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Largest Tesla Parade — GuinessWorld Record Attempt | On Saturday, December 12, 2020, hundreds of Tesla vehicles of every model ever produced by Elon Musk’s company, gathered in metro Atlanta, GA attempting to break the world record for the largest Tesla Parade ever. The record-holder was 145 vehicles accomplished in Beijing, China on January 15, 2017.
Planning for the world record attempt started months in advance by Miles Through Time Automotive Museum founder, Sean Mathis whose museum has over 100 years of automotive history, memorabilia, art, and unique historical exhibits located in Clarkesville, GA. But the event was bigger than just attempting to break the world record, it was also raising funds to assist in saving kids from human trafficking by donating 100% of the proceeds from raffle ticket and merchandise sales to Operation Underground Railroad.
The morning of the record-breaking attempt saw more than 300 Tesla’s gather in the Windward Parkway Park and Ride in Alpharetta, GA where each was provided a numbered window sticker that would track the total vehicle count, then parked until all participants were had arrived.
During the pre-event processing, social distancing was strictly observed and all participants were wearing masks to ensure the safety of everyone during these COVID-19 times.
Many well known, YouTube and Twitter Tesla enthusiasts attended the event, including Kim and her family from the It’s Kim Java channel, Brian from the i1Tesla channel, and Rafael from the TesLatino channel. The regional Tesla clubs were also well represented by the Tesla Owners Atlanta and Tesla Owners Tennessee.
Once all were ready to go, instructions were supposed to come via the official Tesla Record Live page, but the volume of people trying to access created technical issues. However, due to the pre-planning communications and well-documented outlines of how the event would be conducted, all participants had the needed information on how the event would unfold.
The plan was for all cars to leave the staging point and travel down a local road in an attempt to break the record before going on to the post-drive celebration. Guinness has specific guidelines in order to break the world record, which included:
All vehicles must stay in a single-file line for the entire 2-mile duration of the attempt Maintain an approximate 2 car-length distance at all times Do not exceed 15mph Ensure vehicle number decal is clearly visible on top left windshield
Video cameras were set up all along the parade route to record and document the official record-breaking attempt. Georgia State and local police officers provided an escort and closed the roads and intersections to ensure all Tesla vehicles would stay together along the entire 2-mile parade route, and 11-mile caravan down the GA400 highway to the Westin Atlanta Permiter hotel in Sandy Springs, GA for the post-drive celebration.
Luckily, I was able to participate in this world record attempt with my 2018 Tesla Model 3 with my wife as co-pilot. We were car number 079 and were in the front 1/4 of the pack during the parade and caravan. From what I could see, most participants were able to stay together as needed for the 2-mile parade. Once on the highway, it was a unique experience to see a major highway in Atlanta stopped of all normal traffic and see only a single file line of Tesla’s for as far as I could see both in front and behind me. There were a few instances of abrupt panic stops but for the most part, it was uneventful.
Later on, in talking with other participants, I heard of a few vehicles that unfortunately didn't fare as well and had a minor fender bender due to those quick stops and as the tail end of the caravan was no longer benefiting from the closed highway, so regular traffic started intermingling with those attendees.
During the post-drive celebration, in support of preventing human trafficking, a check was presented to Operation Underground Railroad for nearly $8,200 by Sean Mathis.
The final number of Tesla’s that made the Guinness World Record attempt was 340 vehicles. It will be several weeks before Guinness provides a decision on if the attempt was successful based on their strict criteria. | https://medium.com/@thunder7ga/worlds-largest-tesla-parade-guinessworld-record-attempt-62d8758afea5 | ['Electric Motoring W Dave Clark'] | 2020-12-19 23:24:13.745000+00:00 | ['Guinness World Record', 'Electric Vehicles', 'Tesla', 'Parade', 'Electric Car'] |
nature v̶s̶. nurture(s) | 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/no-caps/nature-v%CC%B6s%CC%B6-nurture-s-81eb0d570421 | [] | 2020-10-20 02:23:35.253000+00:00 | ['Spanish', 'Español', 'Nature', 'Life', 'Medium En Español'] |
* Us Versus Them | Is patriotism a must for hockey fan allegiance?
Image by Anastasia Borisova from Pixabay and Photo by Tetyana Kovyrina from Pexels
The goal of the 1972 Summit Series between Canada and the Soviet Union was to establish once and for all whose game hockey truly was. I had been too little to realize what’s happening but the tone of voice in which the beloved Soviet sports commentator Nicolai Ozerov called Canadians the “professionals” had seemed menacing even to me. I asked my parents: “What’s a professional?”. “The professionals play hockey for money”, my father said. “While the Soviets are all amateurs and compete for the love of the game”, my mother chimed in. As a school teacher, she had never missed a chance to educate.
Canada had won that first battle for hockey supremacy, but the lesson I learned was rather personal. As a good daughter and an exemplary Soviet child, I eagerly absorbed the notion that there’s no glory in doing your work just for money's sake. I’m still struggling with the influences of my upbringing, as even joining the partner’s program on Medium has left me a bit apprehensive. Hiding behind a paywall seemed incredibly capitalist. A more conscientious person would’ve given her writing for free, and to anyone in need. But that’s a whole different topic for another time.
When I came to Canada my whole world turned upside down. I wasn’t prepared for the love Canadians had for hockey. I learned that, just like the Soviets, Canadians had stuck to the TV screens during the Summit Games, feeling heartbreak or elation depending on who had won the match. We were the great enemy, the enemy you couldn’t help but respect. They were the mean, physical “Canadian Professionals” for us. We were the skillful, team-oriented “Red Machine” for them.
The coexistence of the two once opposing strategies is obvious in modern hockey. To become a professional, the player has to be not only skillful, mean, and physical but dedicated and passionate as well. The only caveat is that in Russia of today, most of the public’s attention is given to the talent when in Canada, everything is about work ethic and tenacity. And what’s interesting, the arguably best Canadian player Sidney Crosby doesn’t look like a physical specimen. In fact, his skill set and hockey IQ are more in tune with the Russian players of old. At the same time, the brilliance and physicality of the Russian superstar Alex Ovechkin would make him a perfect fit for the Canadian team circa 1972.
For a while, I kept rooting for the Russians, my national pride swelling whenever the sound of the old Soviet anthem — with rewritten modern words — would blare over the ice rinks. However, the longer I lived in Canada, the less I knew the Russian players. I discovered some new players to root for, and not all of them were Russians. For instance, one of my recent favorites is an American Auston Matthews. The thin line “Us versus Them” becomes even more blurry when anyone from my home team Toronto Maple Leafs plays in international competitions.
In the end, simple arithmetic wins every time. I tend to support those I know. I’m better with people than with faceless concepts anyway. This is why my patriotism steps aside in favor of the love for the game of hockey.
I won't know much about the youngsters participating in this year’s Ice Hockey Under 20 World Championship, so I’ll be rooting for a grand finale where Canada plays Russia. I will brace myself and concentrate on the thought that the great game of hockey will prevail whoever wins. Because in my case it will be a game of Us versus Us, the best against the best. And may the most worthy win! | https://medium.com/illumination/us-versus-them-ccd797742eba | ['Nadya Semenova'] | 2020-12-26 19:30:03.455000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Self', 'Fans', 'Sports', 'Difference'] |
I Met An Angel | He wore clothes that barely covered his body, torn & stained, while his parents sat in a tiny tent by the side of the road, trying in vain to patch up their tent to keep the insides dry. I wondered when could be the last time he must have eaten a decent, warm meal.
But oh that boy! Did he care about that at all? He was too busy having fun!
“Wait”, I thought to myself, “so while I chose to think I had no shortage of petty things to complain about, this little boy actually chose to focus on joy? In the midst of all that misery?” In that moment, the real meaning of self-actualization & enlightenment dawned on me! And in that moment, he was clearly far ahead of me in both. Even though I owned more things than him, he had found something priceless! I have always believed in angels, but I never thought they would come disguised as a tiny little boy & show me the real power of the choice we all have!
The choice to be happy, in this moment.
The choice to focus on joy, in this moment. The choice to have hope, in this moment.
The choice to feel grateful for all that we have.
The choice to love life, unconditionally!
I left from there with a big smile on my face, a bright warm glow in my heart, a prayer for abundant blessings for that boy & a solemn promise to myself to fall in love with my life again!
Now only if I could see the road ahead!
Oh these damn tears, they just wouldn't stop flowing.
It was pouring all around!
- Urmila S | https://medium.com/social-jogi/i-met-an-angel-f600ed8859a3 | ['Urmila Sardesai'] | 2020-12-25 15:02:50.449000+00:00 | ['Happiness', 'Self Love', 'Life', 'Gratitude', 'Spirituality'] |
The Crank Brothers F-15 multi-tool | Eric D. Joseph
I’ve had a couple of Topeak and Park Tool multi-tools over the years and this is by far the best. The construction is very solid and the tools are very easy to use. The case makes a great smooth handle when you are torquing down bolts. I haven’t had to use the chain tool yet but it seems pretty typical for a multi-tool. The only concern I had was that it would rattle around but I haven’t heard it in my Camelbak. | https://medium.com/@musa-a-farooqi/the-crank-brothers-f-15-multi-tool-cd3ddcc342ec | ['Musa Farooqi'] | 2020-12-23 15:25:07.079000+00:00 | ['Functional', 'Recommended', 'Bicycles', 'Tools', 'Multi Tool'] |
Three Reasons to Grow Your Hardtech Startup in Chicago at mHUB | Over the last decade, the number of startups in Chicago skyrocketed 270%, according to a study done by The Center for an Urban Future (a New York think tank that analyzed data from Crunchbase). With Chicago seeing some of the fastest startup growth in the nation, it’s no surprise that the largest independent hardtech innovation center is based in the Windy City.
Most innovation centers in the United States are funded by government-run institutions, university systems, or internal corporate innovation departments. Think AT&T Foundry, Argonne National Laboratory or Polsky Center. But the nonprofit mHUB is different. Convening interests and expertise across organizational boundaries, it’s the largest independent hardtech innovation center in the United States. What is hardtech, you ask?
Hardtech innovation is technology that has both a hardware and software component. This could be a smart medical device, a sensor application used in a manufacturing setting, or a consumer product for the connected home. mHUB was founded to ensure that the future of advanced manufacturing and product innovation has a place to flourish in America’s innovation ecosystem.
Coming out of a period consumed by software development, the current demands of economic development, the supply chain, climate change, and connectedness has refocused the nation on not just creating good ideas but making them right here in the United States. From concept to prototype to production, mHUB’s hyper-resourced environment creates the conditions for physical product innovation to thrive. This results in new business creation, revenue, investments, intellectual property, and jobs.
Chicago played a pivotal role during the first Industrial Revolution, and it will continue into the Fourth Industrial Revolution — which fuses physical product development with digital processes to impact all disciplines, economies and industries. Central to this revolution are emerging technology breakthroughs in fields such as the Internet of Things, autonomous vehicles, 3D printing, robotics and artificial intelligence. Here are three reasons why early-stage hardtech companies choose mHUB as the place to launch and grow their business.
1. Hyper-focused Resources Available for HardTech Startups
By providing the right resources, mentorship, and access to manufacturing industry insiders, mHUB helps early-stage innovators go from prototype to product to sustainable business, driving a greater likelihood of success. mHUB’s multiple membership options provide access to a state-of-the-art prototyping facility and micro-factory with over $6M in equipment. Whether a founder is just starting out on their entrepreneurial journey, an early-stage startup is growing their team, or an employer is looking for an innovative co-working environment, mHUB has a membership option for their unique needs.
2. HardTech Specific Funding for Startups
In addition to providing physical product development tooling and resources, mHUB founded an accelerator program built specifically for hardware and physical product startups. The 6-month accelerator fast-tracks high potential startups through hands-on product development in mHUB’s prototyping facilities and is supported by world-class corporate partners and venture investors. And because mHUB is positioned in Chicago, a city rich with manufacturing history, the region echoes mHUB’s friendly environment to build and grow a hardtech company.
3. Joining Both a HardTech Specific Startup Community & Broader Innovation Ecosystem
Having built a diverse and dynamic community of engineers, developers, innovators, and entrepreneurs, mHUB has created an ecosystem and supplier network to support existing small- and medium-sized manufacturers. mHUB Hardtech Development services matches businesses with engineering and business talent for contract R&D services. The diversity of knowledge within the mHUB community, made up of more than 650 members and alumni, is of huge value to internal innovation teams.
Through its Hardtech Development services (which recently reported providing over $2M of income to mHUB members) and the Accelerated Incubation program, mHUB brings institutional and corporate partners into the fold, to engage with the member community and vice-versa. Moreover, mHUB has leveraged several federal grants to support startups and bolster job creation and economic development, resulting in valuable community engagement and partnerships. | https://blog.midweststartups.com/three-reasons-to-grow-your-hardtech-startup-in-chicago-at-mhub-866f3731f0b | ['Midwest Startups'] | 2021-09-02 15:52:04.343000+00:00 | ['Midwest Startups', 'Chicago', 'Tech', 'Startup', 'Venture Capital'] |
The Echo #26 | Paradigm is an investment firm focused on blockchain technology, cryptocurrencies and cryptonetworks shaping data economy and financial industry since 2013.
Follow | https://medium.com/paradigm-fund/the-echo-26-8f26adc79456 | [] | 2020-05-26 16:08:09.941000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency News', 'Blockchain'] |
50/50 | Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash
“The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.”
(Ernest Hemingway)
Should we trust each other or should we not? is and has been principle psychological issue, which we go through from every moment and second. It has been part of philosophical debate since the ancient times. Philosophers have been divided in their opinion about what “Trust” is actually, for few it is reliance that person will do them right and for others it is a process of reciprocity in which they will receive what they give. If it is so then why do people complain of being wronged and betrayed, when it is their own choice at the first hand? where is the fault and who is at the fault?
“Do not trust all men, but trust men of worth; the former course is silly, the latter a mark of prudence.”
― Democritus
When a person has an experience relating trust there are two outcomes from two different types of people. Some watch out next time after they have burnt their hands once and take measured steps. On the other hand some instead of tracking back what happened keep on repeating the same cycle. So, what’s the difference among those whose trust is broken by and then and those who go through such crisis lesser. It’s the basic instinct of humans to avoid danger and never let guards down in times of risk. Same goes for trust if we are going to trust same person again and again who broke the trust who is to blame? But why do we trust the same person again it’s wired in our brains to affirm ourselves and we take every opportunity to do so even the outcome is toxic experiences.
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
There are always open chances and probabilities of being a person to be trustworthy or not but consequences depends partially on us, to how much to share and with whom though it’s good to believe in odd prospects to be even, still when it is unambiguous it will be sheer recklessness to do so. The middle path may be safe one here to take the chances but not to gamble what’ rare, to not abandon who wont leave us.
The fault is not in our stars but we want to trust and want to be trusted. | https://medium.com/@akirawrites/50-50-33ba134f041c | [] | 2020-12-22 11:49:22.170000+00:00 | ['Brain Training', 'Emotional Intelligence', 'Trust', 'Human Behavior', 'Philosophy'] |
An introduction to cryptography, blockchain and bitcoin | This article aims to introduce bitcoin and blockchain to beginners with no prior knowledge of the topic. Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency monetary system based on cryptography, thus, the name “cryptocurrency”, so a basic understanding of some cryptography functions is required. If you are comfortable with any of the topics discussed below, feel free to jump to another.
The need for cryptography
Since the early days of human civilization, there was a need to secure communications, so only the involved parties can send and receive messages securely. The process of securing communications went through many stages from using simple cipher languages to using complex maths functions.
Figure 1: German Lorenz cipher machine, used in World War II
to encrypt very-high-level general staff messages (from Wikipedia)
Cryptography
is a set of means used to secure the communications between the involved parties, such that third parties cannot read the messages or alter them. Cryptography uses mathematical functions to convert plaintext to an unreadable ciphertext. It may produce a reversible ciphertext, in a process called encryption, and the process that converts it back to the plaintext is called decryption, or it can produce an irreversible ciphertext (called hash or digest) in a process called hashing.
There are three types of cryptography:
1. Symmetric cryptography
uses a single key for both encryption and decryption, so both sender and recipient have the same key to encrypt and decrypt messages. It’s fast but not secure, as the key is shared and anyone can have it. Example of symmetric algorithms: Data Encryption Standard (DES).
The key: is a very long number, the bigger the key size is, the more the algorithm resists brute-force attacks.
Brute force attack: trying all available keys until a key is found, for a key with size 1024 bits, it means trying 21024 keys.
2. Asymmetric cryptography
uses two keys that are mathematically correlated, one is public and the other one is private, the public key can be extracted from the private key, but not vice versa, of course. The public key is used to encrypt the plaintext, while the private key is used to decrypt the ciphertext. The owner of the key keeps the private key, no one should know it, while the public key is shared with whoever wants to send encrypted messages to the key owner. Asymmetric cryptography is secure but is slow compared with symmetric cryptography.
3. Hashing
is a one-way standard function that produces an irreversible digest, it’s like the fingerprint in the sense that every input has its hash, two different inputs must not produce the same hash, and you cannot revert the original input from its hash. Some standard hash functions include; SHA256, SHA512, MD5. However, MD5 has been deprecated due to serious vulnerabilities (see: ref:6). One of the hash function vulnerabilities is the collision, which means; two different inputs produce the same hash, and this can happen due to the limited space of the hash algorithm against the unlimited input possibilities, but SHA256 is considered a strong hash algorithm, it produces a 256 bits long hash (or 64 hexadecimal characters), to see how big is this number, see this video: How secure is 256 bit security?
For example: the SHA256 of (abc) is
ba7816bf8f01cfea414140de5dae2223b00361a396177a9cb410ff61f20015ad
Changing any character, produces totally different hash, for example, the SHA256 of (Abc) is
06d90109c8cce34ec0c776950465421e176f08b831a938b3c6e76cb7bee8790b
You can play around with SHA256 using this utility: https://andersbrownworth.com/blockchain/hash
(it’s a demo utility for the great tutorial by Anders Brownworth, see ref:5)
Digital signature
Like paper signatures, digital signature is used as an authentication method. For example; A wants to send B a message, it doesn’t have to be encrypted, the message itself is not confidential, but there should be a method for B to make sure it’s really from A, and no one has altered the message. A sends the message along with his signature of that message, and B can then check if the message was tampered with.
In RSA, digital signature combines encryption and hashing.
There are two functions:
Sign: hashes the message and then encrypts the hash with the private key, the output is the digital signature.
Verify: decrypts the digital signature with the public key, the result is compared to the hash of the message sent along with the digital signature, if both are identical, then the message is intact, otherwise it should have changed since it was signed.
Figure 2: Digital signature in RSA
Notice: in digital signature using RSA, the public key encrypts the message after hashing while the private key decrypts the signature to get the hash back. This is the opposite of what happens when using the confidentiality service, where the public key encrypts the message and the private key decrypts the ciphertext. Bitcoin uses the ECDSA algorithm for digital signature, which works differently than RSA.
Cryptography services
Cryptography provides three main services:
Confidentiality
Non-repudiation
Integrity
Each one of those is achieved through special kinds of cryptographic functions.
Confidentiality: This service is used when message confidentiality is required, for example sending a message to a WhatsApp contact uses this service to ensure the message is encrypted with the recipient’s public key and at his end, the message is decrypted using his private key.
Non-repudiation: is a security service by which evidence is maintained so that the sender and the recipient of data cannot deny having participated in the communication. Individually, they are referred to as the “non-repudiation of origin” and “non-repudiation of receipt.”. In simple terms, you receive a message from someone in a special “format”, and you are sure it’s from him, think of “signatures”. Digital signature offers non-repudiation
Integrity: making sure the message is sent as it is, and no one alters the message without knowing. Hashing offers integrity.
Now that you have a basic knowledge of cryptography, let’s understand how bitcoin works on top of it.
What is money?
Money is a store of value; it’s not a value by itself. You pay 100 L.E. for pizza, you are actually exchanging a piece of gold worth 100 L.E. for this pizza. The gold here is also known as a medium of exchange.
So what makes something, like gold, a medium of exchange or “money”?
Properties of money (from Wikipedia):
Fungibility: its individual units must be capable of mutual substitution (i.e., interchangeability).
Durability: able to withstand repeated use.
Divisibility: divisible to small units.
Portability: easily carried and transported.
Cognizability: its value must be easily identified.
Scarcity: its supply in circulation must be limited.
Once there’s a medium with these properties, it can be used to store value, thus, called money.
What is Bitcoin?
First of all, some might get overwhelmed by the popular bitcoin images and think it’s real especially when it’s depicted as real coins. This is not Bitcoin:
Figure 3: Bitcoin
It’s just a design from artists’ imagination, by the end of this article you will realize that there’s no rigid representation of Bitcoin, even at the low level.
What’s confusing most for beginners about bitcoin and other digital currencies, is how we can use intangible assets like bitcoin, as money, and if we could use them, why did we think about a new monetary system, what is wrong with the current monetary system? And many other questions that I will try to answer in this article.
Bitcoin uses peer-to-peer technology to operate with no central authority or banks; managing transactions and the issuing of bitcoins is carried out collectively by the network. Bitcoin is open-source; its design is public, nobody owns or controls Bitcoin and everyone can take part.
Peer-to-peer means it’s a collaborative system, or more-often-called, a decentralized monetary system, in contrast to a single authority or central bank controlling the whole thing, the transactions are validated through a group of computers, anyone can participate, they are called nodes, they have the same copy of the blockchain (the public database that holds all transactions ever occurred since the launch of the bitcoin in 2009).
Think of its design as the torrent vs Google Drive.
A decentralized digital currency that is run over the internet is not a new idea, the economic Nobel prize laureate Milton Friedman, gave this visionary statement in 1999
The one thing that’s missing, but that will soon be developed, is a reliable e-cash, a method whereby on the Internet you can transfer funds from A to B, without A knowing B or B knowing A.
And different e-cash systems have been introduced before Bitcoin but never adopted widely, until this day in 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto announced his work on Bitcoin:
Figure 4: Satoshi Nakamoto email letter
Nobody knows who Satoshi is, as his identity remains mysterious, but his work on bitcoin and blockchain is considered revolutionary that is changing the world that we know.
Bitcoin is money?
Most of the newcomers to the cryptocurrency topic, including me a few months ago, don’t understand how some tokens can be treated like money that we know, here’s an analogy that may approach the topic to the money we know (it helped my little brother):
Imagine, in a perfect world, all our financial transactions are made through our bank accounts, and everyone has a bank account, literally everyone, even kids, buy candies from a local shop by their credit card, and public transportation (I’m thinking of Egypt) has means to pay through your credit card. In this perfect world (we already are heading to) no need for cash, your company transfers your salary every month to your account, and your company customers pay to your company by transferring to its bank account. The cash becomes useless, and your account balance becomes just a record in the bank system database, no more than that, which gets incremented if your company pays your salary or you when you sell your old laptop online or to your friend, and get decremented when you go to the shopping mall.
At this stage, fiat money disappears and our wealth becomes just a set of records in the bank’s databases. This is exactly how blockchain (the cryptocurrencies database/ledger) works, except for some technical details (important details) that make it competent to the current monetary system. And the bitcoin in this example is your balance records.
The blockchain is the backbone of all cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Etheruim, etc), and it has applications other than digital currencies, which makes it really revolutionary.
See this video if you want to know the impact of blockchain:
How the blockchain is changing money and business | Don Tapscott
Money properties in the bitcoin
Let’s see if money properties can be applied to bitcoin:
✅Fungibility: Any bitcoin is interchangeable with another.
✅Durability: Bitcoins are there as long as the blockchain is maintained, currently it’s being maintained by thousands of nodes (more on that later). It’s even more durable than the fiat money that is subject to physical failures like tearing or damage.
✅Divisibility: in most cases, if you want to buy bitcoins, you will mostly buy a small fraction of it, the smallest unit of bitcoin is Satoshi (SAT), one bitcoin worth 108 SAT
✅Portability: it’s digital, it’s even more portable than fiat money.
✅Cognizability: the blockchain is public and anyone can download it (https://bitcoin.org/en/download).
✅Scarcity: there is a limited supply of bitcoin, the bitcoin protocol states that only 21 million BTC are available to be mined, 18 million bitcoin (BTC) have already been mined, only 3 million BTC remains to be mined in the upcoming 100 years (though, this is subject to change).
The decentralization nature of Bitcoin
So why the thinking of a different and controversial monetary system instead of the current known system?
Figure 5: Bitcoin decentralization vs fiat money centralization
The main strong point of the cryptocurrencies is that it’s decentralized, that means that there is no centralized authority or bank that controls the transactions and keeps track of them. Instead, it’s peer-to-peer and public that anyone can contribute to its network. The revolution and the growth of this network remind me of the emergence of the internet in the 90s. Also while the centralized system relies on trust (we put our money in banks because we trust them), the decentralized digital currency relies on cryptography.
But after all, how do all this work together; blockchain, nodes, miners, and cryptography, to make money?
That’s what I will try to answer in the next sections.
The Blockchain
As the name says, the blockchain is a chain of blocks, it’s a type of database (ledger) that keeps track of every transaction since the genesis block (first block added by Satoshi in 2009). Every block contains several transactions (can be 1000 transactions, more or less). Every block references the previous block by its hash.
Figure 6: The main components of a block
The life cycle of a transaction
Say, A wants to send B 1 BTC, A first specifies B’s address (his public key), then signs the transaction with his private key (A’s private key) as approval of the ownership of the bitcoins, and broadcasts this transaction waiting for the confirmation.
The nodes verify that A owns 1 BTC, if it’s true, they move the transaction to the mempool (memory pool) where miners can pick up transactions for mining, until then it’s in an unconfirmed state. Mining is the technique used to prove the work done by the miner and gets awarded for.
The Proof of Work
Miners get awarded with bitcoins for the work they do: adding blocks to the blockchain, but bitcoins are very valuable that there should be a nearly valuable effort miners have to do to get them, this effort is done by the CPUs, that try to solve very complex mathematical problems, that require a special kind of computers, and sadly consume a massive amount of power to add the block to the blockchain, thus winning the precious bitcoins (see for example this video of one of the bitcoin miners: Inside The Cryptocurrency Revolution).
The amount of the bitcoins awarded are defined in the bitcoin code and has restricted rules, such that every 210,000 blocks (about 4 years) get halved, it started with 50 BTCs when the bitcoin was launched, and as of February 2021, the award is 6.25 BTCs. The importance of the mining process is that it’s the main and only source of bitcoins, every bitcoin out there originated from a mining award.
The very complex problem
The problem or puzzle that miners need to solve is simple to understand but very complex to solve.
It requires producing a block hash with a specific number of leading zeros. You know that any input has a different hash, but how do miners change the input (the block)? They are not allowed to alter the block data, they don’t own it. Here comes the block field: the nonce (see Figure 6), it’s a number that should be changed so that the hash of the block changes, miners keep changing it until the hash meets the target difficulty, that’s why all blocks’ hashes start with zeros.
Tip: you can have a look at the real blockchain blocks, through some of the blockchain explorers (see ref:26)
Hacking the blockchain
The structure of the blockchain makes it impossible to hack, the Bitcoin network has thousands of nodes that guard the blockchain against bad actors, they all have the same copy of the blockchain, so if someone tried to modify a block on his copy, he also needs to do this for 51% of the nodes.
For example, if B tried to change the transaction “A sends B 1 BTC” to “A sends B 2 BTC”, then the hash of the containing block will also change and the nonce should be re-evaluated to meet the target difficulty, and if this happened (it will consume a lot of power) the next block hash will change because the previous hash has changed, thus re-evaluating the nonce is required, and so on until the most recent block. If the hacker managed to do this, he will also have to update at least 51% of the nodes (about 5,000 blockchain copies). This work is so insanely costly in terms of power consumption that it may not worth it at all, besides it’s not technically practicable.
See ref:5, it’s a very good visualization of the process.
A sends B x BTC?
I’m using this analogy to simplify the transaction details, but it is more complex than that. Bitcoins are expressed in terms of inputs and outputs:
Figure 7: Transactions references
In the above image (from ref:25): A has total inputs (balance) of 100 BTC, they are called Unspent Transaction Outputs (UTXOs), but once they are referenced in another transaction (transaction C) they become spent and cannot be referenced anymore in another transaction. You will notice that any transaction input is another transaction’s output. Also, there’s no notion of balance, but instead “unspent transaction outputs”, what bitcoin wallets do is calculating the total UTXOs to show your balance.
The change
If A needs to send 3 bitcoins to B and he has 2 UTXOs with 2 BTCs each, that’s a total of 4 BTC, what he will do is sending the 4 BTC to two addresses, the first is B’s address with 3 BTC, and the second is his own address with 1 BTC to get the change, as it’s only permitted to reference a whole UTXO. If you didn’t specify the address that receives the change, it will be considered transaction fees.
The coinbase
The block must contain at least one transaction, it’s called the coinbase transaction, it’s a special type of transaction that contains the reward and fees sent to the miner’s address.
See figure 6, the coinbase transaction of block 5 sends 7 BTC to M1 (the address of the miner of that block), this 7 BTC is the total of the mining award + the fees, if the award is 6.25 BTC then the fees are 0.75 BTC.
The Fees
You (the one who sends bitcoins) must pay fees so that a miner picks your transaction, and packages it into a block. These fees differ but the more you pay, the more miners will prioritize your transaction, and the faster the transaction gets confirmed. When all bitcoins (21 million) get mined, the miners will only earn fees.
Summary
I started with some of the important concepts of cryptography, bitcoin relies on cryptography to secure transactions.
We use hashing to ensure the integrity of the data.
Bitcoin is a decentralized cryptocurrency, there’s no entity controlling it like banks, it’s kept secure with cryptography and run by people, also named nodes.
Bitcoins users have an asymmetric key-pair: the public key which acts as their address where others can use to send them BTCs, and the private key which acts as their password, they use to sign transactions to others.
Then we saw how bitcoin and money are related and saw that all money properties can be applied to bitcoin.
The blockchain is the ledger that all transactions ever happened live and will be there forever.
The blockchain is nearly impossible to hack, thanks to the collaborative work of the network nodes and cryptography.
Users send bitcoins by referencing previous inputs sent to them, called Unspent Transaction Outputs (UTXOs).
After the transaction being signed it moves to the network where nodes validate it, if verified, the transaction is moved to the memory pool (mempool).
Miners pick transactions from the mempool, pack them into a block then start the mining process, if they find the nonce, they get awarded with freshly mined Bitcoins and the fees.
The higher the fees, the faster the transaction gets picked by miners thus faster to be confirmed.
The coinbase is a special kind of transaction, it contains the miners' award and fees, it’s the first transaction in the block.
References:
The following references work as complementary to this article to fully understand how bitcoin works, I carefully collected them after watching and reading a lot of resources.
Videos:
(1): Bitcoin Fees and Unconfirmed Transactions — Complete Beginner’s Guide
(2): Bitcoin Transaction Details — Part 1
(3): Bitcoin Transactions — from “Send” to “Receive”
(4): What is Proof of Stake? — Earn Passive Income with Staking
(5): Blockchain 101 — A Visual Demo
(6): Hashing Algorithms and Security — Computerphile
(7): How secure is 256 bit security?
(8): Bitcoin Q&A: What is the Role of Nodes?
Medium:
(11): How are transactions validated?. The Bitcoin network’s ingenuity is… | by Blair Marshall
(12): How does a bitcoin transaction actually work? | by Blair Marshall
(13): What The Heck is UTXO. Peeking into the Bitcoin Transaction… | by Rajarshi Maitra | BitHyve
Others:
(21): Money
(22): investopedia.com What Happens to Bitcoin After All 21 Million Are Mined?
(23): How bitcoin transactions work | How Does Bitcoin Work? | Get Started with
(24): What is the coinbase?
(25): Bitcoin wiki Transaction
(26): Blockchain Explorer — Search the Blockchain | BTC | ETH | BCH
(27): The bitcoin transaction life cycle (image) | https://medium.com/coinmonks/an-introduction-to-cryptography-blockchain-and-bitcoin-9a6c435db1bd | ['Mohamed Elshawaf'] | 2021-06-01 08:33:45.825000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency', 'Bitcoin', 'Cryptography', 'Bitcoin Mining', 'Blockchain'] |
Creating Neuromorphic Designs in SwiftUI | Neuromorphic Design in SwiftUI
Color sets
To your project’s assets folder, add three new color sets by clicking the + sign. Below, we are going to add colors for both dark and light mode:
Make your first color set and name it mainColor . This color set is for the background and UI elements. The hex color value for the light color is #EFEEEE and #1F242F for the dark color.
The second color set is for the top-left shadow. The hex color value for the light color is #FFFFFF and #292D38 for the dark color.
The last color set is going to be for the bottom-right shadow. The light color hue is #D1CDC7 and the dark color is #14151C.
SwiftUI code
Below, I created a container for our neuromorphic design by using ViewBuilder . You can see in the code how and where to use the colors. You can adjust the shadow radius to your liking:
We can test the design with the simple code below: | https://betterprogramming.pub/creating-neuromorphic-designs-in-swiftui-290c01331738 | [] | 2020-12-22 19:26:24.391000+00:00 | ['Swift', 'Swiftui', 'Neuromorphic', 'iOS', 'Programming'] |
Lindsey Graham is Not a Lady | Lindsey Graham is Not a Lady
Adapted from a caricature of Lindsay Graham by DonkeyHotey. (CC BY-SA 2.0)
I wrote the other day that casual jokes about gay men, at heart both misogynistic and sexist, fill American air in about the same proportion as free oxygen. I observed that homophobia IS sexism, that if women were considered equal to men, sexist and homophobic jokes wouldn’t make sense.
Nothing could better illustrate my point than homophobic jokes about Senator Lindsay Graham that have filled Twitter since last June.
Graham is a closeted gay man who has wielded political power for decades to hurt other LGBTQ people. He deserves to be outed and to have his hypocrisy exposed, but attacking him with traditional anti-queer vitriol does much more harm than good. Let me give you a little background first, then dig into this story.
Sean Harding, self-promo photo from Twitter feed. Caution, feed is NSFW.
Last June, the hashtags #LadyGraham and #LadyG exploded on social media after gay porn star Sean Harding claimed Senator Lindsay Graham (R/SC) is well known among male sex workers, who use use both nicknames for him.
Harding isn’t the first to out Senator Graham as gay.
Speculation about his sexual orientation goes way back, with D.C. insiders saying his gay identity has long been hush hush but never really a secret. Now it’s much less secret than ever. Male sex workers have told journalists Graham has frequent sexual liaisons with them and has required them to sign non-disclosure agreements.
Graham has never met an anti-LGBTQ policy he couldn’t support
Both GLAAD and the Human Rights Campaign call the powerful senator one of the most anti-LGBTQ politicians in Washington. In the last few months alone, he’s suggested he wants to see the Supreme Court strike down marriage equality, spoken up against protecting LGBTQ workers from employment discrimination, and defended excluding same-sex couples from adopting children.
If it turned out a politician had been hiding his Black heritage all his life, would you crack watermelon jokes?
As a senator, he has voted against LGBTQ equality every time it’s come to the floor. As a committee chair, he has exercised his authority many times to block legislation from reaching the floor. No politician has ever been a stronger enemy to LGBTQ people than Graham has.
As far back as 2007, LGBTQ activist and journalist Michelangelo Signorile called for an investigation to expose Graham’s hypocrisy.
“Let’s have a real investigation of the rumors about South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who … has voted antigay — including for the federal marriage amendment — while people in South Carolina and Washington have discussed what some say is an open secret for a long, long time.”
Outing closeted queer politicians has an honorable history
I first met Signorile in 1990 when we were both members of Queer Nation. He was an agitator who used his column in OutWeek magazine to popularize outing queer public figures with anti-LGBTQ track records. The practice was intensely controversial then but is now widely accepted as ethically justified under the right circumstances.
Click for Signorile’s archived columns.
Outing does not equal homophobic slurs
Few today suggest the circumstances are wrong for outing Senator Graham, and his secret has become largely public. But outing a powerful queer politician who harms LGBTQ people is different from attacking that politician with sexist, homophobic slurs.
Yet slurs are exactly what have been filling social media since Harding dropped his bombshell. A quick Twitter search on the hashtag #LadyGraham will show you exactly what I mean. Here’s a selection from this morning — from just the first two screens of returns.
Oh you silly queen, you’ll be investigated soon enough, #LadyGraham
And the pale skinned arms of someone who’s always worn a sleeved dress! #LadyGraham
More like someone needs to look into #LadyGraham and his Grindr profile
I think Putin has some serious kompromat on #LadyGraham. No one really cares that he’s gay and pays for sex. I think it’s something to do with underage children.
No big surprise: Lindsey always enjoys a nice, tight probe. #LadyGraham
#LadyGraham A cockatoo deserves a cock-or-two, right #LadyGraham?
Is #LadyGraham having another snit?
“#Ladygraham, Aunt Bea is trending! Wonder why?” observes one Twitter user.
Could the sexism and homophobia be more blatant?
I barely screened those tweets before I pulled them for this article. They’re the first few I found in the hashtag, and each of them is toxic. Look at all the negative tropes that get checked off:
Gay men are fundamentally silly. Like women.
Gay men are promiscuous, which must be bad.
Gay men are likely to be pedophiles.
Gay men like anal sex. How gross.
Gay men are hysterical like women, and prone to “snits.”
What really gets me about all these tweets is that they come from the left. Each tweet was sent by a person who identifies as a liberal, a progressive, or a “resister.”
I saw hundreds more tweets much like that ones above, and while many of the jokes come from profiles with rainbow flags, it appears the bulk are from people who call themselves allies rather than LGBTQ people themselves.
No matter the case, the jokes are disturbing, and I’d like to explain why to both allies and my own queer tribe.
To cis/straight allies —
You guys are out of bounds. I know you mean well to oppose Graham, but you don’t have the right to call queer people silly queens or to mock anal sex. Nothing is wrong with being feminine and nothing is wrong with anal sex. If you didn’t think something was worth mocking, your jokes wouldn’t be funny.
No matter your intentions, your jokes are hurtful. They fill queer people’s air with toxins. Please stop.
Don’t get what I’m saying? Ask yourself this. If it turned out a politician had been hiding his Black heritage all his life, would you crack watermelon jokes? I don’t think so.
To queer people —
OK, I get it. You’re being ironic and you’re weaponizing Graham’s own shit against him. Hell, I’ve done it too, in private. I’ve mocked that bitter, self-loathing old queen out both sides of my mouth as I downed a cocktail and hooted it up with friends.
But the key here is private. I’ve been with people I trust to KNOW my jokes are rooted in irony. And even then I’ve been careful to explain I don’t really think calling a person a queen in a mocking way is cool. I don’t want to model toxic behavior, and I hope you don’t either. Our air is already foul enough. Right?
To everyone who cares about equality —
It’s way past time to stop weaponizing sexism and homophobia. Calling Lindsay Graham on his hypocrisy is laudable and honorable. It’s wrong for him to make political hay opposing queer rights while he’s secretly paying for sex with men.
But two wrongs don’t make a right. Cracking fag jokes is what what GRAHAM would do among his homophobic constituents.
Let’s be better than Graham. What do you say? | https://medium.com/james-finn/lindsey-graham-is-not-a-lady-d8ea90e55d33 | ['James Finn'] | 2020-12-23 13:28:58.566000+00:00 | ['LGBTQ', 'Gay', 'Politics', 'Sexism', 'Equality'] |
Power Dressing- The Islamic Perspective | “Invisible. That is what Phoebe Philo’s clothes for Céline make you feel. Not romantic, like Valentino. Or dark and edgy, like Saint Laurent. Simply invisible. A woman in a perfectly cut shirt and a pair of pants. And, oh, what a relief! Because we are busy. We work. We wipe our children’s mouths with the backs of our hands as we rush out the door. We don’t have time to consider whether our prints match or our buttons align. To try on different outfits each morning, like so many different personalities. To fuss and preen. That seems silly, somehow weak. Despite Philo’s many best efforts, there is a Céline uniform: large, slouchy trousers; a collarless shirt; flats; a tuxedo jacket – preferably in navy, black or cream. The clothes are quiet and not meant to make a statement. And so you look invisible. Able to be viewed for more than your surface appearance. This is power dressing.”
-By Whitney Vargas for The New York Times.
As I stumbled upon this quote (originally in an Instagram post) and eventually looked up the article, I couldn’t help but draw a parallel between it and the purpose of clothing in Islam. More specifically, the general guidelines of clothing for Muslim women in Islam. And I was honestly intrigued. Because it was refreshing to know that this British designer pretty much summed up how clothing should be viewed at and for what purpose.
Despite the obsession of the female form and the amount of clothing on a woman or lack thereof, the notion that you can be viewed for more than your surface appearance is something to reflect upon. I’ve always wondered how we as women don’t exist on this planet to adhere to a specific form or to fashion trends or the reduction of our physical selves to merely that-just outer bodies being beautified and made to look sensational. However- with the magnetic exposure to all forms of media and images of how a woman is supposed to look like, our hearts and minds may gradually get perverted into believing that these standards need to be followed.
Let’s talk about the Islamic perspective on clothing and modesty. Do adornment and wanting to look good have no place in the Shari’ah? It is actually quite on the contrary. Allah says in the Qur’an, “Children of Adam, We have given you garments to cover your nakedness and as adornment for you.”(Qur’an 7:26)
When we talk about post-modern conceptions of beauty, it has a lot of negative connotations that look at Eurocentric ideals as being an epitome. If we look at the term beauty without these notions, we can truly understand the place of adornment in Islam. God Himself mentions adornment, beautification and embellishment as one of the reasons for ordaining clothing. Every time we dress up, it is pretty amazing to know that clothing was ordained especially for us, the children of Adam, by God. Everything in Islam is spiritual.
There is even a hadith on beauty which further emphasizes the aesthetic reasons for clothing.
Abdullah ibn Mas’ud reported: The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “No one who has the weight of a seed of arrogance in his heart will enter Paradise.” Someone said, “But a man loves to have beautiful clothes and shoes.” The Prophet said, “Verily, Allah is beautiful and He loves beauty. Arrogance means rejecting the truth and looking down on people.”
Source: Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 91
Grade: Sahih (authentic) according to Muslim
The Prophet (peace be upon him) clarified to his companions that wanting to look good with fine clothes and shoes is not synonymous with being arrogant. The fine balance between clothing for adornment and clothing for convenience’s sake in Islam is what really fascinates me. This is real power dressing. | https://medium.com/@humairakapadia/power-dressing-the-islamic-perspective-ac6841c7ed6d | ['Humaira Kapadia'] | 2021-07-06 06:17:22.066000+00:00 | ['Sprituality', 'Clothing', 'Hijab', 'Fashion', 'Islam'] |
How I increased my curation rate from 26% to 64% on Medium | How I increased my curation rate from 26% to 64% on Medium
An update on the practices that worked for me.
Last month, I achieved the exciting mark having 64% of my stories curated by Medium. It felt like fireworks were required to mark the occasion.
My curation rate in the past four months has been:
April: 26%
May: 51%
June: 42%
July: 64%
How I increased my curation rate
By posting less.
Yes, really.
In April, I posted 41 stories, and had 11 of those curated. In May, I posted 30 stories, 16 of which were curated.
I put in a concentrated effort to write slightly longer stories (more 6 and 7min stories, less 3 and 4 min stories), and make sure I actually had something of value to say in every one of them.
In June, I posted 28 stories, and 12 were curated. You might think that 12 isn’t much better than the 11 I had back in April, but considering I wrote 41 stories in April to get 11 curated, that’s a much bigger effort than writing 28 stories to get 12 curated.
Second step: increase quality
Writing on Medium every day increased the quality of my writing. Once I understood how to focus on each story so that more of them would be curated, I increased my output again.
In July, I wrote 39 stories, 25 of which were curated.
At that point I had become more accustomed to figure out what I wanted to say, why I wanted to say it, and how to put it on the page in a clear, concise manner that would keep readers engaged.
I don’t resist inspiration
A while back, I wrote a story about how I wrote some of my most successful Medium stories in 40 mins.
Everything I said in that story is still 100% valid.
When a story wants to come out, I know. I feel like I just have to write, and it has to be now.
When I don’t feel like I have much to say, however, I don’t force anything. I know the story won’t be half as good as it should be, it’s not likely to be curated, and it won’t resonate with readers half as much.
Getting used with curation
I don’t take curation for granted, but getting curated more often gave me a good idea of what Medium is looking for, and what they’ll definitely pass on.
If your stories don’t get curated as often as you’d like them to be, don’t give up. Keep trying different angles, keep honing your voice, and keep reading stories that do get curated.
The only way to increase your curation rate is to keep trying. It’s all about the at-bats. | https://medium.com/sunday-morning-talks/how-i-increased-my-curation-rate-from-26-to-64-201495f92fd4 | ['Tesia Blake'] | 2020-04-27 12:49:44.299000+00:00 | ['Self', 'Medium', 'Creativity', 'Writing', 'Writing Tips'] |
Why Mobile-first Banks Are Rapidly Gaining Market Share | Like many industries, banking has been dramatically impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. Consumer trends that had been gaining steam over the past several years have only accelerated due to health and safety concerns.
One important change is the shift towards mobile and digital banking. A 2019 study by innovative card-issuer Marqeta found that more than 60 percent of US consumers conduct their banking online, while only about 30 percent prefer to do their banking in branch. In fact, at the time of the survey, only about 30 percent of respondents said they expected to visit a physical bank in the next three months. And while only 14 percent of survey respondents said they use a digital-only bank as their primary banking, that figure is much higher in Europe where about 20 percent of all consumers have their primary account with a digital bank (often referred to as “challenger banks” or “neo-banks”).
But it’s not only convenience that digital-only banks offer, according to Hussein Ahmed, CEO and founder of Oxygen Bank, and our latest guest on the Fintech Growth Talk For Ahmed, much of the growth in challenger banks is attributable to design. Traditional banks often treat the mobile experience as an afterthought, but challenger banks are taking a mobile-first approach that isn’t just translating an existing web experience to mobile. They’re designing the entire banking experience with a native mobile user in mind.
Of course, that means they’re targeting specific users. Oxygen, for example, believes their core market is heavily skewed to people aged 18–35 who essentially have grown up with a phone in their hands. These users are also generally heavy social media users and mobile-first banks seek to emulate their experiences from other digital platforms with the goal of making functionalities feel natural to them.
Challenger banks also look at their customers differently. Gen Z, in particular, is a group that’s often overlooked by traditional banks. Approximately half of Gen Z is employed in the gig economy, though most of them work gig jobs part-time to supplement full-time work or to support themselves as they complete college and internships. To traditional banks, these individuals are often considered unemployed, and thus their value to the bank is lower.
On the other hand, challenger banks, and Oxygen specifically, see these individuals as aspirational entrepreneurs. “They may have a full-time job, but they have a YouTube channel…or an Instagram Influencer account,” says Ahmed, which is blending the line between personal and business. As a result, their banking needs reflect not only the digital nature of their lifestyle, but also the new ways in which they earn a living.
That gives a distinct advantage to challenger banks, who are responding to those needs by aligning with them wherever they are in their life or business development. Simply put, traditional banks lack the tools these customers expect to see.
Of course, business banking is far more complex and regulated than personal banking, but Ahmed sees this as an opportunity to make business banking as simplified as much as possible without sacrificing compliance. The result is that big banks, who are somewhat still stuck in the branch on every corner model, are falling behind because that very model is no longer economical.
Originally from Egypt, Hussein came to the US for a PhD in Computer Science at Virginia Tech in 2005. After graduating, he led a number of engineering teams, most recently at Amazon, but felt the entrepreneurship itch and went on to found and head Transpose Technologies, a holistic information management platform that had users spanning 169 countries and 100,000 MAU. After a successful exit, Hussein embarked on an MBA at UC Berkeley’s Hass School of Business, taking part-time freelancing roles as an engineer, where he realized how broken the financial services sector was for this segment. That experience led to him founding Oxygen in 2017. A graduate of incubator Y Combinator, Oxygen is well-positioned to disrupt traditional financial services.
Listen to our full interview with Hussein Ahmed here: https://fintechgrowthtalk.podbean.com/e/oxygen-flexible-banking-designed-for-the-21st-century/ | https://medium.com/@tektalk/why-mobile-first-banks-are-rapidly-gaining-market-share-4ed770a05a6c | ['Christina Trampota'] | 2020-12-27 18:23:37.508000+00:00 | ['Neobanks', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Digital', 'Mobile Banking', 'Ycombinator'] |
Five lessons which I learnt from my journey in 2020–21 | 1. Adopt the change
“The change is the law of nature”
Change makes us capable of adopting anything.
People had to change their way of living, their regular habits, style of formal education, work environment, communication ways and the way of spending time. Their efforts are tremendous. All these things each of us learnt during this pandemic and was not easy initially. We soon realised adopting these changes is the only key to keep us alive without knowing how long would it go. We may be back to our regular routine at one fine day in near future or we may have wait for some more time, we don’t have that answer yet but adopting to change is the only way to make it amicable.
2. Prepare for the crisis
Could we have saved many lives in this situation? Did we have confidence that the situation is under control? Can we change our destiny?
Probably Not. We witnessed we were helpless. The Pandemic exhibit how overweening we were. Human life is really uncertain.
Preparing for bad times is not bad idea, we should start at our individual level to some what prepare for some unpredictable situations in future, may be its related to our health, finance or tech literacy.
Tech literacy is one of the key factor of preparation of this pandemic as we witnessed life to go from offline to online in many areas of our life like schooling, paperless banking, shopping, virtual hangouts with friends and relatives. Many SMBs transitioned to online due to lockdown effect as only online was the unaffected way of distribution.
3. Support each other in times of need
We truly understand how our family and people around us are important than money, designation and pride. This endless battle with coronavirus shows us the importance of our priceless life and the value of the people surrounding us.
Now family and relations are always in my priority list. This gave me the opportunity to reconnect with the people who truly matter.
We have to think a while and appreciate what we have with us. Forgive each other, remove bad memories, forget past issues and move on with new memories.
4. Workout on your health and wellness
Unless you take care of yourself, you can not fight with such viral infections or any illness. Keeping ourselves fit and acquiring right mindset of health first would proven to be good investment in future.
This is a time to rethink our regular routine. Adding regular breathing exercises and Yoga for at least 30 minutes on daily basis along with regular walking would help us to keep our body immune system good and ready to up for challenges.
Having balanced diet along with sufficient liquid intake is additional way to improve our immunity. So pay attention to your food and exercise or yoga in present and it will be reflected in your future by making you strong and fit.
5. What we give always comes back to us
Many of us know about Karma or have at-least heard about it. what it means is whatever we are today is because of our own yesterday’s thoughts, beliefs, words, and actions.
What we did with nature? Did we care about saving mother earth against getting it polluted? Did we care about cutting trees to satisfy our never ending need?
Our activities whether they are good or bad definitely come back as a boomerang. In this period of crisis, there were few vehicles on the road, people were happy to consume what they have.
That helped to keep pollution level under control and given us lifetime lesson to not ignore the supremacy of nature. | https://medium.com/@tejaswiabhay/five-lessons-which-i-learnt-from-my-journey-in-2020-21-ad3fa4a6aab5 | ['Tejaswi Abhay'] | 2021-04-18 13:34:51.564000+00:00 | ['Coronavirus', 'Lessons Learned', 'Health', 'Change Your Life', 'Life'] |
Keep your ship together with Kapitan | NEW: Katacoda scenario!
Manage complexity with Kapitan
We open sourced Kapitan back in October 2017.
In the 12 months before that date, Kapitan helped us revolutionise the way we were running things at DeepMind Health, and allowed us to keep control over many heterogeneous systems: Kubernetes, Terraform, Documentations, Scripts, Playbooks, Grafana Dashboards, Prometheus rules: everything was kept under control from one single point of truth.
I am not afraid to say it loud: there is nothing out there which is as versatile and powerful as Kapitan for managing configurations of complex systems. There.. I said it. Prove me wrong :)
Having a product so radically different than anything else out there, obviously also meant that we had to learn and discover how to use it: Patterns, Best Practices.. We had to recognise and discover them as they surfaced while refactoring the mess we made with our initial rollout. Fortunately one of Kapitan’s strength is to make refactoring a joy, and so we did, and did it again, until we came out with a nice set of best practices.
What we didn’t do, was to make them available to others… until now. Spoiler!
Joining Synthace last year as Head of SRE also meant I had a chance to apply those best practices and approaches to a fresh new environment. This gave me the opportunity to test them and improve them much faster than what I would have been able to do previously, due to the much faster iterations we have there. The results were spectacular, allowing me to bring control in a place where manifests were generated using unmaintainable go code, secrets were managed manually, and each Kubernetes cluster was a snowflake.
I introduced successfully Kapitan, but I was still working way too much with jsonnet, and needed to have a jsonnet file for each of the (almost identical) 20 microservices we had.
So I had a though: what if I could replicate the full setup without touching any code at all? Introducing Kapitan Generators
Kapitan Generator Libraries
Diesel Ship Marine Generator, for Power, 230v
Today I will give you a preview of how we use Kapitan internally at Synthace.
I am also pleased to announce that we have released some of our internal jsonnet libraries we developed at Synthace as open source!
See: https://github.com/kapicorp/kapitan-reference
In particular, we will release:
[RELEASED] A jsonnet manifest generator library to quickly create Kubernetes “workloads” manifests by simply defining them in the inventory. Get started with something as simple as:
parameters:
components:
api-server:
image: gcr.io/your-company/api:latest
A jsonnet pipelines generator library to quickly create Spinnaker pipelines for the above defined workloads
library to quickly create Spinnaker pipelines for the above defined workloads A jsonnet terraform generator library to create Terraform configurations.
library to create Terraform configurations. A set of helper scripts which will make easy to get up and running with Kapitan.
To set expectations right, these libraries will be released in a form that will probably require some refinements, but it should hopefully allow you to get started and inspire you to contribute with your libraries or implement the same approach to manage your system of choice.
These generators are a huge step forward from our approach where you would need to create a jsonnet file for each service you wanted to manage with Kapitan. The ambition is to allow you to get started and generate configuration for you 80% of cases, and at the same time enforce some sane best practices along the way. Of course, you can still write your own jsonnet code if you need something fancier or want to have full control on a specific component.
A sneak peek — generating manifests
So let’s say that you want to get started with Kapitan. Until now the steps to get you started where quite a few, often cryptic and not well documented.
We have releasing a “kapitan reference” repository (https://github.com/kapicorp/kapitan-reference) with all the batteries included. I will run this session assuming you have this already.
Pre-requisites:
docker
gcloud (the example is on GCP)
kapitan
yq
kapitan generators (released)
Suggested read:
Your first target file
Note: Since we have released the Manifest Generator, you will now be able to follow these steps
From your kapitan-reference repository (https://github.com/kapicorp/kapitan-reference), go on and create a first dev target file: inventory/targets/dev.yml . For simplicity, we won’t be creating inventory classes right now, so we are going to edit the target file directly.
Make sure it has the following content:
classes:
- common parameters:
target_name: dev components:
echo-server:
image: inanimate/echo-server
Now run: kapitan compile --fetch
T he --fetch command will make kapitan download the latest libraries and supports scripts that we package. Some of the third-party libraries we use are kube.libsonnet and spinnaker/sponnet .
If you now check your git repository, you will find that Kapitan has generated for you some files:
compiled/dev/
├── docs
├── manifests
│ └── echo-server-bundle.yml
└── scripts
Let’s look at what we have! Have a look at echo-server-bundle.yml
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
labels:
app: echo-server
name: echo-server
spec:
replicas: 1
selector:
matchLabels:
app: echo-server
strategy:
rollingUpdate:
maxSurge: 1
maxUnavailable: 1
type: RollingUpdate
template:
metadata:
labels:
app: echo-server
spec:
affinity:
podAntiAffinity:
preferredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution:
- podAffinityTerm:
labelSelector:
matchExpressions:
- key: app
operator: In
values:
- echo-server
topologyKey: kubernetes.io/hostname
weight: 1
containers:
- image: inanimate/echo-server
imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
name: echo-server
restartPolicy: Always
terminationGracePeriodSeconds: 30
Admit it. That was quick!
The manifest generator loops through the keys of the components inventory hash, and generates a new set of config for each one it finds, in this case, echo-server (from: https://hub.docker.com/r/inanimate/echo-server)
As anticipated, the generator library tries to be smart and adds some best practices that you may or may not like for all your services.
Why would you want a Deployment without podAntiAffinity? I’m sure there are valid reasons, but let’s make it a default, shall we?
Exposing the service
The deployment looks good, but it is missing some essential parts. Ehm.. we need a service! Right, let’s do that and recompile with kapitan compile
classes:
- common parameters:
target_name: dev
namespace: ${target_name} components:
echo-server:
image: inanimate/echo-server
service:
type: ClusterIP
ports:
http:
service_port: 80
Adding the port definition will produce the following:
It will add the port definition to the container
...
containers:
- image: inanimate/echo-server
imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
name: echo-server
ports:
- containerPort: 80
name: http
protocol: TCP
And it will create a new service definition
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
labels:
app: echo-server
name: echo-server
spec:
ports:
- name: http
port: 80
protocol: TCP
targetPort: http
selector:
app: echo-server
sessionAffinity: None
type: ClusterIP
Are we there yet? Not quite:
The service assumes that the echo-server runs on port 80. From the documentation, it looks as if the service is actually running on port 8080 instead.
We would want the service to be exposed using a LoadBalancer service, so let’s change that.
We would like a readiness probe
classes:
- common parameters:
target_name: dev
namespace: ${target_name} components:
echo-server:
image: inanimate/echo-server
service:
type: LoadBalancer
ports:
http:
service_port: 80
container_port: 8080
healthcheck:
type: http
port: http
probes: ['readiness']
path: /
timeout_seconds: 3
Have a look at the bundle again:
...
containers:
- image: inanimate/echo-server
imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
name: echo-server
ports:
- containerPort: 8080
name: http
protocol: TCP
readinessProbe:
failureThreshold: 3
httpGet:
path: /
port: http
scheme: HTTP
periodSeconds: 10
successThreshold: 1
timeoutSeconds: 3
restartPolicy: Always
terminationGracePeriodSeconds: 30
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
labels:
app: echo-server
name: echo-server
spec:
ports:
- name: http
port: 80
protocol: TCP
targetPort: http
selector:
app: echo-server
sessionAffinity: None
type: LoadBalancer
Attaboy!
Adding Environment Variables
What else could we do? Well, from the echo-server docker page it looks as if we can play with a few parameters to change its configuration. Let’s add some env variables.
classes:
- common parameters:
target_name: dev
namespace: ${target_name} echo_server_port: 8081
components:
echo-server:
image: inanimate/echo-server
env:
PORT: ${echo_server_port}
POD_NAME:
fieldRef:
fieldPath: metadata.name
POD_NAMESPACE:
fieldRef:
fieldPath: metadata.namespace
POD_IP:
fieldRef:
fieldPath: status.podIP
service:
type: LoadBalancer
ports:
http:
service_port: 80
container_port: ${echo_server_port}
As expected, the changes are reflected in the manifest:
containers:
- env:
- name: POD_IP
valueFrom:
fieldRef:
fieldPath: status.podIP
- name: POD_NAME
valueFrom:
fieldRef:
fieldPath: metadata.name
- name: POD_NAMESPACE
valueFrom:
fieldRef:
fieldPath: metadata.namespace
- name: PORT
value: 8081
image: inanimate/echo-server
imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
name: echo-server
ports:
- containerPort: 8081
name: http
protocol: TCP
Adding secrets
Just for the sake of testing, let’s also add a secret to the setup, even if the component won’t be using it.
classes:
- common parameters:
target_name: dev
namespace: ${target_name} echo_server_port: 8081
components:
echo-server:
image: inanimate/echo-server
env:
PORT: ${echo_server_port}
POD_NAME:
fieldRef:
fieldPath: metadata.name
POD_NAMESPACE:
fieldRef:
fieldPath: metadata.namespace
POD_IP:
fieldRef:
fieldPath: status.podIP
SECRET_PASSWORD:
secretKeyRef:
key: echo_server_password
service:
type: LoadBalancer
healthcheck:
type: http
port: http
probes: ['readiness']
path: /
timeout_seconds: 3
ports:
http:
service_port: 80
container_port: ${echo_server_port}
secret:
items: ['echo_server_password']
data:
echo_server_password:
value: ?{plain:targets/${target_name}/echo_server_password||randomstr}
Let’s break this down:
?{plain:targets/${target_name}/echo_server_password||randomstr} will create a random string, and store it in on git. Because we have used the plain backend, we will be storing it in cleartext. User gkms or other secrets backend if you care about your secrets
will create a random string, and store it in on git. Because we have used the backend, we will be storing it in cleartext. User or other secrets backend if you care about your secrets The SECRET_PASSWORD env variable will have the content of the generated password. Now because we have decided to test the plain backend, you will see it in clear text in the manifest. Otherwise if would be encrypted and you would only see a secure tag.
env variable will have the content of the generated password. Now because we have decided to test the backend, you will see it in clear text in the manifest. Otherwise if would be encrypted and you would only see a secure tag. The items instruction will also mount the secret as a volume, and only exposed the selected item. This means you will be also able to access the content of the secret using /opt/secrets/echo_server_password
The result of the compilation adds a new file:
compiled/dev/
├── docs
├── manifests
│ ├── echo-server-bundle.yml
│ └── echo-server-secret.yml
└── scripts
Also notice that the files are all nicely and consistently named after the service.
Lastly, we can move the component definition in its own class file: inventory/classes/components/echo-server.yml
parameters:
echo_server_port: 8081
components:
echo-server:
image: inanimate/echo-server
env:
PORT: ${echo_server_port}
POD_NAME:
fieldRef:
fieldPath: metadata.name
POD_NAMESPACE:
fieldRef:
fieldPath: metadata.namespace
POD_IP:
fieldRef:
fieldPath: status.podIP
SECRET_PASSWORD:
secretKeyRef:
key: echo_server_password
service:
type: LoadBalancer
healthcheck:
type: http
port: http
probes: ['readiness']
path: /
timeout_seconds: 3
ports:
http:
service_port: 80
container_port: ${echo_server_port}
secret:
items: ['echo_server_password']
data:
echo_server_password:
value: ?{plain:targets/${target_name}/echo_server_password||randomstr}
And then we can simplify the target to reference the component
classes:
- common
- components.echo-server parameters:
target_name: dev
namespace: ${target_name}
This way we can now reuse that component across other targets, like for instance inventory/targets/production.yml
classes:
- common
- components.echo-server parameters:
target_name: prod
namespace: ${target_name}
Running kapitan compile again will effortlessly generate the new files for the new target prod :
./kapitan compile
Compiled dev (0.29s)
Compiled prod (0.29s)
which produced:
compiled/prod/
├── docs
├── manifests
│ ├── echo-server-bundle.yml
│ └── echo-server-secret.yml
└── scripts
Final words | https://medium.com/kapitan-blog/keep-your-ship-together-with-kapitan-d82d441cc3e7 | ['Alessandro De Maria'] | 2020-12-09 19:18:32.788000+00:00 | ['Terraform', 'Devops Tool', 'Kubernetes', 'Kapitan', 'Spinnaker'] |
6 Wünsche, die Banken ihren Kunden dank Data Analytics und Enrichment erfüllen | 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://media.contovista.com/6-w%C3%BCnsche-die-banken-ihren-kunden-dank-data-analytics-und-enrichment-erf%C3%BCllen-f39d06edce23 | ['Jannika Anne Otte'] | 2020-12-15 09:07:24.185000+00:00 | ['Digital Banking', 'Updates', 'Data Analytics', 'Customer Experience', 'Data Driven Banking'] |
Online Property Portals: Changing the Real Estate Paradigm | Online Property portals brought a significant change in the real estate business. These portals offer an unparalleled quantity & quality of information to a prospective home buyer & lead the movement in catering to the time-poor and efficiency-focused.
There’s no debate that internet real estate platforms have progressed from listing services over time. If we go back 5–7 years, when portals were not as popular, the only reliable source of information for buyers, sellers, or renters was the classified ads in the newspaper or your local real estate agent. And there’s a good probability that as a consumer, you’ll never learn about the market’s supply.
Online Real Estate Portals And Websites
Online portals have become wiser due to technology improvements, and homebuyers have become smarter as well. Real estate portals leave no stone untouched as the house buying process shifts from offline to online. They do everything from developing novel marketing techniques to utilizing technology to provide customers with an immersive experience.
Let’s look at some data from the developed West, where Internet penetration is higher, to see how online real estate platforms in Pakistan are doing. Online real estate portals and broker websites are the most popular methods for home searching in Pakistan. Other online portals and social networking websites, such as Facebook, Pinterest, Quora, Linked In, and other social apps, are among the eight most common methods used for home searches. You can see many adds on regular basis as property for sale, house for sale etc
It’s far easier to look at different homes online than to flip through notes or look at the information on a wall. As a result, potential buyers will be more confident in making an early decision between two properties. This has aided in speeding up the process and give potential purchasers more confidence before they go to the viewing stage.
The amazing thing about portals is that they have consolidated the entire market supply. There are more than 1.5 million property for sale listings on various websites at any given time. The fact that you can see all of the available collections in the market in one go is the fundamental reason why most consumers have migrated online for buying, selling, or renting. Do we, however, purchase real estate on the internet? People will not buy property in the future, I believe, because it is such a high-risk category with such a big financial investment. You don’t expect someone to buy a house online by pressing a button. Instead, People can choose their required home and then arrange a meeting with the agent to visit the place and decide whether they want to buy or not.
Challenges for Online Portals
All real estate websites face the same challenge: how to engage with this new breed of informed prospective buyers who are strapped for time in today’s fast-paced environment. To turn this issue into an opportunity, online real estate companies have begun inventing and developing customer-centric products for each stage of the home-buying process.
Data sciences are being utilized to improve listing legitimacy and weed out the problem of bogus listings that have plagued the industry for years. Data sciences are being used by portals to create tools that help purchasers specify their exact wants and create the intangible qualities that characterize the ideal home.
The good news is that today’s real estate market is primed for end consumers. Speculative buying is no longer an option. This allows all online real estate players to meaningfully enhance engagement with genuine investors.
DISADVANTAGES:
1. It might be a fake website; nowadays, purchasing a server and selling something that does not exist is relatively simple. Several websites on the internet appear to be legitimate but serve as bait. That is why you must exercise caution.
2. They are frequently targeted by hackers who steal information. These sites are frequently targeted by hackers who enter the sites for sale using their programs and systems and collect user email addresses and personal data, which they then resell or use to create phony profiles.
3. The inability to see the property for sale in person is a hindrance — the failure to visit the building that has piqued your interest is a significant handicap. The disadvantage exists because everyone wants to see the actual scenario outside and inside the building to ensure that the images presented are accurate and clear enough to make a buying choice.
4. Communication is slower — another major drawback is communication is slower. People who sell property on these sites typically create profiles, post ads, and then check their mailboxes once or twice a week, which is insufficient, especially if the ad is for a nice building for sale at a good price. This is why people looking to buy a home are wary of using these sites.
Give these sites a shot because they are the most practical in the viral condition we are in, but we are confident that with our selection, they will provide you with something to keep an eye on. | https://medium.com/@hadiali787/online-property-portals-changing-the-real-estate-paradigm-1da880aff8ca | ['Hadi Ali'] | 2021-12-22 06:09:52.720000+00:00 | ['Real Estate Investments', 'Property Portals', 'Property', 'Online Real Estate', 'Real Estate'] |
Avoiding IP consumption in Amazon EKS | Container Networking Interface and pod networking
Every AWS EKS cluster comes pre-configured by default with the AWS VPC CNI plugin which provides robust networking for pods. This plugin is responsible for assigning IPs to the pods whenever the pods are created. In order to assign an IP, the plugin needs to be aware of the underlying instance’s ENI capacity and know-how many primary and secondary interfaces are supported by the particular instance type, also it has to be aware of the available IPs in your VPC.
Usage of VPC CNI becomes a problem if you don’t do good network planning before going to production. The limitation comes in two aspects, first, if you’re running a subnet with a small number of IP addresses, you might quickly run into troubles. Second, ENIs are attached to the nodes, providing a means of attaching IPs for each pod in the cluster, so the number of pods running on a node is limited by the ENI capacity of the instance and therefore by the EC2 instance type.
To illustrate the first limitation, let’s assume that you have created three subnets with a /28 prefix, and associated them with worker nodes. With this setup, you can get a total of 33 IP addresses available for your worker nodes and the pods that are launched in the cluster. Let’s suppose that you have 5 worker nodes as part of your cluster, which means you only have room for 28 pods which is not a lot if you are running multiple applications within that VPC.
To show you the second limitation, let’s suppose that you have a t3.micro instance, that instance supports 2 ENIs and 2 IPs per each ENI, so using the following formula: (Number of ENI * (number of IP per ENI — 1) + 2
a total of 4 pods can be scheduled in that instance( 2 * (2 — 1) + 2 ) which obviously is too limited and you might surely be wasting computing resources.
How to solve the problem?
1. Adding additional IPv4 CIDR blocks to VPC
EKS allows clusters to be created in a VPC with additional IPv4 CIDR blocks added. By adding secondary CIDR blocks to a VPC from the 100.64.0.0/10 and 198.19.0.0/16 ranges, it is possible for pods to no longer consume any RFC-1918 IP addresses from the VPC.
By introducing a secondary CIDR range, you can release the pressure on your primary CIDR range, and it also allows to have room for more pods in the cluster but this approach doesn’t solve the second limitation because your instances will be still underutilized and you don’t want to increase the worker node count unless you were hitting high resource utilization on your existing worker nodes.
2. Change VPC CNI for Calico CNI
You can also tackle this problem using a custom CNI. There are many CNI available (e.g: calico, weave-net, flannel, etc.). I decided to show you how to use Calico as it is pretty straightforward to install and this allows you to take advantage of the full set of Calico networking features, including Calico’s flexible IP address management capabilities.
To get EKS cluster to use Calico CNI, there were a couple of other steps I had to follow. Basically, first I had to uninstall the default VPC CNI, then install calico CNI, delete the pod limit per host and finally restart the kubelet on worker nodes.
After a short introduction, let’s get into the details. First of all, to uninstall VPC CNI using the Helm provider, I have replaced the aws-node daemon set container image by google/pause , doing that I deleted completely the pods that manage the VPC CNI networking. Take a look at the code.
Then, the Calico CNI installation is pretty simple, I have followed the official documentation and applied a yaml file provided on that using the Helm provider.
Then, to delete the pod limit per host and solve the problem of max pod capacity per worker node, I created a daemon set of privileged containers so you can access to host pid namespace as well as the host filesystem. The daemon set uses a init container with busybox to do its job, it is: modify the kubelet config file, change the kubelet service behavior and finally restart it. You can see below the bash code to do that.
After that, your worker nodes should have its max pods setting set to the default Kubernetes number (110). The following command will return the maximum pods value for <node_name> :
kubectl get node <node_name> -ojsonpath='{.status.capacity.pods}{"
"}'
And you are all set. Your EKS cluster should now have Calico CNI installed and running.
I have implemented the whole process using Terraform and its Helm provider so that we can get a fully automated solution. I modified the official Terraform EKS module, the usage of official Terraform modules brings us simplicity of coding AWS components following the best practices from verified providers (A.K.A. do not reinvent the wheel). The solution was developed as a submodule into the official module, you can see the full code in the following link.
https://github.com/matiaszilli/terraform-aws-eks/tree/master/modules/calico_cni
Wrapping up
Every technology has peculiarities and pitfalls. The advantages of using EKS are enormous. When you move into complex and big architectures, EKS can end up consuming a lot of IPs. Don’t make this a problem for yourself and make sure you have enough networking room for your system!
I would really appreciate any kind of questions, feedback or comments so feel free to ping me here, or post any comments below in this post. | https://medium.com/@matiaszilli/avoiding-ip-consumption-in-amazon-eks-32fc7320253d | ['Matias Zilli'] | 2020-12-10 08:46:42.213000+00:00 | ['Kubernetes', 'AWS', 'Aws Eks', 'Terraform', 'Calico'] |
2D FALL SEMESTER PORTFOLIO (2020) | I am a freshman, majoring in design, at the University of Texas at Austin. As a way to end the semester with a BANG, I am showcasing my portfolio from my ‘Intro to 2D’ class. Continue reading to see a collection of various works that I have created this semester..
WORKING WITH SHAPES
In this assignment, we were asked to create a self-portrait using only shape, line, & color.
(Adobe Illustrator)
MANIPULATING PATHS
Using exactly 50 lines, we were asked to create a composition that encourages eye movement.
(Adobe Illustrator)
PATTERNING WITH PURPOSE
In this assignment, we were asked to create a pattern using the following elements of visual weight: foreground, background, & detail.
(Adobe Illustrator)
CONSIDERING COLOR
Considering how color can alter & elicit emotional responses, we were asked to create a composition of 10 images, each using the same base-image (that we designed ourselves). Through each one, we chose a mood we wished to convey & worked with a chosen correlating color pallette.
(Adobe Illustrator)
Do any of these give off my mood of choice? | https://medium.com/@xsamsmxth/2d-fall-semester-portfolio-2020-e42e471e13c1 | ['Samantha Smith'] | 2020-12-02 18:10:21.929000+00:00 | ['Art', 'Adobe Illustrator', 'Portfolio', 'Adobe Photoshop', 'Graphic Design'] |
Why Small Businesses need a Website | this won’t be easy to digest; this is EXACTLY WHY SMALL BUSINESSES NEED A WEBSITE
It’s the simple truth, 40% of small businesses are blocking themselves from growth, by not having a quality website. Keep in mind that having a website doesn’t mean you need to know coding or have a degree in computer science. It’s simple and easy to start, update, maintain and it’s never been this cheap to get one up and running.
A great research showed that in South Africa, of the 56 million people, 26 million people are online everyday. Instead of reaching 100 or less potential customers a day without a website, this search showed that you can now reach 26million potential customers a day with just having an active website. That’s the kind of exposure a website can give your business. It’s insane right!
Websites are the golden sheep of the online marketing platform and this is why? They do what can’t be done by other online marketing platforms (like: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram…)
One of the Benefits of having a Website
Growth Opportunities
A website is a great way in providing a place that potential investors can be refered to.
Cuts Costs
A website saves you advertising and distribution costs. It can act as your online brochure/catalogue that can be easily changed/updated anytime at zero costs. This can allow you to lower your prices giving your business that real competitive edge.
What to do now?
You need to search and contact a good website developing company that provides quality services and that guides you through the process, like Khwezi Technology they are one of the best website developing companies out there. | https://medium.com/@mabasosibusiso/why-small-businesses-need-a-website-84294c6e3347 | ['Mabaso Sibusiso'] | 2020-12-25 12:31:31.187000+00:00 | ['Webdevelopment Company', 'Small Business', 'Website', 'Web Development', 'Website Development'] |
Bach Ma temple Hanoi (or White Horse Temple) is one of the recommended tourist destinations in… | Bach Ma temple Hanoi (or White Horse Temple) is one of the recommended tourist destinations in Hanoi Old Quarter because of its special meaning and architecture. This is also believed to be the oldest temple in Hanoi.
You might want to visit some attractions nearby:
>>> Hanoi Ancient House — Ma May heritage house
>>> French quarter Hanoi attractions
>>> Dong Xuan market — The biggest market in the old quarter
>>> Water puppet show in Hanoi
1. Bach Ma temple history
This was built in the 9th century to worship Long Do (Navel Dragon). This is one of the four sacred protecting temples of Thang Long ancient citadels.
• Voi Phuc temple (Protect in the West)
• Kim Lien temple (Protect in the South)
• Quan Thanh temple (Protect in the North)
• Bach Ma temple (Protect in the East)
After leaving the capital from Hoa Lu to Thang Long in 1010, the King asked the troops to build the citadel higher, but whenever they built the citadel, it’s collapsed.
He sent someone to ask local people to know there was a sacred land, so the King organized the ceremony.
The King held a ceremony to worship Long Do God. Then, he saw the white horse coming out of the temple. The King traced the horse’s footsteps and then built a citadel.
The citadel was built very firm. To express the gratefulness to the deity, the King asked for carving a white horse for worship and conferred the title of “Thang Long tutelary god.” The white horse has become a sacred symbol, and Bach Ma (or white horse temple) has been known from that.
At present, this still preserves many valuable antiques such as stone stele, ordination, bronze bell, procession, incense, altar crane. The unique vase is decorated with elaborately crafted altars with red-yellow and white-black contrasts as the primary colors.
During the resistance war against the US, B52 bombs were scattered in the North of Vietnam. Everything around the old quarter is destroyed except this temple. Currently still kept original architecture event restored and renovated many times.
Nowadays, the Bach Ma temple still organizes a festival on February 12th and 13th of the lunar month, meaning seeing off the winter and welcoming the new spring. People pray for a bountiful harvest and a happy and prosperous life for the people and commemorate the merit of the Long Do God.
2. Bach Ma temple opening hours and entrance fee
From Tuesday to Sunday:
Morning: 07:00 to 11:00
Afternoon: 02:00 to 05:00
On the 1st and 15th of every lunar month: 8 am to 9 pm
Visitors do not need to pay anything. It’s FREE
3. Bach Ma temple address and how to get there
Address number 76–78 Hang Buom Street, right at the center of Hanoi’s old quarter. Very easy to find. Just a few minutes if you are staying in the old quarter.
The main gate
4. Bach Ma temple dress code
Like other worship areas in Vietnam, visitors should wear formal clothes, not smoke, and bring food and drinks.
With all information above, we hope you will have a great tip visit to Hanoi. If you need any more help, please do not hesitance to contact us.
>>> Read more: What to see in Hanoi old quarter | https://medium.com/@goviettrip/bach-ma-temple-hanoi-or-white-horse-temple-is-one-of-the-recommended-tourist-destinations-in-db5fa112abf0 | ['Go Viet Trip'] | 2021-10-10 12:40:23.592000+00:00 | ['Goviettrip', 'Bachmatemple', 'Hanoi', 'Vietnam'] |
The Answer To Hunger | The Answer To Hunger
Florida Man broke into a Wendy’s to satisfy his craving.
Wendy’s logo courtesy of Wendy’s Corporation
Do you want fries with that? It's a sales pitch to increase the volume of food sold at fast-food chains around the world. The phrase has been used to comedic effect many times over the years. News anchors also used it to lead to one audacious crime spree by a mystery man in the Sunshine State.
One Florida man was so hungry that he could not wait until the restaurant reopened for his Wendy’s fix. What is one to do when the craving for a Frosty hits. Really, it’s the hamburger chain’s fault for being so delicious.
As with most “Florida Man” crimes, the motives are not simple. These are complex human beings that have desires that most of us would not understand. Or they live in Florida and live under a different set of rules than the rest of us, you decide.
In With A Brick
With everything happening globally, we are reminded that original protesters used bricks to ward off the New York Police Department. Our Florida man used bricks to gain access to the Wendy’s. Both were technically crimes, one started a revolution for gay rights, and the other adds to the plethora of jokes about Floridian men's wacky tendencies committing crimes.
This Florida man broke a window with a brick and allowed himself entry into the Jensen Beach area restaurant. After getting in, he fired up the grill and threw a hamburger on. Robbing people is hard and really builds up an appetite. It’s selfish to think he should have just taken the money and left. Or not robbed the restaurant chain at all.
Not The Only Robbery
As with most crimes in Florida, this was not an isolated incident. Our Floridian suspect left the Wendy’s after eating and taking money from the safe; he went to another restaurant and followed the same pattern. No word on what he made this time, maybe a nice pasta.
However, he must have been worried about the police catching on because this time, he didn’t open the safe; he just took it with him—a time saver for sure.
He also tried to rob a gas station. This time he failed, though.
Mostly because the police were already in the area and on the hunt for the burger-loving criminal, once he realized this, it is believed he hightailed it out of the area.
The man left behind some evidence, though the police did not indicate what it was.
Keystone Cops
The police are still searching for a suspect and the right hamburger chain. They released a statement about the crimes but seemed to think McDonald’s and Wendy’s are the same things. They wrote on their Facebook page:
“A suspect coined as the modern-day Hamburglar doesn’t appear to have any problem making himself right at home after breaking into local food establishments to make himself a burger.”
Despite the suspect being caught on camera, this may be one crime that is too delicious to solve. | https://medium.com/crimebeat/the-answer-to-hunger-f3d2def6b0de | ['Edward Anderson'] | 2020-11-29 21:33:00.257000+00:00 | ['Food', 'Society', 'Culture', 'True Crime', 'Humor'] |
In Eternal Gratitude | My parents-in-law were old school : he the quietly self-sufficient Pennsylvania German, she the prim southern lady. Neither was given to expressing their feelings, nor displaying affection; other than that, they had little in common — yet somehow they worked together. We would have had no idea how deeply he cared for her if it weren’t for the several times she was hospitalized with life-threatening illnesses, but he still said little.
When he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s and dementia, she managed his care with a perhaps unprecedented level of fierce dedication. When we saw them for Thanksgiving two years ago, it was the last time he was at all mobile or coherent; a couple months later, he was a shell of a human. When she entered the hospital that spring, he was speechless and wheelchair bound, recognizing no one for several months; his eyes were hollow but they literally turned black — on some level he knew, and perhaps more than the rest of us. And when we told him she’d passed, he simply laid down and was done.
This may seem a sad story, but it is not: rather, it’s how two ordinary, imperfect people came together to form a perfect love that lasted many decades. I am eternally grateful for them. | https://medium.com/chalkboard/in-eternal-gratitude-36a5c6f8fc62 | ['Sherry Kappel'] | 2020-11-25 20:06:55.786000+00:00 | ['Love', 'Gratitude', 'Poetry', 'One Line Poetry Prompt'] |
Merry Christmas! | My book went viral yesterday on a social media platform — what an amazing gift just in time for the holidays!
Feeling grateful for this last year on Medium and the joy I’ve had in learning to write better, share some knowledge, and make people smile or even laugh on the odd occasion.
I hope to do it much more in the next year.
Merry Christmas and happy holidays!
J.J. Pryor | https://medium.com/@jjpryor/merry-christmas-bed74e8a0c1d | ['J.J. Pryor'] | 2020-12-25 12:32:24.807000+00:00 | ['Holidays', 'Joy', 'Christmas', 'Happiness', 'Merry Christmas'] |
How to Learn Programming with Zero Stress | Photo by Aarón Blanco Tejedor on Unsplash
I’ve been teaching Java for quite a while now. So I often share advice on how to learn programming faster and better. In talking to my students I can see that one thing distracts them very much: coding anxiety. It is a real trouble. Some people find it hard to focus their attention for more than one hour. Some are excessively stressed out by the job search.
So today I’m gonna share on how to eliminate this kind of stress, use the best ways to learn programming, and enjoy coding happily ever after.
Three Main Reasons Behind the Stress for Newbie Programmers
1. Imposter syndrome
This comes close to the expectations of perfection. The salaries are quite high, and some learners think they don’t deserve their paycheck. To aggravate the situation, other teammates seem to be more professional or work more hours. The truth is that you might know quite enough for your level and be improving gradually, but you don’t actually feel this way. Self-doubt is a common cause of stress.
2. Not complying with the image of a real programmer
You see others bragging about how programming is everything for them — how they spend every possible minute on coding, how important it is to them. And then comes you with the ability to code only so many hours and knowing only this one technology. You start thinking that probably you weren’t meant to be a software developer.
Actually it is far from reality. Coding day and night is not the sign of a real programmer. None of us are Neo. Besides, the term “no-lifer” also applies to those who only code and have nothing else to fill in the gaps. Forget about the image. If you have a genuine interest in technologies and learn coding just because you want to, congratulations: you ARE a real programmer.
3. Thinking it’s too late
Although I personally think it’s never too late to learn new skills, some people do stress out about starting a new path at the age of 30 or older. The equation seems to be this: “If I start at 30, I would learn something in about two years and apply for a job as a junior dev at 32. All the other juniors would be 22 to 25. It’s ridiculous!”.
Well, let’s continue the equation. At 34 you become a middle developer while all the rest are 28. It’s not that ridiculous anymore. And suppose you continue and become a senior dev or even a software architect. You’re probably still under 40.
And now imagine you haven’t even started just because you are 30 and all the rest are a bit over 20. Do you feel that subtle resentment about the lost opportunity?
How to get over the anxiety
Photo by Doug Maloney on Unsplash
First, let’s face it: software development is a complicated area. There will be times when you won’t know what to do. Everyone has those — even the most sophisticated software developers. No one is expecting that you will make zero mistakes. It’s utterly impossible. Admitting that flops are part of the process is a great way to ease the burden of shame and to focus on what’s important: the programming itself.
1. Focus on motivation instead of eliminating obstacles
Whether you realize it or not, pleasure is a great motivator. Instead of trying to suppress unpleasant thoughts about possible failures, focus on what’s driving you in the learning process. Try a simple exercise: write a list of reasons you like coding and what benefits you derive from it. You might not notice them while you learn, but when you have this list it clicks within your mind how valuable it actually is for you.
Some other steps can also make you feel better about learning to code. Plan a meeting with other coders to discuss your positive experiences. Play coding games, or try to teach a kid some technology. And see how fun it all can be!
2. Learn step by step
It’s easy to get overwhelmed when you try to get to the advanced stuff as soon as possible. But from my teaching experience, that is not the best way to learn programming. Give yourself time and start with the basics: syntax, inheritances, classes, etc. Be consistent. Your goal is to always be willing to learn a bit more. If you take on too much at once it will be hard for you to get down to learning next time. Move on to more complicated subjects only when you feel confident about the fundamentals.
Practice and practice
Reading piles of documentation or watching hours of videos won’t do you any good until you actually try to code. Programming is very practice-oriented. Sometimes it’s better to start playing with the code to understand stuff than to try to figure out the bulk of theory. Try your own small projects. When you see the first results of your learning efforts, it does make you feel better and more confident.
Don’t take coding too seriously from the beginning. Allow yourself mistakes. Make them and fix them. Gradually you will see how it all becomes more and more clear.
Go see some platforms. Here’s the list of ones I like the most. Yes, they are for learning Java (because I’m a Java tutor), but you can get the point:
CodeGym — that’s an online Java Core Course which is fully gamified. You will dedicate 80 percent of your time to practical tasks and 20 — to covering theory aspects. You can have fun learning programming via games, I’m telling ya;)
CodeAcademy — here you will develop your technical skills which will be very in use when you start looking for a job.
CoderChef — as soon as you get less or more confident with Java fundamentals, you can participate in an online Java contest with other developers-beginners.
3. Don’t try to understand everything at once
It might take months before you begin to understand why everything works this or that way. No, it does not mean you are stupid. It means software development is a multi-dimensional area that cannot be grasped overnight. Be patient with yourself first of all.
I was in these shoes as well. It feels really frustrating when you learn and learn and it’s still not dawning upon you. Don’t give up! Eventually, the puzzle will become a clear picture. Just keep on learning, and don’t expect everything at once. Be prepared for it to take several months to start figuring things out.
4. Use various learning resources
Again, as I said, programming is a complicated area of knowledge. What’s more, different explanations of one and the same subject work differently for each learner. What I mean is you can understand one tutor better than another. The logic would be this: don’t stick to just one learning resource. Try various options and see what works best for you personally. But don’t use too many resources. If you are constantly looking for alternatives, you spend your time on this search instead of actual learning.
Sometimes you think you’ve had enough explanation, but then you come across another way of viewing the same part of the programming profession, and it just clicks with you. This won’t happen until you search for alternatives. So I urge you to look around from time to time.
At the same time, don’t use too many resources. If you are constantly looking for alternatives, you spend your time on this search instead of actual learning.
5. Meet peers
Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash
One of the worst things you can do is lock yourself up and learn programming on your own. It’s a straight path to despair and giving up. Why? Because you are certain to come across difficulties you won’t know how to resolve. The more situations like that happen, the less you will want to continue. Once or twice you will postpone your regular learning time, and then you find yourself reluctant to do it at all.
The picture is quite different if you have some human support. As a learner you suddenly realize you are not the only one struggling. The ideal version would be to meet peers who are learning coding as well. Join professional groups or forums. As an example, have a look at the Stack Overflow community, or find programming subreddits on Reddit. Look for what works best for you, and don’t face programming on your own.
6. Don’t compare yourself to other developers
When you look around and see how many people are into software development, it does feel like an endless competition — especially when you are at the starting point of your learning path. The truth is that everyone feels the same. While you think someone is better than you, someone thinks you are better too. At the end of the day, you are both discouraged for no reason. So I insist that you don’t compare yourself to others in that way. Instead, focus on yourself and your own skills. Add to your professional value instead of holding grudges against the unfair world.
Wrap Up
It’s ok to feel anxiety when you start learning to code. Everyone’s experienced this problem in some way. There’s nothing wrong with you. The thing is that you come upon a complicated area, and at first it usually seems next to impossible to figure it all out.
Here’s what you can do about it: learn step by step, and don’t let yourself get overwhelmed. Connect with other developers online or in real life. Try to find a mentor. Play with the code and allow yourself to make mistakes. Give yourself time. Software development is not something you can learn to do overnight. Focus on your own achievements and on what makes you feel good about coding. Try various approaches and resources. Practice a lot. And surely enjoy the very process! | https://medium.com/quick-code/how-to-learn-programming-with-zero-stress-b0fd089259ec | ['John Selawsky'] | 2020-08-20 14:32:14.107000+00:00 | ['Coding', 'Learning To Code', 'Programming Tips', 'Learn To Code', 'Programming'] |
How is SDT able to expand in value while other crypto prices fall? | How is SDT able to expand in value while other crypto prices fall?
Send has introduced the concept of semi-stable digital money as a way to fulfill everyday uses.
What is the correct price for a cryptocurrency?
In today’s market influenced by speculation, news, opinions, market manipulation and high volatility, it’s difficult to know if a crypto price is correct or if holding digital value through cryptocurrencies is secure.
At Send, we believe that price should be defined by measures of real use and that a conservative, liquid price that grows organically with increased use over time could bring stability and efficiency to a network.
With this logic in mind, we created the Send Protocol, with a token (SDT) that maintains temporary price stability during defined periods and expands in value as use increases. SDT price is sustained by use within a consensus network of applications without a need for collateral assets.
Why does SDT value expand rather than remain fixed?
Decentralized digital money should offer incentives to compete with centralized actors that reward consumption with points, miles, gift cards and cashback. A stable token, while offering stability needed for real use, fails to offer incentives for demand evolution and ecosystem growth.
SDT value expansion is possible due to a fixed token supply and dynamic price mechanism, while supporting traction, adoption and ecosystem development early on.
How will Send validate the hypotheses of a semi-stable economy?
Hypothesis 1: Periods of price stability create efficiency in daily transactions leading to increased demand for real use.
In June 2018, Send Protocol released an initial supply of 1.5M SDT to migrant users within WeSend.co at a fixed price of $0.20 USD/SDT. Releasing this initial token supply to users in strategic corridors with a need for cross-border transactions serves as a way to test our first hypothesis.
Hypothesis 2: Liquidity from real use sustains a healthy SDT price over time.
With this initial token supply, we aim to reach a target transaction volume of $1,620 USD in daily remittances with a milestone of $100,000 USD in accumulated transactions to validate a second hypothesis.
Hypothesis 3: Community follows the Consensus Price.
During a one-year token distribution, SDT price will evolve linearly based on distribution participation with a starting price of $0.20 USD/SDT and an upper-bound of $20 USD/SDT. The distribution price, which will update every 24 hours, will be used and validated as the official reference price within WeSend. In this way, price formation represents liquidity around the SDT token and will enable us to prove a third hypothesis.
Scale stage
Once these initial hypotheses are validated at a considerable scale, Send Protocol will migrate to a new blockchain infrastructure designed for massive adoption with higher performance per second and lower transactional cost.
We imagine you may have more questions: check out our Whitepaper and Token Economics at www.Sendprotocol.com. | https://medium.com/sendprotocol/how-is-sdt-able-to-expand-in-value-while-other-crypto-prices-fall-f7a62e90b1a2 | ['Send Protocol', 'Token', 'Sdt'] | 2018-07-10 18:02:57.013000+00:00 | ['Token Economy', 'Cryptocurrency Investment', 'Bitcoin', 'Token Sale', 'Cryptocurrency'] |
Wyoming’s Ongoing History With Bitcoin Legislature | Over the past few years, the state of Wyoming has passed a surprising number of laws which have been positive moves forward in the cryptocurrency world. Not only are these bills good for the cryptocurrencies, but also blockchain as a whole.
Wyoming + Bitcoin in 2018
In 2018, the state of Wyoming passed five different bills which related to cryptocurrencies. The first of which, The Wyoming Money Transmitter Act, allows banks to deal in cryptocurrencies. This is because, the aforementioned Act is very strict on how money must be handled by financial institutions in the state, so when this act was passed, it made cryptocurrencies immune to it, thus basically exempting them from regulation. This was followed shortly by the Utility Token Bill, which effectively labels cryptocurrencies as intangible personal property. This means that even though cryptocurrencies are not considered legal tender, they are legal to trade, hold, and invest in the state of Wyoming.
If this wasn’t enough, the same month the governor also signed The Blockchains Filing Bill, which makes it completely legal for companies to deal it Bitcoin and other digital assets. They can also use blockchain technology in their business for the purpose of verifying shareholders, taking votes, and keeping records. This bill also smashes any uncertain language when it comes to cryptocurrencies, effectively making them 100% legal in the state of Wyoming.
But this isn’t all, Wyoming also passed the Digital Currencies Taxation Act, making cryptocurrencies and other digital assets exempt from taxation, right along the Series LLC Act, which makes it easier to register a business in the State of Wyoming.
Wyoming + Bitcoin in 2019
2019 was another big year for the Wyoming legislature as they passed another three bills which applied to blockchain technology. The first was the Financial Technology Sandbox Act, which gives companies the right to employ any sort of blockchain technology they choose as long as it has been properly tested. This also exempts blockchain technology research from a number of the strict regulations enforced on other technologies. This is because the government recognizes that blockchain technology is something new that won’t necessarily fit into any sort of previous regulations.
Next, the governor signed the Wyoming Utility Token Act, which established cryptocurrencies as their own unique class of commodity. This bill does add some regulation though, as there is now an established registration fee for businesses which wish to deal in cryptocurrencies.
The final bill for 2019, is the Digital Assets Existing Law. This law furthers what is stated in the Utility Token Bill in 2018, and henceforth allows banks to provide limited custodial services for cryptocurrencies. There are some guidelines in place though, and while these banks can hold cryptocurrencies, they cannot extend loans and they are not FDIC insured for the cryptocurrency assets they hold.
Wyoming + Bitcoin in 2020
Even though 2020 was a rough year for many states, Wyoming wasn’t done when it came to cryptocurrency related regulations. They started the new year by signing the Insurance Investments Digital Assets bill, which specifically allowed insurance companies to begin investing in digital assets as they see fit.
This was followed by a bill which established (well, re-established) a blockchain research committee which will be employed to investigate and learn more about blockchain and what it can do for the state of Wyoming in the future. The committee can also propose more blockchain and digital asset-based legislature as they see fit.
The biggest bill passed in 2020 was the SPDI (Special Purpose Depository Institutions) bill which establishes a new type of bank. This new type of bank will further on the Digital Assets Existing Law in allowing banks to deal less restrictively and exclusively in cryptocurrencies. They must abide by the regulations outlined in the previous law, as well as some new regulations which are imposed in this new law. This bill was signed right alongside the Digital Assets Amendments law, which allows these special banks to hold cryptocurrencies as collateral. (Although they still cannot issue digital currencies as loans). These amendments also outline that fees can be charged for these services, as well as expands on standards used by accountants when they encounter these digital currencies.
Why Pass All These Laws?
So why is the least populated mainland state suddenly so gung-ho about cryptocurrency? Easy, they see a future in it and recognize that their current industries are on a downward trend. Wyoming has long been a state based on coal, cattle, and working the land. And as the digital age ensues, law makers in Wyoming want to see their state succeed, and they know that involves boldly going where no state has yet to venture.
Already, since the passing of these laws, Wyoming is the new headquarters for a number of new and already existing cryptocurrency companies. The most famous of which, Kraken, is moving their headquarters from Hong Kong to Wyoming in order to take advantage of the fact that cryptocurrencies aren’t taxed in the state. The second large company, and the first cryptocurrency SPID, Avanti, was registered in 2020 by Caitlin Long (who helped push through all the aforementioned legislations) and plans to open in 2021.
Besides just trying to push the state of Wyoming into the future, these regulations are also trying to help build on the industries which already exist. The most famous being the ranching industry. Wyoming House of Representatives republican Tyler Lindholm has already risen to the challenge by starting a business called BeefChain. This business aims to take the ranching industry on to the blockchain in order to more effectively breed, track, and sell animals. He’s also added a section of his website for sheep known as Sheep Chain.
What Does This Mean For Me?
Although the passing of all these laws doesn’t mean much for the average cryptocurrency investor, as the prices rise pass 30k for a single Bitcoin, even every day investors will largely be looking for a way to avoid the massive capital gains taxes. Does this mean you should move to Wyoming? Not necessarily. Unless you’re a big player in the Bitcoin world, the cost of moving states will probably be more than the taxes you are moving to avoid.
If you have a cryptocurrency company, or you wish to start one you should definitely consider moving to the state of Wyoming. But if you live in the neighboring state of Colorado (which has also been looking towards passing some cryptocurrency laws) it may not be worth the cost of the move just yet. And there’s a reason Wyoming is currently the least populate of the continental 48 states, and this is because it has a very rough climate and is very difficult to live in.
Either way, Wyoming is quickly stepping up their game and preparing themselves for a future of technology. Hopefully this will propel them in the direction of widespread business success.
This article was brought to you by the world’s best 100% provably fair Bitcoin Casino. Originally posted on MintDice.com. | https://medium.com/bitcoin-news-today-gambling-news/wyomings-ongoing-history-with-bitcoin-legislature-f6eb97de5cf3 | [] | 2021-01-21 19:56:03.948000+00:00 | ['Bitcoin News', 'Wyoming', 'Cryptocurrency Regulation', 'Bitcoin Regulation', 'Crypto Taxes'] |
Teacher-Centered Approach to Learning | Student-centered instruction is a broad teaching approach that includes replacing expository classes with active learning, holding students accountable for their own learning and using learning at a personal pace and, or cooperative (group) learning. Another way of focusing our teaching on the student includes passing open and kind problems that require creative reasoning and critical, reflective writing exercise, involving students in simulations and role-playing. When used appropriately, this approach increases motivation to learn, knowledge retention, depth of understanding and appreciation for what is being taught. For instance if you ask a student to write an essay, his or her class room and teaching method of the teacher has a lot to do with what he/she will write.
When faced with the need to take more responsibility for their own learning, students may claim that they are paying to be taught and not to teach themselves. After starting to participate, in cooperative learning, some may complain loudly and bitterly about teammates who are not doing their part, or because they have to spend a lot of time explaining everything to slower colleagues. On the other hand, good teachers of expository classes may feel shy when they start using student-centered methods, in addition, their end-of-course assessments may initially get worse. It is tempting for teachers to give up in the face of all this and, unfortunately, many do.
Student-centered instruction can impose steep learning curves for everyone involved. The teacher feeling bashful and the students feeling hostile represent common and natural phenomena. The key is to understand how the process works, take some precautions to smooth the journey and endure the inevitable setbacks until the rewards arise.
Traditional students in a non-traditional class
Students forced to take more responsibility for their own learning go through some or all of the steps that psychologists associate with trauma and regret:
· Shock;
· Denial;
· Strong emotion;
· Resistance and withdrawal;
· Fight and exploitation;
· Return of trust;
· Integration and success.
Just as some go through the weighing process more quickly than foals, some students immediately adapt to whatever method you use; while others may experience difficulties, going through negative steps. The important point is that the resistance you encounter on the part of some students is a natural part of the journey from addiction to intellectual autonomy. If you provide enough structure and guidance by the end of the semester, most students will be satisfactorily performing and accepting responsibility for their own learning.
Teacher-Centered Class — Learning process
The characteristics of the learning process are directly related to the way it occurs. The knowledge consists in the interaction as the physical and social environment, a process that depends on the conditions apprentice and environmental conditions.
Jean Piaget and Lev Semenovich Vigotsky, two great scholars of education, developed theories of learning, of great importance. Piaget defends cognitive constructivism, according to which learning results from the development of mental processes largely related to the reality of the learner. In Piaget’s view, the development of these processes is fundamental and the scholar calls it the construction of knowledge. The views of the two scholars complement each other and lead to the conclusion that the construction of knowledge depends on both the conditions of the apprentice and the conditions of the environment. In addition, learning must be seen as a dynamic process, in which the active participation of the learner is essential. In this context, Vigotsky proposes social constructivism, which consists in the fact that the individual develops his cognitive abilities based on the interactions he maintains with the community where he lives.
It is clear, then, that the social character of learning depends on interaction, just as it is clear that the learning process occurs differently for each person. It is individual and, in a way, unpredictable. It is idiosyncratic, that is, particular to each person. The interest in this idiosyncratic word is that it reveals a very broad meaning, useful for understanding individuality in the learning process: it concerns idiosyncrasy, which is the disposition of the temperament of each individual, the sensitivity of each one and what makes with each person to react in a very personal way to each situation.
This shows that the fundamental idea in the constructivist theory is that the process of building knowledge is done by the learner and not caused by another agent.
If the construction of knowledge is an individual process, it is concluded, then, that the teacher may have difficulty in directly causing learning in his students, although he has an important role to play in this process.
Teacher-Centered Class — Factors that influence the individuality of the learning process
There are several aspects that must be considered when justifying the fact that students cause their own learning and one of them is the concept of “learning style”. There are a large number of factors that determine the differences in learning style, which cause the use of a single teaching methodology to end up resulting in poor learning, which we can relate to the concept of learning style. There are five dimensions of style:
1) Sensory / intuitive perception
When sensory, the student tends to focus on sensory information, that is, what is seen, heard or touched. An intuitive student tends to focus on memories, ideas, and possibilities. For example, the sensory likes facts and data, while the theories and models of intuitive likes. Everyone has a little of both dimensions, but some tend more or less to one or the other.
2) Visual, auditory or kinesthetic perception
According to neurolinguistics, each person prefers one or more of these channels of representation. Both when expressing ideas and when capturing them. Some are more visual, while others find it difficult to think visually. Others are more verbal, talking about their experiences easily, although some people find it difficult to deal with words. And there are people who communicate and learn more through action than through sight or hearing.
3) Inductive or deductive organization
The most inductive people tend to organize knowledge from the specific to the general, that is, they start by observing the details, the data, associating them, so that they can then arrive at the general principles of information. The more deductive people do the opposite. They start from the general to the specific, starting with the general principles of information until they deduce the consequences and the phenomena.
4) Active or reflective processing
Active learners tend to process information better when they are doing something actively, in a practical way, especially doing something. Reflective learners tend to process knowledge in a more introspective way.
5) Comprehensive or sequential understanding
People classified as sequential learners learn one step at a time, walking little by little, associating portions of information that come to them. Global learners, on the other hand, learn more from large clusters of connected information.
Teacher-Centered Class — Characteristics of individualized teaching activities
The teacher-centered teaching is a work strategy that replaces part of traditional lectures, by learning more active, combining strategies and methodologies, in which we seek greater responsibility on the students for their own learning, style process and to the personal pace of each individual.
In the specific case of individualized methodologies, activities are done, most of the time, outside the classroom, as extra-class activities. In the classroom, the teacher will offer the bases for the individual activities to be developed, guiding and supervising the study, answering doubts, closing the studied content and evaluating.
The activities developed based on this methodology are proposed in a way that the teacher passes to the class, depending on the discipline he teaches, open problems that demand creative and critical reasoning or more reflective writing exercises. The activity should be designed to involve students in simulations, in which they play active roles that simulate their own reality when solving problems. By contextualizing the content, the teacher will be making the situation more concrete, more palpable, which is an essential factor for learning.
At the same time, by increasing the autonomy of each student in relation to their own learning, the teacher makes them feel more valued and, therefore, more motivated.
Conclusion
Consider that all individualized teaching methodologies should be put into practice, considering the principles of individualized teaching and student-centered teaching strategies. And although these principles and strategies may initially seem complex, if used with ease and introduced little by little, they end up being incorporated into the teacher’s work routine over time. As a result, activities that follow these principles also become routine, becoming part of the work methodologies that the teacher normally uses with his classes, greatly increasing the performance of his work. | https://medium.com/@paperslead/teacher-centered-approach-to-learning-accfbc0c4ec | [] | 2020-12-07 08:56:34.950000+00:00 | ['Students', 'Teachers', 'Teaching And Learning', 'Classroom'] |
How I shed my “old skin” to become more Australian. | Australia is home for me, it’s in the region I’ve always wanted to be and now that I’m here, I know it’s the place I belong. Situated just 3hrs away from probably my biggest travel itch — New Zealand. This is a land blessed with the splendour of natures wonders, Kangaroos, Wombat’s, Cicadas, Dingos and yes — Snakes. Wondrous, dangerous, beautiful snakes.
Image by Picography from Pixabay
For the record, I’m not a fan of snakes, too much of my youth was lived around uninvited snakes and if I never see another snake again it will be too soon. However, there’s one thing about these creatures that never ceases to intrigue me. Something they do is a true metaphor for growth and change. The shedding of skin.
A lesson every migrant learns — sooner or later.
Regardless of what country you were born in, you are human. People will always be humans. Our skin colour will never defy the fact that our blood will forever bleed red. It’s common knowledge that snakes shed their old skin and emerge renewed but it’s always the same snake — always the same colour, just a better version of itself.
This is what emigrating begins to do to you. You may realise it slowly but you’re changing, you’re growing. Life forces you to change. Being a new member of an old country, life nudges us to adapt and to grow. Integration always requires change — a shedding of the old you.
Image by Joshua Woroniecki from Pixabay
However, just like a green snake cannot shed its old skin to emerge as a brown one, it’s impossible for a migrant to arrive in a country and change from being a member of one culture, accustomed to another language or even an alternate version of the prevalent language and immediately aim to become an authentic part of a new culture.
Without the fertility of time and sowing the seeds of your intentionality, your dreams will only climax in futility.
We can choose to walk away from our origins but we will never be able to shed the part of us that made us who we are. Where you come from doesn’t define who you are, it doesn’t limit the future you will have or how high you can aim but undeniably, it will always be a part of you.
You could live in a new country for several years, even decades, you can become a notable member of society. You can be acknowledged as “one of us” but the feeling of loneliness, the fact of your difference will always be there. Others may not notice it but you will. You always will.
Many people want to migrate, take an adventure and create a new legacy for their family but the enduring truth of your life's journey is always the same. The beginning always differs, circumstances are never the same, labels are unavoidable, particular events and people will almost never intersect but the journey follows the same path.
Something happens, you decide (are forced) to emigrate, you (eventually) choose Australia. You almost always struggle to get the visa, You arrive in Australia, Initially struggle to get a job. You find yourself loosing so much confidence then you get the big break. You get a job. You start settling in, things go well then inevitably they don't. Still, you gain understanding, build new relationships while continually feeling different from the majority of people. It's obvious — you’re a different skin tone, a darker shade, you speak with a “wrong” accent but yet you continue to strive forward, building a life.
Image by MetsikGarden from Pixabay
You always get homesick but you lie to yourself that it doesn't matter and choose to stay the path, eventually life becomes normal. You belong here, you are happy.
At least that's what you choose to tell yourself. Perception is stronger than reality. The truth is what we decide it is. Isn't it? | https://medium.com/@herodownunder/shedding-my-old-skin-f092830b01fa | ['Ola Tawose'] | 2020-12-22 04:41:49.893000+00:00 | ['Identity', 'Australia', 'Travel', 'Migrants', 'Race'] |
Why Your Meeting Needs Rules | Meetings can be annoying. Spending time in a meeting is not usually how people wish to spend their time. Therefore, if we can make a meeting more effective and shorter this is a worthy goal.
One of the ways that a meeting can be better is to impose order on the meeting. Rules!
Rules like only one person can talk at one time.
Agendas have to be circulated a week before the actual meeting.
Every meeting should have a goal.
How participants behave at a meeting has a big impact on how effective the meeting is. If participants won’t stick to the agenda, or listen to each other, then the meeting will not accomplish what needs to get done.
Whenever a meeting is called, there should be an agenda. This document does not have to be pages long, in fact short agendas are more popular.
The purpose of an agenda is to explain why there has to be a meeting, what will be discussed and what victory looks like. I would suggest that you not attend a meeting unless there is an agenda. You can call is something else, if the word agenda scares people, but you do need to know why the meeting is called and what you hope to accomplish.
Once everyone has agreed on why they are there and the goals for the meeting, then it is time to ask everyone to commit to following a few simple rules of conduct. Such as participants will not interrupt each other, unless it is for something like telling people that we cannot hear them. How many times do you interrupt a speaker on Zoom to let them know that they are still muted? This is a good reason to interrupt someone as we are all wasting our time if we are watching someone talk without hearing them, as we know that all of those words are going to have to be said again.
What other rules would you agree to follow? How about no name calling, no food fights — both of these rules could be summed up with the policy that we are going to treat each participant with respect, and we are attending the meeting to discuss ideas not personalities.
You should also establish who is chairing the meeting and who is taking the official notes.
Whoever is appointed as the chair should agree that everyone at the meeting will get a turn to speak and that as chair, he or she will stop any participant from interrupting or speaking in a disrespectful manner to another participant.
The question should be asked at the beginning of the meeting, does anyone have any conflicts to declare before we open the meeting. The conflict would be declared based on the information that was provided in the agenda. Which is yet another reason why an agenda should be prepared, so that participants can figure out ahead of time if they are likely to have a conflict with the matters to be discussed at a meeting.
If you have followed the above then you are ready to begin the meeting knowing that there are rules in place to ensure that the meeting has a good chance of accomplishing the goals that were set out for the meeting. | https://medium.com/governance-guru/why-your-meeting-needs-rules-5cd1de71dfd0 | ['Debi Peverill'] | 2020-12-11 01:49:54.522000+00:00 | ['Governance', 'Productivity', 'Meetings', 'Rules', 'Agenda'] |
Solutions to develop golf tour in Vietnam | Currently, there are many programs that help develop golf tour in Vietnam and around the world, bringing great potential value along the way to exploit golf tourism to ensure the sustainability of each country and the pulse environment.
Along with Thailand, Vietnam also has many similarities, almost identical in geographical distance. Therefore, both countries can cooperate to share the golf market, golf programs and information on the basis of both development.
“From start to finish, sustainability is always a part of the development of golf in Vietnam,” said GEO Golf Environment Foundation. The development of the golf course must always be respectful and protective of the natural environment.
Ensuring that the principles of sustainability are respect for natural, environmental and social resources. That is, Golf must promote biological richness and natural landscapes, as well as help golf tourism to use its responsible resources and bring social values to its community.
Currently around 56 million golfers and golfers are seen as the third-largest spending stimulus in Asia, and golfers spend more than double the cost of a regular visitor.
Golf tourism has now become a thriving market, bringing high turnover to the business, growth with low impact on visitors, creating employment opportunities and creating many attractive tourist destinations. for tourists, friends across the continent
Vietnam golf holidays is increasingly attracting tourists, especially in big cities like Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh. Come to us to feel the novelty in each golf course and how to work professionally | https://medium.com/@kieuha0804/solutions-to-develop-golf-tour-in-vietnam-e1e1befc4624 | ['Ha Kieu'] | 2017-11-28 07:53:26.960000+00:00 | ['Vietnam'] |
Local Cluster vs. Remote Cluster for Kubernetes-Based Development | Local Cluster vs. Remote Cluster for Kubernetes-Based Development
Comparing the advantages and disadvantages of local Kubernetes clusters and remote Kubernetes clusters for development.
If you are one of the many companies using Kubernetes as an infrastructure technology, you might now ask yourself how to guide your engineers to use Kubernetes in the development phase of the software. There are several degrees of how far you want to go with introducing Kubernetes into your development process. One general question you have to answer in any case of developer access to Kubernetes is if they should rather use local clusters or work with remote Kubernetes clusters in the cloud. In this post, I will compare the two general approaches and describe their main strengths and weaknesses.
Local Cluster
For many developers, the first time they are in direct contact with Kubernetes is in a local environment. That means that they are running Kubernetes on their machines instead of the usual cloud environments Kubernetes was initially made for.
Since the developer is the only one who has to access this cluster for development, local clusters can be a feasible solution for this purpose. Over time, several solutions have emerged that are particularly made for running Kubernetes in local environments. The most important ones are Kubernetes in Docker (kind), MicroK8s, minikube and k3s. For a comparison of these local Kubernetes options, you can look at this post.
Advantages of Local Kubernetes Clusters
Running Kubernetes on your local machine during development has some advantages compared to using a cloud-based environment:
Direct Kubernetes Access: At first, the developers are admins of their own clusters and can thus freely configure everything as they need it and they can play around with all available Kubernetes features.
At first, the developers are admins of their own clusters and can thus freely configure everything as they need it and they can play around with all available Kubernetes features. Perfect Isolation: Due to the use of individual clusters on their own computers, the developers are perfectly isolated from each other. They could even use the local clusters without an internet connection. This has the advantage that the different engineers cannot interfere with each other even if someone messes up something. In such cases, it is also easily possible to start from scratch with a clean system. Additionally, strict isolation enforces a clear responsibility. If something breaks, there is only one person to blame.
Due to the use of individual clusters on their own computers, the developers are perfectly isolated from each other. They could even use the local clusters without an internet connection. This has the advantage that the different engineers cannot interfere with each other even if someone messes up something. In such cases, it is also easily possible to start from scratch with a clean system. Additionally, strict isolation enforces a clear responsibility. If something breaks, there is only one person to blame. No Computing Cost: Finally, local clusters run on the existing machines of the developers and therefore, there will be no extra cost associated with their use (compared to sometimes costly cloud resources). In some companies, this has the additional benefit that no complicated budget approvals are necessary to work with local Kubernetes solutions.
Disadvantages of Local Kubernetes Clusters
While the use of Kubernetes on your local machine might seem to be very attractive at first sight, it also comes with some disadvantages:
Kubernetes Knowledge Necessary: The first drawback of using local clusters during development is that the developers need to have some Kubernetes knowledge. While it would be certainly great if every engineer would be a Kubernetes expert, the complexity of Kubernetes makes this quite unrealistic and undesirable given the effort to master it. However, for the management and the setup of the cluster, at least some knowledge is required.
The first drawback of using local clusters during development is that the developers need to have some Kubernetes knowledge. While it would be certainly great if every engineer would be a Kubernetes expert, the complexity of Kubernetes makes this quite unrealistic and undesirable given the effort to master it. However, for the management and the setup of the cluster, at least some knowledge is required. Repeated Significant Setup Effort: The lack of knowledge can also become a problem if there are issues during the setup process of the local clusters, which can happen if specific configurations are needed or if your local computer is set up in a less compatible way (sometimes, it is even complicated to get a local cluster running on Windows). To make things worse, this setup process needs to be done for every engineer and every computer. And due to the individual local environments, it is not possible to centrally manage and maintain them.
The lack of knowledge can also become a problem if there are issues during the setup process of the local clusters, which can happen if specific configurations are needed or if your local computer is set up in a less compatible way (sometimes, it is even complicated to get a local cluster running on Windows). To make things worse, this setup process needs to be done for every engineer and every computer. And due to the individual local environments, it is not possible to centrally manage and maintain them. Less Realistic Environment: As can be seen from the name “k3s” as an allusion to the Kubernetes abbreviation “k8s”, the local Kubernetes solutions usually are pared-down versions of Kubernetes. This is necessary to make them run on limited local machines. However, this also means that some features are not available. In general, a local environment is different from cloud environments which are the real environment of the production systems. This, for example, makes tests in local clusters less realistic compared to remote environments and can lead to undesired “it-works-on-my-machine”-problems that you actually wanted to avoid by giving the developers Kubernetes access in the first place.
As can be seen from the name “k3s” as an allusion to the Kubernetes abbreviation “k8s”, the local Kubernetes solutions usually are pared-down versions of Kubernetes. This is necessary to make them run on limited local machines. However, this also means that some features are not available. In general, a local environment is different from cloud environments which are the real environment of the production systems. This, for example, makes tests in local clusters less realistic compared to remote environments and can lead to undesired “it-works-on-my-machine”-problems that you actually wanted to avoid by giving the developers Kubernetes access in the first place. Limited Computing Resources: A final weakness of local Kubernetes environments is their limitation in terms of computing resources. Running local Kubernetes already consumes some resources that will not be available for other tasks anymore and often, the local machines simply are not powerful enough to run more complex software, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning software. So, while you save some cost for cloud computing resources, you might have to invest more in the local hardware for your engineers.
Use Cases for Local Kubernetes Clusters:
Overall, there are valid reasons to use local Kubernetes clusters during development and some use cases that are particularly compatible with it:
First Kubernetes Experiments: The ability to run local clusters on already available computers without further budget approvals and no access to a cloud environment makes them the typical environment for first experiments with Kubernetes.
The ability to run local clusters on already available computers without further budget approvals and no access to a cloud environment makes them the typical environment for first experiments with Kubernetes. Small Teams and Standardized Hardware: They can also be a good solution for smaller teams with standardized hardware, so admins with more Kubernetes experience can either set up the local clusters on every machine themselves or write step-by-step guidelines for their setup with the specific hardware.
They can also be a good solution for smaller teams with standardized hardware, so admins with more Kubernetes experience can either set up the local clusters on every machine themselves or write step-by-step guidelines for their setup with the specific hardware. Teams of Kubernetes Experts: Using a local environment to run Kubernetes is also a feasible option if every team member is a Kubernetes expert already, so they know how to care for the setup and how to solve potential configuration issues.
Using a local environment to run Kubernetes is also a feasible option if every team member is a Kubernetes expert already, so they know how to care for the setup and how to solve potential configuration issues. Low Computing Needs: Since it is hardly feasible to run very complex applications on local machines, having rather “simple” applications in terms of computing resources is a requirement to use local Kubernetes clusters for development.
Remote Cluster
The alternative for giving developers access to Kubernetes is a remote cluster in a cloud environment. In another article, I described the underlying methodology of cloud development and why it might become a new standard in the future.
Providing developers with a direct access to remote clusters can either be achieved by giving every engineer an own cluster that they can manage themselves in the cloud or by sharing a cluster with several developers with tools such as Loft or kiosk. I wrote a separate post about the difference between these two methods of working with a remote cluster, but both have some common strengths and weaknesses that I want to focus on in this post.
Advantages of Remote Kubernetes Clusters
The opportunity to use a cloud environment for development and testing purposes has some benefits that are contrary to the local environment:
Easy Replicability: A first benefit of working with remote clusters is that the setup process is easy, especially in public clouds, and can be very much standardized as the underlying infrastructure is always the same. This reduces the general setup effort and facilitates the onboarding of new team members. It also allows experienced Kubernetes experts to help less experienced colleagues as problems can either be replicated or the experts can also get a direct access to the cluster to solve the issue.
A first benefit of working with remote clusters is that the setup process is easy, especially in public clouds, and can be very much standardized as the underlying infrastructure is always the same. This reduces the general setup effort and facilitates the onboarding of new team members. It also allows experienced Kubernetes experts to help less experienced colleagues as problems can either be replicated or the experts can also get a direct access to the cluster to solve the issue. Centralized Management: No matter if shared clusters or individual clusters in the cloud are used, the administrator of the shared cluster or the cloud environment has some oversight about what everyone is doing. They can manage the access of the developers and usually also set limits to control the cost. Sometimes, especially in shared clusters, it is possible to set smart defaults that are automatically applied to newly created environments.
No matter if shared clusters or individual clusters in the cloud are used, the administrator of the shared cluster or the cloud environment has some oversight about what everyone is doing. They can manage the access of the developers and usually also set limits to control the cost. Sometimes, especially in shared clusters, it is possible to set smart defaults that are automatically applied to newly created environments. Realistic Environment: Another advantage of a remote environment is that it can be configured in a way that is exactly like the production environment. And even if there are minor differences, e.g. in terms of scale, the environments of the development and the live system are essentially the same in terms of all important aspects. This avoids unexpected problems after deployment and eliminates “it-works-on-my-machine”-problems. Additionally, it can increase the feeling of responsibility among developers to create software that can be deployed to the live system without issues and so supports a DevOps culture.
Another advantage of a remote environment is that it can be configured in a way that is exactly like the production environment. And even if there are minor differences, e.g. in terms of scale, the environments of the development and the live system are essentially the same in terms of all important aspects. This avoids unexpected problems after deployment and eliminates “it-works-on-my-machine”-problems. Additionally, it can increase the feeling of responsibility among developers to create software that can be deployed to the live system without issues and so supports a DevOps culture. Infinite Computing Power: Since the computing resources in the cloud are almost endless, it is possible to run even very complex systems such as large-scale microservice systems and computing-intense applications such as machine learning and AI software. The local machine of the engineer is not an issue anymore and can thus also be easily switched, e.g. if working from home with a private computer.
Disadvantages of Remote Kubernetes Clusters
Of course, using a remote Kubernetes cluster for development is not the holy grail that will solve all your issues. It also has some downsides to go for this approach:
Computing Cost: The first disadvantage of using a cloud environment is the computing cost that is associated with it. While this is mostly a one-time cost in private clouds, using a public cloud can become quite costly in the long run. While it is possible to reduce the cost by limiting the usage of the resources by the developers or by features such as the sleep-mode of Loft, the cost for using cloud-based Kubernetes for development will often be higher than local solutions. I wrote a separate post about how to save cost in this scenario.
The first disadvantage of using a cloud environment is the computing cost that is associated with it. While this is mostly a one-time cost in private clouds, using a public cloud can become quite costly in the long run. While it is possible to reduce the cost by limiting the usage of the resources by the developers or by features such as the sleep-mode of Loft, the cost for using cloud-based Kubernetes for development will often be higher than local solutions. I wrote a separate post about how to save cost in this scenario. Management Effort: While the setup of an environment for the developer is quite easy in the cloud, the management of the cloud environment needs to be taken care of. This can include the management of the access to the cloud environment itself, i.e. who can create clusters in a public cloud, or the management of the Kubernetes cluster that is shared by the developers. For example, if a new engineer wants to start working in the cloud environment, the admin of the cloud or the cluster manager needs to provide the engineer with an own access and some explanation about the processes. This will lead to some distraction for the designated manager of the development infrastructure. ( I believe this role can be described as Developer Experience Owner and could become more important in the future.) Fortunately, it is in the interest of public cloud providers as well as the providers internal Kubernetes platforms such as Loft to make the onboarding process as easy as possible, which has led to some improvements in this area already.
While the setup of an environment for the developer is quite easy in the cloud, the management of the cloud environment needs to be taken care of. This can include the management of the access to the cloud environment itself, i.e. who can create clusters in a public cloud, or the management of the Kubernetes cluster that is shared by the developers. For example, if a new engineer wants to start working in the cloud environment, the admin of the cloud or the cluster manager needs to provide the engineer with an own access and some explanation about the processes. This will lead to some distraction for the designated manager of the development infrastructure. ( I believe this role can be described as Developer Experience Owner and could become more important in the future.) Fortunately, it is in the interest of public cloud providers as well as the providers internal Kubernetes platforms such as Loft to make the onboarding process as easy as possible, which has led to some improvements in this area already. Isolation and Limits: Especially in a shared environment, the developers need to be isolated so they cannot interfere with each other. It is also important to enforce limits for the computing resource consumption so that they are fairly shared and cost are not exploding. There are some tools that support these multi-tenancy tasks for Kubernetes such as kiosk, but it is still something that needs to be taken into account when using remote Kubernetes clusters for development.
Use Cases for Remote Kubernetes Clusters
Different from local clusters, remote clusters can be used in any scenario as there are no hard limitations for settings that they cannot be used in. However, there are some situations that they seem especially fitting:
Heterogeneous Teams: If the requirements, backgrounds, and needs of the engineers in a team are very different and the hardware of every team member is individual, a remote environment helps to cater for these needs while it still offers the standardization of the processes. An example of such a situation could be a setting in which every engineer can choose their own hardware and they work on different tasks, such as frontend, backend, and testing but all want to work with Kubernetes.
If the requirements, backgrounds, and needs of the engineers in a team are very different and the hardware of every team member is individual, a remote environment helps to cater for these needs while it still offers the standardization of the processes. An example of such a situation could be a setting in which every engineer can choose their own hardware and they work on different tasks, such as frontend, backend, and testing but all want to work with Kubernetes. Teams With Little Kubernetes Knowledge: The standardization of the processes in a cloud Kubernetes setting can be very helpful for developers without extensive knowledge about Kubernetes. With additional tools such as DevSpace or Skaffold, the Kubernetes development workflow can be streamlined to a large extent, so it is possible to work with Kubernetes seamlessly. This also prevents distractions of developers from their actual focus at work.
The standardization of the processes in a cloud Kubernetes setting can be very helpful for developers without extensive knowledge about Kubernetes. With additional tools such as DevSpace or Skaffold, the Kubernetes development workflow can be streamlined to a large extent, so it is possible to work with Kubernetes seamlessly. This also prevents distractions of developers from their actual focus at work. Special Hardware Requirements: A remote cluster solution is also the best approach if specific hardware is required for running the developed software. Nowadays, this often means GPUs that are quite expensive to buy but are available on-demand in the cloud. The same goes for some specific services of cloud providers that can be only used if the software is also running in the cloud.
I also wrote a separate article where I compare the different Kubernetes development environments in some more detail.
Conclusion
Both approaches to give developers direct access to Kubernetes come with pros and cons and are the preferred solution in some situations. While the engineers are not distracted by additional tasks in remote environments, additional cost for infrastructure, its management, and additional tools are often inevitable. Local clusters will not cost you money at the beginning, but their use can still be expensive if the time engineers spend on additional tasks is accounted for.
Overall, this means that using Kubernetes during development comes at a price even if you use free, open-source solutions. However, I believe that it will pay off over time given the clear drawbacks of no Kubernetes access: unrealistic environments, separation of dev and ops (“works-on-my-machine”-problems), and missing replicability of issues. Finally, more complex applications may even force companies to give developers access to Kubernetes.
This is why I believe that it will become more common in the future for developers to directly interact with Kubernetes, one way or the other. Potentially, even a combination of both approaches becomes the standard, e.g. if local environments are used only for quick tests while major changes as well as the staging environment are running in a remote environment. | https://medium.com/swlh/local-cluster-vs-remote-cluster-for-kubernetes-based-development-6efe2d9be202 | ['Daniel Thiry'] | 2020-10-13 13:10:29.910000+00:00 | ['Cloud Native', 'Cloud Development', 'Software Development', 'Kubernetes Cluster', 'Kubernetes'] |
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For Further Enquires you can reach me through my telegram https://t.me/dapofx | https://medium.com/@osinaikedapo/intelligence-prime-capital-ipc-does-it-really-work-e549d8b9a45d | ['Dapo Osinaike'] | 2021-12-31 13:40:16.724000+00:00 | ['Tradeforex', 'Ipc', 'Forex', 'Aibot', 'Intelligentprimecapital'] |
Play Creepts Game with $5,000 CTSI Giveaway | Namaste Tribe! Earlier this week, WazirX had listed Cartesi in our USDT market, and given away ₹3,78,000 worth CTSI in a trading contest marathon. Now, WazirX and Cartesi have partnered for Creepts tournament, and we’re giving away $5,000 worth CTSI! 💪
Creepts is a thrilling decentralized tower defense tournament game built on top of Cartesi’s Layer 2 solution for blockchain.
When is the tournament?
Start Time: June 1st at 5 PM IST
End Time: June 4th at 5 PM IST
Map will be announced shortly before the tournament
How can I participate?
Log in to WazirX and get your WazirX Referral ID Go to https://wazirx.creepts.io Play the game and compete for the highest score When the game is over, enter your alphanumeric WazirX Referral ID
NOTE:
Please use the alphanumeric referral code only (no links) on the referral homepage.
(no links) on the referral homepage. You can replay the game as many times as you wish in an attempt to achieve a higher score.
More instructions on https://wazirx.creepts.io
Example of a Referral Code
Rewards:
The tournament will consist of the top 1000 users submitted and verified scores.
Terms & Conditions:
Rewards are set at a rate of 1 CTSI = 0.037 USD.
Rewards are allocated based on the final rankings of the round.
Users will be required to be registered and KYC verified on WazirX, to be able to participate and receive a reward.
CTSI rewards will be distributed within 2 weeks after the contest ends. Users can log in and see their rewards via their WazirX account after the distribution is completed.
after the contest ends. Users can log in and see their rewards via their WazirX account after the distribution is completed. Distribution of CTSI will be handled by the WazirX Team.
Each user’s gameplay data will be submitted after each game. Data may be used to check for malicious actors or be used for marketing purposes.
The external Creept’s high-score page may not reflect the actual final results, winners or placements and should only be taken as a “score” reference for players. This page is managed by the Cartesi team.
WazirX reserves the right to cancel or amend the Competition or Competition Rules and/or terms at their sole discretion.
WazirX reserves the right to disqualify participants should they display attributes of malpractice.
Report Issues
If you encounter any technical issues during the gameplay, please contact the technical support team at https://t.me/CartesiProject or https://discordapp.com/invite/Pt2NrnS.
Good luck, people 🖖 | https://medium.com/wazirx/play-creepts-game-with-5-000-ctsi-giveaway-336f8b6e2ff3 | ['Wazirx Bitcoin Exchange'] | 2020-05-29 08:32:35.460000+00:00 | ['Wazirx', 'Announcements', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Games', 'Dapps'] |
A Closer Look: the Impact of the CA Fires on Air Quality | It was only last December when we analyzed the pollution spike from the Thomas Fire, one of the largest wildfires in California’s history. Now, only half a year later, California and other states are combatting large wildfires once again.
California is in the middle of yet another record-breaking fire season with more than 11 severe blazes burning a combined 820,000 acres. This is already more than twice the area burned just last year, with no end in sight. Due to dry conditions and record high temperatures, California is facing increasingly destructive wildfire seasons.
Satellite imagery of the CA fires on July 26, 2018. Source: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Earth Science Data and Information System
The ongoing Mendocino Complex Fire, which is even larger than the record breaking Thomas Fire, has already burned across 302,086 acres. The unprecedented severity of this fire in combination with the Carr Fire (176,069 acres burned so far) in Shasta and Trinity Counties, the Ferguson Fire (95,000 acres acres burned so far), and more in Southern California will have a devastating impact on the communities and the environment in these areas. But, with the unparalleled size and spread of these fires, another equally dangerous risk threatens California: smoke. Which begs the question; how will these fires affect the air we breathe for the weeks to come?
There is no doubt these various fires are creating hazardous air pollution conditions in the surrounding regions, but we needed a way to quantitatively assess this. Therefore, we would like to highlight our high quality global air pollution data set that provides a five day air quality forecast, currently available in the Planet OS Datahub.
This data uses a comprehensive global monitoring and forecasting system to estimate the state of the atmosphere on a daily basis. It combines information from models and observations in order to provide a daily 5-day global surface forecast. The Planet OS Datahub provides 28 different variables from the CAMS AirQuality Forecast dataset.
In light of these fires and our available datasets, Planet OS Data Integration Engineer, Eneli Toodu assessed the PM2.5 levels in the United States, and also in Los Angeles and San Francisco. For a tutorial on how to do this, the GitHub notebook is also available here.
Why Care about PM2.5?
Often included in air quality reports from environmental authorities and companies, PM2.5 refers to atmospheric particulate matter (PM) that have a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometers. A product of combustion, these fine particles tend to stay in the air longer than heavier particles, thus increasing the chances of inhalation by humans and animals. These minute particles can penetrate the lungs and circulatory system, often causing adverse health effects.
Visualizing Air Quality: United States
PM 2.5 levels in the US from August 14-August 19 2018
As we can see from the visual above, the PM2.5 levels will spike to ‘very high’ levels in California, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon — the states most significantly impacted by the current wave of wildfires. As these wildfires burn their surroundings, they emit large amounts of carbon dioxide, black carbon, brown carbon, and ozone precursors into the atmosphere. Wildfires also emit substantial amounts of volatile and semi-volatile organic materials and nitrogen oxides that form the particulate matter.
Visualizing Air Quality: San Francisco and Los Angeles | https://medium.com/planet-os/a-closer-look-the-impact-of-the-ca-fires-on-air-quality-70439799077 | ['Chase Walz'] | 2018-08-15 20:42:01.777000+00:00 | ['Forecasting', 'Fire', 'Air Pollution', 'Climate Change', 'Data'] |
What the F*ck does being a Teenager Mean? By Mimi, chapter two | Hello I’m Back!
So now I’m going to complain about parents.
Dear Mom, Why the hell do you criticize everything I do?
Dear Dad, WOAH! Yes I did come out of my bedroom for the first time in forever, now I am going back into my room because I am embarrassed you pointed it out.
*I would never say this to either of my parents because they would beat my ass*
Why do parents always have to point out something random. Like my mother always asks my why I’m wearing a tang top and sweats. Like she feels like that is “kind of revealing” and don’t even get me started on when I want to be wearing just my bra and a pare of shorts when I want to be cool and comfy. Oh god she asks so many questions.
“are you taking pictures of yourself in those?” “are you sending those pictures to boys?” “why are you wearing that around the house?”
I don’t know if anyone informed you dearest mother, but women are not expected to dress for men anymore. (and vise versa for men dressing for women) I mean yes I am taking cute pictures of me and sending them to friends (she doesn’t have to know what though) but not to be sexy (sometimes yeah) or to be inappropriate, but because I like what clothes I have. It’s proven that if you wear clothes you like and if you dress up you’re way more likely to succeed in anything/everything. So If I want to wear a bra and underwear in my room by myself while everyone else is doing their own things I should be able to. Same with guys, they come out of their room without a shirt on and they get bombarded with questions. Now if the parents are for some reason uncomfortable with what their kid wears around them (same with siblings) then you can always change clothes before you leave your room (what I do a lot)
While were on the subject, privacy. Our bedrooms, our sanctuary. I think that growing up the most important place for me was my bedroom. Weather it was a small apartment room, a shared room with one of my siblings, or my own room all by myself, I needed to have a nice space I had personalized. It makes me feel more Intune with myself. I have lots of plants, books, journals. A table like piece of furniture to separate have the room. I personally try to make my room look like a small one bedroom New York studio apartment as much as possible in hopes that I will one day live like that. If you cannot do anything permanent then just do very simple things, maybe go for that minimalistic look if you’re not someone who can spend much money on bedroom items. Parents really like to not give you space, they look through your phone, your bedroom, your diary. EVERYTHING. My mom sometimes does random phone checks. Like I do not want you snooping around my phone… what If I left porn on it or something, (kidding) (kind of)what if I wanted to have a private conversation with someone? As young adults we should be learning how to talk to people when we need help, not being forced to. I try to understand that parents want to protect their children but very soon they are going to be on their own. Let them fuck up while they are still minors. Let them experience things. Now in no way am I saying completely neglect your child. I’m simply asking to loosen the reigns. Thanks to my overbearing helicopter mother I am the sneakiest little bitch on this planet. I’ve gotten caught once and I blamed it on my insecurities and hormonal curiosity. I feel like having those overbearing/strict parents can cause more harm to your child. Just basic space is all. Parents would not like it if we went snooping through their phones. I bet they have dirt to hide too. (even if it is just Christmas gift ideas)
That's All I have for tonight ladies, gents, non-binaries, neo pronouns and everyone else I have not said good night too.
XOXO, Mimi ❤ | https://medium.com/@hiimmimiii/what-the-f-ck-does-being-a-teenager-mean-by-mimi-chapter-two-b6ff112538a4 | [] | 2020-12-19 08:08:40.848000+00:00 | ['Teenagers', 'Helicopter Parents', 'Growing Up', 'Covid Diaries', 'Teenage Problems'] |
7 Fantastic Exterior Upgrades for Model 3 | There are a ton of Teslas on the coasts of the US. And because they all look the same, Tesla owners love customizing their cars.
Here are some aesthetic and functional accessories to make your Model 3 your own.
Efficiency
EV owners are obsessed with efficiency. A spoiler reduces drag by “smoothing” the air behind the car. Less drag means higher efficiency.
This is one of the reasons why the Model 3 Performance has a carbon fiber spoiler on top of the trunk! For other trims, a spoiler can be easily added.
When I added my spoiler to my car, I saw a 3.96% in efficiency. In other words, installing my spoiler added 10 miles of range to my car.
My experimental result is inline with Unplugged Performance’s independent aerodynamic study’s results.
Spoiler on/off testing results by the author. 90+% of the driving was between 40 to 60 mph, in relatively consistent California weather. Climate control was never turned on.
The carbon fiber spoiler from TOPlight¹ looks really nice and is extremely simple to install. The tool-less installation takes less than 10 minutes.
Carbon fiber spoiler¹ installed on the car. Photo by TOPlight.
Chrome Delete
I personally like the look of a “chrome delete” on modern cars. This satin black chrome delete kit¹ looks great. It covers all of the chrome trim around the windows, the side mirrors, side repeater cameras, door handles, and Tesla T logos.
I love this kit because it comes with everything that you need to do the install. They have amazing step by step video instructions, and just in case you make a mistake, they give you TWO FULL SETS of trim pieces. (Read as: if you have a friend with a Model 3, you can split the cost of the chrome delete kit).
Chrome delete¹ on a Model 3. Photos by Nikola Pro.
Mud Flaps
Tesla’s paint is relatively soft when compared to other automakers. So it seems to scratch easier.
Because the sides of the car wrap “underneath” the car, a lot of dirt and mud gets kicked up onto the doors by the tires. These mud flaps¹ help a lot with this. They also won’t scrape on the ground like the mud flaps directly from Tesla. I like that they’re discreet and don’t impact the visuals of the car.
Mud flaps¹ installed on the car. Photo by Tepeng.
Making Model 3 Quieter
EV drivers hate noise. Wind noise is air howling at you. And tire/road noise is an equally annoying hum. Check out my other article, where I deep dive into how noise is generated and how to mitigate that sound.
Summary/TL;DR
Carbon fiber spoiler ¹ that increases efficiency & range and also looks really great.
¹ that increases efficiency & range and also looks really great. Satin black chrome delete kit ¹ to remove the chrome around the windows.
¹ to remove the chrome around the windows. Mud flaps¹ to keep your car cleaner and to help protect the fragile paint.
Reducing Noise | https://medium.com/@matthewjcheung/7-fantastic-exterior-upgrades-for-model-3-413127bceb9d | ['Matthew Cheung'] | 2021-03-28 19:49:28.345000+00:00 | ['Cars', 'Automotive', 'Autonomous Cars', 'Technology', 'Tesla'] |
Save Our Country with a Heavy Dose of the Pledge of Allegiance | In the U.S., school children know the refrain that finishes with the words “liberty and justice for all” is important enough to put your right hand on your heart, stand up, and take off your hat.
If we want to convince the current occupant of the White House to accept the will of the people in our upcoming election, agree to a peaceful transfer of power, and get all of his junk packed up and ready to go by January 20th at noon, then here’s my plan:
Every day between now and then, someone needs to remind him of the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.
Say it, yell it, sing it, chant it, hum it. Tweet it at him…
Don’t really care who does it or how. Maybe we should all do it.
Journalists could shout the pledge in his direction near Marine One, attempting to be heard over the din of helicopter blades. People can chant it to him on the 2020-he-really-should-still-be-quarantining campaign trail. Send him a letter, if you must. And yes, tweet it at him… and his enablers.
Better yet…
Are there any “adults in the room,” gainfully employed in the White House — with salaries paid by taxpayer dollars — who still care about democracy more than partisan politics? Those who aren’t working remotely? If so, they can play along too.
Good.
Then anyone walking into a meeting with POTUS, or V-POTUS can look around the room, find a flag, put their hand over heart and chant these words LOUD and PROUD:
“I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” — The Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag
If you, Ms. Mr. Mrs. government employee, do this task for us — the collective American electorate and citizenry — we thank you.
Emphasize any words that grab you. It’s entirely up to you, but I’m thinking these could work with a slight bump: | https://medium.com/indelible-ink/save-our-country-with-a-heavy-dose-of-pledge-of-allegiance-to-the-flag-5645235f3296 | ['Andy Mcwain'] | 2020-10-19 19:02:54.097000+00:00 | ['Elections', 'Election 2020', 'Politics', 'Trump', 'Pledge Of Allegiance'] |
Mahabub’s COVID-19 survivor story | WFP staff member, Mohammad Mahabubul Alam, tested negative for COVID-19. However, he lost his sense of taste, smell, and had difficulty breathing. In Part III of COVID diaries, Mahabub shares his experience of traveling to Brussels with a medical evacuation and conquering COVID 19.
“May 2020, we did not quite grasp the idea of a pandemic. We were learning about social distancing. Since it was Ramadan, we were fasting. One day, my father suddenly fainted. We checked his sugar level; everything was fine. We thought he was feeling weak. After a couple of days, he passed away. It was not convenient to transport dead bodies from one city to another when the pandemic started. My colleague, Joydeb, arranged an official letter, should we face difficulties on the road. Without that letter, it would have been difficult to transport my father’s dead body to my village.
Just after burying my father, I was feeling restless and uncomfortable. I assumed it was just exhaustion. While having supper that night, I could not feel any taste. Then I fainted. When I woke up, I had a bad cough. I left for Dhaka and went directly to the hospital. I ran some regular diagnostic tests. Though my covid test was negative, other reports were alarming. The UN doctors advised that I get admitted to the hospital immediately.
After four days, I was flown to Brussels. I was clueless about how smoothly all these arrangements fall into place. I remember our Country Director, Richard, was at the airport before I went into the air ambulance. I was placed in a plastic box. I am claustrophobic, and I was having difficulty breathing. I just lost my father, and then I was flying away, leaving my family behind. I thought if I will ever come back to my country, will I ever see my children again? Where will I be buried if I die?
When the plane took off, I wanted to jump. I requested the pilots to throw me out. I told them I would sign any legal document authorizing them to throw away my body from the air ambulance. I remember a doctor then gave an injection, and I fell asleep.
A selfie with Doctor Wael
I woke up shortly before reaching Brussels. I was taken to CHU Saint-Pierre hospital in Brussels, which was dedicated to COVID patients. My COVID results came positive for the first time. Dr. Zaher Wael was my doctor, who visited me every day, wearing PPE. My room in the hospital was locked; therefore, I could not leave even if I wanted to. I shifted from a small cage to a bigger one. My colleague, Nafi Zaman, arranged a phone card for me before I left. My phone was my only connection to the external world.
The hospital released me after six days, and I moved to an apartment in Brussels. I was surprised when Dr. Zaher gave me his personal number to keep him updated.
Bangladesh is heavily dense, but I could see only a few people in the streets in Brussels. I missed my daughters, my wife, and my mother. I wanted to see them, talk to them in person. I felt like I was floating from one place to another.
I am so grateful to everyone I have met in Brussels. Christine Grignon from the WFP Brussels office called me every day. I did not have any money with me. She sent me money from her account, and sometimes food as well. Another colleague from Brussels, Danielle Buck, visited me a few times. Mr. Arifur Rahman from the Bangladesh Embassy sent me a home-cooked meal when I was missing it. He also checked on me regularly.
I remember I was crossing the road, and a car came so close to me that I thought it would run me over. But the woman driving the car stopped and said ‘please, cross.’ I felt like I was the president!
I returned home to my family after 20 days. I would not have been alive if my colleagues in Bangladesh, the regional bureau, and Brussels did not care so much about me. I am grateful to them for my second life.”
- Mahabubul Alam
Mahbub appreciated the immense support provided by his colleagues while he was ill. He conveys special gratitude to Dr. Paula, from the WFP Regional Bureau, his team member Din Ara Wahid, Deputy Country Directors Alpha Bah and Piet Vochten, and Chandan Shrestha.
COVID Diaries is a series on WFP staff in Bangladesh who have recovered from COVID-19. Read the second part here. | https://medium.com/world-food-programme-insight/mahabubs-covid-19-survivor-story-bbba2e931226 | ['Maherin Ahmed'] | 2020-11-25 09:59:53.634000+00:00 | ['Covid Diaries'] |
XTRD Weekly crypto market update — August 7th, 2018 | Article by Steven Aitchison. Steve first got into the crypto world in 2015 and started trading in 2017 and now wants everyone to know the benefits of crypto with his course and hidden gems newsletter at: Learn About Crypto and Tradingand his weekly hidden gems CYT Crypto Monthly he also started his youtube channel 5 months ago at CYT Crypto.
This Week In The Crypto Market
Updated for August 7th 2018
Well BTC price went over the psychological level of $7,000 bringing with it a tranch of alt coin pumps.
If BTC can organically grow steadily from here we could see the start of alt season again. If it pumps or dumps hard from here then the alts will obviously go back down.
For me it looks like mini alt season is here so we’ll need to wait and see what happens.
Top gainers of the week include:
Moac: 28%
Metaverse ETP: 13%
Ethereum Classic: 12%
Hshare: 8%
Binance Coin: 1.5%
Top losers of the week include:
Walton: -31%
Mithril: -28%
Pundi X: -28%
Mixin: -27%
Stratis: -25%
Top News Stories
DPRating Crypto Rankings (Based on GitHub Activity) June 2018 Report: EOS, Cardano, TRON, and Ethereum Tied for First Place
DPRating, a cryptocurrency rating agency established in 2017, has released the June 2018 edition of its GitHub Audit report, which ranks projects based on their GitHub activity (e.g. how often new versions of the software are being released).
DPRating, which in the words of its founder, Darpal Wang, “aims to be the Moody’s of the crypto space”, produces various types of reports to help investors. The GitHub Audit looks at the software development activity of 200 blockchain projects by monitoring each development team’s activities on GitHub, a platform used by almost open source projects for hosting and managing code.
(Source: Coinnewsupdate.com)
IBM and FX Giant CLS Team Up to Launch Blockchain App Store for Banks
Even private and permissioned blockchains need to build ecosystems and achieve network effects, just like their permissionless, public counterparts.
At least, that’s the thinking behind LedgerConnect, a financial blockchain “app store” that aims to make it easier for banks to access distributed ledger technology (DLT) solutions from fintech and software providers, and for those vendors in turn to reach bank customers.
Announced Monday, LedgerConnect is the offspring of bank-owned currency trading utility CLS and enterprise software giant IBM, and counts major banks Barclays and Citigroup among its founding members.
In fact, nine financial institutions are participating in the proof of concept (PoC) and have selected services from a number of vendors including Baton Systems, Calypso, Copp Clark, IBM, MPhasis, OpenRisk, SynSwap and Persistent Systems.
(Source: Coindesk.com)
Huobi to launch P2P trading in India
The Singaporean cryptocurrency exchange Huobi, has announced, in principle, that they will be launching a P2P platform for their Indian users on which they will be able to trade all cryptocurrencies against the INR.
This so called ‘announcement’ was made after all users were sent a questionnaire to fill. The questionnaire was sent and to be filled by all Indian users alone and was followed by a mail stating that INR was now supported by Huobi.
The message read the following; “Global Merchants, After becoming a global merchant of Huobi OTC, you will be entitled to: post-fiat-to-token advertisements to gain more earnings during “Buy & Sell” processes; enjoy zero transaction fee and obtain 24/7 customer support.”
(Source: itsblockchain.com)
$10.7 Trillion Custodian Northern Trust Helping Hedge Funds Invest in Bitcoin
Forbes reports that the 129-year-old Chicago-based firm, which caters to institutional investors, corporations, and high net worth individuals, has begun to open up some of its services to cryptocurrency hedge funds while also exploring how to integrate blockchain technology into its private equity division.
According to the publication, Northern Trust has for months also been working with three “mainstream hedge funds” that have begun stealthily adding cryptocurrency investments to their portfolios as they seek to gain exposure to the nascent but burgeoning crypto marketplace.
(Source: CCN.com)
Coinbase Now Supports Buying Bitcoin With British Pounds
The San Francisco-based exchange announced the launch today (August 2, 2018), via a post on its blog. According to the statement, GBP deposits and withdrawals will be supported on Coinbase, Coinbase Pro, and Coinbase Prime. The latter two are platforms targeted at active traders and institutional investors respectively.
As a result of the launch, U.K. customers will now be able to enjoy same day deposits/withdrawals from their Coinbase trading accounts to their local bank accounts. This move significantly reduces the tedium suffered U.K.-based customers on Coinbase.
(Source: Bitcoinist.com)
A Crypto Mining TV to Come to Market
A crypto hardware manufacturer that accounts for some 20% of all bitcoin Asics, Canaan Creative, is planning to launch a bitcoin mining TV set according to South China Morning Post.
The TV set, AvalonMiner Inside, can process 2.8 trillion hashes a second, translating to 2.8 Terahertz. In comparison, Avalon’s asics can process 11 THz/s.
Suggesting the TV will do a lot of work while you watch a movie, but it will still be a fraction of bitcoin’s total hashrate which currently stands at 45,000 petahertz, with 1,000 terahertz being 1 petahertz.
(Source: Trustnodes.com)
Owner Of NYSE Partners With Microsoft, BCG And Starbucks To Launch A Global Bitcoin Market
Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the owner of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), is partnering with Microsoft, Starbucks, BCG and others, to launch a market and ecosystem to list physically settled Bitcoin futures contracts and for a new company to push Bitcoin and other digital assets towards becoming mainstream financial asset.
The new company will be known as Bakkt and intends on leveraging Microsoft’s could solutions to create an open and regulated, global ecosystem for digital assets. The integrated platform will enable consumers and institutions to buy, sell, store and spend digital assets on the seamless global network.
(Source: ethereumworldnews.com)
OKEx Confirms ‘Clawback’ On Huge $416m Bitcoin Position, Introducing New Measures
A massive bitcoin long position on OKEx, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, that left futures traders vulnerable has prompted the exchange to launch new measures to combat similar situations in the future.
Originating with a huge $416 million-leveraged long position on bitcoin (BTC) futures, the exchange was forced to liquidate the account after the price of bitcoin tumbled earlier this week.
The problem for traders on the platform however, came from the fact that the exchange uses a socialised trading model — known as a ‘clawback model’ — where profitable traders can be forced to cover the losses if a position is liquidated.
(Source: Cryptoglobe.com)
Coinbase Custody Considers Addition of 37 New Assets Including XRP, EOS and XMR
Crypto Trading Tips
Pay Attention To Bitcoin Price
If you’re a day trader then this one tip alone could save you a lot of heartache.
Always look at the BTC price and gauge it’s action before entering a trade on any altcoin.
If BTC goes on a bullish run, a lot of traders and investors get out of alts to ride the BTC price wave. Conversely if BTC dumps quite hard then traders and investors get out of alts and into Fiat until the panic selling is over. (The irony being that they themselves are part of the panic selling)
The best time to buy altcoins are when BTC price is stable or rising organically instead of in pumps.
Some Cryptos You Might Want to Look at This week
THREE PROJECTS THAT WILL GIVE YOU 100%+ PROFITS BEFORE THE END OF THE 2018 (Please put your big girl/boy pants on and do your own research before investing in any of these, I am not a financial advisor, prices as of Sunday 5th August)
I honestly believe that these 3 projects will give you at least 100% ROI before the end of 2018 and even more in 2019.
1. Holochain (HOT) (Current price 7/8 Satoshi)
Holochain has been sitting in the doldrums since it was listed on Binance, but make no mistake this project is a great one and definitely one that deserves your attention.
What is Holochain?
Holochain provides a framework for developers to build decentralized applications and aims to change the paradigm of data-centric blockchains to an agent-centric system. In Holochain’s fledgling system, no true global consensus is maintained. Instead, each agent in the public blockchain maintains a private fork, essentially, that is managed and stored in a limited way on the public blockchain with a distributed hash table. This means there are no scalability limits and dapps hosted on Holochain can do much more with less of nearly everything than traditional blockchains.
HOT is currently an Ethereum ERC-20 token so can be stored on any Ethereum Wallet including Hardware wallets. At a later date the tokens will be able to be swapped for Holofuel.
Target for end of 2018: 30 Sats
2. Dent (Current price 29/30 Satoshi)
Dent is another coin that has suffered since the drop in BTC price but I am confident this is going to at least 100 satoshi before the end of the year.
What is Dent?
Dent is a fully fledged crypto exchange that aims to liberate the way mobile data works. The platform’s users will be allowed to buy or sell or donate the data through a popular Ethereum-based blockchain. The developers behind this exchange are working hard to make sure that it eventually becomes a global ecosystem for trading mobile data.
Target for end of 2018: 100 Sats
3. Pundi X (Current price 28/29 Satoshi)
Pundi X had a great run up before being listed on Binance and was a great trading token as well as having a great long term future.
What is Pundi X?
The goal of Pundi X is to empower blockchain developers and token holders to sell cryptocurrency and blockchain related services in physical stores anywhere in the world.
Pundi X plans to achieve this by creating and distributing numerous point of sale smart devices to retailers around the world.
These small POS devices are connected to the two-layered blockchain for performing transactions.
These Point of Sale (POS) devices are to aid retailers to accept payments made with Pundi X tokens (NPXS).
These POS devices will let users purchase tokens directly or make use of their wallets to buy items. The Pundi X project plans distribute over 50 thousand devices every year.
Target for end of 2018: 100 Sats
For more daily calls like the ones above please check out CYT Crypto Premium
For more information about XTRD please visit our website or read the White Paper. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Telegram, LinkedIn, Reddit, YouTube, and join our community in Telegram chat. | https://medium.com/xtradeio/xtrd-weekly-crypto-market-update-august-7th-2018-b631d28a0647 | [] | 2018-08-07 12:52:19.623000+00:00 | ['Altcoins', 'Blockchain', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Ethereum', 'Bitcoin'] |
The First Female President of the United States of America | Despite living a luxurious life, Edith was barred from the upper echelons of the capital, simply because her wealth derived from a retail store, being snobbishly marked as a “trade.” Little did the “noble” circle know that the woman they were undermining was destined to become the United State’s First Lady.
The 28th President: Woodrow Wilson
U.S. President Woodrow Wilson | Image credit: Totally History
In 1912, Americans elected Woodrow Wilson as the 28th president of the United States of America. Woodrow is the only Chief Executive of the country to have held a Ph.D. degree, and his expertise was law, history, politics, and government.
In his doctoral dissertation, he did a comparative study juxtaposing the American form of government and the parliamentary way. He suggested that the U.S. should have a better system that is more efficient in answering public opinion. Some of his government analysis papers offered a modern view of what the U.S. presidency should be like.
“[The president is] the representative of no constituency, but of the whole people. When he speaks in his true character, he speaks for no special interest.” — Woodrow Wilson.
Woodrow was a professional academic and, in 1902, he became the president of Princeton University. His remarkable works at Princeton attracted conservative Democrat Party’s kingmakers, who convinced him to run for the gubernatorial seat in New Jersey.
Woodrow left the academic world and pursued politics. Once in office, he implemented his earlier ideas about parliamentary practices to execute reforms that made him famous, becoming a contender for the Democratic presidential nomination.
In the 1912 presidential election, Woodrow entered into an exciting four-way race for the presidency. He competed against former president Theodore Roosevelt of the Progressive Party, William Howard Taft of the Republican Party, and Eugene Debs of the Socialist Party. Wilson had a landslide of 435 votes in the electoral college, which won him the White House’s seat.
Woodrow’s personal life
In 1885 Wilson married Ellen Louise Axson (Ellen Wilson) and they had three daughters, Margaret, Jessie, and Eleanor. The marriage was warm and happy; however, it was darkened by Ellen’s bouts of depression and Woodrow’s brief extramarital affair with Mary Allen Peck.
Woodrow was already in his third year as the U.S. president when Ellen died in August 1914. He was devastated with grief, but he had to move on quickly as the entire nation depended on him. However, his status as a widowed president was short-lived — because he met Mrs. Edith Bolling-Galt.
Woodrow and Edith: love at first sight
In March 1915, Edith was out with her friend Althude Gordon, who was then dating the White House physician, Dr. Cary Grayson. Among Dr. Grayson’s wards was President Woodrow Wilson and his cousin Helen Bones.
One day, Helen joined Althude and Edith on a muddy hike and persuaded them back to the White House for an afternoon tea. There, Edith met Woodrow, and the two were immediately attracted to each other.
The whirlwind romance
A few weeks after their meeting, Woodrow invited Edith for dinner. The president found a confidant in Edith, and records stated that Woodrow’s limousine was frequently seen outside Edith’s door, “ready to slip her over for romantic suppers.”
Woodrow also sent Edith some love notes, where he flatteringly sought her apolitical opinion on issues ranging from “Cabinet members’ trustworthiness to states’ matters.” The president was not merely in love with Edith but also trusted her. Therefore, it did not take long for him to ask for her hand in marriage.
A second First Lady
Their whirlwind romance alarmed the U.S. cabinet members and the Democrat Party since Woodrow’s wife had just died. The president’s allies believed that his affair with Edith would harm his reelection in 1916, as the public should be seeing him mourning instead of dating.
Consequently, Woodrow’s political advisors crafted a plan to kick Edith out of the president’s life. They generated a series of fake love letters as if they had been written by Woodrow destined to Mary Peck (his former mistress), and leaked them to the press. Their strategy was to humiliate Edith so that she would leave.
However, their scheme did not work as the couple tied the knot at Edith’s home in Washington on December 18, 1915. Their marriage also proved that it was not a hindrance to Woodrow’s political career as he won his second term in 1916.
Wilsons: the power couple
U.S. President Woodrow Wilson and First Lady Edith Bolling-Wilson | Image credit: Britannica
The Wilsons led the U.S. amid the First World War, and Edith, as the new First Lady, never left her husband’s side. She also had direct access to highly classified documents, wartime codes, and Woodrow allowed her to scan his mails. Edith was privy to the White House’s ins and outs, even on matters of national security.
Woodrow wanted his wife to be part of every meeting with the cabinet members and presidential advisors. Edith also gave him assessments of political figures and foreign representatives. She had the final say in who were the people her husband could see and meet. She denied appointments if she believed her husband couldn’t be disturbed.
The First Lady in action
During World War I, Edith, together with Woodrow’s daughters, volunteered at a Red Cross canteen. She encouraged American women to economize on food so that the soldiers could eat better.
Sheep at the White House lawn | Image credit: Business Insider
In a much-publicized gesture, she arranged for a sheep flock to graze on the White House’s lawn. It was an austerity measure by not hiring many human resources to cut the grass, and the sheep did the job. Edith also auctioned the sheep’s wool, and the income was all donated to the Red Cross to support the war effort.
The Wilsons wanted to be a model American family helping the war troops, so they suspended entertainment at the White House and actively participated in public programs. Edith organized war bond rallies held on the Treasury Building’s steps with appearances by some Hollywood stars. She also demonstrated her support by publicizing the White House’s compliance with food and fuel conservation programs.
Edith’s preparation for the presidency
At the war’s end, Edith escorted Woodrow to Europe for the negotiation and the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. There he also presented his vision for a League of Nations to prevent future wars. When the couple returned to the U.S., Woodrow toured the country to win American’s support for the League’s vision and mission.
However, he faced enormous resistance among Senate Republicans. Woodrow became ill, and his advisers insisted that he return immediately to the White House. On October 2, he suffered a severe stroke that disabled him for months.
Madam President: Mrs. Edith Bolling-Wilson
Naturally, if something happens to the United States’ president, the vice president will take over the White House’s seat. But Edith ensured no succession happened, as she believed losing the presidency would only depress her husband.
Woodrow and Edith at the White House | Image credit: Madam President: The Secret Presidency
Therefore, Edith decided to step in instead. She took over the Chief Executive’s tasks, while protecting her husband’s image to the public. She kept Woodrow’s real condition in secret, only sharing limited information to the cabinet and the press. Edith described her new role as a “stewardship,” but she ran the show behind closed doors.
Edith started controlling the flow of information inside and outside of the White House. Edith and Woodrow’s physician told the public that the president only needed rest as he was “suffering from nervous exhaustion,” and would be working from his bedroom suite. When individual cabinet members came to confer with the president, they went no further than the First Lady. If they had policy papers or pending decisions for him to review, edit, or approve, she would first look over the material herself. If she deemed the matter pressing enough, she took the paperwork into her husband’s room, where she claimed she would read all the necessary documents to him.
During that time, the officials had to wait in the West Sitting Room hallway until Edith returned to them with Woodrow’s response. Mostly, they received documents riddled with “illegible notes” that Edith said were the president’s transcribed “verbatim responses.” But some officials claimed that it might not have been the president who was writing those notes but Edith herself. They also believed Edith was making decisions on behalf of the disabled president.
However, in her autobiography, Edith stated she never went beyond her role, and all decisions during her seventeen months of stewardship were made by Woodrow:
“So began my stewardship. I studied every paper, sent from the different Secretaries or senators, and tried to digest and present in tabloid form the things that, despite my vigilance, had to go to the president. I myself never made a single decision regarding the disposition of public affairs. The only decision that was mine was what was important and what was not, and the very important decision of when to present matters to my husband.” — Edith Wilson.
Some historians have speculated that Edith’s inelegant handling of the situation (or other politicians’ distaste at being forced to negotiate with a woman) was instrumental in the failure of the League of Nations’ proposal — a failure that contributed to an eventual Second World War.
Preserving her husband’s legacy
Edith’s secret reign at the White House lasted until the end of her husband’s term, in March 1921. After, the couple retired to their house in Washington, where Woodrow died on February 3, 1924.
Since then, Edith devoted her remaining years to enhancing Woodrow’s historical reputation. She preserved his papers, working with his official biographer, and converting his birthplace in Virginia and their Washington home into national shrines.
U.S. President John F. Kennedy and former First Lady Edith Wilson: Image credit: JKF Library
Edith Wilson’s last public appearance was during John F. Kennedy’s inauguration in 1961. She was diagnosed with a respiratory infection and passed away on December 28, 1961. Edith was buried beside her husband in Washington National Cathedral.
Epilogue
Many historians contested Edith Wilson’s actions when she took over the presidency while her husband was bedridden. Some even accused her of being too greedy for clinging onto power.
However, for William Hazelgrove, Edith’s decision to protect her husband at his worst showed a lot about her character as a wife. She was dedicated to her husband’s welfare and ambition, putting him first.
Hazelgrove also argued that before Edith became the nation’s First Lady, she was already established. She did everything to make her former husband’s dying business prosper and made her name well-known in Washington by her efforts. Therefore, accusing her that she used Woodrow’s condition for personal ambition was somehow unfair.
Analyzing Edith Wilson’s short presidency proved that a woman could handle an arduous job that many Americans still believe only men can administer. Edith Wilson led the U.S. in secrecy, and even her story was ridiculed in history. It raises a crucial question for a progressive nation: will the U.S. ever be ready for a woman’s leadership? | https://medium.com/history-of-yesterday/the-first-female-president-of-the-united-states-of-america-2a5dd9e7842c | ['Jhemmylrut Teng'] | 2020-10-13 23:36:38.372000+00:00 | ['Culture', 'Women', 'Leadership', 'Feminism', 'History'] |
From the sound of war to harmony of music | Serbian artist Nikola Macura decided to give new life to the military equipment used during the wars in Yugoslavia, transforming them into musical instruments. So, a Kalashnikov became a guitar. A helmet and a grenade sound like a saxophone, a cello was made from a mortar part. The artist managed to transform weapons into peace instruments. He reinvented what until a few years ago was used to create chaos and death in music. “I wanted to give these objects a new perspective,” says Nikola Macura, professor of Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Novi Sad, Serbia. For months in his studio, he transformed old war remnants of the Yugoslav wars into musical instruments. He designs, disassembles and reassembles, paints, attaches ropes and pegs. All these objects now become an installation, from noise to sound. From the sound of weapons to the harmony of music.
Macura has been able to cope with aggression and destruction in our societies. Unfortunately, this topic still very current in the Balkans where he lives. He has created works that tell his environment, the he experienced of him. By redesigning this military equipment, he changed his perspective. He gave the remnants of war a new life, from the crackle they made during the war to another kind of sound, that of music. Even today, the Balkans are surrounded by war remnants. It was not difficult for the artist to recover the necessary materials. He went around the country to collect them. Serbia is full of this military “waste.” Europol estimates that there are between 3 and 6 million firearms in circulation in the region. They are the remnants of the wars of the 1990s in the area. Some neighbors and friends have brought him. Some others he bought them. Many visibly are worn, which means they were employed in the wars in former Yugoslavia between 1991 and 2001.
As a child, the professor lived in a small village on the border with Croatia. From that period, he remembers only a large number of refugees, a frightening economic crisis, and many weapons. At that time, it was easy to get one. Even children could do it. The artist’s grandmother used the large antiaircraft shells as vases to plant flowers on the balcony. Later, in ’99, when he was studying Sculpture in Novi Sad, he experienced the war much more directly with the bombing by NATO on all of Serbia, which lasted for months. Novi Sad will be the European capital of culture next year. Nikola Makura has created violins, cellos, trumpets, guitars. Now he would like to form a traveling orchestra. He would like to buy a tank and turn it into a musical vessel. Then he can travel Europe, offering these instruments to real musicians to make good music and talk about the war to the world differently.
https://www.theworkersrights.com/from-the-sound-of-war-to-harmony-of-music/ | https://medium.com/@theworkersright/from-the-sound-of-war-to-harmony-of-music-20a3bcd9f60e | ['The Workers Rights'] | 2020-12-17 13:22:25.181000+00:00 | ['Refugees', 'Music', 'Croatia', 'Yugoslavia', 'Nikola Macura'] |
Birthday Gifts for yourself | Pexels.com
Here are a few ideas for gifts you could give yourself:
Open saving accounts towards specific goals
Pexels
Incase you have been struggling in ‘Chama‘ groups, opening a savings account is an inexpensive gift you could give yourself. If you intend to purchase a car, own a house, paying off a student debt, creating capital for a business idea or paying off an expensive vacation then this good for you. Such savings accounts give your money a percentage interest. However, you cannot have access to withdraw the money for a specific period. Educate yourself on savings accounts that exist in your bank and open one.
A day trip
Treat yourself to that trip to a new place. Try out Ngare Ndare Forest, national parks, art galleries ,museums and historical sites .These are activities you can do with children.
Vacation
Pexels
Spend time in the luxury of putting your feet up away from home. Changing your environment for a few days is a pleasant way to reboot. Get yourself a notebook if you must to write your thoughts or game plan. Whatever your version of fun is, do that.
Camping Vacation
Pexels
Camping is another version of a vacation. Go away to a pitched tent in the presence of mother nature’s serenity. Grill some meat and enjoy a bonfire in the wild. I have been to Duara Flamingo Camp at the shores of Lake Elementaita. I bet you will fallen love with waking up to a view of the Lake and birds. Check out Camping places in Kenya for more ideas of camp sites.
Photo shoot
Pexels
Photo shoots shouldn’t only be done during graduations or weddings, go for a shoot on your birthday. Create beautiful memories to commemorate your birthday as well. Photo shoots should be done often especially when you have your own camera. Document your life in imagery…thank me later when your children or grandchildren ask to see images of you when you were at a certain age.
Try out a new restaurant
Pexels
Take yourself on a date with a friend or alone if you want to spend some quality time alone. Try out something sweet on the menu that you’ve never tried before. Go crazy on the happy hour menu.
A meaningful book
Pexels
In case you never read, it may be a good idea to get yourself a good book that has meaningful information. Get yourself a life changing book that will improve the quality of your life.
Unique piece of jewelry
Pexels
Have you been looking up a specific kind of jewelry online? Is there a piece of jewelry that you see on magazines and wish you had it? This is an ideal time for you to walk into the jewelry store and get that piece fit and adjusted to fit you then swipe that card and pay! Purchasing jewelry gives personal satisfaction and creates generational gifts that we can hand down to our children or grandchildren
Outdoor activities never done before
Pexels
Leave the house on your birthday weekend and get some outdoor fun. Here are some ideas: a nature walk at Karuga Forest, Grand Prix Karting, Paint ball, a Hike trip, Zip lining , Motorcross, Sky diving, Rafting, Paragliding, Bungee jumping or Jet skiing
Attend an event
In case you’ve thought of an event that you’d like to attend that happens around the time your birthday happens try it out. It could be live music or an open art gallery. Here are some ideas: Jazz festival, Blankets and wine or art exhibitions.
Closet makeover
Pexels
Just an idea, in days or months leading up to your big day depending on how attached you are to your clothes start letting them go. If you’ve something in your closet for six months that you’ve not worn you can give it away. Put aside clothes that don’t fit and those you would never wear again. Important tip: give away clothes before they fade or get torn. Figure out who to give and when so that you get them out of your reach early. Give clothes to the less fortunate friends & family then purchase new ones. | https://medium.com/@toitoekcherry/birthday-gifts-for-yourself-e90f8b16e663 | ['Cherry Jerine'] | 2020-05-20 06:08:29.837000+00:00 | ['Gifts', 'Birthday'] |
Being Human: 101 | Humans as Social Creatures
As you may recall, about 10,000 years ago, our species was the only remaining member of hominoids on the planet. Even though scientists (especially social scientists) seem inclined to argue about almost everything, the general consensus is that we (i.e., Sapiens) prevailed because we had the most socially evolved brains.
So, what is it about the Sapiens brain that makes us more social? And why is the founder of Ninety.io even writing about evolution?
Think about what life was like 50,000 years ago or, heck, even 3,000 years ago!
Here we are, pretty much naked, and we need to figure out whether or not to trust someone (I’ll get much deeper into this in a future essay). On the one hand, that other human could kill us. On the other, they could help us acquire food, protect our family, help us build a structure to not only protect us from the elements, but store and protect our food. Maybe they could even teach us something, maybe do the stuff we don’t either like doing and /or stink at doing, and, heck, even make us laugh.
Humans as Trusting Creatures
So how did we come to trust other humans?
Current research (including Paul Zak’s great book, Trust Factor) makes a compelling case that when it comes to trust, while there are many things that differentiate our brains from other animals, one of the key factors is a neurotransmitter called oxytocin, a hormone that is sometimes referred to as the “cuddle hormone” or the “love hormone.” In short, oxytocin helps us assess whether we should run from or approach and interact with (i.e., trust) another human being.
While there are several theories, I subscribe to the notion that the Sapiens’ socially evolved, oxytocin-enhanced brain helped these particular hominoids team up to procure food and defend themselves, thus satisfying the first two levels of Maslow’s Hierarchy — primary Level 1 Need being food, water and sleep, and primary Level 2 Need being security.
Humans as Tribal Creatures
Over time, our socially evolving ancestors began to see the power associated with trust. More specifically, they learned that if they didn’t trust first, there was no way they could divide and conquer in order to take advantage of their individual talents. Dividing and conquering not only made belonging (i.e., being with others) more valuable (a primary Level 3 Need), but in turn, it helped them to become more self-aware (i.e., where their individual talents lie versus those of their fellow tribe members). It also helped them develop their primary Level 4 Need, which is self-esteem (i.e., they not only belonged, but felt that they were contributing to the well-being of their tribe — that they mattered).
What Came First: Words or Emotions?
More than 100,000 years ago, our ancestors started to develop several powerful capabilities. The first was likely an increasing array of emotions, followed by words. Words became one of the earliest super tools. Words helped them not just label things (e.g., good to eat, bad to eat), but, when connected, gave them the ability to create more and more sophisticated ways of understanding themselves, others and life.
In terms of emotions, it’s likely that our earliest were those that helped us with just basic survival (e.g., fear and love). In time, as belonging became more and more important, these emotions became more sophisticated (e.g., shame versus guilt). Once our emotions became more and more sophisticated (e.g., rage versus anxiety), we started to develop words, and sentences, that initially helped us better understand and communicate what we were feeling (e.g., anxious versus melancholy). The words themselves likely helped put us on the path toward greater competencies that led us to become these beings with the Need to self-actualize.
The Power of Purpose
Fast forward a bit more and we start to see our oxytocin-enhanced forbearers and their tribes starting to develop a sense of purpose that not only drove the individuals, and bound tribes more tightly together, but drove their actions. Sometimes these purposes were simply to make life better for themselves or to defend their way of life. Other times they were to pursue some envisioned greater sense of being and/or glory (e.g., “the greater glory of Rome”).
Hierarchies of Competency
In time, as Sapiens pursued purpose and developed even more complex ways of thinking about, talking about and understanding life, humans began to excel — not just at dividing and conquering based upon an array of talents and competencies (e.g., talent, skills, experiences and energy) — but at envisioning greater futures and delegating and elevating. This included getting others to help so they could focus on bigger, better and / or or more challenging opportunities (an essay on “Flow” is also coming soon).
It also meant forming hierarchies of competencies, like organizational building, planning (time and process) and leadership skills. All of this made life safer and richer, not only that day, but for what was then tomorrow and beyond.
These hierarchies of competencies (e.g., planning, process, leadership, management, politics) enabled Sapiens to build larger and larger tribes for a host of purposes, including security and enhancing their ability to create things (i.e., “to make life better”) that required larger and larger groups of people (e.g., building the Great Pyramids).
Hierarchies of Values
As Sapiens built larger tribes to keep things “civil” (i.e., to get along), they began to create hierarchies of values that codified acceptable and unacceptable behaviors. Initially, these values were oftentimes codified in the form of what we think of as religious teachings and principles (which appear to date back at least 5,000 years ago).
Values made it easier for humans to not only work together but, in particular, as the size of their tribes grew, values helped hold them together. [For example, one of the reasons it appears marriage and monogamy became widespread was that there was far less stability (e.g., more murders) in tribes that had large-scale polygamy. Yes, one can imagine how young men might become very uncivilized when all of their prospective female mates are hoarded by other “more desirable” or more powerful men.]
Healthy tribes (i.e., organizations) are led by people who not only respect our values and the fact that we are bound together by complementary interests, talents and goals, but possess the ability to think longer term, so that the tribes and their people are capable of making life better for themselves and those around them.
Norms, Laws and Rights
In time, general values (e.g., honesty, which is core for trust) turned into social norms, which are much more specific standards, rules, guides and expectations for actual behavior (versus values which tend to be more abstract conceptions of what is important and worthwhile).
At some point, Sapiens started to enact laws and regulations that essentially decreed certain norms so important that there would be penalties associated with their violation.
Finally, during the last couple thousand or so years, humans started to talk about “rights.” The founders of the United States of America believed humans had certain “unalienable” rights. While they found these to be “self-evident,” it appears this wasn’t the case because ultimately, they created something called the Bill of Rights to help enumerate the constitutional rights of U.S. citizens (as did the United Nations with The Universal Declaration of Human Rights [UDHR], which was published in 1948 shortly after, and in response to, World War II).
I believe — and both the Bill of Rights and the UDHR are consistent with this belief — that a human’s unalienable (aka inalienable) rights include the right to:
Breath (Maslow Level 1, or “ML1”) Eat (ML 1) Sleep (ML 1) Move (ML 2) Think (ML 1–5) Talk (ML 3–5) Associate (ML 3–5) Create (and procreate) (ML 2–5) Learn (ML 4–5) Own the things we create or trade them for things owned by others (ML 4–5) Defend our rights. (ML 1–5)
In my opinion, it is only through having these unalienable rights that we are truly able to thrive and flourish as human beings.
I also believe that what we think of as Rights has evolved a lot over the years. As an example, the UDHR includes not just unalienable Rights but also foundational Rights (i.e., those needed to protect our unalienable rights) and even aspirational Rights (e.g., wouldn’t it be great if everyone who wanted a job had one). A separate essay on these three types of Rights is in the “Works” (yes, pun intended).
Rights versus Needs
I believe Needs are not Rights. Needs are extraordinarily real, but to state the obvious, when born, we are totally incapable of meeting our individual Needs. For a host of reasons, not the least of which is that each of us is extraordinarily unique, it is impossible for a human to self-actualize without becoming someone who takes ownership for his or her Needs (i.e., you guessed it — to embrace Work). Otherwise, it will be impossible to achieve self-esteem, let alone self-actualize, since we would be dependent upon someone or something else such as an individual or a group or both.
One final note on Needs versus Rights: I deeply appreciate that not every person is fully capable of being able to take care of his or her Needs. This is where the tribe and its values, laws and regulations come into play. Consequently, we believe healthy tribes endeavor to take care of those members who have either temporarily fallen on hard times, or worse, are incapable of taking care of themselves.
In short, I believe healthy tribes (e.g., teams, companies, countries) have shared values and complementary interests, talents and goals.
In short, I believe healthy tribes (e.g., teams, companies, countries) have shared values and complementary interests, talents and goals. I further believe that healthy beings and tribes need to be led by people with the ability to not only respect and nurture what holds the tribe together but think longer term, so that the tribes and their people are adequately prepared for today, tomorrow and beyond (that especially includes being prepared for hard times like now). Said another way, I believe Maslow’s Hierarchy not only applies to individuals but to tribes (e.g., groups, companies, communities, states, countries) as well. | https://medium.com/@markabbottglobal/being-human-101-46a6eb6d1618 | ['Mark Abbott'] | 2021-01-15 14:00:13.211000+00:00 | ['Work', 'Team Collaboration', 'Evolutionary Psychology', 'Leadership', 'Self-awareness'] |
How Practical Is Tesla’s Cybertruck in the UK? | With deliveries in the States poised for late 2021 and reservations being possible here in the UK too, I was curious whether the dimensions of the Cybertruck would be practical in day to day life here in the UK.
As you may be aware, here in the UK our roads tend to be narrower especially within city centres and the number of people with trucks is significantly lower than in the US.
So how well will Cybertruck do here in the UK given our lack of thirst for trucks and our narrower streets?
Driving A Cybertruck
Most roads in the UK are plenty wide enough for the Cybertruck in everyday use. The size of the car was talked about a lot when the car was first announced, especially with it coming to Europe. Here in the UK most of our roads are wide enough, although some country lanes can get quite narrow. Considering many of these country lanes lead to farms with tractors using these roads, it’s safe to say the Cybertruck should be fine.
Narrow UK roads (image source)
In busy cities like London, roads can become narrower due to on-street parking and roads being congested with other cars. However, most routes through London are accessible by buses and therefore again, the Cybertruck should have no problem. It may be a tight squeeze on certain narrow or busy roads but nothing that would cause issues.
Certain roads in the UK have a maximum width restriction. This restriction is normally around 6 foot 6 inches (about 2 meters) so the Cybertruck should avoid these roads and find an alternative route. However, there are many SUV style cars on UK roads today that would also have this problem including the Land Rover Discovery Sport and even the Tesla Model S and we see plenty of these cars on UK roads.
In most day to day use, I can’t see the Cybertruck having a problem, especially seeing as we already have cars around the 2-meter wide mark on roads today.
Parking A Cybertruck
The dimensions of the Cybertruck are 5.8 meters long, just over 2 meters wide and 1.9 meters high. How do the average garage and parking space sizes in the UK compare?
Parking in a Garage
Garages in the UK aren’t used as much for parking cars, they’re often used as rooms for extra storage. This is mainly because the average size of single garages in the UK is fairly small. Door sizes tend to be around 2.2 meters wide with the overall garage being about 3 meters wide. This is a tight squeeze for most cars, even the Model 3 is 1.85 meters wide leaving only 35 cm of clearance through an average UK garage door.
Average garage door size UK (image source)
Looking lengthways isn't much of an improvement either with the average UK garage being 6 meters long, even double garages share this same average length. Again, these leaves very little clearance for the Cybertruck with its 5.8 meter length.
Parking in a Parking Lot
“The average UK parking bay size is 2.4m wide by 4.8m long”. This is for off-street parking spaces like actual car parks. From this, we can see that the Cybertruck will fit widthways, although it leaves it only 20 centimetres either side for opening the doors.
Lengthways though, the Cybertruck will definitely be overhanging which in a tight parking lot could cause some annoyance to other drivers and obviously increases the chance of it getting clipped by another car.
The Cybertruck isn’t alone here though. There aren’t many trucks in the UK but our most popular is the Ford Ranger with a length of 5.35 meters. The Mitsubishi L200 is also popular and has a length of 5.3 meters.
It seems UK parking spaces aren’t growing with the size of our cars and drivers of these trucks will already be experiencing “the overhang”. However, the Cybertruck is a further 8% longer than the Ford Ranger extending this problem even further. | https://medium.com/swlh/how-practical-is-teslas-cybertruck-for-uk-roads-cf864f017264 | ['Lewis Gavin'] | 2020-12-16 15:22:28.422000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Tech', 'UK', 'Tesla', 'Cars'] |
The Beauty Of Greek Mythology Novels And Publications | Overview
Ah, Greek Mythology. Tales of such… uniqueness to say the least. From the stories of the Olympian gods, Greek heroes such as Achilles and Perseus, and of course we can’t forget the beloved mythical creatures/monsters. After all, their stories are the stepping stones and grounding points to some of the biggest adaptations in the mediated world.
I truly believe that Greek mythology, well, mythology in general deserves more recognition in today’s society. Although for the sake of this blog, I’ll focus more on Greek mythology and the beauty of the historical tales. Whether it be movie adaptations, books of historical-fiction, theatre productions or even just sources of media in general. Greek mythology has influenced some of the biggest productions in history!
Novels
Cover of the award-winning novel ‘The Song Of Achilles’ by Madeline Miller
Firstly, let’s go into detail regarding novels and books about, or with ties to Greek mythology. If, like me, you’re a huge bookworm, or even just appreciate literature, perhaps you yourself have read a book which links with Greek mythology in some way. From historical fiction such as Rick Riordan’s ‘Percy Jackson Universe’, to beautiful retellings of the Trojan War such as ‘The Silence Of The Girls’ by Pat Barker, the stories are endless!
My personal favourite novel surrounding Greek mythology, in fact, my favourite novel of all time would have to be ‘The Song Of Achilles’ by Madeline Miller. Therefore, I’m going to focus primarily on this stunning retelling of the Trojan war and of the war hero, Achilles’ to which the novel follows.
‘The Song Of Achilles’ is a stunning retelling of the Trojan War from the point of view of a former prince, and exile, Patroclus. Following an accident in his childhood, Patroclus is exiled to Phthia, where fate leads him to Achilles, prince of Phthia and son of the sea nereid/goddess, Thetis. The two become unlikely friends and gain a close bond. When Achilles is ordered by his mother to be trained by the mythological and notorious Centaur, Chiron (Yes, the same Chiron that trained Perseus), Patroclus follows. Beginning Achilles’ prophecy. In the days spent training and living with Chiron, the two become closer and eventually establish a relationship.
Now, I won’t go into too much more detail in order to avoid spoilers, but I highly suggest and enforce that anyone should read this beautiful novel. Miller (author) has truly captured the soul beauty of mythology and is accurate to the tales, and sure knows how to touch at your heartstrings. Oh yeah, have tissues at the ready!
Miller’s writing style in particular is simply just so beautiful and touching. When I speak of the beauty and potential that Greek mythology has regarding novels and publications, there could not be a superior suggestion! The following quotes, in particular, are two of my favourites, and are perfect examples of this:
“We were like gods at the dawning of the world, & our joy was so bright we could see nothing else but the other.”
“Name one hero who was happy… You can’t… I’m going to be the first.”
Historical Fiction
Official Cover Art of ‘Percy Jackson and The Olympians’ book series by Rick Riordan
If there’s one thing I love just as much, if not more than retellings of mythology, it’s historical fiction based off of mythology! A classic and popular example of this historical-fiction sub-genre would be Rick Riordan’s ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’ and its sequel/continuation series, ‘The Heroes of Olympus’ and ‘The Trials Of Apollo’.
Rick Riordan perfectly created Percy’s world of gods and monsters, which is a huge success, particularly towards teenagers and young adults. Although no matter your age, anyone is sure to enjoy this series. Believe me, I even pushed this series onto my grandmother and now she’s read them all! From unique demigod abilities, Pegasus, a thrilling (and somewhat dangerous) summer camp, this series really does have it all; and is everything a fictional series should be (and more).
Now, more analytically, I believe that series’ like these greatly and positively represent Greek mythology and convey the attention that the stories of Homer’s Iliad deserve! In modern society and culture, I feel that every now and then it is good to stop and reflect on past societies and tales, such as the tales of Greek mythology. What better way is there to do this by reading about these exhilarating tales, also told through works of fiction and fantasy to make them more engaging to some audiences. Historical fiction truly is an amazing means of reflection and also research in this sense!
Concluding
Now, I’m not saying that everyone should be enforced to go and read through all twenty-four books of the Iliad, I’m simply recommending my personal preferences and interests, and how these tales can be wonderfully adapted. Furthermore, if you’re a fan of history and/or ancient history, I recommend getting into mythology as it’s overall just so interesting and beautiful!
At this point, I’m pretty sure that I’ve made my endorsement and love for the Greek myths pretty clear. So now, let me hear from you guys! What’re your favourite Greek myths and tales, or your favourite film/novel adaptations? If you would like to further discuss this topic or reply to anything I’ve written about please feel free to comment or contact me at: serene.blogs2020@gmail.com
I hope you all are doing well and staying safe, and I really appreciate you reading my short article.
… | https://medium.com/@sereneblogs/the-beauty-of-greek-mythology-novels-and-publications-1384b7a604f3 | ['Sam Davies'] | 2020-12-10 20:02:41.048000+00:00 | ['Writing', 'Mythology', 'Authors', 'Books', 'Novel'] |
Clyde, The Forgotten Reindeer, Part 2 | Prompts = Come, Bedrock, Fervent
Photo by Norman Tsui on Unsplash
In depictions of Santa’s yearly ride, eight reindeer are normally portrayed. Rudolph, if included, makes nine. But never are there ten, despite the fact that there were that many stalls in the North Pole stable. The name that’s been forgotten to history? Clyde.
‘Come in, plenty of room up front. Everyone here? Good. It’s my fervent desire to have another successful Christmas. Rudolph, navigation lights. Clyde, radar — keep us from smacking into mountains. You’re the bedrock of the operation. Be ready.’
Clyde basked in the spotlight. ‘Hey Rudy! I’m working on my own theme song, just like you!’
Rudolph glowered. | https://medium.com/100-word-or-less-stories/clyde-the-forgotten-reindeer-part-2-16ecc55e0b43 | ['Parzival Sattva'] | 2020-12-25 09:53:02.953000+00:00 | ['Flash Fiction', 'Microfiction', 'Christmas', 'Reindeer', '100wordstory'] |
Conseils pour reconnaître le cancer | 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/conseils-pour-reconna%C3%AEtre-le-cancer/conseils-pour-reconna%C3%AEtre-le-cancer-4e92e019b1d8 | [] | 2020-12-17 03:07:21.919000+00:00 | ['Cancer', 'Reconnaitre', 'Puor', 'Les', 'Conseils'] |
Viriditas* | That morning,
several years ago,
when I closed my eyes
before the warm glow of a candle flame,
tiny vines, earthy and green,
slowly and energetically
began to wind, growing up
over my feet, ankles,
calves.
I saw them
in periphery and
when I focused my inner eye
directly on them,
they stopped their vining,
like a child will stop
when she notices she is
being observed
doing something true,
but not meant to be watched.
And then
I let them be.
I knew
it was my heart
that needed tending.
Those lively green vines
would grow
lusciously, luxuriously
all on their own,
without me watching.
*“Viriditas” is a Latin word that means “greenness.” The medieval Christian mystic, Hildegard von Bingen, used the term “Viriditas” to describe an enlivened spiritual state, or “greening,” and also to refer to the creativity of God at work within us and all of Creation.
I am grateful you took the time to read.
If you would like more: https://medium.com/spiritual-secrets/retreat-cea4761c65e | https://medium.com/spiritual-secrets/viriditas-1678df6c490f | ['Michelle Berry Lane'] | 2020-10-28 12:03:09.675000+00:00 | ['Awakening', 'Spirituality', 'The Heart', 'Poetry', 'Spiritual Secrets'] |
I Mother No One | I Mother No One
For Mothers Lost, Mothers Yet Still Mothering, and Mothers Who Mother Others
It is Mother’s Day and I am outside walking the dog, listening to the sounds of the closest highway, hearing them, there is nothing that I can say that I have not already said about this day. But, I will say what I can. Mothers, you have a gift. You were given the knowledge to raise and keep up with little versions of you. How tiresome that must be on a daily basis. How incredible the strength must be to last for days on end. Knowing that you would be someone that someone else would look up to is a pressure and a weight that I cannot even bear.
Mothers, I appreciate you.
As I walk the hills of my apartment complex, I envision the days that my mother and I had our outs. But, we survived and are surviving. I am grateful for the chance to say that we moved through a tumultuous time and we are rising to the top. It is 2019, and I have entered my 39th year, and I still mother no one in the actual defining terms of a mother — one who gives birth to someone. But, I did mother. I do Mother. I am mothering younger versions of me, my cousins, and others and I get to see what this life could have been, but only part-time. And that is best for me. The older I get, the more I know this to be true.
Part-time mothering of others is significantly different from Full-time mothering of your own.
Fake Balloons|Photo Credit: Tremaine L. Loadholt
On this day, I wish you peace, love, light, a home-cooked meal that does not come from your hands and toil in the kitchen, and the overwhelmingly powerful gift of appreciation. You deserve it. If you are mothering the way you should — you deserve it. If your children can say positively that you are their mother and they say it proudly — you deserve it. If you have given your all, including everything left after it — you deserve it. If you messed up, lost track, received help, and are on your way to the betterment of both you and your children — you deserve it.
I wish I could make each and every one of you smile, offer a hug, a kind word on more than just one day of this year, but here are a few…
For those of you yet still mothering, those who mother others, those who are growing from the pain of not being mothered, and all others who fall in the category of mothering and the mothered…
We are sending you a heartfelt Happy Mother’s Day. | https://medium.com/a-cornered-gurl/i-mother-no-one-9ab6ff45eb6f | ['Tre L. Loadholt'] | 2019-05-12 13:35:05.785000+00:00 | ['Mothers', 'Mothers Day', 'A Cornered Gurl', 'Letters', 'Love'] |
The New Meat Market | Cultured meat and climate change
A US company called Eat Just has recently been approved to sell “chicken bites” in Singapore. I’m no expert but simply put, it works by taking a cell from a chicken. The cell is placed in such an environment that it “believes” it's still a part of the chicken. The cell then multiplies until there is a slab of meat.
There is some skepticism around meat from a lab. In this article from The Guardian, Naima Brown got a chance to test lab chicken. Although it tasted like a chicken nugget Naima said:
“…for me, lab-grown meat doesn’t sit right.”
And that could be a big hurdle for many, giving up meat from a living animal for meat grown in a lab. To be honest, it doesn't sound very appealing. Meat, grown by people in white coats, latex gloves, and safety goggles in contrast to grazing animals.
However, livestock accounts for 14.5% of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. So limiting this sector's emissions is important. Considering 50 billion chickens are slaughtered every year, it's not hard to believe that industrial livestock is a big player in emissions and that we humans want meat and are not willing to give it up, it seems.
Cultured meat could be an alternative, being more efficient when it comes to land use, water use, and greenhouse gas emissions. The energy use could, however, be higher, so the cleanliness of “clean meat” could depend on the cleanliness of the energy used.
Nevertheless, in order for cultured meat to actually work, people need to be willing to eat it. Up until now, theories around consumers' willingness to eat cultured meat have been hypothetical. Now with the approval in Singapore, there is a chance for researchers to study consumers to figure out if there is any potential for it and how to make it more appealing. No consumer, no change in the food sector.
One hindrance for consumers could be that it's hard to replicate different kinds of cuts like chicken wings or steaks due to the different muscle cells, bone, and so on that complicates it. So for now, lab-grown nuggets are what we get. | https://medium.com/climate-conscious/the-new-meat-market-dda18ac66c77 | ['Oliver Zatch'] | 2020-12-30 22:51:37.885000+00:00 | ['Food', 'Meat', 'Science', 'Sustainability', 'Climate Change'] |
10 Ultimate Tips and Tricks on Data Visualization in QlikView | Introduction
QlikView is a popular and simple to learn tool for data visualization. Its simple interface makes it a favorite among newbies in analytics. I loved it too. In fact, my journey in business intelligence began with QlikView. As from a non-programming background, I couldn’t have asked for a better start.
Over the years, I’ve discovered some ways of becoming productive at QlikView. I found these ways after spending endless hours working on this tool. Finally, I ended up finding these 10 tricks which can help you work faster. Without these tricks, I was almost spending 15 minutes in a task which can now be done in less than 3 mins.
In this article, I’ve shared these 10 ultimate tips & tricks which can save your time and increase your productivity while working on this tool.
List of Tips and Tricks Covered
Copy Objects Copy Expression Move chart components Select multiple objects Limit dimensions of a chart Adding Visual elements to table Conditionally show or hide objects Use comments in scripting Use tabs in scripting Keyboard Shortcuts
Copy Objects
We often create objects which are similar to one of existing objects with minor changes in dimension, expression or any other parameter(s). It’s a time taking process.
But, you can do it much faster now. Simply, copy the existing object and make the necessary changes. You can copy sheet and chart object both. Method is as follows:
Chart object: Right click on the chart title and then select command “ Clone ”. This will create a copy of chart objects. Alternative method is to click on chart title by holding CTRL key and drag the object to different location and release mouse button.
Right click on the chart title and then select command “ ”. This will create a copy of chart objects. Alternative method is to click on chart title by holding key and drag the object to different location and release mouse button. Sheet object: Right click on sheet tab and select command “Copy Sheet”. This will create a similar sheet with name as “Copy of <current sheet name>”. This new sheet will be created at the end of all sheets.
Copy Expression
During dashboard development, we write multiple expressions (simple and complex). There are situations when we end up writing similar expressions for different chart objects. To make it efficient, we can re-use our existing expressions. Let’s look at the methods:
Open expression. Copy and paste it into a new expression
Right click on expression. Select “Copy” command. Then, paste it to expression window. Here, you do not only copy the expression code. The new column that is created has exactly the same properties as the source expression. This includes column width, alignment, number format etc.
In dashboard development, there are some expressions which are common to different chart objects. In this case, we can store the expression in a variable and access it with variable name using a dollar expansion. To do this, first store expression in a variable (Go to Settings -> Variable Overview and store expression).
To access it in any chart objects, write expression as $(Variable_Name).
This improves the accuracy and similarity across the dashboard as we are using same expression.
Move chart components
By default, position of chart components are fixed at the right hand side. But, in some cases we are required to change the position for better visualization. For which, there is no direct option available. I too didn’t have any solution of this issue initially. But, with time I found out a way. This can be done by using combination of keyboard shortcuts. Here is the trick:
Let’s say, we want to move the chart legend to left for below pie chart
Now, select the chart and press Ctrl+Shift. You will see a red border around every chart object
Now, drag and drop the individual component to left position (or required position).
Above, you have seen that chart legends moved to left side. You can also re-size the individual component using double headed arrow.
Select Multiple Objects
Sometimes we want to perform similar operation such as changing font size, layout, deletion with multiple objects. In such cases, we select all objects and perform the required operation. For selection, initially, we select one object then press SHIFT key. Then, click on the title of other objects. Now, you can perform group operation (applicable) on these objects like delete, using properties option (right click on any selected object) change the layout, font and caption.
Adding Visual elements to Table
Usually, we show only numbers in tabular representation. However, we can make the table more informative by adding visual elements to table. In Qlikview, we can apply three visualization techniques to table:
Limit Dimension of a Chart
Look at the below chart, it has too many dimensions making it difficult to make inferences about data.
We can solve this challenge by:
Limiting Dimension: In properties window of chart object, you can find a for “Dimension Limits”, where you can restrict dimension based on value such as show only largest 10, first 10, smallest 10, show values greater than or equals to 5% of total, show values those accumulate to 80% of total.
Enabling scroll bar for dimension: This option is available on Presentation tab of chart properties window. You can enable scroll bar on x-axis and set limit for number of items to show (look at below snapshot). This is one of the less known useful feature of Qlikview. Here, you can also show top 10, bottom 10 by sorting the chart based on expression in descending or ascending order.
Conditionally Show or Hide Objects
We can show or hide Qlikview objects based on the requirement. It helps to optimize the area of sheet object effectively. Under layout tab of properties window, there is an option to show or hide the sheet object (always or conditionally). Here you can write expression or use variable to control it. Generally, developers use “Buttons” to change the value of variable such as one button assigns value 0 to variable and another assigns 1.
We can also show or hide dimension and expression of chart object and best use of this feature is “ Adhoc reporting” or “ Customized reporting”. You can refer article “ Customized reporting in Qlikview “.
Use comments in Qlikview scripting:
Great programmers always add comments with different segment of code. It makes easier to read and debug the code. In Qlikview scripting also, this practice is highly recommended. There are several ways to create comments in your script.
// is for single line comments
/* …*/ is for a block edit
Use script tabs in Qlikview scripting
To keep scripts maintainable, we do follow modular structure in coding. In similar line, we should use scripts tab to standardize our scripts. It helps in faster script editing and debugging. Qlikview scripts are run top to bottom on each tab, from the left most tab to the right.
Above, you can that different tabs for XY Example, FilmsDatabase, Rating and Dictionary.
Keyboard Shortcuts
Before checking these shortcuts, first turn on “ Show Shortcut keys in ScreenTips “ option. With this, it will show shortcut keys whenever we hover the mouse pointer over menu icons. Just like Microsoft Excel does. This helps a lot in memorizing keyboard shortcuts.
To enable it, right click on toolbar area -> select command “Customize” -> Go to Options tab ->Check box on for “Show shortcut keys in ScreenTips”. Below are some useful keyboard shortcuts:
End Notes
Not only these tips will make you work faster. But, you’ll also get more time to explore new things at your end. Visualizing data is equally important as analyzing data. Hence, you should strive to become better day by day in data visualization.
In this article, we looked at QlikView tips and tricks which will enhance your dashboard development experience. Here, I have mostly covered tips and tricks related associated with front end or designer point of view like copying objects & expression, work with chart components, selecting multiple objects, limit dimension, visualization with table, conditionally show or hide objects, scripting best practices and finally keyboard shortcuts.
Did you find this article useful ? Do you want to add some more tips and tricks ? Feel free to share your experience with us, I’d love to hear you.
Originally published at https://www.analyticsvidhya.com on December 9, 2015. | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/10-ultimate-tips-and-tricks-on-data-visualization-in-qlikview-6fc7f186676e | ['Sunil Ray'] | 2019-08-12 04:07:11.580000+00:00 | ['Analytics', 'Data Visualization', 'Analysis', 'Visualization', 'Design'] |
10 Things I Learned While Redesigning My App | Color sets the mood
I knew color selection would be key to achieving my goal of a mental health app that is calm and welcoming. Color theory suggests different shades of blue can create a peaceful mood. I couldn’t settle on one shade, so I went exploring for inspiration. Using canva.com, I went through a few logos and found one with a peach color, which had a warmth that was missing from the blue. Somehow my color palette came together right after selecting the logo. I’m not saying this will work for you, just saying how it worked for me.
2. How to create an App Intro for greater user engagement?
The intro screen should show the apps’ value proposition using a limited number of words and create a call-to-action. To tailor this for my app, I had to dig into the user interviews I initially conducted. Interviews are the best way to empathize with the users as they give you an understanding of the users’ values, experiences, and perceptions. For my app, the theme that constantly came up was that people need instant help free of cost. People value their time and resources and that’s what we are going to give them in this app intro.
3. Style Guide — Dead or Alive?
I struggled to put together the most basic screens for my app since I could not decide on the color palettes, fonts, imagery, UI elements, iconography, etc. I turned to a mentor for advice and he quickly pointed out that having a style guide would help me greatly. Once documented, I can reuse all the elements in the Style Guide for multiple screens in my app. And if I ever make changes to elements in the app, I can always go back and update the Style Guide. Style Guide is a living document, let it breathe in your innovations.
4. Craft a great First Time User Experience (FTUE).
User Flows come in handy when developing the onboarding experience. It basically maps out all the activities a user can perform while existing in the app. I created a couple of different user flows to capture all the tasks one could do in the app. The simpler the onboarding experience, the higher the retention rate will be. There is no room for complexity at this point.
5. Also build monetary worth for the business
Once the user is hooked on the experience of my app, I wanted to introduce a Premium feature to build some monetary worth for the business. The users want the best experience, consistently, and are willing to pay for it. After creating a great onboarding experience it was only safe to assume that we could capitalize on it.
6. How to prioritize features? Use Cake. Yes, you read that right.
One of my mentors introduced me to the Cake Experience Roadmap which contains a cupcake, birthday cake, and wedding cake. In short, a cupcake is a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) that you know you are going to build. It is tasty and has a low price. Level up to a Birthday cake. You think that you will build it. Lastly, a wedding cake is a deliverable that you may or may not build.
7. Payment Screen — No need to reinvent the wheel
For the premium feature on my app, I had to create a payment screen workflow. For the user that reached the payment screen with the intention to buy, the app has done everything right. As much as I want to revolutionize this workflow, I decided to stick with a standard one. The research has been done and tested. It was all about empathy for the user. There was no need to reinvent the wheel in this segment.
8. Inclusive Design and Accessibility — Icons Shopping & Labels
Initially, I had some difficulty with what icons I used. For it to be universally understood, I had to do some digging. I used thenounproject.com for icon shopping. Later I decided to add labels to the navigation bar. Labels are meaningful when it comes to information architecture. As long as there is no confusion to the user, it improves accessibility in the app.
9. Negative space is your friend
Proper sizing and spacing of elements are critical for interface design. When components get too close together or to edges, the layout will feel cramped. Using a grid with consistent margins and padding helps keep everything organized and aligned. This will look more professional and improve readability.
There was a moment or two when I failed to consider it. After talking to a mentor, I quickly realized what difference it makes in the composition of the design and included it.
10. Do not silo yourself, even on a solo project
I had a habit of working in isolation with respect to solo projects. But it all changed after I came across ADPList.com. Once I started showing my workaround to mentors from different backgrounds, I received valuable feedback. I was iterating on the app before I knew it. After going through this app redesign, I can confidently say that I’m no longer afraid of constructive criticism. The design community at large is a welcoming one and I struck gold with ADPList.com. | https://medium.com/@swathyreddy/10-things-i-learned-while-redesigning-my-app-c333d4e070de | ['Swathy Reddy'] | 2020-11-21 23:16:33.104000+00:00 | ['Prototyping', 'UI Design', 'UX Design', 'Lessons Learned'] |
9 Things Us Black Girls Wish You Understood About Our Hair | 1. Extensions don’t mean that I don’t love my natural hair or myself. The first time that I was faced with this perspective was in Missouri when a girl asked me if I did not like myself since she rarely got to see my “real” hair. I will admit, I was caught off guard. Trying new looks is not synonymous with not loving my natural look. It is all a matter of preference, and sometimes it’s a matter of protective hairstyles.
2. If my hair goes from shoulder-length to back-length, it could be extensions or shrinkage. Hair grows as it grows. It doesn’t grow at will. But sometimes I just want to try a new look so I get extensions. It always baffled me growing up how many people couldn’t understand that my extensions did not grow from my head and that they could be removed with no damage done to my scalp or my hair. With that said, extensions are not the only way length is achieved. Keep in mind that hair texture determines shrinkage. There are various hair types that exist across the board no matter your race. Depending on how tightly your hair curls, you may or may not experience shrinkage at different rates. There is a long of diversity in shrinkage. Different rules apply.
3. Protective hairstyles are important and aren’t always extensions. Chances are if you didn’t grow up around protective hairstyles, this term can be puzzling. All it means is that there are certain hairstyles that can protect hair from breakage. Believe it or not, the tighter the curl pattern, the more fragile the ends of the hair can be. Protective hairstyles help to conceal the ends of the hair protecting them from damage caused by combing it often, a change in weather, and more. It can also make it easier to manage and makes getting ready super quick and easy.
4. I can have natural hair and wear protective hairstyles. I remember telling someone that I had natural hair while my hair was in box braids and she said, “Wait, no…you just told me that those were extensions”. We laughed about it and I explained that all “natural” means is that there have been no chemicals added to transform the natural curl pattern. So I can have my hair in as many protective hairstyles as I want, or blow-dry it from time to time, as long as it returns to its natural state when water touches it, it is natural.
5. Chemically treated hair also grows from the head naturally but its natural texture has been altered. When someone texturizes (adds chemicals to loosen their natural curl pattern) their hair or relaxes (adds chemicals to permanently straighten their hair) their hair, it alters their natural curl pattern entirely. That’s a big difference.
6. I do not have to wash my hair as often. A friend once asked when was the last time I washed my hair and I said it had been about three or four days and she looked at me wide-eyed and astonished. But then I explained that my hair doesn’t produce oils as quickly as hers do and so I do not have to wash it as frequently. In fact, over-washing my hair could easily lead to me losing all my hair.
7. Oils and moisturizers are actually great/essential for my hair. While some of my friends are loading up on dry shampoo, I am stocking up on oils and moisturizers for my hair because we have different needs. My hair grows best and remains healthiest when moisturized, but remember too much of any good thing can be a bad thing. Moisturizing my hair once or twice a day works great for me.
8. Braids, Crochet, Twists, Dreads, and Weaves are not the same thing. The amount of times that people have said that they love/miss my “dreads” when referring to my braids or twists has proven to be quite annoying. They are visually quite different. Also, Google provides a lot of free information on all of their unique differences, but sometimes people seem more interested in making black women explain and defend their hair choices. It gets tiring.
9. Do not touch it. While I acknowledge that I understand wanting to touch hair that may seem fascinating, it is important to consider (1) why you want to touch the hair (2) how that makes me feel. Please consider my feelings and your motivation as you keep your hands to yourself. | https://medium.com/say-more/9-things-us-black-girls-wish-you-understood-about-our-hair-c7d1a8c38f42 | ['Peace Aisogun'] | 2020-04-26 14:56:58.726000+00:00 | ['Listicles', 'Lists', '20 Somethings', 'Awareness', 'Black Hair'] |
20 Serious Self-Care Practices You Don’t Know You Need Yet | (14) Find your self-coaching voice. We could all use a life coach, especially now. If you can’t afford one of those, be your own coach. How would you like a coach to talk to you? How would your coach calm you down when you’re frustrated or angry? How would your coach show you how to rise when you’re down? How might your coach ease you back to calm, happiness, peace when your mind won’t stop? What would your coach sound like? Be that coach.
You could actually write these things out, or have a conversation with someone about it. Cultivate that coaching voice, and invite it in when you need some support. This takes practice, but with time, your self-coaching can be as effective as mine has been for me. Your coach will always hold space for self-care practices that maintain your forward momentum.
FRESH! (15) Embrace change. We’ve all been changed as human beings by the last four years. There is no way around that. Humans in hostile environments adapt, in a variety of ways. Whatever ways you’ve adapted and changed, be mindful of the change, and don’t waste energy denying and resisting your changes and those who’ve changed around you: embrace it and them.
The hardest thing about change — especially radical personal change — is that all those humans who only know who you were have to change to understand who you are now. And, change is hard, for everyone. For some, embracing a brand new start with brand new humans is the healthiest way forward.
Humans who can’t see who you are project onto you what they used to know about you. Those projections freeze the changed human in the past, and the acknowledgement and affirmation necessary to support the healthy growth of the radically changed person is missing. It is also a debilitatingly painful experience when you’re invisible to those humans you need most to see you. To survive and protect the considerable emotional labor change requires, many of those who have changed choose to create new lives.
It seems counterintuitive to suggest that anyone should embrace something that makes us feel out of control and uncertain, where nothing seems familiar. Why embrace something that threatens a loss of face, makes us question our competence, creates more work, ripples through everything, and brings up old resentments? Change can be painful. But it IS. There is no way around that. Acceptance is the first step. Then…
Remember that “Change is not an event. It’s a psychological experience.” | https://medium.com/an-injustice/20-serious-self-care-practices-you-dont-know-you-need-yet-b8b9151a6c05 | ['Cathy B. Glenn'] | 2020-12-19 01:36:53.654000+00:00 | ['Culture', 'Self Care', 'Self Improvement', 'Power', 'Change'] |
Uploading large files to Oracle Object Storage using a Command Line Interface (CLI) | Install and configure the CLI
The first step to upload large objects to Object Storage using the CLI is to install and configure the CLI itself.
The CLI is built on Python (version 2.7.5 or 3.5 or later), so we need to make sure either of these Python versions is installed on the machine we are uploading the files from.
After opening a terminal, we can run the following command to run the installer and respond to some prompts (defaults are ok):
Upon successful completion of the installation, we need to run a one-time configuration process that will store a config file under the ~/.oci directory. CLI requests are authenticated using API keys, so if you need to generate a key pair it is possible to do so by running oci setup keys first and providing a path to store the generated private and public keys (in this case, do not forget also to upload the generated public key to the User console for the authentication mechanism to work properly).
To start the configuration process we need to run the oci setup config command and follow the prompts. Three parameters will be required:
Tenancy OCID, which can be found in the OCI console under Administration > Tenancy Details User OCID, which can be found in the OCI console under Identity > Users > User > User A Region Name, e.g. eu-frankfurt-1 , if you are using the Frankfurt datacenter
The generated config file will be similar to the one shown in the screenshot below (I have pixelated some parts for security purposes):
The CLI generated configuration file
Generating a random large file
If you don’t have a large file to upload for testing purposes, you can leverage on the following Unix command that generates a ~10 GB random text file:
# Generate a ~10 GB random file
dd if=/dev/urandom of=random_file.txt bs=1048576 count=10000
Uploading a large file
The random text file generated in the previous step can be now uploaded using the oci os object put command:
oci os object put \
-ns <object_storage_namespace> \
-bn <bucket_name> \
--file <file_location> \
--name <object_name> \
--part-size <upload_part_size_in_MB> \
--parallel-upload-count <maximum_number_parallel_uploads>
Let’s quickly review the parameters used by this command: | https://medium.com/oracledevs/uploading-large-files-to-oracle-object-storage-using-a-command-line-interface-cli-56a6d96f43d8 | ['Luca Iannario'] | 2019-07-16 21:51:25.382000+00:00 | ['Oracle Cloud', 'Command Line', 'Object Storage', 'Tutorial', 'Cloud Computing'] |
5 Ways AI Can Transform Salesforce Implementation Services | For any business to work its best, the company needs to understand its customers and build strong relationships with them.
A report, prepared by the State of Connected Customer, states that 66% of the 1000 consumers said that they were treated as a number by the brands and companies. This shows that consumers are looking for more humane connections with the brands they buy from.
In order to build strong relationships with the consumers, companies need to improve their internal processes in customer management and provide seamless customer service. This could only happen when the company unifies disparate company functions with an effective CRM solution.
With Salesforce, one of the most popular CRM solutions out there, collaboration becomes easy.
Companies gain effective advantages like improved management of business opportunities, effective sales collaboration, lead management, precise sales projections, and a lot of other functionalities.
However, this can only be achieved when a Salesforce implementation is done right. And that is only possible when a company has clearly defined processes and a great understanding of its customers.
That’s where AI gives a head start to a company.
Artificial Intelligence Empowers Salesforce
Artificial Intelligence helps companies gain a competitive advantage over their contemporaries. It allows them to analyze and manage data, provide actionable insights, and make precise decisions faster.
It basically eases the implementation process and helps businesses focus more on other core competencies like maintaining good customer relationships through personalized emails, alerts and making them feel connected to the brand.
So, how can a company leverage AI to provide enhanced salesforce implementation services?
Here Are 5 Ways AI Can Transform Salesforce Implementation Services
Artificial Intelligence, simply put, will make more sense of the data that goes into Salesforce. Here’s a non-exhaustive list of things that companies providing Salesforce implementations can do with Artificial Intelligence:
Make Perceptive Decisions
One decision can make or break a business. Imagine the impact of several insightful decisions that are based on hard data and do not go wrong.
AI makes that happen for companies.
It helps companies make future-minded decisions by analyzing historical data and results. Also, they can gain a new perspective on what’s trending in the market and how they can leverage those trends to bring in more customers.
As for the employees, Artificial Intelligence acts as an assistant, giving them instant access to all the important, filtered data that can be used to empower the company.
Anticipate What’s to Come
A blink of an eye can change a million things and completely undo your hard work. Nobody can see the future which is why making decisions based on things that are yet to happen can be, to say the least, daunting. This could change with Artificial Intelligence.
AI predicts future possibilities by studying the empirical data and helping companies enhance business by predicting the future to make better decisions and avoid pitfalls.
Automated Process
Managing menial tasks takes up a lot of time but are quite important for businesses. Automating these tasks can save a lot of time and money. In fact, according to Statista, by 2020 85% of CRM with businesses will be managed without human intervention.
Artificial Intelligence helps companies automate mechanical tasks during the Salesforce implementation. It also collects data and analyzes it using smart sensors and uses machine learning algorithms to categorize work and automatically make service requests without any human intervention.
Effective Time Management
Companies look for Salesforce Implementation providers usually look for faster implementation so that they can start benefiting from the software instantly.
Artificial Intelligence helps effectively manage time by analyzing a large amount of data in less time and producing actionable insights. This helps streamline the process and make the implementation happen faster as compared to a more manual implementation.
Enhance Sales Funnels
Increasing sales and thereby increasing revenue is the penultimate goal of a Salesforce implementation. So, it’s not an understatement to say that a company that approaches a Salesforce implementation provider would look at the effectiveness of their Sales funnels.
AI helps in creating sales funnels that are streamlined and customer-friendly by identifying the different behavior patterns for different types of industries and companies and the customers they serve. This leads to creating an implementation offering that’s well rounded and more effective than what’s commonly being offered.
To prove the fact that AI works wonders to any business, Statista conducted an online survey and found that 87% of AI adopters were using or considering to use AI for sales forecast and email marketing.
Artificial Intelligence Is a Prodigy of Science and Maths
Though AI has numerous advantages, there are many unforeseen dangers, and as Stephen Hawkings told BBC, “The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race. It would take off on its own, and re-design itself at an ever-increasing rate. Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete, and would be superseded.”
It is extremely important that we humans need to be smart enough to maneuver AI to ease our work all the while making sure we are not giving it more power.
Fission Labs is a technology company that provides Salesforce consultation, implementation, and support services to optimize the platform for maximum return on investment. We optimize Salesforce based on the client requirements using progressive technologies like Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, and Data Analytics. | https://medium.com/@fissionlabsmedia/5-ways-ai-can-transform-salesforce-implementation-services-615b83abe977 | ['Fission Labs'] | 2020-12-21 13:27:02.166000+00:00 | ['Salesforce Tools', 'Salesforce', 'Salesforce Implementation', 'Salesforce Development'] |
Fairness in Action— Re-weighted Range Voting and the Berkeley City Council | Photo Courtesy Haas School of Business, U.C. Berkeley
Berkeley had a problem. Cars coming off the I-80/580 interchange were overwhelming a narrow residential street, causing delays and accidents. A citizen petitioned the City Council to create a 4 way stop at Gilman St and Peralta Avenue. This was approved by the council, referred to the City staff, and then languished. The city was overwhelmed with requests from the council and constituents and requested that the council prioritize their concerns.
The Berkeley City Council is made of 8 Districts and the Mayor. Each, except the mayor, has concerns within their district, along with the city-wide concerns. Berkeley was faced with the question of how to prioritize the work for the city government while being fair to each district.
A council member reached out to the Center for Election Science requesting their recommendations. The method needed to be easy to use for the council members, output a ranked priority for each referral and be fair so that a majority of districts did not dominate the ranking system over a minority of districts. To make a voting system fair, you need to make it proportional. Proportional Representation gets deep into the math quickly, but the easiest way of looking at it is when a district gets its concerns met, it should take a step back and give favor to another district so it can get its concerns met.
With these considerations in mind, Berkeley implemented Re-weighted Range Voting (RRV). Council members vote 0–5 stars on each item. The item with the highest score gets first place. But something interesting happens for the remaining items — this is where weighting comes in. District voting power boosted in proportion to how little support they gave to previous referrals. A council member who gave the first referral zero stars has twice the voting power as a council member who gave it five stars. For intermediate scores, the effect lies between those limits. The table is re-calculated without the first place item, then the item with the highest score is selected for second place — and so on. But rather than getting bogged down in the math, let’s look at the results. | https://medium.com/@antagonist/fairness-in-planning-re-weighted-range-voting-and-the-berkeley-city-council-50a5c1e85ee0 | ['Felix Sargent'] | 2019-06-19 20:17:07.134000+00:00 | ['Voting', 'Berkeley', 'Bay Area', 'Politics'] |
Providing Feedback | I still remember my biggest fear about getting into leadership; the one thing that I thought could derail my desired career path. Could I provide someone feedback? The thought of telling someone they weren’t doing good enough was a terrifying thought, not to mention; I enjoyed being liked. Would I be tough enough to even have that conversation with someone?
Fast forward eight years and my favorite part of the leadership is coaching and helping people realize their potential. What changed from my ‘pre-leadership’ jitters to now?
The problem was how I viewed feedback. Before I got into leadership it was in the vein that ‘feedback is bad’. You’re providing feedback because someone didn’t do something right. That would of course lead to an unpleasant conversation. Once I got into leadership though I quickly realized that was a wrong starting point.
You see, feedback isn’t meant to be given in the vein of ‘it wasn’t good enough’. Instead feedback is meant to empower and encourage. What I’ve learned is that the paradigm shouldn’t be viewed as “you didn’t do a good job’ but instead should be ‘you did good, but here is how you could have done great’.
With this mindset feedback is about coaching not degrading. This makes the conversation a lot easier and more natural.
As you go into coaching few tips I have learned:
You have to start from a position of caring (see my article on the Secret of Leadership). No matter how good your advice or feedback is, it won’t be received unless you truly care and the person receiving the feedback knows it’s coming from a good place.
Make sure the person is open to feedback and give some context before you provide the feedback (even with it coming from a good place you want to give the person a chance to prepare for feedback).
Be timely.
Be specific and focus not on what didn’t go well, but on the steps that would have made them better.
Work together on a plan for how the person can improve (e.g. if it’s communication what can they do to get better). The person getting coached needs to take the lead here, but I like showing that I am just as invested in them getting better as they are.
Having said all this, what is most interesting to me is the dichotomy of how my mind has shifted on feedback. Like I mentioned at the beginning of this article, at first I was terrified at the thought of having to give someone feedback. Now I am terrified at the thought of not providing feedback. Not giving someone information that could make them better is such a disservice to the folks I have an opportunity to work with that I couldn’t sit with myself if I didn’t give the feedback.
Hopefully if you’re reading this and you’re interested in leadership,but were nervous about this part; some of the mystique around feedback has been dispelled. For further reading, my favorite book on the subject is “Trillion Dollar Coach”. | https://medium.com/@cjwarne/providing-feedback-69fb5a4a5cee | ['Cj Warne'] | 2020-12-20 12:06:06.333000+00:00 | ['Leadership', 'Leadership Development', 'Feedback', 'Coaching Skills', 'Coaching'] |
Hitler’s Eugenics Program and What American Source He Used to Form His Opinion | Photo courtesy of Mateus Campo Felipe on Unsplash.com
Madison Grant’s “The Passing of the Great Race” created many of Hitler’s ideas and opinions of eugenics and formed the basis for a lot of his theories regarding the Jewish people and those of “inferior race”. While in prison he studied this book in depth and even added many of the ideas extolled in the book about the superiority of the Nordic race and the inferiority of everyone else to his book “Mein Kampf”.
Eugenics, according to Dictionary.com consists of thinking that improving the human race by encouraging “desirable individuals with the right genetic and physical characteristics” to marry each other and procreate as much as possible to help purify the genetic pool.
One of the more important quotes in the book, “The cross between a white man and an Indian is an Indian; the cross between a white man and a negro is a negro… When it becomes thoroughly understood that the children of mixed marriages between contrasted races belong to the lower type, the importance of transmitting in unimpaired purity the blood inheritance of ages will be appreciated at its full value” seems like something taken straight out of “Mein Kampf,” but it’s not.
This emphasizes one of the many insidious forms that Eugenics has created and promoted within modern society and is definitely something to be aware of and to fight diligently. The assumptions throughout this statement throw disgust on the offspring of mixed race marriages and relationships and assumes that these individuals are somehow less important or are worthless based on the “less desirable” race providing half of their DNA. I personally believe that racism as a whole is part of these beliefs and why we don’t always think that it is a problem.
The awful side of this argument and viewpoint, is that those considered “undesirable”, such as unwed mothers, dual race marriages, delinquent behavior and mental instability or deficiency are not encouraged to have children. Conversely, these members of the human race are to be sterilized and refused permission to breed because that taints the genetic pool.
It’s frustrating to realize that this theory was actively practiced and parts were even part of legislated laws even as early as the turn of the century AND parts of these laws were repealed as late as the mid 1980’s. In reality, one of the Supreme Court decisions regarding a woman who was forcibly sterilized is STILL on the books in the United States.
If you want to do a little digging, here’s where I got my information. It’s disgusting to me, but necessary to realize so that we do not repeat ANY of it in the present or the future. Earlier versions of this article may be found at https://randomfactsinhistory.wordpress.com/2017/12/04/what-was-hitlers-bible/
Please feel free to comment and share ideas regarding Eugenics in general. I welcome your opinions, even the negative ones. Just please be considerate and respectful in your statements.
Sources: | https://medium.com/history-of-yesterday/hitlers-eugenics-program-and-what-american-source-he-used-to-form-his-opinion-87c925cd9fd6 | ['Tami Nieto'] | 2019-09-28 10:19:52.694000+00:00 | ['Politics', 'Eugenics', 'History', 'Racism', 'Nazi Germany'] |
Career in Textile Engineering | Career in Textile Engineering
Introduction of the career
Millions of years of evolution lead to the origin of humans. Humans had their needs that were food, clothing, and shelter. Clothes were a basic requirement for survival. With a change in weather, changes in types of cloth were also a requirement.
In today’s world, with the advancement in technology and innovation, there is a need to use technology in clothes as well. This has led to the emergence of the profession of textile engineering. It is a domain that focuses on the study related to producing textile fabrics & yarns. It is also a good field for research and has been helped in a lot of innovations.
Introduction of the speaker
The speaker Mrs. Ashwini Anil Raybagi is working as an assistant professor of textile at DKTE’s Textile & Engineering Institute, Ichalkaranji since 2009. Before this, she worked At Gokak Mills as a new product development officer. She has completed her B.Tech and M.Tech in textile and holds a diploma in Mass Communication and Journalism. She is the joint treasurer of the Textile Association of India, Ichalkaranji Miraj Unit.
Mrs. Ashwini Anil Raybagi
The complete session on “Career in Textile Engineering” is available on SDF’s Facebook Page. Check out the full session on our Facebook page now👇
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You can also find the complete session on our YouTube channel.
Check it now👇👇
https://youtu.be/xkYhacEi-eg
Eligibility
The undergraduate course for studying Textile Engineering is B.E/B.Tech course. For taking admission in these courses one needs to appear for the JEE Main exam. The eligibility for the same is given below-
Candidates must have taken a minimum of 5 subjects in the 12th/equivalent examination. Physics and Mathematics being compulsory along with Biology/ Biotechnology/ Chemistry/ Technical Vocational from a school recognized either by the State Government or Central Government.
There are no age criteria prescribed for applying in JEE Main
There is no prescribed percentage to appear in the examination. Candidates having passing marks can also apply.
The candidate should have either passed 12th in the current year or must have passed a year before applying for the exam.
For taking admission in a post-graduate course for Textile engineering, one has to appear for the GATE exam. The basic eligibility for it includes a B.Tech or BE degree with the candidate.
Skills Required
Table 1
Top Colleges
Government Colleges-
Table 2
Private College
Table 3
Exams
The undergraduate course for studying Textile Engineering is B.E/B.Tech course. For taking admission in an undergraduate course for engineering, one has to appear for all India level exam JEE Main or JEE Advance. In order to do a master’s in Textile Engineering, one has to do M.Tech. For taking admission in one of the country’s best colleges for the course of M.Tech, one has to appear for all India level exam of GATE.
There are various exams at the state level which are conducted in various states for giving admission in B.E/B.Tech courses. Other than this, some of the private university conducts their entrance exam to offer admission to textile engineering courses.
Job Opportunities and Salary
Table 4
Top Recruiters
The field of textile engineering is not a common field in India. There is not much awareness about the jobs in this sector. Interestingly, there are a lot of jobs in the field and some of the top recruiters in the field are as follows-
Indian Textile Company Pvt Ltd
Bombay Dyeing
Soma Textiles & Industries Limited
Arvind Ltd
Bombay Rayon Fashions Ltd
Fabindia Overseas Pvt Ltd
Century Textile and Industries Ltd
Grasim Industries Ltd
Conclusion
There is a lot of scope in the field of textile engineering. It is a promising career that has job opportunities for various posts. There are few colleges that offer the course of textile engineering but in the coming time, there will be more colleges offering the course. This profession has lot of scope n the future and will benefit those who opt it.
Click on the following links to find more information regarding our career counseling session video.👇
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You can donate here👇👇 | https://medium.com/@shashidreamfoundation/career-in-textile-engineering-ca1f332e1df1 | ['Shashi Dream Foundation'] | 2020-12-21 13:47:55.185000+00:00 | ['Career Development', 'Career Advice', 'Textile Industry', 'Textile Engineering', 'Career Change'] |
Data Classification Algorithms— Supervised Machine Learning at its best | Classification in general
Enough of the groundwork. The following parts of this article cover different approaches to separate data into, well, classes. Classification in an analytics sense is no different to what we understand when talking about classifying things in real life. In general, there are different ways of classification:
Binary classification : The possible response values can be e.g. “good” or “bad” — but in any way dichotomous.
: The possible response values can be e.g. “good” or “bad” — but in any way dichotomous. Multi-class classification: The possible outcomes can be multiple classes like grades, e.g. classifying a text as positive, negative, or neutral.
Multi-class classification is an exciting field to follow, often the underlying method is based on several binary classifications.
Support Vector Machines
SVMs rely on so-called support vectors, these vectors can be imagined as lines that separate a group of data points (a convex hull) from the rest of the space. Image two areas of data points that are clearly separable through a line, this is a so called “hard” classification task. The data points allow us to draw a straight line between the two “clusters” of data. The only problem we face is to find the line that creates the largest distance between the two clusters — and this is exactly what SVM is aiming at.
Hard Classification Task for SVM [1]
Hard Classification Task
Illustration 1 shows two support vectors (solid blue lines) that separate the two data point clouds (orange and grey). Our separator is the dotted line in the middle (which is interesting, as this actually isn’t a support vector at all). Finding the best separator is an optimization problem, the SVM model seeks the line that maximize the gap between the two dotted lines (indicated by the arrows), and this then is our classifier.
A side note, as the hard classification SVM model relies heavily on the margin-creation-process, it is of course quite sensitive to data points closer to the line rather than the points we see in the illustration. This is quite the inverse behavior compared to a standard regression line, where a closer point is actually less influential than a data point further away.
Soft Classification Task
The other way to use SVM is applying it on data that is not clearly separable, is called a “Soft” classification task. The soft SVM is based on not only the margin assumption from above, but also the amount of error it tries to minimize. In other words, soft SVM is a combination of error minimization and margin maximization.
Hard Classification would never work here [2]
Illustration 2 shows the case for which a hard classifier is not working — I have just re-arranged a few data points, the initial classifier is not correct anymore. The data points are not clearly separable any longer, hence we need to come up with a model that allows errors, but tries to keep them at a minimum — the soft classifier.
For both SVM approaches there are some important facts you must bear in mind:
Kernels do not have to be linear! There are many, many non-linear kernels you can use in order to fit data that cannot be properly separated through a straight line. SVM models provide coefficients (like regression) and therefore allow the importance of factors to be analyzed. SVM can be used for multi-class classification. As mentioned earlier, this approach can be boiled down to several binary classifications that are then merged together. Hard SVM classification can also be extended to add or reduce the intercept value. Depending on the price of a wrong classification, we might set the classifier at a slightly adjusted value (which is parallel to the one we originally calculated). Soft SVM allows to additionally add an error weight to the data points, e.g. data points for records 1–10 are less important than records 80–90. For this reason, the error for the points may be weighted differently.
K-Nearest Neighbors
Another non-parametric approach to classify your data points is k nearest neighbors (or short KNN). This is a pretty straight forward method to classify data, it is a very “tangible” idea of classification when it comes to several classes.
Scatter Plot with 4 different label/response values [3]
This method is not solving a hard optimization task (like it is done eventually in SVM), but it is often a very reliable method to classify data.
KNN is lazy. You will also not obtain coefficients like you would get from a SVM model, hence there is basically no real training for your model. KNN needs to look at the new data point and place it in context to the “old” data — this is why it is commonly known as a lazy algorithm.
New Pink Dot — likely to be Black [4]
As the illustration above shows, a new pink data point is added to the scatter plot. Measuring the distance from this new point to the closest 3 points around it, will indicate what class the point should be in. Usually, you would consider the mode of the values that surround the new one.
KNN is most commonly using the Euclidean distance to find the closest neighbors of every point, however, pretty much every p value (power) could be used for calculation (depending on your use case). You may have heard of Manhattan distance, where p=1 , whereas Euclidean distance is defined as p=2.
Looks fancy, but is actually just Pythagorean theorem (p=2)
However, there is one remaining question, how many values (neighbors) should be considered to identify the right class? It is recommended to test a few and see how they perform in terms of their overall model accuracy.
If you wanted to have a look at the KNN code in Python, R or Julia just follow the below link. The included GitHub Gists can be directly executed in the IDE of your choice:
Also note, that it might be wise to do proper validation on your results otherwise you might end up with a really bad model for new data points (variance!).
What you should not miss:
There is also the idea of KNN regression. In this case you will not see classes/labels but continuous values. Instead of assigning the label of the k closest neighbors, you could take an average (mean, µ), weighted averages, etc. of the related data points. KNN is not K-means, there are no cluster centers, but we use distances among related points. If this sounds confusing to you, never mind, jump back to the topic of supervised versus unsupervised learning. If you need a model that tells you what input values are more relevant than others, KNN might not be the way to go. KNN however is a straightforward and quite quick approach to find answers to what class a data point should be in.
Tree-based approaches
Tree-based models (Classification and Regression Tree models— CART) often work exceptionally well on pursuing regression or classification tasks. The main idea behind the tree-based approaches is that data is split into smaller junks according to one or several criteria. In tree jargon, there are branches that are connected to the leaves. The overall goal is to create branches and leaves as long as we observe a “sufficient drop in variance” in our data. If this is not the case, we stop branching.
If this sounds too abstract, think of a dataset containing people and their spending behavior, e.g. classify whether the person is in the target group or not (binary classification). Our intuition would probably look at the income first and separate data into a high- and low-income groups, pretty much like this:
How our tree might split the data into (arbitrarily chosen) portions
There might be many splits like this, maybe looking at the age of the person, maybe looking at the number of children or the number of hobbies a person has, etc. All these criteria may cause the leaf to create new branches having new leaves dividing the data into smaller junks.
If this striving for smaller and smaller junks sounds dangerous to you, your right — having tiny junks will lead to the problem of overfitting. For this reason, every leaf should at least have a certain number of data points in it, as a rule of thumb choose 5–10%.
In general, it is wise not to use all the available data to create the tree, but only a partial portion of the data— sounds familiar, right? This allows us to use the second dataset and see whether the data split we made when building the tree has really helped us to reduce the variance in our data — this is called “pruning” the tree.
Using R to build and prune a tree model: Lowest number of misclassifications occurs at k=7
In theory, we are using the second data portion to verify, whether the splits hold for other data as well, otherwise we remove the branch as it does not seem to provide sufficient benefit to our model.
In practice, the available libraries can build, prune and cross validate the tree model for you — please make sure you correctly follow the documentation and consider sound model selections standards (cross validation). The huge advantage of the tree model is, that for every leaf, we get the classifier’s (or regression’s) coefficients. These not only allow us to predict the outcome, but also provide insight into their overall importance to our model.
One tree, several trees, one Random Forest
Random forests (RF) can be summarized as a model consisting of many, many underlying tree models. Random forests consider a variety of different and randomly created, underlying trees and choose the most common response value. In other words, the random forest takes the mode out of all the responses predicted by the underlying tree models (or mean response in case of a regression random forest).
You can always plot the tree outcome and compare results to other models, using variations in the model parameters to find a fast, but accurate model:
My RF model in R — 200 trees should be enough
Stay with me, this is essential to understand when ‘talking random forest’: Using the RF model leads to the draw back, that there is no good way to identify the coefficients’ specific impact to our model (coefficient), we can only calculate the relative importance of each factor — this can be achieved through looking at the the effect of branching the factor and its total benefit to the underlying trees.
Regression for Classification?
I always wondered whether I could simply use regression to get a value between 0 and 1 and simply round (using a specified threshold) to obtain a class value. Well, this idea seemed reasonable at first, but as I could learn, a simple linear regression will not work. The reason for this is, that the values we get do not necessarily lie between 0 and 1, so how should we deal with a -42 as our response value?
The red zone: Impossible values for our classification
As you can see in the above illustration, an arbitrary selected value x={-1, 2} will be placed on the line somewhere in the red zone and therefore, not allow us to derive a response value that is either (at least) between or at best exactly 0 or 1. This is where the Sigmoid function comes in very handy. This function is commonly known as binary or logistic regression and provides probabilities ranging from 0 to 1.
The huge advantage is that even an infinitely small number is mapped to “close to” zero and will not be somewhere beyond our boundary. In the illustration below, you can find a sigmoid function that only shows a mapping for values -8 ≤ x ≤ 8.
The real deal when using regression for classification tasks — guaranteed red-zone-free
Having shown the huge advantage of logistic regression, there is one thing you need to keep in mind: As this model is not giving you a binary response, you are required to add another step to the entire modeling process. This means, it is necessary to specify a threshold (“cut-off” value) to round probabilities to 0 or 1 — think of 0.519, is this really a value you would like to see assigned to 1?
This clearly requires a so called confusion matrix. This matrix is used to identify how well a model works, hence showing you true/false positives and negatives. You could even get creative and assign different costs (weights) to the error type — this might get you a far more realistic result. E.g. the classification error of “the model says healthy, but in reality sick” is very high for a deadly disease — in this case the cost of a false positive may be much higher than a false negative.
A simple example of a confusion matrix
If you’re an R guy, caret library is the way to go as it offers many neat features to work with the confusion matrix.
There is one HUGE caveat to be aware of: Always specify the positive value (positive = 1), otherwise you may see confusing results — that could be another contributor to the name of the matrix ;)
A confusion matrix illustration
An important side note: The sigmoid function is an extremely powerful tool to use in analytics — as we just saw in the classification idea. Recently, there has been a lot of buzz going on around neural networks and deep learning, guess what, sigmoid is essential.
If you think of weights assigned to neurons in a neural network, the values may be far off from 0 and 1, however, eventually this is what we eventually wanted to see, “is a neuron active or not” — a nice classification task, isn’t it? Exactly here, the sigmoid function is (or actually used to be; pointer towards rectified linear unit) a brilliant method to scale all the neurons’ values onto a range of 0 and 1.
What you need to know about the logistic regression:
It provides you with probabilities ranging between 0 and 1, no class labels. Probabilities need to be “cut-off”, hence, require another step to conduct. Make sure you play around with the cut-off rates and assign the right costs to your classification errors, otherwise you might end up with a very wrong model. Working directly with the model coefficients is tricky enough (these are shown as log(odds) !). You are required to translate the log(odds) into probabilities. This might look familiar: p = log(odds) / [1 + log(odds)] In order to identify the most suitable cut-off value, the ROC curve is probably the quickest way to do so. ‘The ROC curve (receiver operating characteristic curve) is a graph showing the performance of a classification model at all classification thresholds.’ [source] AUC (area under the curve) provides the aggregated measure of performance of the model, given the underlying threshold. An AUC of 0.5 is pretty much guessing, whereas 1 means that predictions are 100% correct. Note, ROC is no substitute for the weight-assigned confusion matrix. Glad you’re asking: Yes, logistic regression can also be used in the course of CART model! Therefore, all the above mentioned concepts of trees apply to a Logistic CART too!
Deep Learning Network Classification
Deep learning networks (which can be both, supervised and unsupervised!) allow the classification of structured data in a variety of ways. Related methods are often suitable when dealing with many different class labels (multi-class), yet, they require a lot more coding work compared to a simpler support vector machine model. I will cover this exciting topic in a dedicated article. Meanwhile, a brilliant reference can be found here: | https://towardsdatascience.com/supervised-learning-b662cb97df7 | ['Günter Röhrich'] | 2020-12-30 09:11:30.265000+00:00 | ['Computer Science', 'Machine Learning', 'Classification', 'Data Analysis', 'Data Science'] |
Dance with a Shadow | Dance with a Shadow
A poem
Digital Collage by Author, Copyright All Rights Reserved
Withering sunset
Bitter pill
Dance with a shadow
An inescapable view
Unclinch your throat
Allow the poison to run through
Time is a fleeting friend
The act of a court jester
An ego trip of the vain
Vile discontent
Pose for the camera
and embrace the prison walls
Captive sight
Captured by fate | https://medium.com/the-rebel-poets-society/dance-with-a-shadow-c217b2afc584 | ['Rhonda Skinner'] | 2020-11-14 20:02:12.291000+00:00 | ['The Rebel Poets Society', 'Trauma', 'Dance', 'Poem', 'Shadow Work'] |
How Psychopaths Act in Intimate Relationships | (Photo by Alex Blăjan on Unsplash)
All psychopaths follow the same strategy when operating in intimate relationships. I know this strategy well because I was in a relationship with a psychopath for around four years.
I also know other women who dated and are dating psychopaths. Some of them are still abused, some of them had their lives totally destroyed. Only a few manage to break out, and the only reason that they do is covered at the end of this article.
Many people mistake normal persons for narcissists or psychopaths. Many humans these days display psychopathic traits because they believe that only inhumane behavior would allow them to survive in this cruel world.
Because of such reasoning, some people act like psychopaths, but this act is external — deep within they still have human warmth and finer feelings.
Real psychopaths can be recognized by their eyes. You may not be able to see anything different about their eyes at first (though that is possible in some too), but if you keep your attention on their eyes, you will eventually see that behind those eyes there is emptiness.
Looking at their eyes can be compared to looking at the bottomless abyss. You might even feel your spirit wanting to run away from what it sees in those dead eyes.
Their eyes look reptilian — they are as dead as the eye of a lizard. That’s, I believe, the most sure way to tell whether a person is a psychopath or not.
Another way to tell whether a person is a psychopath is to look for the predatory behavior. All psychopaths, like predators, follow specific predatory steps. For example, a spider will follow a specific way to capture its prey; so will the lion. And so will the psychopath.
The psychopaths that I know are territorial. I don’t know if it applies to all of them, but this is very likely to be the case. They will hunt for prey as lone wolves and they will have their own particular territories that belong only to them, from what I’ve observed.
The strategy that the psychopath uses to enslave a victim into an intimate relationship is as follows (though the steps may not necessarily be followed in this order):
Let me go into each stage to explain it more in detail.
The first stage: Seduce
(In this article I choose a male psychopath and a female victim as an example. Psychopaths, however, can be either male or female.)
When a psychopath first meets his victim, he will try to seduce her. He will do so by learning what kind of partner the woman desires. Psychopaths are excellent character readers, so they will quickly figure out what kind of partner the woman desires and he will become him.
Psychopaths can read people like books; through different clues they understand whether the woman prefers a submissive boyish boyfriend, or a very mature and manly partner.
At this stage of seduction the psychopath will also try to mimic the victim so that she finds him interesting and he gains her trust. It’s now well-known through such methodologies as NLP that mirroring a person’s body language, for example, helps to form a friendly tie with a stranger. Psychopaths know this without the study of NLP. It’s in their blood to mimic the victim to gain their full trust.
The psychopath will mimic the victim in many ways. For example, he might adapt a similar dress style (formal, casual, sports, seductive). He might mimic the victim’s speech patterns, smile, attitudes, body language, and he might even use a similar-smelling perfume. He may adopt victim’s values and aspirations.
What’s more, he will attract the victim through his self-confidence and good looks. Self-confident people are naturally attractive, and psychopaths know that they are found attractive because of this trait. So they will try to seduce the victim through their self-confident and daring behavior.
They might also fascinate the victim by their lifestyle which is usually extreme or dangerous in some way. For example, they might be fast bike-riders or be involved in anything else as dangerous; they seek such experiences so that they don’t feel dead within.
The second stage: Exalt and love-bomb
At this stage the psychopath will try to impress the victim to the degree that her entire focus is on him. He will try to become her personal hero, or, I might as well say, god.
He will try to make himself into her only idol; he will attempt to achieve the objective of the victim thinking mainly about him.
He will go more than an extra mile for her; he may act like a perfect selfless gentleman at this stage. He will buy her many gifts. He will tell her many compliments.
He will profess his undying love for her. He may tell that he never met such a special person before. He will spend all his free time with her and she will be his only source of focus.
This, of course, feels amazing and so the victim will indeed think that she is special for him. She’s likely at this stage to start falling in love with him. She will get addicted to his attention.
He wants her to get addicted to so much attention so that later on he could deny it.
The third stage: Bond
At this stage the psychopath will share his deepest secrets with the victim. They are likely to be no secrets at all but lies, since psychopaths are liars and they only tell the truth when they think it would be of some benefit.
The reason he discloses such “secrets” is so that the victim would disclose her secrets also, so that this would be used against her later on. He also does this to further bond with her.
Furthermore, he will try to find out her weaknesses by careful observation and indirect questions. When people share their weaknesses with others, this strengthens the relationship bond.
Another reason a psychopath would want to know the victim’s weaknesses is so that he would use them against her at a later stage to totally crush her self-confidence.
At this stage he will also try to involve her in a sexual relationship because he knows that sex deeply bonds. Psychopaths crave raw and intense experiences so sex is likely to be frequent, fierce, and maybe even violent.
The psychopath will try to get his victim addicted to having sex with him because he wants her to become addicted — he wants her to become his slave.
He might be excellent at love-making, since he is likely to have had many victims to practice on. Sex, in my opinion, is one of their greatest tools for enslavement of the victim, since most people become easily addicted to sex, and psychopaths know that very well.
At this stage the psychopath will spend a lot of time with the victim to get her total trust and so that all her doubts about him disappear. Thus, the victim will become fully trusting of the psychopath and deeply in love with him. And when this full trust and total love are achieved, the psychopath will deal the first blow.
The fourth stage: Trauma-bond
After the psychopath is certain that the victim loves him and she fully trusts him, he strikes the first blow — he either suddenly becomes indifferent, or violent, or involves her in a love triangle.
He might use any other strategy too. The main purpose of that strategy, whatever one he chooses to use, is to cause intense emotional upset or shock in a victim.
He does this because of a few reasons. First, trauma bonds the victim even more to the psychopath. This is because the victim starts associating intense feelings experienced during trauma with the person who caused it, and this creates a very strong bond.
The same scenario can be witnessed in captives who begin supporting their captors due to intense traumatization; the same can be witnessed in some rape cases where the victim becomes so attached to the rapist that she even thinks she loves him.
The second reason the psychopath uses trauma bonding is because the victim discharges intense emotional energy which he absorbs. Since he is a dead spiritual being devoid of feelings, he enjoys feeding off the intense feelings of others.
Another reason he uses trauma-bonding is to put the victim into an altered state of consciousness. The victim gets into a spellbound state because of cognitive dissonance — the brain cannot comprehend how an absolutely loving person can suddenly turn violent or indifferent.
This is incomprehensible to the human mind because humans don’t act this way. And since most victims do not know that psychopaths aren’t normal humans, this causes a sort of split in the mind which puts the person into a highly vulnerable and suggestible state.
The psychopath will use this state to further enslave the victim — he will use hypnotic speech patterns to rationalize his unpardonable behavior, and the victim, being in such an unwholesome state, is likely to believe in the psychopathic lies, getting further imbalanced and confused.
If the victim doesn’t understand the game of the psychopath, he may keep her in this trauma-bonding stage for years, until she loses her mind or is destroyed in other ways to the degree that he is no longer able to use her and therefore discards her.
I recently heard that the end goal of all psychopaths is to make their victims die in some way, and I totally agree with that.
But he won’t rush the process. He wants the energy source — he doesn’t want to kill fast. So he will let the victim recover from the shock by profusely apologizing and being exceptionally nice with her, spending all his time with her like he did in the early stages of bonding.
When the victim feels recovered and happy again, the psychopath strikes the blow again. And this trauma bonding may go on for years, until the victim is totally destroyed.
This strategy will never change, though it might take time for trauma bonding to be repeated depending on how long it takes for the victim to recover and regain her trust in the psychopath.
Should the victim decide to end the relationship, the psychopath will do everything he can to get her back. He will go through all the entrapment steps and will keep repeating them until the trust is regained.
He will love-bomb her, buy many gifts, use hypnotic language to change her mind, shed crocodile tears and promise to never do it again (whatever he did).
He will send multiple messages or will call many times. He will use such strategies every day until the victim decides to give him another chance. And then he will strengthen the bond to the degree that the victim fully trusts the psychopath so that the next trauma causes her to again discharge intense emotional energy which he will absorb.
The fifth stage: Entrap
At this stage (this can also be done earlier in the relationship) the psychopath will try to entrap the victim but will remain free himself. This can be done in many ways, depending on the circumstances.
For example, the psychopath may choose to impregnate the victim and thus the dependency/trap is created through the child. The psychopath may marry a Christian but then cheat her, and the Christian woman would be kept in the marriage because of her conviction that divorce is wrong.
The psychopath may isolate the victim from all her friends and family so that she only has him to rely on.
Basically, he will assess the victim’s circumstances and will decide what’s the best way to entrap her so that her freedom is limited yet he himself remains free.
This will allow his other pursuits to be kept secret (he is likely to have many victims as such) and will give him flexibility in seeing the victim whenever he chooses. The victim, however, might be denied such freedom.
For example, I know one Indian lady who got entrapped this way. She got sexually involved with the psychopath before marriage, and that’s a big taboo in India.
Although the woman loved him and wanted to get married to him, he didn’t share the same future plans. Instead, he told her that he could not marry her because she was one year older than him (!). So the psychopath came up with a plan to get her married to his relative. She agreed.
Now he has easy access to her at any time, because he, as a relative, can visit her home without any suspicion. She, however, cannot visit the psychopath because she’s a married woman, so she cannot go to his house.
This allows him to have multiple women and remain uncaught most of the times (since he has many women, she still ends up catching him sometimes).
He impregnated her and told her to abort the baby, and she did. When, during her pregnancy, she found out that he was again cheating her, she almost committed suicide.
She’s totally trapped, yet she continues clinging to him because she thinks she loves him. The reason she thinks so is because he got her addicted to sex, closeness, and she also associates intense emotions with him. Since she’s an uneducated village girl, she doesn’t understand the real causes of such a bond and therefore in her mind she thinks that he’s the right person for her.
He also hypnotizes her with his speech patterns. Since she doesn’t understand that he’s not like a normal human being (I tried to explain that to her but it just goes over her head), she continues hoping that he would someday fall in love with her and that he would change.
So that’s how cleverly psychopaths can entrap their victims. They are smart, and they will premeditate the best plan of action. Since they are excellent actors, their suggestions that finally entrap you may seem as though serving your best interests, but that’s never the case.
The psychopath will use different entrapment strategies on his victims depending on their circumstances. Then, like a spider, he will freely move from victim to victim within his own created net to suck out their life energy and money.
If a few victims are located close to each other, the psychopath will try to set them against each other so that they never become friends and therefore are unable to exchange information. This way the dark deeds of a psychopath may remain undetected for years.
The sixth stage: Use up
As I’ve already mentioned, the psychopath will regularly use all his victims to get their emotional and sexual energies as well as money. He will give some time for the victims to recover, and then will deplete them again.
He will do this as long as there’s anything left to benefit from his victims.
The seventh stage: Discard
Finally, when the victim is unable to be used for some reason (old age, poverty, illness), the psychopath will coldly discard her. He will do so in the most hurtful way, to deal a final, sometimes deadly, blow to the victim.
The victim, if she’s not aware of psychopathy, will never comprehend how a human being could be so cruel. Some victims will commit suicide. Some will start consuming alcohol or drugs. Others may self-destruct in other ways.
Some will recover, but will never be the same; as ghosts that haunt houses, the thoughts about the abuser will visit the victim for the rest of her life. Only very few victims fully recover, and these are the ones who have their priorities right, as you will read below.
The only way to protect yourself
The only way a victim can protect herself from total psychopathic destruction is by having her priorities right. That’s the reason the psychopath that I was in a relationship with was unable to destroy me.
He got to the stage three, and he even tried trauma-bonding me, but that didn’t work in a way that he planned. That’s because he was never number one in my life.
Psychopaths will attempt to make themselves into victims’ personal gods. They will try to appear as the most indispensable people in their lives. And when this is allowed to happen, the victims have just based their whole lives on a very shaky foundation.
When the psychopath understands this has been accomplished, he will keep traumatizing the victim until she’s totally destroyed. But if the victim refuses to make him into her idol, she may get hurt because of his inhumane behavior, but she will never be fully destroyed.
Spirituality was always number one in my life. Then came my business. And only then — my ex-partner. That’s the reason I escaped from his deadly clutches.
Yet another thing that helps to survive psychopathic abuse is the firm understanding that a psychopath is not fully human. He operates through the reptilian brain, in a predatory manner.
When you really understand that, it’s much easier to get detached from the abuser, heal, and move on. | https://medium.com/bigger-picture/how-psychopaths-act-in-intimate-relationships-75f874308548 | ['Simona Rich'] | 2019-08-12 23:48:52.774000+00:00 | ['Relationships', 'Emotional Intelligence', 'Psychopathy', 'Dating', 'Narcissism'] |
9 Traits You Should Slowly Remove From Your Day-to-Day Life | 9 Traits You Should Slowly Remove From Your Day-to-Day Life
#1 Overthinking the little things
Photo by Ivana Cajina on Unsplash
We’re all human.
I know, so profound.
This isn’t the most enlightening piece of knowledge I’ve offered, but hear me out. In the hustle and bustle of our lives, it’s easy to lose perspective.
We are all, in fact, human beings. We are biological machines that take in oxygen to fuel our cells and exert carbon dioxide.
In fact, I had a real human-chemistry experience the other day.
I was wrapping up my emails for the day at work when one of my workmates rushed in. Their left eye was red and they struggled to keep it open. They anxiously asked if “I knew chemistry.”
Now imagine what kind of thoughts were computing in my head.
What about chemistry? What do you need me to do to your eye? I’m so confused and not qualified to do whatever it is you’re about to ask of me.
Lucky for me, my workmate’s contact lens was simply stuck, and they needed me to work with their chemistry student for a few minutes.
I felt instant relief. Oh so you’re working with a chemistry student, I thought. I can totally do that. I felt much better after absolutely overthinking the situation. Why do I stress so much?
Overthinking isn’t my only mentally draining character trait. There’s a long list of other thoughts and feelings I know I need to reduce in my life.
These traits wear us out and put us down, and for no good reason. Life presents us with new problems everyday. There’s a positive way to go about dealing with each one. | https://medium.com/illumination/9-traits-you-should-slowly-remove-from-your-day-to-day-life-8408bd9038f7 | ['Ryan Porter'] | 2020-12-16 23:50:46.893000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Productivity', 'Motivation', 'Self Improvement', 'Ideas'] |
Polaroids From Colombia, a Decade Later | No dar papaya is an expression unique to Colombia (it makes no sense to other Spanish speakers, even in neighboring countries) that means show no vulnerabilities, don’t be an easy target, be careful.
For years I had a very boring working title, “De Colombia.” Then one day “No Dar Papaya” came to me and I knew it was perfect. The photos are about Colombia, they couldn’t have been created anywhere else. So I wanted a title that was very Colombian.
Image courtesy of Matt O’Brien. All rights reserved.
Image courtesy of Matt O’Brien. All rights reserved.
No dar papaya is not just an expression, it reflects a mentality that speaks to the historic and contemporary reality of Colombia — 51 years of war, a tough economic situation for most, and high crime rates. They say it is the eleventh commandment, and the twelfth commandment is “Papaya puesta es papaya partida,” which means if somebody leaves a papaya you better grab it.
I took that expression to heart in Colombia, and I would generally move around very alert, walking differently than I normally do — chest out, tough guy mode — to project no fear and to communicate to would-be assailants “Don’t mess with me. It could go badly for you. Go find another, easier, target.” It worked very well, except for the night I got attacked by a guy with a knife.
That night, in downtown Medellín, I was walking with a friend, laughing and talking with her, paying attention to her and not my surroundings, and I felt somebody grabbing my shirt violently. I turn around and this guy’s got my shirt bunched up in one hand, arm outstretched, and in the other hand, cocked back, he has a knife, ready to plunge it into my chest. There were three other guys, all about nineteen. I asked them what they wanted, they said my cell phone.
“It’s yours.” And one of them reached into my pocket and got it. That guy was prepared to kill me for a phone that they could sell for twenty bucks.
Image courtesy of Matt O’Brien. All rights reserved.
Image courtesy of Matt O’Brien. All rights reserved.
My concept for this project was always more expansive and diffuse — let’s explore Colombia with no set parameters — and Polaroid seemed to go well with that concept. No Dar Papaya has a sort of abstract and impressionistic quality to it, which I think helps to put more emphasis on the emotional content and less on the descriptive. We are surrounded by digital images. These Polaroid images offer a different experience to the viewer.
The camera doesn’t lend itself to action images — there are only a few in the book — because it is hard to compose and it is slow, and with the flash, you lose that wonderful color palette, so I didn’t shoot at night. But I think that the diversity of images does a good job of conveying Colombia, not with any pretense of an objective overview, but more like snippets, glimpses into the realities and possibilities of Colombia.
Image courtesy of Matt O’Brien. All rights reserved.
Image courtesy of Matt O’Brien. All rights reserved.
I’ve been speaking Spanish all of my adult life, and it was key to the work in Colombia, not only teaching, but also the photography itself, because you are interacting with people, creating rapport, and you need to get along and move around in the country. Without Spanish, you couldn’t come to understand the culture so well and make friends, and the work would reflect that. | https://medium.com/pixel-magazine/polaroids-from-colombia-a-decade-later-c9e29ad4dc84 | ['Pixel Magazine'] | 2017-12-12 23:06:46.358000+00:00 | ['Travel', 'Books', 'Art', 'Photography'] |
Discovering the Treasures of 22 R Exploratory Analysis Packages | Discovering the Treasures of 22 R Exploratory Analysis Packages
@fergregory/AdobeStock
Python is all the rage these days in the Data Science field; however, R has been quietly growing for years and gathering amazing functionality currently contained in almost 17K packages (at the time of this writing). So it is not an exaggeration to say that it has amassed a treasure trove of packages in many areas of data science, one of which is Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA). With the word EDA, we encapsulate the following functionality:
General Dataframe description: Dimensions, types of data (continuous/discrete),missing cases.
Univariate statistics: Mean, variance, and other variable statistics, expressed in tabular form or plots, such as histogram and boxplot.
Bivariate statistics: Variable relations, expressed with correlations in a tabular form or graphical form, scatter plots, etc.
Outliers,i.e., data points that are significantly different from other data points.
As you can expect, much of the EDA functionality is replicated in various R packages, and therefore it is important to sift through the commonalities. In this post, we will perform the EDA of a dataset and harvest the R EDA packages, such that for each EDA step, we present some of the best options.
1. R EDA Packages and our dataset
Let us first get familiar with the names of the packages we will be exploring. Here they are in alphabetical order: AEDA, chemometrics, corrplot, DataExplorer, dataMaid, ExPanDaR,extremevalues, funModeling, ggcorrplot, Hmisc, inspectdf, OutlierDetection, outlier, PerformanceAnalytics, ggcorplot, Ggally, mvoutlier, prettyR, psych, RtutorR, skimr, summarytools. Auxiliary packages we will be using: dplyr, ggplot2, janitor, plotly, gmodels.
Our dataset is professor-salaries.csv (available on Kaggle). The dataset’s dimensions are 397 X6. The six columns are rank of the professor (can be assistant professor, associate professor, full professor), discipline (can be A or B), years since receiving the Ph.D. degree (yrs.since.phd.), years of service (yrs.service), gender (sex), and salary. Originally, the dataset has no missing values, however, because we wanted to check the behavior of the various packages when there are missing cases, we introduced an NA in the yrs.since.phd column and an NA in the yrs.service column.
2. Dataframe Description
Here we will get information on dataset dimensions, number/types of variables, unique rows, duplicate data, and missing data. We pose a question and after each question, there is code and code output. In each code snippet, the first command library(package) shows the package we use. If no library statement is included, then the used functions are from the base R package.
Q: What are the dimensions of my dataset?
dim() from the base package has the answer, where sal is the name of our dataset.
Q: How many variables does my dataset have and what are their types?
str() from base tells us. Part of the output is shown below.
Q: How many duplicate rows are there if any?
Here we use the unique() function from the base package. As can be seen below, there are four duplicate rows.
Q: To probe further, which are the duplicate rows?
Package janitor has the function get_dupes() for that. Part of the output is shown below.
Q: Are there any missing data?
Function introduce() from package DataExplorer give us the answer. As can be seen below, there are two missing values.
Q: To probe further, which variables have missing values?
The versatile apply() function from base R gives us the answer. We see that the variables yrs. since.phd, yrs.service have a missing value each.
Q: In which rows, do these missing values appear?
Rows that do not get selected by complete.cases() are the answer.
3. Univariate Statistics
3.1 Univariate Column Statistics
There are a plethora of functions in the aforementioned R packages, that report univariate statistics. I found most useful the following:
For basic univariate statistical information : The summary() function from the base package. This function reports the following statistics: min, max, mean, median, 1st/3rd quartile for continuous variables, number of NA’s, and the number of observations per level for categorical variables.
: The summary() function from the base package. This function reports the following statistics: min, max, mean, median, 1st/3rd quartile for continuous variables, number of NA’s, and the number of observations per level for categorical variables. For detailed univariate statistical information: The describe() function from the psych package. Its output includes min, max, median, mean, trimmed mean, range, skewness, kurtosis.
The describe() function from the psych package. Its output includes min, max, median, mean, trimmed mean, range, skewness, kurtosis. For ease-of-reporting: The makeDataReport() function from the dataMaid package, creates a convenient HTML file with the following information for each continuous variable: min, max, median,1st/3rd quartile, number of missing observations, number of unique values, and a histogram. For categorical variables, it provides information about the number of observations per level.
The univariate description functions of packages summarytools, inspectdf, Hmisc, prettyR, funModeling, skimr can be found in the R script in my github directory (path given at the end of the article).
3.2 Univariate Group Statistics
Sometimes, we would like to know how the statistics of a continuous variable (e.g. salary) are affected by the different levels of a categorical variable (i.e, sex). Below are two ways to achieve this:
For some basic information: We can use the tapply() function from the base package. Below, tapply() reports the mean salaries for male and female professors.
For more detailed group information: The describeBy() information from the psych package:
For sophisticated grouping and reporting: We can use the very popular dplyr functions filter(), group_by(), and summarize(). Below is an example, where we display the average salary of women and men of discipline A according to their rank:
Because a picture is worth a thousand words: Boxplots and bar plots, created with ggplot2 functions.
Figures 1 and 2 below yield valuable insights:
(a) Some male faculty have extraordinarily high salaries.
(b) The salaries of female faculty are compressed towards the lower end
(c ) There are many more full professors than Assistant or Associate ones
(d) Male faculty outnumber female faculty at all ranks.
Figure 1. Boxplot of male and female salaries.
Figure 2. Bar plot of rank with the color determined by the faculty’s gender.
4. Bivariate Statistics
4.1 Interactive Scatter Plots
A standard way to view relationships between two variables is a scatter plot. We can make the scatter plot much more informative if we make it interactive. This can be achieved with the package plotly. To view your plots on plotly.com, get an account on Chart studio, and then store your authentication credentials (username, API key) in your R session as follows:
Interactive plots on plotly.com, can also be embedded in your online publications, as shown in Figures 3 and 4. Here is the code for the interactive scatter plot of variables yrs. since.phd versus salary, with variable sex used to color the dots of the plot.
Figure 3. Interactive scatter plot.
4.2 Interactive 3D plots
Package plotly also allows the creation of interactive 3D plots, where we can zoom in, change the viewing angle, etc. Figure 4 shows the 3D plot of salary versus yrs.since.phd and yrs.service, where the color is provided by variable sex.
Figure 4. Interactive 3D plot
4.3 Correlations
Correlation is another way to view the relationship between two variables. Several packages in R compute correlations and display them either numerically or graphically.
4.3.1 Correlation Displayed Numerically
The stats package has the cor() function that displays the correlation of numerical variables in a tabular form:
In order to determine whether the correlation is statistically significant, we can use the cor. test() method of the stats package. For example, the correlation between salary and yrs. service is statistically significant because it yields a p-value=6.901e-12
4.3.2 Correlation Displayed Graphically
corrplot is a package that offers many insightful ways to view numeric correlations. You get to choose your main shape (circle, square, pie, ellipse, etc) and the degree of correlation is displayed by varying the size of the shape and/or its color. Below in Figure 5, we use the pie shape. The weaker the correlation, the more incomplete the pie shape and also the lighter the color.
Figure 5. Correlations of numeric variables
Package ggcorrplot produces both numeric and graphical correlation output. Its numeric output is very similar to the one produced by package stats and its graphical output is similar to the one produced by corrplot, so we will not be showing it here.
Package PerformanceAnalytics contains the function chart.Correlation(), which displays the correlation of the numerical variables in the upper half panels, while in the diagonals it plots the histograms of the numerical variables, and in the bottom half, it displays the scatter plots of pairs of the variables (Figure 6).
Figure 6. The output of chart.Correlation().
Now, we will look at three packages (DataExplorer, psych, and GGally), which, along with numerical variable correlations, also include categorical variable information. Package DataExplorer contains the function plot_correlation() that displays the correlation in colored cells. It is interesting to note that it also displays the correlations with the different levels of categorical variables as displayed below (Figure 7).
Figure 7. Output of plot_correlation().
Packages psych and Ggally provide the functions pairs. panels() and ggpairs() respectively that display correlations, histograms, and scatter plots. My favorite is the output of ggpairs() that gives you a bird’s eye view of the dataset’s variables and their relationships, including the categorical variables as well (Figure 8).
Figure 8. The output of ggpairs() function.
4.4 Test of Independence and Statistically Significant Differences
Although not a traditional part of exploratory analysis, I personally get many useful insights from performing independence tests on contingency tables. These tables have at least two rows and two columns and display multivariate frequency counts of at least two categorical variables. Statistical tests, such as the chi-squared test and the Fisher test, can be used to determine whether the displayed categorical variables are independent.
Both chi-square and Fisher tests yield similar p-values (chi-square test p-value =0.0140, Fisher test p-value=0.0114) that indicate rank and gender are not independent (with a significance level of 0.05).
Regarding continuous variables, quite often, we would like to know whether the continuous variable varies between two groups. For example, we would like to know whether the salaries of the male faculty are statistically different from the salaries of female professors. As shown below, a t-test can help us answer this question:
The t-test yields a p-value=0.002664 (significance level=0.05), which means that the salaries of male and female faculty are statistically different. To probe a bit further, we wonder whether the difference might be due to the different numbers of men and women, at the different ranks. So to eliminate the effect of rank, let us do a t-test on the salaries of male and female full professors (rank=’Prof’). This test indicates the salaries of the two groups are NOT statistically different when the variable rank is fixed(p-value = 0.3098 with significance level=0.05)
5. Outliers
Outliers are points that are distant from the overall distribution of a variable. They can be completely useless, for example resulting from errors in measurement, or instrumental in anomaly detection applications. Here we will discuss how to detect them, not whether or how we could remove them. We will distinguish between univariate and multivariate outlier detection. In the univariate case, we want to fight the extreme values of a single variable. In the multivariate case, we are interested in finding multidimensional outliers, which are very useful in clustering applications, for example.
5.1 Univariate Outlier Detection
Here we will examine three methods of univiate outlier detection that utilize: (a) boxplots (b) package extremevalues (c ) package OutlierDetection.
(a) Boxplot: In a boxplot, outliers are identified as points that lie in a distance greater than 1.5 times the interquartile range either below or above the whiskers. Boxplots in R, mark the outliers, however, they do not show their value. As previously, we can use plotly to make them interactive and this way, enable the user to click on the outliers and view their values:
Figure 9. Interactive Boxplot
By clicking on the largest male outlier in Figure 9, we see that its value is $231,545.00. The next two outliers (that actually overlap) have values of $205,500.00 and $204,000.00 respectively.
(b) Package extremevalues: It provides a function that finds the outliers (getOutliers()) using regression on a subset of the data. In Figure 10, which is created using function outlierPlot(), we see again that three values were identified as outliers.
Figure 10. QQ plot of outliers.
( c ) Package OutlierDetection: It provides UnivariateOutlierDetection(), a function whose default method for outlier detection is bootstrapping. This method is based on the clever observation that outliers are occasionally not included in bootstrap estimates [1]. As can be seen in Figure 11 below, it identifies a lot more than 3 outliers, but the three most distant ones at locations 44, 365, 250, correspond to the ones identified in the histogram with salary values $231,545, $205,500, $204,000.
Figure 11. Output of UnivariateOutlierDetection()
5.2 Multivariate Outlier Detection
Here we will discuss methods in packages OutlierDetection and chemometrics.
(a) Package OutlierDetection provides a function with the same name, which given two variables (in our case salary and yrs. service), creates a scatter plot denoting the outliers in red, as shown below in Figure 12. Some notes about the code below: (a) We need to remove the NAs, in order to get the correct output from OutlierDetection(). If you recall, we introduced one NA in variable yrs.service. (b) In the fourth line, we reverse the columns of our dataframe in order to have variable salary appear as variable 2 on the plot and therefore obtain a plot that has the same orientation as in Figure 11 above. (c ) Finally, because NA removal removed one row from our dataframe, the indices of the salary outliers shown in Figure 12, are -1 the indices of the salary outliers shown in Figure 11 (43,249,364).
Figure 12. Output of OutlierDetection()
(b) Package chemometrics has a function Moutlier() that detects outliers using the Mahalanobis distance, which measures the distance between two points. In contrast to the Euclidean distance, the Mahalanobis distance takes into account the correlation of the point values, and the distances are measured relative to a centroid. Only when the points are uncorrelated, the Mahalanobis distance becomes equal to the Euclidean distance.
As we can see above, the point at location 43 has the highest Mahalanobis distance, followed by points 282, 131, 330, etc. If we look back at Figure 12, we can see that these numbers correspond to some of the most distant outliers seen on the plot, so there is an overall agreement between the Mahalanobis distance method and the bootstrapping method in identifying the outliers. Finally, package mvoutliers also uses the Mahalanobis distance to compute outliers, however, it uses the robust estimate of the Mahalanobis distance. The results are similar to those of the regular Mahalanobis distance, albeit ordered differently.
6. Automatic EDA
Finally, let us discuss automatic EDA, i.e, the ability to create a complete (descriptive, univariate, bivariate) EDA report with a single command. We will discuss four packages that offer this capability:
Data Explorer
AEDA (Available from https://github.com/tuanle618/AEDA
ExpanDaR
RtutoR
DataExplorer, is a popular R EDA package and its EDA report (report.html) is generated as:
It provides a good summary of missing data, univariate distribution (histogram, qqplot, bar chart), correlation analysis, bivariate analysis (boxplot, scatterplot), guided by the target variable. It also includes a principal component analysis.
The EDA report of AEDA (MainReport.rmd) is created as:
An HTML format of the report can be created by loading the .rmd report on Rstudio and clicking on the Knit button. Its strong points are a detailed report of numeric variables, including skewness, kurtosis, and advanced analysis that includes cluster summary report, principal component analysis, multidimensional scaling report, and factor analysis report.
The strong point of ExPanDaR’s auto-EDA is that it allows you to launch a Shiny application:
This Shiny application allows interactive specification of multiple variables, including:
factors for which to display the bar chart (including the choice of an additional factor on the same chart).
numeric variables for which to display the histogram (including specification of cells’ number). Note that after each histogram is displayed, extreme observations are also reported.
pairs of variables for which to display the scatter plot. Also, it allows the specification of the variable that is reflected in the color of the plot.
the target variable and independent variables of regression analysis. Also the specification of categorical variables for fixed effects.
Finally, package RtutorR provides a concise, basic, but convenient Powerpoint EDA report:
Its univariate analysis contains histograms of numeric variables (and min, max, percentile information) as well as bar plots of categorical variables (and the number of occurrences per level). Its bivariate analysis contains boxplots of numerical variables grouped by the categorical variables and scatter plots of numerical variables (along with the correlation coefficient).
You can find my R script and pdf versions of automated EDA reports by the aforementioned packages in my github directory https://github.com/theomitsa/R-EDA
HTML versions of auto-EDA reports can be found at HTML link
Thanks for reading!
References
[1] Singh, K. and M. Xie, Bootlier Plot-Bootstrap Based Outlier Detection Plot, vol. 65, part 3, pp. 532–559, 2003. | https://towardsdatascience.com/discovering-the-treasures-of-22-r-exploratory-analysis-packages-9bb1c5b4e6f8 | ['Theophano Mitsa'] | 2021-03-04 22:06:34.241000+00:00 | ['Exploratory Data Analysis', 'Data Science'] |
Government-Backed Cryptocurrencies in Unstable Petro-States | Many blockchain enthusiasts hope that frictionless transactions on online token economies can bolster personal freedom. Oil-rich nations, such as Venezuela and Iran, seek to use blockchain technology for a different purpose: to shore up their flailing economies in the face of increasing international pressure.
Venezuelan protester waves the flag of Venezuela.
Venezuela
Venezuela has the world’s largest oil reserves. For years, Venezuela’s government used oil revenues to smooth over the effects of its economic mismanagement and its disregard for property rights. It appeased voters by subsidizing basic goods, to the extent that often, retail prices of such goods were lower than their production costs. But when the price of oil dropped from $100/bbl in 2014 to $50/bbl in 2015, Venezuela’s economy went into free fall. Today, Venezuela’s currency is worthless, its entire population is living in poverty, and people are fleeing the country in record numbers. Basic transactions in Venezuela require bags of money, and in 2017 alone, prices of goods jumped 2616%. In response to the Venezuelan government’s violations of human rights, the US put sanctions on Venezuela, hampering its ability to raise funds on international markets.
Earlier this year, Venezuela became the first country to introduce a government-recognized cryptocurrency. The oil-backed currency is known as “El Petro”. Since each Petro is supposedly backed by one barrel of oil, the currency’s introduction can be seen as an effort by the Venezuelan government to stabilize the economy in response to the sky-rocketing inflation of Venezuela’s national currency, the Bolivar.
The Petro was ‘launched’ in an ICO earlier this year. The government claimed to have pre-mined 2.7 billion coins for itself, and to have sold large amounts international investors, such as foreign governments. Venezuela’s president Nicolas Maduro claimed that the ICO raised $735 million in the first day of its presale. However, there is no evidence for this statement.
According to the Venezuelan government, the Petro was adopted to serve three purposes: to be a medium of exchange, to provide a digital platform to facilitate exchanges, and to be a savings and investment instrument. Maduro’s government claims to accept the Petro as payment for taxes, charges, and public services. In May, Maduro declared the country’s duty-free Margarita Island the first “special economic zone for the use of the Petro as a currency for purchases, for exchange within the free zone”.
The US imposed additional sanctions, prohibiting US citizens from purchasing any Venezuelan government-issued “digital currency, digital token, or digital coin” since January. Cryptocurrency rating sites have called the Petro a scam. Venezuela’s government has been vague about whether the Petro is Venezuela’s official currency, has not been able to provide a stable website to access information about it, and has generally lost credibility in the eyes of its citizens and the international community. This shows that government-backed cryptocurrency and blockchain efforts can only be as legitimate and trustworthy as the governments themselves.
Iran
Iran is another petro-state that has shown interest in creating a government-backed cryptocurrency.
Iran had been subject to various US sanctions since 1979, and a fresh round of US-led international sanctions in 2010 crippled Iran’s economy. In 2015, Iran and a group consisting of the P5 world powers and Germany entered into the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), a deal whereby Iran would curb its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.
In 2017, Iran signaled a potential embrace of cryptocurrencies by preparing to allow Bitcoin transactions within Iran. In 2017, a deputy minister said that his ministry had “conducted a number of research studies as part of efforts to prepare the infrastructure to use bitcoin inside the country.” However, supposedly due to money laundering concerns, by April 2018 Iran’s central bank had prohibited the country’s commercial banks from dealing with cryptocurrencies and offering services to crypto firms.
Iran instead claims to have focused its efforts on creating a government-backed digital currency. The Iranian minister responsible for the government’s efforts has said that the bank ban “does not mean the prohibition or restriction of the use of the digital currency in domestic development”. He now claims that an experimental version of the currency is available.
The chairman of Iran’s economic commission once suggested that a government-backed cryptocurrency could serve to “facilitate economic deals and circumvent sanctions”. He was likely referring to oil exports, which have generally accounted for more than half of the Iranian government’s revenues.
In May, the US withdrew from the JCPOA and imposed harsh sanctions on Iran. The value of Iran’s national currency has since decreased significantly, and Iran has experienced capital flight. Additionally, the US has announced its intent to impose sanctions on any nation that does not cut Iranian oil imports to zero by November. However, Iran has not taken any recent steps to introduce its government-backed cryptocurrency.
Conclusion
Oil-rich nations feeling the bite of US sanctions have explored floating government-backed cryptocurrencies to stabilize their economies. Venezuela’s experience with the Petro suggests that this approach is unlikely to work. Iran’s slow progress in introducing a government-backed cryptocurrency can be seen as an acknowledgement of the ineffectiveness of such an approach.
Government-backed cryptocurrencies introduced with questionable motives during challenging economic times cannot be expected to engender trust. Since cryptocurrencies are based on trust, it is not difficult to see why such efforts are likely to fail. | https://medium.com/blockstreethq/government-backed-cryptocurrencies-in-unstable-petro-states-1886abea08ad | ['Shaan Ray'] | 2019-12-15 06:51:07.417000+00:00 | ['Petro', 'Iran', 'Venezuela', 'Bitcoin', 'Bhq Contributors'] |
Enemy: 2, attempt: 1. | Today I started by finally biting the bullet and creating a new enemy. With all the alien talk circulating right now, I really wanted to find a cool UFO png file to convert to my new enemy spaceship. This is what I found:
Enemy2
So I took this png and converted it to a sprite by adding a rigidbody2D as well as a 2D circle collider. After attaching the enemy script and replacing all enemies with the new enemy, this is what I came up with.
As you can see, there are a few problems. First, the enemies look *horrible*… and not in a good way. I thought the glowing green accents would look really sharp but when shrunken down to size, they just look really sloppy and pixilated and of poor quality. Also, they only shoot one laser (compared to the two the normal enemy deploys) and the explosion animation is way too small. I think it’s rather odd to run into such problems as it’s basically just substituting what the enemy *looks* like. I’m confused on why *anything* is different to be honest (besides the sprite itself).
Overall, I’m not really happy with this look and will go back and tinker with my 2D shooter game in my spare time. BECAUSE we believe that this will be our last week with GameDevHQ (due to the end of current government funding), I’ve decided to move onto the next assignment which is entitled “Stealth Game and Cinematography”. Some of my group members have been working on this for a while already and it look like it could be a lot of fun! | https://medium.com/@kristintreder/enemy-2-attempt-1-9d4aba8ae469 | ['Kristin Treder'] | 2020-12-21 19:01:44.857000+00:00 | ['Unity', 'Unity3d', 'Learning To Code'] |
Startup Spotlight Q&A: E-Sign | E-Sign is a leading provider of electronic signature solutions and document transaction services. We ensure safe transmission of a variety of important documents, from document creation, right through to payment, and signature capture.
E-Sign’s Founder and Managing Director, Thomas Taylor, has over 20 years of diverse experience gained mostly across the IT and engineering industries. As a board-level executive with strong leadership and change management
experience, he has held leadership roles in a diverse manner of
companies as well as government organizations. Thomas has served as
an innovation director and work package leader for a European Commission
research consortium. He thrives on implementing new
processes in large-scale organizations and assisting other technology
companies to operate as efficiently as possible.
Keep reading if you want to learn more about E-Sign!
— In a single sentence, what does E-Sign do?
Document transaction management.
– How did E-Sign come to be? What was the problem you found and the ‘aha’ moment?
The company was founded in 2012, it was following thoughts by the founder that given the available technology at the time, there had to be a better way to send important documents, without the costs and delays associated with the postal service.
E-Sign was created and used QR technology to provide a tamper-proof digital infrastructure for document transmissions and signature capture. This has since evolved into many other things and the company now offers a wide range of solutions to make our user’s lives easier.
— What sets E-Sign apart in the market?
We consistently receive great reviews and great customer feedback.
Easy to use platform with no restriction on features or document sends very cost-effectively whilst maintaining an excellent level of service compared to other providers.
— What milestone are you most proud of so far?
During our early-stage years, it was the balance between not knowing if the company would be operating by the end of the week in one instance, then acquiring big customers from central governments and banks, etc, which then validated what we were trying to do and gave us the drive to constantly strive to be the best we could be.
— Have you pursued funding and if so, what steps did you take?
We successfully raised angel funding and crowdfunded via Crowdcube and now have institutional backing.
– What KPIs are you tracking that you think will lead to revenue generation/growth?
We track every aspect of the customer journey, from initial search through to trial and paying customers and their user journey in between.
— How do you build and develop talent?
Growing and developing the team to where it is today hasn’t been easy, it’s definitely been a learning curve! We have a great team with zero ego culture. There is a culture of openness and communication within the team, each member knows the responsibility that we have on deliver-ability and trust.
— What are the biggest challenges for the team?
There have been many, the more the e-Sign platform has been used, the more issues that were uncovered. The issues then were to prioritize what could be fixed at the time, and what could be offset against future updates, that could then fix the issues. Development resource is always an important (and expensive) issue to address in a growth company.
— What’s been the biggest success for the team? How did you celebrate?
Some of the biggest wins for us came when central UK Government departments started using the platform, as well as NHS trusts. Again this felt like it validated the technology and give us the realization that we were playing an important part in improving people’s lives.
We usually stay well-grounded (we still like to have fun, day to day)!
— What’s something you’re constantly thinking about?
Leaving the planet in a better state than I found it.
— Who is your cloud provider
We have our own Datacentre infrastructure.
— What advice would you give to other founders?
Never sit in the comfy chair, and always feel comfortable in your own skin. It’s easy to brush these two things aside, but I feel if you embrace these, you can achieve a lot.
Listen to your inner voice and believe in what you are doing, but at the same time know when to ask for help from others. | https://medium.com/startup-grind/startup-spotlight-q-a-e-sign-b881fbae52ea | ['The Startup Grind Team'] | 2020-12-01 15:27:32.106000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Engineering', 'Startup Lessons', 'Startup', 'Startup Spotlight'] |
The Time Is Always Right To Do What Is Right | MAMA HOPE was founded with the intention to support a shift in the way global development operates. In a sector that is historically rooted in colonial systems, where power is held by high income countries and “development” is maintained by foreign actors through the control of finances and assets, we have always aimed to practice something different. Guided by the missions and visions of our partner organizations, we build pathways for locally-driven solutions, created by those who know their challenges best — the communities themselves. We provide unrestricted funding and put full trust in community leaders already doing the work. With feedback from our partners and the changing tides of the sector, we are constantly learning and our inputs continue to evolve. Yet one thing has always remained: our desire to see the emergence of a new global approach to development in which communities hold the power and resources they need to drive their own futures.
However, the road to fulfilling this vision has not been straightforward. For the past few years we have been striving to become truly values aligned — moving to a non-hierarchical structure, diversifying our fundraising sources, focusing on hiring more staff from the countries in which our partners work, and planning for a transition to leadership that is representative of the countries our partners are from. We also developed a brand new iteration of the Global Advocate Fellowship Program that allows us to engage more emerging leaders from our partner countries.
Despite the many benefits of this adaptive approach, we have found it consistently difficult to maintain a predictable flow of financial resources that will allow our partners to have flexibility and autonomy to fulfill their own visions. We rely on the generosity of donors and grantors who also believe in the power of community-led development, but unfortunately the sector has consistently prioritized donor interests over community interests. It holds tight to old ideas that perpetuate “west is best” thinking and negative stereotypes about low-income countries, which foster distrust in the ability of communities to lead their own change. In 2017, local and national NGOs directly received only 0.4% of all international humanitarian assistance (Global Humanitarian Assistance Report, 2018). Yet 97% of the community-led initiatives that our partners have envisioned, developed and implemented themselves are still operating, growing, and providing effective and essential services to their communities. Imagine the shift that would take place if more funding was driven directly to community-led organizations.
In the face of COVID-19 and a global economic downturn, aligned funding opportunities have been even harder to come by and our transition to become increasingly community-driven has stalled. We have recognized that our desire to stay in alignment with our mission, more fully support our partners, and truly shift the way global development is done, requires a significant change within our own team. While incremental changes have been in progress for some time, a more fundamental transition is stemming from the financial pressures we’re feeling. Several staff will be moving on from MAMA HOPE, in an effort to build financial resilience, accelerate our support for our community partners, and make necessary room for new voices on our team and in global development at large. While we scale down our team today, we look forward to scaling back up with a reinvigorated commitment to community-led development in MAMA HOPE’s next chapter. If this year has taught us anything, it’s that people and plans are adaptable and resilient. Even more, we are reminded that at the end of the day, the time is always right to do what is right.
We truly believe that the steps we are taking are the best moves forward for MAMA HOPE, our partners, and their ongoing success. We are hopeful about growing in ways that will root us more deeply in our community-led model and help us be a better partner for everyone in the MAMA HOPE family. This transition is reflective of the sector we want to see. It’s reflective of the growing strength of community-led practices globally. It’s reflective of the movement towards community-centric fundraising and ethical, authentic partnerships. It’s in this process that we continue to push for long-term shifts in power dynamics in the sector. True change is bubbling beneath the surface. We are full of hope for what’s next and humbled to be a part of it.
As always, we invite you to join us in driving this change. Wherever possible, give directly to community-led initiatives. Allow flexibility in your funding by giving without restrictions. Listen to the voices of those most impacted by issues you are working to solve, and then promote their ideas and solutions. Behind every stereotype there are complex, unique, vibrant places and people with visions for their futures, who should have access to all the power and resources they need to fulfill them. If the global development sector truly aims to change lives, this is where we must start. Together we’ll continue to shift the narrative! | https://medium.com/mama-hope/the-time-is-always-right-to-do-what-is-right-62482f12140e | ['Mama Hope'] | 2020-09-09 10:35:35.486000+00:00 | ['Global Development', 'International Development', 'Organizational Change', 'Nonprofit Fundraising', 'Fundraising'] |
3 Things You Need To Know Before You Train-Test Split | Stratification
Let’s assume you are doing a multiclass classification and have an imbalanced dataset that has 5 different classes. You do a simple train-test split that does a random split totally disregarding the distribution or proportions of the classes. What happens in this scenario is that you end up with a train and a test set with totally different data distributions. A model trained on a vastly different data distribution than the test set will perform inferiorly at validation. Now let’s take a look, shall we?
We take the cuisine dataset from this Kaggle competition. The dataset has 20 classes (cuisine types) and is very imbalanced. We select 3 classes ( italian, korean and indian ) for our little experiment.
Now let’s try the all famous train_test_split function of scikit-learn. First, we’ll do just a normal split. Let’s check the results.
We can see variations in the distributions. Although small here, it can easily be quite large enough for smaller and more skewed datasets. The solution to this problem is something called stratification which will lock the distribution of classes in train and test sets. Let’s go to the documentation page of the train_test_split function once again.
Here it is. The very last parameter. In order to get a similar distribution, we need to stratify the dataset based on the class values. So we pass our class labels part of the data to this parameter and check what happens.
And voila! You have identical distributions. Hence your model won’t face the problem of validation against an imbalanced test set and give you a wrong sense of its actual performance. Onto the next one! | https://towardsdatascience.com/3-things-you-need-to-know-before-you-train-test-split-869dfabb7e50 | ['Mayukh Bhattacharyya'] | 2020-07-15 10:56:12.489000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Validation', 'Scikit Learn', 'Deep Learning', 'Data Science'] |
Framing Data with DataFrames | EXPLORATORY DATA ANALYSIS
Framing Data with DataFrames
Channeling open data into business frameworks
At the outset of any challenge, but especially for the complex and ambiguous ones that data scientists often face, structuring a thought process to approach the fundamental issue is one of the initial tasks. Many industries employ subject matter experts that have domain-specific knowledge, where unique paradigms of thinking are continually developed, taught and enhanced.
A functional organizational structure separates employees with specific skills into departments such as Human Resources, Sales, Marketing, Finance and Engineering, etc. This can produce a silo effect, in which useful information is created, but not necessarily shared. In response, companies assemble cross-functional teams to facilitate sharing and learning across the organization.
These teams can increase overall company effectiveness because they strengthen the firm’s interdependent internal network. For example, strategic decisions can be improved by incorporating, say, information and insights inferred by data scientists. So let’s take a look at how rapidly growing data can be channeled into intuitive frameworks that are familiar to business leaders.
Exploratory Data Analysis
Business strategists and consultants often explore an industry by performing a Situation Analysis,¹ which considers the 5C’s (Context, Consumer, Company, Competition and Collaboration). The Growth-Share Matrix, commonly known as The BCG Matrix, was introduced by the Boston Consulting Group in 1970 and is a popular business framework for visualizing a market analysis.
The Growth-Share Matrix a.k.a. The BCG Matrix. Image: A. Ovans²
The BCG Matrix evaluates a market based on constituent growth rates and market share, creating four quadrants called Dogs, Question Marks, Stars and Cash Cows. Diversified companies have business lines in mature, high-share markets that generate excess cash flow as well as market segments with high-growth opportunities that often require significant cash investments.
Dogs refer to low-growth, low-share markets that typically struggle to break-even. The conventional wisdom of analysts is to liquidate business in this area.
Question Marks are high-growth, low-share markets that have both potential and risk. New businesses target this area through a select and divest strategy.
Stars are Question Marks that have been widely adopted to become market leaders. Continued growth pushes firms to invest due to high competition.
Cash Cows are mature markets where entrenched players can maintain their position with minimal investment, allowing them to milk reliable cash flows.
Let’s use a real example to see how we can apply the concepts in the BCG Matrix to a specific industry. Moreover, we can take open data that is freely available and organize the information in a meaningful way to populate the chart. Finally, we can use render our market analysis in an interactive, cloud-based visualization that can be queried to access layered information.
The Pet Care Industry
From Anaconda to Python to Pandas, data scientists have an strong affinity for animals. Robbrecht van Amerongen has compiled a list of favorites in the Zoo of Programming Languages.³ As inspiration, we can generate a BCG Matrix by searching for available open data sources for the fast-growing and much-beloved pet care industry (note: market research can cost up to $9,450⁴).
The American Pet Products Association (APPA) estimates that the pet care industry will exceed $75 billion in 2019, increasing by 3.9% over the previous year.⁵ Consumer spending categories are led by pet food ($32 billion), veterinary care ($19 billion) and supplies & OTC medicine ($16 billion). Now let’s scan the web for information sources to develop our own market analysis.
New York Neighborhoods
We could search for a dataset on Kaggle, but would only find seven results for pets, although there is a myriad of cat and dog image repositories.⁶ The most authoritative and complete dataset is the NYC Dog Licensing Dataset, which tracks 15 columns and 122k records as part of the NYC Open Data initiative.⁷
The dataset includes Borough and Zip Code information for licensed dogs in New York, which offers the potential to pivot on the data by location, but Borough seems too coarse and Zip Code seems too fine. So let’s refer to the New York State Department of Health’s ZIP Code Definitions of New York City Neighborhoods that subdivides the city into 42 manageable Neighborhoods.⁸
First 10 neighborhoods in New York, mixed format (wide and long). Image: Author
The initial Pandas DataFrame is arranged in a Multi-Hierarchical Index, except for Zip Codes, which are packed into a Wide Format. The goal of this table, though, is to map the Zip Code of each record in the NYC Dog Licensing Dataset to its respective Neighborhood. So the first task is to reshape the table into a Long Format for easier processing, which can be indexed by Zip Code.
First 10 neighborhoods in New York, long format. Image: Author
Competitor Concentration
In addition to the licensed dog data that represents the New York consumer market, we can also gather information about business competition. The Yelp Fusion API has a comprehensive database of various kinds of businesses in New York.⁹ By searching for pet stores and pet services, we can collect 1,502 unique businesses actively catering to the pet care industry in 2019.
First 10 New York pet stores and pet services actively operating in 2019. Image: Author
Market concentration is a fundamental measure of industry competitiveness, where markets can range between perfect and monopolistic competition. Without revenue or client traffic data for each store, we have to make a large and unrealistic assumption that each store is equivalent. Having said that, we can count the number of stores of each chain as a proxy for total market share.
Concentration Ratios aggregate the total market share held by the top firms in the industry.¹⁰ For example, CR4 for our top four firms stands at only 8.9%, while CR8 is 11.9%, indicating a highly distributed market. Alternatively, the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index,¹¹ used by the Department of Justice in anti-trust cases,¹² is 31 out of a range of 0 (perfect competition) and 10,000 (monopoly).
Concentration Ratios for the top 8 firms in the New York pet care industry. Image: Author
Similarly, we can group our competitor data by neighborhood and measure geographic concentration or density. We measure CR4 to be 30.6% and CR8 to be 49.9%, meaning that half of all pet stores and services are located in eight neighborhoods. The neighborhood HHI of 448, which is the sum of the squares of all neighborhood shares, is still considered to be unconcentrated.
Concentration Ratios for the top 8 neighborhoods in the New York pet care industry. Image: Author
Market Size
NYC Open Data conveniently lets us download the entire NYC Dog Licensing Dataset as a CSV file, which we can import into a Pandas DataFrame. We notice that it has the License Issued Year as well as the License Expired Year, allowing us to count the number of actively licensed dogs in a given year. This metric is very similar to the Monthly Active Users (MAU) in digital marketing.¹³
First 10 of 121,713 New York licensed dogs from 2014–2022. Image: Author
Now that we have gathered our neighborhood, pet business and licensed dog datasets, we can insert them into a SQL database and join them in a single DataFrame through some powerful queries. By selecting only the active dog licenses in every calendar year, we can calculate the 5-Year Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR)¹⁴ from 2014 to 2019 for each neighborhood.
Market share and growth rate (2014–2019) of pet care industry for first 10 neighborhoods in New York. Image: Author
Now that we have calculated the market share and growth rate of licensed dogs in each New York neighborhood, we can render our analysis as a BCG Matrix in a data visualization engine such as Plotly.¹⁵ We can add richness to the graph by sizing the data points as the number of pet businesses in each neighborhood and shading them by the number of licensed dogs per store.
The Growth-Share Matrix of Licensed Dogs in New York exhibits a striking pattern of neighborhoods that follow a trajectory from starting out as Dogs, progressing to Question Marks, becoming Stars and maturing into Cash Cows. We can readily see that four neighborhoods enjoy high market share and two of them present opportunities since they are underserved by pet businesses.
Growth-Share Matrix of licensed dogs in New York. Source: Author¹⁶
The source code written for this analysis is available on GitHub,¹⁷ which includes gathering the datasets from Yelp and NYC Open Data, wrangling the data in Python, Pandas and SQL, and rendering the BCG Matrix in Plotly. The entire Plotly code is short and can be automatically uploaded and hosted by Plotly, which provides a dashboard for modifications and embeddable links.
Visualizing the BCG Growth-Share Matrix with Plotly. Source: Author¹⁸
Mind the Gap
The market share of pet businesses is only calculated by the number of physical store locations held by a business or a within a given neighborhood, which could be improved with revenue or foot traffic data.
The New York City Economic Development Corporation estimates that only 20% of dogs are licensed in New York, so it is important to note that the NYC Licensed Dog Dataset is only a sample of the entire dog population.
The Dog Dataset began tracking data in 2014, so there is a noticeable spike in registrations in the subsequent years. This growth in registrations should not be confused with the growth of the actual dog population.
The Dog Dataset was last updated in 2017, so recently issued licenses are not captured, while ongoing expirations sunset the dog population by 2022. This gap in data can affect the CAGR rate depending on years considered.
Given the limitations with any dataset, we should now feel confident that we can collect open data sources, perform a market analysis and visualize the BCG Matrix so that our data can be easily relatable to business leaders.
References | https://towardsdatascience.com/framing-data-with-dataframes-d9b7ce012be5 | ['Adam C Dick'] | 2020-12-20 03:24:39.271000+00:00 | ['Programming', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Data Science', 'Technology', 'Machine Learning'] |
WHY AFRICANS SHOULD RE-THINK ON INCENTIVIZED BLOCKCHAINS | Blockchain is the technology of the century and its here to stay.
As of today, the Bitcoin (BTC) network is as powerful as 9.1 million horses (horsepower) of energy or 14,000 Corvette Z06s engines.
Understanding Blockchain Is Same As Understanding Bitcoin
The Bitcoin network was the first project or protocol to device the blockchain technology. So by lay definition, A blockchain network is a collection of computers (also referred to as nodes, running along with clouded back-end), with encrypted hard coded software and as a store of data in an inter-chains of blocks. A blockchain can therefore be described as a collection of blocks.
In each block is a collection of transactions or data. All these computers running the blockchain have the same list of block data, transactions and anyone can transparently see these new blocks, being filled with the generation of new coins transactions (in this case bitcoins). No one can cheat, halt, alter the system. A blockchain is always immutable by this design.
Anyone, whether running a bitcoin “node” or not, can always see these transactions occurring live on block explorers. In order to achieve a nefarious act, a bad actor would need to operate 51% of the computing power that makes up bitcoin network to impose an attack (this is practically impossible). Bitcoin has around 47,000 nodes as of May 2020 and this number is growing. Making such an attack is quite unlikely.
Africans have underestimated the power of technology or they always catch on late with the event of things. I remember the event of ATM coming to Africa countries, it was a tug of war to make Africans register for a debit card. But today, there are limitations on the society and the way forward is a cashless society where the debit/credit cards play vital roles. I still believe in the few more years, debit cards might become too heavy to use. The same way the resistance of the automated teller machines posed setbacks initially, it same today with blockchain and crypto-currencies in particular.
BLOCKCHAIN MEANS FREEDOM AND DISTRIBUTED WEALTH?
I intend to be very plain in this write up. On a general note, Blockchain is a technology of freedom and wealth creation. I believe that the technology is for every-man on the street. But humans are always stereotype, particularly Africans. We (Africans) are always slow to new age technology and also lack the zeal to make contributions. I have not been surprised the way governments (world over) have look at the topic of blockchain. At first, we believed and looked at bitcoin as a scam or we say “its too imaginary to be a true store of value or its a crazy man idea. Irrespective of what we believe, this technology is the current gateway to a decentralized community, freedom to financial well-being, and a distributed wealth generation tool, if properly harnessed.
WHY SHOULD AFRICANS RETHINK BLOCKCHAIN?
Usually, Africans are always behind. And if we must solve poverty in our ecosystem and continent, we must think and rethink incentivized blockchains. We must build and rebuild strong projects. We can invent or re-invent, deploy or restructure existing or new projects or protocols with the goal of freedom for every African. Africans can build their own niche. This thought drove me crazy a few years ago when I missed a piece of information that engenders wealth creation. Someone has told me to buy 500 or 1000 DASH currency around 2014 or so when it was just $0.60, but I ignored it. It would have only cost me just 190,000 NGN for 1000 supplies of it. The Naira was neighboring 183 - 190 NGN/$. And in 2015, Dash Protocol introduce the masternodes concept. Today, you need 1000 DASH to deploy a masternode and 1000 DASH neighbors around 36 million NGN as at the writing of this article. DASH therefore became the first INCENTIVIZED BLOCKCHAIN PROTOCOL outside of the bitcoins forks with the masternodes model and democratic governance.
HOW CAN WE RETHINK BLOCKCHAIN?
On this sub-caption, I will share my brief journey on blockchain development and show you how I did this. And if its a worthy cause, then I call on all my African brothers (Nigerians, Kenyans, Ugandans, Ghanians, Zimbabweans etc) to rethink blockchain. I ventured into blockchain fully in 2016.
I was just asking one question. If the person or team behind bitcoin protocol could produce a piece as this digital money (Bitcoin) that has changed the course of world economies, then who did this? Where Africans part of the initiative? If my answer is no, then where was Africa? Is it too late for Africans to awake and create their native economies? Not as competitive with existing protocols by as additional touch of growth and main stream adoption! Is it possible? Can the government of today encourage this technology for transformation?
These questions filled my mind until I summon the courage to begin. It has taken 2 years of research, failure & persuasions. And today, my team and I built a stand alone blockchain with a fork of an existing protocol (Dash Protocol) with unique specifications and without fund raising. We achieved this by making use of available tools from both open and closed sources to deliver a piece of the QNODE BLOCKCHAIN. Qnode Blockchain is an incentivized version of Dash protocol with modified parameters. I developed this for Africans, and Asians as well. QnodeCoin was developed with the goal of vendors usage.
MY CONCEPT OF BLOCKCHAIN IS THAT IT SHOULD BE FREE
Actually, blockchain is free and there are lot of open sources supporting several initiatives. If anyone can afford mining rigs or GPUs, they can create wealth by mining bitcoin, Dash, QnodeCoin and the likes of it. Its only costly at the point of acquiring the hardware's, or requirements for consensus participation or developmental knowledge to build a private rig or node.
INCENTIVIZED BLOCKCHAIN WERE MY INTEREST
I will mention some blockchain that proves to be incentivized base protocols, who did what was different from the SHA256 POW protocol. DASH PROTOCOL was the first incentivized protocol on X11-Proof of Work, that caught my interest and their unique governance model with Masternodes. PIVX also made an upgrade of the DASH Protocol and nabed it Quark-Proof of Stake with masternodes. Followed by it, was the WAVESPLATFORM; that developed the first Lease Proof of Stake algorithm. Lastly, the recent launch of Decentralized Finance (DeFi) on etheruem smart contracts. These protocols can be leveraged upon. So, I did leveraged on them. This gave rise to the Qnode Blockchain of today. We had initial challenges, but we over came them.
Success is not final, failure is not fatal, what matters is the courage to continue - Winston Churchill
QNODE BLOCKCHAIN WILL EVOLVE WITH THE FEATURES FOUND IN THE INCENTIVIZED BLOCKCHAINS MENTIONED ABOVE & DEFI.
I believe we are just one of the few incentivized protocols in Nigeria and Africa. We built Qnode Blockchain from a fork of the Dash Protocol. With our developments, we have every feature the dash protocol have as at version 0.14 (prior to the new dash v0.15 upgrade in june, 2020). We have also integrated interoperability for DEXs (Decentralized Exchange) on Wavesplatform. We are currently building a DeFi layer for governance token with an underlying x11 algorithmic protocol via a smart contract on ethereum. To learn and participate on Qnode Blockchain, you may visit https://qngnodes.medium.com, https://qngnode.cc and https://defi.qngnode.cc
LET BUILD FOR AFRICA, LET BUILD TO LAST
I have said much, therefore let Africans arise to make timestamp developments for community use, Let rethink blockchain. Blockchain is not an easy bite venture, yet there has been evolving platform blockchains that make tokenization easy for non-techy people. Therefore, let build for Africa and let build to last. I believe we can refocus our energy in Africa and support most indigenous project as well as foreign protocols. To this end, I want to thank the team behind DASH Protocol, Wavesplatform etc. LET RETHINK AND BUILD FOR AFRICA… | https://medium.com/@qnode01/why-africans-should-re-think-on-incentivized-blockchains-c751e25cbc5d | ['Josh Erhiga.', 'Quantum'] | 2021-03-26 06:17:25.793000+00:00 | ['Waves Platform Wallet', 'Dash Protocol', 'Qnode Blockchain', 'Blockchain Startup'] |
Visual thinking and NeuroLeadership | I was on the phone with a friend and former customer yesterday, who is now a leadership coach, and she asked me if I would connect the dots between our core practice, Visual Thinking, and NeuroLeadership.
“I’m sure there’s a connection because I’ve seen the process, there’s something there,” she said.
Yes, there is absolutely a connection. Thank you Laura, for asking the question and giving me the opportunity to think it through.
What is NeuroLeadership?
NeuroLeadership is a discipline that connects brain science to leadership. Its focus is to apply hard science to solve problems and increase effectiveness in leadership and management. One concept from NeuroLeadership that I have found very helpful is the SCARF model developed by David Rock, author of Your Brain at Work, Quiet Leadership, and Coaching with the Brain in Mind.
Some social needs are as important to the brain as air, food and water. If these social needs are not being met, the brain reacts in the same way as it would if you were literally starving or gasping for air.
SCARF stands for Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness, and Fairness.
Status: People need to feel important, recognized, needed by others.
Certainty: People need to feel confident that they know what’s ahead, that they can predict the future with reasonable certainty.
Autonomy: People need to feel like they have control of their life, their work, their destiny.
Relatedness: People need to feel like they belong, to trust that the group they are in will look out for them.
Fairness: People need to feel like they are being treated fairly, that the “rules of the game” give them a fair chance.
What is Visual Thinking?
Visual Thinking is drawing in order to make sense of the world. When you visualize something, it becomes more concrete. Complex concepts become easier to understand. Visual Thinking has been widespread in Science and Mathematics for many many years, and, like NeuroLeadership, is emerging as a best practice in leading-edge organizations.
Visual Thinking drives understanding, alignment, commitment and action.
At XPLANE, we help our customers design and run Visual Thinking sessions, where teams visualize their challenges, imagine creative alternatives, develop strategies and plans, and design the next steps in their evolution as a business. I’ve written elsewhere about what XPLANE does to create more connected, faster-moving organizations. My colleagues and I have detailed many of these ideas, principles and exercises and we have shared them with the world in a best-selling book called Gamestorming.
Typical business meetings vs. Visual Thinking sessions.
Many aspects of a typical business meeting trigger anxiety and emotional distress, triggering the fight-or-flight response and causing people to shut down. Visual Thinking sessions address and resolve many of those issues.
Status: In a typical meeting, status and hierarchy create distance between people. Sitting around a table increases the sense of direct threat.
A Visual Thinking session flattens the hierarchy. As soon as people start drawing, it’s ideas and insights that matter, not status. Also, because people are focused on the shared picture as opposed to each other, status takes a back seat to creating something together.
Certainty: In a typical meeting, abstract language, diagrams and complex PowerPoint slides create a sense of uncertainty about the future. It’s difficult to translate abstract ideas into concrete action. Without a clear picture, people procrastinate or act in ways that are counterproductive.
Visualizing the future makes it more tangible. Drawing a plan is thinking it through. Drawing what “good” looks like, who will do what, and how, makes the future less abstract, and reduces anxiety and uncertainty about next steps, reducing resistance and making it easier to move forward.
Autonomy: In a typical meeting, the boss or presenter is in charge of the agenda and the dialogue. Other participants are reduced to listening and asking questions instead of actively contributing. This reduction in participation leads to reduced commitment and makes it less likely for people to carry the ideas forward after they leave the meeting.
In Visual Thinking sessions, everyone is involved in making ideas and plans more tangible and concrete. This increases people’s sense of control. If everyone participates in creating the picture of what will happen, it is easier for them to take ownership and run with it.
Relatedness: Typical meetings are focused primarily on the exchange of information, not team-building. Most business meetings are dry affairs. It’s blah blah blah, until it’s over.
When a group of people works together to create a shared picture of their situation, their vision, and a plan to get there, they are simultaneously building a sense of who they are as a team. Creating a vision together makes it easier to take action after the session is over.
Fairness: In a typical meeting, the extroverts — people who like to talk — often get the lion’s share of the airtime. Introverts, who may have great contributions to make, may not get the time and space they need to share their ideas.
When we design Visual Thinking sessions, we design the exercises to ensure that there is time for individual reflection as well as group discussion and interaction. The structure of Visual Thinking sessions recognizes the value of both introverts and extroverts, and gives everyone a voice and a role in the process.
XPLANE is the visual thinking company. Visual thinking drives understanding, creativity, alignment, and commitment to shared goals. And it does all of these things simultaneously.
We use Visual Thinking to help organizations get better, faster. Give us a call. We’d love to show you what happens when people understand.
Dave Gray is the Founder of XPLANE. | https://medium.com/the-xplane-collection/visual-thinking-and-neuroleadership-ece66725ffc | ['Dave Gray'] | 2015-11-18 04:09:49.256000+00:00 | ['Visualization', 'Leadership', 'Neuroscience'] |
India at World T20 — What went wrong? | As a fan of Indian Cricket, it was hugely disappointing to see what happened at the World Cup. The team has failed on all fronts — batting, bowling and fielding. The team which was joint favorite at the start of the tournament along with SA has literally fallen apart in the space of 100 highly forgettable hours for Indian cricket. So, what went wrong? Here’s my take -
1. Excessive cricket — Whatever excuses maybe given by the BCCI, Lalit Modi or Dhoni, I feel the biggest reason for this debacle has to be excessive cricket. It is extremely tough for players to get to peak motivation levels after a high stakes tournament like IPL. Note — Even SA was playing cricket continuously for so many months now, infact they were playing tougher cricket than India — back to back against the Aussies. But then, they were atleast at home and have far better fitness levels than the Indians.
2. Makeshift Opener — This has been India’s problem for God-knows how many years! India had taken only 2 openers — Sehwag and Gambhir . Rohit Sharma had batted in the middle order for Deccan in the IPL. To his credit, his form itself was so brilliant that he looked menacing during the warmups, but when it came to the crunch time, Rohit was a batsman wasted at the opening slot. He simply couldn’t continue the form. Only other batsman who could have come for opening was Dhoni. But then, he wasn’t in form as well.
3. Erratic fielding — Players who were supposed to be good fielders were having torrid times in the field. Right from Raina to Yuvraj, everyone gave away runs and in a T20, even 5 runs are crucial. Remember, we lost to England only by 3 runs. Players simply didn’t care or weren’t fit enough to dive. Yuvraj, inspite of all his batting heroics, didn’t look fit on the field.
4. Form factor — To quote Dhoni after the match,
It’s not about what you can achieve, it’s about what you do achieve. We were not really up to the mark or at 100 per cent. Our performance was not up to the international standard. There never was a time when the majority of the guys performed in one match, it was usually two bowlers in one game or three in another, with an off-day for a couple of them, or one man scored and the rest didn’t so we never performed as a unit.
Bottomline, IPL perhaps brought the foreign players into better touch than Indians, because they had to keep their place in their IPL teams with the 4 player restriction in effect.
5. The BCCI — The BCCI found this hen that lays golden eggs in IPL. However, it did not take care of its players, in the quest for money. I am sorry to say this, but I believe the BCCI and its greedy ways is as responsible for the World Cup debacle as the players themselves. They just cram in cricket, cricket and more cricket in their calendar. They keep selling those rights to TRP hungry TV channels and crush rivals like ICL, but do nothing to protect their assets — the players. But then, who gives a damm for the players? BCCI as an organisation, I am sure doesn’t look at its players as anything but agents of minting money…
Finally, to quote the fake IPL player, perhaps the Indian fans didn’t see this coming. India was too arrogant to recognise that the team simply isn’t fit enough. Had Yuvraj not played against Bangladesh, I am sure India would have lost that match as well. Now in India, the blame game will start. All those who sang paeans of Dhoni till now would ask for him to be dropped as captain, even from the side perhaps.
The saga of Indian cricket never ceases to amaze one and all, doesn’t it? | https://medium.com/siddheshj/india-at-world-t20-what-went-wrong-afdeee8921ec | ['Siddhesh Joglekar'] | 2016-10-05 00:18:49.544000+00:00 | ['Cricket', 'Dhoni', 'Ipl', 'Sport'] |
What can you re-grow from cuttings? — Backyard Aquaponics in Melbourne | Spinach re-growing from cuttings
Harvesting and planting
Thanks to the revised greenhouse settings (you can read the 2nd winter aquaponics here), we’ve harvested broccoli, kale, lettuce, pacerly, mint and mizuna throughout the winter and early spring. One of the surprise is the broccoli leaves are so yummy and you can simply stir fry them just like Chinese broccoli.
Ths spring this year in Melbourne has been nice and warm and rained well. The flowers and new green leaves are everywhere and so my backyard aquaponics.
It’s time to plant more veggies
Melbourne had been in a hard stage 4 lockdown just until last week and we couldn’t easily get seeds and seedlings this year. Our local nursery was closed and could only buy using ‘click and collect’.
So I started planting some cuttings from veggies we consumed daily, which many people seem to re-grow in a cup of water or using a kitchen sponge. (I use a kitchen sponge when I grow seedlings from seeds).
For Aquaponics, you can simply plant the cuttings straight into the grow bed. The following are the types of veggies I tried:
Spring onions and Leek
Celery
Spinach and coriander
Garlic
Basil
What cuttings go well?
The cuttings of Spring onions planted
Spring onions from cuttings after 2 weeks
Spring onions
Spring onions are the best veggies out of all cuttings. They grow so fast that it takes about 2 ~ 3 weeks to get nice fresh spring onions back you can start using for garnish or salad.
You cut the root-end of spring onions, leaving about 1.5 cm ~ 2 cm and the rest can be consumed.
You can then plant them as a bunch, straight to a growing bed. That’s it!
When they grow in a good size, you can dig a little and cut them with a sharp knife so you can repeat growing many times.
Leeks work pretty much the same way as spring onions but it takes longer and they don’t grow as thick as the original size.
Spinach cuttings after 2 weeks (front) and after 5 days (back)
Spinach
Spinach is a little surprise for me but they also grow fast and we like them a lot.
You can cut the root-end and leave 3 ~ 4 cm of stalks and then plant them in a bunch.
Celery after 2 weeks
Celery
Celery grows well from cuttings and they look beautiful how the small leaves come out from the stalk.
They take much longer than the leafy veggies and occupy a fair bit of space once they become mature.
Basil
We love eating basil and are happy they grow like a weed!
You can buy basil in a grocery, either in a plastic planting box or in a bunch.
If you get a planting box, then you can cut the top leaves for eating and plant them the rest into the grow bed. (see the photo)
If you get them in a bunch you then need to grow the root from cuttings first.
You firstly cut the top part, leaving a 3 ~ 4 cm stalk and remove all leaves except for 2 top leaves. You put them in a plastic cup and add just enough water to cover 5 mm. Leave them a couple of days and you will see the root start growing.
Once you get the root, then you can plant them in the grow bed.
Overall it’s very easy to grow veggies from cuttings in an aquaponic system and many leafy veggies can re-grow over and over. My children love especially love looking at the growth from cuttings as you can see the strength of these veggies and new leaves are just great to observe.
Thanks for reading! | https://medium.com/@gota-clearwater/what-can-you-re-grow-from-cuttings-backyard-aquaponics-in-melbourne-a4280f5c83d5 | [] | 2020-11-04 21:38:22.254000+00:00 | ['Aquaponics', 'Spring', 'Melbourne', 'Grow From Cuttings'] |
Scams- Dangers and Measures To Be Taken | CIOReview | Source: CIOReview
Scams have been around for many years. It was prevalent in olden days as well. Today, old scams have reached the next level with the blessings of modern technology that makes it affordable and convenient for perpetrators for targeting a significant number of victims. The following is a rundown of some of the examples of the latest scams fueled by modern technology.
1. Caller ID Spoofing
Earlier, Caller ID was able to inform who was calling reliably. These days, scammers, using cheap technology, generally spoof the Caller ID, which shows a fake number or fake business appearing on the person’s Caller ID display. Scammers might spoof their calling number for committing other hosts of scams.
2. Phishing
This is a widespread email and internet scam which occurs when a scammer tempts the user into divulging private account information. The scammer might ask the user to confirm their account information by posing as the user’s bank. If the user confirms it, the information is misused by scammers for making unauthorized charges or even committing the crime of identity theft. Phishers hold the ability to send hundreds of emails for pennies on the dollar. If even one user bites, the fraudsters make money.
3. Fake Check Scams
In this type of scam, the user receives a real-looking check, which is actually a fake one. The technology empowers the scammer to print thousands of counterfeit checks that look authentic at low prices. The user is instructed to deposit the check and wire some money to the scammer. The check bounces after it gets deposited; however, the user cannot retrieve the money as the scammer has already received it.
The scam, too, has diverse flavors. In some scenarios, a person who posts an item for sale online becomes the target of the scammer. The scammer will buy the product and send a fake check in high amount, telling the seller to send back the overpayment. In another case, the scammer can send a fake check as a phony prize-winning and then instruct the user to wire back some money for taxes.
4. Forged Cell Phone Text Messages
These days, scammers send forged text messages to users’ cell phones. The message might offer a product for a monthly fee, usually $9.99. On opting out and declining the product, the user may find unauthorized charges on his/her phone bill.
The bottom line is that the companies, as well as every individual, should be aware of all the scams happening around them. They should confirm twice before releasing any private information.
Measures Organizations Should Take to Fight Scams
Every business is vulnerable to scams and scammers. Cybercriminals adapt their methods as fast as cybersecurity companies create new products and services. The scam is a major way in which businesses lose money. The media is completely filled with stories about fraud against individuals, but businesses are just as likely to be the victim of fraud. These frauds can take several forms.
Bankruptcy Fraud
This kind of scam includes hiding or undervaluing assets, giving information out about the company, or destroying the relevant documents. This fraud happens only when a borrower purposefully hides assets to avoid paying a debt during a bankruptcy proceeding. It also comprises giving false records or information before or during the bankruptcy.
Mail and Wire Scams
Both mail and wire scams are federal offenses. Mail scam happens when a person uses the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), FedEx, United Parcel Service (UPS), or electronic transmissions to create false representations. Electronic communication, such as internet, TV or radio, are used to make false representations. These scams can also take the form of sweepstakes and telemarketing trials.
Customer Fraud
Customers or buyers can deceive a business in several ways, including writing fraud checks, using bad credit cards, and shoplifting. Another way includes the returning of items not purchased to get a refund, rather known as return fraud, or recording a false claim for an accident or injury on the property.
Identity Theft
Identity theft is known as stealing individual or business information, which is usually electronic but not exclusive. This can comprise tax information and credit card fraud. Workers can steal credit card or other private information when serving with a customer. The theft of identity information is a planned use of another person’s personal and private information to attain financial benefits.
Almost all businesses can eventually targets for fraud. Fortunately, awareness goes a much greater way in helping the companies pick up on the potential characteristics of scam and fraud and understand better how to fight back.
News source:
4 Most Dangerous Scams That Everyone Should Beware of
What Measures Should Organizations Take to Fight Scams? | https://medium.com/@georgekaren654/scams-dangers-and-measures-to-be-taken-d5c75b516f2 | ['Karen George'] | 2020-12-07 08:56:44.188000+00:00 | ['Organization', 'Scams To Avoid', 'Security', 'Spam'] |
The Reconciliation Of The Moonlight | When the reconciliation of the moonlight
Runs after you like ageless waves
You can’t help but reminisce on the millions of years
It has swallowed the dripping blood
Off your great grandfather’s back | https://medium.com/@sosteneslima/the-reconciliation-of-the-moonlight-8faab101a1f0 | ['Sostenes Lima'] | 2020-12-22 02:28:20.364000+00:00 | ['Brasil', 'BlackLivesMatter', 'Poetry', 'Poem', 'California'] |
Week 5— Detecting Musculoskeletal Conditions | After briefly discussing these methods, we will discuss Image Data Augmentation in this blog. We will see how this improvement can benefit our model for separate parts of the body in our data set.
1.Tune Parameters:
To improve CNN model performance, we can tune parameters like epochs, learning rates, etc. The number of epochs we have identified during the training phase of our model is important to improve performance. After choosing the right epoch, we can see that there is no reduction, loss of training and improvement in training accuracy.
2. Handle Overfitting and Underfitting problem:
It is very important to use the data correctly when training a model. If the data is not used correctly, problems such as overfitting and underfitting may occur.
In the overfitting, your model gives very nice accuracy on trained data but very little accuracy on test data. The meaning of this is overfitting model is having good memorization ability but less generalization ability. Our model doesn’t generalize well from our training data to unseen data.
Underfitting refers to a model that works well on the testing data. Which means we don’t know enough about our data. So we can’t analyze the data enough. As a solution, we need to get more data features.
3. Deeper Network Topology :
A wide neural network is possible to train with every possible input value. Hence, these networks are very good at memorization, but not so good at generalization. There are, however, a few difficulties with using an extremely wide, shallow network. These neural networks are very costly in practical applications.
We want our network to be as small as possible to produce good results. The wider network will take a longer time to train. Deep networks are very computationally expensive to train. Hence, make them wide and deep enough that they work well, but no wider and deeper.
4. Image Data Augmentation :
The performance of deep learning neural networks often improves with the amount of data available. If we have not enough data our model can’t predict accurately. If you are such as position like not have a huge amount of data solution is data augmentation.
Data Augmentation is a technique that creates new training data with your existing data. While doing that data augmentation use some operators like; shifts , zooms, rotates, flips, etc. The main purpose here is that expand our existing training data. In the test stage, may the image be taken from different angles or upside down in such cases data augmentation can handle. | https://medium.com/bbm406f19/week-5-detecting-musculoskeletal-conditions-266834fcf20a | ['Gokce Sengun'] | 2020-01-01 19:47:45.697000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning'] |
Проектирование веб-сервиса по поиску путешествий | 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/digital-product-design-training/%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B5%D0%BA%D1%82%D0%B8%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B5-%D0%B2%D0%B5%D0%B1-%D1%81%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%81%D0%B0-%D0%BF%D0%BE-%D0%BF%D0%BE%D0%B8%D1%81%D0%BA%D1%83-%D0%BF%D1%83%D1%82%D0%B5%D1%88%D0%B5%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B9-3c69861f297c | [] | 2020-12-27 14:44:13.016000+00:00 | ['Prototyping', 'UX', 'UX Design'] |
You are wrong about AirPods Max. Just like you were wrong about everything. | The whole drama
Apple just announced their over-ear headphones for $549 and tech Twitter clearly is not having it. We can learn from bunch of highly educated individuals that “Apple has lost their minds”, “it’s $200 more expensive than a competition” (not like it contradicts itself) and “you need to be an idiot to buy those overpriced headphones”, even if so far there is nobody who could judge the quality of it. Nay-sayers don’t care. Claim it’s overpriced solely because of the price, refuse to compare that to similarly priced headphones and, of course, talk about “Apple sheep”. It’s not a first time we see something like this though.
A little bit of history
In 1998, Steve Jobs decided to remove a floppy disk from iMacs. People freaked out. Believed it was insane for Apple to leave it off iMacs. It took the industry over a decade to understand that floppy was obsolete but nowadays one would need to be mentally handicapped to assume it was a wrong decision. They replaced 1.44 MB tape in a plastic case with CD drive and that’s where it was.
In 2007, Apple announced their first smartphone. It was missing a physical keyboard and everybody meme’d the hell out of our permanently drunk uncle Steve Ballmer for his infamous take on it. But he wasn’t the only one making an idiot out of himself. The whole world, although intrigued, assumed that there is no way that a $499 phone without a keyboard, fully subsidized, with a plan would sell well. And look where we are now.
There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance. It’s a $500 subsidized item. They may make a lot of money. But if you actually take a look at the 1.3 billion phones that get sold, I’d prefer to have our software in 60 percent or 70 percent or 80 percent of them, than I would to have 2 percent or 3 percent, which is what Apple might get.
In 2010, the MacBook Air box included exactly zero optical discs. That might be confusing for some of you as you never got a computer with CD required to install the system. Although, it was a norm before then and it got replaced with slim USB stick. Arguably the bigger announcement was the Mac App Store. Guess what, with it, they killed another one. The same one that replaced floppy disk. And our beloved Steve Ballmer proved himself as a great visionary once again mocking lack of it in MacBooks Air.
In 2015, Apple started to ditch USB-A and SD cards. And yet again, the tech world got crazy. Although it’s understandable that including just ONE port on a MacBook might be frustrating, a whole lot of people stated it’s unacceptable to remove the most popular port in the world in favor of USB-C. It’s still possible to buy a new notebook with the former but more often than not, it seems that Apple was right, once again.
In 2017, and this is something I’m not too young to not remember, Apple put the whole world on fire. They removed the headphone jack from the world’s most popular smartphone. Everybody and their mom ridiculed them for that and meme game was stronger then ever before. Nobody could believe it’s “courage” when Apple conveniently announced a solution to the problem, a $159 wireless version of EarPods. Not only Twitter idiots got crazy, well known and respected Marques Brownlee also ridiculed the price of it.
What did he say in his review? Well, he recommended them. Three years after, Samsung doesn’t hold their anti-Apple commercials on YouTube as their flagship also miss headphone jack. But users don’t. Now, “technology is ready” unlike when Apple did it. After all, I guess it was actually quite courageous.
Last year, we saw the Pro Display XDR. Despite the obviously overpriced stand, some people just couldn’t comprehend why anyone would buy it over a $199 screen that also displays things. Again, been proven that judging a price by personal needs is wrong.
Few months ago, Apple Silicon Macs were announced. How many people were dismissing them for “a smartphone chipset” that is “not capable of serious tasks”? Well, there are still some borderline braindead PCMR in denial who would just keep lying to make up for Windows counterparts lacking in pretty much every department but reviews are there and M1 is indeed as revolutionary as Apple claimed.
What about those AirPods Max though?
Now, the whole internet is on fire because of AirPods Max. They are compared to Sony’s and Bose’s most popular offers, most likely because that’s everything those people know. Nobody’s asking about the sound quality, about ANC, nobody even bothers to understand what Spatial Audio is and to realize that no other headphones (besides Dolby Dimensions that are $599) have a similar feature. Nobody wants to notice that $349 is not the maximum price for headphones and audiophile options are sometimes quadruple the price or much, much higher than that. But nobody seems to care about audiophiles’ opinions either. AirPods Max were outsold after just one day.
What can we learn from that?
Most people don’t care about what they can learn from anything. If Apple says something and you say otherwise, most likely you are in the wrong. Just like you were wrong all that time. | https://medium.com/@etneudvkc/the-whole-drama-a237d88d743 | ['Bartłomiej Komarnicki'] | 2020-12-11 08:57:04.989000+00:00 | ['iPhone', 'Airpods Max', 'Audiophile', 'Headphones', 'Apple'] |
JAVASCRIPT JOURNEY: DAY-1 | JavaScript is known yet unknown according to me.
JS is just like another C++, Java or Python .
Yes, JS needs tools to convert JS code into Machine Executable Code. Tools is nothing but some sort of compiler to do a lot of intermediate work.
The biggest myth revolves around when it is said that JS runs only in browser. This myth is hacked by JS engines( V8 and Spider Monkey) with their NodeJS implementation to convert standalone JS code.
With this , it is not needed to attach JS into HTML and hit reload every time.
Everything in JS happens inside execution context and JS is not possible without it.
What the heck is Execution Context?
It consists of two components :
Memory Code
Memory refers to the placeholder for variable and functions stored as key/value pair. For say : key: value equals to a:10 or function :{…..}. Memory Component is also known as variable environment.
Code refers to the execution of program one line at a time . Also known as Thread of Execution. It is a thread in which code is executed one line at a time.
Is JavaScript synchronous single threaded language?
JS can execute one command at a time in a specific order. It can only go to a next line once the current line has been finished executing.
BEHIND THE SCENE OF JS:~
When you write JS program execution context is created. The execution context is created in two phases:~
CREATION PHASE (Memory Creation Phase) where JS allocates memory to variables and functions. CODE EXECUTION PHASE says how code is executed after JS allocation.
So when you run a function whole brand new execution context is created. It is executed in phases !
So try to visualize: As soon as the whole JS program runs , global execution context is created(GEC) with two components Memory and Code with two phases Memory Creation and Code Execution.
Memory Execution means allocation of memory to variables/functions such that variable : undefined and function : {code}
Code Execution means JS program is executing line by line. It replaces “undefined” with value in case of variable and then function is invoked eventually.
So when the function is invoked , whole brand new execution context is created.
Again the same process of creation of execution context is created such that variables got allocation of memory where code execution phase calculates value for that.
After that control is returned and control is back to the execution context from which originally function was invoked.
Do you think JS do so much work??
Yes , indeed it is but JS does this very beautifully . It handles creation, update and deletion of execution context via managing stack i.e. call stack!
JS has its own call stack.
Call Stack is a stack .
Call stack maintains the order of execution of Execution Context popularly known by names : Program Stack , Control Stack , Run Time Stack and Machine Stack.
Summary:-)
So this article will help you learn what is JavaScript with its essence and some beautiful terms that acts as a foundation for it. | https://medium.com/@sakshijjain1997/javascript-journey-day-1-c17dbca73893 | ['Sakshi Jain'] | 2020-12-03 18:03:21.881000+00:00 | ['JavaScript', 'Web Development', 'Javascript Development'] |
What makes a good Airbnb listing? | For those of you listing your beautiful cottage house or the spare bedroom in your apartment on Airbnb, what will bring your listing success?
We all know ratings are a top priority for any type of vendor or service provider in obtaining a growing pool of clientele, but what is behind a good rating, especially for Airbnb, in which every listing is so unique in terms of its location, type of room/bed provided, price, cleaning fees, cancellation policies, and other specific client experiences. And just enough mediocre or bad reviews can really crush a listing’s success, while consistent and large-volume high ratings can let a listing sell itself without much work.
In the spirit of diving more into this large question, I decided to look at data from Seattle’s Airbnb listings from 2016. With just over about 3100 listings reported, there was enough data to test only a small number of the 36 features presented in the data, all of which may or may not play a part in determining a listing’s rating.
Before starting this analysis, I thought perhaps anything with a monetary value or related to the quality of amenities would contribute the most to a high rating. I decided to look at these features, along with features including host response time. Some features contained a lot of missing data, so in an effort to get as much information as I could out of the data, I created new features, or dummy variables, to indicate which rows had null values or missing data in a given column.
After cleaning up the data and applying a scikit-learn linear regression model, including and discluding new and existing features, changing the way in which nulls were filled by panda’s fillna function, the highest R-squared value I could seem to achieve was 0.039. In other words, this model cannot say much about the predictive value of each feature in terms of a rating, but still has some value in determining what TYPES of features seem the most salient.
As can be seen, to my surprise, the most important features seem to be the host response time and the property type. The lowest-predictive features are exactly what I had predicted to be more salient:
And finally, as can be seen, including dummy variables for any NaNs, or missing values per row, seemed to not add any value to the model, as they have little to no predictive power.
While this is just a surface-level analysis of the most salient features of what makes a listing highly rated, it is good motivation for future analyses that can look more into these more predictive features and see how they might affect one’s rating of a listing. NLP models might also be an interesting next step to determine the reasoning behind someone’s high or low rating. | https://medium.com/@tylerjlang/what-makes-a-good-airbnb-listing-3b83dcfec702 | ['Tyler Lang'] | 2020-12-21 01:46:45.890000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Udacity', 'Linear Regression'] |
Numpy Crash Course (Part 1) | In the first example, we are accessing the index 2 and index 3 of arr3 and then printing out the summation of their values.
In the second example, we are accessing the row 0,column 1 of the 2d array
Let’s examine what’s happening here by analyzing the 3rd example that is
arr5[0,1,2]
So here the first term 0 refers to the first element of the 3d array which is
[[1.1,2.2,3.3],[4.4,5.5,6.6]]
The second term 1 accesses the 2nd element of this 2d array which is
[4.4,5.5,6.6]
Finally, the last term 2 refers to the 3rd index which is the index 2 which refers to 6.6
FINAL OUTPUT: 6.6
Similarly,
Let’s examine what’s happening here by analyzing the 2nd example that is
arr5[1,1,2]
So here the first 1 refers to the first element of the 3d array which is
[[7.7,8.8,9.9],[10.1,11.1,12.1]]
The second 1 accesses the 2nd element of this 2d array which is
[10.1,11.1,12.1]
Finally, the last term 2 refers to the 3rd index which is the index 2 which refers to 12.1
FINAL OUTPUT: 12.1
Negative Indexing:
Negative Indexing
Here -1 refers to the last element. In other words, this is the first element from the right
Likewise, -2 refers to the 2nd last element and -3 refers to the 3rd last element
So for the example,
arr[1,-1]
We are accessing the 2nd element which is
[6,7,8,9,10]
and so -1 means that we are accessing 10
OUTPUT :10
Accessing array elements specifying the row, columns:
Using step value to access every other element:
Here in the first example, we are returning every other element
In the Second example, we are skipping 2 elements
Slicing Arrays:
Slicing Arrays
Replacing Array values with new ones:
Working with different kinds of arrays:
The data types and characters representing them are:
i - integer
- integer b - boolean
- boolean u - unsigned integer
- unsigned integer f - float
- float c - complex float
- complex float m - timedelta
- timedelta M - datetime
- datetime O - object
- object S - string
- string U - unicode string
- unicode string V - fixed chunk of memory for other type ( void )
OUTPUT
In the last example, conversion of a string type array to integer type isn’t possible and so it raises an error.
Working with Random Values:
Random values in numpy
Here in the first example, we are generating a random float value.
In the second one, we are generating a matrix of dimensions 2x4 with random values
Generating random integer values by specifying the dimension and the range
Generating random float values by specifying the dimension and the range
Shaping and reshaping arrays:
Reshaping arrays
But some conversions might cause an error.
Error in reshaping
Flattening an array
Check out the code for this story by clicking on this link
Part 2, Part 3 will be out soon, so stay tuned! | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/numpy-crash-course-part-1-82a5558de850 | ['Faiza Anan Noor'] | 2020-12-09 16:37:31.579000+00:00 | ['Image Processing', 'Arrays', 'Numpy', 'Matrix', 'Python'] |
What to do once you admit that decentralizing everything never seems to work | Headquarters of the Internet Archive, home of the Decentralized Web conferences (Wikimedia Commons).
Lots of tech projects these days, especially crypto-networks, aspire to decentralization. Or their evangelists say they do, because they feel they need to. Decentralization is the new disruption—the thing everything worth its salt (and a huge ICO) is supposed to be doing. Meanwhile, Internet progenitors like Vint Cerf, Brewster Kahle, and Tim Berners-Lee are trying to re-decentralize the Web. They respond to the rise of surveillance-based platform monopolies by simply redoubling their efforts to develop new and better decentralizing technologies. They seem not to notice the pattern: decentralized technology alone does not guarantee decentralized outcomes. When centralization arises elsewhere in an apparently decentralized system, it comes as a surprise or simply goes ignored.
Here are some traces of the persistent pattern that I’m talking about:
The early decentralized technologies of the Internet and Web relied on key points of centralization, such as the Domain Name System (which Berners-Lee called the Internet’s “centralized Achilles’ heel by which it can all be brought down or controlled”) and the World Wide Web Consortium (which Berners-Lee has led for its entire history)
The apparently free, participatory open-source software communities have frequently depended on the charismatic and arbitrary authority of a “benevolent dictator for life,” from Linus Torvalds of Linux (who is not always so benevolent) to Guido van Rossum of Python
Network effects and other economies of scale have meant that most Internet traffic flows through a tiny number of enormous platforms — a phenomenon aided and exploited by a venture-capital financing regime that must be fed by a steady supply of unicorns
The venture capital that fuels the online economy operates in highly concentrated regions of the non-virtual world, through networks that exhibit little gender or ethnic diversity, among both investors and recipients
While crypto-networks offer some novel disintermediation, they have produced some striking new intermediaries, from the mining cartels that dominate Bitcoin and other networks to Vitalik Buterin’s sweeping charismatic authority over Ethereum governance
This pattern shows no signs of going away. But the shortcomings of the decentralizing ideal need not serve as an indictment of it. The Internet and the Web made something so centralized as Facebook possible, but they also gave rise to millions of other publishing platforms, large and small, which might not have existed otherwise. And even while the wealth and power in many crypto-networks appears to be remarkably concentrated, blockchain technology offers distinct, potentially liberating opportunities for reinventing money systems, organizations, governance, supply chains, and more. Part of what makes the allure of decentralization so compelling to so many people is that its promise is real.
Yet it turns out that decentralizing one part of a system can and will have other kinds of effects. If one’s faith in decentralization is anywhere short of fundamentalism, this need not be a bad thing. Even among those who talk the talk of decentralization, many of the best practitioners are already seeking balance — between unleashing powerful, feral decentralization and ensuring that the inevitable centralization is accountable and functional. They just don’t brag about the latter. In what remains, I will review some strategies of thought and practice for responsible decentralization.
Hat from a 2013 event sponsored by Zambia’s central government celebrating a decentralization process (courtesy of Elizabeth Sperber, a political scientist at the University of Denver).
First, be more specific
Political scientists talk about decentralization, too—as a design feature of government institutions. They’ve noticed a similar pattern as we find in tech. Soon after something gets decentralized, it seems to cause new forms of centralization not far away. Privatize once-public infrastructure on open markets, and soon dominant companies will grow enough to lobby their way into regulatory capture; delegate authority from a national capital to subsidiary regions, and they could have more trouble than ever keeping warlords, or multinational corporations, from consolidating power. In the context of such political systems, one scholar recommends a decentralizing remedy for the discourse of decentralization — a step, as he puts it, “beyond the centralization-centralization dichotomy.” Rather than embracing decentralization as a cure-all, policymakers can seek context-sensitive, appropriate institutional reforms according to the problem at hand. For instance, he makes a case for centralizing taxation alongside more distributed decisions about expenditures. Some forms of infrastructure lend themselves well to local or private control, while others require more centralized institutions.
Here’s a start: Try to be really, really clear about what particular features of a system a given design seeks to decentralize.
No system is simply decentralized, full-stop. We shouldn’t expect any to be. Rather than referring to TCP/IP or Bitcoin as self-evidently decentralized protocols, we might indicate more carefully what about them is decentralized, as opposed to what is not. Blockchains, for instance, enable permissionless entry, data storage, and computing, but with a propensity to concentration with respect to interfaces, governance, and wealth. Decentralizing interventions cannot expect to subdue every centralizing influence from the outside world. Proponents should be forthright about the limits of their enterprise (as Vitalik Buterin has sometimes been). They can resist overstating what their particular sort of decentralization might achieve, while pointing to how other interventions might complement their efforts.
Another approach might be to regard decentralization as a process, never a static state of being — to stick to active verbs like “decentralize” rather than the perfect-tense “decentralized,” which suggests the process is over and done, or that it ever could be.
Guidelines such as these may tempt us into a pedantic policing of language, which can lead to more harm than good, especially for those attempting not just to analyze but to build. Part of the appeal of decentralization-talk is the word’s role as a “floating signifier” capable of bearing various related meanings. Such capacious terminology isn’t just rhetoric; it can have analytical value as well. Yet people making strong claims about decentralization should be expected to make clear what distinct activities it encompasses. One way or another, decentralization must submit to specificity, or the resulting whack-a-mole centralization will forever surprise us.
A panel whose participants, at the time, represented the vast majority of the Bitcoin network’s mining power (original source unknown).
Second, find checks and balances
People enter into networks with diverse access to resources and skills. Recentralization often occurs because of imbalances of power that operate outside the given network. For instance, the rise of Facebook had to do with Mark Zuckerberg’s ingenuity and the technology of the Web, but it also had to do with Harvard University and Silicon Valley investors. Wealth in the Bitcoin network can correlate with such factors as propensity to early adoption of technology, wealth in the external economy, and proximity to low-cost electricity for mining. To counteract such concentration, the modes of decentralization can themselves be diverse. This is what political institutions have sought to do for centuries.
Those developing blockchain networks have tended to rely on rational-choice, game-theoretic models to inform their designs, such as in the discourse that has come to be known as “crypto-economics.” But relying on such models alone has been demonstrably inadequate. Already, protocol designers seem to be rediscovering notions like the separation of powers from old, institutional liberal political theory. As it works to “truly achieve decentralization,” the Civil journalism network ingeniously balances market-based governance and enforcement mechanisms with a central, mission-oriented foundation populated by elite journalists — a kind of supreme court. Colony, an Ethereum-based project “for open organizations,” balances stake-weighted and reputation-weighted power among users, so that neither factor alone dictates a user’s fate in the system. The jargon is fairly new, but the principle is old. Stake and reputation, in a sense, resemble the logic of the House of Lords and the House of Commons in British government — a balance between those who have a lot to lose and those who gain popular support.
As among those experimenting with “platform cooperativism,” protocols can also adapt lessons from the long and diverse legacy of cooperative economics. For instance, blockchain governance might balance market-based one-token-one-vote mechanisms with cooperative-like one-person-one-vote mechanisms to counteract concentrations of wealth. The developers of RChain, a computation protocol, have organized themselves in a series of cooperatives, so that the oversight of key resources is accountable to independent, member-elected boards. Even while crypto-economists adopt market-based lessons from Hayek, they can learn from the democratic economics of “common-pool resources” theorized by Elinor Ostrom and others.
Decentralizing systems should be as heterogeneous as their users. Incorporating multiple forms of decentralization, and multiple forms of participation, can enable each to check and counteract creeping centralization.
Third, make centralization accountable
More empowering strategies for decentralization, finally, may depend on not just noticing or squashing the emergence of centralized hierarchy, but embracing it. We should care less about whether something is centralized or decentralized than whether it is accountable. An accountable system is responsive to both the common good for participants and the needs of minorities; it sets consistent rules and can change them when they don’t meet users’ needs.
Antitrust policy is an example of centralization (through government bureaucracy) on behalf of decentralization (in private sector competition). When the government carrying out such a policy holds a democratic mandate, it can claim to be accountable, and aggressive antitrust enforcement frequently enjoys broad popularity. Such centralized government power, too, may be the only force capable of counteracting the centralized power of corporations that are less accountable to the people whose lives they affect. In ways like this, most effective forms of decentralization actually imply some form of balance between centralized and decentralized power.
While Internet discourses tend to emphasize their networks’ structural decentralization, well-centralized authorities have played critical roles in shaping those networks for the better. Internet progenitors like Vint Cerf and Tim Berners-Lee not only designed key protocols but also established multi-stakeholder organizations to govern them. Berners-Lee’s World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), for instance, has been a critical governance body for the Web’s technical standards, enabling similar user experience across servers and browsers. The W3C includes both enormously wealthy corporations and relatively low-budget advocacy organizations. Although its decisions have sometimes seemed to choose narrow business interests over the common good, these cases are noteworthy because they are more the exception than the rule. Brewster Kahle has modeled mission-grounded centralization in the design of the nonprofit Internet Archive, a piece of essential infrastructure, and has even attempted to create a cooperative credit union for the Internet. His centralizing achievements are at least as significant as his calls for decentralizing.
Blockchain protocols, similarly, have tended to spawn centralized organizations or companies to oversee their development, although in the name of decentralization their creators may regard such institutionalization as a merely temporary necessity. Crypto-enthusiasts might admit that such institutions can be a feature, not a bug, and design them accordingly. If they want to avoid a dictator for life, as in Linux, they could plan ahead for democracy, as in Debian. If they want to avoid excessive miner-power, they could develop a centralized node with the power to challenge such accretions.
The challenge that entrepreneurs undertake should be less a matter of How can I decentralize everything? than How can I make everything more accountable? Already, many people are doing this more than their decentralization rhetoric lets on; a startup’s critical stakeholders, from investors to developers, demand it. But more emphasis on the challenge of accountability, as opposed to just decentralization, could make the inevitable emergence of centralization less of a shock.
What’s so scary about trust?
In a February 2009 forum post introducing Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto posited, “The root problem with conventional currency is all the trust that’s required to make it work.” This analysis, and the software accompanying it, has spurred a crusade for building “trustless” systems, in which institutional knowledge and authority can be supplanted with cryptographic software, pseudonymous markets, and game-theoretic incentives. It’s a crusade analogous to how global NGOs and financial giants advocated mechanisms to decentralize power in developing countries, so as to facilitate international investment and responsive government. Yet both crusades have produced new kinds of centralization, in some cases centralization less accountable than what came before.
For now, even the minimal electoral accountability over the despised Federal Reserve strikes me as preferable to whoever happens to be running the top Bitcoin miners.
Decentralization is not a one-way process. Decentralizing one aspect of a complex system can realign it toward complex outcomes. Tools meant to decentralize can introduce novel possibilities — even liberating ones. But they run the risk of enabling astonishingly unaccountable concentrations of power. Pursuing decentralization at the expense of all else is probably futile, and of questionable usefulness as well. The measure of a technology should be its capacity to engender more accountable forms of trust.
Learn more: ntnsndr.in/e4e
If you want to read more about the limits of decentralization, here’s a paper I’m working on about that. If you want to read about an important tradition of accountable, trust-based, cooperative business, here’s a book I just published about that. | https://medium.com/hackernoon/decentralizing-everything-never-seems-to-work-2bb0461bd168 | ['Nathan Schneider'] | 2018-10-17 14:28:05.171000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Networking', 'Cooperatives', 'Decentralizing Everything', 'Decentralization'] |
Joe, Don’t Roll Out the Red Carpet for Torture Enablers | It was painful enough to live through the U.S invasion of Iraq that caused untold devastation and human misery for no justifiable reason.
Now we are again reminded of the grim Bush legacy with President-elect Biden’s nomination of Avril Haines for Director of National Intelligence. Haines, who has an inside-the-beltway reputation for being nice and soft spoken, was a little too nice to CIA agents who hacked the computers of Senate Intelligence Committee investigators looking into the CIA use of torture–waterboarding, sleep deprivation, hypothermia, rectal feeding, whippings, sexual humiliation–at prisons in Guatanamo and Afghanistan during the Bush War on Terror.
As Deputy Director of the CIA in the Obama administration, Haines chose not to discipline those CIA hackers who violated the separation of powers, crossing the boundary line and beaching the firewall between the executive and legislative branches. To add insult to injury, Haines led the team that redacted an exhaustive 5-year, 6,000-page Senate Intelligence Committee Report on Torture until it was reduced to a censored, 500-page summary smeared with black ink to cover up the screaming horrors and shield those responsible.
Torture survivors and their advocates have just released a damning Open Letter urging Senators to vote NO on Haines.
That’s why torture survivors and their advocates have just released a damning Open Letter urging Senators to vote NO on Haines when her nomination lands in their laps in mid-January or February after the cyber pomp and circumstance of a virtual Presidential inauguration. The letter, signed by several decade-long detainee/survivors of torture at Guantanamo, also objects to the possible nomination of Mike Morell, a CIA analyst under Bush, for CIA Director.
“Elevating torture apologists to a leadership position within the Biden administration will damage the USA’s standing and give the world’s dictators succor and comfort,” said Djamel Ameziane, a Guantanamo detainee from Algeria who was tortured and held without charge from 2002–2013, until he was finally released from prison.
Morell’s traction may be on the wane with the Biden administration, however, after progressives launched a campaign against Morell, the former Deputy and Acting CIA Director under Obama, and Senator Ron Wyden — a powerful Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee — called him a “torture apologist” and said his appointment to head the CIA was a “non starter.”
Objections to Morell include his defense of the Agency’s “enhanced interrogation”
✎ EditSign
practices: mock drownings, “walling” — repeatedly slamming prisoners against a wall, whipping detainees with electrical cords, dumping freezing cold water on detainees naked except for diapers.
Morell refused to call these practices torture. “I don’t like calling it torture for one simple reason: to call it torture says my guys were torturers,” Morell admitted to Vice reporters in 2015. “I’m gonna defend my guys till my last breath,” said Morell, who put his CIA buddies above truth, the law and basic decency.
Morell doesn’t call it torture, but Guantanamo survivor Moazzam Begg knows exactly what torture is. Begg, who signed a false confession while tortured, is Outreach Director for CAGE, a UK-based organization serving communities hard hit by the War on Terror. Begg recollects his days in US custody. “They tied me up with my hands behind my back to my legs, kicked me in the head, kicked me in the back, threatened to take me to Egypt to be tortured, to be raped, to be electrocuted. They had a woman screaming in the next room whom I believed at that time was my wife. They bought pictures of my children and told me I would never see them again.”
Contrary to the Senate report and the CIA’s own internal review, Morell justified the torture by insisting that it was effective in thwarting future plots against Americans. Senate staffers said Morell got names, dates and facts all mixed up, and was dead wrong on the effectiveness of torture.
Torture Survivor and award-winning writer Mansoor Adayfi, sold to US forces in Afghanistan for bounty money and imprisoned without charge at Guantanamo for 14 years, knows firsthand that torture doesn’t work. “In Guantanamo, when they put you under very bad circumstances — like 72 hours under very cold air conditioning, and you are tied to the ground and someone comes and pours cold water on you — you are going to tell them whatever they want you to say. I will sign anything, I will admit anything!”
In addition to soft-pedaling the use of torture, Morell helped shield the abusers from accountability by defending the CIA’s 2005 destruction of nearly 90 videotapes of the brutal interrogation of Abu Zubaydah and other detainees in CIA black sites.
Progressives should know soon whether Morell’s cozy relationship with Bush-era CIA agents buries his nomination for good.
Biden is expected to nominate his candidate for CIA director any day now. For Jeffrey Kaye, author of Cover-Up at Guantanamo and a signatory to the Open Letter, the President-Elect must pass on Morell and the Senate must reject Haines. “Morell and Haines have put loyalty to CIA torturers above adherence to US treaties and domestic law, as well as basic morality. To allow them to serve in government would send a message to all that accountability for torture is passé, and that war crimes will always be dismissed with a wink from those in high office.”
Other signatories to the letter objecting to Morell and Haines include:
Mohamedou Ould Salahi, Guantanamo prisoner held without charge for 14 years; beaten, force fed, deprived of sleep; released in 2016, author, Guantánamo Diary;
Major Todd Pierce (U.S. Army, Retired), Judge Advocate General attorney on the defense teams for Guantánamo military commissions defendants;
Sister Dianna Ortiz, a US missionary, teacher of Mayan children, who was tortured by members of the CIA-funded Guatemalan army;
Carlos Mauricio, College professor kidnapped and tortured by US-backed right-wing death squads in El Salvador; Executive Director: Stop Impunity Project;
Roy Bourgeois, Roman Catholic priest who founded School of the Americas Watch to protest US training Latin American military officers in torture techniques;
Colonel Larry Wilkerson, Whistleblower and Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell;
John Kiriakou, former CIA officer imprisoned after exposing classified information about CIA waterboarding;
Roger Waters, musician formerly with Pink Floyd, whose song “Each Small Candle” is a tribute to a torture victim.
Progressives have been lobbying against the inclusion of torture apologists in the Biden administration since the August Democratic National Convention, when 450 delegates delivered a letter to Biden urging him to hire new foreign policy advisors and reject Haines. CODEPINK later launched a petition signed by over 4,000, and organized Capitol Hill calling parties with Muslim Delegates and Allies to leave “No on Haines, No on Morell,” messages at the offices of Senate Intelligence Committee members slated to question Haines during confirmation hearings.
For months, Morell was considered the frontrunner for CIA director, but opposition to his disgraceful defense of torture has cast a pall on his nomination. Now anti-war activists say they want to make sure his nomination is off the table, and that Biden and the Senate also understand Avril Haines must be rejected for her complicity in suppressing evidence of CIA torture.
There’s more, too.
Both Morell and Haines supported Trump’s nomination of Gina Haspel to CIA Director — a nomination that then-Senator Kamala Harris, other prominent Democrats, and Senator John McCain vigorously opposed. Haspel supervised a black site prison in Thailand and drafted the memo authorizing the destruction of CIA videotapes documenting torture.
In the words of Colonel Wilkerson, Chief of Staff for Bush’s Secretary of State Colin Powell , “Kidnapping, torture and assassination have no place in a democracy and turn the CIA into a secret police … Abuses of the kind documented in the Senate’s report could happen again.”
And they could–if Biden and the Senate elevate torture apologists and whitewashers to the White House.
We need intelligence leaders who acknowledge that torture is illegal under international law; that is inhumane; that it is ineffective; that it puts at risk U.S. military personnel captured by adversaries. The American people must send a clear message to President-elect Biden that we will not accept torture enablers in his administration.
Medea Benjamin and Marcy Winograd | https://medium.com/@marcywinograd/human-rights-advocates-to-biden-no-torture-defenders-allowed-763c77f817b9 | ['Marcy Winograd'] | 2020-12-23 16:34:32.097000+00:00 | ['Biden', 'Avril Haines', 'CIA', 'Torture', 'Guantanamo'] |
Are You Ready for Christmas? | Image by Oberholster Venita from Pixabay
It’s been a long year with many challenges. But God has allowed us to come this far and very soon, we’d be celebrating Christmas. Here’s wishing you the best of the season. May Christ dwell upon your hearts and may you never let go of His Love.
Here are some of our articles about Christmas:
You Are Never Too Old For Christmas
This is that time of year to be like a child again. (Continue)
This Is Christmas
Photo by Ben White on Unsplash
God could have come in all His glory,
with trumpets and angels and all,
blazing like fire,
dazzling like lightning
as terrible as the raging of the seas!
But on that Christmas Eve,
He came as a newborn child,
small and gentle,
humble and innocent
as harmless as a dove.
Why He came like this
I didn’t know,
until I looked at my own fears
and wounds.
(Continue…)
Bible Verses About Christmas
“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin will conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” — Isaiah 7:14, WEB
The angel said to her, “Don’t be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb, and give birth to a son, and will call his name ‘Jesus.’ He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High.” — Luke 1:30–32, WEB
“The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore also the holy one who is born from you will be called the Son of God. — Luke 1:35, WEB
(Continue…)
Inspirational Quotes For Christmas
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
“Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas-time.” — Laura Ingalls Wilder
“A Christmas candle is a lovely thing;
It makes no noise at all,
But softly gives itself away.”
— Eva Logue
(Continue…)
The Hope of Christmas
Photo by Gareth Harper on Unsplash
Christmas is hope. And hope is that Light that is born amidst the darkness of the world.
In that little manger, a child was born for us. A child whose innocence is an answer to our many sins, whose frailty is a response to our pride, and whose purity is an emblem of healing for all our guilt.
(Continue…)
This Christmas, Let Us Remember that God Is with Us
Photo by Mariana B. on Unsplash
Christmas reminds us that it isn’t our failures that matter, because there is One who can save us and make us whole again.
Christmas reminds us that it isn’t our wounds that should overwhelm us, because there is One who can heal us and give us life.
(Continue…)
God Still Lives Among Us
Photo by Walter Chávez on Unsplash
It is often hard to believe how God can be with us if we cannot even see Him. How many times have we sighed, “If we could only see Him, everything will be alright.”
But could God really be so far away?
(Continue…)
Merry Christmas everyone! God bless you and your loved ones.
Yours,
Jocelyn Soriano
Publisher and Editor, Catholic Refuge | https://medium.com/the-catholic-refuge/are-you-ready-for-christmas-6b6854213b07 | ['Jocelyn Soriano'] | 2020-12-23 23:07:40.873000+00:00 | ['Life', 'Christianity', 'Christmas', 'Religion', 'Catholic'] |
A Roadmap for Solving JavaScript Interview questions | A Roadmap for Solving JavaScript Interview questions
A simple template to help you navigate through code challenges and other interview questions
Photo by Fabian Grohs on Unsplash
Introduction
Most coding challenge articles take a question and show you how to solve it. This is great if you already have a good grasp of the language you’re using and knowledge of basic programming concepts. However, starting out can be difficult and setting up a plan to solve a problem can be a large task in itself if you have no prior experience. I wanted to create content that not only shows you how to solve a problem, but also gives you a template to form a plan when you approach a new problem. One of the most important skills a great programmer has is problem solving. The difficult part is there aren’t many resources out there to teach you how to become a better problem solver. To sharpen your problem solving skills you need to be able to make a plan before you write a single line of code. This article will help you breakdown a problem into four distinct parts. The problem description, brain storm, code — sudo code and your actual code, and then a summary of how you solved the problem. This will give you a great technique to solve any coding challenge or interview question and I hope you have some fun doing it! I also wanted to include a better solution than the one I came up with to show there are many different ways to solve one problem.
Problem Description
The number 89 is the first integer with more than one digit that fulfills the property partially introduced in the title of this kata. What's the use of saying "Eureka"? Because this sum gives the same number.
In effect: 89 = 8^1 + 9^2
The next number in having this property is 135 .
See this property again: 135 = 1^1 + 3^2 + 5^3
We need a function to collect these numbers, that may receive two integers a , b that defines the range [a, b] (inclusive) and outputs a list of the sorted numbers in the range that fulfills the property described above.
Let’s see some cases:
sumDigPow(1, 10) == [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]
// 1^1, 2^1 sumDigPow(1, 100) == [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 89]
If there are no numbers of this kind in the range [a, b] the function should output an empty list.
sumDigPow(90, 100) == []
How I solved it.
First I created a numberArray to hold all my final values I then created a for loop with the initial value set to ‘a’ and looped through the range until ‘i’ was less than or equal to ‘b’. I then created a conditional to see if the number needed to be split into two separate digits. if the digit was greater than or equal to 10 I split the number into individual digits. I then create a new array to hold all my split digits I then looped through the splitDigit array and used Math.pow( ) to set the first number in the array to a power of one, then the second number in the array to a power of two, and so on. I then found the sum of the array using array.reduce and if the sum was equal to i, I pushed it into the number array with the rest of my values If the number was less than 10 I just used Math.pow( ) with a power of 1 to see if the number was equal to i. If the number was equal I pushed it the number array I then return the numberArray.
My Code
**Sudo Code** // get both integers
// a = a, b = b
// (1,10)
// for(var i = a; i < b; ++i) {
// var numberArray = [];
// if integer > 1 split the integer
// 1 > 1 no
// 1 times power of 1
// 1^1 = 1 yes
// push 1 into numberArray
//
// 10 > 1 yes...
// split 10 into two digits
// digitArray = [];
// sumArray = [];
// digitArray = [1,0]
// 1 and 0
// for(var i = 0; i < digitArray.length; ++i) {
// digitArray[i]^i+1
// 1^1 = 1 and 0^2 = 0
// push digits into sum array
// then add the two digits from sum array
// sumArray = [1,0]
// sumArray.reduce ? === 1
// check does 1 === 10 no
// don't push 10
// finally return numberArray
// }
// } **Code** function splitToDigit(n){
return [...n + ''].map(Number)
} function sumDigPow(a, b) {
var numberArray = [];
for(var i = a; i <= b; ++i) {
if(i >= 10) {
var splitDigit = splitToDigit(i);
var newDigit = [];
for(var j = 1; j < splitDigit.length + 1; ++j) {
newDigit.push(Math.pow(splitDigit[j-1], j))
}
if(newDigit.reduce((a, b) => a + b, 0) === i){
numberArray.push(i)
}
}
if(i < 10){
if(Math.pow(i, 1) === i)
numberArray.push(i)
}
}
return numberArray;
} console.log(sumDigPow(1,100));
How I solved it.
First I created a numberArray to hold all my final values I then created a for loop with the initial value set to ‘a’ and looped through the range until ‘i’ was less than or equal to ‘b’. I then created a conditional to see if the number needed to be split into two separate digits. if the digit was greater than or equal to 10 I split the number into individual digits. I then create a new array to hold all my split digits I then looped through the splitDigit array and used Math.pow( ) to set the first number in the array to a power of one, then the second number in the array to a power of two, and so on. I then found the sum of the array using array.reduce and if the sum was equal to i, I pushed it into the number array with the rest of my values If the number was less than 10 I just used Math.pow( ) with a power of 1 to see if the number was equal to i. If the number was equal I pushed it the number array I then return the numberArray.
Best Solution
function sumDigPow(a, b) {
var ans = [];
while(a <= b){
if(a.toString().split('').reduce((x,y,i)=>x + +y ** (i + 1),0) == a)
ans.push(a);
a++;
}
return ans;
}
Thanks for reading! I hope this article gives you a good sense of how to really breakdown a problem. A great plan of attack is key for solving any problem. Feedback is greatly appreciated!
A note from JavaScript In Plain English
We have launched three new publications! Show some love for our new publications by following them: AI in Plain English, UX in Plain English, Python in Plain English — thank you and keep learning!
We are also always interested in helping to promote quality content. If you have an article that you would like to submit to any of our publications, send us an email at submissions@plainenglish.io with your Medium username and we will get you added as a writer. Also let us know which publication/s you want to be added to. | https://medium.com/javascript-in-plain-english/roadmap-for-solving-javascript-interview-questions-7bc2fa8df21b | ['Austin Johnson'] | 2020-04-24 20:42:07.686000+00:00 | ['Problem Solving', 'JavaScript', 'Programming', 'Web Development', 'Coding'] |
Why You Should Adopt A Senior Dog | You Still Get “Firsts” With Them
You still get to experience all the same “firsts” that you would with a puppy; first birthday together, first holiday together, etc. It may not be your dog’s first time experiencing one of these special occasions, but it will be the first time you get to experience them together, and that’s something worth celebrating. When you adopt a senior dog, or any dog, you often times don’t know what they’ve experienced prior to coming into your home, and because of this, these “firsts” will be exciting. This is why Happy is spoiled and gets basically whatever she wants. It’s my excuse as to why she gets so many special treats for every holiday (and almost every other day of the year).
Happy on Christmas morning
You CAN Teach an Old Dog New Tricks
The saying you can’t teach an old dog new tricks is something that I believed to be true for the longest time, until one day, Happy finally learned how to sit, and then shake a paw, and then she learned down, and high five… I was shocked! Senior dogs still want to learn. Learning these tricks has given her such a boost of confidence and gets her brain working. Happy may be basically deaf, but her nose works great and she will do absolutely anything for a treat.
What You Get is What You Get
This can often times be true when you adopt a senior dog. Their personalities are developed and they know what they like and dislike a.k.a. there are fewer surprises. They are likely to be socialized around humans and possibly other furry friends too. It’s important to remember that transitioning into a new home and a change of routine is stressful for any animal, but generally seniors adapt quicker. Happy was pretty shut down when I brought her home, and it took MONTHS before her true personality shined through and revealed the goofiest, silliest, most stubborn, and loving gal.
Happy sitting in the sun after going swimming
Senior Dogs Are Just as Loyal And Loving
They are also just as eager to please their humans. All they want is a safe place to call home, a warm bed to sleep on, delicious food, and love from their humans.
Happy on the couch wanting belly rubs
Adopting Happy has taught me a lot, and one of the biggest things, as cheesy as it sounds, is to live everyday with her like it could be her last. I don’t know how much time we will have together, and the thought of that scares the shit out of me. This is why I smother her with kisses, butt scratches, snuggles, and tell her I love her at least 50 times a day.
I never understood how special the bond between a dog and a human could be until I met Happy. In the two years that I’ve had Happy, there have been a lot of health scares and there will probably continue to be, and she may cost me hundreds of dollars a month on her numerous eye drops and medications for her heart and lungs, but it’s all worth it to ensure she’s happy and healthy. I get to wake up every morning to Happy’s farting butt in my face for years to come.
Snuggling with Happy
If you are considering adopting or even fostering, please consider a senior dog, as the love they have to give is indescribable and they will be forever grateful for you as you are for them. | https://medium.com/creatures/why-you-should-adopt-a-senior-dog-7639267faad0 | ['Samantha Selman'] | 2020-05-20 18:49:30.710000+00:00 | ['Anecdotes', 'Adoption', 'Senior Dog', 'Animals', 'Love'] |
We’re failing 350 million children who live in war zones. Here’s what to do. | A child soldier in Huthi forces in Yemen, one of 350 million children who live in a conflict zone worldwide (Picture: Mohammed Huwais/AFP/Getty Images)
Scotland’s international charities have a proud record of campaigning for vulnerable children in the world’s poorest countries, taking action against hunger and disease and working to secure for every child the right to go to school. Yet these efforts are hampered by the atrocities that are being committed against children in war zones on a daily basis and the international community’s failure to hold the perpetrators to account.
This is the challenge taken up by the Inquiry on Protecting Children in Conflict, a major review chaired by former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The inquiry’s final report — authored by a legal panel headed by leading UK barrister Shaheed Fatima QC — has just been published as a book, Protecting Children in Armed Conflict.
The plight of children in the world’s 50 war zones is dire. Today, an estimated 350 million children — one child in every six — live amid conflict, an increase of 75 per cent from the early 1990s. UN data shows an increase in reports of grave violations against children in war zones, including the killing and maiming of children, attacks on schools and hospitals, abduction, and denial of humanitarian assistance.
This is particularly so over the past five years. In recent months, a suicide bombing in a school in Afghanistan killed 37 students; government forces and allied militias in South Sudan systematically abducted and raped women and girls as young as eight; starvation has been employed as a weapon of war in a host of conflicts including Yemen, where five million children are now on the brink of famine; and 79 students were abducted from a school in Cameroon. In conflicts around the world, society’s most vulnerable members are being subjected to unthinkable suffering. All too often, the world looks the other way.
The inquiry’s legal report reminds us that for as long as there has been war, there have been children affected by it. Many of the stories of children in armed conflict in history glorify that involvement — from the biblical example of a young David defeating Goliath and going on to achieve military success in King Saul’s army, to the countless stories of young men misrepresenting their age in order to join up and serve in World War I or World War II. The reality for children in armed conflict has been very different. Since the advent of aerial bombardment in the first half of the 20th century, there has been a dramatic increase regarding the impact of armed conflict not just on combatants, but on entire civilian communities. Children have been caught up in violence that now stretches far beyond battle lines.
In the past 20 years, three marked shifts in the nature of war have complicated the task of safeguarding children from harm. First, inter-state conflicts have declined and more small-scale, intra-state wars have emerged. Second, many of today’s non-state armed groups are using terror as both an explicit tactic as well as a standalone aim. Third, new forms of technology are being used to detonate bombs and to recruit and indoctrinate children to spread violence. In the 20th century, advances in the legal framework for protecting children in war were achieved in response to changes in the realities on the ground. Can our fractured international community build consensus around this issue once again?
Ms Fatima’s report offers a blueprint. The 500-page study — already backed by a host of eminent international lawyers, activists and military advisors — concludes that the international system of rules designed to uphold the rights of civilians in war is failing to protect children in conflict-affected countries. It calls for immediate reforms to protect millions of children. The proposals include giving schools the same protection as hospitals, making clear that a denial of humanitarian access will always be unlawful where it may lead to the starvation of civilians, and obliging states to take measures to prevent sexual violence against children.
Even where the law provides adequate protection, it is being undermined by a systemic lack of compliance and accountability. To tackle this culture of impunity, the report urges renewed efforts to secure more widespread ratification of existing accountability mechanisms, including the third Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, and advocates greater domestic implementation.
In the longer term, the report suggests a single, new international instrument aimed at consolidating and clarifying existing provisions in humanitarian law and human rights law relating to children in armed conflict to strengthen protection. One instrument, instead of the multiple existing ones, would make the law clearer and simpler, which will enhance implementation. Another purpose of a single instrument would be to improve accountability, by giving one international, civil, adjudicative body jurisdiction to receive complaints — a role that could potentially be undertaken by a strengthened Committee on the Rights of the Child.
One likely response to the work of the inquiry is that the scale of violations against children in armed conflict and the lack of accountability are attributable to a failure of political will, rather than any deficiency in the legal framework. On this basis, it might be said that a review of the law will not make any real difference. We disagree. The report recognises that one fundamental problem is the failure to comply with, and implement, existing laws, and that enhancing protection will require a holistic and multi-disciplinary approach which encompasses political accountability, support for the physical and emotional well-being of children, and consideration of educational, economic, demographic and socio-cultural issues. But no-one can be satisfied that the legal status quo is beyond improvement, especially when the current situation is so desperate. All of us, and lawyers in particular, have a responsibility to examine the role that law and legal initiatives can play in galvanising public opinion and mobilising support for change.
The global climate could hardly be more challenging, with the rules-based international order under almost daily attack and multilateral cooperation in short supply. But the rationale for the inquiry is that attacks on children are of a different order of magnitude from other issues. Historically, the protection of children has been viewed not only as an area most likely to secure international agreement, but as an issue for transforming international relations. When states unite around universally appealing causes — such as the rights of children — they build goodwill that makes cooperation in other, more controversial, areas more likely. If states can agree to anything, it should be to take action to protect the world’s most vulnerable in war. At the very least, Protecting Children in Armed Conflict provides a timely starting point for a debate rooted in the rule of law that may lead to such political agreement.
Andrew Hilland is director to the Inquiry on Protecting Children in Conflict. This article was originally published by The Scotsman on 14 November 2018. | https://medium.com/@andrewhilland/were-failing-350-million-children-who-live-in-war-zones-here-s-what-to-do-c01de4c26f09 | ['Andrew Hilland'] | 2020-12-16 02:29:38.280000+00:00 | ['Human Rights', 'United Nations', 'Childrens Rights', 'Scotland', 'Conflict'] |
The Top 15 Medium Publications of 2020 | 2. Mission.org
A network of business & tech podcasts designed to accelerate learning. Selected as “Best of 2018” by Apple. Mission.org. The Mission is your #1 source for accelerated learning. We reach millions each month. Please note that we are for profit media company. This means that we reserve the rights to include advertising and promotions in and alongside articles submitted to us. We work with clients, and will promote their products that we use and love in articles however we see fit. We are also a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. We also participate in the Apple affiliate advertising program, and sometimes the affiliate programs of our advertisers and the companies that sponsor us. All of our affiliates and sponsors help us to keep the lights on and serve you! | https://medium.com/@sayanmondal2098/the-top-15-medium-publications-of-2020-200c6723cf5d | ['Sayan Mondal'] | 2020-12-05 19:34:50.842000+00:00 | ['Ｍedium', 'Writing', 'Blog', 'Publication'] |
How To Start Selling Sterling Silver Jewelry For Kids | Children’s Jewelry is a rather untapped market and there are ample opportunities for you to grow and prosper if you have your plans in place. And, if sterling silver is the focus of the collection you wish to launch, consider your road map to a triumphant market presence, half achieved.
Why Sterling Silver?
Kid’s jewelry being a matter of considerable debate, parents need 100% assurance that the bling will not harm their little ones in any way. Sterling Silver, in this respect, lives up to safety expectations given that the alloy is usually hypoallergenic.
The composition of Sterling Silver is 92.5% Silver (Ag, Argentum) and 7.5% Copper or other alloys. While creating your collection, it’s the 7.5% that will matter the most. The idea is to choose alloys that are 100% non-reactive with skin and are compliant with toxicity regulations of the countries you wish to sell in.
Besides hypoallergenic properties, here’s a list of other reasons that make Sterling Jewelry for kids a rational choice for parents…
Ø Sterling Silver jewelry, in general, is sturdy and can often last a lifetime
Ø They are very easy to maintain
Did You Know… Wearing sterling silver jewelry on a regular basis can prevent tarnishing because natural oils from the skin have a cleaning effect on the metal.
Ø They look opulent yet remarkably affordable
Ø Sterling silver trinkets often come with resale value… So, if you are wondering what happens when your children outgrow the trinkets? You can sell them back to the store or store it for keepsake!
Did you know… Silver (Argentum, Ag) has anti-bacterial properties. Bacteria cannot develop as resistance to silver as it can to antibiotics.
YOUR GUIDE TO START SELLING STERLING SILVER JEWELRY FOR KIDS
It All Starts With A Plan…
A goal without a plan is just a wish… Antoine De Saint, Exupéry
Sterling silver may be one of the easiest metals to work with, but you still need a plan to create a worthy market presence. So, bring out your notepad and jot down your course of action. Here is a brief outline of the matters you need to consider…
- Types of kid’s jewelry you wish to launch
- Target customers
- Target nations you wish to reach out to
- Wholesale manufacturers to support your designs and business goals
- Online presence including… creating an official website, planning presence in affiliate platforms/e-commerce marketplaces, and Social media endeavors
- Branding and marketing
- And most importantly, funding.
Start Selling Sterling Silver Jewelry for Kids in 8 Steps…
Trend Alert!
Trend compatible collections tend to sell out faster. Therefore, knowing what to start with can be an instant pick-me-up for your business. At the moment, Stud earrings, Huggie hoops, Chains, Pendants, Bracelets, Rings, anklets, and even brooches for that matter, fall among the best-selling categories for children.
Charm jewelry, birthstone trinkets, name jewelry, and photo engraved collections can further broaden your scope to include a diversity of buyers that look for customization.
Did You Know… the demand for silver anklets grew by 108% compared to last year?
Ideas Run the World… And Your Business Too –
This is the part where you create your products. The uniqueness of your designs can help you sail through competitive uncertainties. While sketch pads and HBs are the easiest means to shape your ideas, Jewelry designing apps like SketchUp, MatrixGold, Adobe Illustrator, Jewelry CAD Dream, etc. can give you the professional edge you need.
Never be too shy to take a peek at your competitors’ catalogues. See what they are selling and how your collection can be distinctively different.
Websites Boost Brand Presence –
Did you know… it takes about 50 milliseconds for a visitor to form an opinion about your website? So, basically, you have about 0.5 seconds to convince parents that your endeavor is worth their trust and investment.
Therefore, while creating a website for your sterling silver jewelry brand for kids, remember these bite-sized pointers to get things right at the very first go…
- Make sure your design is classy and professional with a focus on Sterling Silver
- Your text content should be crisp, grammatically accurate, and informative
- Visual content should be rich and convincing
- Product images should be clear and shot from all angles
- Mobile integration is a must
- Keep your loading time within 1 to 2 seconds at the most
Did you know… 53% of mobile website visitors abandon sites that take longer than 3 seconds to load.
Get Your Company Registered –
Now that you have a plan, you know the trends, you have your designs handy and a website, it is time to get your company registered. Registrations and certifications make your endeavor ‘Legit’. Abide by the legal processes applicable to children’s jewelry businesses in your country and get certified.
Regulatory Compliance -
Regulatory compliance is a must if you wish your jewelry business to etch a global presence. It is thus imperative to comprehensively study the laws and regulations surrounding Kids’ Jewelry in the respective countries you wish to reach out to.
For example, if you wish to reach out to target customers in the USA, your trinkets need to conform to ASTM F2923 specifications. As per ASTM F2923, any piece of jewelry that is intended for wearers under the age of 12 qualifies as children’s jewelry.
Be it earrings, chains, bracelets, tiaras, rings, anklets, or others, ASTM F2923 requires your products to clear 2 types of hazards…
- Toxicity… which focuses on the presence of toxic metals like lead, cadmium, nickel, etc., and harmful soluble metals like arsenic, barium, chromium, selenium, mercury, antimony, and more. The presence of Phthalates is also heavily regulated under ASTM F2923.
- Mechanical… which focuses on jewelry design that can be potentially hazardous to children depending upon their age groups. For example…
o designs for jewelry to be worn around the neck like chains and necklaces should not result in choking
o rings, earrings, bracelets, brooches, etc. should not have any sharp edges that can cause physical harm to the wearers
o trinkets for kids, in general, should not have loose parts that can cause choking hazards.
Similarly, the EU has very stringent regulations for Children’s jewelry as well, covering General product safety, hazardous metals/chemicals, legal certifications, Hallmarks, etc. for products to enter their market.
If you choose to use natural materials like wood, coral, shells, etc. in your collection, your products need to clear CITES (Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species) to qualify for sale in European nations.
Rules, regulations, and restrictions differ from country to country. Therefore, your research has to be clear and your actions need to be faultless. Being a matter of grave importance for your business, it is best to seek professional assistance for the matter.
Pro Tip — Reach out to official bodies that can test your jewelry samples and determine conformity to regulations for sale in Asia, Europe, North America, and other continents.
Manufacturers Make All The Difference –
Stable, reliable, and proactive wholesale kids’ jewelry manufacturers can be an asset to your endeavor. A well-chosen manufacturer can offer bulk production at a minimum time with maximum quality assurance and that too at very competitive pricing.
Take your time in choosing the right manufacturing partners because this is a critical decision that can grow or thwart your business. Here are a few parameters that can help you shortlist the right ones…
· Reliable Market presence
· Certifications for authenticity
· Fairtrade / Fair wage / Environmental regulation compliance
· Compliance with global Children’s jewelry regulations
· Optimized manufacturing costs
· Flexible shipping, returns, customization policies
· Overall service quality
Did You Know… Carbon Neutrality is among the top challenges of the Jewelry Industry today. If your chosen manufacturer abides by carbon-neutral practices, you may get an edge in the competition.
Benefit to Customers –
So… you have an attractive collection waiting to debut. But your customers will always look for something more than the sparkle! Summing up in two words… ‘purchase advantage’ is the catalyst that will convince purchase motivated parents to choose your brand over others.
Here are some of the key purchase benefits that customers expect…
- Easy ordering process
- Secure hassle-free payments
- Global shipping
- Authenticity certificates
- Guarantees, Warrantees, and assurances
- Flexible minimum order value
- Extensive customization options
- Quick dispatch
- Transparent real-time delivery tracking
- Prompt customer service, both domestic and international
- Gift vouchers, discount coupons, etc. for next purchase
Out of Sight, Out of Mind… Keep your Customers Engaged all Times -
How you engage your customers to have a direct impact on your brand image and eventual sale. The idea is to never go out of sight and to highlight your brand in a way that attracts prospective buyers to respond to your endeavor on a regular basis.
Look into these tried and tested tips for an effective start…
- Create a professional presence in top social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, etc.
- Let your products narrate a story
- Pictures speak louder than words; your product pictures are best when they portray emotions
- Upload engaging statuses, reels and more every day
- Ask questions and seek opinions
- Go for organic Shoutouts
Did you know… As per statistics, 61% of customers have expressed that offers, discounts, and surprise gifts on purchases are great ways to keep them engaged indefinitely.
Therefore, never shy away from investing in contests and giveaways to maximize client engagement.
Final Thoughts –
Experts have predicted that the children’s jewelry market will expand steadily in the forthcoming years. Safe and budget-sensitive purchases will be prioritized which will directly impact your Sterling silver jewelry brand profitably. All you need to do, in a nutshell, is to plan your business layout, define your goals, follow the regulations and leave no stones unturned when it comes to branding… and the rest will fall in place.
Always remember, things don’t happen overnight and it may take a few months for real profits to show. Till then, stay updated, keep creating and keep engaging to fortify your brand presence for the long run.
Visit us today and get your jewelry business started
www.925silverjewelry.com | https://medium.com/@sales925silverjewelry/how-to-start-selling-sterling-silver-jewelry-for-kids-6ec859aff3ea | ['Silver Jewelry'] | 2021-12-17 10:18:19.342000+00:00 | ['Etsy', 'Kids', 'Online Business', 'Jewelry', 'Silver'] |
LeetCode 刷題紀錄 ｜56. Merge Intervals (Medium) | Merge Intervals
Link: https://leetcode.com/problems/merge-intervals/
Question:
Given an array of intervals where intervals[i] = [starti, endi] , merge all overlapping intervals, and return an array of the non-overlapping intervals that cover all the intervals in the input.
Example 1:
Input: intervals = [[1,3],[2,6],[8,10],[15,18]]
Output: [[1,6],[8,10],[15,18]]
Explanation: Since intervals [1,3] and [2,6] overlaps, merge them into [1,6].
Example 2:
Input: intervals = [[1,4],[4,5]]
Output: [[1,5]]
Explanation: Intervals [1,4] and [4,5] are considered overlapping.
Constraints:
1 <= intervals.length <= 104
intervals[i].length == 2
0 <= starti <= endi <= 104
Answers
想法
先將區間以 start point 大小排序 掃描所有區間的起始點 如果一開始答案為空，直接把現在的interval array push 到答案 或現在的區間 start point 比答案區間的 end point 大，表示沒有交集，開始一個新的 interval ，並 push 到答案 Else, 表示不為空且有交集的話，把答案的結束點更新到兩者之間較大的 end point
Javascript 程式碼
實際走一遍
[[1,3],[2,6],[8,10],[15,18]]
以起始點排序之後
[[1,3],[2,6],[8,10],[15,18]]
第一輪：curr_interval = [1,3], ans = []
因為 ans 沒東西，直接把 curr_interval push 到裡面：ans = [[1,3]]
第二輪：curr_interval = [2,6], ans = [[1,3]]
curr_interval[0] = 2 < ans[ans.length-1][1] = 3
表示有重合，可以合併，6 > 3, 把 ans 的 endpoint 更新到 6：ans = [[1,6]]
第三輪：curr_interval = [8,10]
curr_interval[0] = 8 > ans[ans.length-1][1] = 6
沒有重疊，直接 push curr_interval：ans = [[1,6], [8,10]]
第四輪：curr_interval = [15,18]
curr_interval[0] = 15 > ans[ans.length-1][1] = 10
沒有重疊，直接 push curr_interval：ans = [[1,6], [8,10], [15, 18]]
沒了
返回 ans = [[1,6], [8,10], [15, 18]]
複雜度
Time Complexity: O(n log n), 因為有做排序
Space Complexity: O(n), 因為排序可能用 O(n log n) 或 O(n)
Python | https://medium.com/roywannago-%E6%97%85%E8%A1%8C%E4%B8%8D%E9%9C%80%E7%90%86%E7%94%B1/leetcode-%E5%88%B7%E9%A1%8C%E7%B4%80%E9%8C%84-56-merge-intervals-medium-ef06525b3f6a | ['Roy Wang'] | 2020-12-21 08:30:31.121000+00:00 | ['JavaScript', 'Leetcode', 'Data Structures', 'Algorithms', 'Coding'] |
Why a 4-Minute Read is the Sweet Spot on Medium | Your Medium story can be short, long, or somewhere in the middle.
And you should absolutely write your story to the length it needs to be. I’ve written and published poems to Medium, which are usually 1-minute reads (sometimes they’re as short as 40 or 50 words!). My stories about fiction writing and writing for Medium are typically 3-to-5-minute reads, with only the occasional outlier.
I’ve also published short stories and personal essays and analyses of books that run anywhere between 7-minute reads and 15-minute reads. I’ve tried pretty much every length imaginable (well, maybe not a 60-minute read, but never say never!).
To some extent, the length of your piece doesn’t necessarily prevent it from being a success. I’ve seen short 2-minute how-to pieces that have 1,000 or more claps. I’ve seen 39-minute reads that got 5,000 claps. I’ve seen it all throughout my many months writing for Medium.
Don’t ever think that you have to write a 4-minute read every single time. Feel free to experiment with the lengths of your stories and see what works best for you. | https://medium.com/the-partnered-pen/why-a-4-minute-read-is-the-sweet-spot-on-medium-b7ee4d43a245 | ['Brian Rowe'] | 2020-09-30 12:03:39.174000+00:00 | ['Success', 'Medium', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Productivity', 'Writing'] |
Global HitchHiking, Part II: Sailing Around The World by Crewing: Preparation | The first article in this series defined Global HitchHiking. This article will tell you how to prepare yourself to become a Global HitchHiker.
So how do you start Global HitchHiking?
First off, you need to have a desire to be on sailboats and travel the world. Beyond that, there are a lot of variables. I’ve met many people who are Global Hitchhiking and they all want to travel and see things they’ve never seen before. As I’ve stated before, seeing the world by sailboat is amazing, as long is you’re not in a hurry! Regardless, it all starts by having a desire to be at sea on sailboats.
You should have some excitement about sailing. You should also have the ability to sell yourself. You should be comfortable being in small spaces. And you should be able to get along with other people as you may be stuck with them in tight quarters for days and weeks at a time with nobody else around to break up the monotony or tension that may arise. Oh and it might be good for you to know whether you get seasick or not. That can make a huge difference in determining whether you choose to pursue it or not. Luckily, I never get seasick, but have met plenty of people who do, and there’s nothing worse than being seasick on a long passage.
How much experience do you need to start Global HitchHiking?
Everybody I have met has had different levels of experience. Some are just barely getting started and others have lots of experience. That being said, it might be good for you to get some experience sailing, wherever you are. There are local yacht clubs or local classes you can take. Obviously, you would need to live by a body of water or it might be a challenge.
Most yachting organizations have racing activities during the week and are always looking for extra hands or “rail meat” for their races. Rail meat is an affectionate term used for those who sit on the windward side of the boat to keep the boat from heeling too much from the force of the wind or ultimately from capsizing. But even as rail meat, sailing in races is the best and fastest way to get experience with sailing. Most situations require you to think on your feet and respond quickly. The more you know about sailing, the easier it will be to respond to requests from the captain and other experienced “yachties.”
It’s also helpful if you have experience with other things, such as being able to cook, clean, tie knots, and familiarize yourself with sailing jargon. There are lots of resources for this sort of thing on the Internet, all freely available to you. Skippers love to hear that you know how to cook or you know your sailing jargon. If they don’t have to teach you how to tie too many knots or how to tell the difference between the bow and stern of the boat (front and back), it will help persuade them to take you on as crew, regardless of your experience.
Here is a google search for sailing jargon.
Here are a bunch of free courses you can take online to learn about sailing.
Maybe you should also consider getting at least some certifications. The ASA has several courses you can take using self study and exams, such as the 101, 103, 104, and 105. There are commercial courses you can take to get your skippers license and other levels of competency. The RYA also has several levels of competency, such as Competent Crew, Day Skipper, YachtMaster, etc. Just taking the 101, listed above, in the US, would go a long ways towards showing a potential skipper your interest and commitment to sailing.
How I got experience with sailing
Once I got the sailing bug in 2011, I ultimately wanted to get my RYA YachtMaster Certificate, a course that lasts 3 months. But in the meantime I started looking around for sailing opportunities to get more experience before I freed up enough time to go take my YachtMaster Course. Luckily, I lived in Ventura, California, which is right on the ocean, but it was still a challenge finding cost-effective ways to learn more about sailing. The City of Ventura has sailing classes, which are a great way to get started and I’m sure that most cities or perhaps counties, located on or near bodies of water, have similar courses. I just spoke to a friend, who is land-locked in Indiana, but found opportunities to sail with a local club about an hour away from her home.
Join a Yacht Club
I also looked around for a yacht club that would allow me to get more experience and I discovered the motherload of yacht clubs, from my perspective. Fairwind Yacht Club, which operates out of Channel Islands, CA and Marina Del Rey, CA, was the most amazing yacht club I could have found. They are really more of a yacht co-op. In fact, from their website it clearly states:
“…an all volunteer sailing cooperative in Marina del Rey and Channel Islands Harbor, is the ideal way for boating enthusiasts to have year-round access to sailboats without the high costs of ownership.”
If you’re in the Ventura or LA areas, definitely take a look at their offerings. Here’s a link to their Facebook Pages as well. Click on the appropriate links, depending on your location: Channel Islands or Marina Del Rey.
After joining this yacht club and qualifying yourself to sail their first level of boats, you have boats available in each harbor which you can sail, any time during the week. You just have to schedule your sail and you’re good to go. It honestly doesn’t get any better or cheaper than this. Hopefully you’ll have a club near you that can provide these types of inexpensive sailing opportunities. With Fairwind, I got my ASA 101, 103, and 104 Certifications.
Spend Time in Small Spaces
Another thing I did was spend over a year in a tent trailer. Obviously this isn’t required or in some cases desired, but I wanted to see if I could handle living in a small space without going crazy. I called it my “dry run.” This was a experience that I recommend anybody doing, regardless of whether you end up sailing or not. I traveled from California to Vancouver Island and back. Then I did another trip to Miami, up into some of the Eastern States and back. All told I spent 18 months in my tent trailer and I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything. And by the end of my trips, I knew I would be okay to stay in small spaces, such as a mono-hull sailboat. I’ve often called sailing, “RVing on the water,” so living in a trailer gives you lots of good insight about things like solar, waste disposal, small fridges, cramped quarters, all keen insights for the sailing lifestyle.
Formal Training
And lastly, I went to Spain in 2016 and spent 3 months getting my YachtMaster Offshore Certificate, an experience I would highly recommend. This level of training is definitely not necessary for Global HitchHiking, but a great experience of immersion into sailing.
If you have any questions or ideas of things I should add to this article, don’t hesitate to comment or reach out to me. The next article in this series will cover some of the nitty-gritty details of finding boats and skippers and some of things I have done over the past 3 years to find boats.
If you’re interested in more of my writings, take a look at my blog, Living Large by Living Little. If you’re interested in what I’ve been doing in the past few years, this Medium article was written about me. To read the next article in the Global HitchHiking Series, click here: Global HitchHiking III
Here are a few pictures of my Global Hitchhiking for the past 3 years. | https://medium.com/global-hitchhiking/global-hitchhiking-part-ii-sailing-around-the-world-by-crewing-preparation-81da3b4e158b | ['Matt Ray'] | 2019-05-31 17:20:08.934000+00:00 | ['Travel', 'Globalhitchhiking', 'Sailing', 'Blogging', 'Education'] |
Spin me a story | Today is the Full Moon. Naturally, this means I am going to spin you a story, Dear Reader:
He awakens to the sounds of the vacuum. The humming and whirring that he hears in his memories. The day feels off to him. This day feels different. The day starts different, even though it all looks the same. There is a certain abruptness to it. It is as if the night ended with the snap of fingers attached to the hands of mythical things. He wasn’t a big believer in things that weren’t solid. He didn’t waste his time or his mind on things that he couldn’t touch. He lived in the present. He believed in what he could see and what he could prove, but today starts different. Today, he woke up and he thought about her.
She awakens to the sounds of motorcycles. The humming and whirring that she hears in her memories. The day feels bright to her. This day feels different. The day starts different, even though it looks the same. There is a certain certainty to it. It is as if the night ended with the snap of fingers attached to the hands of mythical things. She believed in the magic the universe may hold. She spent time exploring her mind and feeling what this energy might be telling her. She lived in her dreams. She manifests a day filled with possibilities, but today starts different. Today, she woke up and she thought about him.
He rolls out of bed and he looks at the time. It is 8:34am. He wonders if he even wants to bother going in to work today. It is Friday and today he just doesn’t feel like going through the motions. The days have been long and there are other things on his mind lately. He wants something different, and today looks a lot like all of the others. He decides he might as well get it over with. After all, it is just one more day until he can be free of this place until Monday. One more little box to check off on his calendar until something will change. The monotony of the work week bores him now, and he feels like he has more important work to do. Sometimes, this worries him. He was sure this was what he wanted, but lately, he isn’t as sure of it as he use to be. He sighs and he stands up and begins to go through the motions. He gets ready nonchalantly and without much effort. There is no one to impress. No one is going to notice if he doesn’t comb his hair today. It is Friday, and no one ever notices him on a Friday.
She hops out of her bed and looks at her candle. It is 8:34am. She wonders if she should skip work today. It is Friday and today she doesn’t feel like being there. The days have been long and there are other things on her mind lately. She wants something different, and today will most likely be like the others. She decides she might as well get it over with. After all, it is just one more day until she can be free of this place until Monday. One more little box to check off of her calendar until something different will happen. The second half of the week bores her now, and she feels like she has more important work to do. Sometimes, this bothers her. She was sure this was what she wanted, but lately, she isn’t as sure that it is what is best. She smiles and she glances at the candle wax that leaked through her candle’s glass in the night. She remembers the loud crack as it shattered right before she fell asleep. She decides she isn’t going to do her makeup today. No one is going to notice if she doesn’t. It is Friday, and no one ever notices her on a Friday.
He gets into his car and he drives in silence. He doesn’t want to hear the sounds of strumming guitar strings. He wants the day to continue with that same abruptness that it started with. Today, he doesn’t feel like being anyone’s light. He doesn’t want to be appreciative. He doesn’t want to be the kind of guy that makes people smile. Today, he just wants to be invisible. It is a different kind of feeling for him. He is usually a smooth talker that radiates the kind of energy that people take for granted. Yesterday, no one told him he did a good job. No one even noticed any of his effort. So, today, he isn’t putting in any effort at all. Today feels more empty than her candle was when she looked into it this morning. He wonders what candle he is even thinking about. He decides today is just an off kind of day, and he walks across the crosswalk and into the building.
She gets into her car and she turns on her music. She doesn’t want to hear the humming of car engines. She wants the day to continue with that same feeling of optimism that it started with. Today, she is going to be everyone’s light. She doesn’t want to be distant. She doesn’t want to be the kind of girl that scares people away. Today, she just wants to be happy. It is a different kind of feeling for her. She is usually very serious, yet radiates the kind of energy that people gravitate towards. Yesterday, no one noticed anything good she did. No one noticed that she felt kind of lost. So, today, she isn’t going to sit alone in her office. Today feels more powerful than her candle when she heard it shatter in the night. She wonders why it shattered or why that mattered. She decides today is just an off kind of day, and she walks across the crosswalk and into the building.
He is overloaded with work. Mostly, it is work he doesn’t even care about. He feels like he isn’t as great at this as he thought he would be. He feels isolated. He feels alone. He wonders why there is so much “I” in team. I have to make… I have to do… I need to build… There is a lot of solitude that he didn’t anticipate. He isn’t the kind of guy who thrives on being alone. He is a people person. He feeds off of the positive energy of human interaction. He needs this just as much as other people need him. He feels like other people need him. He feels like, if given the opportunity, he could change things for the better. He could change things for others, but he doesn’t know if he can change them for himself. He wonders if he has made a mistake. He knows he is sometimes rash in his decision making, and he doesn’t like to upset anyone. He also doesn’t care what anyone thinks. He thinks long and hard before making a change or making a choice, and he feels like he thought this one through. He pushes the thought to the side and decides today is just a weird day.
She finishes her work within an hour. Mostly, it is work she doesn’t even care about. She feels like she might be too good at this. She feels isolated. She feels alone. She wonders why she isn’t a part of the team. She has to make… She has to do… She needs to create… There is a lot of solitude that she didn’t anticipate. She isn’t the kind of girl who thrives on being alone. She is a people person. She feeds off of the positive energy of human interaction. She needs this just as much as other people need her. She feels like other people need her. She feels like, if given the opportunity, she could change things for the better. She could change things for others, but she doesn’t know if she can change things for herself. She wonders if all of this was a mistake. She knows she is sometimes rash in her decision making, and she doesn’t like to upset anyone. She also doesn’t care what anyone thinks. She thinks long and hard before making a change or making a choice, and she feels like she really thought this one through. She thinks about this for the entire day.
…they sigh.
He has eyes like the sunrise, and skin like the sunset. He is a man that matches her mind. A man that wants a lot for himself, but also likes to give a lot to someone else. He has a cool and calm exterior, but inside, his mind is whirring thoughts around faster than the cosmos. What a beautiful constellation those thoughts would make, she thinks to herself. His words feel like they were written in stone. Written somewhere in stone at the dawn of time for her to find. She finds them and she reads them out loud because she thinks they are her own. His words are careful. His words are cautious. He thinks about them for a second before he says them. He doesn’t want to get this wrong. He gets this wrong a lot. He is a spectacular bubble of warmth. His skin glows like stardust in the night sky. He taps his foot when he gets frustrated and she watches him tuck that frustration right behind a sideways glance of the eye. He is perfectly intriguing.
He moves closer to her and she doesn’t know whether to move away or to stand her ground. She wants him to be closer, but she isn’t sure if that was his intention. She catches herself looking at his face, his eyes, his hands, his hair… She catches herself and she holds her breath. He leans back and he looks her over with a quizzical look on his face. He looks at her as if he were trying to decipher glyphs on an ancient scroll he just discovered. He looks at her as if she is perfectly intriguing.
Something happens and he looks over at her again. She decides she will meet his glance. He smiles his lazy smile and she feels every neuron in her body firing off. She is in high alert. His eyes give her that same quizzical look and she wonders why the shade of them looks so much like the lights in her bedroom. She wonders why they twinkle like the stars on her bedroom ceiling. She wants, in that moment, to stand up and walk over to him and sit right on his lap. She thinks that sounds crazy, but she accidentally says it out loud. His eyes widen and his lips part just enough for her to see his surprise at her words. He adjusts himself in his chair just enough for her to see he wouldn’t exactly mind if she did. She smiles because she decided he is the most adorable thing she has ever seen. She had never seen him surprised before, and his reaction was extremely satisfying.
She wonders what it would be like to touch him. She wonders if his skin feels as warm against hers as it appears it would. She wonders what it would feel like to push her fingers into his hair; wild and unruly. She closes her eyes and she takes a deep breath. She wonders what it would feel like for his lips to touch hers for the first time, and the second, and the third. She wonders why she is even thinking about any of this, and she realizes that he is staring at nothing. He is staring blankly straight ahead. She asks him if he is okay and he he says he is.
She thinks: he is more than okay. | https://medium.com/@thegirlwiththenerdgasms/spin-me-a-story-e08e90b23f7a | ['Celise Hartgrove'] | 2021-07-25 01:58:04.528000+00:00 | ['Romantic Fiction', 'Intimacy', 'Lovestory', 'Romance', 'Love Letters'] |
Introduction to Image Caption Generation using the Avenger’s Infinity War Characters | Deep learning can be a daunting field for beginners. And it was no different for me - most of the algorithms and terms sounded from another world! I needed a way to understand the concepts from scratch in order to figure out how things actually work. And lo and behold, I found an interesting way to learn deep learning concepts.
The idea is pretty simple. To understand any deep learning concept, imagine this:
A mind of a newly born baby is capable of performing a trillion calculations. And, all you need is time (epochs) and nuture (algorithms) to make it understand a “thing” (problem case). I personally call this the babifying technique.
This intuition inherently works because neural networks are inspired by the human brain in the first place. So, re-engineering the problem should definitely work! Let me explain that with a example.
What if we trained our model on American culture images, and later asked it to predict labels of traditional Indian dance folks?
Apply the re-engineering idea to the question. It would be akin to imagining a kid who has been brought up in the USA, and has been to India for a vacation. Guess what label an American kid would predict for this image? Keep that in your mind before scrolling further.
Guess the caption?
This image has a lot of traditional dressing from traditional Indian culture.
What would a kid born in America caption it (or) a model that is exposed to an American dataset?
From my experiments, the model predicted the following caption:
A Man Wearing A Hat And A Tie
It might sound funny if you’re aware of Indian culture, but that’s the bias of algorithms. Image caption generation works in a similar manner. There are two main architectures of an image captioning model.
Understanding Image Caption Generation
The first one is an image based model which extracts the features of the image, and the other is a language based model which translates the features and objects given by our image-based model to a natural sentence.
In this article, we will be using a pretrained CNN network that is trained on the ImageNet dataset. The images are transformed into a standard resolution of 224 X 224 X 3. This will make the input constant for the model for any given image.
The condensed feature vector is created from a convolutional neural network (CNN). In technical terms, this feature vector is called embedding, and the CNN model is referred to as an encoder. In the next stage, we will be using these embeddings from the CNN layer as input to the LSTM network, a decoder.
In a sentence language model, LSTM is predicting the next word in a sentence. Given the initial embedding of the image, the LSTM is trained to predict the most probable next value of the sequence. Its just like showing a person a series of pictures and asking them to remember the details. And then later show them a new image which has similar content to the previous images and ask them to recall the content. This “recall” and “remember” job is done by our LSTM network.
Technically, we also insert <start> and <stop> stoppers to signal the end of the caption.
['<start>', 'A', 'man', 'is', 'holding', 'a', 'stone', '<end>']
This way, the model learns from various instances of images and finally predicts the captions for unseen images. To learn and dig deeper, I highly recommend reading the following references:
Prerequisites
To replicate the results of this article, you’ll need to install the pre-requisites. Make sure you have anaconda installed. If you want to train your model from scratch, follow the below steps, else skip over to the Pretrained model part.
git clone https://github.com/pdollar/coco.git
cd coco/PythonAPI/
make
python setup.py build
python setup.py install
cd ../../
git clone https://github.com/yunjey/pytorch-tutorial.git
cd pytorch-tutorial/tutorials/03-advanced/image_captioning/
pip install -r requirements.txt
Pretrained model
You can download the pretrained model from here and the vocabulary file from here. You should extract pretrained_model.zip to ./models/ and vocab.pkl to ./data/ using the unzip command.
Now that you have the model ready, you can predict the captions using:
$ python sample.py --image='png/example.png'
The original repository and code are implemented in the command line interface and you will need to pass Python arguments. To make it more intuitive, I have made a few handy functions to leverage the model in our Jupyter Notebook environment.
Let’s begin! Import all the libraries and make sure the notebook is in the root folder of the repository:
import torch
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
import argparse
import pickle
import os
from torchvision import transforms
from build_vocab import Vocabulary
from model import EncoderCNN, DecoderRNN
from PIL import Image
Add this configuration snippet and function to load_image from notebook:
# Device configuration
device = torch.device(‘cuda’ if torch.cuda.is_available() else ‘cpu’) #Function to Load and Resize the image def load_image(image_path, transform=None):
image = Image.open(image_path)
image = image.resize([224, 224], Image.LANCZOS)
if transform is not None:
image = transform(image).unsqueeze(0)
return image
Hard code the constants with pretrained model parameters. Note that these are hard coded and should not be modified. The pretrained model was trained using the following parameters. Changes should only be made if you are training your model from scratch.
# MODEL DIRS
ENCODER_PATH = './models/encoder-5-3000.pkl'
DECODER_PATH = './models/decoder-5-3000.pkl'
VOCAB_PATH = 'data/vocab.pkl' # CONSTANTS
EMBED_SIZE = 256
HIDDEN_SIZE = 512
NUM_LAYERS = 1
Now, code a PyTorch function that uses pretrained files to predict the output:
def PretrainedResNet(image_path, encoder_path=ENCODER_PATH,
decoder_path=DECODER_PATH,
vocab_path=VOCAB_PATH,
embed_size=EMBED_SIZE,
hidden_size=HIDDEN_SIZE,
num_layers=NUM_LAYERS):
# Image preprocessing
transform = transforms.Compose([
transforms.ToTensor(),
transforms.Normalize((0.485, 0.456, 0.406),
(0.229, 0.224, 0.225))])
# Load vocabulary wrapper
with open(vocab_path, 'rb') as f:
vocab = pickle.load(f) # Build models
encoder = EncoderCNN(embed_size).eval() # eval mode (batchnorm uses moving mean/variance)
decoder = DecoderRNN(embed_size, hidden_size, len(vocab), num_layers)
encoder = encoder.to(device)
decoder = decoder.to(device) # Load the trained model parameters
encoder.load_state_dict(torch.load(encoder_path))
decoder.load_state_dict(torch.load(decoder_path)) # Prepare an image
image = load_image(image_path, transform)
image_tensor = image.to(device)
# Generate a caption from the image
feature = encoder(image_tensor)
sampled_ids = decoder.sample(feature)
sampled_ids = sampled_ids[0].cpu().numpy() # (1, max_seq_length) -> (max_seq_length)
# Convert word_ids to words
sampled_caption = []
for word_id in sampled_ids:
word = vocab.idx2word[word_id]
sampled_caption.append(word)
if word == '<end>':
break
sentence = ' '.join(sampled_caption)[8:-5].title()
# Print out the image and the generated caption
image = Image.open(image_path)
return sentence, image
To predict the labels use :
plt.figure(figsize=(12,12))
predicted_label, image = PretrainedResNet(image_path='IMAGE_PATH')
plt.imshow(image)
print(predicted_label)
We had Hulk. Now we have ML!
Let us get started with producing captions on some scenes from Avenger’s Infinity War, and see how well it generalizes!
Test Image: Mark I
Have a look at the image shown below: | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/introduction-to-image-caption-generation-using-the-avengers-infinity-war-characters-6f14df09dbe5 | ['Mohammad Shahebaz'] | 2018-09-21 08:16:52.683000+00:00 | ['Image Processing', 'Deep Learning', 'Machine Learning', 'Python', 'Image'] |
KEEP CALM AND MIGRATE YOUR BTSG NOW!!! | Have you bought btsg erc-20 and don’t know how to migrate them to BitSong Mainnet?
Following articles explain step by step how to register in BitSong and migrate your BTSG Tokens to Mainnet.
Metamask — https://bitsongofficial.medium.com/action-required-migration-from-erc-20-to-bitsong-mainnet-has-started-d15b8f10c5e5
Trust Wallet — https://bitsongofficial.medium.com/action-required-migration-from-erc-20-to-bitsong-mainnet-has-started-trust-wallet-guide-d70ba0ea0a38
The advantages that the Mainnet offers are multiple, you can participate in governance, vote, propose and you will also be rewarded at each block according to your voting power.
Taking part in the ecosystem from the beginning will bring you numerous other benefits over time as you gain some seniority in it.
What happens if I don’t migrate my tokens?
You wont’t be able to participate in governance, you won’t be rewarded at each block for your participation in the ecosystem and you will also have to wait for the first bridges on Cosmos to be released before you can have a new opportunity to enter.
Where can i buy btsg?
Currently there is availability of btsg only on Uniswap, so you can buy your tokens there and migrate them to Mainnet as described in point number 1, or simply trade them.
BitSong recommend migration?
Absolutely yes, BitSong recommends all token holders to take part in the ecosystem, thus contributing to its healthy growth and at the same time being rewarded for doing so.
Until when can I migrate my tokens to Mainnet?
The Smart Contract will be stopped on March 23rd at 12pm UTC. After this date, until a bridge is released on Cosmos, it will no longer be possible to join the Mainnet!
🚀That said, it remains only Migrating your Tokens, fastening your seat belts, put your mobile phones in flight mode and be ready to take off!!🚀
Website | Discord | Telegram | Github | https://medium.com/@bitsongofficial/keep-calm-and-migrate-your-btsg-now-c2f4ab0d5a4d | [] | 2021-03-22 20:27:35.844000+00:00 | ['Music', 'Proof Of Stake', 'Mainnet', 'Launch', 'Blockchain'] |
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