#my techniques are not the most technologically savvy and if you have more computer art experience than I do

[tj-crochets]

Hey y’all! I got some comments on my “what to make next” post, and it got me thinking. Do you want me to make a post explaining some of how I do pattern designing for sewing?  And if so, do you want me to use the round elephant pattern as the example, or should I make a new pattern so I can show you from start to finish how it goes?

[ssdiamond]

A Breakthrough in Live Video Music Performance

I am not one who normally reviews concerts in which I played. But last Saturday night’s concert at The Soma Yoga Center in Highland Park, NJ was so extraordinary, I think it would be worth an exception. So let’s call it a review not of my concert, but a concert by Don Slepian and video artist Brian Van Korn in which I participated.

A little background first. Though Don is mostly known as a composer-musician, I was introduced to him as an avant-garde video artist back in the 1980s. Don Slepian’s electronic compositions, most notably “Sea of Bliss” is part of the founding canon of “ambient” or “space” music. He also created the ethereal theme music for the classic radio show “Hearts of Space.”  Still, I met him first as a video-artist. I had been working on a concept album with the legendary record producer Tom Frost. Tom had been the original producer behind some of the most successful records in classical music, crossover hits such as “Switched-on-Bach” and “The Greatest Hits of 1720, et al.  Our project was called “The Greatest Hits of 2150”. What the classics would sound like in the future when played by aliens on different planets. (Tom Frost is much better known though as being the record producer of the likes of Vladimir Horowitz.) So I first worked with Don using real time video synthesis for the music video we were concocting to go along with the record. (You can’t imagine the befuddlement when we presented our video to the august and aged executives at the leading classical music record companies . All this was well before MTV.)

Back then, Don was working with real time analog video synthesis. Much like analog music synthesis, you could also use video oscillators to create pallets of colors and shapes in real time. His goal was to perform music and video live – improvising both in real time. The link included in this post leads to  “Sunflower Geranium”, a sample of Don’s work from that time.

So now let’s move forward to last Saturday night. Don has created a new digitally enhanced technology to reintroduce live video synthesis, This time, instead of trying to run both elements simultaneously, he recruited the artist Brian van Korn. The idea was to use live video-art as part of the improvisation. Maybe the best analogy would be to think of an improvising trio, made up of two musicians and a dancer. Though in this case, the dancer is light and abstract imagery.

It is a concept that has been toyed with for years. After all, every major rock or pop concert has a light show of some sort. And today, more and more new music performers are incorporating multimedia elements. But nothing has come close to my reckoning as to what happened last Saturday night.

So what was it like? First, we used a giant LCD screen. Projecting imagery against a movie screen or against a wall creates a pale, 2-dimensional image. The difference between light emanating from a monitor, versus reflected, is dramatic. The colors are rich and saturated and almost jumps off the screen. Van Korn’s computers were preloaded with collections of imagery and software. The “vocabulary” included Van Korn’s own excellent abstract art work, as well as fractal imagery that was constantly evolving and in motion. (Fractals are recursive mathematical formulations that generates endlessly repeating patterns that in theory emulate the organic imagery found in nature.) Another element was video feedback. This is an older analog technique where you set up a camera that films the actual TV screen creating a feedback loop – similar to audio feedback. When used subtly, it creates a rich tapestry of images and flow. And finally, there was additional digital generated images and effects.

The effect? Essentially, it was a jam session – with music and light playing against each other as equal partners. So what is the difference with the light shows seen at rock music concerts? In this case, the light truly was part of the actual improvisation, musician and light interacting, playing off each other in real time. The impact was mesmerizing. The audience was on the edge of their seats leaning forward throughout. Over my career, like any musician, I am pretty savvy at watching an audience and gauging the impact of a set.  Rarely have I seen an audience so focused, so intense, taking in everything.

Playing in this new medium had its own challenge. Normally in an improv, I both watch and listen to the other players, picking up both auditory and physical cues. Part of the discipline here was trying to bi-or is it tri-furcate my brain to follow Don’s sound and keyboard gestures, as well as look at the metamorphosing psychedelia on the screen. At times, it was so hypnotizing that I had to remind myself that I am performing and should focus on the music that I am playing.

Like any new technology (the machinery was born a mere two weeks before the performance) there were issues that needed to be refined. And like any open jam session, there were moments when the improv wandered and needed to be tightened. Still, despite the few flaws, the audience loved it. Everyone was buzzed afterward, discussing the possibilities, many excited with their own ideas of where it may all lead.

We are not quite sure of next steps, except looking for other venues to try it out – though hopefully with easier access (hate to admit it, but – we are getting to old to lug all the equipment up narrow staircases).  

Finally, Don Slepian once again proved himself. As I have always said: If you want to hear or see the future take the pilgrimage out to Don’s and Jan’s house in the Poconos – a hybrid structure that is part home, theater, and laboratory – a cauldron of new ideas. Some ideas go nowhere, others flower into the very edge of what is coming. But get there sooner than later, for as the world catches up, Don may have already moved on.

[warmdevs]

New Post has been published on https://warmdevs.com/teenagers-ux-designing-for-teens.html

Teenager’s UX: Designing for Teens

Teens are wired. Technology is so integrated with teenagers’ lives that creating useful and usable websites and apps for them is more critical than ever. To succeed in a world where the next best thing is a click away and text message interruptions are the rule, not the exception, website and app creators must clearly understand what teens want and how to keep them on a site.

To understand the expectations of a generation that grew up with technology and the internet, we conducted qualitative usability studies with teenage participants to identify guidelines for how websites can be improved to match this age group’s’ abilities and preferences.

Our research refutes many stereotypes, including the following:

Mobile proficiency transfers across all devices

Teens just want to be entertained online with graphics and multimedia

Teens are tech-savvy

Teens want everything to be social

Teens are not technowizards who surf the web with abandon. And they don’t like sites laden with glitzy, blinking graphics. Letting stereotypes steer your design can lead to disastrous outcomes.

Teenagers use the internet on many devices in various environments. For our research, we focused on web and app usability for laptops, tablets, and mobile devices. Although teens spend endless time texting and on social media, we didn’t focus on these activities because our goal was to derive design guidelines for mainstream websites and apps, not to help build the next Snapchat.

The Research

We derived 130 usability guidelines for engaging teens and keeping them on your site. These recommendations are based on observational studies using multiple methodologies. A total of 100 users between the ages of 13 and 17 participated in three rounds of research: 38 teens in the original study for the first edition of this report, 46 teens in the second study, and 16 in the most recent study. We triangulated findings across three methods:

Usability testing. We met with test participants one at a time and gave them tasks to perform, asking them to vocalize their thoughts as they attempted tasks. To keep the scenarios as authentic as possible, we matched the tasks with each teen’s actual interests and simulated real-world situations.

Field studies. We observed teenagers in their homes and at school. During these site visits, we didn’t give users tasks to perform, but simply watched as they used the web the way they normally would in these settings.

Interviews and focus groups. To gain further insight into their experiences and attitudes, we asked participants to offer stories and examples detailing how and when they used the web, and which sites they considered interesting and useful. We also solicited advice from teens on how to make websites appealing. Interviews were held before and after usability sessions, as well as during a focus group.

We conducted studies in the U.S., United Kingdom, and Australia, in cities and towns ranging from affluent suburbs to disadvantaged urban areas. We tested a roughly equivalent number of boys and girls on a total of 210 websites and 30 apps that covered a broad range of genres, including:

School resources (University of Nottingham, Central Bucks High School West, BBC Bitesize, Quizlet)

Tourism/Arts & Entertainment (Visit London, TripAdvisor, ExploreChicago.com)

Health (Australian Drug Foundation, TeensHealth, National Institute on Drug Abuse)

Informational/Reference (Nature, Food Network, Scientific American)

News (Buzzfeed, CNN, Weather.com, Daily Mail, The New York Times)

Entertainment and Games (Stack AR, YouTube, Playlist.com, Geometry Wars)

Ecommerce (Adidas, H&M, ASOS, Jabra)

Corporate sites (McCormick, Unilever, Pepsi-Cola, Procter & Gamble, Samsung, Morton Salt)

Government (Gov.UK, Australian Government main portal, Pennsylvania’s Department of Motor Vehicles, the U.S. White House, NASA)

Nonprofits (Rotary International, Charity: Water, World Food Programme, National Wildlife Federation)

As these examples show, we tested both specialized sites that explicitly target teenagers and mainstream sites that include teens as part of a broad-target audience.

Teen Motivations for Using Websites

Teenagers access the web for myriad activities, including entertainment. Generally, they have a specific goal, even if that goal is just to keep themselves occupied for 10 minutes.

Although their specific tasks might differ from adults, teens are similar to adults in major ways: both groups expect websites to be easy to use and to let them accomplish their tasks. Like adults, teens are goal-oriented and don’t surf the web aimlessly; usability is thus as important for them as for any other user group.

Teens in our studies reported using the web or various apps for:

School assignments

Hobbies or other special interests (including learning new skills or finding fun activities)

Entertainment (including music, videos, and games)

News (including sports, current events, and entertainment)

Learning about new topics

Talking to friends

Shopping

Even when teens don’t make purchases on ecommerce websites, they do visit them to research products and build wish lists for the credit-card–carrying adults in their lives.

Changes Over Time: Good and Bad News

The good news: Teens are becoming more successful at navigating websites and finding what they need. At the time of the third study, the oldest participant was born in 2001 and the youngest was born in 2005; therefore, all participants in this study grew up with access to computers. Between all three studies conducted over the last 15 years for this report, the amount of time teenagers spend on computers and mobile devices has steadily increased. How effective teenagers are with technology is correlated with the amount of time using technology.

Are teens getting better or are websites getting better? Probably a bit of both. We observed many of the same bad user habits among teens in our last study as we saw in our first study, back in 2004. Thus, the improved performance obviously stems in part from improvements in website design. That said, even though teens in our original study were heavy web users, teenagers today have even greater access to the internet and spend more time using it. This generation grew up with technology and is much more effective at using it than the participants in our first study (in which the oldest participant was born in 1988 and the youngest in 1992).

The bad news: Teens are not as invincible as some people think. Although teens might feel confident online, they do make mistakes and often give up quickly. Fast-moving teens are also less cautious than adults and make snap judgments; these lead to fewer successfully completed tasks.

Teens perform worse than adults for three reasons:

Insufficient reading skills

Less sophisticated research strategies

Dramatically lower levels of patience

To improve your site’s usability among teens, you must consider all three factors. Also note that we have seen these factors in all our research with teenagers during a 15-year period, meaning that they are likely to continue to hold in the future, even if other teen habits may change as fads come and go.

Across different types of websites, teens had the most success on ecommerce websites, which often adhered to design standards and required little reading. Teens encountered the greatest challenges on large sites with dense content and poor navigation schemes. Government, nonprofit, and school sites were the biggest culprits of poor usability.

Despite usability improvements, we observed users struggling with the same issues as in previous years — as well as new issues created by emerging features and design approaches. Thus, both traditional and new guidelines must be considered as technology and people continually evolve; our new report contains 130 total guidelines, compared with 61 in the first edition and 111 in the second.

Many of the guidelines also apply to general audiences. For teens, however, these guidelines are even more important because the usability issues present bigger hurdles.

The Importance of Content and Layout

Write for impatient users. Nothing deters younger audiences more than a cluttered screen full of text. Teens can quickly become bored, distracted, and frustrated.

Teenagers don’t like to read a lot on the web. They get enough of that at school. Plus, their reading skills are not ideal — especially those of younger teens. Sites that were easy to scan or that illustrated concepts visually were strongly preferred to sites with dense text.

Applying proper web writing and formatting techniques is crucial in communicating with teens. Display content in small, meaningful chunks with plenty of white space. Small chunks help students retain information and pick up where they left off after the inevitable interruptions of text messages and phone calls.

Teenagers in our study were often overwhelmed with content on websites. To focus their attention on one area, we observed several teens highlighting text as they read down the page. These are some of their comments:

“Sometimes reading in black and white is hard. Highlight helps me read better.” – 16-year-old male

“I lost my train of thought, so I highlighted the text to focus more on it.” – 15-year-old female

Teens were overloaded with information on the screen. We observed multiple participants highlighting text on the page to help them focus — here, a teen highlighted the term bluegrass, as she wondered what type of music that was.

Help teens learn and stay focused by choosing your words wisely. Use words that teens understand. Write in short sentences and paragraphs. Format key points or steps of a process using bullet points. Teens generally have poorer reading and comprehension skills than adults. If your site targets a broad audience, aim to write at a 6th-grade reading level (or lower). Writing at this level will help audiences of all ages — young and old — quickly understand your content.

One surprising finding in this study: teenagers dislike tiny font sizes as much as adults do. We’ve often warned websites about using small text because of the negative implications for senior citizens (and even people in their late 40s, whose eyesight has begun to decline). We’ve always assumed that tiny text predominated because most web designers are young and still have perfect vision, so we were surprised that small type often caused problems or provoked negative comments from our study’s teen users. Even though this audience is sufficiently sharp-eyed, most teens move too quickly and are too easily distracted to attend to small text.

“You go to Music and it’s real tiny. … You look at this stuff and it’s hard to see. You have to squint. These are really small, and you can’t see. It needs to be a little bigger.” — 16-year-old female

Present Interesting Content Professionally and Clearly

Teens complained about sites they found boring. Dull content is the kiss of death if your goal is to keep teens on your site. However, not everything needs to be interactive and fancy. Although teens have a strong appreciation for aesthetics, they detest sites that appear cluttered and contain pointless multimedia.

Beware of overusing interactive features just because you design for younger audiences. Multimedia can engage or enrage teens, depending on its usefulness. The best online experiences for teens are those that teach them something new or keep them focused on a goal.

What’s good? The following interactive features all worked well because they let teens do things rather than simply sit and read:

Online quizzes

Forms for providing feedback or asking questions

Online voting

Games

Features for sharing pictures or stories

Features for creating and editing content

These interactive features let teenagers make their mark on the internet and express themselves in various ways — some small, some big.

The site type influences user expectations. For example, teens expect ecommerce and brand sites to look professional, and informational sites to look simple and polished. For the latter sites, presenting interesting content in a clear manner is much more attractive than experimenting with new sophisticated features. Teens can learn and feel engaged without the nonessential enhancements.

Speed Is Key

A slow-loading website is a deal-breaker. Whatever you do, make sure your site loads quickly. Slow, sluggish sites are frustrating to anybody, but they’re especially offensive to young audiences who expect instant gratification.

Think twice before you develop that super cool widget or include that 4K video. If it’s slow or buggy, forget it. Teens won’t have the patience for it. Because teens often work on older, second-hand devices — and sometimes have slow internet connections — fancy features and  high-resolution multimedia might not work well.

“I hate this waiting. It’s very annoying … I usually wouldn’t wait this long for a page to load. I would go to a different site, I would go to the next one.” — 17-year-old male

Don’t Talk Down to Teens

Avoid anything that sounds condescending or babyish. The proper tone can make or break your site. Teens relate to content created by peers, so supplement your content with real stories, images, and examples from other teens.

Some websites in our study tried to serve both children and teens in a single area, usually titled  Kids. A grave mistake: the word “kid” is a teen repellent. Teenagers are fiercely proud of their newly won status, and they don’t want overly childish content — one more reason to ease up on the heavy animations and garish color schemes that work for younger audiences. We recommend having separate sections for young children and teens, labeled Kids and Teens, respectively.

Let Teens Control the Social Aspects

Facilitate sharing but don’t force it. Teens rely on technology for social communication, but they don’t want to be social all the time. They want to control what they share and how they share it. Sites that force teens to register and then automatically make their profile public violate trust. Parents and teachers teach teens to protect their privacy at a young age, and one of the things teens learn early is to avoid nosey sites.

When offering sharing options, include a link to copy the web address, as teens are likely browsing on their phones and want to share it directly with a friend. Participants in our studies often preferred using social media apps, like Snapchat, to message friends, so providing a Copy Link option allows them to send a direct message to a friend on any platform. When this functionality isn’t available, they tended to take screenshots and share them with friends. Though this behavior reaches their goal, from a business perspective, it hinders other teens’ ability to easily visit the content.

Design for Mobile Viewing

All of the teenagers in our most recent study had mobile devices, but not all had laptops or computers. Therefore, teens are often viewing your content from the palm of their hand.

Complex mouse gestures often don’t translate well to mobile. The adoption of portable devices requires that you design a website so that it doesn’t compromise usability.

Teens often work on touch-enabled devices, making interactions that require precision — such as dropdown menus, drag-and-drop, and small buttons — difficult. Design elements such as rollover effects and small click zones are also problematic, if they’re usable at all. Small text sizes and dense text make reading difficult.

Media portrays teens as competent computer jockeys. In reality, teens’ overconfidence combined with their developing cognitive abilities means they often give up quickly and blame the website’s design. They don’t blame themselves, they blame you.

Age-Group Differences

The following table summarizes the main similarities and differences in web-design approaches for young children, teenagers, college students, and adults. (The findings about children are from our studies with 3–12-year-old users; the findings about college students are from our study with 18–25-year-old users.)

Children Teens College Students Adults Search Bigger reliance on bookmarks than search, but older kids do search Heavy reliance on search; some difficulty formulating search queries; click topmost results in SERP Heavy reliance on search; some difficulty formulating search queries; click topmost results in SERP Heavy reliance on search; some difficulty formulating search queries; click topmost results in SERP Scrolling Don’t scroll (younger); some scrolling (older) OK scrolling OK scrolling OK scrolling Animation and sound effects Attend to things that move and make sounds Might appreciate them to some extent, but overuse can be problematic. Dislike them; autoplay sound disruptive in dorms Dislike them; autoplay sound disruptive at work Patience Want instant gratification Hate waiting for things to load or having to close pop ups; easily distracted Want answers quickly; no patience for complicated interactions; easily distracted. Want answers quickly, but more likely to wait than college students Trust & credibility Want good initial reaction; Credibility less important because goal is mainly entertainment Difficulty judging credibility Very critical; quick to judge websites Less critical of websites than college students; still quick to judge Tabbed browsing Not used Used often; few tabs Used often; many tabs open at a time Commonly used; varies depending on technical comfort Disclosing private info Hesitant to enter information Hesitant to enter information Less ‘fear’ of technology and therefore (often recklessly) willing to give out personal info Often recklessly willing to give out personal info on sites they trust Advertising Difficulty distinguishing from real content Like discounts but hate popups Have a keen eye for ads and don’t like being tricked Mostly avoid ads but appreciate them when they are relevant and unobtrusive Age-targeted design & content Crucial, with very fine-grained distinctions between age groups Want age-appropriate content; prefer sites with neutral graphics rather than childish ones Want age-appropriate information, but don’t want everyone to sound ‘hip’ Less critical for most sites

Clearly, there are many differences between age groups. The highest usability level for teens comes from designs that are targeted specifically at their needs and behaviors, which differ from those of adults and young children. As the table shows, this is true both for interaction design and for more obvious factors, such as topics and content style.

[jeffreyczrf355-blog]

14 Savvy Ways to Spend Leftover what is bitcoin Budget

The technology is likely to have the greatest impact Over the next few decades Have arrived. They are not social media platforms. Not big data. And not robots. Not even artificial intelligence. You will be surprised to find out It is the basic technology for digital currencies such as Bitcoin. Which are called string blocks. Chain blocks. Currently, it is not the most resonant word in the world, But I believe it represents now The new generation of the Internet, They carry very high promises for every business and every community Each of you has one individual. You know, over the last few decades, we've had Internet information. When I send you an email, a PowerPoint file, or something else, I don’t actually send you, I send you a copy.

And that is great. This is information that has been democratized. But when it comes to assets - Things like money, Financial assets such as stocks and bonds, Loyalty points, intellectual property, Music, Art, Voting, And carbon certification, and the rest of the other assets - Sending a copy is a really bad idea. If I sent you a $ 100 paper, It is really important that I no longer have money - (Laughter) And that I can't send it to you. Secret code writers called it “double spending” Long time. Therefore, today we rely entirely on big intermediaries - Brokers like banks, government, And huge social media companies, credit card companies and so on - In order to establish confidence in our economy. These brokers perform all business logic and transactions For all kinds of trade, From verifying and identifying people, So settle accounts, settle and save records.

Overall, they do a very good job. But there are growing problems. To begin, they are central. Which means they are vulnerable to hacking, and increasingly - JP Morgan, the US federal government, And LinkedIn, and Home Depot et al They all knew it the hard way. They excluded billions of people from the global economy, For example, those who do not have enough money To get a bank account. They slow things down. It may take one second to send an email to the world, But it can take days or even weeks The movement of funds through the banking system across a city. And they take a big share to do that - 10-20% to send money to another country only.

Seizing our data, That means we can't turn it into money Or use it to better manage our lives. Our privacy is being undermined. In general, the biggest problem is, They dedicated the generosity of the digital age asymmetrically: We have created wealth, but we have growing social inequality. So what if there is something other than the Internet of information, What if there is an Internet value - Something like a wide, global and distributed book of accounts Works on millions of computers And available to everyone. Where any asset type, from money to music, It can be stored, transferred, handled, exchanged, and managed All without strong intermediaries? What if there is an original mean of value? Well, in 2008, the financial industry crashed And maybe that was promising, An unknown person named Satoshi Nakamoto or several people He created a paper where he developed a protocol for digital money Which used a basic cryptocurrency called Bitcoin.

This cryptocurrency enabled people to establish trust and make transactions Without the need for a third party. This seemingly simple act sparked Ignited the world, The thing that made everyone either eager, panicked or otherwise interested In several places. Now, don't confuse it for Bitcoin - Bitcoin is out; This should be your area of ​​interest if you are speculative. More broadly, it is a cryptocurrency. It is not a state-controlled paper currency. That is very important. But the real dowry here is the underlying technology. It is called a series of blocks. So for the first time now in human history, People everywhere can trust each other And conduct transactions peer-item.

And trust is available, not because there are some huge institutions, But because of cooperation and encryption And some smart cipher. Because trust is home to technology, I call this, "Trust Protocol." Now you might ask: How does this work? very good. Assets - technical assets like money and even music and everything that falls between them - Are not stored in a central place, But distributed across a global account book, Using the highest level of encryption. When a transaction is made, Are being published globally, Across millions of computers. And there, around the world, There is a group of people called "prospectors." These are not adults, they are the miners of Bitcoin.

Have enormous computing power in their fingertips - 100-10 times larger than the entire Google global network. These miners do a lot of work. And every ten minutes, In something like a pulse to a network, A block is created All transactions made within the previous ten minutes are booked. Prospectors then began work, trying to solve some difficult problems. They compete among themselves: The first explorer to discover the truth and verify the validity of the mass, Are rewarded in cryptocurrency, In the case of Bitcoin wallet is rewarded Bitcoin.

And then - this is the basic part - The block is connected to the previous block And the former have To create a series of blocks. And each one is sealed at a certain time, In what looks like a digital wax seal. So, if you want to penetrate one of these blocks So for example, if you want to pay you and the same currency, I have to penetrate that block, In addition to all the previous blocks, And all the trade record on that block chain, Not just on one computer but across millions of computers, together, They all use the highest levels of encryption, Based on the world's most powerful computing source And who's watching me. Something difficult to do. It's very safe Compared to the computer systems we are dealing with today. It's a chain of blocks. That is how it works. So the bitcoin wallet is just one of them. There are many others. A Canadian named Vitalk Butterin developed the Ethereum Coin Block Series. He's 22 years old, This block chain has exceptional capabilities. One is that you can build smart contracts. That's what it looks like.

It is a contract that is executed in person, This contract addresses implementation, management and performance And payment - this kind of contract has a bank account as well, For agreements between people. Today, for the Ethereum coin chain, Projects are being done to do everything From creating a new alternative to the stock market Even creating a new model of democracy, Politicians are accountable to citizens. (clap) So, to understand how much radical change this will bring, Let's look at one area, financial services. You know this? It's Ruby Goldberg's machine. It's a ridiculously complex machine that does something really simple, Such as breaking an egg or closing the door. Well, it kind of reminds me of the financial services sector, In all honesty. I mean, your card goes into the store, A stream of information then travels in binary form across dozens of companies, Each has its own computer system, Some are computers from the 1970s Bigger than many people in this room, Three days later, the settlement takes place.

Well, with the help of the financial sector block chain, There will be no settlement, Because payment and settlement are in the same movement, Is just a change in the ledger. So on Wall Street and everywhere around the world, The financial sector is in a major upheaval in this regard, I wonder, can we be replaced, Or how do we embrace this technique to succeed? Now, why should you care? Well, let me browse through some applications. Prosperity. The first era of the Internet, Internet Information, Bring us wealth but not common prosperity, Because social inequality is growing. This is the essence of all anger and extremism And protectionism and xenophobia and worse Which we are seeing rising in the world today, Brexit is the latest case.

So can we develop some new approaches to this social inequality problem? Because the only approach today is to redistribute wealth, Tax people and spread them more widely. Can we distribute wealth before that? Can we change the way wealth is created from the ground up? By democratizing wealth creation, And involve more people in the economy, And then make sure they got fair compensation? Let me outline five ways in which this can be done. number one: Did you know that 70% of the people around the world own land They have a Wahi title for her? So you own a small farm in Honduras, a dictator takes over He says, "I know you have a paper showing that the farm belongs to you, But the government computer says my friend owns your farm.

" This happened extensively in Honduras, This problem exists everywhere. The great Latin American economist (Hernado de Soto), He says that this is the number one issue in the world In terms of economic mobility, More important than getting a bank account, Because if you don't have a valid address for your land, You cannot borrow under it, You can't plan ahead. So companies today work with governments To put land titles on the block chain. If so, this is unchangeable. You can't penetrate it. This creates the conditions required for prosperity Maybe for billions of people. Second: Many writers talk about Uber Airbnb, Tusk Rapt, Lift and others As a kind of shared economy. This is a very effective idea, Together enables users to create and share wealth.

My point is ... These companies do not actually share. In fact, they are particularly successful because they do not share. They bring services together and sell them. What if, instead of Airbnb being worth $ 25 billion, There was a distributed application on a block chain, we'll call B-Air BNP, It is essentially owned by all people Who have room for rent. And when someone wants to rent a room, Enters the block chain data and all the criteria, They help them find the right room, Then the chain of blocks helps in the contracts, They recognize the limb, Handles payments Through digital payments only - built-in system.

They also take charge of even reputable, Because if the room is classified as a five-star room, That room is chosen, It is classified as immutable. So, those who are confusing the common economy in Silicon Valley They may be confused, This will be a good thing to thrive. Number three: The largest flow of funds from developed countries For developing countries Not a corporate investment, Nor is it even foreign aid. They are cash transfers. This is the global diaspora; People who have left the land of their ancestors, They send money to their families back home. Equals this 600 billion a year, and the number is growing, These people are being circumvented. Annalie Domingo is a homemaker. And she lives in Toronto, And go every month to the Western Union office. With some money To send her remittances to her mother in Manila. It costs about 10%; It takes money from four to seven days to get there; Her mother never knows when the money will arrive.

It takes five hours a week to do that. Six months ago, Annalie Domingo used a series of blocks called Apra Using her mobile phone, she sent $ 300. Which went directly to her mother's mobile phone Without going through a mediator. Then her mother looked at her mobile phone - It is similar to the Uber interface, where there is an "ATRA" teller that moves around. I pressed the five-star teller, Which was seven minutes away. The young man arrived at her door, giving her a Philippine peso, She put money in her pocket. It takes minutes, It costs 2%. This is a great opportunity for prosperity. Number four: Data is the most effective asset in the digital age.

Data is actually a new class of assets, Probably larger than previous asset classes, Like land under the agricultural economy, Or an industrial facility, Or even money. And for all of you - we - create this idea. We create this asset, And we leave this digital gesture trail behind As we move forward. These crumbs combine to form a mirror image of you, You are the default. Maybe it will help you bitcoin ledger recognize yourselves more than what you knew, Because you can't remember what you bought last year, Or say last year or your exact location last year. And you are the default not your own - That is the biggest problem.

So today, there are companies working To create an identity in a black box, You are your virtual king. This black box moves with you When you travel around the world, He is very stingy too. It gives only a small amount of information That it takes to complete something. A lot of transactions, The seller does not even need to know who you are. What they need to know is that they have been paid for. This idea is then embodied in all this data And let you turn it into cash. This is wonderful. Because we can also protect our privacy, Privacy is the foundation of any free society. Let us reclaim the origin we create Under our control, So that we have our own identity We manage it responsibly. Finally -- (clap) In conclusion, number five: There are a large number of content producers Who do not receive fair compensation, Because of that queer IP system. The first Internet age is the reason for being a queer. Take music as an example. Musicians are left crumbs at the end of the entire food chain.

You know, 25 years ago, if you were a songwriter, and you wrote a successful song, Out of a million individual songs, You can get equity for about $ 45,000. Today, you are a songwriter, composed a successful song, You get a million views, You don’t get 45,000, But for 36 dollars, Enough to buy a delicious pizza. So Imogen Hipp. Grammy-winning singer and songwriter, She is currently laying songs on a cluster ecosystem. I called it "Maesilia." It protects intelligent holding songs. The songs themselves protect their proprietary rights. Do you want to listen to a song? It's free, or maybe for a few cents flowing into a digital account. If you want to use the song in your own movie, that's different. IP rights are fully defined. Do you want to make a ringtone? That's different. She explains that the song becomes a business. They are available on this shopping platform for themselves, Protect the rights of its author, And because the song has a push system In the sense of a bank account, All the money flows back to the artist, And so they control the industry, Substitute for these powerful intermediaries.

Now, this. These are not just songwriters, But any content product, Like art, And like inventions, And scientific discoveries, journalists. These are examples of people who don't receive fair compensation, With the help of block chains, They will be able to make money flow in the chain of blocks. And that's wonderful. So, these are five chances Among the dozens To solve one problem, which is welfare, It is one of an infinite number of problems That block chains can be applied to. Now, technology certainly does not create luxury - but humans do But the situation I am presenting to you is, again, That the technical gen has escaped from the bottle, He was called by an unknown person or persons In this vague time of human history, Which gives us another chance, Another opportunity to rewrite the network of economic power And the old order of things, And to solve some of the world’s insurmountable problems, If we do that.

[zanytimetravelenthusiast-blog]

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[jacewilliams1]

Learning to fly the wrong way—and loving every minute of it

It was a simple, declarative sentence in faded letters on a metal sign.

Learn to Fly Here.

The 14-year-old boy read that magical sign each Saturday morning as he and his father arrived at the small, rural airport near their home. He dreamt of the coming day when he, too, would be walking out to the waiting Cessna to pre-flight the airplane—touching things, nodding approval, removing tie-downs and chocks, climbing up to check fuel… Someday he would be the one yelling “Clear!” from the window and then firing up that machine to taxi away from the ramp and then into the sky, transforming itself from a cumbersome, wheeled vehicle into a statement of grace in flight. His Dad would be waiting for him to return, perhaps nervously; proud as he returned to the ramp one step closer to joining the exclusive society of Pilots. Airmen. Aviators. Inhabitants of dimly lit, mysterious rooms called the “Pilot’s Lounge.”

A simple sign, but a powerful invitation.

Learn to Fly Here.

I was not that kid.

The 48-year-old man with the mortgage and payments for cars, tuition, insurances and all the rest, driving away from another customer meeting, toward yet another customer meeting, read the sign, written in faded blue letters on a rusting white background, and found himself reaching with his left hand for the turn signal lever. Parked in front of a slightly down-on-its-luck-looking building, with a door marked “Office,” he wondered aloud, “What am I doing?” Why are there airplanes off to one corner, in various states of disassembly, some wingless and broken?

Youthful plans and dreams that once had fueled ample ambition had become muted—spent on college, marriage, kids, career, kids, career, education, promotions… the grind. He regretted none of those things and did not feel sorry for himself. But he was keenly aware that some things were left undone. Opening that “Office” door seemed to be the least practical thing he should do at that moment. He pulled on that impractical door and stepped into a new domain. Those present, engaged in what seemed to be important tasks, looked over at the newcomer for a moment, judged him to be a wide-eyed beginner, and then carried on with their work.  Some were peering at computer screens full of maps and numbers, others were intently measuring distances on maps, and still others were just drinking coffee and engaging in important pilot discussion. There was a counter with a glass display case with headsets, books, maps, and hats. A young man behind the counter was handing a clipboard with a key attached to a teenaged girl. The young man looked up at the him and asked, “can I help you?”

His wife wouldn’t understand. His friends wouldn’t understand. His waiting customer would wonder where he was. This was for him. This was going to be his own. He was doing it.

Learn to Fly Here.

I am not that guy.

I’m the other guy. At the age of 57, I started my training for the Private Pilot certificate. Again.

Writing about flying airplanes is certainly not a novel idea and I doubt it can be done any better than Richard Collins did it; his columns and the book Stick and Rudder by Wolfgang Langewiesche have been critical to my developing knowledge of airmanship. There are magazines and newsletters and blogs dedicated to aviation. The writing in many of these publications fills a much-needed void but there are a few that are first rate, informative, and entertaining and among them Air Facts Journal is exemplary because its words are of, for, and by us—the grizzled stick and rudder flyers and rank beginners alike—die-hard seat-of-the-pants flyers and techno-savvy youngsters, each and all galvanized by the art and promise of flight.

This is my story. It is being written in real-time as I go through the process of becoming a pilot.

Like most hangar and pilot’s lounge talk, the preceding sentence is only mostly true. The truth is that I thought about starting this writing project when I started taking lessons. That was 265 hours of flying ago and I’ve just begun writing from the notes I’ve made along the way.

The general aviation hook was set years ago, thanks to a Mooney 201.

My infatuation with airplanes began when I was 17. My father bought a brand-new Mooney 201. It was a 1977 model, tail number 201FJ. I remember my first ride in that airplane as though it were yesterday. Pittsburgh’s KAGC was under high, gray skies as usual but that didn’t diminish my feelings of excitement and wonder. I don’t recall where we went that day or why, but I do recall the smell of the hangar and of the cabin of that plane, and its impossible array of gauges and instruments. My dad explained some of them and others remained a mystery.

A few years later, a used Bell 206B JetRanger was purchased. A foreman and I poured a rectangular concrete pad and covered part of it with a military style Quonset hut on the grounds of the family business.  My Dad would land the helicopter on the pad and shut down. I would then secure the aircraft and use a tow bar to lift and push the machine into the hut.

I never flew either aircraft back then, but I flew in them. The general aviation hook was firmly set.

I made two faltering attempts to obey the declaration of that faded, painted metal sign. Each attempt yielded a cheesy flight bag and books, an E6B and plotter, and a few hours of instruction. Life had other plans for my immediate future. There were a variety of shenanigans and misadventures, more than a few romances, and life rolled on.

My career required countless moves around our great country. And later, having cashed out of the business I had started and gone all in on a technology startup, my travels broadened. Seven years commuting monthly to Berlin followed by another six years commuting monthly to Budapest brought me home to the Midwest. Nearly 5 million miles on commercial airliners and 1,000 nights in hotels ranging from opulent to “just try not to touch anything” left me in a state of not wanting to fly commercial again. Ever.

My business travel for the past five years has been almost entirely domestic. Our customers tend to be within 800 miles of home. I Googled airplane charters. It didn’t take long to discover that if it burned Jet-A, we couldn’t afford it. It seemed that no one ran a charter operation with a piston twin. Except one guy. That simplified the decision process.

After a first successful sales trip in a well-used and somewhat threadbare Cessna 310 with two of us as passengers, a second soon followed. I signed up for instruction and learned that we could save a few bucks by using a 182RG and taking the time as dual instruction. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to the fearless colleagues who went along on those early trips when the ball was only occasionally centered, and approaches were rarely stable. The 182 made for slow going and some very long days and I was unhappy with the condition of the airplanes. I began to feel that another solution was needed.

An acquaintance introduced me to a man who had a leasing operation. The result was that after working out lease arrangements I was soon logging hours in the right seat of a Cessna 310 and a Cessna 421, flying our business trips with retired airline pilots and controllers, a young pilot who flew antique, radial engine airplanes in Alaska during the season, plus one unique pilot—also the owner of the airplanes—who nearly defies description. Imagine a man in his late sixties who, with a unique blend of southern-accented charm and rascality, tells a nearly continuous stream of hilarious and often instructive stories. He also happens to be the best stick and rudder man anyone at the airport has ever met and I’d fly with him any day.

When the pilot I’m flying with is a CFI, I log the time as instruction. Otherwise I log the time, but not as instruction. And I can report that I have logged some interesting time and encountered situations and events—most of which propel me no further toward checking off the boxes required for my private pilot certificate—but that I am convinced make me a more proficient and safer pilot.

Flying around build-ups in a 310 isn’t on the Private Pilot ACS, but it’s great experience.

Taking off into IMC with moderate turbulence in class B airspace only to have all radio function fail? Check. Cabin filling with smoke on a night flight in IMC? Check. Temporarily losing an engine while switching from mains to aux tanks? Check. Twice. Asking for VFR on top (as an alternative to center’s instruction to descend) only to be advised again to descend into known icing conditions and refusing to do so? Check (that was fun—the retired controller I was flying with taught me a lot about dealing with ATC). Requesting and being granted a block of altitude to work around buildups and then flying through holes and between layers that seemed to be tailor made for that 310? Check, an enthusiastic, hell yes, there’s nothing better than this, CHECK.

There have also been hours of uneventful, gorgeous-weather flight during which the various pilots with whom I fly graciously and unselfishly help me learn what they know. They’ve renamed me “George” as I hand fly the trips with the autopilot decidedly switched off. I am grateful for these pilots and for their many thousands of hours of logged time in everything from balloons and Super Cubs to Boeing airliners. When I can use the autopilot to drink some of the coffee I’ve brought or finally eat whatever snack I can find in the bottom of my flight bag, I’ve come to expect the man in the left seat to pull the power on an engine or switch off an alternator. Are these FAA-approved training techniques? I really don’t know. But I do know that being drilled in this way will make me a better, safer pilot and I am aware of just how fortunate I am.

Not all my experiences flying have been positive. I try to learn something from every situation, but sometimes the lesson has not been worth the risk. Having a CFI fall sound asleep on a cross-country flight when I’d had less than two hours of instruction, and making the peculiar decision to not wake him up?  Flying on to our home airport trying to thread our way between two cells with heavy hail in them? Taking off at night in heavy rain after a long day, brashly assuring the pilot in the left seat that “I have this”? (I didn’t). These mistakes and situations made indelible impressions on me and underscored the wisdom of the lessons, reading, and training I had done. Those corny jokes and mnemonics of John and Martha King have become constants in my mind, and I will be forever grateful for them.

Fear packs a significant motivational punch. Climbing out after takeoff on that cold, rainy and turbulent night and feeling spatial disorientation take over my brain, thinking LEFT! and realizing my hands and feet somehow heard RIGHT!, staring at the altimeter and being uncertain as to what it was telling me? “Your Airplane!” I said.

“My airplane,” came back the response, in a maddeningly calm voice.

“I was wondering when you were going to make that decision.” Picking up ice as we descended to cross the VOR at 4,000, punching the button for the de-ice boots only to have exactly nothing happen? Check. The tail of that 310 felt like it simply quit flying just as we made the runway.

Learn to fly here. Indeed.

Almost all my time has been IFR, though much of it has been in VMC. It’s second nature now to take off, stay under the class B, and call approach to pick up our IFR to wherever we are headed that day. I like the extra safety that comes with those outstanding men and women of ATC providing separation services, being handed off from approach, to center, and so on. But, there are good reasons why this is not how the FAA wants us to learn to fly. Until recently, I’ve been decidedly uncomfortable flying VFR. My pilotage skills required a lot of work.

Views like this make the long days worth it.

Landings were the monster that I had allowed to live in my mind’s closet. And landing the light, high wing 172 is different than landing the heavier twins. Once the runway is made, and the airplane is configured properly, chopping the power in the heavier twin airplane reliably establishes a nice, predictable sinking onto the runway (At least that is how it feels to me). It seems that the 172 wants to fly, and fly, and fly and, in my case at least, float along, teasing the runway. I had allowed the landing bogeyman into my head, and it would end up taking the patient skills of a 30-year veteran CFI to knock it out.

With my written test successfully behind me, I knew that the only thing remaining for me to do is just go fly a small airplane with a good CFI and check off the remaining boxes. The problem was simple: time. Managing the day-to-day of a manufacturing business, together with being the “sales” guy, makes for a full schedule. The usual way of learning to fly—two times a week at the local flight school—is an inefficient use of time. Thirty minutes to the field, sign in and pre-flight eats another 20 minutes, fly for an hour, secure the plane and debrief with the instructor, back to work, and there you have three hours of the day used, with a third of that time being the commute to and from the field.

So, is it any wonder that when my business travel puts me in the right seat of a very nice airplane and I’m asked, “Do you want to fly today?” my answer is an enthusiastic yes?

But I have found a way to devote the time required, and through complete good fortune I found a veteran instructor with the patience of Job who helped me evict the landing bogeyman and signed me off for solo flight. Even though I have 30+ hours of IMC logged and signed off by a CFII, I still need to log 0.6 hours more of “flight training in a single engine airplane solely by reference to instruments.”

My oral exam and check ride draw near. I’ll let you know how it went.

The post Learning to fly the wrong way—and loving every minute of it appeared first on Air Facts Journal.

from Engineering Blog https://airfactsjournal.com/2020/01/learning-to-fly-the-wrong-way-and-loving-every-minute-of-it/

[newssplashy]

WASHINGTON — Some of them met on Instagram. Others coordinated during lunchtime phone conferences. Most of them haven’t even graduated from high school.

The teenagers behind Zero Hour — an environmentally focused, creatively minded and technologically savvy nationwide coalition — are trying to build a youth-led movement to sound the alarm and call for action on climate change and environmental justice.

For the past year, a core group spanning both coasts has been organizing on social media. The teenagers kicked off their campaign with a protest Saturday at the National Mall in Washington, along with sister marches across the country.

As sea levels rise, ice caps melt and erratic weather affects communities across the globe, they say time is running out to address climate change. The core organizing group of about 20 met with almost 40 federal lawmakers about their platforms Thursday, and hope to inspire other teenagers to step up and demand change.

“The march is a launch. It isn’t, ‘That’s it, we’re done,'” said Jamie Margolin, founder of Zero Hour. “It means it doesn’t give them an excuse to be like, ‘I don’t know what the kids want.’ It’s like, ‘Yes, you do.'”

They are trying to prove the adults wrong, to show that people their age are taking heed of what they see as the greatest crisis threatening their generation.

“In our generation when we talk about climate change, they’re like: ‘Ha ha, that’s so funny. It’s not something we’ll have to deal with,'” said Nadia Nazar, Zero Hour’s art director. “'Oh, yeah, the polar bears will just die, the seas will just rise.’ They don’t understand the actual caliber of the destruction.”

The group is building off the momentum of other recent youth-led movements, such as the nationwide March for Our Lives rallies against gun violence.

“No one gives you an organizing guide of how to raise thousands of dollars, how to get people on board, how to mobilize,” Margolin said. “There was no help. It was just me floundering around with Dory-like determination, like, ‘Just keep swimming,'” she said, referring to the Disney movie “Finding Nemo.”

At the Sierra Club’s Washington headquarters Wednesday, as Zero Hour members continued to make preparations, six of the coalition’s leaders and founding members discussed how they became involved with the group, and why they think it’s one of young people’s best shots at creating a healthy, sustainable environment.

— ‘We are on the verge of something amazing’

Jamie Margolin, 16, Seattle

“I’ve always planned my future in ifs,” Margolin said. If climate change hasn’t destroyed this, if the environment hasn’t become that.

So for the last few years, Margolin has worked to raise awareness about climate justice issues. A passionate writer, she went through an “op-ed phase,” submitting essays to publications, like one titled “An Open Letter to Climate Change Deniers” published in the monthly magazine Teen Ink.

Still, Margolin thought she and other young people could — and should — be doing more.

“I had had this idea building up since January, since the Women’s March” last year, Margolin said. “The kind of idea that was nagging me and you try to ignore, but it’s an idea poking you.”

At a Princeton University summer program last year, she met other teenagers interested in taking action on climate change and created Zero Hour. They began to plan a huge protest in the nation’s capital. On social media, Margolin espoused factoids and reached out to other young activists.

A professed climate justice advocate, Margolin has kept the movement inclusive, putting the stories and concerns of those most directly affected by environmental issues at the heart of Zero Hour’s mission. Youths from in and around the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation spoke Saturday, and others repeatedly called attention to those killed during Hurricane Maria and threatened by rising sea levels in the Marshall Islands.

Since starting Zero Hour, Margolin said she had been overwhelmed by the response from people of all ages. Dozens of environmental advocacy groups and nonprofits have approached the coalition, looking to donate to or sponsor it.

“We flipped the scenario as the underdog. We’ve proven ourselves,” she said. “We are on the verge of something amazing. We’re going to change history.”

— Showing a movement’s artistic side

Kallan Benson, 14, Crownsville, Maryland

When Benson was planning a trip to the Peoples Climate March last year with her family, she knew she wanted to make a statement.

Benson doesn’t consider herself an artist. But a 24-foot-wide play parachute that she covered in a gigantic monarch butterfly design and hundreds of signatures from children in her community became a canvas for her to display the dire future she and coming generations may face, and express optimism that they will overcome it.

A chance encounter with the son of the founder of the nonprofit Mother Earth Project led Benson to encourage children around the world to create parachutes of their own made of recycled bedsheets (to be “environmentally conscious,” of course).

Inspired by the AIDS Memorial Quilt that has been unfurled on the National Mall in years past, some of those parachutes, sent from every continent except Antarctica, were laid out on the grass during Saturday’s march.

“The original idea was, ‘We got to get them on the National Mall,’ but then we thought that, ‘Well that shouldn’t be our first exhibit; it’s a little ambitious,'” Benson said.

“Then we talked to Zero Hour and they were like, ‘Hey, why don’t you bring them out?'” she continued. “I never imagined it would get this far.”

— Where business and the environment meet

Madelaine Tew, 15, Teaneck, New Jersey

As Zero Hour’s director of finance, Tew has had to get creative about securing funds and grants.

On the day of a deadline for a major grant — $16,000 from the Common Sense Fund — Tew’s school was hosting an event where seniors gave presentations about their internships. But she knew the grant would be a huge boost for Zero Hour.

“So I went to the nurse and was like: ‘Oh, I have cramps. Can I lie down with my computer?'” she said. “Then I just went in and wrote the whole grant.”

Her stunt paid off. Zero Hour secured the grant, and now Tew’s finance team, made up of students just like her, has raised about $70,000 for the coalition.

Tew, who attends a magnet high school where she takes classes in business and finance, has been involved in clubs to get the school and local businesses to adopt more renewable practices. But before meeting Margolin at the Princeton summer program last year, she thought those local efforts were “as far as you can go” for someone her age.

"It shifted from youth being a limitation to ‘it doesn’t matter,'” Tew said.

Though the practices of big corporations can sometimes anger environmentalists, for Tew, combining “my love for business and my care, my concern for climate” just makes sense.

"In many cases you can see how the environmental movement can be rooted in the way we do business,” she said.

That could take the form of encouraging companies to divest from fossil fuel industries or having local communities build their own solar or wind grids.

“We’re not just talking about building more cooperative farms,” Tew said, but also figuring out how to integrate ethical and sustainable environmental policies into business so “we can continue the American economy’s future.”

— ‘Repping the younger generation’

Iris Fen Gillingham, 18, Livingston Manor, New York

When three floods in the mid- to late 2000s swept through the vegetable farm Gillingham’s family owned in the Catskill Mountains, the topsoil was washed away and their equipment was submerged, eliminating their main source of income.

The floods devastated Gillingham’s family, which has always lived “very consciously with the land and with nature,” she said. Even her name, Iris Fen, like the flower and marshy wetland behind her house, alludes to that attachment.

“I have a pair of mittens that are made out of one of our Icelandic sheep, Rosalie,” Gillingham said. “My brother named her, I remember her being born and I’ve seen her grow up and my mom sheering her and spinning the wool.”

So when landsmen came to explore the possibility of hydraulic fracturing — a technique of oil and gas extraction also known as fracking — in their neighborhood when she was about 10, Gillingham joined her father, an environmental activist, in speaking out at local meetings, often as the youngest in the room.

“It was always myself repping the younger generation,” Gillingham said. “Part of that was my brother and I saying, ‘We don’t want to play on contaminated soil,'” (The Environmental Protection Agency has concluded that fracking can contaminate drinking water in some circumstances.)

But part of it was also knowing firsthand how essential a sustainable lifestyle — growing food at home, conscious spending, building greener homes — will be for her generation.

“We’re setting aside our differences and we are building a family and a community using our skills and our creativity,” Gillingham said of the movement. “We’re having fun, we’re laughing with each other, but we’re also talking about some pretty serious issues and injustices happening in this country.”

— Linking animal rights and environmentalism

Nadia Nazar, 16, Baltimore

Before joining Zero Hour, Nazar considered herself mostly an animal-rights activist. When she was 12, she saw a PETA video on slaughterhouses and immediately became a vegetarian.

“I had just gotten a cat,” Nazar said. “What if my cat was that cow?”

She got her start as an activist by trying to persuade people in her neighborhood not to go to SeaWorld, which has been criticized over its treatment of animals. (“I was slightly successful in that.”)

Then she dug deeper into the root causes of animal suffering and death.

“I found out how so many species are endangered by climate change, and how many are dying and going towards extinction that we caused ourselves,” Nazar said.

During a class, she stumbled upon Margolin’s Teen Ink essay and followed her on Instagram. And a little over a year ago, when Nazar saw a post by Margolin calling for action, she knew it was her chance to put her artistic skills to use. As art director, she helped organize a smaller art festival on Friday, and created the majority of the graphic elements for the coalition.

“Her story said: ‘I’m going to do it. Who wants to join me?” Nazar said. She immediately messaged Margolin. She was in.

— Working together toward a bigger goal

Zanagee Artis, 18, Clinton, Connecticut

Artis’ journey as an environmentalist began in the same place many other budding activists get their start — in a high school club.

During his junior year, he had big ambitions for his school: the building facilities department would finally start recycling white paper, students would start composting their food waste and the lunchroom would be free of plastic foam trays.

“I’m going to accomplish all these things and I’m going to go to the administration and tell them, ‘Stuff needs to change,'” Artis said.

But, he said, “nothing ever happened.” Artis said the problem was clear: Without engaging other students who might be interested, change was unlikely to happen.

So he started a sustainability committee within the school’s National Honor Society, and the results spoke for themselves. The group was able to buy the school an aquaponic system — a tank-based farming system that combines hydroponics (water-based planting) and aquaculture (fish cultivation) — and raise $700 to install water bottle refilling stations.

"So we accomplished all these things because we worked together as a community, and that’s how I feel about the climate movement,” he said.

Still, Artis said he “really didn’t think I could do much” beyond his local community until he met Margolin and Tew last summer at Princeton. Inspired by Margolin’s enthusiasm to do “a big, big thing,” Artis became Zero Hour’s logistics director, in charge of submitting permits for Saturday’s march, estimating attendance numbers, checking for counterprotests and helping sister marches with logistical issues.

“I was like, ‘Yes!'” he said with a satisfying clap. “'Let’s do it.'”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Alexandra Yoon-Hendricks © 2018 The New York Times

via NigeriaNews | Latest Nigerian News,Ghana News,News,Entertainment,World News,sports,Naij In a Splash

[racheltgibsau]

5 Reasons to Attend Marketing Nation Summit

I am a Marketing Nation Summit veteran—this year will be my 5th Summit—and maybe I say this every year, but it’s FOR REAL this year—2018 is going to be the best Summit yet! The marketing team at Marketo has put together a lineup of sessions, entertainment, and keynotes that are totally going to give you FOMO (fear of missing out) if you don’t join us.

If you’re a newbie to Summit, think of it as the best holiday of the season—I look forward to Summit more than I do my own birthday or Thanksgiving. I always walk away from Summit with new friends, new ideas, new best practices, and new inspiration to take myself and my company to the next level.

Here are my top five reasons to attend Marketing Nation Summit.

Sessions For Everyone—and I mean EVERYONE!

No matter what type of company you work for or what your role is, I guarantee there will be fantastic content to help you think bigger, bolder, and braver than ever before. As a Summit veteran, I don’t think I’ve ever seen as amazing of a lineup of sessions as we have this year.

Here are some examples of what attendees will get to see in just a few short weeks (and this is by no means all of them—we’ve put together over 100 sessions):

For the CMOs:

How to Move Marketing to the C-Suite, and Stay There

Join Stephen Yeo, Head of Marketing at Panasonic to gain practical techniques and tactics that can be used to make marketing a “C-suite” function and how to become a long-term, indispensable “C” level member.

For Marketo power users:

Analytics That Matter: Reports For Every Stage of the Funnel

Learn from Marketo Champions about the appropriate metrics for each stage of the buyer’s journey, what multi-touch and first touch attribution mean, how Marketo uses attribution to tie marketing programs to revenue and pipeline, and how to start leveraging the wealth of data in Marketo to improve your marketing ROI.

For healthcare marketers:

Building a Content Marketing Powerhouse

Hear how Cleveland Clinic turned its infant blog and three-person social media team into a 30 person content marketing department managing sites that generate millions of visits per month and bring measurable revenue into marketing.

For the financial services marketer:

Telling a Better Story with Data: BBH & Content Marketing Maturity

Get insights on how BBH, a financial services company, developed a successful content marketing strategy that combined the art of storytelling as well as the science of data to identify actionable insights.

Fearless Keynotes

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard our amazing keynote lineup for this year!

Lindsey Vonn: the world’s most successful female skier. Vonn is a four-time Olympian who holds three Olympic medals.

Jamie Foxx: Academy and Grammy Award-winner. Foxx rose to fame as a comedian, eventually transitioning to television and film.

Jonathan Mildenhall: Former Chief Marketing Officer of Airbnb. Mildenhall is one of the greatest brand marketers of the last decade and led transformation in the travel and hospitality industry.

Bill McDermott: the chief executive officer of SAP, the largest business software company in the world. He also has an incredible personal story that he chronicles in Winners Dream: A Journey from Corner Store to Corner Office.

Diane Greene: CEO of Google Cloud. Greene leads one of the top cloud computing players. Greene will be on stage discussing the future of marketing.

FOMO-Filled Fearless Fun

With a theme like Fearless Marketer, you can only imagine what types of crazy things you’ll be able to try. Here’s a sneak peek of what fearless activities you might see at #MKTGNation this year:

Awaken your senses with San Francisco’s strongest coffee

Turn your world upside in a photo booth

Swallow your fears with edible bugs

Become a champion with a ski simulator

Fellow Techies to Help You Build Out Your Ecosystem

Marketers these days are so busy—I am sure all of you can attest to this. There’s always more programs to run, more to optimize, more content to write, more EVERYTHING. And a lot of times we don’t have the time to hear the latest best practices or learn about new technologies. At this year’s Summit, we’re bringing all of the greatest best practices and technologies to one single place.

Here are a few innovation highlights to check out:

Expo Hall and LaunchPoint Lounge: come see the latest developments in the world of marketing technology and of course some awesome swag. Pro-tip: don’t miss the Partner Theatre if you want to see the coolest innovation our partners are showcasing this year.

Building a Business Case for Transformation Workshop: Check out a special 90-minute workshop by Marketo’s business consultants on effectively leading technological change in your organization.

Marketo Experience: get the first glance of Marketo’s newest innovation—like the new UX!—or go in-depth with a product expert to ask any question you’d like.

Network with Thousands of Marketers

The Marketing Nation is a special group to be a part of, and it’s only once a year when thousands of members of the Nation come together: Summit. Join us to network with the most passionate, smart, driven, tech-savvy marketers in the world. There are so many ways you can meet new people, geek out on new technologies, dance with your new best friends, see your idols on stage together, and more.

Are you attending our 2018 Marketing Nation Summit? I’d love to hear what sessions you’re excited about in the comments!

The post 5 Reasons to Attend Marketing Nation Summit appeared first on Marketo Marketing Blog - Best Practices and Thought Leadership.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8217493 https://blog.marketo.com/2018/04/5-reasons-to-attend-marketing-nation-summit.html

[maxslogic25]

5 Reasons to Attend Marketing Nation Summit

I am a Marketing Nation Summit veteran—this year will be my 5th Summit—and maybe I say this every year, but it’s FOR REAL this year—2018 is going to be the best Summit yet! The marketing team at Marketo has put together a lineup of sessions, entertainment, and keynotes that are totally going to give you FOMO (fear of missing out) if you don’t join us.

If you’re a newbie to Summit, think of it as the best holiday of the season—I look forward to Summit more than I do my own birthday or Thanksgiving. I always walk away from Summit with new friends, new ideas, new best practices, and new inspiration to take myself and my company to the next level.

Here are my top five reasons to attend Marketing Nation Summit.

Sessions For Everyone—and I mean EVERYONE!

No matter what type of company you work for or what your role is, I guarantee there will be fantastic content to help you think bigger, bolder, and braver than ever before. As a Summit veteran, I don’t think I’ve ever seen as amazing of a lineup of sessions as we have this year.

Here are some examples of what attendees will get to see in just a few short weeks (and this is by no means all of them—we’ve put together over 100 sessions):

For the CMOs:

How to Move Marketing to the C-Suite, and Stay There

Join Stephen Yeo, Head of Marketing at Panasonic to gain practical techniques and tactics that can be used to make marketing a “C-suite” function and how to become a long-term, indispensable “C” level member.

For Marketo power users:

Analytics That Matter: Reports For Every Stage of the Funnel

Learn from Marketo Champions about the appropriate metrics for each stage of the buyer’s journey, what multi-touch and first touch attribution mean, how Marketo uses attribution to tie marketing programs to revenue and pipeline, and how to start leveraging the wealth of data in Marketo to improve your marketing ROI.

For healthcare marketers:

Building a Content Marketing Powerhouse

Hear how Cleveland Clinic turned its infant blog and three-person social media team into a 30 person content marketing department managing sites that generate millions of visits per month and bring measurable revenue into marketing.

For the financial services marketer:

Telling a Better Story with Data: BBH & Content Marketing Maturity

Get insights on how BBH, a financial services company, developed a successful content marketing strategy that combined the art of storytelling as well as the science of data to identify actionable insights.

Fearless Keynotes

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard our amazing keynote lineup for this year!

Lindsey Vonn: the world’s most successful female skier. Vonn is a four-time Olympian who holds three Olympic medals.

Jamie Foxx: Academy and Grammy Award-winner. Foxx rose to fame as a comedian, eventually transitioning to television and film.

Jonathan Mildenhall: Former Chief Marketing Officer of Airbnb. Mildenhall is one of the greatest brand marketers of the last decade and led transformation in the travel and hospitality industry.

Bill McDermott: the chief executive officer of SAP, the largest business software company in the world. He also has an incredible personal story that he chronicles in Winners Dream: A Journey from Corner Store to Corner Office.

Diane Greene: CEO of Google Cloud. Greene leads one of the top cloud computing players. Greene will be on stage discussing the future of marketing.

FOMO-Filled Fearless Fun

With a theme like Fearless Marketer, you can only imagine what types of crazy things you’ll be able to try. Here’s a sneak peek of what fearless activities you might see at #MKTGNation this year:

Awaken your senses with San Francisco’s strongest coffee

Turn your world upside in a photo booth

Swallow your fears with edible bugs

Become a champion with a ski simulator

Fellow Techies to Help You Build Out Your Ecosystem

Marketers these days are so busy—I am sure all of you can attest to this. There’s always more programs to run, more to optimize, more content to write, more EVERYTHING. And a lot of times we don’t have the time to hear the latest best practices or learn about new technologies. At this year’s Summit, we’re bringing all of the greatest best practices and technologies to one single place.

Here are a few innovation highlights to check out:

Expo Hall and LaunchPoint Lounge: come see the latest developments in the world of marketing technology and of course some awesome swag. Pro-tip: don’t miss the Partner Theatre if you want to see the coolest innovation our partners are showcasing this year.

Building a Business Case for Transformation Workshop: Check out a special 90-minute workshop by Marketo’s business consultants on effectively leading technological change in your organization.

Marketo Experience: get the first glance of Marketo’s newest innovation—like the new UX!—or go in-depth with a product expert to ask any question you’d like.

Network with Thousands of Marketers

The Marketing Nation is a special group to be a part of, and it’s only once a year when thousands of members of the Nation come together: Summit. Join us to network with the most passionate, smart, driven, tech-savvy marketers in the world. There are so many ways you can meet new people, geek out on new technologies, dance with your new best friends, see your idols on stage together, and more.

Are you attending our 2018 Marketing Nation Summit? I’d love to hear what sessions you’re excited about in the comments!

The post 5 Reasons to Attend Marketing Nation Summit appeared first on Marketo Marketing Blog - Best Practices and Thought Leadership.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8217493 https://blog.marketo.com/2018/04/5-reasons-to-attend-marketing-nation-summit.html

[juliandmouton30]

"How do you avoid a robot apocalypse?"

As automation places millions of us at risk of losing our jobs, now is the time to rethink how humans and robots will coexist on this planet, says designer Madeline Gannon in this Opinion column.

We are reaching an inflection point. For the past 50 years, robots have served us well: we told them what to do and they did it – to maximum effect. As a result, we have had unprecedented innovation and productivity in agriculture, medicine and manufacturing.

Now rapid advancements in machine learning and artificial intelligence are making our robotic systems smarter and more adaptable than ever. These advancements also inherently weaken our direct control and relevance to autonomous machines. As such, robotic automation, despite its benefits, is arriving at a great human cost: the World Economic Forum estimates that over the next four years, rapid growth of robotics in global manufacturing will place the livelihoods of five million people at risk, as those in manual labour roles will increasingly lose out to machines.

What should be clear by now is that the robots are here to stay. So, rather than continue down the path of engineering our own obsolescence, now is the time to rethink how humans and robots will coexist on this planet.

Advancements in artificial intelligence inherently weaken our direct control and relevance to autonomous machines

How do you avoid a robot apocalypse? What is needed now is not better, faster or smarter robots, but an opportunity for us to pool our collective ingenuity, intelligence and relentless optimism to invent new ways for robots to amplify our own human capabilities.

For some designers, working with robots is already an everyday activity. The architectural community has embraced robots of all shapes and sizes over the past decade: from industrial robots to collaborative robots to wall-climbing robots and flying robots. While this research community continually astounds us with their imaginative robotic fabrication techniques, the scope of their interest tends to be limited. They are primarily concerned with how robots build and assemble novel structures, not how these machines might impact us as they continue to join us in the built environment.

In my own work, this under-explored territory has become somewhat of an obsession. My training as an architect has given me a hyper-sensitivity to how people move through space, and I am striving to invent ways to embed this spatial understanding into machines. My latest spatially sentient robot, Mimus, created with support from Autodesk, lived at the Design Museum in London from November to April as a part of the new building's inaugural exhibition Fear and Love: Reactions to a Complex World. Mimus is a 1,200-kilogram industrial robot that I reprogrammed to have a curiosity for the world around her. Unlike traditional industrial robots, Mimus has no pre-planned movements: she seeks the most interesting people around her enclosure to interact with. More often than not, she gets bored of them quite quickly.

Madeline Gannon's Mimus, part of the Design Museum exhibition Fear and Love, was reprogrammed to have a curiosity for the world around her

To be clear, I do not anticipate most people will run into autonomous industrial robots on a daily basis. These machines are beginning to move out of factories and into more dynamic settings, but they will likely never stray too far from semi-controlled environments, like construction sites or film sets. However, experimental inquiries, such as Mimus, provide an opportunity to develop and test relevant interaction design techniques for the autonomous robots that are already roaming our skies, sidewalks, highways and cities with us.

A great example here is one of BMW's latest concept cars, which aims to mitigate miscommunication with driverless vehicles by "building up a relationship" between an individual and the car. To better communicate with the passenger, this machine's dashboard is fitted with 800 moving triangles, which open up to reveal red undersides to warn them of potential hazards on the road. However, even if self-driving vehicles are legally cleared to drive on the roads, the psychological question remains: are we willing to trust and build a relationship with autonomous cars, or will we always see them as industrial machines?

What is needed now is not better, faster or smarter robots, but an opportunity for us to pool our collective ingenuity

These newer, smarter robots — like drones, trucks or cars — share many attributes with industrial robots: they are large, fast and potentially dangerous non-humanoid robots that don't communicate very well with human counterparts. For example, in a town like Pittsburgh, where crossing paths with a driverless car is now an everyday occurrence, there is still no way for a pedestrian to read the intentions of the vehicle. This lack of legibility has led to some fairly disastrous results for autonomous car companies.

As intelligent, autonomous robots become a more ubiquitous part of the built environment, it is critical that we design more effective ways of interacting and communicating with them. In developing Mimus, we found a way to use the robot's body language as a medium for cultivating empathy between museum-goers and a piece of industrial machinery. Body language is a primitive, yet fluid, means of communication that can broadcast an innate understanding of the behaviours, kinematics and limitations of an unfamiliar machine.

Deciding how these robots mediate our lives should not be the sole discretion of tech companies nor cloistered robotics labs

When something responds to us with lifelike movements –– even when it is clearly an inanimate object –– we, as humans, cannot help but project our emotions onto it. However, this is only one designed alternative for how we might better co-habitate with autonomous robots. We need many more diverse and imaginative solutions for the various ways these intelligent machines will immerse themselves in our homes, offices and cities.

Deciding how these robots mediate our lives should not be the sole discretion of tech companies nor cloistered robotics labs. Designers, architects and urban planners all carry a wealth of knowledge for how living things coexist in buildings and cities – a knowledge base that is palpably absent from the robotics community. The future of robotics has yet to be written, and whether you self-identify as tech-savvy or a Luddite, we all have something valuable to contribute towards how these machines might join us in the built environment. I am confident that together we can create a future in which our technology expands and amplifies our humanity, and doesn't replace it.

Madeline Gannon is a multidisciplinary designer working at the intersection of art and technology. She leads Atonaton, a research studio inventing better ways to communicate with machines. Her work blends disciplinary knowledge from design, robotics and human-computer interaction to innovate at the edges of digital creativity. Gannon is currently completing a PhD in Computational Design at Carnegie Mellon University, where she is developing techniques for digitally designing and fabricating wearables on and around the body.

Related story

BMW working with psychologists to help robot cars befriend passengers

The post "How do you avoid a robot apocalypse?" appeared first on Dezeen.

from ifttt-furniture https://www.dezeen.com/2017/05/18/how-to-avoid-robot-apocalypse-opinion-madeline-gannon/

[jeniferdlanceau]

"How do you avoid a robot apocalypse?"

As automation places millions of us at risk of losing our jobs, now is the time to rethink how humans and robots will coexist on this planet, says designer Madeline Gannon in this Opinion column.

We are reaching an inflection point. For the past 50 years, robots have served us well: we told them what to do and they did it – to maximum effect. As a result, we have had unprecedented innovation and productivity in agriculture, medicine and manufacturing.

Now rapid advancements in machine learning and artificial intelligence are making our robotic systems smarter and more adaptable than ever. These advancements also inherently weaken our direct control and relevance to autonomous machines. As such, robotic automation, despite its benefits, is arriving at a great human cost: the World Economic Forum estimates that over the next four years, rapid growth of robotics in global manufacturing will place the livelihoods of five million people at risk, as those in manual labour roles will increasingly lose out to machines.

What should be clear by now is that the robots are here to stay. So, rather than continue down the path of engineering our own obsolescence, now is the time to rethink how humans and robots will coexist on this planet.

Advancements in artificial intelligence inherently weaken our direct control and relevance to autonomous machines

How do you avoid a robot apocalypse? What is needed now is not better, faster or smarter robots, but an opportunity for us to pool our collective ingenuity, intelligence and relentless optimism to invent new ways for robots to amplify our own human capabilities.

For some designers, working with robots is already an everyday activity. The architectural community has embraced robots of all shapes and sizes over the past decade: from industrial robots to collaborative robots to wall-climbing robots and flying robots. While this research community continually astounds us with their imaginative robotic fabrication techniques, the scope of their interest tends to be limited. They are primarily concerned with how robots build and assemble novel structures, not how these machines might impact us as they continue to join us in the built environment.

In my own work, this under-explored territory has become somewhat of an obsession. My training as an architect has given me a hyper-sensitivity to how people move through space, and I am striving to invent ways to embed this spatial understanding into machines. My latest spatially sentient robot, Mimus, created with support from Autodesk, lived at the Design Museum in London from November to April as a part of the new building's inaugural exhibition Fear and Love: Reactions to a Complex World. Mimus is a 1,200-kilogram industrial robot that I reprogrammed to have a curiosity for the world around her. Unlike traditional industrial robots, Mimus has no pre-planned movements: she seeks the most interesting people around her enclosure to interact with. More often than not, she gets bored of them quite quickly.

Madeline Gannon's Mimus, part of the Design Museum exhibition Fear and Love, was reprogrammed to have a curiosity for the world around her

To be clear, I do not anticipate most people will run into autonomous industrial robots on a daily basis. These machines are beginning to move out of factories and into more dynamic settings, but they will likely never stray too far from semi-controlled environments, like construction sites or film sets. However, experimental inquiries, such as Mimus, provide an opportunity to develop and test relevant interaction design techniques for the autonomous robots that are already roaming our skies, sidewalks, highways and cities with us.

A great example here is one of BMW's latest concept cars, which aims to mitigate miscommunication with driverless vehicles by "building up a relationship" between an individual and the car. To better communicate with the passenger, this machine's dashboard is fitted with 800 moving triangles, which open up to reveal red undersides to warn them of potential hazards on the road. However, even if self-driving vehicles are legally cleared to drive on the roads, the psychological question remains: are we willing to trust and build a relationship with autonomous cars, or will we always see them as industrial machines?

What is needed now is not better, faster or smarter robots, but an opportunity for us to pool our collective ingenuity

These newer, smarter robots — like drones, trucks or cars — share many attributes with industrial robots: they are large, fast and potentially dangerous non-humanoid robots that don't communicate very well with human counterparts. For example, in a town like Pittsburgh, where crossing paths with a driverless car is now an everyday occurrence, there is still no way for a pedestrian to read the intentions of the vehicle. This lack of legibility has led to some fairly disastrous results for autonomous car companies.

As intelligent, autonomous robots become a more ubiquitous part of the built environment, it is critical that we design more effective ways of interacting and communicating with them. In developing Mimus, we found a way to use the robot's body language as a medium for cultivating empathy between museum-goers and a piece of industrial machinery. Body language is a primitive, yet fluid, means of communication that can broadcast an innate understanding of the behaviours, kinematics and limitations of an unfamiliar machine.

Deciding how these robots mediate our lives should not be the sole discretion of tech companies nor cloistered robotics labs

When something responds to us with lifelike movements –– even when it is clearly an inanimate object –– we, as humans, cannot help but project our emotions onto it. However, this is only one designed alternative for how we might better co-habitate with autonomous robots. We need many more diverse and imaginative solutions for the various ways these intelligent machines will immerse themselves in our homes, offices and cities.

Deciding how these robots mediate our lives should not be the sole discretion of tech companies nor cloistered robotics labs. Designers, architects and urban planners all carry a wealth of knowledge for how living things coexist in buildings and cities – a knowledge base that is palpably absent from the robotics community. The future of robotics has yet to be written, and whether you self-identify as tech-savvy or a Luddite, we all have something valuable to contribute towards how these machines might join us in the built environment. I am confident that together we can create a future in which our technology expands and amplifies our humanity, and doesn't replace it.

Madeline Gannon is a multidisciplinary designer working at the intersection of art and technology. She leads Atonaton, a research studio inventing better ways to communicate with machines. Her work blends disciplinary knowledge from design, robotics and human-computer interaction to innovate at the edges of digital creativity. Gannon is currently completing a PhD in Computational Design at Carnegie Mellon University, where she is developing techniques for digitally designing and fabricating wearables on and around the body.

Related story

BMW working with psychologists to help robot cars befriend passengers

The post "How do you avoid a robot apocalypse?" appeared first on Dezeen.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8217598 https://www.dezeen.com/2017/05/18/how-to-avoid-robot-apocalypse-opinion-madeline-gannon/

[lewiskdavid90]

95% off #The Complete Ethical Hacking Course 2.0: Python & Kali Linux – $10

Learn how to become an Ethical Hacker using Python and use Kali Linux to perform penetration testing on networks

All Levels,  – 11 hours,  66 lectures 

Average rating 4.4/5 (4.4 (186 ratings) Instead of using a simple lifetime average, Udemy calculates a course’s star rating by considering a number of different factors such as the number of ratings, the age of ratings, and the likelihood of fraudulent ratings.)

Course requirements:

You need to be tech savvy You also need a fast internet connection A minimum of 8 GB RAM on your computer is recommended

Course description:

Learn network penetration testing, ethical hacking using the amazing programming language, Python along with Kali Linux!

Course Description

Are you ready to become a Penetration Tester and Ethical Hacker and enjoy a fascinating high paying career?

Or maybe you just want to learn additional tips and techniques taking to a whole new level?

Welcome to The Complete Ethical Hacking Course 2.0: Python & Kali Linux

This is by far the mother of all courses – It is not only a comprehensive course but with over 100 lessons, you are will not find a course similar to this.

It’s our most current, in-depth and exciting ethical hacking course—to date.

We have designed the course especially for beginners and intermediate level students -no matter where you are in your web site development and coding journey—It is for sure that the future belongs to penetration testers and ethical hackers for protecting enterprise networks and seeking potential vulnerabilities within the network. We also use state-of-the-art editors that are easy to learn and use.

We’ve left no stone un-turned.

We guarantee, this is THE most complete and thorough, as well as up-to-date ethical hacking course available ANYWHERE on the market—or your money back. We walk you through complete Python programming from scratch and then use those skills for penetration testing using Kali Linux

See what our students say “It is such a comprehensive course that I don’t need to take any other course but this one to learn all the skills to become a penetration tester, and I would without a doubt recommend it to anyone looking for a complete course on ethical hacking.” -Chris Portman

From zero to hero in just four weeks.

So, how is our course really different? Well – we go from beginner – right from scratch with no gloves on either and make you a web developer in 8 weeks or so. It is your pace – your time really!

“This is such an awesome course. I loved every bit of it – Awesome learning experience!” Sami Shah.

Join thousands of other students and share valuable experience and projects

Get started today and join thousands of our happy students, many of whom have changed careers, created second incomes or added critical new skills to their tool kits. Our students have become successful web developers and are earning six figure salaries. Some are freelancing and earning even more with high scaled projects.

Oh, and did I mention you get FREE unlimited hosting for one year – ClayDesk Web hosting Service?

Enroll now in The Complete Ethical Hacking Course 2.0: Python & Kali Linux today and revolutionize your learning. Start with scratch and learn the fundamentals. Jump right in and take an in-depth look into the website development front-end and back-end functionality and features. Start building powerful e-commerce web sites and apps and cash-earning websites today—and enjoy bigger, brighter opportunities.

“Excellent course gives you everything you need to know for writing programs using Python to test networks – not to mention Kali Linux – simply superb!” – Waheed Zia

Don’t believe us at all? Well – We offer full money back guarantee if you haven’t earned your money back within 60 days of completing the course.

Ready to open new doors and become a smart, in-demand penetration tester? You do need to put effort though! Penetration testing is a great skill to add to your existing expertise or if you are a beginner!

See you in class!

Syed Raza, Team ClayDesk, and co-instructors!

Full details Become proficient with Python programming – Introduction and Advanced Learn how to install a Virtual Box (Machine) for Kali Linux Understand what a penetration tester really does Learn about Various tools for penetration testing Learn how to install Kali Linux in Windows Machine from Scratch – Step-by-Step Create Python programs to seek vulnerabilities on the network system Explore various tools using Kali Linux

Full details This co

Reviews:

“because is very well explained, After trying different course in python and not finding one that explains in a manner that not only makes it easy to learn but bring you attention deep into the class while working along the learning material, finally I can say i found the right course and instructor that makes it easy to learn. Thank you” (Carlos Farfan)

“The course instruction is concise and simple to follow. Posted questions are promptly responded to. I look forward to completing this and more courses from the same instructor Syed. Perhaps, some downloadable exercise materials would be of value such as the locked .zip file etc.” (Louis Stokke)

“This course is laid out in a very easy to understand and follow manner. The information is very valuable for a noob like me. The Instructor keep the information simple and made it a pleasure to learn.” (Kevin Cheathem)

  About Instructor:

ClayDesk E-learning Syed Raza Syed Ali Qasim Shah

Welcome! to the Knowledge factory by ClayDesk. My name is Syed Raza, and as the CEO of ClayDesk, I am delighted to provide learning solution to my students. My fellow co-instructors play an important part in building these courses to ensure quality and latest trends in learning – I encourage you to browse through our courses and enroll. 1) We teach with passion and purpose! Every course is delivered with our students in mind. Teaching a combined student population of over 160,000. 2) Our courses will help you gain real world skills and knowledge and change your life today! 3) Our dedication to the teaching profession and teaching online. Udemy has named our instructors as one of its top instructors. ClayDesk creates and distributes high quality technology training content. Our certified team of industry professionals have been training manpower for more than a decade. We aim to teach technology the way it is used in industry and professional world. We have professional team of trainers for technologies ranging from Mobility, Web to Enterprise and Database and Server Administration. Mission Statement- ClayDesk e-learning is dedicated to provide superior e-learning and outsourcing services worldwide.

Why are 40,000+ students (and counting) enrolled in my courses? 1) As the CEO of ClayDesk, I teach with passion and purpose! Every course is delivered with my students in mind. 2) My courses will help you gain real world skills and knowledge and change your life today! 3) My dedication to the teaching profession and teaching online. Udemy has named me one of its top instructors. ► Try enrolling in a course with me and see for yourself! ◄ _____________________________________________________________________ Want to learn how to become A Professional Web Developer? Would you like to  Boost Your Career? Then Enroll in my Courses Today! You too can be doing this – and so much more! _____________________________________________________________________ About Syed Raza: Syed graduated from University of Wisconsin in 1995 with a BBA in Finance. Subsequently, he obtained an MBA from Concordia University, LLB and DBL degrees from University Law College, and PhD in Management Sciences. Having obtained MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer), MCP+I (Microsoft Certified Professional + Internet), and MCT (Microsoft Certified Trainer), Syed has provided training to thousands of students. ClayDesk provides e-Discovery and cloud computing services including technical training to a wide range of clients globally. Business: Syed Raza is an entrepreneur running his own e-learning site along with providing e-discovery and cloud computing consulting and services to a global client base. Syed is a Microsoft Certified Trainer and a Systems Engineer, and his solid finance and management background gives him a competitive edge. He has taught thousands of students in the United States and continues to inspire students of all ages. Mission Statement- ClayDesk e-discovery and cloud computing is dedicated to provide superior e-learning and outsourcing services worldwide.

I am the youngest Instructor present on Udemy Platform and have several years of experience in development environment as programmer. I have been programming since the age of 13. On the other hand, I have expertise and experience in all phases of project life cycle namely analysis, design, coding, testing and implementation phases. I have experience in working with different operating systems, with keen focus on SharePoint development. Also have efficiently managed the team and took care in delivering quality deliverables from my team which proved my managerial and leadership skill. Moreover, I have high web developing skills as a web developer and can make websites using WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal. Additionally, can migrate them from one host to the other. I have worked within the following realms: – Developed script in Python programming language for 3D m

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[newssplashy]

World: Meet the teenagers leading a climate change movement

WASHINGTON — Some of them met on Instagram. Others coordinated during lunchtime phone conferences. Most of them haven’t even graduated from high school.

The teenagers behind Zero Hour — an environmentally focused, creatively minded and technologically savvy nationwide coalition — are trying to build a youth-led movement to sound the alarm and call for action on climate change and environmental justice.

For the past year, a core group spanning both coasts has been organizing on social media. The teenagers kicked off their campaign with a protest Saturday at the National Mall in Washington, along with sister marches across the country.

As sea levels rise, ice caps melt and erratic weather affects communities across the globe, they say time is running out to address climate change. The core organizing group of about 20 met with almost 40 federal lawmakers about their platforms Thursday, and hope to inspire other teenagers to step up and demand change.

“The march is a launch. It isn’t, ‘That’s it, we’re done,'” said Jamie Margolin, founder of Zero Hour. “It means it doesn’t give them an excuse to be like, ‘I don’t know what the kids want.’ It’s like, ‘Yes, you do.'”

They are trying to prove the adults wrong, to show that people their age are taking heed of what they see as the greatest crisis threatening their generation.

“In our generation when we talk about climate change, they’re like: ‘Ha ha, that’s so funny. It’s not something we’ll have to deal with,'” said Nadia Nazar, Zero Hour’s art director. “'Oh, yeah, the polar bears will just die, the seas will just rise.’ They don’t understand the actual caliber of the destruction.”

The group is building off the momentum of other recent youth-led movements, such as the nationwide March for Our Lives rallies against gun violence.

“No one gives you an organizing guide of how to raise thousands of dollars, how to get people on board, how to mobilize,” Margolin said. “There was no help. It was just me floundering around with Dory-like determination, like, ‘Just keep swimming,'” she said, referring to the Disney movie “Finding Nemo.”

At the Sierra Club’s Washington headquarters Wednesday, as Zero Hour members continued to make preparations, six of the coalition’s leaders and founding members discussed how they became involved with the group, and why they think it’s one of young people’s best shots at creating a healthy, sustainable environment.

— ‘We are on the verge of something amazing’

Jamie Margolin, 16, Seattle

“I’ve always planned my future in ifs,” Margolin said. If climate change hasn’t destroyed this, if the environment hasn’t become that.

So for the last few years, Margolin has worked to raise awareness about climate justice issues. A passionate writer, she went through an “op-ed phase,” submitting essays to publications, like one titled “An Open Letter to Climate Change Deniers” published in the monthly magazine Teen Ink.

Still, Margolin thought she and other young people could — and should — be doing more.

“I had had this idea building up since January, since the Women’s March” last year, Margolin said. “The kind of idea that was nagging me and you try to ignore, but it’s an idea poking you.”

At a Princeton University summer program last year, she met other teenagers interested in taking action on climate change and created Zero Hour. They began to plan a huge protest in the nation’s capital. On social media, Margolin espoused factoids and reached out to other young activists.

A professed climate justice advocate, Margolin has kept the movement inclusive, putting the stories and concerns of those most directly affected by environmental issues at the heart of Zero Hour’s mission. Youths from in and around the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation spoke Saturday, and others repeatedly called attention to those killed during Hurricane Maria and threatened by rising sea levels in the Marshall Islands.

Since starting Zero Hour, Margolin said she had been overwhelmed by the response from people of all ages. Dozens of environmental advocacy groups and nonprofits have approached the coalition, looking to donate to or sponsor it.

“We flipped the scenario as the underdog. We’ve proven ourselves,” she said. “We are on the verge of something amazing. We’re going to change history.”

— Showing a movement’s artistic side

Kallan Benson, 14, Crownsville, Maryland

When Benson was planning a trip to the Peoples Climate March last year with her family, she knew she wanted to make a statement.

Benson doesn’t consider herself an artist. But a 24-foot-wide play parachute that she covered in a gigantic monarch butterfly design and hundreds of signatures from children in her community became a canvas for her to display the dire future she and coming generations may face, and express optimism that they will overcome it.

A chance encounter with the son of the founder of the nonprofit Mother Earth Project led Benson to encourage children around the world to create parachutes of their own made of recycled bedsheets (to be “environmentally conscious,” of course).

Inspired by the AIDS Memorial Quilt that has been unfurled on the National Mall in years past, some of those parachutes, sent from every continent except Antarctica, were laid out on the grass during Saturday’s march.

“The original idea was, ‘We got to get them on the National Mall,’ but then we thought that, ‘Well that shouldn’t be our first exhibit; it’s a little ambitious,'” Benson said.

“Then we talked to Zero Hour and they were like, ‘Hey, why don’t you bring them out?'” she continued. “I never imagined it would get this far.”

— Where business and the environment meet

Madelaine Tew, 15, Teaneck, New Jersey

As Zero Hour’s director of finance, Tew has had to get creative about securing funds and grants.

On the day of a deadline for a major grant — $16,000 from the Common Sense Fund — Tew’s school was hosting an event where seniors gave presentations about their internships. But she knew the grant would be a huge boost for Zero Hour.

“So I went to the nurse and was like: ‘Oh, I have cramps. Can I lie down with my computer?'” she said. “Then I just went in and wrote the whole grant.”

Her stunt paid off. Zero Hour secured the grant, and now Tew’s finance team, made up of students just like her, has raised about $70,000 for the coalition.

Tew, who attends a magnet high school where she takes classes in business and finance, has been involved in clubs to get the school and local businesses to adopt more renewable practices. But before meeting Margolin at the Princeton summer program last year, she thought those local efforts were “as far as you can go” for someone her age.

"It shifted from youth being a limitation to ‘it doesn’t matter,'” Tew said.

Though the practices of big corporations can sometimes anger environmentalists, for Tew, combining “my love for business and my care, my concern for climate” just makes sense.

"In many cases you can see how the environmental movement can be rooted in the way we do business,” she said.

That could take the form of encouraging companies to divest from fossil fuel industries or having local communities build their own solar or wind grids.

“We’re not just talking about building more cooperative farms,” Tew said, but also figuring out how to integrate ethical and sustainable environmental policies into business so “we can continue the American economy’s future.”

— ‘Repping the younger generation’

Iris Fen Gillingham, 18, Livingston Manor, New York

When three floods in the mid- to late 2000s swept through the vegetable farm Gillingham’s family owned in the Catskill Mountains, the topsoil was washed away and their equipment was submerged, eliminating their main source of income.

The floods devastated Gillingham’s family, which has always lived “very consciously with the land and with nature,” she said. Even her name, Iris Fen, like the flower and marshy wetland behind her house, alludes to that attachment.

“I have a pair of mittens that are made out of one of our Icelandic sheep, Rosalie,” Gillingham said. “My brother named her, I remember her being born and I’ve seen her grow up and my mom sheering her and spinning the wool.”

So when landsmen came to explore the possibility of hydraulic fracturing — a technique of oil and gas extraction also known as fracking — in their neighborhood when she was about 10, Gillingham joined her father, an environmental activist, in speaking out at local meetings, often as the youngest in the room.

“It was always myself repping the younger generation,” Gillingham said. “Part of that was my brother and I saying, ‘We don’t want to play on contaminated soil,'” (The Environmental Protection Agency has concluded that fracking can contaminate drinking water in some circumstances.)

But part of it was also knowing firsthand how essential a sustainable lifestyle — growing food at home, conscious spending, building greener homes — will be for her generation.

“We’re setting aside our differences and we are building a family and a community using our skills and our creativity,” Gillingham said of the movement. “We’re having fun, we’re laughing with each other, but we’re also talking about some pretty serious issues and injustices happening in this country.”

— Linking animal rights and environmentalism

Nadia Nazar, 16, Baltimore

Before joining Zero Hour, Nazar considered herself mostly an animal-rights activist. When she was 12, she saw a PETA video on slaughterhouses and immediately became a vegetarian.

“I had just gotten a cat,” Nazar said. “What if my cat was that cow?”

She got her start as an activist by trying to persuade people in her neighborhood not to go to SeaWorld, which has been criticized over its treatment of animals. (“I was slightly successful in that.”)

Then she dug deeper into the root causes of animal suffering and death.

“I found out how so many species are endangered by climate change, and how many are dying and going towards extinction that we caused ourselves,” Nazar said.

During a class, she stumbled upon Margolin’s Teen Ink essay and followed her on Instagram. And a little over a year ago, when Nazar saw a post by Margolin calling for action, she knew it was her chance to put her artistic skills to use. As art director, she helped organize a smaller art festival on Friday, and created the majority of the graphic elements for the coalition.

“Her story said: ‘I’m going to do it. Who wants to join me?” Nazar said. She immediately messaged Margolin. She was in.

— Working together toward a bigger goal

Zanagee Artis, 18, Clinton, Connecticut

Artis’ journey as an environmentalist began in the same place many other budding activists get their start — in a high school club.

During his junior year, he had big ambitions for his school: the building facilities department would finally start recycling white paper, students would start composting their food waste and the lunchroom would be free of plastic foam trays.

“I’m going to accomplish all these things and I’m going to go to the administration and tell them, ‘Stuff needs to change,'” Artis said.

But, he said, “nothing ever happened.” Artis said the problem was clear: Without engaging other students who might be interested, change was unlikely to happen.

So he started a sustainability committee within the school’s National Honor Society, and the results spoke for themselves. The group was able to buy the school an aquaponic system — a tank-based farming system that combines hydroponics (water-based planting) and aquaculture (fish cultivation) — and raise $700 to install water bottle refilling stations.

"So we accomplished all these things because we worked together as a community, and that’s how I feel about the climate movement,” he said.

Still, Artis said he “really didn’t think I could do much” beyond his local community until he met Margolin and Tew last summer at Princeton. Inspired by Margolin’s enthusiasm to do “a big, big thing,” Artis became Zero Hour’s logistics director, in charge of submitting permits for Saturday’s march, estimating attendance numbers, checking for counterprotests and helping sister marches with logistical issues.

“I was like, ‘Yes!'” he said with a satisfying clap. “'Let’s do it.'”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Alexandra Yoon-Hendricks © 2018 The New York Times

source https://www.newssplashy.com/2018/07/world-meet-teenagers-leading-climate_22.html