'Agile Methodology'] |
MacKenzie Scott, Thank You | “How could you ever hope to separate the random from the intentional?”, is asked by author Maria Konnikova, in her book The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win. This philosophical query is also one that Guy Raz poses to the founders of successful businesses in NPR’s podcast, How I Built This with Guy Raz. Towards the end of each interview, Guy asks “How much of your success do you attribute to your skill, your intelligence, your hard work, and how much of it luck?”.
A few months ago I read MacKenzie Scott’s article, 116 Organizations Driving Change, on Medium that detailed how she planned to give the majority of her wealth back to society. The thoughtfulness in her writing and commitment to her pledge filled me with gratitude, so I decided to write a response on Medium, in the form of a letter. As I began to type, my emotion shifted, moving more towards something more powerful, FOMO. This is the acronym for Fear Of Missing Out. FOMO’s use in the internet world applies to everything from missing out on an investment opportunity or missing out on a great time with your friends. In this situation, it was the thought of Prairie View A&M University, my alma mater, missing out on recognition for the transformative work that it has done, and is currently doing in Greater Houston, in Texas, in the United States, and beyond!
Ms. Scott’s first list included six black colleges - Hampton University, Howard University, Morehouse College, Spelman College, Tuskegee University, and the Xavier University of Louisiana. All are EXCEPTIONAL institutions. Within the HBCU community, these schools are what I refer to as typical. Typical as in expected, meaning that when the average person thinks of black colleges, more than likely the name Howard comes to mind. Or when I saw the headline Billionaire Donates to Black College, reading that Morehouse was the beneficiary felt proverbial. The name recognition of these schools is powerful and their aura is compounded by news articles and internet mentions of their eliteness and the generosity that ensues.
I feared that Prairie View A&M University would miss out, be overlooked, and be neglected on a national scale so I wrote what was on my heart and published it on Medium, optimistic that Ms. Scott would see the reply. Now, as of December 15, Ms. Scott’s recent donation of 50 MILLION DOLLARS to my alma mater sparked texts from friends asking have I heard the news and how I felt. I feel AMAZING, not for myself but for what it potentially means for the black colleges she has given to this go-round!
In Ms. Scott’s most recent list of recipients, she increased the number of black colleges to 17! Many of them, generally overshadowed.
Alcorn State University — $25M
Bowie State University — $25M
Claflin University — $20M
Clark Atlanta University — $15M
Delaware State University — $20M
Dillard University — $15M
Elizabeth City State University — $15M
Lincoln University — $20M
Morgan State University — $40M
Norfolk State University — $40M
North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University — $45M
Prairie View A&M University — $50M
Tougaloo College — $6M
Virginia State University — $30M
University of Maryland Eastern Shore — $20M
Voorhees College — $4M
Winston-Salem State University — $30M
Do I think that my letter played a role in MacKenzie Scott’s donation? Maybe. Prairie View A&M University was written an unprecedented eye-popping $50 million check!
Does it matter if my letter played a role in MacKenzie Scott’s donation? How could you ever hope to separate the random from the intentional?
With Ms. Scott’s pledge, I wanted her and her team to go beyond the surface, and they’ve done just that. | https://medium.com/@rashadmorgan/mackenzie-scott-thank-you-310f794f2bb7 | [] | 2020-12-21 16:22:45.898000+00:00 | ['Hbcu', 'Philanthropy', 'Prairie View', 'Black Colleges', 'Mackenzie Scott'] |
Trump, Fascism, and the Failure of the Press | Trump Is Following a Fascist Playbook as He Drives America Toward a Cliff
Courtesy of Creative Commons
Jeffrey Goldberg in a damning piece in The Atlantic pulls no punches. We have entered the most debased and dangerous phase of the Trump presidency, one that began with an (until recently) little remarked upon rally in Florida, one at which “Trump gave tacit approval to the use of violence against immigrants.” Trump, as Goldberg points out, offered a “typically soulless” message, trying “to provoke feelings of deep insecurity among his followers, in the style of an expert populist preacher,” and attempting to stroke “their egos by referring to them as America’s true elite.” He also bemoaned the limits we place on law enforcement, in this case the Border Patrol, in a rambling and somewhat incoherent passage that his followers certainly understood.
“We don’t let them and we can’t let them use weapons,” Trump said. “We can’t. Other countries do. We can’t. I would never do that. But how do you stop these people?”
A woman in the crowd had an answer: “Shoot them!” she yelled. (I’m paraphrasing from Goldberg’s account.) The president responded with a joke — not a rebuke, not a correction, but a joke.
“That’s only in the Panhandle you can get away with that stuff.” He stopped for a moment to take in the crowd’s roaring approval. “Only in the Panhandle!” he repeated. This essentially “encouraged — in the greasy, joking-not-joking style he has perfected — the normalization of violence.”
This is straight from the fascist playbook, outlined by Jason Stanley in How Fascism Works, a book that is required reading at this moment in history because it describes better than almost any other text the current cultural zeitgeist.
Think about what he said and what he didn’t, and consider the echoes of early assaults on democratic norms here and abroad. We have the attack on the elites and the proclamation that Trump’s base. — read “the volk” — are the real Americans. We have the othering of Hispanics as invaders who must be met with military force, which the pretend elites will not allow. We have the glorification and normalization of violence.
Trump is neither Hitler nor Mussolini. Nor is he quite like the other fascist and proto-fascists out there. He often couches his authoritarianism and racism in a jokiness that gives him a level of plausible deniability. It is an elastic use of language that allows his supporters to be as publicly racist and xenophobic as they wish to be, without having to admit to their racism. It’s a neat trick, but it is effective — and prototypically American.
This language has left the mainstream press in a predicament. How to describe it without crossing the “objectivity line”? I think it should be easy. “If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck,” as my friend and former newspaper colleague John said. And yet, major news outlets like The New York Times and The Washington Post are struggling with this.
The lead page of the Post’s app this morning offered a small-print headline that says simply that Trump attacked local leaders after he visited El Paso and Dayton in the wake of this weekend’s mass shootings, while the lion’s share of the page’s real estate was granted to a piece about Trump’s regrets over his brother’s death and the president’s commitments to dealing with the opioid crisis. The imbalance favors, the president, of course, granting him the kind of legitimacy as an elected official and as a human being that he objectively does not deserve.
The Times’ failures this week are well documented, as this Nate Silver tweet shows:
The Times altered the page for later editions, but ultimately has not learned its lesson — as this morning’s lead app page shows.
Look at the language used in the headlines. This is a direct result of a mainstream press unable to parse the tone and the words to see the actual meaning of what Trump is saying. I’m not defending him or them, obviously, just pointing out Trump’s ability to cross the line without there being any consequences for himself. He knows who is listening. He knows how they think, because they think like he does, and he knows his best route to retaining power is to stoke their resentments even as he uses language that the mainstream press has trouble characterizing.
The Times, in its reporting on yesterday’s visits, offers a good example of what I’m talking about. The story on how he “stokes divisions” carries an underlying assumption that Trump might act in a normal presidential manner, then shifts to an equality of blame, all the while using language that lets Trump pretend to be something he is not.
“President Trump visited Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso on Wednesday on a day intended as a show of compassion to cities scarred by a weekend of violence, but which quickly devolved into an occasion for anger-fueled broadsides against Democrats and the news media.”
The day “devolved,” the Times writes, apparently without any help from Trump — and nary a mention in the lede of Trump’s racist and white supremacist language, which both led up to and contributed an ideological foundation to the shootings.
“Mr. Trump’s schedule was meant to follow the traditional model of apolitical presidential visits with victims, law enforcement officials and hospital workers after calamities like the mass shootings that resulted in 31 deaths in Dayton and El Paso and that created a new sense of national crisis over assault weapons and the rise of white supremacist ideology.”
Here we have the assumption of normalcy, which we should’ve abandoned a long time ago. The Times and other outlets keep raising this specter, which is absurd.
“That plan went awry” — again, no agency involved here, it just happened — “even before Mr. Trump, who has acknowledged his discomfort with showing empathy in public, departed Washington.” Poor Donald has trouble being in touch with his feelings. “On Tuesday night, he tweeted that Beto O’Rourke, the former Democratic congressman from El Paso, should ‘be quiet.’” Actually he tweeted a lot more, disparaging O’Rourke’s childhood nickname as a signal to his white supremacist friends that O’Rourke is a traitor.
“Both Mr. O’Rourke and (former Vice President Joe) Biden are running for president and have been particularly harsh in their criticism of Mr. Trump after the two shootings, and Mr. Trump rose to the bait.”
This reduces O’Rourke and Biden’s very real rage at the president to a campaign stunt. The Times is doing the president’s work for him here.
“The result was the latest example of Mr. Trump’s penchant for inflaming divisions at moments when other presidents have tried to soothe them, and further proof of his staff’s inability to persuade him to follow the norms of presidential behavior.”
Again, an attempt to normalize. He “inflames divisions,” which violates norms; he is not, apparently, engaging in overt racism. And, ultimately, this is his staff’s fault for failing to “follow norms.”
The press does this because a) they have been cowed by years of GOP attacks on them as biased, b) they are creatures of habit unable to alter their thinking, and c) Trump uses language and tone that they have trouble interpreting in the kind of nonpartisan, supposedly even-handed manner they have been told they need to use. Trump, by constantly attacking the “fake news media” and calling it the “enemy of them people,” only further cows the press.
What should be clear by now is that the mainstream press lacks the tools needed to keep the nation from following this monster over a cliff. Trump’s stated mission — to “Make America Great Again” — is a lie based on a myth; there is no greatness being offered, and the past being held up as a lost Eden never existed. The press seems incapable of acknowledging this.
In reality, Trump is engaging, as Goldberg said, in an “ongoing effort to make the American presidency a vehicle in the cause of marginalizing and frightening racial minorities.” His entire presidency is based on resentment and hate and, as Goldberg says, “there is no reason to hope that he will reform.” Our only hope is to remove him from office. | https://medium.com/discourse/trump-fascism-and-the-failure-of-the-press-93e0f30ff70a | ['Hank Kalet'] | 2019-08-09 18:32:26.744000+00:00 | ['El Paso', 'Politics', 'Fascism', 'Donald Trump', 'Racism'] |
The Daily Blackness: Casey Goodson Shot Multiple Times- Ruled Homicide, DOJ to Launch Civil Rights Investigation | The Daily Blackness: Casey Goodson Shot Multiple Times- Ruled Homicide, DOJ to Launch Civil Rights Investigation Lashaun Turner ·Dec 11, 2020
(Columbus Ohio) 23-year-old Casey Goodson’s family says he was returning home from a dentist appointment and holding sandwiches, not waving a gun as authorities say, when he was fatally shot last week by a sheriff’s deputy. Police say there was a verbal exchange before the deputy shot and killed Goodson. Federal authorities are now reviewing the case.
Goodson was fatally shot last week by Deputy Jason Meade, a sheriff’s deputy working for the US Marshal’s fugitive task force as he tried to enter his own home. Columbus Police said the deputy was looking for violent offenders at the time, but Goodson was not the person being sought by the task force.
https://youtu.be/J5L7SLgfPe8 | https://medium.com/@mslashaunturner/the-daily-blackness-casey-goodson-shot-multiple-times-ruled-homicide-doj-to-launch-civil-rights-e138aaa3704a | ['Lashaun Turner'] | 2020-12-11 00:16:13.413000+00:00 | ['Civilrights', 'BlackLivesMatter', 'Caseygoodson'] |
Middle School…Round 2 | Alright, back to it.
-my logo-
SO, the previous blog was just my year in 6th grade. This got better at the end, I ended up “dating” (whyyyy…kids…don’t “date” in middle school, wait until at least 16 years old…I beg of you) this really nice guy but LOL all good things come to an end — he moved and we were like 12 so long distance wasn’t an option haha. He was like my best friend, it was hard having to not see him all the time but…I was 12…I had time for things to get better.
Coming back after summer break into 7th grade was not terrible. I made a few new friends that year and even had a pretty solid friend group (yay). The bullying (more like tormenting) wasn’t so bad — I think it was mainly behind my back at this point. Honestly, that’s all I really remember from 7th grade…8th grade was shit show number two.
Remember that first friend I made, the one with the lunchables and was coloring her tongue with markers? Yea…she got into a group of some bad influences. We still talked, I just would hangout with other people when she was with (wait, this was 7th grade because she was hanging out with 8th graders…oh well…) those kids. She ended up getting into some pretty bad stuff (drugs, but honestly it might not even have been that bad considering we were 12 to 13 years old). I didn’t like it, she said she was just hanging out with them but not doing anything, we fought, ended the friendship…SURPRISE…more drama. Luckily, we both still had a soft spot for one another so it never got out of hand other than losing a friend.
-near the end-
OMG, I have a terrible story I want to write about that happened at some point during all of this but its A LOT right now so I’ll make a note of it to write later. (Note for later: A*** — name gives me the creeps).
Okay, NOW 8th grade because that was all that really happened in 7th grade. So, yea that friend group I had fell apart but I stayed in touch with two of the girls, we hung out often and made a new group of friends — one of them left because she was popular and stuff so like there was the best group I had of friends in awhile: Sara, Karisma, George, Roger (? he was quiet, more of George’s friend than mine), and people who would come in and out every so often. We got to go on a trip in 8th grade at the end of the year — hahahah what a way to ruin friendships. Huge fight with Sarah and we basically never talked again.
Before that trip, more drama started happening again, I don’t know how I was the center of it since I hardly talked to anyone or disturbed anything but you know, lets bring up shit that happened two years ago because we were CHILDREN (literally, emotionally, all the ways). I don’t remember this year in too much detail except that it seemed like no one liked me and if Karisma and Sara were busy at lunch…I was alone or eating lunch in a teacher’s classroom (yea, I was that kid…teachers are cool man, c’mon).
Honestly, I don’t know where I am taking this blog and it is slightly boring to me since I can’t remember a lot of the shitty details because I blocked them out…so I’ll just talk about that creep I mentioned I’d write about at a different time.
*Trigger warning**
So, his name was A*** (not ass, just censoring, plus it gives me the creeps). he was friends with that first friend I made (lunchable) and we started talking because he had no other friends except us too (take the hint). Fast forward a bit, he wanted to hangout and we had nothing to do so lunchable and I went (don’t ask me why her name is the only one I am censoring out, it just happened) over to his house one day after school. It was a nice house, gigantic, but some what of a mess? It was clean dust and dirt wise, just lots of stuff every where. Large yard, could’ve been a farm probably if the family had been able to put effort into it (I think it was just him and his mom, not sure where his dad was or if something had happened — a weird family tbh..NOT because single mom but because of the people in the family).
Lunchable ended up having to leave so it was just me and A. He wanted to show me something inside after we had explored outside with lunchable, so cool whatever (just waiting for my mom to come pick me up). He took me up to his room (RED FLAG RED FLAG RED FLAG), also I think he kissed me before this? Wait, no…that hadn’t happened yet. Anyway, we get to his room, kind of small but whatever you know so was my childhood bedroom. THEN he pulls on his fkn bookshelf to a SECRET ROOM…lemme just tell you…he told me that people called it his “rape cave” ?!? WHY DID I NOT RUN FOR MY LIFE, I don’t know, I was a stupid kid…I did text my mom to come pick me up NOW but only told her I was ready to go — I don’t think she, to this day, knows the situation I was in.
Once we were both in this “secret room” *cough*rape cave*cough*, he kissed me. And, being 100% honest…no idea how I physically reacted…slightly think I blacked out for a second…I do know that it didn’t get farther than that. I must’ve pulled away, said my mom was here, and went outside…told him he didn’t need to walk me out. I’m fuzzy on the specifics but luckily, I was not raped (extremely fortunate). After that, I felt so gross, especially because I still had to go to school with this kid.
I brought up the “secret room” to lunchable the next time I saw her at school and she told me that she had heard it be called his rape cave before, she’d never seen it but his guy friends had that she talked to. He probably told people some shit too, making my year and life even worse and allowing kids to talk more rumors.
This seemed to come to an end after 7th grade so 8th grade was manageable (I guess)…high school got a bit worse again but that is for another time.
TTFN — J | https://medium.com/@xpeaceofmindblog/middle-school-round-2-b7a0b0b3c650 | [] | 2020-11-15 22:08:29.637000+00:00 | ['Middle School', 'Friends', 'Rumors', 'Bullying', 'Trigger Warning'] |
5 Tips To Keep Your Business Running In Tier 4 | The government announced Tier 4 over the weekend affecting nearly 18 million people. Although your company may not be under the government’s definition of essential, we are aware that it is essential to you. You need your business. After researching, I have compiled the 5 best ways to use technology to your advantage. These will help you look after your company as we emerge into the next phase of this devastating pandemic.
1. Online Presence
Since the start of the pandemic, social media activity has increased by 61% worldwide, and there is a 70% increase in web browsing. This means it is only natural that businesses also move to an online forum.
87% of customers now begin their product search online. Although many businesses cannot be open physically due to the importance of protecting each other during the pandemic, they can still open online.
The statistics suggest that moving to an online platform would hugely increase sales. 35% of small personal businesses have moved to an online store, and many will remain this way, even after the pandemic.
Moving online has many benefits during Tier 4. Companies can not only continue trading but increase their trade. A business may reach more people online than they would in their physical store. There are technological tools available to assist businesses with setting up and growing their online presence.
Some tools of assistance worth exploring are Hootsuite, Buffer, or Tailwind. These are all useful tools to easily build social media sites for a company.
2. Big Data
Data is essential in progressing and utilising your business. Companies can process their data to notice trends in product sales and what customers want. Many businesses are struggling during the pandemic, so they need to know what is or isn’t selling. This will save the company money since the data will allow businesses to identify and reduce unwanted and unpopular stock. In the long term, this will increase sales as companies will be able to optimise their stock based on predictions from data collected. By using data insights, businesses can quickly identify what the customer wants, meaning there is less risk involved.
To practically do this, the business will need to invest time in analytics tools. These tools allow the company to view insights and analytics regarding their stores. KodyPay incorporates analytics tools along with multiple other perks to help all businesses (See www.kodypay.com for more).
An analytics tool will manage your content online and translate the data to you in a readable format. This will enable the business to make changes based on accurate data.
3. Facilitate Home Working
Many of us have been asked to work from home to protect each other during the coronavirus pandemic, so it is more important than ever to make sure that your business is facilitating this. Clear communication is much more difficult when employees are in different parts of the country. Therefore, businesses must adapt and invest in technological tools. Zoom and Google Hangouts have become essential services that encourage collaborative work and facilitate important conference calls.
Many feel lost without the office environment, and the business may suffer because of that. Coda, Airtable, Notion, and Tab are all effective tools supporting remote operations. They provide digital boards of tasks which organises the employees’ jobs and encourages them to track their work. By breaking tasks down, the high pressures that companies face are relieved.
4. Personal Advisor Services
Since COVID-19, 60% of customers in the retail sphere have expressed a desire for online appointments with a company. These appointments could be advice about whatever your company is offering: retail, cosmetics, finance, medication. The younger generations, in particular, claimed that personal advisor services would make them more likely to engage with the business. 82% of young people also said that personal advisor services boost their happiness, encourage them to spend, and they almost always recommend them to a friend. Therefore, you could dramatically increase support for your business by offering these services.
The major retailer, John Lewis, recently set up one-to-one hour video conferences with their customers. Here they offered customers advice on products, which showcased their commitment to the welfare of customers. Without entering a store, customers are less likely to commit to spending. Therefore, they would benefit from speaking to an individual, just as your business would benefit from the sales. Offering personal advisor services is a brilliant way to create loyal, dedicated customers. This option for a business is certainly worth investing time in.
5. Remote Ordering
In Tier 4, click & collect and take out services are still able to function. Therefore, many businesses are moving towards this to prevent them from closing altogether. Click & collect has been a popular response to the pandemic, and some stores record click & collect volumes up by more than 200%.
Particularly for small businesses struggling to survive, click & collect is a vital option worth considering. This is because it is much more cost effective than deliveries. It prevents companies from having to close, meaning they can still make money during the pandemic. Since the pandemic, 42% of customers are now much more likely to use click & collect. This reveals the importance of adding click & collect to your business.
An easy way to start using click & collect is by downloading KodyPay. KodyPay incorporates socially distanced checkout flows such as click and collect to encourage businesses to continue to trade. It is simple for both small and large businesses to set up, and it means that they can still make money safely whilst abiding by the Tier 4 guidelines.
In the three months leading up to September, 243,000 have become unemployed. This evidences the truly undeniable struggles and difficult decisions that businesses are facing due to the pandemic. As parts of the UK enter Tier 4, it is vital that companies are aware of the supportive resources available to them. These 5 suggestions aim to guide companies as they navigate through these unprecedented times. To help support small businesses further, KodyPay is introducing a 90-day free trial with 0 sign up fees. There are no set-up fees, no contracts, and no commitments necessary. This will enable you to see the benefits of KodyPay to your own business, risk-free. Contact KodyPay for more (https://kodypay.com/pricing) | https://medium.com/kodypay/5-tips-to-keep-your-business-running-in-tier-4-32018ecc4de1 | ['Elizabeth Kozlowska'] | 2020-12-23 16:54:33.076000+00:00 | ['Tier 4', 'Coronavirus', 'Lockdown', 'Technology', 'Business'] |
Quick dive into Sylius’ products | If you’ve opened the Product entity in your project files already, you may have been surprised that there was only one thing defined: the function createTranslation. It is because the entity extends Core\Model\Product, that itself extends Product\Model\Product from Sylius. Both implement the ProductInterface, and Core\Model\Product implements the ReviewableProductInterface, as it can be seen here :
The entity itself defines the table name and lives in your project files so you can customize it easily. It also defines the createTranslation method because it returns a ProductTranslation entity that also lives in your project files and also defines its table name.
Let’s break down the lowest level class : Product\Model\Product. It uses TimestampableTrait, ToggleableTrait and TranslatableTrait, I will skip those as they’re pretty straightforward. I will also skip the properties id and code and will focus on the four following, as I’ve struggled understanding what they are and how they work.
attributes : it’s an array of AttributeValueInterface. The name is pretty self-explanatory : they are values of attributes.
Attributes are extra datas (usually extra information) linked to products and they can be multiple data types. AttributeValues are values for these attributes.
It’s an implementation of the Entity Attribute Value (EAV) data model.
Let’s see a real example from sylius’ fixtures datas : a product uses the attribute “t_shirt_brand”, it’s a text data type and it’s value is “You are breathtaking” : the brand of the t-shirt is “You are breathtaking”.
This is really simple, it’s a way to add data to products without modifying the product schema; data that are used for certain products but not of all them.
Attributes are extra datas (usually extra information) linked to products and they can be multiple data types. AttributeValues are values for these attributes. It’s an implementation of the Entity Attribute Value (EAV) data model. Let’s see a real example from sylius’ fixtures datas : a product uses the attribute “t_shirt_brand”, it’s a text data type and it’s value is “You are breathtaking” : the brand of the t-shirt is “You are breathtaking”. This is really simple, it’s a way to add data to products without modifying the product schema; data that are used for certain products but not of all them. variants : it’s an array of ProductVariantInterface. Variants are common in e-commerce : they are different versions of a product. For example, t-shirts have different sizes : each size will be a ProductVariant.
options : it’s an array of ProductOptionInterface. The name is also self-explanatory : they are options for products.
associations : it’s an array of ProductAssociationInterface. It’s used to link (associate) products between them. The default product association in Sylius’ fixtures is “similar_products”, to link products that have similarities. It could also be used to group together products that have a special promotion, or a new line of products that just have been released : whatever the reason, the idea is to group products.
Now that we understand better what everything is, there is still one thing that I struggled with for quite some time : the attributes property is holding AttributeVALUES, not just Attributes. If you want, for whatever reason, to retrieve the Attribute itself, you need to use the method getAttribute on an AttributeValue.
Time to dive into Core\Model\Product, it has a few more properties that we will look into.
productTaxons : it’s an array of ProductTaxonInterface. ProductTaxons are like categories, but as a tree. As always, looking into Sylius’ fixtures we can see that there is a ProductTaxon t_shirts, that have 2 children mens_t_shirts and womens_t_shirt. Taxons are a way to categorize products so users can search for specific types of products easily.
channels : it’s an array of ChannelInterface. Channels are “places” where you’re selling your products. The default one is the web store, but you could have a channel for resellers buying from you where you would use a different tax calculation strategy and where you would have different prices.
mainTaxon : it’s a BaseTaxonInterface. I’ve already explained ProductTaxons, this property just stores the main one.
I won’t explain reviews, averageRating and images as they are self-explanatory and I don’t have anything special to say for them.
Now you should understand how Products work better, what every property is and how it affects products. Even when I worked 3 and a half years in e-commerce I had to wrap my head around Sylius’ product and I hope that this article helped you dive into it faster and understand it better at first glance. | https://medium.com/darkmirafr/quick-dive-into-sylius-products-3cf55b6b732 | ['Antonin Clauzier'] | 2021-07-06 10:30:05.875000+00:00 | ['Product', 'Documentation', 'Sylius', 'Eav', 'Uml Diagrams'] |
Quarantine: The Giver of Snacks the Taker of Dreams | Quarantine: The Giver of Snacks the Taker of Dreams
Written by: Sabreen S. (Charlie)
Sadness. Despair. Madness. All three words that need their separate space for dramatics (hence the period). I understand that the world is going through a pandemic right now, but why did it have to happen during my 5th grade year! It’s NOT High School or College, but still I am NOT going to have my 5th grade Moving-On Promotion Ceremony! I have to be honest that I am kind of bummed about that. All the quarantine snacks in the world won’t heal the pain…cue the “Quarantine Queen”!
We all know the Quarantine Queen,A. K. A. mom, with her antics for keeping us entertained and healthy during these uncertain times, and now I needed her more than ever. She didn’t let her plan slip for the past few weeks as I sulked around the house as I distanced learned my tail off! Then it happened!
I woke up to the song of “Pomp and Circumstance.” blaring through Alexa, and I knew that the good old Quarantine Queen has blessed us once again! On the dresser in front of me was a cap and gown with the 2020 tassel all placed just right, it was going to be my “graduation day” after all!
As I finished putting on my cap and gown after I got dressed, a breakfast of champions awaited me with all of my favorites! That wasn’t it, my mom and dad even bought a graduation cake with balloons that all read Congrats to the Class of 2020! This was amazing and to top it off, we had a graduation parade that we attended at my school. Each 5th grader got to decorate their parent’s cars and parade inside of them with all of our friends around the school campus. This made our class feel as one again, and not socially distanced as we were in reality.
It was a Time to Remember, and a great way to celebrate while staying safe! Thanks to the Quarantine Queen and her accomplice, daddy. | https://medium.com/@sabreenshabazzstraker/quarantine-the-giver-of-snacks-the-taker-of-dreams-2194e36164ff | ['Sabreen Shabazz-Straker'] | 2020-05-06 20:03:49.279000+00:00 | ['Kids', 'Dads And Daughters', 'Graduation', 'Quarantine', 'Moms'] |
Rail Map: New Railroads! | It’s been a while :)
I’ve been pretty busy the past few months, but the rail map has slowly continued to fill up :)
This past week, I’ve worked on adding G&W’s 120 Railroads to the map. Although most railroads have data publicly available through Wikipedia or HIFLD open data, there was not any KML data available for G&W. The only map source I had was an embedded google map on their website.
G&W’s Map
My first plan of action was trying to find a way to get the KML source for the embed. I tried looking through the Inspect code for the website, but was only able to find an api link, which was no help. However, there was one thing that I didn’t try: checking the network.
In most browsers, you are able to see what webpages the website that you are on queries. By looking through this data, I was able to find a JSON file, with the coordinate data for each of the 120 railroads. However, these were all separate files. What that required, was manually typing in the address, followed by the mark for each railroad, and then downloading the associated JSON file. This took about an hour, and while I could have automated it somehow, it was easier just to brute-force it.
The network tab for the G&W website
Once I had the files, it was time to sort them. Due to MapHub’s limits on data, you are only allowed 50k points on a single map, so my map of the US is divided into four regions. Since the railroads that I was importing were not major US railroads, they had to be sorted into each map, before importing. This consisted of much of the same work; Google the name of the railroad, see where it was located, put into the correct folder. This process took the longest out of the three, since there was no possible way to automate it. After 5 or so hours, every small file was in the correct folder.
The South folder
The last step was just to import the data into MapHub. After doing a batch rename of the files using command prompt, I was ready to drag them over. This process was very simple. Since the files were so small, the processing time was almost nonexistent, and I just had to drag each one over to the MapHub window. And although the naming is still a little messed up, the process is finished!
You can view the final product at map.eliothertenstein.com.
And as a final note, I just want to say thanks for all the amazing support, on my YouTube, Patreon, and just on the website in general. I absolutely love this community, and I hope to work more with all of you in the future!
To request a location, please visit my Patreon. | https://medium.com/@eliothertenstein/rail-map-new-railroads-2f22c0599cd1 | ['Eliot Hertenstein'] | 2021-03-08 18:30:04.133000+00:00 | ['Rail', 'Maphubs', 'Railroad', 'Genesee Wyoming', 'Map'] |
Saito | Saito
The promise that blockchain and tokenization will revolutionize how we transfer and safeguard value has finally arrived. Today, millions of people use bitcoin, ethereum and other cryptocurrencies to create and share value.
However, the industry faces a serious problem: what happens if the most widely used networks start to coalesce into irreversibly centralized institutions or monopolies, e.g. Blockstream & Coinbase. In Ethereum’s case, the centralized aspect of Infura has been a cause for concern for some years. In 2018, Afri Schoedon went as far as to state that “If we don’t stop relying on Infura, the vision of ethereum failed.”
All if this raises the question: what is the point of having a decentralized blockchain if market failures mean everyone has to go through companies like Google to use them?
In addition to this, no cryptocurrency or network has been able to solve the two major economic problems in blockchain: the tragedy-of-the commons problem that encourages blockchain bloat and forces developers to hardcap block size, and the free-rider problem that leads to lots of mining and staking (paid activities) but an under-provision of user-facing network services without lots of extra and hidden fees.
Let’s look into these two issues separately to understand why Saito can become a key player in the protocol and consensus market:
Problem 1: blockchain size
Blockchain bloat creates problems. It is expensive and difficult to store trillions or more blocks on-chain permanently and to transmit or download the chain within a reasonable timeframe.
As the use of blockchain grows, these challenges will grow. Bloated blockchains are more expensive. Will users pay higher fees or simply switch to cheaper networks? Will miners continue to share older data or start hoarding it to increase their own profits. And who wants to pay or wait to sync terabytes of data?
The above chart, courtesy of blockchair, shows Bitcoin and Ethereum blockchains sizes to prove our point. While bitcoin is already above 300GB, ethereum is currently above 210GB. And these networks are toys compared to what we need a truly global applications network to deal with every day.
This means that as both networks grow, it becomes harder for the average Joe to run the blockchain. That creates centralization issues and higher costs, and that translates into higher network fees or these networks collapsing as people leave for greener and cheaper pastures.
This issue is also linked to the tragedy-of-the-commons. According to Investopedia, “The tragedy of the commons is an economics problem in which every individual has an incentive to consume a resource, but at the expense of every other individual — with no way to exclude anyone from consuming. Initially, it was formulated by asking what would happen if every shepherd, acting in their own self-interest, allowed their flock to graze on the common field. If everybody does act in their apparent own best interest, it results in harmful over-consumption (all the grass is eaten, to the detriment of everyone).”
The tragedy-of-the-commons issue is created by the existence of the permanent ledger, which encourages nodes to accept payment today for work that can be offloaded to others tomorrow. Block producers happily add data to the blockchain because they get paid today. Everyone needs to pay to support that data forever, but if this passes costs to the future, who cares? Tomorrow’s expenses pale in comparison to today’s profits!
This incentive — we can’t trust block producers to regulate their own appetites — leads to bloated blockchains or hardcoded blocksize caps that have their own set of problems. More subtly, it also leads to transaction mispricing, as users can pay fees that do not reflect the actual costs their data imposes on the network.
Eliminating the tragedy-of-the-commons problem requires all nodes that add transactions to the blockchain to bear the cost of processing those transactions for as long as they remain on the blockchain. If you do this, no-one will add a transaction to the chain that doesn’t pay enough, because otherwise, they will lose money themselves. And this is the first thing Saito does that no other chain has figured out.
Problem 2: Free-rider
According to Investopedia, “The free-rider problem is the burden on a shared resource that is created by its use or overuse by people who aren’t paying their fair share for it or aren’t paying anything at all.”
Imagine everything a network needs to operate on a massive scale. Is a cryptocurrency only a matter of paying miners to run consensus?
What about software development? Who fixes the bugs? Who battle-tests the software? Who audits the code?
What about design? Who creates beautiful user-interfaces that attracts millions of new users?
What about routing? Why should a protocol not pay for all nodes which are routing user transactions, as well?
The free-rider problem arises in blockchains because payments are given to one specific type of work (such as mining or staking) instead of other necessary activities. This mismatch incentivizes participants to maximize their spending on paid work and minimize spending on everything else.
Abstractly, we can think about the problem as being caused by the ability for people to transfer income from other people to themselves. In the case of cryptocurrencies, the people who pay for the unpaid work end up subsidizing the miners and stakers. This is sustainable if you have a network run by volunteers (the classic Bitcoin model) or funded by Silicon Valley VCs (the classic Ethereum model) but it doesn’t work at scale. Eventually, your volunteers or VCs dry out.
Right away this issue makes blockchains a lot more expensive than they need to be — if the private sector is going to need to provide these services it will need to charge extra fees to pay for them.
Saito: An Open and Independent web3
Saito offers users the option to “leap” rather than “wait”.
A lot of people approach these problems like they are technical issues. They debate what the “proper blocksize” should be or how much their algorithms should pay various participants. One of the things Saito gets right is recognizing that they are actually incentive problems: issues created by perverse incentives that allow participants to increase income (“privatize gains”) by doing things that pass costs onto others (“socialize losses”).
Saito recognizes that fixing both the free-rider problem and blockchain bloating problem requires fixing the underlying incentive structure so that participants don’t get paid for pushing costs onto others. More precisely, Saito realizes that if you fix these problems the other problems with scale go away.
Because the blockchain requires a quantifiable cost-of-attack, this requires eliminating ”mining” and ”staking” and shifting to a different form of work that measures and pays nodes in proportion to the ”value” they provide the network. Saito does this by deriving the measure of ”work” from the transaction fees that users spend.
In a single leap, the incentive problems with mining and staking vanish, because the fees that users pay reflect the value they are getting from the node that is taking the fee. The value includes the job of getting the transaction into the blockchain and properly confirmed, but it also includes all of extra data services provided and software development done that has resulted in the using choosing that specific endpoint over another.
Why Saito?
Saito measures “work” by measuring how transactions (and their fees) flow into the network.
Just as proof-of-work incentivizes mining and proof-of-stake incentivizes staking, Saito incentivizes running open network infrastructure. And the consensus mechanism keeps everyone honest: companies cannot compete by locking-off access to transactions because nodes that hoard transaction flow make less money than those that share transactions freely with peers.
Saito nodes get paid for sharing.
The way that consensus works is very different from proof-of-work and proof-of-stake, but the result is that participating is profitable to honest nodes that collect transactions from users. But attackers haemorrhage cash if they try to attack the network. Saito
And the best part? Because Saito pays for routing and data, the network is perfect for running Saito Dapps, or “blockchain applications” that can be deployed as applications that run in your browser or as standalone applications. There is never any shortage of nodes willing to support your browser applications because that is how they get paid!
How does Saito fix consensus?
Saito eliminates the ability for participants to pass costs to each other.
Saito solves the tragedy of the commons by removing the ability for block producers to collect fees today for work that the whole network has to do tomorrow.
Saito eliminates the free-rider problem by securing the network with the only form of work (efficient fee collection) that can pay different people for the different kinds of value they contribute to the network.
Epochs
Saito solves blockchain creep by allowing the network nodes to delete the oldest blocks
in the ledger at predictable intervals (“ epochs”). Epoch length is specified in the consensus code.
Once the block data is deleted, the header hash may be retained to prove the connection with the original genesis block.
To fully understand epochs, let’s think of a far-off case: global traffic for distributed key-exchange applications. We might want to use this kind of network to replace WhatsApp or Instagram. Instead of having a company handle everyone’s posts, we just let people exchange their IP addresses and encryption keys on-chain and they can connect directly to their peers for secure and maybe even watermarked copies of content and photos.
In such a case, an epoch might last only 24 hours. In the case of a network like Bitcoin, the epoch might be 50 or 100 years.
Saito specifies that once a block falls out of the current epoch, its unspent transaction outputs (UTXO) are no longer spendable. But any UTXO from that block that contains enough tokens to pay a rebroadcasting fee must be reincluded in the next new block. In the process, a small fee is deducted from the amount in the UTXO. So there is a fresh UTXO that replaces the deleted one and that has paid a small fee to stay on-chain.
As the blockchain expands and there is less space for new transactions available, market competition pushes up the fees paid by recent transactions. This forces up the fees paid by older transactions and increases the amount of data pruned by the blockchain. The market reaches an equilibrium at the point where old data is removed at the same pace that new data is added.
This mechanism avoids problems with developers hardcoding economic variables and prevents subtle forms of free-riding commonly found in other chains where pruning is done to save money (deleting on-chain data, refusing to store or share historical blocks).
All these forms of cheating disappear because nodes that do not store the whole blockchain are incapable of producing new blocks because they don’t know which UTXO need to be rebroadcast. There is no way to cheat this system and pass costs to others — unless you’ve done the work of storing the full blockchain for the last epoch you can’t make money producing new blocks!
Routing Work
Routing work is the heart of Saito and the real gem in the network. In Saito, any node can create a block if it has enough ”routing work” available in its mempool. The amount of ”routing work” that they need (think: difficulty) depends on how much time has passed since the last block. Producing lots of blocks really quickly requires exponentially more routing work.
Saito nodes get this routing work from the transactions in their mempool. The consensus mechanism decides how much routing work each transaction provides by starting with the transaction fee and reducing it by half with each hop the transaction has taken to reach them.
Using this measure of work to produce blocks makes attacking the network expensive since making claims about time cost money. But it gets better.
Golden Ticket
Whenever a node produces a block Saito does not give the block reward to anyone. If it did that would allow attackers to collect their fees back and use them to create more routing work in circular attacks on the network — a bit like renting hashpower in POW and using the crypto you earn from the block reward to pay the rental costs.
Saito solves this problem by making it expensive to get paid. It does this by introducing a computational puzzle called the ”golden ticket”.
This puzzle requires knowledge of the block hash to solve and cannot be calculated in advance. Miners on the network listen for blocks as they are produced and begin hashing, searching for a solution. Should they find a solution, they propagate it back into the network as a standard fee-paying transaction.
If a solution is found and included in the very next block, the block reward is split between the miner and one lucky routing node. Each routing node’s chance of winning ends up being proportional to the overall ”routing work” contained in the block being solved, so routing nodes are essentially paid proportionally to the amount of money they collect.
If a solution is not found, the block reward is burned. No-one gets paid, although the fees that were lost are eventually collected and re-inserted back into the network when the blocks that contain them fall off the chain at the end of the next epoch.
Saito’s Security Layers
Up to now, we’ve explained the main difference between Saito and other cryptocurrency protocols. To reiterate, Saito pays both routing nodes and miners. The routing nodes get paid for collecting fees and the miners get paid for running a lottery that makes it impossible to pull off the kind of circular economic attacks that are possible in POW and POS.
While we’ll leave the details out of this article, the math behind Saito works out so that attacking the network is *always* expensive. The only way you can attack the blockchain is by being willing to burn your own money.
This theoretically makes Saito much more secure than POW and POS, where anyone with 51% of the money the network spends on mining and staking is in a position to attack it. There is a lot to unpack here, so let's take a closer look at how the mechanisms compare.
Saito vs POW & POS
This system has several significant advantages over proof-of-work and proof-of-stake mechanisms.
The most important is that Saito explicitly distributes fees to the nodes that service users, collect transactions and produce blocks, and it does so in proportion to the amount of value that these actors provide to the overall network. Network nodes have to compete for access to lucrative inbound transaction flow which means they should fund whatever development activities are needed to get users on the network, as long as they are profitable.
Remember that debate about whether POW developers can ever build an ASIC-resistant mining algorithm? Saito has it — you can’t build a machine that guarantees access to user-fees, because the market will continue to make it obsolete: the value that you need to provide depends on what users need and want, and that depends on what your competitors are offering.
This is a fundamental shift. Other blockchains explicitly define which activities have value, like mining and/or staking. This is why they have such economic problems and circular internal attacks. Saito lets the users signal what services provide value through the fees they pay, while the network infers who deserves payment.
This incentivizes the efficient delivery of value to users. By paying for value instead of a subset of network activities, Saito provides a better way to guarantee that a self-sufficient network can remain open and economically independent at scale.
To conclude, Saito implements two additional protection layers that vouch to block any attack by one of the validators (miners and routers):
POWSPLIT: can set the cost of an attack to over 100% of the payout returns. PAYSPLIT: can add a voting mechanism to transactions that only route on channels with the same vote result.
Roadmap
While the Saito roadmap is still a work in progress, the web3 foundation grant has enabled the project to advance its goals:
Team
Saito was founded by two experienced software engineers: David Lancashire and Richard Parris.
David is the tech lead for Saito and has worked in China for over a decade. He has founded three successful companies and has been involved in the Bitcoin community since 2012. He did graduate work in Economics and Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley.
Richard is a software engineer with over 15 years of experience as a CTO leading teams in technology startups in Japan and China. He holds Mathematics and Philosophy degrees from the University of Melbourne.
Risks
While Saito builds massive improvements on how blockchain protocols can operate and presents an enticing opportunity for growth, it is not free of problems.
One concerning issue is the complexity of the system and how it may impact development. Mining and staking may have economic problems, but only one participant gets paid. The more participants one pays through consensus the more complicated our own consensus software needs to be.
There also is the risk of Saito running into mental objections people raise that aren’t necessarily based in reality, but that feel “truthy”, like the idea that networks can simply deal with bloat by “increasing fees”.
Additionally it is not yet known if users will actually pay (or migrate to cheaper chains). or that miners won’t continue to bloat (for profit) while cutting costs in various other ways, such as headers-only mining, refusing to sync data, or just by deleting the blockchain and/or cutting support for older data.
Conclusion
Saito is building an innovative web3 stack that completely changes how we think of blockchains.
In sum, the Saito protocol pays routing nodes for collecting fees for the network and using a mining puzzle to make attacking the system expensive and spam-resistant.
Its economics are well thought out. End-users are using applications in their browsers and can collect tokens from advertisers for viewing advertisements. Advertisers will have to buy those tokens from routing nodes and miners. This system allows users to pay for the transaction fees they need to use the network simply by using the network.
In conclusion, Saito allows developers to build blockchain applications that run directly in a browser. Both Infrastructure costs and rewards are split among all participants, making the entire ecosystem whole.
Note: 4SV invested in Saito. Nothing written in this research article should be considered financial advice of any kind.
. | https://medium.com/4svio/saito-303a7884ef18 | ['Pedro Febrero', 'Febrocas'] | 2021-03-30 12:33:54.781000+00:00 | ['Scalability', 'Ethereum', 'Bitcoin', 'Blockchain', 'Polkadot'] |
From the Other Shore | What one 19th-century book can teach us about freedom at a time when freedom is in retreat
Of all the books bandied about in discussions of our current quasi-dystopian reality (more than a year and counting), Alexander Herzen’s From the Other Shore is not one likely to be mentioned. Nor is Herzen himself much of a household name. Such is the paradoxical fate of this eminent thinker and fervent advocate of freedom, celebrated by Bolshevist ideologues in Russia, where Herzen was born, and mostly consigned to oblivion in the West, where he eventually settled and died. Yet From the Other Shore is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand why our societies have so easily relinquished their freedoms, and what we can do about it.
A polemical collection of essays, From the Other Shore was written in the wake of the failure of the revolutionary wave that had swept over Europe in the late 1840s. The failure left Herzen, who witnessed it first-hand, profoundly disenchanted with mankind’s prospects of emancipation. The idea that people strive towards freedom, he writes, is an illusion. “The masses are indifferent to personal liberty and freedom of expression; they enjoy authority . . .”. Few wish to be free, and most want to be governed: “To govern themselves doesn’t enter their heads” (all translations are my own).
The Rousseaus and Voltaires of the world make impossible demands upon humanity and then wring their hands when their Procrustean ideals prove to be unattainable. This is no different from an eccentric who wants fish to fly and despairs when they don’t. If our natural state is indeed that of servitude, the interludes of freedom enjoyed by Western societies might well be aberrations. This makes for a pessimistic conclusion, but Herzen prefers cold realism to delusions that terminate in historical cul-de-sacs.
Whereas freedom in the late 1840s was renounced for bourgeois comforts, as Herzen believed it was, freedom in 2020 was given up for the illusion of safety and security. People allowed their governments to decide when, where, and under what circumstances they could leave their homes; whom they could meet and in what numbers; and what they had to wear when they were allowed to step outside.
Freedom is not an absolute concept, and there are situations in which public security needs to take precedence. However, basic freedoms were abrogated to protect society from a virus that, though certainly lethal to some and a challenge to healthcare systems, has a mortality rate that is somewhere in the low single digits. Additionally, the removal of our freedoms was implemented with popular consent and, if polls and my personal observations are reliable, it continues to enjoy the broad support of the public.
This is an important point. Herzen argues that a collective surrender of freedom is worse than the loss of freedom in a fight against an oppressive state. This is because voluntary slavery has a more insidious effect on societies than imposed slavery: “The latter”, Herzen writes, “is based on violence; the former, on the corruption of the will”.
Corruption of the will is exactly what’s happened to us. The suspension of our freedom was supposed to be temporary; the restrictions are meant to be lifted once the virus is “defeated”. But what if it isn’t? Here in Canada, governments at all levels have moved the goalposts throughout the pandemic and continue to do so. The pandemic has revealed the extent to which government officials cannot be trusted or counted upon to be taken at their word; miraculously, they still are.
Some six months into the vaccine rollout, the latest goalpost seems to be “zero COVID” and a 100% vaccination uptake if we are to return to normality. In theory, at least, this means restrictions in some form might last forever, if only (or primarily) for the unvaccinated — which makes it even worse since this amounts to medical apartheid. In any case, a society whose citizens are obligated to present proof of vaccination in order to enter a bar or an office cannot be seriously considered a free society. Increasingly, the idea that the vaccines would restore our liberties — the original sales pitch — is looking like a bad joke. Yet such is the extent of the corruption of our collective will that much of the public is not only happy to accept the “new normal”; it demands its continuation.
Consider that the state of emergency declared in Nazi Germany in 1933 did not end until 1945, and it allowed Hitler to foist his agenda on the nation while it lasted. This is, of course, meant to be an example and not a comparison, for such comparisons have only limited value. So haunted is the civilized world by the ghosts of the 20th century that it can hardly conceive of any harbingers of dictatorship other than mustached demagogues hurtling invective in beerhalls. Consequently, we may have become too complacent to identify a credible danger to our liberties when one emerges. Scouring the horizon for vituperative orators, we forget that oppression has to fit the era in which it operates. Herzen reminds us that history has no libretto; it “rarely repeats itself, using every random opportunity to knock on a thousand gates . . . ”.
Herzen fiercely opposes the idea that one should suffer now for some grand future purpose. Soviet revolutionaries professed to admire Herzen (Lenin referred to him as one of the greatest thinkers of his time, and in the former USSR streets were named after Herzen), but the recipient of their encomia would not have admired the revolutionaries. Though a staunch opponent of tsarist Russia and its gross injustices, Herzen condemns utopias that offer distant dreams at the price of near sacrifices. People live for the present and not for some inchoate future, however glorious. “Life always pours itself into the present moment and gives people the ability to enjoy themselves as much as possible; it guarantees neither existence nor pleasure, and provides no assurances that either one will continue”.
Herzen would have balked at the idea that Bolshevik violence was a proper justification for a radiant future, for paradise here on earth. Nor would he have accepted the notion that defending the right to enjoy one’s freedom today is selfish, if only because egoism, in Herzen’s view, is as much an integral part of the human condition as is selflessness. The two complement each other. The endless appeals of moralists to a sense of duty and to the need to make sacrifices are nothing more than recyclable Christian pieties, as silly as they are harmful. “People are egoists because they are individuals . . . Destroy a man’s selflessness, and you’ll end up with a raging orangutan; destroy his egoism, and you’ll end up with a tame monkey”.
In the last year, we have become quite used to exhortations to be selfless. We may not have turned into raging orangutans, but have some of us not become a bit like Herzen’s tame monkeys? Should caring about others entail turning into a docile creature that requires two masks and aisle arrows to navigate a grocery store?
The Bolshevik movement that so admired Herzen, conveniently overlooking some of his key beliefs, was chiliastic in nature. Though a secular ideology, Bolshevism had a millenarian view of history: the war of the classes was to culminate in a huge conflagration, and the righteous would then inherit the ensuing paradise. Other ideologies have also shown millenarian reflexes, and the influence of religion on the development of secular ideologies has been much commented upon. People and societies seem to be unable to do without faith; in a secular society that rejects religion as its foundation, the need to believe will simply manifest itself elsewhere.
Now that the great ideologies of the 20th century are moribund, it is possible that science may have become the new religion. Ironically, much of what currently takes place in the name of following the science appears to have distinctly religious features. The language itself is quite revealing. There is something absurd about the notion of “following the science”. One follows Moses on the way out of Egypt, or Christ and the apostles. Science is about looking at facts, testing hypotheses, and reaching conclusions based on the findings that are obtained. The case for following science begins to make sense precisely when people start to treat science as a religion.
The language leads to everything else: the health authorities delivering their oracular pronouncements in front of cameras, threatening the non-compliant with fire and brimstone; the faithful worshippers who, not content with wearing their masks outside, also pose with them on social networks, as if to broadcast their unwavering allegiance to the new faith; the ritualistic sanitizing of hands and everything else that can be safely disinfected; the somewhat cultic banging of pots and pans on balconies to celebrate health workers (the new saints and martyrs); the peccatogenic explanations of the origins of the virus and the stentorian calls to revisit our relationship with nature; the endless reminders to “stay safe” used in parting; the vaccine stickers and badges that represent full conversion to the faith — it is hard not to see religious overtones in people’s pandemic habits.
As with religions historically, those who refuse to comply with the dogma are shamed and chastised; and if there are no current plans to burn at the stake those who refuse to get vaccinated, heretics are threatened with second-class status that will effectively ban them from full participation in society. If this new system of belief contradicts UNESCO’s Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights (Article 6), so much the worse for UNESCO and its declaration. In the new religion, vaccinations represent salvation; those who don’t want to be saved deserve damnation.
Tellingly, the major religions — institutions that ought to have remained the last bastion of some healthy sense of fatalism — seem to have embraced the religion of science. The Dalai Lama has got himself vaccinated and encouraged others to follow suit. The Vatican initially said all of its employees would need to get the jab if they were to keep their jobs, though there has been some softening of the stance in the face of criticism. The Russian Orthodox Church has threatened its faithful with lifelong atonement for the sin of vaccine hesitancy. A sixty-something churchgoer I spoke with recently told me he’d stopped attending Sunday service, having been made to feel unwelcome for showing up without a mask. Religions now defer to the religion of science.
Herzen understands this phenomenon all too well. “Having disposed of positive religion”, he writes, “we have preserved our religious habits; having disposed of the heavenly paradise, we still believe in the advent of an earthly one and boast of it”. He could have been writing about our own times. Herzen insists that only a complete overhaul of our society, root and branch, can stamp out these deleterious vestiges — but few are prepared to step towards that abyss.
Short of a complete overhaul, what is to be done? Herzen valued freedom above all else and chafed in the straitjacket of the societies in which he was destined to live. But, as he makes clear in his essays, freedom should be first found inside before it is sought externally. Inner freedom endows individuals with power; this power will then draw others into its orbit. And if it doesn’t? That’s no great tragedy, either — for the individual and for those not drawn into the orbit. Ultimately, “we live for ourselves and not to entertain others”. Assertions to the contrary are mere human vanity.
Using the decay of ancient Rome as an example, Herzen mentions that the wisest Romans — disillusioned with the present, deprived of the past, and unwilling to accept the future — simply scattered around the Mediterranean and disappeared into the mists of history. They were lost to humanity, but they were not lost to themselves — and Herzen believes that made them the real winners in the end. Though a “negative action”, withdrawal is a legitimate solution. “Perhaps this negative action will be the beginning of a new life,” Herzen writes. “In any case, it will be a virtuous action”. Don’t take this as a call to resignation. We must stand up for our rights and freedoms, always, and fight to the bitter end. Should we fail, though, some philosophical detachment might be in order. Herzen’s book will help us cultivate it. | https://medium.com/@eugeneehren/from-the-other-shore-6e5bd63fbbcf | ['Eugène Ehren'] | 2021-07-16 18:43:57.612000+00:00 | ['Herzen', 'Covid', 'Political Philosophy', 'Liberty', 'History'] |
BitBox02 multisignature wallet | BitBox02 ❤️ Electrum: part 3
This post explains how to use the best-in-class multisignature feature of the BitBox02 for multisig wallets with Electrum. The integrity of the whole multisig setup, including all co-signers, will be secured by the BitBox02 hardware wallet. We wrote this post for advanced users, so we’ll go a bit more into details.
Electrum
The free open-source Electrum wallet is a powerful Bitcoin light client for Windows, Mac and Linux. It connects to an Electrum server of your choice and offers many advanced features. It can be used as a pure software wallet, with the private keys stored on your computer, but it also works very well with most hardware wallets.
Note: Electrum wallet is a third-party application. We don’t have control over the development and distribution of the software and can’t provide any guarantees. The BitBox02, however, keeps your private keys safe at all times.
What is a multisignature wallet?
A multisignature Bitcoin wallet can be viewed as a shared account that needs multiple authorizations to spend money. The shared control is achieved by using more than one private key. The number of keys that need to sign a transaction (M), and the total number of keys (N) are defined when creating the wallet. The wallet is then typically referred to as a M-of-N multisig wallet, for example a “2-of-3 multisig wallet” where 2 keys out of a total of 3 need to sign each transaction.
Multisignature wallets have various applications:
Distribute responsibility : different people are controlling one key each, and every transaction needs to be signed by a predefined number of keys.
: different people are controlling one key each, and every transaction needs to be signed by a predefined number of keys. Added security : one person controls all keys, but these are created on different computers or hardware wallets, avoiding a single point-of-failure.
: one person controls all keys, but these are created on different computers or hardware wallets, avoiding a single point-of-failure. Added resilience: Multiple keys stored in different locations make the wallet more resilient against theft (e.g. one stolen key is not enough) and data loss (funds are still recoverable with a lost key).
Unfortunately, keys cannot simply be rotated, so with each change in signing keys (e.g. because an employee left the company, or a key has been compromised) a new wallet needs to be created, to which all funds are then transferred.
What are potential pitfalls?
Creating a multisignature wallet sounds like an easy enough solution, and is often advised. But due to more moving parts, such setups are complex and contain pitfalls not immediately obvious. In combination with hardware wallets, multisig wallets are especially hard to use securely, as most hardware wallets are stateless and don’t remember the other co-signers. Without that knowledge, it’s hard to independently verify receiving addresses or outgoing transactions.
Backup of multisig setups
Each participant in a multisignature setup must not only secure their private keys or seed, but also additional metadata like the extended public keys (xpub) of all co-signers, the used threshold, derivation path and script type.
Why is that? Even though a multisignature setup, for example a 2-of-3 multisig wallet, sounds like it could be recovered with two keys, it cannot. Funds are locked with the hash of all extended public keys and the threshold, so you need all of them to restore the wallet, and then the required amount of private keys to spend the funds.
Receiving funds
When creating and validating a new receiving address, your hardware wallet needs to let you independently verify the address and make sure that all co-signer parameters — like their xpub, total number and signing threshold — are correct. Otherwise, malware on your computer could trick you into receiving funds into a different wallet (partially) controlled by an attacker, for example by swapping out two co-signers in a 2-of-3 multisig wallet.
Spending funds
The tricky part for hardware wallets in signing multisig transactions is not the signature itself, but verifying that the change address is under sole control of the expected multisignature setup. This again depends on the knowledge of all xpubs of the co-signers.
Read more about this in our dedicated blog post The pitfalls of multisig when using hardware wallets.
How to do multisig properly?
The BitBox02 solves all these potential issues in the most thorough way: it lets you store the checksum of all relevant information about your co-signers directly in the hardware wallet. This enables the BitBox02 to automatically verify sending and receiving operations, which is not possible with other hardware wallets, like Ledger or Trezor. The only tricky part remains the backup, that we explain in detail further down.
Prepare your BitBox02s
We will use three BitBox02 hardware wallets for our multisignature setup. This is the recommended option, as it works the smoothest and avoids unnecessary complexity that could potentially lead to decreased security.
A multi-signature setup with hardware wallets of different manufacturers is also very interesting, but adds a lot of complexity, since other vendors miss some verification features. We will demonstrate how to do that securely in a follow-up article, with the BitBox02 adding significant security to the overall setup thanks to its unique capability to keep the co-signers in check.
Before you can use the BitBox02 with Electrum, you need to set up the devices and update them to firmware 9.0.0 (or higher) with the BitBoxApp.
In this multisig setup you need to know when to connect which device. It’s helpful to give each BitBox02 a device name, and additionally label it using the numbered stickers that come with every device.
You can name and update your devices in the BitBoxApp under “Manage device”. | https://medium.com/shiftcrypto/bitbox02-multisignature-wallet-5c6023dd10eb | [] | 2020-11-06 15:15:13.376000+00:00 | ['Security', 'Electrum', 'Hardware Wallet', 'Multisig', 'Bitcoin'] |
American fires. | American fires.
Sometimes, it seems to me that extreme wildfires are a recurring theme in our global headlines. Australia. Brazil. California. But why? Is what we’re seeing unusual? Or are we seeing a pattern that will repeat itself if we fail to act on climate change?
To understand what’s happening and how it affects our society, we need data. And for that we have access to open data platforms. Through these platforms we can stay informed, predict the future, and make plans to protect the things we love.
Using Global Forest Watch, Resource Watch, and PREPdata to explore the data, it’s clear that this year’s fires in the USA are worse than normal. And what’s more, there are signs that things could get worse.
Where are wildfires burning in America right now?
Wildfires are burning in the western states of Washington, Oregon and California. Colorado too has recorded a higher than normal number of fire alerts.
NASA’s VIIRS fire alert data can be visualised and analysed using Global Forest Watch. The data goes back to 2012 and a selection of data widgets adds context that helps us understand how unusual (or not) this year’s fires are in comparison to previous years.
According to the data available on Global Forest Watch, the number of fire alerts recorded so far this year is high compared to previous years. A total of 36,866 VIIRS fire alerts were recorded between 1 January 2020 and 14 September 2020. The number doesn’t yet exceed the record for 2018 but this year’s fire season isn’t over yet. | https://medium.com/vizzuality-blog/american-fires-1613e9ba5240 | ['Camellia Williams'] | 2020-10-06 11:55:47.440000+00:00 | ['Climate Change', 'Maps', 'Open Data', 'Dataviz', 'Wildfires'] |
Basic Interactive Stock Analysis Template | Notebook replicate of “Why Python is huge in finance? by Daniel Roos”
Source: Unsplash @Markus Spiske
Background
After listening to the talk from Daniel Roos on Why Python is huge in finance?[1], I’m intrigued how he used Jupyter Notebook to build interactive charts that back-test portfolio and perform historical simulation. Hence, I tried to replicate his notebook and try to build into my stock analysis template.
The analysis breaks into 3 parts.
Stock Scraping using yfinance Portfolio return Backtesting using Interactive Chart Correlation Plot & Risk-Reward Chart Monti-Carlo Simulation of Portfolio Return
The code can be found in my GitHub repository here:
https://github.com/Chiu-Huang/Simple_stock_analysis/blob/master/Basic_Interactive_Stock_Analysis_Template.ipynb
Let’s get started!
Step 1: Stock Scraping
It’s pretty straight forward. We basically plug in the ticker as parameters and we can get the whole history of the particular stock.
Roos uses cached_data to avoid repeatedly downloading the stock information again. All stock info would be stored in cached_data in a dictionary format, so that we could save it/reuse them later.
Step 1A. Data Preprocessing
It’s probably a good practice to backfill any missing values inbetween the dates, and chop off data so that selected stocks have the same length.
Backfill is usually used in time-series as it doesn’t spoil the data from the future to the past.
Step 1B. Visualizing the data
Let’s plot the data to see if there’s any obvious mistakes that we made in previous steps.
Stock prices over time
It seems fine with me with no obvious breaks and gaps between data. Also, all stock data is available at t= 0 which is good.
Step 2: Portfolio return Backtesting using Interactive Chart
For simplicity, Roos uses 1/N equal-weighted portfolio, meaning that each stock has 1/N weight. Feel free to build your own portfolio by replacing returns[‘PORTFOLIO’].
Portfolio Return is in Pink, basically Square.inc mainly drives the performance of the portfolio. Gold is lagging compared to all other Tech since 2016
To examine whether our portfolio strategy works, we need to test our portfolio across different time-periods/ holding-time-horizon, and the interactive plot below helps us visualize the process easily by changing the sliders of start_period and time-horizon of the portfolio.
Backtest from 2014–04–03 to 2015–04–03, None represents our portfolio
In one year period, portfolio roughly gained 7%, which was in par with the S&P 500 (SPY).
None represents our portfolio, back-test for 2–year-period
For 2 year-period from 2014 to 2016, we could see that stocks were more volatile, especially during election time, there was a big surprise that president Trump won the election and stocks plummeted and strongly recovered after it. The portfolio outperformed the market by ~6% over 2 year-time-horizon. Let’s see the impact if we drop IBM, FB, and SPY out of our portfolio.
3 tickers are removed from the portfolio.
We can see that our portfolio fluctuated more due to higher concentration on tickers, and portfolio performance dropped significantly after removal of the tickers.
Maybe more periods should be tested, but you get the idea, using the chart can quickly tell when your portfolio works and when doesn’t with some market context. The main benefit of this chart is that we could easily add/subtract stocks from our existing portfolios, and test-out their stand-alone impact. It seems useful in entry/exit decision making process.
Step 3: Correlation Plot & Risk-Reward Chart
We should examine the correlation between stocks as well. We want diversification, but if all stocks goes in same direction, it loses the point of mitigating risk while maintaining the same expected return.
Correlation plot of the stocks in portfolio
It turns out the stocks are highly correlated(above 0.5). It makes sense because they are all tech-stocks, and they are large in size, meaning that they have massive influence on S&P 500 (SPY) performance. Probably I have to rethink about the portfolio composition. Let’s switch gears to risk-reward plot of the stocks.
risk-reward plot of the stocks
IBM seems to be a inferior from this plot. IBM yields average return of ~1% while fluctuating with the standard deviation of 23% every year. SPY is the least risky (low volatility) asset, and the recent rally (2018–2020) really drives the SPY average return up from historically 7% to roughly 15% in this 7-year time period. Tesla is super risky but may yield high expected return.
Step 4: Monti-Carlo Simulation of Portfolio Return
From step 1– 3, we basically find that we need to consider more stocks (increasing n to lower volatility) and select stocks from different industry (lower non-systematic risk) to avoid such a highly correlated composition of stocks.
However, there’s nothing really concrete. Hence, we need simulation to see how our portfolio actually performed in numerical terms if history repeats in similar favour (similar return distribution).
Basically, we randomly select the return from past and form synthetic returns for all the stocks over time-horizon (k = 60 days in this case), and we calculated our portfolio based on those synthetic returns. In this example, we simulate for 1,000 times, and get the confidence interval of our portfolio value after 60 days.
Simulation result on top Panel; Quantile Return on bottom Panel
Our portfolio is likely to have 1.5% on average over 60–day-period, and the return could lie between -12% and 22 % in a 90% confidence interval.
The simulation definitely provides some useful information that if bad things happen to my portfolio, similar to historical bad events (down-case), then I could face a -10% cut on my portfolio, while if good events (up-case) happen, then I could happily accept 22% return.
Conclusions
The talk from Daniels Roos provides a great starting point for quick, dirty stock analysis in our portfolio. I particularly like the interactive plotting function that I have never seen before. In the following posts, I would probably dig deeper into how this interactive plotting can help us in stock analysis, as well as the simulations.
If you like the content, please hit the clap button so the articles can circulate around the community! Thanks.
Reference
[1]: “Why Python is huge in finance? by Daniel Roos” at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBwOy-6CtAQ | https://medium.com/the-innovation/basic-interactive-stock-analysis-template-286f06973a86 | [] | 2020-09-20 18:15:11.192000+00:00 | ['Visualization', 'Finance', 'Stock Market', 'Personal Finance', 'Data Science'] |
Hello, I am Carolyn. | Hello, I am Carolyn.
I am a senior student who major in Computer Science.
I would like to write stories for a long time, but I always be lacks of time and courage.
Until now, I try to do something that I long for.
With a few words and a little strange grammar, I am about to share my thoughts of life and frustration, my debugs in coding and the wonderful funny sights of routine life.
( 76 words costs 20 minutes) | https://medium.com/@carolynchienju/hello-i-am-carolyn-e55a6a93e5da | ['Carolyn'] | 2020-12-17 03:44:59.047000+00:00 | ['Do What You Love', 'First Time', 'Introduction'] |
Calculating Beta vs Bitcoin | A few days ago a few friends asked me to calculate beta for several coins versus Bitcoin. Below is a 60 day beta calculation of a few alt coins against BTC. Now it probably makes sense to use a different proxy for the market instead of Bitcoin. A better solution would be to put together a weighted basket of currencies or using the CoinMarketCap total market instead. Feel free to use the code below. I use Plotly for my charting. I’ve never calculated before so I may be wrong in my approach. If you have feedback please let me know on Twitter or via email (contact@quantalys.us).
If you have other ideas for analytics please let me know.
originally: https://github.com/jhogan4288/coinmarketcap-history
In [1]:
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from __future__ import division
import pandas as pd
import datetime
import os
#ignore warnings
import warnings
warnings.filterwarnings('ignore')
In [2]:
import coinmarketcap_usd_history
In [3]:
from pandas_datareader import data as pdr
/take in date until today
In [164]:
def beta(coin1, coin2, start, end):
x=coinmarketcap_usd_history.main([coin1,start,end,'--dataframe'])
y=coinmarketcap_usd_history.main([coin2,start,end,'--dataframe'])
z=[x,y]
for z in z:
z['Change']=0.000000
for index, row in z.iterrows():
if index>0:
z['Change'][index]=(z['Close'][index]/z['Close'][index-1])-1.000
return [x, y]
In [5]:
coin1, coin2, coin3, coin4, coin5 ='bitcoin','ethereum','neo','qtum','bitcoin-cash'
coin_names=[coin1,coin2,coin3,coin4,coin5]
In [6]:
import datetime
In [17]:
t=datetime.datetime.today().strftime("%Y-%m-%d")
In [166]:
btc=beta(coin1,coin1,'2016-01-01',t)
In [19]:
coin1_list=beta(coin1,coin2,'2016-01-01',t)
In [20]:
coin3_list=beta(coin1,coin3,'2016-11-01',t)
In [21]:
coin4_list=beta(coin1,coin4,'2017-07-15',t)
In [22]:
coin5_list=beta(coin1,coin5,'2017-08-15',t)
In [176]:
roll_period=60
In [154]:
coins=[coin1_list, coin3_list, coin4_list, coin5_list]
In [198]:
k=0
col_names=[]
df=pd.DataFrame() for j in coins[0:4]:
z=[]
for i in range(0, j[0].count().max()-1):
y=j[0][i:i+roll_period-1]['Change'].cov(j[1][i:i+roll_period-1]['Change'])/j[0][i:i+roll_period-1]['Change'].var(axis=0)
x=(j[0]['Date'][i],
j[0]['Close'][i], #coin 1 close
j[0]['Change'][i], #coin 1 change
j[1]['Close'][i], #coin 2 close
j[1]['Change'][i], #coin 2 change
y)
z.append(x)
df_temp=pd.DataFrame(z,
columns=['Date',
coin_names[0] + ' Close',
coin_names[k+1] + ' Close',
coin_names[0] + ' chg',
coin_names[k+1] + ' chg',
'Beta '+ coin_names[k+1]])
if k==0:
df=df_temp
if k>0:
df=pd.merge(df[['Date'] + col_names], df_temp[['Date','Beta ' + coin_names[k+1]]], how='left').fillna("")
col_names.append('Beta ' + coin_names[k+1])
k+=1
In [172]:
#use for singular beta
z=[]
for i in range(1, btc[0].count().max()-1):
y=btc[0][i:i+roll_period]['Change'].cov(btc[1][i:i+roll_period]['Change'])/btc[0][i:i+roll_period]['Change'].var(axis=0)
x=(btc[0]['Date'][i],
btc[0]['Close'][i], #coin 1 close
btc[0]['Change'][i], #coin 1 change
btc[1]['Close'][i], #coin 2 close
btc[1]['Change'][i], #coin 2 change
y)
z.append(x)
df_temp=pd.DataFrame(z)
if k==0:
btc=df_temp
In [157]:
import plotly
In [137]:
api_key='xxxxxxxxx'
user_name='username'
In [138]:
plotly.tools.set_credentials_file(username=user_name, api_key=api_key)
In [187]:
df.dtypes
Out[187]:
Date datetime64[ns]
Beta ethereum float64
Beta neo object
Beta qtum object
Beta bitcoin-cash object
dtype: object
In [212]:
import plotly.plotly as py
from plotly.graph_objs import * low_bound=365
high_bound=roll_period b_eth = Scatter(
x=df[(df['Date']>datetime.datetime.today()+datetime.timedelta(days=-low_bound)) &
(df['Date']<datetime.datetime.today()+datetime.timedelta(days=-high_bound))
]['Date'],
y=df[(df['Date']>datetime.datetime.today()+datetime.timedelta(days=-low_bound)) &
(df['Date']<datetime.datetime.today()+datetime.timedelta(days=-high_bound))
]['Beta ethereum'],
name='b_eth'
) b_neo = Scatter(
x=df[(df['Date']>datetime.datetime.today()+datetime.timedelta(days=-low_bound)) &
(df['Date']<datetime.datetime.today()+datetime.timedelta(days=-high_bound))
]['Date'],
y=df[(df['Date']>datetime.datetime.today()+datetime.timedelta(days=-low_bound)) &
(df['Date']<datetime.datetime.today()+datetime.timedelta(days=-high_bound))
]['Beta neo'],
name='b_neo'
) b_qtum = Scatter(
x=df[(df['Date']>datetime.datetime.today()+datetime.timedelta(days=-low_bound)) &
(df['Date']<datetime.datetime.today()+datetime.timedelta(days=-high_bound))
]['Date'],
y=df[(df['Date']>datetime.datetime.today()+datetime.timedelta(days=-low_bound)) &
(df['Date']<datetime.datetime.today()+datetime.timedelta(days=-high_bound))
]['Beta qtum'],
name='b_qtum'
) b_bch = Scatter(
x=df[(df['Date']>datetime.datetime.today()+datetime.timedelta(days=-low_bound)) &
(df['Date']<datetime.datetime.today()+datetime.timedelta(days=-high_bound))
]['Date'],
y=df[(df['Date']>datetime.datetime.today()+datetime.timedelta(days=-low_bound)) &
(df['Date']<datetime.datetime.today()+datetime.timedelta(days=-high_bound))
]['Beta bitcoin-cash'],
name='b_bch'
) data = Data([b_eth, b_neo, b_qtum, b_bch]) py.plot(data, filename = 'basic-line', title='Rolling ' + str(roll_period) + ' day beta') High five! You successfully sent some data to your account on plotly. View your plot in your browser at https://plot.ly/~quantalysus/0 or inside your plot.ly account where it is named 'basic-line'
Out[212]:
u'https://plot.ly/~quantalysus/0'
In [202]:
coin1_list[0].to_csv('bitcoin.csv')
coin1_list[1].to_csv('ethereum.csv')
Roadmap
1) Add rolling 90 days
2) Find solution for minimum date bounds for alternative coins
3) Put charts on Plotly
4) Publish chart on Quantalysus
5) Publish Google Doc data | https://medium.com/quantalysus/calculating-beta-vs-bitcoin-84152f0a5353 | [] | 2018-03-28 02:19:47.840000+00:00 | ['Qtum', 'Ethereum', 'Python', 'Plotly', 'Bitcoin'] |
Pope Francis declares Year of St. Joseph | Pope Francis Declares “Year of St. Joseph.” As we noted in March “Now is the Time of St. Joseph.’’ as a new consecration to the protector of the Church coincided with the pandemic... Now through December 8, 2021: | https://medium.com/@serwachjoe/breaking-pope-francis-declares-new-year-of-st-8db280e279bc | ['Joseph Serwach'] | 2020-12-10 01:48:23.005000+00:00 | ['Spirituality', 'Christianity', 'Religion', 'Faith', 'Catholic'] |
Ushering in an ageless future | For years, futurists have attempted to predict when, in the future, we will finally achieve the “technological singularity’’ — a technological breakthrough so profound, it changes the course of humanity. Specifically, futurists have been talking about the moment when super-human artificial intelligence becomes reality. Or — to put it simply — when computers become smarter than people.
However, at Centaura, we believe that the world needs to prepare for a different singularity — one that might arrive even before super-human intelligence. It’s the moment when humans have the power to slow down — and even reverse aging.
Stepping back: what the “singularity” is
The idea of the “singularity” first became popular nearly thirty years ago by the science fiction writer Vernor Vinge. In his essay The Coming Technological Singularity, he famously declared, “Within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly after, the human era will be ended.”
Today, the idea of the “technological singularity” is highly debated — both in terms of its theoretical possibility and its ethical consequences. Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen, for example, suggested that we would still be wondering whether or not artificial intelligence that surpasses human capabilities is possible by the end of the century.
Even if we do reach the “singularity” in the near future, it is still unclear what that will actually look like.
Perhaps the bigger takeaway from the entire “singularity” debate is that technology and science are evolving at an unprecedented pace, making what once seemed impossible — possible.
The “aging” singularity
Perhaps no problem has vexed humanity more than the problem of aging. Whether it’s finding a cure for cancer or the development of new vaccines against deadly diseases, increasing longevity — the number of years a person lives — has long been a staple of modern medicine.
More recently, however, scientists have been attempting to not just increase humans’ lifespans, but actually slow — and even reverse — the degenerative processes altogether. And at Centaura, we believe that the only way to do that is to tackle the root causes: to uncover the biological origins of age-related diseases and then develop targeted therapies to combat them. What’s more, the ability to make that goal a reality is closer than you might think.
In just the past few years, scientists have made major advances in anti-aging science. They were able to extend the lifespan of worms by 45% with an enzyme-blocking molecule and extended the life of fruit flies by 65% with probiotics. Even more promising — a single dose of gene therapy stopped an aging disorder in mice.
These experiments prove that aging can be tackled by modern science, and by 2035, Centaura aims to bring the first anti-aging treatments to humans. That’s only fifteen years away. And when it happens, humans will have the ability to radically extend both their lifespans and their healthspans (the number of years spent in good health). Few technological advances have as much potential to radically change civilization.
Imagining an ageless future
The world has an “aging” problem. Nearly every country faces a growing proportion of individuals aged 65 and older, and the number of people aged over 80 is expected to triple by the year 2050. This is creating enormous pressure on public health and social welfare systems.
Unfortunately, without treating aging as a “disease” — one whose cure needs to be found — developed countries around the globe are facing a grim future: one where pension and healthcare systems are overburdened and the workforce is not large enough to support the national economy or infrastructure.
Imagine then that people lived longer. Living to one hundred would no longer be an achievement, but the norm. More importantly, even at 120, you would have the health and strength of a 40-year-old.
Progressively better health would ease the burden on already taxed healthcare systems. What’s more, if individuals are living until they’re 150 or 250 years, retirement at age 65 no longer makes sense. They’ll need to think longer term in terms of both their financial and mental health, and their continued contributions to the workforce will only serve to stimulate the economy and push for improved global decision-making. Think about it: the world becomes more complex by the day and those best suited to tackle the complexity are those with a wealth of knowledge and years of experience — in other words, older generations.
Of course, these same individuals will also get to reimagine their futures — without limits. With an extra 100 to 200 years in good health, regrets could become a phenomenon of the past. Those who are 60 will have a chance to try the one or two careers they didn’t get a chance to try earlier in life, while at 80 they might decide to run their first marathon or cross off that final destination on their travel bucket list.
When people have the time to enjoy several lifetimes worth of experiences, the world is not only a more productive place — but a happier one.
The other side of the coin
But wait, if healthcare systems are already taxed, won’t more elderly only exacerbate the problem? That’s the myth of the“aging society”.
Right now, the phenomenon of aging is equated with physical and mental decline. The problem isn’t so much that people are living longer; it’s that they’re living longer in a state of continuously declining health. Those who are aging aren’t contributing economically to society and, at the same time, require more extensive healthcare treatment for age-related diseases.
However, if we increase not just people’s lifespans but their healthspans, we have a demographic situation like that described above: people will continue to contribute to the economy as they get older, all without needing costly healthcare treatment.
As Andrew Scott, Professor of Economics at London Business School, puts it: think of it like inflation. If people only paid $1.18 for two movie tickets in the 1950s and now tickets cost $9.11 per person, has going to the movies really gotten more expensive, or are we just making more money?
Similarly, just because society is becoming chronologically older doesn’t mean society has to become physically and mentally older.
The next 15 years
A singularity is coming — it’s just not the one scientists and futurists have long foretold. Recent advancements in anti-aging science have proven that halting degenerative processes is possible. And, once the root causes of aging are identified, scientists like those at Centaura can craft treatments to stop aging at the source. Of course, the first step in significantly extending your lifespan is taking care of your health, and that needs to happen right now. 2035 isn’t that far away, and by making healthy lifestyle choices, such as exercising and eating right, today, when the first anti-aging treatments finally do arrive, they’ll have a greater impact.
The fact is: a new future is coming. But rather than preparing for one where the robots take over, we need to start preparing for one where people are living 150–200 years long, all in good health. What will that mean at an individual, local, and national level? What will people be able to accomplish with all that extra time? What does an ageless future look like?
It’s time we all began dreaming bigger.
Follow Centaura on Facebook and Linkedin to stay up-to-date with all of our latest news. | https://medium.com/@centaura-science/ushering-in-an-ageless-future-b799e517baf | [] | 2020-12-08 15:14:24.253000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Health', 'Biotechnology', 'Aging'] |
Sympathy vs Empathy: Is There A Difference? | Sympathy and Empathy differ from each other in the slightest way possible but the difference is still significant. In this blog, we will explain to you the difference between the two and the easiest way to know it.
What is the Difference between Sympathy and Empathy?
The difference between sympathy and empathy is a slight but important one. Both sympathy and empathy come from the Greek word “pathos,” which means suffering or feeling. As such, both refer to being able to take part in another’s feelings.
With sympathy, the relationship between your feelings and another’s isn’t equal. You might feel sorrow for someone, but you don’t personally understand their feelings or haven’t had the same experience. However, with empathy, the relationship is equal. You understand another’s feelings as if they were yours.
Examples:
I’m sorry for your loss. You have my sympathy. It was easy for me to feel empathy for Mr. Kapoor since I’d been in the exact same situation.
Phrases That Show You Sympathize With Someone:
I’m so sorry
I’m sorry for your loss
I can’t imagine what you must be going through
That’s so terrible
I’m sorry this happened to you
I’m sorry that you feel this way
I really feel bad for you
I’m sorry for you
You have my sympathy
Phrases That Show You Empathize With Someone:
I’ve felt that way before
I know exactly what you mean
I totally get you
I’ve been there
I know exactly how you feel
I know from experience
The same thing happened to me
I had a similar experience
I know what you’re going through
I feel you
Which one do you use and When?
Empathy is a stronger emotion, but that doesn’t automatically make it better than sympathy. The question is really which is better for a given situation. Sympathy recognizes another person’s suffering, but it stops there. Empathy goes further by sharing in another’s experience. The ability to feel someone’s pain, disappointment, and fear is intense. Sympathy is just as important even though it’s less intense.
Quick Recap | https://medium.com/@englishonlinelearning/sympathy-vs-empathy-is-there-a-difference-c6c0fd2f47f3 | ['English Medium'] | 2020-12-26 12:02:08.424000+00:00 | ['Empathy', 'Sympathy', 'Online English Lessons', 'Learn English'] |
AN OBSERVATION ON THE DIFFERENT COLOURS OF REALITY. | AN OBSERVATION ON THE DIFFERENT COLOURS OF REALITY.
Written by Festus Obehi Destiny
Being poor will make you so angry. Your emotions so taut. Your thoughts overwhelm you until you feel claustrophobic. Your freedom is not yours to give. Your lips are locked, emotions pocketed, until you explode in different drabs of depression. Depression keeps you angry and anger is the spice of poverty. Although many of us have mastered the art of introducing humor to our situation to make an euphemism of the hyperbole that anguishes our everyday thoughts. How gruesome it is to wake up everyday to a recurring state of disappointment, go out, see the life you are living, the life you are trying to avoid and the dreams you are struggling to sail in. in secondary school, we are indoctrinated to master the arms of government and the fallacy of the fundamental human rights. But reality is far different and disappointing. You realize that the average man in Nigeria cannot afford his rights or even use them. He is in a situation where rights do not function in his reality and it is only his pursuit of wealth, the pursuit of happiness, that matters. Even though he isn’t free to use this right as a collective, even as an individual, his hands are still tied. He lives in a crappy bungalow with seven other neighbors, sharing a bathroom too small for the average height and too slim to pick up a soap. He wakes up to the noise of the neighbor’s child at midnight scrunching for milk and refusing to swallow the dusty bit nipple of his malnourished mother. he can hear the banging of the neighbor by his other side and he cannot tell if the noise is the intensity of rape or is he just beating his girlfriend like any other normal Tuesday. His privacy, just like his fundamental human rights do not function in his reality.
Where I come from, you either pocket or unleash your emotion depending on who is seeking your attention. For many an example, when the grumpy landlord comes with his first born illiterate son seeking rent, approval, respect or an enactment of a ridiculous rule for neighbors unfortunate enough to stay in the dingy crooked apartment, your parents smile and nod their head. Of course they do not agree with whatever he says and they would rather not spend their Wednesdays on a very insignificant meeting, but they realize that they cannot afford to be disrespectful or even be honest with themselves. Any contradiction will offer them a quit notice and with the rising rate of houses in Lagos, one can say that the fear of rent in Lagos is enough to keep you silent. Your parents keep their anguish and anger for the little children who misplace their lunch money, forget to greet or even for the ridiculous reason. The slap meant for the oppressors will land on the cheeks of the unfortunate victims that dangle with the patience of the oppressed.
Amidst the growing rate of poverty and insecurity in rural areas, one resources that never seem to be scarce is the children. The poor man works hard in labor in the day and gropes the skirt of his house wife at night. With no care in the world for family planning or the use of a condom, his wife’s stomach grows every season and small parties are thrown depending on the sex of the child. the children are thrown into the pursuit of excellence in public schools. Their intelligence is based on whose memory works the fastest. Indoctrination takes the center stage, religion keeps them in moral check and the cane is used to remind them of how good a citizen they are supposed to be. But even these mesh of love and torture doesn’t work forever. For as puberty knocks, growing questions surrounds their actions, thoughts and desires. Questions that the house wife mother cannot answer and the father is too ignorant or cannot afford the care to answer.
For a family that survives and not live {Because living is very different from surviving}, there is hardly anytime for a parent to sit down and discuss the boundaries and climax of puberty. Many of us were left to figure out the answers to our unexplainable bulging desires from the colorful pages of our biology textbooks, inquisitive neighbors and the friends who knew more they should. And so we embraced them all, myths, truth and lies. And when our desires overwhelmed us, we bade no concern to morality, rather we explored and desecrated the boundaries that separated boy from man, girl from woman, and a child from youth.
The years that comes make puberty look like a foreshadowing to the terrors that would later hunt our realities. For the boy, he begins to realise that he is treated and talked to differently. His choices are limited, his desires are franchised and his responsibility emerge out of the curtain as if they were invisible before he became aware of them. He realizes that his worth is tied to monetary value. The same way a slave is. If the family is very poor, the boy might not achieve his dreams of education and might be pushed into the streets into the world that embroiders the word ‘hustle’. He might scan the environment where he lives and try to adapt the same way that men that have come before him have used and succeeded. This might involve the legal or the illegal franchise depending on where he lives, who he meets and what he believes in. His lady counterpart, at the inception of puberty, comes with a fear as the body grows. It is hardly ever talked about the fear that comes with puberty. I do not mean the emergence of age but seeing the body that you once owned and control, grow out of your own control or thought comes with a slight scare.
Just like the boy, the lady’s choices depend greatly on the family she is brought up in, where she grows and what she believes in. where I come from, we have a lot of poor families with ladies strutting after rich boys or men, exchanging pleasure for money. These girls see their elder sisters who have seen other sisters grow into puberty, explored boundaries and realized that they couldn’t cross back into the shores of morality unscatched. The shame, the consciousness and the realization of their actions keep them on the side of their choices until salvation comes, if salvation comes.
At night, the heat comes with a terrible haunt and hurt. And if you can survive that meandering fury, what tears into your privacy is the cries of the children. Not your own children but the ten or dozen children squabble that always erupt from your neighbor’s home. They say wall have ears but in your own case, the walls have holes in them. Gaps that age and rats have chewed fiercely and now it seems there is no wall at all in the first place protecting your ears from the squabbles and discordant symphonies that always erupt out of the night into your vulnerable lobes. I moan about these cries because with them arise the birth of a new terror, that is the day that your conflicted soul will face again, at least for a fleeting day. Then, I say again, with these children cries, comes the suckling, and fingers, scratching for food and attention. But of course the children surround and limp over an half empty bed with the comatose mother, sleeping and fading away. Today, you cannot tell if she is simply running from her own world or if she has just been raped again to a comatose state.
What comes next is the banging on your door. The knock of one who does not sleep behind the same doors as you but certainly owns the floor you sleep on. The fingers keep bulging and slashing until your mouth responds to calm the knuckles. And then you stretch your shorts, wipe the spittle off your face, twist and turn so that your legs do not kick against the teeth of any of your own siblings. You stand in for your parents as you see other parents with shrunken bodies and furious eyes, who have obviously endured the same nightmare of an evening that you have staggered through. Greetings are exchanged, rejected and spat. The landlord of course throws a tantrum about topics that you have condemned to your unnecessary folder. Words that you will receive and reject before you see your parents again at twilight to pass it on. You sleep through half the sermon and only jerk awake when the flies buzzing out of the toilet comes close enough to rest between your nose or sing choruses behind your ears. You catch the sleepy lackadaisical eyes of the other tenants and you can still hear the cries of the dozen children behind your rooms, limping and singing for a mother whose spirit is miles away from her torment. The only person alive this morning is the landlord punishing you with his authority, anger and a restless ego seeking to renew its worth by reliving its strength and tormenting the helpless tenants with a cliché Thursday morning. At last, the words end and greetings are exchanged, picked up and spat at again. You cannot recall if at one point, voices had been raised, tempers had been tested or threats had been issued, all noises now operate at a familiar frequency of disturbance, stress and abuse. You crawl back to the warm floor. By now, it is wet, dusty and you had left the door open on your way out and the mosquitoes had swarmed in to make a meal of your siblings, half sleepy and half listening to the cries and raised voices. You barely close your eyes before the alarm tears off. The same scathing ring that had torn your parents from their arms and sent them off now wakes you up reminding you that it is a crime to be poor and be at peace or even at ease with rest. The alarm is a reminder of that fact, a torment, a punishment that slowly finds itself becoming a solace.
The queue at the bathroom is long. Children who are naïve in body and mind choose the easy task to bath outside the house with brown water and detergent. But you, have to queue along with the older ones. A treatment that you are getting used to. Not because you have to queue at only this part of the morning but because you have realized that you have to queue and wait at every part of the day for anything you need. The queue is a measurement for the yardstick of patience and the poor have the distinct quality of being patient. We stand in queue to vote in election and anchor the same patience for the next election even though we know that we would always been forgotten and abandoned immediately the votes are counted and carted. We anchor the same patience after we slip thin, almost invisible ward of cash into the hands of security guard and wait for the call to inform us about our interview for a job. Whether in reading, or praying, or even waiting for the fingers behind the clouds to open up our prayer requests and answer our prayers, we anchor the same patience and so you stand at this queue, watching your neighbors go in and come out with exaggerated fervor. This is the most quiet part of your day. There is no need for discourse in shame and filth.
Now comes your turn and you barely have the time to rest your towel before the grunts come in. they come the way the water from your bucket empties. First in quiet small lumps and finally the big ones. You do away with the sponge, the songs, the dreams and just wash your ears, lips, legs and your pits.
The grunts and smell of the overheated soup hits you and threatens to throw you over immediately you emerge from the bath. Your siblings, six or seven, you are beginning to lose count, hop and jump all over the tight walls picking up clothes and looking to make themselves the ghetto consideration of what the word beautiful is before they all disperse into their different halls of struggle and torment. I call it torment because this exercise is done out of the utmost unnecessary desire except the idea that this has now become the normal of the day and the only way their idea of a well spent day is thought of. It is the only way it functions in their reality. and then comes the stage where you have to search for their answers with them and stop their fighting if anyone comes up and they mostly do. Your own fighting begins at the busstop. There, you punch, kick, yell and scratch for a seat at the bus. Sometimes your hands even slip behind another person’s pocket and you cannot fight off the temptation to squeeze and pick off what you would call a Friday’s blessing from God. There has been no light for days and now you pick up your cloth from underneath the bed where you have left it for two days to maintain the gaitors that you have planted since you were a child.
Today, the bus is slow. There is a tanker that has decided to rest its inefficiency in the middle of the road and now you’re the buses are moving like the legs of a constrained millipede. You are afraid to look at the fingers on your broken stop watch because you do not want to accept the reality that you might be late for your interview. Finally, this millipede moves slowly and slowly until you cannot bear it any longer. You jump out of the bus and start running through the waking streets of the city. Noises accompany and desert you and eventually you realize that you are alone in this race to salvation. You run, bend, sweat and rest until eventually you arrive at the front of the company that has managed to filter your number out of the thousand of application that they have received in the last year. You arrange your dress, smell yourself, wipe yourself with your socks and offer a little prayer before entering through the doors. Earlier in the week, your mother had offered a seed of faith in brown envelope at the pastor’s altar in hope that angels would grant you favor and drop this job and salary bonus in the center of your itchy palms. You look at the company again. You do not remember submitting you CV here and for a second you blink rapidly to make sure that you are not delusioned. You breathe in and throw your legs in front of you.
The secretary desk is empty. You do a little pace and search through the walls and perforated air before you call out. Finally, she comes. A tall woman who smell of foreign fragrance, mint and a raised eyebrow that spells arrogance. She looks at you and you can tell in that mini seconds that she knows you. Of course she knows you. She has seen you come into her office once every week and ask about a vacant position. She speaks in low tone and tells you off and does not shout or threaten to call the security except you linger and threaten to go on your knees. She wants no part of you. The smell of the heat and old musk that you carry around you is one she recognizes around the children that run around her asking for money whenever comes out of the shopping mall with big bags and wines.
‘Yes?’ she says without opening her mouth. All she does is cock her head and raises her eyebrow while walking to her desk to grab at her sanitizers and press her hands around the security number on speeddial.
‘My name is, she doesn’t care about your name. she probably will forgot it immediately you leave. I am here for the interview’
‘Which one? The one that ended an hour ago.?’
You want to tell her about the landlord, the meeting, the queue, the tanker in the middle of the road and the two hour leg walk through the busy lagos roads. But she does not give a hair and you know she doesn’t. she is already back to her desk with her eyes all over a figure that isn’t your. You have seen this scene a thousand times. You are tired of begging and asking and promising and slipping almost invisible seed of faith bribes into itchy palms. But you know she doesn’t give a hair and so you walk out. You walk out and search your pocket to see that you have walked out of the building alone. Your wallet gone. You are about to throw youself back into this secretary prescence again when you realize your folly. You had run out of the bus, forgetting your thousand naira with the conductor. Now the voices that had trailed you when you started running seem more familiar now. The conductors and passengers calling for you and your change. Oh, what story you have to tell when you get home to your family.
As you walk back home through the busy roads, now awake and roaring with fast cars, smoke and broken dreams. You do not wipe your sweat off your face instead you let them surround your eyes and flow down your hair, down your ears through your back. Your phone buzzes and at the top of the notification is a message from your girlfriend, Joy. A short text praying for you to get the job, and hoping your salary will be big enough to cover your parents and take her out to eat big chicken at the tantalizer eatery. You close your eyes and your phones and walk down the long lane as the sweat overwhelms your body.
What hurts more than the long walk is not the pain you feel but more than that, the agony when you realise that your fears are kicking in, winning and even stretching out of your body into the heart and minds of your siblings. You first see this fear in the life of your younger brother, who has started moving with the yahoo boys crowding around your home. Every word from your finite wisdom rises and falls back to dust when he realizes how deeper you sink into agony, thought and poverty. He does not want to end up like his parents. A bricklayer of a father and a mother who sells failing wares. He does not want to end up like you. A jobless graduate with a long list of dreams and unanswered prayers stretching out of his prayer mail into real life. He now thinks that the responsibility of raising his family from the drawls of poverty is his to bear now that it seems you are failing. Your sister comes back home today with a wet patch on her skirt. You recognize it but you do not want to ask her about it. Asking her is tantamount to accepting that it is real. That your sister is on the same path you led girls her age when you were twice her age. You remember don’t you, when you were younger and had the arrogance of a secondary school graduate. When you felt the world was at the tip of your tongue and fingers and dreams were as visible as puberty, yours to own, control and manipulate. How beautiful a poet karma is.
The heat comes again when you try to escape with a nap. The breeze spluttering through the window is not enough to sail a paper and now the dried sweat on your hair is stretching its stench through the whole apartment. The neighbor’s children are back from school and now the cries resume. The walls suddenly disappear and now you can hear the cries. For a moment, it seems that the universe is taunting you. Listening to sad songs to accompany your tears is not working today. Your ears have grown accustomed to company that suddenly they have become familiar neighbors, no more strangers. You look around the house, the dusty fans, the cob webs growing at the centre and sides of the room, the untidy clothes and the flies buzzing through the compound. You close your eyes, realise that there is no escape. Reality is a terror.
Again, you walk. To the crowdy rowdy market. The noise would stretch for miles and still reign over your thoughts when you are miles from it. You recognize the stalls, the familiar calls and the regulars. You walk over to your mother’s stall. Your father is already there. His head is buried over a bowl of garri and you can see the sweat dragging sand and age around his back and head. He has been laid off again. Your mother searches your eyes. There are no need for words to be exchanged. She knows. You know. Everyone knows. | https://medium.com/@obehidestiny9991/an-observation-on-the-different-colours-of-reality-1ca16dd026ed | ['Festus Obehi Destiny'] | 2020-12-06 12:25:40.867000+00:00 | ['Nonfiction', 'Socialism', 'Classism', 'Nigeria', 'Nigerian Economy'] |
Are Mickey Mouse’s spats and gloves racist? Sigh. | Because antiracists find racism everywhere, some insist Mickey Mouse’s gloves and spats are racist reminders of Jim Crow minstrel shows. The most entertaining version may be Ty Templeton’s The Gloves are Off!
I love Templeton’s comics, but the people he’s siding with are wrong. Here’s why:
1. Spats were popular with rich and poor for a decade after Mickey was created in 1928. One year earlier, Irving Berlin wrote Puttin’ On the Ritz, which opens:
Have you seen the well-to-do, up and down Park Avenue
On that famous thoroughfare, with their noses in the air
High hats and Arrow collars, white spats and lots of dollars
Spending every dime, for a wonderful time
2. When Mickey first appeared, he did not wear spats or gloves. Walt Disney said,
We didn’t want him to have mouse hands, because he was supposed to be more human. So we gave him gloves. Five Fingers looked like too much on such a little figure, so we took one away. That was just one less finger to animate.
Now, it’s possible Disney was revising his past when he said that. He was an antisemite who refused to hire women for years, and the kindest thing you can say about Song of the South is that it has some great songs and a remarkably clueless approach to the portrayal of black folks.
But if you look at the first appearances of Mickey, you can see that his hands are less distinct than in the later ones with the white gloves. You can see how Mickey’s design evolved at Mickey Mouse Through the Years.
3. I haven’t found Mickey’s first appearance in spats. He only seems to wear spats when he has an occasion to dress up—just as people sometimes do today for formal affairs.
4. In early cartoons, black characters spoke in an extreme southern black dialect. Mickey Mouse never did, which means he was not meant to be seen as black. He was the purest sort of anthropomorphic character, an everyman who represents all races.
5. Beginning with Mickey’s first appearance, he was scrappy and clever. If he had been meant to be seen as black, he would have been meant to be seen as an admirable black person.
6. No one thought Mickey Mouse was of any race other than mouse until some antiracists misinterpreted his imagery. As noted at Walt Disney, Ub Iwerks. Steamboat Willie. 1928: | https://medium.com/race-class-history/are-mickey-mouses-spats-and-gloves-racist-sigh-2c69e8f7145d | ['Will Shetterly'] | 2021-03-06 05:11:18.393000+00:00 | ['Disney', 'Anti Racism', 'Cartoon', 'Race', 'Mickey Mouse'] |
Financial Times Data Platform: From zero to hero | Financial Times Data Platform: From zero to hero
An in-depth walkthrough of the evolution of our Data Platform
The Financial Times, one of the world’s leading business news organisations, has been around for more than 130 years and is famous for its quality journalism.
To stay at the top for this long, you have to be able to adapt as the world changes. For the last decade, that has meant being able to take advantage of the opportunities that technology provides, as the FT undergoes a digital transformation.
This article will take an in-depth look behind the scenes for one part of that transformation: the creation and evolution of the Financial Times’ Data platform. The Data Platform provides information about how our readers interact with the FT that allows us to make decisions about how we can continue to deliver the things our readers want and need.
Generation 1: 2008–2014 Early days
At first, the Data Platform focussed on providing recommendations to readers based on what they had read already.
At the time, the majority of our readers still read the FT in print, so a single store and 24 hours latency was sufficient. The architecture was clean and simple, and Financial Times’ employees were able to execute queries on top of it to analyse user’s interests.
But then a number of events happened.
Internet revolution. The internet took off, and day after day the number of readers visiting ft.com rather than reading the print newspaper increased. Mobile innovation. Mobile devices started being part of people’s lives. Having a smartphone moved from a luxury to an expectation, and this allowed the Financial Times to release mobile applications for each of the most popular operating systems. This became another stream of users who could benefit from reading articles while they were travelling to work, resting at home or being outside in nature without access to their laptops.
Generation 2: 2014–2016 The arrival of our Extract, Transform, Load (ETL) Framework
The second generation of our platform faced two new challenges: firstly, the need to allow our stakeholders to analyse data at scale, asking new types of questions; and secondly, an increasing volume of data.
In order to achieve these goals, we built our own ETL Framework in 2014. This allowed our teams to set up new jobs and models in an automated and scalable way and included features such as:
Scheduling. Automating running SQL queries multiple times per day, synchronising the outputs with other teams and last but not least focusing more on the business cases rather than on the implementation details. Python interface. Providing the ability to run Python code in addition to the SQL queries, allowing the stakeholders to run even more complex data models. Configuration over implementation. One of the reasons for choosing to introduce an ETL Framework was the ability to produce jobs in XML file format, which enabled even more business capabilities at that time.
The release of the ETL Framework had a huge positive impact but could not on its own resolve all issues coming with the increased amount of data and number of consumers.
In fact, adding this new component actually created more issues from a performance point of view, as the number of consumers of the Data Platform increased, now including the Business Intelligence (BI) Team, Data Science Team, and others. The SQL Server instance started to become a bottleneck for the Data Platform, hence for all the stakeholders too. It was time for a change and we were trying to find the best solution for this particular issue.
As the Financial Times was already using some services provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS), we started evaluating Amazon Redshift as an option for a fast, simple and cost-effective Data Warehouse for storing the increasing amount of data. Amazon Redshift is designed for Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) in the cloud which was exactly what we were looking for. Using this approach we were able to optimise query performance a lot without any additional effort from our team to support the new storage service.
Generation 3: 2016–2018 The beginning of Big Data at Financial Times
Having Amazon Redshift as a Data Warehouse solution and an ETL Framework as a tool for deploying extract, transform, load jobs, all the FT teams were seeing the benefit of having a Data Platform. However, when working for a big company leading the market, such as Financial Times in business news distribution, we cannot be satisfied with our existing achievements. That’s why we started to think how we can improve this architecture even more.
Our next goal was to reduce data latency. We were ingesting data once per day, so latency was up to 24 hours. Reducing latency would mean the FT could respond more quickly to trends in the data.
In order to reduce the latency, we started working on a new approach — named Next Generation Data Analytics (NGDA) — in 2015 and in early 2016 it was adopted by all teams in Financial Times.
First, we developed our own tracking library, responsible for sending every interaction of our readers to the Data Platform. The existing architecture expected a list of CSV files that would have been transferred once per day by jobs run by the ETL Framework, so sending events one by one meant that we needed to change the existing architecture to support the new event-driven approach.
Then, we created an API service responsible for ingesting readers’ interactions. However, we still needed a way to transfer this data to the Data Warehouse with the lowest possible latency as well as exposing this data to multiple consuming downstream systems. As we were migrating all services to the cloud, and more specifically to AWS, we looked at the managed services provided by Amazon that could fulfil our event processing needs.
After analysing the alternatives, we redesigned our system to send all raw events from ft.com to the Simple Notification Service (SNS). Using this approach, it was possible for many teams in the organisation to subscribe to the SNS topic and unlock new business cases relying on the real time data.
Still, having this raw data in SNS was not enough — we also needed to get the data into the Data Warehouse to support all the existing workflows. We decided to use a Simple Queue Service (SQS) queue as it allowed us to persist all events in a queue immediately when they arrived in the system.
But before moving the data to our Data Warehouse, we had one more requirement from the business — to enrich the raw events with additional data provided by internal services, external services or by simple in-memory transformations. In order to satisfy these needs with minimal latency, we created a NodeJS service responsible for processing all the events in a loop asynchronously, making the enrichment step possible at scale. Once an event had been fully enriched, the data was sent immediately to the only managed event store provided by AWS at that time — Kinesis. Using this architecture, we were able to persist our enriched events in a stream with milliseconds latency, which was amazing news for our stakeholders.
Once we had the data in a Kinesis Stream, we used another AWS managed service — Kinesis Firehose — to consume the enriched events stream and output them as CSV files into a S3 bucket based on one of two main conditions — a predefined time period having passed (which happened rarely) or the file size reaching 100mb. This new event-driven approach produced CSV files with enriched events in a couple of minutes depending on the time of the day, hence the latency in our data lake was reduced to 1–5 minutes.
But there was one more important requirement from the business teams. They requested clean data in the Data Warehouse. Using the Kinesis Firehose approach, we couldn’t guarantee that we only had one instance of an event because:
We could receive duplicate events from our client side applications. The Kinesis Firehose itself could duplicate data when a Firehose job retried on failure.
In order to deduplicate all events, we created another Amazon Redshift cluster responsible for ingesting and deduplicating each new CSV file. This involved a tradeoff: implementing a process which guarantees uniqueness increased the latency for data to get into the Data Warehouse to approximately 4 hours, but enabled our business teams to generate insights much more easily.
Generation 4: 2019 Rebuild the platform to allow our team to focus on adding business value
Generation 3 of the platform was complicated to run. Our team spent most of the day supporting the large number of independent services, with engineering costs increasing, and far less time to do interesting, impactful work.
We wanted to take advantage of new technologies to reduce this complexity, but also to provide far more exciting capabilities to our stakeholders: we wanted to turn the Data Platform into a PaaS (Platform as a Service).
Our initial criteria were the platform should offer:
Self service — Enabling stakeholders to independently develop and release new features.
Enabling stakeholders to independently develop and release new features. Support for multiple internal consumers — with different teams having different levels of access.
with different teams having different levels of access. Security isolation — so that teams could only access their own data and jobs.
— so that teams could only access their own data and jobs. Code reuse — to avoid duplication for common functionality.
Building a multi-tenant, self service platform is quite challenging because it requires every service to support both of these things. Still, putting effort into implementing this approach would be extremely beneficial for the future, with the key benefits being:
Stakeholder teams can deliver value without having to wait to coordinate with platform teams — this reduces costs, increases velocity, and puts them in charge of their own destiny
this reduces costs, increases velocity, and puts them in charge of their own destiny Platform teams can focus on building new functionality for the platform — rather than spending their time unblocking stakeholder teams
The way we chose to deliver this decoupling was through a focus on configuration over implementation, with stakeholder teams able to set up their own management rules based on their internal team structure, roles and permissions, using an admin web interface.
Kubernetes
A software system is like a house. You need to build it from the foundations rather than from the roof. In engineering, the foundation is the infrastructure. Without a stable infrastructure, having a production ready and stable system is impossible. That’s why we have started with the foundation, discussing what would be the best approach for the short and long term future.
Our existing Data Platform has been deployed to AWS ECS. While AWS ECS is a really great container orchestrator, we decided to switch to Kubernetes because on EKS, we get baked in support for lots of things we need for supporting multiple tenants, such as security isolation between the tenants, hardware limitations per tenant, etc. In addition to that there are many Kubernetes Operators coming out of the box for us, such as spark-k8s-operator, prometheus-operator and many more. AWS has been offering a managed Kubernetes cluster (EKS) for a while and it was the obvious choice for the foundations of the Data Platform for the short and long term future. Aiming to have a self service multi-tenant Data Platform, we had to apply several requirements on top of each service and the Kubernetes cluster itself.
System namespace — Separate all system components in an isolated Kubernetes namespace responsible for the management of all the services.
— Separate all system components in an isolated Kubernetes namespace responsible for the management of all the services. Namespace per team — Group all team resources in a Kubernetes namespace in order to automatically apply team-based configurations and constraints for each of them.
— Group all team resources in a Kubernetes namespace in order to automatically apply team-based configurations and constraints for each of them. Security isolation per namespace — Restrict cross namespace access in the Kubernetes cluster to prevent unexpected interactions between different team resources.
— Restrict cross namespace access in the Kubernetes cluster to prevent unexpected interactions between different team resources. Resource quota per namespace — Prevent affecting all teams when one of them reaches hardware limits, while measuring efficiency by calculating the ratio between spent money and delivered business value per team.
Batch processing
The ETL Framework was quite stable and had been running for years, but to fully benefit from our adoption of cloud-native technologies, we needed a new one that supported:
Cloud deployment .
. Horizontal scaling. As the number of workflows and the amounts of data increased, we needed to be able to scale up with minimal effort.
As the number of workflows and the amounts of data increased, we needed to be able to scale up with minimal effort. Multi-tenancy. Because the whole platform needed to support this.
Because the whole platform needed to support this. Deployment to Kubernetes. Again, for consistency across the whole platform.
Since we built our ETL framework, the expectations from ETL have moved on. We wanted the ability to support:
Language agnostic jobs. In order to get the most out of the diverse skill set in all teams using the Data Platform.
In order to get the most out of the diverse skill set in all teams using the Data Platform. Workflow concept. The need to define a sequence of jobs depending on each other in a workflow is another key business requirement to make data-driven decisions on a daily basis.
The need to define a sequence of jobs depending on each other in a workflow is another key business requirement to make data-driven decisions on a daily basis. Code reusability. Since the functionality behind part of the steps in the workflows are repetitive, they are a good candidate for code reuse.
Since the functionality behind part of the steps in the workflows are repetitive, they are a good candidate for code reuse. Automated distributed backfilling for ETL jobs. Since this process occurs quite often for our new use cases and automation will increase business velocity.
Since this process occurs quite often for our new use cases and automation will increase business velocity. Monitoring . We need good monitoring, in order to prevent making data driven decisions based on low quality, high latency or even missing data.
. We need good monitoring, in order to prevent making data driven decisions based on low quality, high latency or even missing data. Extendability. The ability to extend the batch processing service with new capabilities based on feedback and requirements provided by the stakeholders will make this service flexible enough for the foreseeable future.
The other big change is that fully-featured ETL frameworks now exist, rather than having to be built from scratch.
Having all these requirements in mind, we evaluated different options on the market such as Luigi, Oozie, Azkaban, AWS Steps, Cadence and Apache Airflow.
The best fit for our requirements was Apache Airflow.
Great though it is, it still has some limitations — such as a single scheduler and lack of native multi-tenancy support. While the first one is not a huge concern for us at the moment based on the benchmarks, our estimated load and the expected release of this feature in Apache Airflow 2.0, the second one would impact our whole architecture, and so we decided to build custom multi-tenant support on top of Apache Airflow.
We considered using an Apache Airflow managed service — there are multiple providers — but in the end decided to continue with a self managed solution based on some of the requirements including multi-tenancy, language agnostic jobs and monitoring. All of them could not be achieved with a managed solution, leading to the extensibility requirement and its importance for us.
Once Apache Airflow had been integrated into our platform, we started by releasing new workflows on top of it, to ensure its capabilities. When we knew it met all criteria, the next step was obvious and currently we are in the process of migrating all of our existing ETL jobs to Apache Airflow. In addition to that, we have released it as a self service product to all stakeholders in the company and we already have consumers such as the BI Team, the Data Science team, and others.
Generation 5: 2020 It’s time for real time data
Generation 4 was a big step forward. However, there were still some targets for improvement.
Real time data
Our latency was still around 4 hours for significant parts of our data.
Most of these 4 hours of latency happened because of the deduplication procedure — which is quite important for our stakeholders and their needs. For example, the FT can not make any business development decisions based on low quality data. That’s why we must ensure that our Data Warehouse persists clean data for these use cases.
However, as the product, business and technologies evolve, new use cases have emerged. They could provide impact by using real time data even with a small percentage of low quality data. A great example for that is ordering a user’s feed in ft.com and the mobile application based on the reader’s interests. Having a couple of duplicated events would not be crucial for this use case as the user experience would always be much better than showing the same content to all users without having their interests in mind.
We already had a stable stream processing architecture but it was quite complicated. We started looking into optimising it by migrating from SNS, SQS, and Kinesis to a new architecture using Apache Kafka as an event store. Having a managed service for the event store would be our preference and we decided to give Amazon MSK a try as it seemed to have been stable for quite some time.
Ingesting data in Apache Kafka topics was a great starting point to provide real time data to the business. However, the stakeholders still didn’t have access to the data in the Apache Kafka cluster. So, our next goal was to create a stream processing platform that could allow them to deploy models on top of the real time data. We needed something that matched the rest of our architecture — supporting multi-tenancy, self service, multiple languages and deployable to Kubernetes.
Having those requirements in mind, Apache Spark seemed to fit very well for us, being the most used analytics engine and having one of the biggest open-source communities worldwide.
In order to deploy Apache Spark streaming jobs to Kubernetes, we decided to use the spark-on-k8s-operator.
Moreover, we have built a section in our Data UI which allows our stakeholders to deploy their Apache Spark stream processing jobs to production by filling a simple form containing information for the job such as the Docker image and tag, CPU and memory limitations, credentials for the data sources used in the job, etc.
Data contract
Another area where we needed to make optimisations was moving the data validation to the earliest possible step in the pipeline. We had services validating the data coming into the Data Platform, however these validations were executed at different steps of the pipeline. This led to issues as the pipeline sometimes has broken because of incoming incorrect data. That’s why we wanted to improve this area by providing the following features:
A Data contract for the event streams in the pipeline
Moving the validation step to the earliest possible stage
Adding compression to reduce event size
Having all these needs in mind, we found a great way to achieve these requirements by using Apache Avro. It allows defining a data contract per topic in Apache Kafka, hence ensuring the data quality in the cluster.
This approach also resolves another issue — the validation step can be moved to be the first step in the pipeline. Using an Apache Spark streaming job with Apache Avro schema prevents us from having broken data in the pipeline by moving all incorrect events to other Kafka topics used as Dead Letter Queues.
Another great feature coming with Apache Avro is serialisation and deserialisation, which makes it possible to provide compression over the data persisted in the Apache Kafka event store.
Data Lake
Migrating from CSV to parquet files in our data lake storage has been a great initial choice for most of our needs. However, we still lacked some features on top of it that could make our life much easier, including ACID transactions, schema enforcements and updating events in parquet files.
After analysing all existing alternatives on the market including Hudi, Iceberg and Delta Lake, we decided to start using Delta Lake based on its Apache Spark 3.x support. It provides all of the main requirements and fits perfectly in our architecture.
Efficiency. We decoupled the computation process from the storage allowing our architecture to scale more efficiently. Low latency, high quality data. Using the upsert and schema enforcements features provided by Delta Lake, we can continuously deliver low latency and high quality data to all stakeholders in Financial Times. Multiple access points. Persisting all incoming data into Delta Lake allows the stakeholders to query low latency data through multiple systems including Apache Spark and Presto. Time travel. Delta Lake allows reprocessing data from a particular time in the past which automates back-populating data, in addition to allowing analysis between particular date intervals for different use cases such as reports or training machine learning models.
Virtualisation layer
At the Financial Times we have different kinds of storage used by teams in the company, including Amazon Redshift, Google BigQuery, Amazon S3, Apache Kafka, VoltDB, etc. However, stakeholders often need to analyse data split across more than one data store in order to make data-driven decisions. In order to satisfy this need, they use Apache Airflow to move data between different data stores.
However, this approach is far from optimal. Using a batch processing approach adds additional latency to the data and, in some cases, making decisions with low latency data is crucial for a business use case. Moreover, deploying a batch processing job requires more technical background which may limit some of the stakeholders. Having these details in mind, we had some clear requirements about what the stakeholders would expect in order to deliver even more value to our readers — support for:
Ad hoc queries over any storage
ANSI SQL — syntax they often know well
Being able to join data between different data storages
And we wanted the ability to deploy to Kubernetes, to fit into our platform architecture.
After analysing different options on the market, we decided to start with Presto as it allows companies to analyse petabytes of data at scale while being able to join data from many data sources, including all of the data sources used at the Financial Times.
Plan for the future
At the Financial Times we are never satisfied with our achievements and this is one of the reasons why this company has been on the top of this business for more than 130 years. That’s why we already have plans on how to evolve this architecture even more.
Ingestion platform. We ingest data by using the three components — batch processing jobs managed by Apache Airflow, Apache Spark streaming jobs consuming data from Apache Kafka streams and REST services expecting incoming data to the Data Platform. We aim to replace the existing high latency ingestion services with Change Data Capture (CDC) which will enable ingesting new data immediately when it arrives in any data sources, hence the business will be able to deliver an even better experience for our readers.
We ingest data by using the three components — batch processing jobs managed by Apache Airflow, Apache Spark streaming jobs consuming data from Apache Kafka streams and REST services expecting incoming data to the Data Platform. We aim to replace the existing high latency ingestion services with Change Data Capture (CDC) which will enable ingesting new data immediately when it arrives in any data sources, hence the business will be able to deliver an even better experience for our readers. Real time data for everyone. One of the main features that we have in mind is enabling all people in Financial Times to have access to the data, without the need to have particular technical skills. In order to do that, we plan to enhance the Data UI and the stream processing platform to allow drag and drop for building streaming jobs. This would be a massive improvement because it will enable employees without a technical background to consume, transform, produce and analyse data.
If working on challenging Big Data tasks is interesting to you, consider applying for a role in our Data team in the office in Sofia, Bulgaria. We are waiting for you! | https://medium.com/ft-product-technology/financial-times-data-platform-from-zero-to-hero-143156bffb1d | ['Mihail Petkov'] | 2020-12-02 09:59:40.123000+00:00 | ['Financial Times', 'Analytics', 'Engineering', 'Big Data', 'Data'] |
The worst TV shows of 2020 | It was a singular year for TV. The coronavirus pandemic made escapism and entertainment more crucial than ever in 2020, and many shows rose to the occasion. Unfortunately, some shows missed the mark.
Here are the worst offenders.
Somehow this poorly written, joyless, paper-thin sitcom lasted for two seasons until ABC finally kicked it to the curb. Dumb and dumber. ‘Nuf said. — MS
Just because something is popular, doesn’t mean it’s good. While it’s true that everyone was initially talking about the sordid docuseries following former zoo operator and convicted felon Joe Exotic, it’s telling that the buzz has died down just a few months later. After its initial shock value of mullets, murder plots, polyamory and severed limbs wears off, “Tiger King” is an empty story about unpleasant people who don’t deserve this level of attention. Beyond its surface, it isn’t even a well-made series — it’s got a disorganized, haphazard presentation. — LS
Netflix docuseries “TIger King” sure was popular — but did it deserve that?
Ryan Murphy’s origin story about evil “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” nurse Mildred Ratched (Sarah Paulson), for all its typical candy-colored cinematic flourishes and eye-catching costumes, was annoyingly over the top and violent — with a nonsensical storyline wrapped in a cartoonish cocoon and too much sexual content. I couldn’t get past four episodes — just didn’t care. — MS
This sci-fi-ish series about the search for a comic book with hidden meaning was canceled after one season: not only did it kill off a main character in Episode 2, but its plotline meandered into labyrinthian territory — taking its fine cast down the rabbit hole. — MS
The ill-fated mobile app had its share of nonsensical shows during its short life (from April to December) — but none more than “Dismantled.” Hosted by Titus Burgess, the concept of this cooking series is that chefs are blindfolded, shot in the face with food, and must try to guess and re-create the dish splattered all over them. It sounds like a joke — if only it was. — LS
Objectively, there was nothing wrong with this show about friends staying in touch via video chat during the COVID-19 pandemic. The acting was fine, and the plot wasn’t far-fetched or unrelatable. But watching people navigate a scenario that audiences are still in the thick of is the definition of “too soon.” It managed to be simultaneously boring and depressing — a reflection of an ongoing slog that nobody wants to be in. NBC axed it after a few episodes; good riddance. — LS
Jill Knox in a scene from NBC’s “Connecting.”
A single mom (Pauley Perrette) takes in her estranged sister and her family after they fall into financial trouble. There was nothing original or compelling about this sitcom — just tired jokes and cliches. And just like “Ted Lasso” came out at the right time, this show came out at the wrong time, when millions of Americans lost their jobs in the pandemic. Who wants to watch money struggles on TV? Nobody, causing CBS to pull the plug after one season. — LS
It was like a car crash you couldn’t look away from. The reality series — hosted by Nick and Vanessa Lachey, in the ultimate “I guess nobody better was available” — saw couples get engaged sight unseen after spending a few days talking to each other through a wall. They then proceeded to meet in person and rush into preparations for a wedding. The show was packed with as many cringe-worthy moments as you’d expect, and it’s no wonder that it hardly worked, with most of the couples crashing and burning. — LS | https://medium.com/@molific668/the-worst-tv-shows-of-2020-15ff056b3a92 | [] | 2020-12-26 13:57:52.853000+00:00 | ['Tv Shows 2020', 'Worst Tv Shows', 'TV Series', 'Reality TV', 'TV Shows'] |
Network (Http) call in flutter | Network (Http) call in flutter
We need to do http call when we need some data from server. Let’s see how it is done in flutter. It’s quite easy..
First we’ll add HTTP dependency plugin to flutter pubspec.yaml
dependencies:
flutter:
sdk: flutter
http: //http plugin
Let’s create a new stateful class to demonstrate http in flutter
import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
class HttpExample extends StatefulWidget {
@override
_HttpExampleState createState() => _HttpExampleState();
}
class _HttpExampleState extends State<HttpExample> {
@override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return Container();
}
}
Import http plugin
import 'package:http/http.dart' as http;
We will call ‘http://numbersapi.com/number’ using http
before that lets create some ui for http demonstration
TextEditingController _controller = new TextEditingController();
String numbersStory = "";
String baseUrl = "http://numbersapi.com/";
TextStyle buttonTextStyle = TextStyle(
color: Colors.white,
fontSize: 16,
);
TextStyle textTextStyle = TextStyle(
fontSize: 16,
); @override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return SafeArea(
child: Scaffold(
appBar: AppBar(
title: Text("Http Example"),
),
body: Column(
children: <Widget>[
Container(
padding: EdgeInsets.all(16),
child: Text(
"$numbersStory",
style: textTextStyle,
),
),
Container(
margin: EdgeInsets.only(top: 24, left: 16, right: 16),
decoration: BoxDecoration(
border: Border.all(color: Colors.deepOrange),
borderRadius: BorderRadius.all(Radius.circular(16)),
),
child: TextField(
controller: _controller,
textInputAction: TextInputAction.next,
textAlign: TextAlign.center,
decoration: InputDecoration(
icon: Padding(
padding: const EdgeInsets.all(8.0),
child: Icon(
Icons.change_history,
color: Color.fromARGB(0xff, 0xf0, 0x7d, 0x00),
),
),
//#f07d00
hintMaxLines: 1,
border: InputBorder.none,
hintText: "Any number",
),
style: TextStyle(
color: Colors.black,
fontSize: 20,
fontWeight: FontWeight.w300),
onChanged: (v) {
makeHttpCall();
},
keyboardType: TextInputType.number,
),
),
SizedBox(height: 16),
RaisedButton(
color: Colors.blue,
splashColor: Colors.blue.shade300,
onPressed: () {
makeHttpCall();
},
child: Container(
padding: EdgeInsets.all(16),
child: Text(
"Submit".toUpperCase(),
style: buttonTextStyle,
)),
)
],
)),
);
}
We are taking input number to show number’s history.
On press of submit button we are calling makeHttpCall() function to execute http call and show its result in text view.
To make http call we will required url. we can also provide body for post and put request. We can also pass header.
makeHttpCall() async {
String number = _controller.text;
var response = await http.get("$baseUrl$number");
numbersStory = response.body;
setState(() {});
}
On response from api we take out our data from response.body.
After that we update numbersStory value in view.
This was so simple get api call. In next article I’ll post complex http requests.
Stay tuned | https://medium.com/@viveky259259/network-http-call-in-flutter-80869745b18 | ['Vivek Yadav'] | 2020-04-05 19:47:41.037000+00:00 | ['API', 'Http', 'Flutter', 'Dart', 'Request'] |
How to excel at designing a great user onboarding experience | As a child who grew up in Delhi, I was always fascinated by the rich heritage that Delhi offers to its residents. The Mughal monuments, their grandeur past, the spectacular architecture- everything about them was just so enticing.
Except for one thing.
I was unaware of how to experience these monuments, the right way . I wanted to delve into the rich history of these monuments but I always found myself unhinged to my country’s magnificent past. At first, I blamed myself for not paying enough attention in my history classes. But then, as I talked to other people, they tagged along in my plight.
Here’s what I felt when I visited these monuments- I didn’t feel any connection while walking down the historical alleys of the fort. Even when I hired a travel guide, they just incessantly talked about irrelevant information, often swaying from one thing to another. The touts only cared about their money and had no interesting facts to share. Call it lack of knowledge or lack of empathy for visitors who came to spend their entire day at the monument. All I really wanted to do was to bask in the glory of a marvelous past. Alas! No one really cared what I wanted!
This was my experience until a few years back. However, it changed recently on my tour of a very famous Delhi monument. I opted for an audio guide this time and by the end of my tour, I was in awe of the whole experience. It was, as if, every nook and corner of the monument spoke to me, told me stories about the forlorn past. I was intrigued and, at the same time, happy.
Happy, because this was the first time someone uncovered the layers of my questions and valued my time.
User onboarding is quite similar to that.
If you look at the analogy, just like people who visit monuments, users come to visit your website/application for a purpose. They use the product as a medium to accomplish something in their lives — it could be sending bulk emails to their subscribers or booking tickets for their vacation.
So, the onboarding process should help your users understand how they can do so quickly without feeling too overwhelmed or helpless. The onboarding experience should be such that it delights them and makes them loyal users of your platform.
Therefore it’s important to identify-
The steps that you want the users to take, and How can you guide them at each step and help them perform the right actions?
Now, let’s dive straight into how you can design a better onboarding experience for your users.
The experience should help users feel connected
The ‘real’ purpose that people use an application is because they want a solution to their ‘problems’. For example- they are on social media to make new friends, connect with old ones, share their thoughts and be virtually present for all those guilty pleasures. Therefore, for any kind of platform, figuring out what ticks with users should be the first step while designing the onboarding experience.
For example-
How can you give flexibility to users when they want to sign up? Can they use their existing social credentials to access the web/mobile app? Do you really need all their personal details like date of birth, age, maiden name or alternate email address? Is it absolutely necessary to gather a user’s account/credit card information?
Let’s look at Twitter as an example.
When you are new to a platform, the first thing that piques your interest is- how does it work? What is it about? Twitter has answered this question on their landing page-
And the best part? Once you are successfully signed up after verifying your email address, it doesn’t force you into any compulsory actions. Every screen has a ‘skip’ stage and you can get back to any step later.
In the example below, Twitter tells you why you follow some people. It’s because only when you follow someone, their tweets will appear on your timeline. They also ask for your interests (with a valid reason) so that they can personalize your experience.
Onboarding experiences are like the first impression. They’ll fail if you are putting up your user for a wild goose chase without informing them why they ought to chase it.
So the important thing to keep in mind is that a successful sign up doesn’t count as a conversion. Your application is a success when your users understand the app and come back again and again to use it.
The experience should win users’ trust
According to a survey, 77% of users drop an app within 3 days after they download it. Of course, it’s not just the onboarding experience which is to blame. But it’s true that a good onboarding experience can help improve customer conversion and retention.
And for a good onboarding experience, you have to win over people’s trust. When users feel safe sharing their information, they are more likely to use the application again and again.
For instance, consider FinTech apps which can’t function properly without the friction of asking for confidential financial information. This friction point is inevitable to ensure smooth functioning of the application. However, it can be made more bearable for users by designing a comforting onboarding experience with detailed explanations on the safety features that you’ve included. It’s important to make users feel confident about using the app by entrusting that their money or personal info is safe with you. So, always ensure that both safety and simplicity are ticked off in your onboarding designs.
A good example is of Robinhood which is a very popular trading app. It gives detailed information on why it’s asking for particular information.
For example- when you are prompted to enter your country, it tells you that you need to fill this because federal laws demand it. Similarly, it communicates proactively why the app needs to have your SSN before you proceed with any further steps.
The experience should meet users’ expectations
Every user downloads an app or starts using a service for a reason. They have either heard rave reviews about the product from their friends or your marketing team has done an excellent job at grabbing those eyeballs. Therefore, when someone downloads the app, you have just one chance to grab that user through your excellent onboarding process. It’s your only shot to show that you’ll meet (or, even surpass) their expectations.
And to meet their expectations, you first need to understand your users and their mental models. Why are they here? What do they want to accomplish? Have they previously used a similar application?
This is important to consider because when the user is new to the platform, there is a possibility that (s)he has zero vocabularies/expertise in the area.
For example- when users sign up on Duolingo, they want to learn a new language. The good thing about their onboarding experience is that they give an option of taking a placement test before starting any lessons. This way they put the users at ease and if they have a prior experience they can revisit their fluency in the language.
Also, they do not prompt you to unnecessarily sign up on their platform. And when they do, they give a valid reason for it- they need the information to save your progress.
The final word
Considering that there are countless apps these days, it would be difficult to drill down on a fixed checklist which can help create an excellent onboarding.
Just as there isn’t approach to solve problems, there also isn’t any one silver bullet to nail user onboarding. Onboarding is something which will always be very product and geography specific. People from various backgrounds, with different mental models, are going to use the application.
The choice is with us- we can either let users wander about and swim in the uncertainty or we can welcome them with a flexible and resilient experience that serves them well.
One way to excel at it is to involve real users. You can prototype your user onboarding experience and get feedback from real users. And once it’s live, use the power of data to analyze if any further improvements can be made to it.
We hope this helps you look at user onboarding from a different perspective and make it count as a crucial part in the application’s success. | https://uxplanet.org/how-to-excel-at-designing-a-great-user-onboarding-experience-b87129485529 | [] | 2019-12-24 11:03:23.290000+00:00 | ['Onboarding', 'Design Thinking', 'User Onboarding', 'Design Process', 'Design'] |
The Gift of Estrangement | It’s been a year and half since I became estranged from my family. I was 35 and in the midst of a contentious divorce from an addict. Needless to say, timing was not optimal. While I was blindsided at the time, looking back it was more like swallowing the reality of everything I never wanted to admit to myself about our relationship was true; in one giant razor sharp pill. Crushed, broken, and paralyzed with fear, I sat in disbelief of what had happened in a way that still hurts to this day. It was like being unplugged from the Matrix; you could no longer ignore what’s in front of you. But what I also experienced then and now, is a growing sense of peace and contentment. Time and space bring a perspective not seen up close. I came to understand my family was not healthy, and to expect healthy behavior from unhealthy people is a waste of time for everyone. Away from their influence, I broke free from maladaptive beliefs I had about myself such as: being responsible for other peoples’ feelings and experience; that my own understanding and experiences are negotiable; that my worthiness was conditional to my usefulness. Leveraging relationships and playing emotional chicken for compliance and control would no longer be tolerated. I wont betray myself and be forced into playing a role in someone else’ narrative so THEY can like themselves. Most importantly I found the confidence to advocate for myself. I WILL NO LONGER TOLERATE ANYONE OR ANYTHING THAT CHALLENGES MY WORTH, OR RIGHT TO BE TREATED WITH DIGNITY AND RESPECT. Being estranged from my family taught me that loving adult relationships consist of mutual respect and reciprocity. While I’m sad the relationship is broken, I’m beyond grateful for the knowledge, self love, freedom, and peace I have come to enjoy away from them. | https://medium.com/@cesaly-blake/the-gift-of-estrangement-d8c59cfa4fd3 | ['Cesaly Blake'] | 2020-12-03 01:49:34.837000+00:00 | ['Narcissism', 'Narcissistic Abuse', 'Estranged'] |
The Lost Skill Of Civilized Society We Desperately Need To Revive | Photo by Green Chameleon on Unsplash
I don’t remember the exact words, but I remember the feeling.
I was thirteen years old. My first ever girlfriend had written me a letter. It was a love letter of sorts. I bounced around my house for hours after reading it.
Before the internet, we wrote letters to each other. They lacked convenience and ease, but they were thoughtfully crafted pieces of communication.
We’ve lost the skill and even the desire to write letters. Today, we opt for clumsy emails, impulsive social media posts, and cryptic text messages.
Letter writing is a forgotten art form. Nobody seems to do it anymore. That rarity makes it all the more special when you receive one.
It was a skill praised by the likes of Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Voltaire. Some of the most effective open letters in history are still revered today.
A letter won’t produce miracles, but it’s time we brought back this sacred practice.
The Letter writing basics
I was a frequent letter writer in the ’80s and ’90s. I recently rediscovered the artform as a means of teaching my son how to write thoughtfully. Most rules on writing apply to letter writing, with only a few modifications.
Always write to a specific audience
Direct most letters to a single individual —open letters excepted. It’s always from you, a single human being. Never write as though you were an entity: a company name, department or group.
It’s not about you
Do you have a family, friend or acquaintance that sends you a ten-page narrative of everything they experienced the past year? Be honest. Do you read them? No, I don’t either.
Any personal correspondence should always focus on the recipient. You’re tasking them with reading your letter. Make it valuable to them.
It’s harder than it sounds. Use these two techniques to validate your work.
Ask a disinterested third party to read it. Put your letter away for at least twelve hours. Read it again but pretend that it is addressed to you.
Outline your letter before writing
The power of a letter lies in its thoughtfulness. Create an outline before you write your first draft.
Allow distance between editing
Your completed draft will always look impressive right after you finish. It won’t look as good the next morning. Spending time away from your work allows you to forget it enough so that you can identify the flaws.
Send it when they least expect
Would it surprise you to receive a letter of appreciation after you do a huge favor for someone? Sure, you would appreciate the gesture, but it would not surprise you.
A letter achieves maximum impact when the recipient least expects it. You get dozens of holiday cards in December. How many do you get in August? Zero, right? That’s the best time to send them.
Some situations do not allow for off-cycle delivery but keep it in mind for situations when it makes sense.
Consider delivery
Yes, you can transfer your work to email and send it out. What about sending it by snail mail? Or how about messengering it over to your recipient. My favorite technique is FedExing it overnight. This technique works well when the recipient expects your letter. A creative delivery method adds in that touch of surprise.
Get your anger out of the way
When Benjamin Franklin was angry, he would unload all his vitriol onto the paper. And then, he would throw it away. He’d start again and if his words were still filled with anger, he’d throw that one away.
Angry letters read like mindless temper tantrums to the recipient. Get your anger out of the way in an early draft. You can still express anger, but you will find your words more composed and more coherent.
The 5 letters you should know how to write
The basic guidelines apply to all five letters you’ll read about next.
The open letter
The letters I posted above were all open letters. They were published to a recipient or recipients on a public platform. Historical figures used them to call out injustice or bring attention to people who lacked the voice and distribution to make their case known.
In modern days, many folks use open letters as a tool for shaming someone into changing their behavior. These letters might give the writer emotional satisfaction, but they rarely affect change the way they have in the past.
There’s a lot of advice on the internet on how to write open letters, much of it poor. Study the text of the letters I posted above. You’ll notice similarities, despite their difference in style.
Stick to the facts
Avoid sanctimonious verbiage
Express anger but keep aggression in check
The love letter
Love letters have been relegated to plot devices in historical fiction novels. In the age of sexting, we’ve lost the skill of expressing our love with artful, thoughtful and subtle words.
A well-crafted love letter allows the recipient to glean the depths of your love. Show don’t tell works just as well in love letters as it does in fiction.
Compare the difference between these two sentences.
You are the sexiest thing alive. My sweat glands fire up every time you flick your bangs away from your eyes.
You cannot write a good love letter on the fly. It’s not something you write while waiting in line for coffee. It requires several drafts to get it right.
Start your first draft by writing bullet points of exactly what you want to say. Don’t get cute or poetic yet. Be precise here. For your second draft, ask yourself these two questions. The answers help you evolve your statements into demonstrations.
How could I show it in a way that will let her conclude it on her own?
What example would prove to her that I [fill in the blank]?
The letter of appreciation
Do you remember the last thank you note you received? Of course not. Thank you notes are devices we use to fulfill an obligation. Letters of appreciation emanate from heartfelt gratitude.
When you express your appreciation, you must include the first three components below.
Specificity about what you appreciate. Why you think it deserves your appreciation. Give an example of how it benefitted you. BONUS: Deliver with grace.
Keep it short and to the point. Be respectful of the recipient’s time.
The apology
Almost all apologies, written or verbal, contain a fatal flaw. As a recipient or neutral third party, you see the flaw instantly. The apologizer qualifies his apology.
I apologize for embarrassing you in front of your family, but your obnoxious comment left me no choice. That was no excuse. It was my fault.
You see the problem with that apology, right? He’s trying to justify his behavior within his apology, and transfer some of the blame to the other person. That’s what it means by qualifying your apology.
Here is one more example where the writer sneaks in a subtle insult.
“I apologize for my supposed verbal abuse in the past. My comments were misconstrued.
Follow this simple rule.
Always let your apology stand on its own. Explain what you did wrong and take full responsibility. Your words must be unequivocal. Have another person review it before you deliver it. Make sure the reviewer is someone without an emotional attachment to the situation.
The persuasive letter
Explaining the concepts behind a persuasive letter in a few hundred words won’t be possible, but I’ll provide you with a few key takeaways you can use right away.
Forget logic
Never try to prove your point. Persuasion is 80% emotional and 20% logical. You can’t change someone’s mind. We change our own mind. Your job is to lead your reader to a point where he comes to the conclusion you desire.
Hide your personal opinions
Once you make your opinion known, your reader will see you as a person with an agenda.
Once they know your agenda, you lose credibility.
Once you lose credibility, they treat everything you say with suspicion.
You don’t need a hammer
A heavy-handed approach destroys your credibility when you write to a hostile or even neutral audience. Be on the lookout for adjectives and adverbs that unintentionally give away your opinion.
“When I spoke with the undersecretary, he said no. He remarked that she seemed too sweet for a serious job.”
Versus
“When I spoke with the sexist undersecretary, he said no.”
Let your reader conclude that the undersecretary was sexist. The first example does a better job. You want the reader to form her own opinion without you explicitly stating your opinion.
Think of it as a game of connect-the-dots. Draw a picture and connect a few of the dots, but allow the reader the pleasure of finishing it. | https://barry-davret.medium.com/the-lost-skill-of-civilized-society-we-desperately-need-to-revive-711d7594b686 | ['Barry Davret'] | 2019-04-17 12:28:38.432000+00:00 | ['Creativity', 'Culture', 'Self Improvement', 'Life Lessons', 'Writing'] |
How to Deal With Inner Fear | Welcome to ReadYourArticle
I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.
–Mark Twain
Let’s Start
If you are nervous about making the jump or simply putting it off out of fear of the unknown, here is your antidote. Write down your answers, and keep in mind that thinking a lot will not prove as fruitful or as prolific as simply brain vomiting on the page. Write and do not edit-aim for volume. Spend a few minutes on each answer.
Define your nightmare, the absolute worst that could happen if you did what you are considering.
What doubt, fears, and “what-ifs” pop up as you consider the big changes you can — or need — to make? Envision them in painstaking detail. Would it be the end of your life? What would it be the permanent impact, if any, on a scale of 1–10? Are these things really permanent? How likely do you think it is that they would actually happen?
2. What steps could you take to repair the damage or get things back on the upswing, even if temporarily?
Chances are, it’s easier that you imagine. How could you get things back under control?
3. What are the outcomes or benefits, both temporary and permanent, of more probable scenarios?
Now that you’ve defined the nightmare, what are the more probable or definite positive outcomes, whether internal (confidence, self-esteem, etc.) or external? What would the impact of these more-likely outcomes be on a scale of 1–10? How likely is it that you could produce at least a moderately good outcome? Have less intelligent people done this before and pulled it off?
4. If you were fired from your job today, what would you do get things under financial control?
Imagine this scenario and run through questions 1–3 above. If you quit your job to test other options, how could you later get back on the same career track if you absolutely had to?
5. What are you putting off out of fear?
Usually, what we most fear doing is what we most need to do. That phone call, that conversation, whatever the action might be — it is fear of unknown outcomes that prevents us from doing what we need to do. Define the worst case, accept it, and do it. I’ll repeat something you might consider tattooing on your forehead: what we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do. As I have heard said, a person’s success in life can usually what we most need to do. As I have heard said, a person’s success in life can usually be measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations he or she is willing to have. Resolve to do one thing every day that you fear. I got into this habit by attempting to contact celebrities and famous business people for advice.
6. What is it costing you-financially, emotionally, and physically — to postpone action?
Don’t only evaluate the potential downside of action. It is equally important to measure the atrocious cost of inaction. If you don’t pursue those things that excite you, where will you be in one year, five years, and ten years? How will you feel having allowed circumstance to impose itself upon you and having allowed ten more years of your finite life to pass doing what you know will not fulfil you? If you telescope out 10 years and know with 100% certainty that it is a path of disappointment and regret, and if we define risk as “the likelihood of an irreversible negative outcome,” inaction is the greatest risk of all.
7. What are you writing for? If you cannot answer this without resorting to the previously rejected concept of good timing, the answer is simple: you’re afraid, just like the rest of the unlikelihood and re-pairability of most missteps, and develop the most important habit of those who excel and enjoy doing so: action.
This Article is taken from The 4-Hour Workweek
Written by Arshad. A
Thank you
Subscribe/Like and Share your Thoughts | https://medium.com/@readyourarticle/how-to-deal-with-inner-fear-9b4c56480c6a | ['Ansari Arshad Ali'] | 2021-05-27 03:51:30.898000+00:00 | ['Fear', 'Inner Peace', 'Jobs', 'Readyourarticle', 'Deal'] |
Saskatchewan invited 576 immigration candidates for provincial nomination in new PNP draw on December 17 | The Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program (SINP) invited 576 candidates to apply for provincial nomination for Canadian permanent residence in its new immigration draw held on December 27.
Invitations were issued to candidates under the International Skilled Worker category through two subcategories: Express Entry, and Occupations In-Demand.
Out of total invitations issued, 190 went to candidates having a profile in Express Entry System and 386 were issued to Occupations In-Demand candidates.
In order to be invited in this draw, candidates from both sub-categories needed an Expression of Interest (EOI) score of at least 71 points on the SINP’s Points Assessment Grid.
Invited candidates had work experience in one of 89 select occupations.
The Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program, or SINP, allows the province to nominate qualified foreign workers who have the potential to thrive in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan to apply for a provincial nomination for Canadian permanent residence.
It is also one of the easiest Provincial Nominee Programs to apply. While a minimum of one year of full-time work experience is essential to apply for both of its subcategories — Express Entry and Occupation in Demand, a job offer or work experience in Canada is not required.
In order to apply for a provincial nomination through either of these streams, candidates need to first register an EOI with the SINP.
Eligible EOIs are then awarded a score out of 100 based on the SINP’s International Skilled Worker Points Assessment Grid, which allot them points based on their work experience, education, language ability, age, and connections to the province. High-scoring candidates are then invited to apply for provincial nomination through regular draws conducted by the SINP.
Express Entry candidates, who obtain a nomination through the SINP’s Express Entry sub-category, receive additional 600 points toward their CRS scores, effectively increasing their chances to get an invitation to apply (ITA) for Canadian permanent residence in subsequent Express Entry draw.
Do you want to immigrate to Canada through SINP or any other PNP?
To find out if you’re eligible for immigration to Canada under SINP or any other PNP, simply complete our FREE ASSESSMENT FORM! A member of the WWICS team will review your eligibility and contact you to discuss your options to immigrate to Canada! | https://medium.com/@wwicsimmigration/saskatchewan-invited-576-immigration-candidates-for-provincial-nomination-in-new-pnp-draw-on-d42600e13f10 | ['Wwics Group'] | 2020-12-23 10:23:49.968000+00:00 | ['Immigration Consultants', 'Sinp', 'Express Entry Draw', 'Saskatchewan Pnp', 'Immigration'] |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.