#i see media and i consume it at breakneck speeds | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

thelittlepalmtree · 3 years

Text

One of the many things I'm not a fan of is the way that Disney takes advantage of the like ecosystem around people reviewing movies. Because I've noticed that if a movie is marketed as woke in any way like having a female director protagonist or being about people of color or anything like that then most of the reviews will be automatically positive. And I think that's great if the reason that the reviews are positive it's because people are feeling represented. But I think Disney takes advantage of it and that you'll have this like Groundswell of positivity and it'll become a super unpopular opinion to say that you didn't like it even if it's not good.

Because we very rarely get commentary these days on movies about like story structure and development and themes. Like people are no longer really looking at writing as like a craft. It very much these days feels like the more representation you can fit in that's not super offensive the better the writing. But you still need like symbolism and a decent plot and like a decent theme to make a movie good. Like I talked about things I didn't really love in Encanto because I just don't think it was well written. I think of it kind of like craftsmanship like you know how when you see like a desk or a table you can tell when it's been made with like really good craftsmanship. That's how I think of writing sometimes you can tell when someone put a lot of work and effort into making a story cohesive and really portraying a certain idea or just creating the story the way it should be created there's so many different elements to this.

And a lot of my biggest criticisms of Disney's Movies in recent years have been the writing. And I think it's because Disney really made a name for themselves with the computer effects. Like they made a big deal out of firing their entire 2D animation Department a while back and they made a big deal out of all the cool CGI stuff they do with Star Wars and Marvel. Which there is something to be said about the fact that non-cgi media workers are usually unionize where is CGI and special effects are not unionized. So I think Disney is willing to spend a lot of time to make something look good in a movie. So visually Encanto was amazing of course it was amazing.

But they also have started to operate on like a Breakneck deadlines speed. And I really feel like this is ruining their movies. Because like I don't know a lot about Hollywood but it was my impression that like if you were interested in any movie studios would be like okay we're going to make this movie in 5 years and then they would spend 10 years making it. Like I remember the Lord of the Rings came out they would take forever to make those movies they would keep pushing back the project because they were trying to make it good. But Disney is so unwilling these days to allow movies to take time. So you don't have a story that's being looked at and edited for a year you have a story that's being looked at and edited for a month. And it's really starting to show and I feel like the worst part of this is that the reason you don't see people talking about how bad Disney is these days is that they're hiding behind like this woke sort of ideology.

Like if you look at the IMDb page for Encanto there's a lot of white faces and white names. Coco was primarily made by white people Moana was primarily made by white people. The actors will be people of color but voice acting is honestly like one of the least time-consuming aspects of the whole process. So like while it is great to see these characters represented it's not actually making a lot of changes in the industry because it's not actually putting people behind the camera so to speak this is an animated film to our representative it's only putting characters that are representative in front of the camera. So it's not people of color telling their own stories it's white people telling stories they made up about people of color. Which sounds a lot more dystopian when you put it that way. But because people aren't even used to seeing that they feel represented and they have warm fuzzy feelings towards the film and they talked about how much they loved it and how great it was. Except that it's usually not very good. And I just feel like Disney is really taking advantage of the problem that was somewhat created by them and they're using it to continue to produce subpar work.

And then sign out like when you do criticized one of these films it's like you're a bad person because you hate representation. When really a lot of the criticisms made of these films even by people acting in bad faith are like legitimate criticisms. Because they're written badly on a really fast pace and they don't really work as well as stories that were given more time. And I don't think I've talked about this before on this blog but Disney is a monopoly so it's not that these are the best movies being made it's that Disney stops other movies from being made. These movies are so popular because there's nothing else to see. Not necessarily because they're good movies I think if there was more competition we would have a lot better movies and we wouldn't be saying that Encanto was the best movie out this year. It also probably wouldn't be the only movie was good representation for latine folks.

15 notes · View notes

ot3 · 4 years

Text

i watched red vs blue: zero with my dear friends today and i was asked to “post” my “thoughts” on the subject. Please do not click this readmore unless, for some reason, you want to read three thousand words on the subject of red vs blue: zero critical analysis. i highly doubt that’s the reason anyone is following me, but hey.

anyway. here you have it.

Here are my opinions on RVB0 as someone who has quite literally no nostalgia for any older RVB content. I’ve seen seasons 1-13 once and bits and pieces of it more than once here and there, but I only saw it for the first time within the past couple of months. I’ve literally never seen any other RT/AH content. I can name a few people who worked on OG Red vs. Blue but other than Mounty Oum I have NO idea who is responsible for what, really, or what anything else they’ve ever worked on is, or whether or not they’re awful people. I know even less about the people making RVB0 - All I know is that the main writer is named Torrian but I honestly don’t even know if that’s a first name, a last name, or a moniker. All this to say; nothing about my criticism is rooted in any perceived slight against the franchise or branding by the new staff members, because I don’t know or care about any of it. In fact, I’m going to try and avoid any direct comparison between RVB0 and earlier seasons of RVB as a means of critique until the very end, where I’ll look at that relationship specifically.

So here is my opinion of RVB0 as it stands right now:

1. The Writing

Everything about RVB0 feels as if it was written by a first-time writer who hasn’t learned to kill his darlings. The narrative is both simultaneously far too full, leaving very little breathing room for character interaction, and oddly sparse, with a story that lacks any meaningful takeaway, interesting ideas, or genuine emotional connection. It also feels like it’s for a very much younger audience - I don’t mean this as a negative at all. I love tv for kids. I watch more TV for kids than I do for adults, mostly, but I think it’s important to address this because a lot of the time ‘this is for kids’ is used to act like you’re not allowed to critique a narrative thoroughly. It definitely changes the way you critique it, but the critique can still be in good faith. I watched the entirety of RVB0 only after it was finished, in one sitting, and I was giving it my full attention, essentially like it was a movie. I’m going to assume it was much better to watch in chunks, because as it stood, there was literally no time built into the narrative to process the events that had just transpired, or try and predict what events might be coming in the future. When there’s no time to think about the narrative as you’re watching it, the narrative ends up as being something that happens to the audience, not something they engage with. It’s like the difference between taking notes during a lecture or just sitting and listening. If you’re making no attempt to actively process what’s happening, it doesn’t stick in your mind well. I found myself struggling to recall the events and explanations that had immediately transpired because as soon as one thing had happened, another thing was already happening, and it was like a mental juggling act to try and figure out which information was important enough to dwell on in the time we were given to dwell on it.

Which brings me to another point - pacing. Every event in the show, whether a character moment, a plot moment, or a fight scene, felt like it was supposed to land with almost the exact same amount of emotional weight. It all felt like The Most Important Thing that had Yet Happened. And I understand that this is done as an attempt to squeeze as much as possible out of a rather short runtime, but it fundamentally fails. When everything is the most important thing happening, it all fades into static. That’s what most of 0’s narrative was to me: static. It’s only been a few hours since I watched it but I had to go step by step and type out all of the story beats I could remember and run it by my friends who are much more enthusiastic RVB fans than I am to make sure I hadn’t missed or forgotten anything. I hadn’t, apparently, but the fact that my takeaway from the show was pretty accurate and also disappointingly lackluster says a lot. Strangely enough, the most interesting thing the show alluded to - a holo echo, or whatever the term they used was - was one of the things least extrapolated upon in the show’s incredibly bulky exposition. Benefit of the doubt says that’s something they’ll explore in future seasons (are they getting more? Is that planned? I just realized I don’t actually know.)

And bulky it was! I have quite honestly never seen such flagrant disregard for the rule of “show, don’t tell.” There was not a single ounce of subtlety or implication involved in the storytelling of RVB0. Something was either told to you explicitly, or almost entirely absent from the narrative. Essentially zilch in between. We are told the dynamic the characters have with each other, and their personality pros and cons are listed for us conveniently by Carolina. The plot develops in exposition dumps. This is partially due to the series’ short runtime, but is also very much a result of how that runtime was then used by the writers. They sacrificed a massive chunk of their show for the sake of cramming in a ton of fight scenes, and if they wanted to keep all of those fight scenes, it would have been necessary to pare down their story and characters proportionally in comparison, but they didn’t do that either. They wanted to have it both ways and there simply wasn’t enough time for it.

The story itself is… uninteresting. It plays out more like the flimsy premise of a video game quest rather than a piece of media to be meaningfully engaged with. RVB0 is I think something I would be pitched by a guy who thinks the MCU and BNHA are the best storytelling to come out of the past decade. It is nothing but tropes. And I hate having to use this as an insult! I love tropes. The worst thing about RVB0 is that nothing it does is wholly unforgivable in its own right. Hunter x Hunter, a phenomenal shonen, is notoriously filled with pages upon pages of detailed exposition and explanations of things, and I absolutely love it. Leverage, my favorite TV show of all time, is literally nothing but a five man band who has to learn to work as a team while seemingly systematically hitting a checklist of every relevant trope in the book. Pacific Rim is an incredibly straightforward good guys vs giant monsters blockbuster to show off some cool fight scenes such as a big robot cutting an alien in half with a giant sword, and it’s some of the most fun I ever have watching a movie. Something being derivative, clunky, poorly executed in some specific areas, narratively weak, or any single one of these flaws, is perfectly fine assuming it’s done with the intention and care that’s necessary to make the good parts shine more. I’ll forgive literally any crime a piece of media commits as long as it’s interesting and/or enjoyable to consume. RVB0 is not that. I’m not sure what the main point of RVB0 was supposed to be, because it seemingly succeeds at nothing. It has absolutely nothing new or innovative to justify its lack of concern for traditional storytelling conventions. Based solely on the amount of screentime things were given, I’d be inclined to say the narrative existed mostly to give flimsy pretense for the fight scenes, but that’s an entire other can of worms.

2. The Visuals + Fights

I have no qualms with things that are all style and no substance. Sometimes you just want to see pretty colors moving on the screen for a while or watch some cool bad guys and monsters or whatever get punched. RVB0 was not this either. The show fundamentally lacked a coherent aesthetic vision. Much of the show had a rather generic sci-fi feel to it with the biggest standouts to this being the very noir looking cityscape, which my friends and I all immediately joked looked like something from a batman game, or the temple, which my friends and I all immediately joked looked like a world of warcraft raid. They were obviously attempting to get variety in their environment design, which I appreciate, but they did this without having a coherent enough visual language to feel like it was all part of the same world. In general, there was also just a lack of visual clarity or strong shots. The value range in any given scene was poor, the compositions and framing were functional at best, and the character animation was unpleasantly exaggerated. It just doesn’t really look that good beyond fancy rendering techniques.

The fight scenes are their entire own beast. Since ‘FIGHT SCENE’ is the largest single category of scenes in the show, they definitely feel worth looking at with a genuine critical eye. Or, at least, I’d like to, but honestly half the time I found myself almost unable to look at them. The camera is rarely still long enough to really enjoy what you’re watching - tracking the motion of the character AND the camera at such constant breakneck high speeds left little time to appreciate any nuances that might have been present in the choreography or character animation. I tried, believe me, I really did, but the fight scenes leave one with the same sort of dizzy convoluted spectacle as a Michael Bay transformers movie. They also really lacked the impact fight scenes are supposed to have.

It’s hard to have a good, memorable fight scene without it doing one of three things: 1. Showing off innovative or creative fighting styles and choreography 2. Making use of the fight’s setting or environment in an engaging and visually interesting way or 3. Further exploring a character’s personality or actions by the way they fight. It’s also hard to do one of these things on its own without at least touching a bit on the other two. For the most part, I find RVB0’s fight scenes fail to do this. Other than rather surface level insubstantial factors, there was little to visually distinguish any of RVB0’s fight scenes from each other. Not only did I find a lot of them difficult to watch and unappealing, I found them all difficult to watch and unappealing in an almost identical way. They felt incredibly interchangeable and very generic. If you could take a fight scene and change the location it was set and also change which characters were participating and have very little change, it’s probably not a good fight scene.

I think “generic” is really just the defining word of RVB0 and I think that’s also why it falls short in the humor department as well.

3. The Comedy

Funny shit is hard to write and humor is also incredibly subjective but I definitely got almost no laughs out of RVB0. I think a total of three. By far the best joke was Carolina having a cast on top of her armor, which, I must stress, is an incredibly funny gag and I love it. But overall I think the humor fell short because it felt like it was tacked on more than a natural and intentional part of this world and these characters. A lot of the jokes felt like they were just thrown in wherever they’d fit, without any build up to punchlines and with little regard for what sort of joke each character would make. Like, there was some, obviously Raymond’s sense of humor had the most character to it, but the character-oriented humor still felt very weak. When focusing on character-driven humor, there’s a LOT you can establish about characters based on what sort of jokes they choose to make, who they’re picking as the punchlines of these jokes, and who their in-universe audience for the jokes is. In RVB0, the jokes all felt very immersion-breaking and self aware, directed wholly towards the audience rather than occurring as a natural result of interplay between the characters. This is partially due to how lackluster the character writing was overall, and the previously stated tight timing, but also definitely due to a lack of a real understanding about what makes a joke land.

A rule of thumb I personally hold for comedy is that, when push comes to shove, more specific is always going to be more funny. The example I gave when trying to explain this was this:

saying two characters had awkward sex in a movie theater: funny

saying two characters had an awkward handjob in a cinemark: even funnier

saying two characters spent 54 minutes of 11:14's 1:26 runtime trying out some uncomfortably-angled hand stuff in the back of a dilapidated cinemark that lost funding halfway through retrofitting into a dinner theater: the funniest

The more specific a joke is, the more it relies on an in-depth understanding of the characters and world you’re dealing with and the more ‘realistic’ it feels within the context of your media. Especially with this kind of humor. When you’re joking with your friends, you don’t go for stock-humor that could be pulled out of a joke book, you go for the specific. You aim for the weak spots. If a set of jokes could be blindly transplanted into another world, onto another cast of characters, then it’s far too generic to be truly funny or memorable. I don’t think there’s a single joke in RVB0 where the humor of it hinged upon the characters or the setting.

Then there’s the issue of situational comedy and physical comedy. This is really where the humor being ‘tacked on’ shows the most. Once again, part of what makes actually solid comedy land properly is it feeling like a natural result of the world you have established. Real life is absurd and comical situations can be found even in the midst of some pretty grim context, and that’s why black comedy is successful, and why comedy shows are allowed to dip into heavier subject matter from time to time, or why dramas often search for levity in humor. It’s a natural part of being human to find humor in almost any situation. The key thing, though, once again, is finding it in the situation. Many of RVB0’s attempts at humor, once again, feel like they would be the exact same jokes when stripped from their context, and that’s almost never good. A pretty fundamental concept in both storytelling in general but particularly comedy writing is ‘setup and payoff’. No joke in RVB0 is a reward for a seemingly innocuous event in an earlier scene or for an overlooked piece of environmental design. The jokes pop in when there’s time for them in between all the exposition and fighting, and are gone as soon as they’re done. There’s no long term, underlying comedic throughline to give any sense of coherence or intent to the sense of humor the show is trying to establish. Every joke is an isolated one-off quip or one-liner, and it fails to engage the audience in a meaningful way.

All together, each individual component of RVB0 feels like it was conjured up independently, without any concern to how it interacted with the larger product they were creating. And I think this is really where it all falls apart. RVB0 feels criminally generic in a way reminiscent of mass-market media which at least has the luxury of attributing these flaws, this complete and total watering down of anything unique, to heavy oversight and large teams with competing visions. But I don’t think that’s the case for RVB0. I don’t know much about what the pipeline is like for this show, but I feel like the fundamental problem it suffers from is a lack of heart.

In comparison to Red vs. Blue

Let's face it. This is a terrible successor to Red vs. Blue. I wouldn’t care if NONE of the old characters were in it - that’s not my problem. I haven’t seen past season 13 because from what I heard the show already jumped the shark a bit and then some. That’s not what makes it a poor follow up. What makes it a bad successor is that it fundamentally lacks any of the aspects of the OG RVB that made it unique or appealing at all. I find myself wondering what Torrian is trying to say with RVB0 and quite literally the only answer I find myself falling back onto is that he isn’t trying to say anything at all. Regardless of what you feel about the original RVB, it undeniably had things to say. The opening “why are we here” speech does an excellent job at establishing that this is a show intended to poke fun at the misery of bureaucracy and subservience to nonsensical systems, not just in the context of military life, but in a very broad-strokes way almost any middle-class worker can relate to. At the end of the day, fiction is at its best when it resonates with some aspect of its audience’s life. I know instantly which parts of the original Red vs Blue I’m supposed to relate to. I can’t say anything even close to that about 0.

RVB is an absurdist parody that heavily satirizes aspects of the military and life as a low-on-the-food-chain worker in general that almost it’s entire target audience will be familiar with. The most significant draw of the show to me was how the dialogue felt like listening to my friends bicker with each other in our group chats. It required no effort for me to connect with and although the narrative never outright looked to the camera and explained ‘we are critiquing the military’s stupid red tape and self-fullfilling eternal conflict’ they didn’t need to, because the writing trusted itself and its audience enough to believe this could be conveyed. It is, in a way, the complete antithesis to the badass superhero macho military man protagonist that we all know so well. RVB was saying something, and it was saying it in a rather novel format.

Nothing about RVB0 is novel. Nothing about RVB0 says anything. Nothing about it compels me to relate to any of these characters or their situations. RVB0 doesn’t feel like absurdism, or satire. RVB0 feels like it is, completely uncritically, the exact media that RVB itself was riffing off of. Both RVB0 and RVB when you watch them give you the feeling that what you’re seeing here is kids on a playground larping with toy soldiers. It’s all ridiculous and over the top cliche stupid garbage where each side is trying to one-up the other. The critical difference is, in RVB, we’re supposed to look at this and laugh at how ridiculous this is. In RVB0 we’re supposed to unironically think this is all pretty badass.

The PFL arc of the original RVB existed to show us that setting up an elite team of supersoldiers with special powers was something done in bad faith, with poor outcomes, that left everyone involved either cruel, damaged, or dead. It was a bad thing. And what we’re seeing in RVB0 is the same premise, except, this time it’s good. We’re supposed to root for this format. RVB0 feels much more like a demo reel, cutscenes from a video game that doesn’t exist, or a shonen anime fanboy’s journal scribbling than it feels like a piece of media with any objective value in any area. In every area that RVB was anti-establishment, RVB0 is pure undiluted establishment through and through.

#long post #really long post guys. look out !#rvb

205 notes · View notes

newstfionline · 3 years

Text

Monday, August 2, 2021

Frustration as Biden, Congress allow eviction ban to expire (AP) Anger and frustration mounted in Congress as a nationwide eviction moratorium expired at midnight Saturday—one Democratic lawmaker even camping outside the Capitol in protest as millions of Americans faced being forced from their homes. Lawmakers said they were blindsided by President Joe Biden’s inaction as the deadline neared. More than 3.6 million Americans are at risk of eviction, some in a matter of days. The moratorium was put in place by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as part of the COVID-19 crisis when jobs shifted and many workers lost income. The eviction ban was intended to prevent further virus spread by people put out on the streets and into shelters. Congress approved nearly $47 billion in federal housing aid to the states during the pandemic, but it has been slow to make it into the hands of renters and landlords owed payments.

Breakneck pace of crises keeps National Guard away from home (AP) In the searing 108-degree heat, far from his Louisiana health care business, Army Col. Scott Desormeaux and his soldiers are on a dusty base near Syria’s northern border, helping Syrian rebel forces battle Islamic State militants. It’s tough duty for the soldiers. But their deployment to the Middle East last November is just a small part of the blistering pace of missions that members of the Louisiana National Guard and America’s other citizen-soldiers have faced in the past 18 months. Beyond overseas deployments, Guard members have been called in to battle the COVID-19 pandemic, natural disasters and protests against racial injustice. For many, it’s meant months away from their civilian jobs and scarce times with families. While Guard leaders say troops are upbeat, they worry about exhaustion setting in and wonder how much longer U.S. businesses can do without their long-absent workers. “This past year was an extraordinary one for the National Guard,” said Gen. Dan Hokanson, chief of the National Guard Bureau. Does he worry about exhaustion setting in? “That’s something I’ve been very concerned with right from the start.”

Western Wildfires May Take Weeks To Months To Contain (NPR) Pockets of the American West continued to burn over the weekend, as another nine large fires were reported on Saturday in California, Idaho, Montana and Oregon. The 87 fires still active in 13 states have consumed more than 1.7 million acres. Just shy of 3 million acres have been scorched since the start of 2021, with months left in what experts predict will be a devastating fire season. In southern Oregon, the Bootleg Fire has become the largest active blaze in the country. The 413,000-acre inferno was contained at 56%, as of Saturday night. A fire line has been constructed around the entire perimeter, ranging from 100 to 150-feet wide between the burn and unburned areas.

Bacon may disappear in California as pig rules take effect (AP) Thanks to a reworked menu and long hours, Jeannie Kim managed to keep her San Francisco restaurant alive during the coronavirus pandemic. That makes it all the more frustrating that she fears her breakfast-focused diner could be ruined within months by new rules that could make one of her top menu items—bacon—hard to get in California. “Our number one seller is bacon, eggs and hash browns,” said Kim, who for 15 years has run SAMS American Eatery on the city’s busy Market Street. “It could be devastating for us.” At the beginning of next year, California will begin enforcing an animal welfare proposition approved overwhelmingly by voters in 2018 that requires more space for breeding pigs, egg-laying chickens and veal calves. National veal and egg producers are optimistic they can meet the new standards, but only 4% of hog operations now comply with the new rules. Unless the courts intervene or the state temporarily allows non-compliant meat to be sold in the state, California will lose almost all of its pork supply, much of which comes from Iowa. Animal welfare organizations for years have been pushing for more humane treatment of farm animals but the California rules could be a rare case of consumers clearly paying a price for their beliefs.

Why are so many migrants coming to one of Europe’s smallest countries? Blame Belarus, officials say. (Washington Post) Europe’s newest migration crisis is unfolding in one of its most unlikely places. Lithuania, a Baltic nation roughly the size of West Virginia with fewer than 3 million residents, hasn’t been known as a destination for undocumented immigrants: Each year, the country sees roughly 70 people unlawfully cross its border with Belarus. In July, the number skyrocketed to more than 2,600, consisting mostly of immigrants from Iraq and sub-Saharan Africa. Officials expect the numbers to grow in the coming weeks. This new flow of people did not begin organically, Lithuanian and European Union officials say. Instead, they say, it is the result of an audacious plan by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to weaponize migration in response to E.U. sanctions. In June, Lukashenko threatened to allow human traffickers and drug smugglers to stream into Europe. E.U. officials say they have evidence that his government is also encouraging immigrants to travel there: coordinating with a Belarusian travel agency to offer tourist visas, setting up flights and then transporting people from Minsk to the Lithuanian border. Lithuania, which has virtually no experience with large numbers of immigrants, has scrambled to construct a barbed wire fence along the border.

Thousands protest against COVID-19 health pass in France (Reuters) Thousands of people protested in Paris and other French cities on Saturday against a mandatory coronavirus health pass for entry to a wide array of public venues, introduced by the government as it battles a fourth wave of infections. It was the third weekend in a row that people opposed to President Emmanuel Macron’s new COVID-19 measures have taken to the streets, an unusual show of determination at a time of year when many people are focused on taking their summer break. The number of demonstrators has grown steadily since the start of the protests, echoing the “yellow vest” movement, that started in late 2018 against fuel taxes and the cost of living. An interior ministry official said 204,090 had demonstrated across France, including 14,250 in Paris alone. This is about 40,000 more than last week.

Turkey evacuates panicked tourists by boat from wildfires (AP) Panicked tourists in Turkey hurried to the seashore to wait for rescue boats Saturday after being told to evacuate some hotels in the Aegean Sea resort of Bodrum due to the dangers posed by nearby wildfires, Turkish media reported. Coast guard units led the operation and authorities asked private boats and yachts to assist in evacuation efforts from the sea as new wildfires erupted. A video showed plumes of smoke and fire enveloping a hill close to the seashore. The death toll from wildfires raging in Turkey’s Mediterranean towns rose to six Saturday after two forest workers were killed, the country’s health minister said. Fires across Turkey since Wednesday have burned down forests and some settlements, encroaching on villages and tourist destinations and forcing people to evacuate. In one video of the Bodrum fire filmed from the sea, a man helping with the evacuations was stunned at the speed of the fire, saying “this is unbelievable, just unbelievable. How did this fire come (here) this fast in 5 minutes?”

Afghans flee (NYT) A mass exodus is unfolding across Afghanistan as the Taliban press on with a military campaign and the U.S. withdraws. At least 30,000 Afghans are leaving each week and many more have been displaced. The Taliban have captured more than half the country’s 400-odd districts, according to some assessments, sparking fears of a harsh return to extremist rule or a civil war. The sudden flight is an early sign of a looming refugee crisis, aid agencies warn.

As the Taliban closes in, Afghan forces scramble to defend prisons holding thousands of militants (Washington Post) Huddled in brightly lit yards late one recent night, hundreds of inmates taunted a team of about a dozen special forces who were rounding the walls along the top of Kunduz prison. The appearance of elite soldiers was an anomaly, a sign to the prisoners that something was happening. “What’s going on?” they shouted. “Is tonight going to be our last night in here? Taliban fighters planned to storm the compound that evening, according to information gathered by local intelligence officers. Government forces hoped the show of force would spur prisoners—some in possession of smuggled cellphones used to communicate with the Taliban—to wave off the attack. Without enough fighters to hold the city’s front lines and reinforce the prison, the special forces’ move was a gamble. But it appeared to work: The night passed without incident. As Taliban militants close in on Afghanistan’s provincial capitals, they are inching closer to central prisons that house around 5,000 of their fellow fighters, leaving the government scrambling to secure the detention facilities. If just a fraction of the detainees were to escape, Afghan security officials warn, it would hand the militants a significant advantage on the battlefield, where they are already making steady gains.

Burkina Faso sees more child soldiers as jihadi attacks rise (AP) Awoken by gunshots in the middle of the night, Fatima Amadou was shocked by what she saw among the attackers: children. Guns slung over their small frames, the children chanted “Allahu akbar,” as they surrounded her home in Solhan town in Burkina Faso’s Sahel region. Some were so young they couldn’t even pronounce the words, Arabic for “God is great,” said the 43-year-old mother. “When I saw the kids, what came to my mind was that (the adults) trained these kids to be assassins, and they came to kill my children,” Amadou told The Associated Press by phone from Sebba town, where she now lives. She and her family are among the lucky ones who survived the June attack, in which about 160 people were killed—the deadliest such assault since the once-peaceful West African nation was overrun by fighters linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State about five years ago. As that violence increases, so too does the recruitment of child soldiers. The number of children recruited by armed groups in Burkina Faso rose at least five-fold so far this year, according to information seen by the AP in an unpublished report by international aid and conflict experts.

Behind the Rise of U.S. Solar Power, a Mountain of Chinese Coal (WSJ) Solar panel installations are surging in the U.S. and Europe as Western countries seek to cut their reliance on fossil fuels. But the West faces a conundrum as it installs panels on small rooftops and in sprawling desert arrays: Most of them are produced with energy from carbon-dioxide-belching, coal-burning plants in China. Concerns are mounting in the U.S. and Europe that the solar industry’s reliance on Chinese coal will create a big increase in emissions in the coming years as manufacturers rapidly scale up production of solar panels to meet demand. That would make the solar industry one of the world’s most prolific polluters, analysts say.

Americans Spend Nearly 60 Billion Hours a Year on Google (PC Magazine) Collectively, Americans spent 57.3 billion hours on Google per year. Its video equivalent, YouTube, comes in second with 29.6 billion hours, followed by Facebook with 9.7 billion hours.

#headlines #news

1 note · View note

northedgeittraining · 3 years

Text

Why machine data is crucial to companies

Have you ever wondered why social media seems to know so much about you? Well, don’t be fooled into thinking that they’re an all-knowing and all-seeing magician that knows your deepest secrets and desires. It’s just all about data, machine data.

Now, you are wondering again, what’s machine data? How do they know what they know? Is it some kind of weird science that would eventually turn into your worst nightmare, where you lose all your friends and followers and put mustaches on all your selfies?

Well, as much as I want to say YES, but for the purpose of giving you relevant information, the answer is NO. Machine data, simply put, is the digital information generated by machines from various activities and interactions you make on mobile phones, computers, and other network devices. It is a record of all the information you put into different online systems that created a pattern of your choices, interest, and behavior.

Picture yourself going through your typical day. You get up in the morning; you check your mobile phone for the latest news in the world, entertainment, or stock market. As you are getting ready to leave for work, you make calls to the office to get ahead of the work that needs to be done. When you get to your car, you put in music and log in your destination. From your waking moment to the end of your day, all these activities, if done through the internet, turns into a considerable wealth of definitive and real-time information that’s recorded to the system of every application or network that you use.

On a bigger scale, machine data is not just about tracking and collecting individual people’s information. It is also a result of business and process logs, application logs, sensor data, call records, internet and website activity logs that big organizations use for different purposes.

Now, the question is, WHY? It is kind of creepy when you come to think of it. But, if you look at the big picture, machine data serves a significant role in monitoring and predicting outcomes that would affect not only you but the world.

Here are some examples:

Machines and technology run almost everything. With machine data, companies that own them can analyze these machines’ performance to monitor, maintain, and anticipate malfunction and then find ways to prevent and fix them before they break down.

Another use of machine data is for monitoring warning systems for natural disasters, based on feeds from sensors and forecasting systems that collect data from weather stations and satellites to help predict the weather and earth activities, like volcanic activities and earthquakes.

Machine data is also used to ensure gas and oil pipelines are working correctly and efficiently. One missed data point can cause great devastation and loss of property and lives.

Giant industries endlessly run, build, and improve the systems and technology they created. This continuous innovation requires strict and up-close monitoring to make sure that they are functioning well. Real-time monitoring is an essential tool when running systems as large as power plants, or as small as app errors on a consumer’s mobile phone app. These innovations’ success and efficiency hinges on the information that machine data supplies. Without machine data analytics, diagnosing issues is slow, delayed, and tedious, human error can contribute to more missteps, and unforeseen issues will not be anticipated, thus creating problems in the long run.

Of course, it’s not just all about saving the world. Machine data can be used to fatten the bottom line. To stay even competitive as a modern company, these businesses have to perform at breakneck speeds, and process information as quickly as possible.

In return, businesses and companies can make big bucks from machine data. What??? Oh yes! It’s not a shocking concept, though. These practices already existed way back, even before the rise of machines and technology. But NOW, with the help of machine data, these practices are more refined, accurate, and way more effective and bankable than before. Here’s how:

Businesses can gather detailed feedback on social media about their products and services. Machine data can give them the power to determine what people are saying about their brand, what they like, and what they don’t like. This information is compelling when it comes to customer satisfaction. They will be able to give them what they want and need. As they say, a happy customer is a paying customer.

Companies can get ahead of their competition through comparative analysis using machine data information. They will be able to compare services and products based on how consumers are engaging with their business and their competition’s business. With the information they get out of this, they can get ahead of the competition and offer better and more relevant products to their consumers.

Machine data also plays a vital role in product development. Businesses can collect data on the possible product and check the market demand. They would know whether the targeted customers would want this product or not, they would know who the competition might be, and they would also find out if the product will make money. This information is crucial to know before companies start investing any money. Machine data can help answer all that.

Many big corporations spend millions in marketing ads and campaigns but sometimes fail badly, leading to bankruptcy. This happens because these businesses do not know about their customers and what they want. But with machine data, companies can monitor their consumer base online and check the current customer trends before creating a marketing campaign. This will ensure a targeted marketing campaign that focuses on existing customers and future customers.

In a way, machine data is indeed magic, brought about by wizards and geniuses who collect them daily. More and more people are getting into careers to gather this information. IT schools such as Northedge IT Training produce proficient and knowledgeable machine data engineers equipped with advanced Northedge Splunk Training to guarantee that the data collected is accurate and relevant to its purpose. Computers and machines may indeed run the world right now, but the fuel that makes it run efficiently still comes from the people behind the technology.

#northedge #northedgeit #northedgeittraining #bigdata #learnsplunk #firstpost #entreprenuer #informationtechnology #itengineering

0 notes

tshirtstores · 2 months

Link

#ChildlessCatLadyWhoJdVanceWishesHeWas2024T-Shirt

0 notes

menstshirtshop · 2 months

Link

#DinkSpikeSipRepeatBeachTennisLifeT-Shirt

0 notes

literaryfaeriecorner · 4 years

Text

02/21/2021: Promotions, Old Friends, and Yellow School Buses

link to original post

February 21st, 2021

somehow i received a promotion at work last Friday even though i am literally probably one of the LEAST motivated people teaching at that school... fuck. so... now, instead of just being a regular-schmegular teacher, i am now the '6th grade head social studies teacher' which means that i have to run planning meetings for the social studies team, attend morning meetings discussing whole-grade growth and failings, and solutions for how we're going to get the kids to... not suck. uuuuuuggggghhhhhh!!! and this is for the rest of the year and the next!!!!

apparently, i am the 'perfect person' for this position because all of my classes have consistently performed better than the rest... but between you, me, and the entire internet, that speaks more to the abilities of my students than my own personal abilities as a teacher. i don't believe i'm a sucky teacher or anything but the fact remains that between work, grad school, delusional lovesick-related episodes, mental illness, and other varying distractions, i am not Doing The Best I Can. in fact, i'm literally in survival mode 95% of the time. the other 5% of the time, i'm in manic-as-fuck mode. so... do i really DESERVE this promotion? who even fucking knows? i like to believe, however, that i'll eventually figure out how to bullshit this new responsibility as well and no one will be the wiser. i mean, if this promotion came with a financial boost as well, i'd be more inclined to not fuck it up but, like... i'm doing more work for the same weak ass pay... i'm not as motivated with kind words and encouragement than i would be with a solid boost to my pay grade. anyway... whatever.

i was on tumblr the other day (i am fasting from all social media sites during the day for Lent but tumblr doesn't count because i literally just reblog five or six posts into the void, look at sad literature quotes, and log out just to do it all over again the next day... i am not addicted to tumblr as i am to twitter, instagram, pinterest, and linkedin... yes, linkedin. my quest to escape my job has led me down a very weird and addictive path) and i came across this post by user beetlejuices:

"isn't it all about old friends? like everything? all of it?"

and it is. i think so. i really do.

one of the things i've been conscious of in my early adulthood is that i am still chasing after the friendships i had in middle school. i wrote about this two Lents ago too. there is a memory that i remember so vividly in middle school and it reminds me constantly about how i felt so loved and appreciated and like the world couldn't go on without me if i somehow left or disappeared or went away. i think about it all the time. that is how freeing and loving and whole it is. just a simple memory of being three hours late to school (after a huge, blown out argument between parents who should've divorced years ago) and being startled by a flood of texts that starting pouring in at 7 that morning.

ashley: YOOOO where r u? they snagged all the donuts from the corner store!

alysha: you missed the bus this morning?

ashley: i bought donuts off eman 4 u... say im the best :D

kiera: U MISSED CRYSTAL'S FAT HEAD ASS SLIP DOWN THE STEPS LMAOOO

kiera: u're always here early u good?

alysha: are you coming 2 school today?

ashley: are u ok?

Christyl: don't forget we have a test in math!! where are you?

kiera: babe?

ashley: are you ok? why is ur phone off?

alysha: i just talked to ashley are u ok?

Christyl: where r u?

kiera: i just talked to ashley r u ok?

kiera: none of ur sisters r here either... u ok?

ashley: i'll call again @ lunch

alysha: pls be safe

Christyl: i'll tell the teacher you're sick and maybe you can take it tomorrow

Christyl: are you ok?

and even more messages that were sent during and inbetween classes... i thought it was a bit too late (and too time consuming) to respond to them all individually so after being signed into school three hours late, i decided to wait for all my friends at our table in the cafeteria to surprise them before explaining my mess of a morning. i was nervous because i thought they would be mad at me for some reason. but as soon as they saw me, ashley, alysha, kiera, and christyl, they came barreling towards me screaming my name. it was an entire scene. people looking at them crazy and then raising their eyebrows at me, not seeing what the big deal was. i probably looked the same exact way that i did the day before. unspectacular, bookish, awkward. they couldn't see what the big deal was. it embarrassed me but it thrilled me at the same time.

they nearly knocked me to the floor pushing each other to get to me first trying to steal the first hug. in the end, i stretched my arms out as far as i could and they all fell into them. we probably looked a mess. a tangle of brown legs, arms, frizzy hair, loose braids, and scuffed dress shoes. i remember feeling so loved and wanted. i felt bigger and grander than i was. i had stopped the world for five entire minutes and i didn't do anything. i was just existing.

i don't really talk to any of the girls anymore. i follow them on social media and i wish them happy birthday every year and we're all on each other's close friends list on insta... so i still know a few, if not all, of their secrets... but we'll probably never be as close as we were in middle school. and that's ok. i still love them as much as i did when they tackled me in the lunch room that day. i still root and cheer for them like we still spend every night after school on the phone for hours talking shit and planning presidential campaigns and gossiping about boys. i will never forget that day in the lunchroom. ever. and, like i said, it has only occurred to me now, as a young adult, that i've been chasing that kind of friendship and sisterhood since it happened.

i like to treat all my friendships as mini-romances. i remember a tweet that said, "friendships ARE romance," and i agree. i think i'm in love with all of my close friends, if not all of my friends. it's embarrassing (just a bit) but i have probably fallen in love with all of my friends at least once or twice. this is especially true for my group of college friends (at this point, they are really family). i have been in love, at least once, with all eight of them throughout our four years. i don't actually find this embarrassing like i said earlier. what's embarrassing is that this information might embarrass other people which, in turn, would thoroughly embarrass me. but the fact itself doesn't embarrass me. that is how i am. i fall in love and out of love at breakneck speeds. i think it's important to be a little bit in love with your friends.

i really enjoyed being in undergrad and planning literal dates between all eight or nine of us. and we would call it that. "what are we doing for our date next weekend?" "so who's going on the date tomorrow?" "are we cancelling the date or does the weather not matter?" (the weather always mattered.) my favorite college date was valentine's day senior year. we all went to korean-style karaoke and ordered so much food and drink we could barely stand to sing. we were all sat around the tv singing horribly to mariah carey or beyonce or rapping to nicki minaj verses. we took so many bad pictures and tone deaf videos and we kept leaning or hugging or holding each other's hands. that's another thing i love about my college family. most of us are touchy-feely people. i am a touchy-feely person. i'm southern and my mom is ridiculously gooey so one of my love languages, inevitably, is touch. i, usually, reign it in A LOT unless i have a partner but in college, i somehow discovered a whole group of people who loved to kiss each other on the cheek and hold hands and lean on other people, and lock arms. i felt at home. really.

maybe it's not only about old friends, though. maybe it's about feeling at home.

there was another post on tumblr and i think about it a lot. it's a screenshot of a tweet from twitter user @HumbleCore.

"HUGE NEWS: finally found my best friend from middle school on FB. We've both been looking for each other for over a decade. I told her I think about her whenever I play any boardgame or drive by a church. She told me she uses my name as her password at work. A perfect reunion."

when i read that the other night, i cried. i don't know why. it was heavy and ridiculous and i was worried my roommates would hear me. i don't know why i cried. at all. and even typing it out like that made me want to cry again. the feeling is not as strong or as overwhelming as it was the first time but it's still there.

i think about a best friend i had in first grade. even before i thought of ashley as my best friend (i have known Middle School Ashley since the first grade. i thought we were destined to be best friends forever and ever and ever, which is what i wrote in her middle school yearbook). his name was Malik. or Malique. my memory fails me. but anyway, i loved him like crazy. we didn't do anything without the other. we shared lunch together, we HAD to be partners on every field trip, i cried when Ms. Sanchez moved my seat from his in an effort to stop us from disrupting her lessons and i hated her for an entire week. (a very long time from a first-grade perspective.) even now, i think about him whenever i go to petting zoos or farms and when i ride on yellow school buses with my students.

Malik/Malique was my first kiss. we were hiding from Ms. Sanchez and the other chaperones so we could pet the goats one last time. while we were hiding behind a barn, he kissed me. "for good luck," he said. and then we sprinted across the farm to get back to the goats. and we pet them again before Ms. Sanchez found us and ordered us back on the big yellow school bus where we held hands for the entire hour-long ride back to school.

it's very silly to think now but in high school when i was trying to determine whether i loved my first boyfriend or not i remember thinking, "well, does he make me feel like Malik/Malique?" it's silly but sweet. at fourteen, still comparing the way he made me feel behind a barn at 5 years old to how another boy, years and years later, made me feel. it is silly but i think it's sweet.

i don't actually have any interest in finding Malik/Malique or knowing for certain what he does or how he's doing because i seriously doubt i had such an impact on his life, but i hope he's well and alive and happy because that's what i always naturally hope for when i pass petting zoos or farms or see bright yellow school buses.

so, yes. i think everything, us, our relationships, the entire world, is about old friends. all of it. every last bit of it.

i have a whole-grade data analysis, 300 pages of reading, and two mini-papers for classes to finish before tonight so i'm going to get going... i just wanted to write about old friends first.

#on love #on friendship #on teaching #on community #stream of conscious #crushes

0 notes

hotelnstudio · 4 years

Text

PayQ Founder Shibabrata Bhaumik listed on Forbes

The coronavirus pandemic might help to achieve India’s stated goals of creating a less-cash economy and enhancing financial inclusion. Shoppers at even neighborhood stores now want contactless digital payments and that demand dovetails with what lenders want in lieu of working capital loans - digital invoices and online transaction records.

The multi currency, multinational payment processor PayQ, which is now active in India in a sandbox environment along with other leading UPI player have started to tap into the new customer trend who relies deeply on smartphone access for online payments. Financial companies are leveraging this opportunity to meet demand through digital media.

PayQ Founder Shibabrata Bhaumik is fond of Indian Financial regulators like RBI and SEBI who encourage the innovation in the Fintech space by allowing start-ups to experiment in ‘sandboxes’ that will offer them temporary regulatory protection especially during the pandemic stage.

As regulators like RBI and SEBI develop the framework for these sandboxes, UK-based fintech start-up PayQ now wants to be allowed into these sandboxes to get more comfortable with financial transactions for domestic as well as cross border transactions. Shibabrata’s Fintech start up PayQ, headquartered at London, which is growing at breakneck speed, is known for implementing block chain for Frictionless Payments and has surged $1.2 billion in the last financial year.

Shibabrata says, “As regulators and state governments here in India have set up sandboxes for Fintech companies and they are providing relaxation, we are working with them to open the sandboxes and operate within the guidelines.”

Sandboxes are regulatory safe havens created for Fintech start-ups to operate in. They allow live testing of new products or services on real customers in a controlled environment. If these experiments are successful and PayQ grows to a pre-determined scale, PayQ will soon exit the sandbox to operate in the open market under full regulatory supervision and will compete with the major UPI payment players like PhonePe and PayTm.

PayQ’s digital payment platform also includes digital billing to even geotagging, Shibabrata believes that merchant digitization business will boom when the lockdown eases. PayQ also deals with merchant account for high risk businesses like payment gateway for tech support, Merchant account for Pharmacy and aims to go beyond the traditional payment method to revolutionize the e-commerce industry.

Shibabrata announced small ticket credit to PayQ Merchants like Kirana Shops and small businesses. PayQ is the latest entrant to the club of Paytm, PhonePe and BharatPe, with the company announcing its ambitions to lend in a filing with local regulators. PayQ is unlikely to play for runners’ and players like Paytm and Phonepe will have to aggressively defend their crowns.

The CEO of PayQ, Shibabrata Bhaumik is a young first-generation entrepreneur, who has developed application programme interfaces (APIs) for India’s ambitious Unified Payments Interface (UPI). He says, “Working with the government is not so difficult. It has been an enriching experience. Your credibility depends on your delivery of performance. The payments landscape is going to change fundamentally”.

The game of entrepreneurship has changed substantially during COVID19 and players have to change. Founders have to be immersed in two things: the messiness of the problem and that of the new infrastructure.

While Paytm, Google Pay, Naspers-owned PayU and other players were aggressively trying to rope in small businesses on their platform, as B2B does not bleed the business, the big scramble is for over 60 million small businesses. PayQ and Shibabrata is trying to get them hooked to the PayQ payment gateway and then offering them a host of services, including loans, and easy payment acceptance and settlement to small businesses incuding Kirana shops and that would lead to an intense battle, where incumbents could face the heat.

Moreover, the PayQ’s entry to India comes at a very opportune time. During the lockdown, several questions have been raised about the readiness of the Indian grassroots system to allow its small businesses to participate in an end-to-end digital ecosystem that powers content, transactions and finally, payments and fulfillment. With this one move, PayQ have clearly sent out signals to take on the giants in the payments, content and ecommerce spaces, simultaneously.

PayQ’s entry portends well for India, as it is likely to bring more serious and diversified investors in the country, reducing its reliance on Chinese money. However the Indian consumer will be the final and the ultimate deal-seeker yet demands the best user experience at the lowest cost. Though PayQ has grown exponentially on adoption of new territory starting from United Kingdom to diversifying its merchant acquisition to European Union and then stepping to Asian Countries but its business models is still evolving. With economic growth slowing down and consumer demand in India tempered, Shibabrata Bhaumik’s PayQ is at an interesting crossroads.

Given all this snitching, the final test will be “how does PayQ appeal to the end user?”

In style and philosophy, Shibabrata Bhaumik, the 36-year-old founder and CEO of PayQ, is in the camp of the financial anarchists. He sits, jammed alongside Developers, Payment Technology Experts and Data Scientists, in a row of tiny desks resembling library carrels and he prefers to sit and work with the team around their desk not like a typical CEO with fancy cabin. He wears a black Business Tuxedo, Classic Red and Black Check Tie, black pants and gloss polished black formal shoes. He talks about a brave new world in which we are liberated from the shackles of giant banks and government-controlled money supplies. The CEO of PayQ, Shibabrata Bhaumik is a young first generation entrepreneur, who has developed application programme interfaces (APIs) for India’s ambitious Unified Payments Interface (UPI), it has been an enriching experience. “Working with the government is not so difficult,” he says. “Your credibility depends on your delivery of performance. The payments landscape is going to change fundamentally".

The multi currency, multi national payment processor PayQ, which is now active in India in a sandbox environment along with other leading UPI player have started to tap into the new customer trend who relies deeply on smartphone access for online payments. Financial companies are leveraging this opportunity to meet demand through digital media.

During an expansive interview, this usually reserved and the press-shy entrepreneur declares why he got into this business: “I wanted the world to have a global, open financial system that drove innovation and freedom.” In the following business model, though, Shibabrata fits in with the pinstriped financiers working down the block.

Born at Kolkata, India to an engineer Father, Shibabrata displayed an entrepreneurial streak as early as grade school. He recalls being hauled into the principal’s office on charges of operating a candy-reselling venture on the playground. The business flings continued with a scheme to resell used computers and, after he earned a master’s degree in 2006 in International Business, he started a web development business from India for overseas clients. Later, he also tried to do few export-import and bilateral trade exhibition business but didn’t turn out that great and lost a fortune and met racket of scammers from Agra, India in 2011 who defamed Shibabrata and his family and charged false allegations on him. However, the young entrepreneur didn’t loose his hope and his sprit was always positive against all odds.

In 2012, Shibabrata read the manifesto by a European Union Bank that proposed card payments of Visa, Mastercard & the future Fintech companies will have limitless possibilities and bitcoin as an underground currency. Its transactions are recorded on a ledger called the blockchain, maintained in duplicated computer files by a band of self-appointed guardians called nodes. Disputes about transactions and ground rules are resolved by majority vote. The nodes are kept honest, and troublemakers at bay, by requiring a participant in the network to engage in some arithmetic busywork before certifying a batch of transactions. A node that completes the arithmetic task is awarded a few new coins.

The busywork, called mining, did not interest Shibabrata. But he did see an opportunity in the business of safeguarding the keys to the coins and setting up transactions. Working weekends and late nights, Shibabrata and his Developing Team created a Payment gateway to process high volume transactions and connected the nodes with the acquiring bank and launched the first payment portal in 2014 later sold it an EU Bank.

Few Venture capitalists from Russia and Germany, showered 5 million USD on Shibabrta’s innovative approach in 2017 and motivated him to create PayQ, a unique high-risk merchant account company whish uses cryptocurrencies and blockchains to build transaction networks for corporations.

Crypto has been condemned as rat poison by Warren Buffett, as a fraud by Jamie Dimon and the mother of all scams by doomsday economist Nouriel Roubini. Where’s the payoff to the economy?

It’s coming, Bhaumik says. He posits a future in which thousands of startups use crypto to raise capital in a global marketplace no longer controlled by Wall Street firms. Within a decade, he predicts, the number of people participating in the blockchain economy will explode from 50 million to 1 billion. We are destined to enjoy a financial system that is “more global, more fair, more free and more efficient”.

New Source:

Forbes : https://www.forbesindia.com/article/brand-connect/uk-fintech-payq-uses-sandboxes-for-digital-loans-to-kiranas/59531/1

HT : https://www.hindustantimes.com/brand-post/fintech-start-up-payq-led-by-chanakya-shibabrata-bhaumik-enters-india/story-jOvpV4wK6ZrT31akYqgz1J.html

accesswire : https://www.accesswire.com/579445/Londons-Fintech-Darling-Catches-up-to-Silicon-Valleys-Top-5-Payment-Processor-in-Market-Value

ANI : https://www.aninews.in/news/business/payq-powers-smes-to-kiranas-enables-digital-billing-to-geo-tagging20200520184607/

Yahoo Finance : https://finance.yahoo.com/news/london-fintech-darling-catches-silicon-214500969.html

TED : https://ed.ted.com/on/TQllCzlx#digdeeper

LOKMAT : https://english.lokmat.com/business/payq-powers-smes-to-kiranas-enables-digital-billing-to-geo-tagging/

Yahoo News : https://in.news.yahoo.com/payq-powers-smes-kiranas-enables-digital-billing-geo-131604083.html

#payq #Shibabrata Bhaumik #payq founder #shibabrata forbes #forbes #high risk merchant account

0 notes

payqeu · 4 years

Text

PayQ Founder Shibabrata Bhaumik listed on Forbes

Given all this snitching, the final test will be “how does PayQ appeal to the end user?”

The multi currency, multi national payment processor PayQ, which is now active in India in a sandbox environment along with other leading UPI player have started to tap into the new customer trend who relies deeply on smartphone access for online payments. Financial companies are leveraging this opportunity to meet demand through digital media.

Crypto has been condemned as rat poison by Warren Buffett, as a fraud by Jamie Dimon and the mother of all scams by doomsday economist Nouriel Roubini. Where’s the payoff to the economy?

New Source:

Forbes : https://www.forbesindia.com/article/brand-connect/uk-fintech-payq-uses-sandboxes-for-digital-loans-to-kiranas/59531/1

HT : https://www.hindustantimes.com/brand-post/fintech-start-up-payq-led-by-chanakya-shibabrata-bhaumik-enters-india/story-jOvpV4wK6ZrT31akYqgz1J.html

accesswire : https://www.accesswire.com/579445/Londons-Fintech-Darling-Catches-up-to-Silicon-Valleys-Top-5-Payment-Processor-in-Market-Value

ANI : https://www.aninews.in/news/business/payq-powers-smes-to-kiranas-enables-digital-billing-to-geo-tagging20200520184607/

Yahoo Finance : https://finance.yahoo.com/news/london-fintech-darling-catches-silicon-214500969.html

TED : https://ed.ted.com/on/TQllCzlx#digdeeper

LOKMAT : https://english.lokmat.com/business/payq-powers-smes-to-kiranas-enables-digital-billing-to-geo-tagging/

Yahoo News : https://in.news.yahoo.com/payq-powers-smes-kiranas-enables-digital-billing-geo-131604083.html

#payq #Shibabrata Bhaumik #shibabrata forbes #payq founder #high risk merchant account

0 notes

shibabratabhaumik · 4 years

Text

PayQ Founder Shibabrata Bhaumik listed on Forbes

Given all this snitching, the final test will be “how does PayQ appeal to the end user?”

The multi currency, multi national payment processor PayQ, which is now active in India in a sandbox environment along with other leading UPI player have started to tap into the new customer trend who relies deeply on smartphone access for online payments. Financial companies are leveraging this opportunity to meet demand through digital media.

Crypto has been condemned as rat poison by Warren Buffett, as a fraud by Jamie Dimon and the mother of all scams by doomsday economist Nouriel Roubini. Where’s the payoff to the economy?

New Source:

Forbes : https://www.forbesindia.com/article/brand-connect/uk-fintech-payq-uses-sandboxes-for-digital-loans-to-kiranas/59531/1

HT : https://www.hindustantimes.com/brand-post/fintech-start-up-payq-led-by-chanakya-shibabrata-bhaumik-enters-india/story-jOvpV4wK6ZrT31akYqgz1J.html

accesswire : https://www.accesswire.com/579445/Londons-Fintech-Darling-Catches-up-to-Silicon-Valleys-Top-5-Payment-Processor-in-Market-Value

ANI : https://www.aninews.in/news/business/payq-powers-smes-to-kiranas-enables-digital-billing-to-geo-tagging20200520184607/

Yahoo Finance : https://finance.yahoo.com/news/london-fintech-darling-catches-silicon-214500969.html

TED : https://ed.ted.com/on/TQllCzlx#digdeeper

LOKMAT : https://english.lokmat.com/business/payq-powers-smes-to-kiranas-enables-digital-billing-to-geo-tagging/

Yahoo News : https://in.news.yahoo.com/payq-powers-smes-kiranas-enables-digital-billing-geo-131604083.html

#payq #shibabrata bhaumik #shibabrata forbes #high risk merchant account #payq founder

0 notes

duderocketship · 5 years

Text

Illumin@zi

Most urgent: First we debase this worthless currency, To usher in impending new world order Imprisoning the globe Then bathed in ignorance (Fluoridation retarding cognitive development)

More the merrier but I transcend borders because my mind has no barriers Spinning diction with volatile volition Enchanting your brain into submission

A cheese-grater to the pineal gland Inhibiting ability to dream, Impassioned creativity & inquisitiveness at an impasse, Expertly contrasting Inquisition with inability to produce dimethyltriptamine Because the pacified sheep can't sleep away their passiveness Mass devastation for the kids & family!

Slam it down with a gra(in/m) of (bath) salt Better yet, sugar and McDonald's Let Ronald wash your mind in city water Dang, there's nothing outrageous about meandering naked Lusting to eating someone's face these days, is there? (Passed out on the asphalt)

Who bares the fault, Who cares the most? I know you planned it Mr. President, take your nuclear launch codes Atop your throne with your Zionist cohorts Fake a breath, then flip the switch Now you am become Death 3. 2. 1... Default the planet

Where's your fucking conviction? Digest my words and eat your fat ass to death Amerika

Mind your fate The Devil's gates Just a step away

So take the chip beneath skin 6 6 6 Pick up sticks, Gather a whole bundle & Light yourself on fire (faggot)

Crackpot conspiracy How can you not see Our country's interests inherently sit in the pockets of Nazis?

Don't even get me started on television; hypnotized sheep mass-media gives me aneurysms Is the Lord truly your shepherd or do you always stumble so blindly?

Military-Industrial-Machine Gobbling resources at breakneck speed CONSUME CONSUME CONSUME FAT CAPITALIST PIGS!! You make me feel like vomiting.

Simply waiting for the bomb to come bump uglies with the Whore of Babylon

NOW WATCH ME GET ~ULTRASONIC~ AS I DROP ATOMIC ELBOWS FROM THE TOP ROPE TO THE THROAT IN HOPES YOU CHOKE

Leaves a bad taste in your mouth, did I tell a dirty joke? (Haha-ha) GARGLE SOAP BITCH, YOUR LIFE'S HOPELESS

If you like beer & NASCAR gimme a hell yeah! (hell yeah!) If you like bacon & pole-dancing gimme a hell yeah!

FUCK THIS REPUBLIC DYSTOPIAN, FLOWING WITH NECRO-DESPOTISM A COY ACT OF VENTRILOQUISM, ON THE WORLD'S STAGE

Tangled like a marionette in its strings, An insect in spiderwebs Festering infection Just keep using band-aids ;)

Take these cocktails of famine, death, pestilence + plague Questionably mixed with a little apathy and self-delusion it's all the rage

The miasma of death Clung and hung to their silhouettes like cigarettes The hands of the clock tick-tocking away the seconds toward oblivion In which I carry, reckless abandonment

*insert some wrath of God, explosions of nuclear & biblical proportions, then apportion some cataclysm Sit back, Listen to the wailing screams of panicking children Fucking lay waste to this rock already, this organic prison And each and every organism that dwells within it's ecosystems

All this to bring A radical new utopia not for you & me but them, the Elite and their heathen families

Behold a new dawn; On the verge of 100% synthetic conversion Mind, body, & soul as pawns Data corrupted, perverted by total divergence Illusion of free-will ruptured and gushing, until microscopic then atrophied

Misanthropic singularity Quantum computing and nanotechnology Existentially creating cyborg zombies & Making gods rise from machines Kinda deus ex machina style, But nothing Isaac Asimov could machinate even in his wildest dreams

To me, a fitting end to humanity The Great White Ape silently weeps

Still waiting for a Messiah

(June 2014)

If this poem provokes interest I strongly recommend you research the long term effects of water fluoridation, the role it plays in calcification of the pineal gland, as well as the role it played in nazi concentration camps. The nazi agenda is alive and well carried out in the 20-21st century through puppet America. Society is the world's grandest pyramid scheme. Open your mind, and open your eyes http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paperclip

#ignorance #conformity #machines #christianity #apocalypse #consumption #anti-capitalism #poets on tumblr #poetry #duderocketship #reidums

0 notes

cecillewhite · 5 years

Text

It’s Showtime! How to Enhance Conference Learning With Online Video

After a decade of explosive market growth, online video has reached critical mass and there’s no turning back. Countless research reports confirm that video is changing our lives profoundly at home and at work. Consider these statistics:

Online video consumption will represent more than 80% of all internet traffic by the end of this year. (Cisco)

68% of people prefer to learn about a product or service by watching a short video. (Wyzowl)

62% of people say they “pay close attention” to video – more than any other type of content. (HubSpot)

Employees are 75% more likely to watch a video than read documents, web pages or email at work. (Forrester)

54% of consumers want to see more video content from a brand or business they support. (HubSpot)

You get the picture. To engage and educate audiences at scale, you can’t beat the power and reach of online video.

Okay. So how exactly can this work for associations hoping to enhance and extend conference learning? Video may be everywhere we look these days, but effective educational footage doesn’t just appear out of thin air.

Fortunately, you don’t need Steven Spielberg’s talent or the budget of a Hollywood blockbuster. But you do need to invest in some thoughtful planning and production. Here are 10 ideas to get your creative juices flowing…

Educational Online Video – Before, During and After an Event

BEFORE

Does online video have a role in your event planning and promotional outreach? If not, consider ideas like these to improve your educational programming while injecting more personality into your conference marketing:

1) Crowdsource Your Agenda

RSVP FOR OUR APRIL 25th WEBINAR!

For conference content that resonates with members, why not solicit video suggestions from your community? You can kickstart the process by creating a discussion forum on your website. Then publicly invite members to post clips describing issues and ideas that matter most to them.

Through open dialogue, you can put these submissions at the center of a co-creation process that gives members a stake in your conference success. This may take more time than a private, top-down approach. But imagine the excitement and support you’ll generate as you prioritize topics and build-out session tracks.

2) Showcase Members As Your Video “Stars”

Leverage the most compelling agenda submissions by featuring sound bites from their videos in your conference communications. Then embed calls-to-action on your website, in event-related blog posts, in email newsletters and on social channels. The sky’s the limit.

This is an easy way to put a “face” on your association, while creating interest in the event and highlighting the educational benefits of attending. It’s also a natural way to humanize your organization’s brand and clarify its value proposition.

3) Add Sizzle With Time-Lapse Video

Want an easy, inexpensive way to create cool video content that you can use to attract attention and interest before, during and after any conference? You can’t go wrong with time-lapse video.

As Keith Johnston of Plannerwire explains, for less than $20 you can turn your smartphone into a powerful time-lapse tool. The results can be compelling. Want to see for yourself? The Employee Ownership Association built a photo montage of conference attendees in this short, simple example:

youtube

Or, for a more sophisticated approach, check out this TED Conference pop-up theater build in Vancouver. Fascinating!

youtube

Of course, getting this right requires careful advance planning and preparation, as well as post-production editing. But once you lock-in a video that captures the essence of your conference in motion, you’ll have a highly accessible “evergreen” brand asset.

DURING

To make the most of conference-related video for educational purposes, focus on creating an environment that lets 1000 flowers bloom. You’ll want to capture each moment as it happens, from as many corners of the event as your budget and resources allow. But whatever you do, don’t let those moments pass. Associations invest too much time and effort in conferences to ignore video’s power and reach.

REPLAY THE WEBINAR NOW

Just how valuable is video, anyway? According to Digitell, 20-40% of those who live-stream an event will attend in-person the next year. This upsell effect is just one reason why smart conference planners cast a broad online video net and think creatively about how to recombine video DNA. Here are some methods that work:

1) Live-Stream All Sessions

Live video is a natural way to leverage educational content for any conference. Organizations large and small are seeing significant results, as these cases illustrate:

• In 2016, more than 1,000 advertising, marketing and media leaders gathered to share ideas and insights at the 4As Transformation Conference. But that was just the beginning. 16,600 more professionals tuned-in via live stream, and another 25,000 attended on-demand. Thanks to innovative video technology, the total audience ballooned 41x.

• Also in 2016, more than 170,000 people traveled to San Francisco to attend Dreamforce – the annual conference devoted to empowering the global Salesforce community. But thanks to live-streaming and on-demand video, session attendance actually totaled a whopping 15 million, worldwide.

Of course, live-streaming access, alone, doesn’t guarantee learning. Passively watching informational video isn’t nearly as effective as a virtual experience that connects with you at an emotional level. As event strategy consultant, Dave Lutz says, it’s important to shift the focus from mindless content “delivery” to meaningful content “discovery.”

2) Ask Ambassadors to Share Their View

Every community has its own influencers – industry observers, respected professional experts and valued association members with unique qualifications. Tap into these trusted sources by asking them to post impromptu video blogs – capturing educational experiences as they happen and offering their own take on the topic. For instance, SHRM does a great job of weaving HR “thought leader” commentary into its annual conference presence on the web and across social channels.

3) Talk With the “Man on the Street”

REPLAY THIS ON-DEMAND WEBINAR!

Deploy roving reporters to capture short interview clips throughout the conference – asking attendees what they’ve learned from their favorite sessions, how they plan to apply those ideas and which topics they want to explore more deeply.

You can share these clips on social media to generate real-time buzz. Plus, you can use this valuable feedback when developing additional learning resources and programming for future conferences.

4) Capture Candid Thoughts in a Video Booth

Building on the popularity of photo booths, invite attendees to share conference insights in “private” unscripted video snippets that everyone can share on social media. To focus the content, it helps to structure comments with guidelines like this: “In 60 seconds or less, tell us the most useful thing you’ve learned at the conference, and how you plan to apply it professionally.”

5) Let a Hashtag Be Your Calling Card

Don’t forget to create a “virtual water cooler” on social media by establishing a conference-specific hashtag and promoting its use early and often. By teaching your community to use this identifier before, during and after the conference, you’ll energize social channels with diverse conversations that transcend event space and time constraints.

Want examples? Check the latest Twitter posts for #HIMSS or #ATD2019 or #SXSW. The beat goes on all year long.

For conference hashtag best practices, I recommend reading advice from David Kelly, EVP at The eLearning Guild. David has inspired backchannel activities and content curation for countless learning industry events.

AFTER

The moment your closing session ends, all the video footage you’ve captured can become an educational goldmine – but only if you repackage it thoughtfully. Be prepared to compile, curate, edit, and recombine that video DNA in ways that are useful for your members and your broader community. Consider these ideas:

1) Tie-In Videos with Existing Online Courses

REPLAY THE WEBINAR NOW!

Enhance your existing LMS content catalog by adding on-demand conference sessions as standalone courses or integrating them into learning paths as companion resources.

2) Create a “Best of…” Event Video Collection

Develop a special library of short-form videos, based on excerpts from conference sessions. Promote these “top takeaway” clips as bite-sized educational content that anyone can view individually or as a series.

You can also leverage these short-form clips by featuring them in promotions for full recorded sessions, embedding them in related narrative blogs and offering them to session attendees as searchable “refresher” clips for on-demand learning reinforcement.

3) Time-Lapse Video

This is where my recommendations come full-circle. If you move forward with any of the ideas I’ve suggested, you’re bound to have more than enough footage to create the kind of time-lapse event video I outlined in the “BEFORE” section.

I’m repeating this idea as an “AFTER” action because it’s also a great way to remind participants of your event’s impact long after other conference memories fade. Think of this as an ongoing source of pride that will have timeless appeal for members and others you want to attract.

Conclusion

Video-related tools and technologies are advancing at breakneck speed, thanks in part to phenomenal market demand. In this kind of environment, the possibilities for video-based learning experiences seem endless.

This list of ideas only scratches the surface. So I’m curious – how have you used video to enhance educational experiences before, during or after a conference? What has worked for you? What hasn’t? And what would you like to try next?

Tell me about your ideas and experiences. I look forward to hearing from you, so I can write a follow-up post focused on lessons you’ve learned and fresh ideas you want to explore.

Thanks for reading!

WANT TO LEARN MORE? JOIN OUR WEBINAR APRIL 25th:

Next-Level Live Online Events: Strategies From Successful Associations

You know about the convenience and immediacy of live online events. But are you ready to take real-time events to a whole new level? What strategies and techniques make these digital experiences even more dynamic, relevant and memorable?

Learn from association professionals who are leading the way!

Join John Leh, Lead Analyst and CEO at Talented Learning, as he hosts a panel of experts from North Carolina Association of CPAs (NCAPA), Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research (PRIM&R) and Community Brands. You’ll discover:

Strategies for developing a compelling theme and programming

How to choose delivery methods that fit your audience

Factors that drive effective content selection and creation

How to showcase timely topics, while serving long-term interests

Tips for selecting the right tools and technology

NOTE: Attendees at the live webinar qualify for 1 CAE credit. And even if you miss the live event, we’ll send you a link to the recording.

Need Proven LMS Selection Guidance?

Looking for a learning platform that truly fits your organization’s needs? We’re here to help! Submit the form below to schedule a free preliminary consultation at your convenience.

First Name*

Last Name*

Email Address*

Company

jQuery(document).bind('gform_post_render', function(event, formId, currentPage){if(formId == 18) {} } );jQuery(document).bind('gform_post_conditional_logic', function(event, formId, fields, isInit){} ); jQuery(document).ready(function(){jQuery(document).trigger('gform_post_render', [18, 1]) } );

The post It’s Showtime! How to Enhance Conference Learning With Online Video appeared first on Talented Learning.

It’s Showtime! How to Enhance Conference Learning With Online Video original post at Talented Learning

0 notes