#now with the added benefit of being the only credentialed tech so i have to take as many tech appointments as possible | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

arcticdementor · 5 years

Link

Ok, I'll do my best to try, because reading some of the galaxy brained takes about China and the Chinese government have cemented in my head the agonizing fact that most people prefer simple narratives and have little understanding of history, let alone an understanding of how history affects the present.

This will be long and requires some groundwork on explaining the modern Chinese mindset as a whole. Disclaimer: I am currently in Hong Kong, I hold British citizenship by birth and frequently do business with Chinese companies.

1) Big China and Collective Society.

This is something most people really don't grasp the scale of. To assign shared characteristics to fully one quarter of the human race would be broad enough to make those descriptors basically meaningless. Dividing sections of China along any non-geographical lines, economic lines, socio-political lines, this is all incredibly difficult. Despite a massively homogenous Han Chinese population, just looking at Chinese food culture would tell you just how freakishly diverse and different each section is. There are different dialects, accents, lifestyles all across China. When people say "China" it is often completely unhelpful when it comes to pinning down what they mean. For the sake of this discussion, we're assuming that we're talking about the type of Chinese person that the central government has taken pains to portray to the world. Which is, the middle class, consumerist, worldly and tech-savvy Han Chinese. Native of a Tier 1 city (e.g. Shanghai or Beijing).

Most Chinese people are aware of just how big the country is and how difficult a task it is keeping it all together, on a scale I've seen very few people outside of China appreciate. There is a real ethos of "tianxia", or the concept depicted in the Jet Li movie Hero (criticized for being state propaganda at the time, it was largely missed that most Chinese understand, if not support, this thesis). Chinese see themselves as sharing in a common destiny and collective group ethos. This can be traced back to Confucianism - a young person can have said to have "come of age" when they have fully adapted to and understood their role within a harmonious society. This both gives the common Chinese a shared purpose and skin in the game. They literally feel a stake in the collective power and status of their own country. This is not the flag-waving nationalism that the western nations consider passe, but a belief that China must hold together as a shared country and people.

…

Chinese pride is young, and very damaged. There is a sense of grievance and hurt pride that has never been resolved, and this is occasionally glimpsed in everything from their foreign policy to their mass market serialized literature. The reasons behind this can be traced back to a century of colonialism and rampant opportunism by the world powers during the 19th and 20th centuries. Chinese histories and memories are very long, and despite happening a few centuries ago this is very fresh in people's minds. An old joke about China's view of history has the Chinese waiting to see if the French Revolution is still a good idea. China has never forgotten that despite a massive population and huge amounts of territory it fell from being one of the world's oldest civilizations to becoming the "weak man of Asia", and their modern politics has mostly been about resolving this pride. There is a shared belief, or a hidden form of mass psychosis, that China has been denied its destiny as the foremost world power, either through treachery, the work of foreign powers, or other means. Even worse is the proof that the old rival Japan, a similarly impoverished nation, had managed to drag itself onto the stage of the world powers in the late 19th/early 20th century. This has caused some real complexes in the Chinese psyche.

Adding to this is the understanding of recent history. Coupled with historical understanding that ruling China is an incredibly difficult job and only people like the legendary Emperor Qin were able to unify the country in the first place, China collectively remembers the much more recent history of the Communist revolution, the Great Famine, the Cultural Revolution, and more. The fact that China's current financial power and global status is largely a result of Deng Xiaoping's market reforms and liberalism is besides the point - the defining thing that most Chinese in the older generation take away is that revolution led to some truly fucking heinous shit and a death toll enacted on its population greater than any ever seen in the history of mankind, and as a result they have no taste for another revolution. The government stays in power largely because the older generation are aware of just how much death is involved with a changing of the guard. There is also no promise that whatever comes to replace the government will be in any way better than what came before it. Sure, the kuomintang government were corrupt as sin, but was that really preferable to having everyone starve because nobody knew how to farm land for years?

…

It is no surprise that the most radical nationalist pro-Chinese are the young students sent overseas to study in western universities. The Chinese attitude towards these western academies is not great; they attend for credentials and status, but these places of study have become cultural battlegrounds and ground zero for showing Chinese students that the Western societies and arguments are fractured and impotent. Students are given courses and humanities curriculum that demonize western civilization and its achievements, and emphasize the breaking down of existing power structures. Of course this would lead to nationalist students violently attacking pro-Hong Kong protesters and demonstrations, as both sides consider each other indoctrinated suckers (and one sees the other as trying to destroy the power structure of the country). An attack on China and Chinese identity is both a dangerous attack on national and societal cohesion and stinging Chinese pride. They have been handed something that can be easily interpreted as an attempt by foreign powers to fracture the unity of Chinese society, cause chaos in their country, and stop China from achieving its destiny of world #1 power and subjugator of other nations.

…

Many people have asked me why Chinese people put up with their government being totalitarian, so many human rights abuses, this and that. Social credit system, organ harvesting. No end of horrible things we hear about Chinese government. The corruption. The dark things the CCP has done to consolidate its power. Tiananmen.

Well, the unfortunate answer is that China, as a collectivized group, wants to fuck over people who looked down on them, even if it means causing itself grievous injuries in the process. It's painful to admit, but the regular Chinese is perfectly okay with the Uighur death camps, even if the government goes to some length to pretend they don't exist. After all, surely they must be doing something to destabilize and weaken Chinese society if the government is putting them in death camps. Don't you know Uighurs can be unpredictable, barbaric, and violent? And if Chinese society is destabilized and weak, the Chinese people won't achieve our common destiny of being the #1 world power.

Chinese people don't care that there is anti-Chinese sentiment internationally. In fact, it even helps. It plays into the narrative that people hate China now because China is strong.

Privately, Chinese people will celebrate the NBA and Blizzard backing down in fear, because they equate this with power and respect. It is perfectly natural for the NBA to apologize for offending the Chinese government, because this is a display of strength. How will you be able to tell that you are stronger than someone, if they are not underneath your boot heel?

…

China has gone from largely a nation of rice farmers to modern state with terrifying speed. They are now the world leader in 5G communications technology, technological integration into daily life, the world's biggest consumer market. By every single metric, logistics, travel, entertainment, living standards, Chinese life has gotten better. And they are completely aware of this. Twenty years. Thirty years?

…

So there is an unspoken pact between the government and the people. In exchange for getting rich, the people have willingly given up their freedoms. Because you can't eat freedom. Many of the social problems in China are rooted in this short-term manner of business thinking; tomorrow, there may be trouble. Maybe the country would be in trouble. I'll never see this customer or client again. Why bother maintaining anything? If I can get a benefit out of cheating, why wouldn't I do it?

Chinese, especially the older generation, understand existential failure on a level the western nations don't. They don't take anything for granted, including the attitude of the government (and this has in fact driven a lot of asset flow out of China into other nations). They remember the Cultural Revolution, the societal madness that took hold when roving gangs of diehard Communists went around lynching people who wore glasses or owned books. They understand that the possibility of that shit happening again, or coming for them, is non-zero. So the attitude is to use every trick in the book to make sure that they come out on top.

…

There is a recurring belief from Americans that most Chinese are brainwashed by their authoritarian government, and if they only understood democracy, knew about the atrocities of the CCP, or were exposed to the taste of an All-American cheeseburger, there would be a great awakening and China would truly "become free". While certain elements of brainwashing and information control are most certainly true, there is a certain level of arrogance in this method of thinking.

For one, this viewpoint has completely ignored the possibility that China already knows exactly how cheeseburgers taste, all about the atrocities of its own government, and about democracy.

…

China's political and social state project has openly stated its intent to utilize and take advantage of what worked before, while adapting it to fit their own situation. Throwing away what doesn't work, surgically excising elements they consider dangerous or don't like. 'Socialism with Chinese characteristics'. 'China Dream'. These are adapted policies, methods, and ideals, refocused through the lens of the Party. Yes, they are stealing. They are also adapting.

Any good propagandist will tell you that the ideological battle is the first battle that must be won, and on this note America has failed utterly at defending democracy and personal freedom. This is not by Chinese design; rather, a combination of factors including financial inequality, changing demographics, chaotic governance, political point-scoring and media clickbait have done their best to demonstrate that American government is both unstable and spectacularly inept, and no longer believes in the values set down in the Declaration of Independence. America has considered the argument for democracy so thoroughly won that it has forgotten to defend it, or even the value of it. Into this void steps the Chinese government.

…

It is impossible not to watch. The US is the world's only really global power, and the current measuring stick by which all global powers are compared against. China wants what the US has, but is going to attempt to do so without the mistakes the Americans have made. After all, American empire is ending, or so everyone says. The bars are equalizing. America was a leader in space travel, so China will become a leader in space travel. America was a leader in world culture and entertainment, so China will become a leader in world culture and entertainment. America has a strong military, so China will have a strong military.

…

To leave with one last note, in the online kerfluffle surrounding Hong Kong's current situation, Chinese netizens think it's fair play to "support 9-11" and advocate for California seceding from the United States, as payback for a mistaken belief that the fight in Hong Kong is over independence. When confronted with the fact that edgy teenagers in America have been making 9-11 jokes barely a week after the tragedy and a non-zero amount of non-Californians in the US would also prefer it if California sunk into the ocean, they are legitimately surprised. The idea that this kind of independence would be preferred by both parties is almost completely alien to the Chinese, who wonder and are surprised at the fact that Americans apparently wish their country to be weaker.

#reddit #the motte #read the whole thing

8 notes · View notes

butyouvealwaysbeenthecaretaker · 6 years

Text

Rationalism: Pros & Cons

I’ve been toying with both adding “rationalist adjacent” to my Tumblr bio, and attending an IRL meeting – but I’m feeling very two-minded. The pros are so powerful and important – but so are the cons, and I’d venture to say the cons are actually worse.

I think it would be good to come up with a new label for a certain sort of Rationalism. The diaspora is very big, and like many social movements, has a lot of different splinters. I’d like to use a new term for “the bit of the diaspora I like”, because there is so much here I don’t want to be associated with. And so much I do.

I really like what Rationalism means on Tumblr, and how I understand it from participating here. We could call it Handmedown Rationalism, 2nd Generation Rationalism, or maybe there is a term for it that I've not encountered. Maybe the term is "Tumblr Rationalism", although I am not positive that using "Tumblr" as a prefix will communicate kindness and gentility well. "Kelseyan Rationalism", perhaps.

You get a radically different vision of what Rationalism means depending on...

You mostly read EY and Less Wrong

You mostly read r/ssc

You mostly read theunitofcaring

You actually live in San Francisco, and these people are in your social structure, not merely your news feed

It's very important to me to communicate "I believe in a kinder world, and want to be part of making it happen". Rather than "statistically, white people are better, and consent isn't evolutionarily sound" or "The biggest issue of our time is a hypothetical technology's hypothetical behaviour, and if you don't sign your children up for cryogenic freezing you are a lousy parent".

I've been researching and reading for months now, and I don't think I can use the term because there's such an huge iceberg of esoteric ideas below the surface, and too many of them are silly, terrifying or wrong. But I think most people who've encountered Rationalism through Tumblr are in a similar place about what they want to communicate when they say "Rationalist", and what they think "Rationalist" means - or want it to mean.

Is there another word? Can we make one?

Under the cut, long post of my “pros and cons” of adopting the label…

Nice things about Rationalism

1) Discourse norms which make me feel comfortable and supported to participate in discussions. The only people I feel entirely safe around on Tumblr. Both: people I always feel safe commenting on or reblogging, and people who rarely if ever put distressing content or behaviour in my newsfeed. The sorts of complex conversations and big ideas Social Justice promised - but no one is yelling at me or weaponising social shame.

2) Evidence-based reasoning, and a call to be open criticism, change your mind, listen to those you disagree with, and back up your positions.

3) Optimism that we can change the world – much needed, in the face of cynicism and apathy. Beautiful traditions like celebrating the eradiction of smallpox.

4) Social structures offering alternatives to the traditional role of religion: whenever core Rationalist bloggers write about their lives, I am deeply envious. Co-living, people who are united by shared values and vision, social norms favouring neuro-atypical people, etc. I would like this in my life.

5) I really like the idea of stepping away from the “Culture War”, because it generates “much heat but no light”. There’s an important kernel of truth there, about focusing on facts and productive work over clickbait and quick wins.

6) Some of their low-level issues are salient for me. This includes – attempting to have a more generous approach to men as a group, a general fear of Social Justice norms, and a belief in experimental self-care/improvement regimens.

7) I really grok Rationalists. I'm on the same wavelength. They're people I want to spend time with. Rationalism makes people happy and gives them purpose; that's always a good.

I think most tumblr people who use rationalist/rationalist adjacent are primarily communicating 1 & 7. They have discomfort with social justice norms: they want the discussion, politics and tolerance, without the shouting and death threats. And they intuitively see Rationalists and think "ah! my people!"

Unsettling things about Rationalism

Pretty much everything in this category boils down to “it is most rational to act effectively to achieve a stated goal. Too many Rationalist community tropes encourage extremely inefficient approaches.”

1) Missing the wood for the trees. Or focusing so hard on the wood you walk into a tree.

Like: politely playing footsie with fascists. There is such thing as too much civility. It’s good to be open minded and question your assumptions – but life is short. I’m OK with calling scientific racism a settled conversation so we can move on to something more important and productive. Like: a lot of the background noise about women, relationships, and consent. Sometimes things can’t be explained from a pure rational stance, and it’s uncomfortable to watch people try. How comfortable am I being associated with a group which includes Robin Hanson…? His writings about rape are - simply awful.

I do not for one moment wish to be mistaken for a person who agrees with those articles, or believes racism deserves a fair hearing when repackaged to sound sciency.

Every group is like this, right? But it's an odds game. I'm OK with identifying as a feminist, because I know our fringe crazies are safely on the fringe and small in number. With Rationalism...the fringe is putting the best ideas into practice effectively, while the core writings and influential figures are so far out the Overton Window they've actually hit the ground and started walking.

2) There’s nothing more stupid than a man who believes he is very clever.

“My idea is more logical than yours” functions a bit like “I’m more oppressed than you” in Social Justice spaces. If the space holds the value that “the most logical argument is king” or “the most oppressed person is prioritised”, then you don’t actually get rational debate or equality. You get a stick everyone tries to use to get ahead. Too many people presenting themselves as clever, not enough actual humility or uncertainty. When more status is granted for Writing Clever Worldbreaking Things, it encourages overconfident pseudoscience instead of authentic, accurate doubt.

Also: factoring in emotions, impulsivity, and irrationality is a vital part of getting the right answer when it comes to human beings.

3) Subcultural norm against participating in politics. Political engagement is an important tool for changing the world. It’s not perfect, but it’s what we have – ignoring it is dangerous and daft.

4) Related: subcultural norm for starting from scratch over participating in someone else’s project.

The world is changed by those who do the dishes and take minutes at meetings. Lots of big-scale Rationalist projects attempt to duplicate stuff that already exists, or re-invent the wheel, instead of improving something imperfect and building on work already done. The Libertarian streak encourages this attitude towards government, and the urge to set up parallel agencies and initiatives – instead of working at the grassroots. Which is not glamorous, but it is effective.

5) The wrong goals.

You can change the world at a local level – whether that’s pressuring a local store, supporting local people, writing to councillors, becoming a councillor. Focusing on existential risk is…well, to reuse the phrase, it’s a lot of heat and no light. Masturbation and no money shot. Debates without answers, actions, or measurable outcomes. In short – it’s bad activism. Martin Luther King won by focusing attention on a particular cafeteria protest, a particular bus company.

6) Poor use of power.

Rationalism appeals to some of the smartest and most influential people on the planet – well-paid people in tech, who are ambitious, courageous and motivated. I’m pretty furious and horrified the ideology channels this energy towards AI Risk rather than, say, global warming – something which is definitely happening, hurting people right now, and could absolutely benefit from that passion, innovation, money, and a Libertarian alternative to government dawdling. Tech is – worryingly – powerful in the ways that governments are powerful; if you’ve developed a ideology which connects powerfully with people and makes them believe they can save the world, it’s a crime to then tell them to LARP about with imaginary robots. Like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos farting around with Mars rockets instead of nuking wealth inequality, or setting up top-quality schools in deprived areas, or eliminating HIV, or…

7) Feels like a dodgy pyramid scheme.

“We should pledge to give a percentage of our income in effective ways to change the world” – brilliant! “We define ‘effective altruism’ as ‘AI research done by the founder of our movement’ – even though AI research has minimal impact, and our founder has no credentials.” Hmmm. Also "thank you for donating to our group for teaching Rationalist thinking. We have now decided to change our focus towards the aforementioned AI research. Alas, it's so speculative, don't expect measurable results or accountability for this - just know your money has been well spent, saving the world."

I think it’s very ugly to fill people with beautiful feelings, and then channel them into giving you money.

I think it's unsettling that Rationalism provides community for people who are outsiders, who are disabled, and who have scrupulosity issues - then says "good people in our community donate to our founder. It is the most rational action, and the only way to save the world."

Like, you have a captive audience of people who have - at long last - found their tribe. They're very vulnerable to social pressure which may lead to exclusion from the group. They're motivated by the idea of acting rationally, inspired by purpose you gave them to go out and make a difference - and experience acute distress at thinking they are not doing enough good. Do not. Squeeze these people for money. You asshole.

I don't think it's deliberate - but it's still wrong.

8) I like what the Sequences stand for – but not the Sequences themselves.

Learning how to reason, how the mind works, learning critical thinking, developing flexibility and introspection are all excellent. But I want to learn that from original texts by the best thinkers in the world. That is pretty emphatically not You Know Who.

9) Related: Amateurism.

In theory, I like the idea of teaching individual citizens how to use statistics, analyse scientific papers, how to run experiments, and tailor their own medication etc. In practice, these fields have experts in for a reason. Someone who attempts to use statistics, and does it poorly, is far more dangerous and worse off than someone who does not pretend to know, but trusts a reliable source. Core-Rationalism frequently includes people making definitive statements and presenting themselves as an authority, and being very overconfident about their expertise.

(A lot of this is neurodiverse stuff, right? Setting up your own grandiose project from scratch; being an auto-didact; mistrust of traditional authorities; being very clever etc. I’m too ADHD to function, so I can see where it’s all coming from – but it’s hardly optimised for efficiency or outcomes.)

10) There is no such thing as a safe community, and getting these things right is very difficult.

However, it is discomforting how many people close to the heart of power have credible abuse accusations against them. Also, how one of the key Rationalist organisations responded to an abuse accusation, with an inadequate internal process which concluded everything was fine. They’ve since backtracked. That’s not enough for me, because abuse scandal management reflects your innate understanding, bises, beliefs and background. You can’t backtrack when you realise that it looks bad, because the original misstep continues to reflect your group’s true values.

Also, the wider movement has a lot of beliefs which lay the groundwork for abuse: mistrust of feminism, economic approaches to dating, gender and sex, evolutionary psychology and pseudoscience, key figures arguing that rape is nicer than being cheated on...

11) People who say "I don't like Social Justice", and lowkey mean "I don't like feminism or being nice to transsexuals". Rather than how I mean it: "I don't like being frightened or walking on eggshells, I don't like how rage and shaming are totally OK, I don't like how inflexible and bad faith ideas are, I don't like how I've seen it used in real life as a weapon to gain power and control. I don't like bullies."

We are on the same venn diagram, but not nearly enough of an overlap. (Given the choice between a nasty person who supports my rights, and a kind one who does not, I choose: cutting off contact with humans and never leaving my house again)

12) Rationalism is a mere degree of separation from a lot of online movements and subcultures which are definite problems. The resurgence of polite scientific racism; anti-progressive pushbacks on LGBT rights and feminism; some of the MRA stuff, some of the incel stuff; treating Trump/politics as a dinner party debate rather than an active threat...

Can one promote Rationalism, without accidentally building these movements too...? It feels too close, and wilfully blind.

13) I want what the Rationalists I follow have. When I think about attending the local meetup, I imagine an evening spent with reddit users who think racism is very clever, and use phrases like 'not technically rape". How can I even consider adopting a label when I figure the odds are like...70/30 in favour of the rape Nazis? I do not imagine meeting people I would like to leave my child with. I do not think I will find an IRL mirror of for the cool, compassionate, nerdy people I follow online.

If you even have to ask "what percentage of this group are likely to be rape Nazis?", your have your answer.

#Handmedown Rationalism #In the caves behind my house I built a kinder world

1 note · View note

singledarkshade · 6 years

Text

A Part Of Something

Rip Hunter spent his life trying to protect time and the people he loved but lost absolutely everything because of it. No family, imprisoned by the organisation he created to replace the one that betrayed him and shunned by the team he brought together. Safe on a new Earth with the now human Gideon, Rip has a chance of a new life with his best friend at his side once more. Feeling comfortable in his new surroundings Rip begins to look to the future and where he fits into his new world but after Gideon’s near abduction his fear of losing her once more begins to push her away.

Part One - Tentative Strides

Gideon lay on her back staring up at the two people looking down at her.

“I think this was a bad idea,” she said, taking Rip’s hand to help her to her feet once more.

Alex frowned, “You need to learn to protect yourself, Gideon. That’s twice someone has come after you now.”

“I do understand this,” Gideon replied.

“Then we’re going to continue our training,” Alex told her sternly.

Rip bit down an amused smile at Gideon’s sigh of frustration, “You know if you want, I could always help.”

“No,” Gideon stated instantly.

Alex looked at them bemused, “Why is that a bad thing?”

“I happen to be well aware of what happened the one and only time Rip trained cadets,” Gideon replied.

“That was because I really didn’t want to do it,” Rip reminded her.

Intrigued Alex asked, “What did you do?”

“Okay,” Rip stated slightly defensively, “You have to understand we were stuck at the Vanishing Point because the ship had been badly damaged, meaning Gideon could only barely keep me alive after I had been injured on a mission.”

“Due to your insistence on following a plan I said would not work,” Gideon reminded him.

Rip sighed, “You spent six months berating me at the time. I don’t need you to repeat the lecture.”

“So,” Alex motioned Rip to continue before they started to argue.

Rip smiled at Gideon, “My superiors decided they weren’t happy with the way I’d handled my assignment and began an investigation. Since they grounded me I was bored. I couldn’t even get away to visit Miranda while waiting for the Waverider to be fixed and the investigation to be over. Druce, my...” he paused, a flare of anger appearing in his eyes at the name before he continued, “Mentor, I suppose is the best word, got a bit sick of me hanging around annoying him so made me take on the self-defence training of his new recruits.”

Gideon smiled, “Which he truly regretted.”

“What did you do?” Alex demanded intrigued.

Rip shrugged, “I just made sure they understood the rigours of time travel.”

“All eight of them ended up in the medical bay,” Gideon reminded him.

Rip shrugged again, “Then I did my job.”

“I can understand why you don’t want him to train you,” Alex noted with a chuckle, checking the time she sighed, “It’s getting late. Let’s finish there for just now and we’ll go over everything tomorrow.”

Rip turned to Gideon again, “Are you ready to go home?”

Gideon nodded, “Allow me to change and I shall meet you upstairs.”

Giving her a quick smile Rip left while Gideon headed to get changed.

Since their encounter with the meta-human who had played with their minds Rip had become even more protective of Gideon than before. When Alex brought up the idea of self-defence training for Gideon, Rip not only agreed but also suggested some weapons training just in case.

He had also become more open with them. Alex felt that somehow seeing Jonas again, even in the unusual way it happened, as well as telling her about the last conversation he’d had with his son had helped unburden Rip.

J’onn hadn’t revoked Rip’s credentials for the DEO, in fact he happily allowed the other man in whenever he wanted. Despite Rip’s insistence he didn’t want to be a part of the DEO J’onn had discovered that if he approached Rip in the right way he could get the other man to discuss possible missions, offer his thoughts on agents and give the benefit of his experience on operations.

“Do you want to join us for dinner?” Rip asked Alex when she found him sitting at Gideon’s station.

Alex blinked surprised by the offer, “I can’t. I have a date.”

“Anyone we know?” Rip asked, surprising her even more at expressing interest in her life.

“Blind date,” she winced, “Honestly I’m not looking forward to it but James fixed it up then set Kara on me to agree.”

Rip chuckled, a smile touching his lips when Gideon appeared, “Have fun.”

Alex rolled her eyes at him watching as Rip wrapped his arm around Gideon’s shoulders leading her out of the DEO.

“I think I have bruises on my bruises,” Gideon complained when they entered their apartment.

Rip chuckled, “Have a bath and you’ll feel better.”

“Why did I agree to let Alex do this to me?” she grumbled, dropping to sit onto the couch rolling her sore shoulders.

“Because someone tried to abduct you,” Rip stated seriously, “For the second time.”

Gideon winced, “I know.”

Moving her to turn slightly Rip sat so her back was at his chest, resting his hands on her shoulders Rip gently began to massage, “Give it some time and your body will get used to the exercises.

She leaned back moaning softly while Rip’s fingers pressed slightly harder into the aching muscles in her neck and shoulders. Rip continued the massage for about five minutes before he kissed her cheek.

“Run yourself a bath,” Rip told her, “I’ll make dinner.”

When he left her Gideon watched him for a moment. She wasn’t quite sure what changed recently but something had. Pulling herself off the couch with a groan Gideon went to run a bath hoping it would help.

*********************************************

“Hi, Rip,” Kara greeted him finding him sitting on the couch in James’ office, “What are you doing here?”

“I have absolutely no idea,” Rip replied.

“I’m trying to persuade Rip to take a job with Cat Co,” James spoke up.

Kara blinked in surprise, “Really?”

“Really?” Rip eyed James suspiciously.

“Don’t you have an assignment to get to?” James distracted Kara quickly.

She winced, “Yes. Just wanted to make sure we’re still on tonight?”

James nodded, “Definitely. You’re still the only one who knows the system Miss Grant had so I need you to find the files.”

“No problem,” she beamed before bouncing away.

James held up his hand to stop Rip speaking, he checked his watch before nodding, “Sorry, I don’t want Kara to overhear us.”

“I’m guessing I’m not being offered a job?” Rip asked amused.

“We don’t actually know when Kara was born since the Earth-Krypton calendar doesn’t work that well, so we celebrate the day she reached Earth as her birthday,” James explained, “It’s in two weeks.”

Rip stared at him a little confused asking, “And you want me to hire the bar for a party?”

“In her pod was a small cube thing that we think has some holographic scans of the planet,” James explained, “The engineers at the DEO have tried to repair it but haven’t been able to. Alex and I thought you might be able to.”

Rip frowned in thought, “Kryptonian technology?”

“Could you fix it?” James asked.

“I can look at it,” Rip replied, “I’ve seen their technology before, had to escape a prison on Krypton once,” he shook his head before James could ask, “Long story. I’ll see what I can do. Why not just have Alex ask me this when I’m at the DEO or at the apartment?”

James laughed, “Because Winn is at the DEO, while Gideon is at your apartment and both are terrible at keeping secrets like this.”

“Good point.”

“And J’onn doesn’t know that we’re asking you to do this yet,” James added making Rip roll his eyes in amusement.

Rip stood, “Tell Alex to let me know where it is once you’ve got permission and I’ll start working on it.”

Rip studied the device from Kara’s pod on the bench in front of him in the small lab J’onn had provided. This was hopefully to be a present for Kara but it was also a puzzle and Rip had always enjoyed solving puzzles. Especially ones that were connected to working with advanced technology.

There were times it amused him thinking that he had been born in a time long before computers had been invented but they were something he found so easy to work with. Removing the casing Rip smiled slightly because he did recognise the technology so he settled down to work.

Rip was well aware that J’onn’s security was not lax, that he hadn’t simply forgotten to revoke the credentials which allowed Rip into the building and able to use the systems. He was allowed in because J’onn wanted Rip to feel comfortable enough to help them.

As much as he didn’t want to be in the field, or responsible for people, he had recently began to wonder if J’onn would be amenable to him working with the science teams. The leader of the DEO had been happy to let him help with the Phoenix so Rip hoped J’onn would be happy to let him work on any alien tech that came in.

It was now eight months since he’d found himself in another universe, since he’d found Gideon again and, for the first time in a very long time, Rip was beginning to feel normal – relatively speaking anyway.

He liked this new life he had. Liked spending time with Gideon but he was also beginning to seek out Alex’s company and felt a lot more comfortable around the others.

It was time for him to come out of hiding.

*********************************************

Gideon giggled at Lena’s story along with Sam and Kara as they sat around Kara’s apartment finishing the pizza they’d ordered.

“And we’re out of wine already,” Lena frowned slightly lifting up the bottle.

“Gideon has that covered,” Kara assured her just before a knock came at the door.

Jumping up to answer it Gideon smiled finding Rip standing on the other side.

“You don’t like me being a barman,” Rip noted wryly holding up the bag with the bottles he’d brought, “But delivery boy is fine?”

Gideon smiled at him stepping back to allow him inside, “Stop being grumpy.”

Rolling his eyes Rip walked into the apartment placing the bag on the counter before turning and stalling to find the two women he wasn’t familiar with sitting there.

“Lena, Sam,” Kara introduced, “This is Michael Hunter.”

“You’re Gideon’s roommate?” Lena said.

Rip nodded slightly, “It’s a pleasure to meet you both. Gideon, Kara, a word please?”

Gideon caught Kara’s amused look as they followed him away from the two women who were now opening one of the bottles of wine he brought.

“Is Alex coming?” Rip asked them.

Kara shook her head, “She’s working.”

“How are you getting home?” Rip demanded of Gideon.

She rolled her eyes at him, “I can call for a taxi.”

“No,” Rip stated, “I’ll come get you.”

“Captain...”

“Until we know the people who are coming after you are gone then I am not letting you wander around on your own,” Rip told her.

Gideon frowned annoyed but before she could argue back Kara placed a hand on her arm.

“I’ll fly her home,” Kara promised.

Rip nodded, “Thank you, Kara. Enjoy your night,” he leaned over and kissed Gideon’s temple, “I’ll see you later.”

Giving Lena and Sam a polite nod Rip left the apartment. Gideon let out a long sigh as she took her glass of wine and sat again.

“He just worries about you,” Kara said as she took a seat again, “You know that.” Gideon let out an annoyed huff but didn’t say anything.

Lena leaned forward, “Let me get this straight, you live with the tall, handsome guy who clearly utterly adores you but you’re not a couple.”

Kara smiled, “It’s complicated.”

“I wouldn’t mind that kind of complicated in my life,” Lena noted, making Sam chuckle.

Gideon frowned, “Can we change the subject?”

The three women shared a quick look before Sam started telling them about Ruby’s friend.

Rip looked up from his book when he heard the noise coming from Gideon’s room. Jumping up he entered the room just as Kara disappeared. Gideon closed the window before she walked past him out of the room ignoring him as she headed to the kitchen.

“Gideon...” he started following her.

She pulled out a mug to make herself some tea, “You do not get to do that.”

“What?” confusion filled him.

“I am not a child, Rip,” she slammed the mug onto the counter, “I am not your property anymore. You do not get to decide for me what I do or where I go.”

Rip frowned, “I wasn’t.”

“Then what was that at Kara’s?” she snapped anger in her eyes, “Telling me I could not come back here on my own.”

“You were snatched off the street outside this very building, Gideon,” Rip snapped back, his own temper getting the best of him, “Someone tried to abduct you again only a few weeks ago. Am I supposed to ignore that? Am I supposed to not worry about you?”

“I am well aware of what happened, Rip,” Gideon retorted, “But I refuse to let the people responsible dictate my life. I am not an AI any longer. I no longer have to follow your orders. I am human and I have free will to do what I want.”

Rip shook his head, “So, you’re just going to make it easy for them?” he threw his hands in the air, “Why don’t we just let Marcus out then he can take you directly to whoever these people are. It’ll save us waiting for the next time they come after you. Considering what happened the last time then the free will you want to exercise will mean nothing.”

Anger flashed in her eyes before she walked into her bedroom returning a few minutes later with a bag.

“Where are you going?” Rip demanded.

“Somewhere I do not have to put up with you,” she snapped, marching out the door and slamming it behind her.

Rip hesitated not sure whether or not he should go after her. His phone buzzed just as he decided to chase after her

‘She’s with me,’ the message from Alex made his decision, ‘Let her calm down before you try to apologise’.

Rip grimaced, quickly typing back, ‘Why should I apologise?’

‘Because you’re being an overbearing ass.’

*********************************************

Kara was surprised to see Rip when she walked into the gallery for the show she was here to cover. She made her way through the crowds to the bar where he was serving drinks.

“I didn’t think you did the parties,” Kara said when she reached him.

Rip shrugged, “The guy who was meant to do this is sick and I’m the only one who wasn’t working so I’m doing Deena a favour.”

Kara smiled accepting the glass of wine he handed her, “Thanks.”

He gave her a quick nod before turning to serve the couple who were waiting. Kara headed further into the room to look at the paintings and sculptures she was here to write about but couldn’t stop looking over to the man at the bar. Despite how composed he appeared to be she could see the weariness in his eyes.

Feeling sorry for him she wandered over again with her empty glass.

“Are you okay?” she asked softly, “I know Gideon is still staying with Alex.”

Rip sighed rubbing her eyes, “She hasn’t spoken to me for a week. She’s been mad at me before but never like this.”

“Have you apologised?” Kara asked.

“I’ve tried,” he told her sadly, “Several times but every time I manage to even find her she walks away.”

Reaching out she rested her hand on his arm, “Give it a little time. Gideon loves you. She can’t stay angry at you forever.”

“She used to be an AI,” Rip replied with a sad laugh, “Trust me she can hold a grudge.”

Before they could continue the doors around the room burst open and several people ran in, all holding weapons shouting at everyone to stay where they were.

Rip glanced at Kara as they both tried to work out where she could go to change, stalling when the room began to glow green. A gasp of pain from his side made him turn to find Kara’s face pale; he caught her keeping her upright.

“What’s wrong?” Rip whispered worriedly.

Kara looked up at him, fear in her eyes, “Kryptonite.”

Part Two - Connections

#fic #legends of tomorrow #rip hunter #gideon #supergirl #alex danvers #kara danvers

1 note · View note

newstfionline · 6 years

Text

High-Paying Trade Jobs Sit Empty, While High School Grads Line Up For University

Ashley Gross, NPR, April 25, 2018

Like most other American high school students, Garret Morgan had it drummed into him constantly: Go to college. Get a bachelor’s degree.

“All through my life it was, ‘if you don’t go to college you’re going to end up on the streets,’” Morgan said. “Everybody’s so gung-ho about going to college.”

So he tried it for a while. Then he quit and started training as an ironworker, which is what he is doing on a weekday morning in a nondescript high-ceilinged building with a concrete floor in an industrial park near the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

Morgan and several other men and women are dressed in work boots, hard hats and Carhartt’s, clipped to safety harnesses with heavy wrenches hanging from their belts. They’re being timed as they wrestle 600-pound I-beams into place.

Seattle is a forest of construction cranes, and employers are clamoring for skilled ironworkers. Morgan, who is 20, is already working on a job site when he isn’t at the Pacific Northwest Ironworkers shop. He gets benefits, including a pension, from employers at the job sites where he is training. And he is earning $28.36 an hour, or more than $50,000 a year, which is almost certain to steadily increase.

As for his friends from high school, “they’re still in college,” he said with a wry grin. “Someday maybe they’ll make as much as me.”

Some 30 million jobs in the United States that pay an average of $55,000 per year don’t require bachelor’s degrees.

While a shortage of workers is pushing wages higher in the skilled trades, the financial return from a bachelor’s degree is softening, even as the price--and the average debt into which it plunges students--keeps going up.

But high school graduates have been so effectively encouraged to get a bachelor’s that high-paid jobs requiring shorter and less expensive training are going unfilled. This affects those students and also poses a real threat to the economy.

“Parents want success for their kids,” said Mike Clifton, who teaches machining at the Lake Washington Institute of Technology, about 20 miles from Seattle. “They get stuck on [four-year bachelor’s degrees], and they’re not seeing the shortage there is in tradespeople until they hire a plumber and have to write a check.”

In a new report, the Washington State Auditor found that good jobs in the skilled trades are going begging because students are being almost universally steered to bachelor’s degrees.

Among other things, the Washington auditor recommended that career guidance--including choices that require less than four years in college--start as early as the seventh grade.

“There is an emphasis on the four-year university track” in high schools, said Chris Cortines, who co-authored the report. Yet, nationwide, three out of 10 high school grads who go to four-year public universities haven’t earned degrees within six years, according to the National Student Clearinghouse. At four-year private colleges, that number is more than 1 in 5.

“Being more aware of other types of options may be exactly what they need,” Cortines said. In spite of a perception “that college is the sole path for everybody,” he said, “when you look at the types of wages that apprenticeships and other career areas pay and the fact that you do not pay four years of tuition and you’re paid while you learn, these other paths really need some additional consideration.”

And it’s not just in Washington state.

Seventy-percent of construction companies nationwide are having trouble finding qualified workers, according to the Associated General Contractors of America; in Washington, the proportion is 80 percent.

There are already more trade jobs like carpentry, electrical, plumbing, sheet-metal work and pipe-fitting than Washingtonians to fill them, the state auditor reports. Many pay more than the state’s average annual wage of $54,000.

Construction, along with health care and personal care, will account for one-third of all new jobs through 2022, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. There will also be a need for new plumbers and new electricians. And, as politicians debate a massive overhaul of the nation’s roads, bridges and airports, the U.S. Department of Education reports that there will be 68 percent more job openings in infrastructure-related fields in the next five years than there are people training to fill them.

“The economy is definitely pushing this issue to the forefront,” said Amy Morrison Goings, president of the Lake Washington Institute of Technology, which educates students in these fields. “There isn’t a day that goes by that a business doesn’t contact the college and ask the faculty who’s ready to go to work.”

In all, some 30 million jobs in the United States that pay an average of $55,000 per year don’t require bachelor’s degrees, according to the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce.

Yet the march to bachelor’s degrees continues. And while people who get them are more likely to be employed and make more money than those who don’t, that premium appears to be softening; their median earnings were lower in 2015, when adjusted for inflation, than in 2010.

“There’s that perception of the bachelor’s degree being the American dream, the best bang for your buck,” said Kate Blosveren Kreamer, deputy executive director of Advance CTE, an association of state officials who work in career and technical education. “The challenge is that in many cases it’s become the fallback. People are going to college without a plan, without a career in mind, because the mindset in high school is just, ‘Go to college.’”

It’s not that finding a job in the trades, or even manufacturing, means needing no education after high school. Most regulators and employers require certificates, certifications or associate degrees. But those cost less and take less time than earning a bachelor’s degree. Tuition and fees for in-state students to attend a community or technical college in Washington State, for example, come to less than half the cost of a four-year public university, the state auditor points out, and less than a tenth of the price of attending a private four-year college.

People with career and technical educations are also more likely to be employed than their counterparts with academic credentials, the U.S. Department of Education reports, and significantly more likely to be working in their fields of study.

Young people don’t seem to be getting that message. The proportion of high school students who earned three or more credits in occupational education--typically an indication that they’re interested in careers in the skilled trades--has fallen from 1 in 4 in 1990 to 1 in 5 now, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

Washington is not the only state devoting attention to this. California is spending $200 million to improve the delivery of career and technical education. Iowa community colleges and businesses are collaborating to increase the number of “work-related learning opportunities,” including apprenticeships, job shadowing and internships. Tennessee has made its technical colleges free.

So severe are looming shortages of workers in the skilled trades in Michigan that Gov. Rick Snyder in February announced a $100 million proposal he likens to the Marshall Plan that rebuilt Europe after World War II.

At the federal level, there is bipartisan support for making Pell grants available for short-term job-training courses and not just university tuition. The Trump administration supports the idea.

For all the promises to improve vocational education, however, a principal federal source of money for it, called Tech-Prep, hasn’t been funded since 2011. A quarter of states last year reduced their own funding for postsecondary career and technical education, according to the National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education.

Money isn’t the only issue, advocates for career and technical education say. An even bigger challenge is convincing parents that it leads to good jobs.

“They remember ‘voc-ed’ from when they were in high school, which is not necessarily what they aspire to for their own kids,” Kreamer said.

The parents “are definitely harder to convince because there is that stigma of the six-pack-totin’ ironworker,” said Greg Christiansen, who runs the ironworkers training program. Added Kairie Pierce, apprenticeship and college director for the Washington State Labor Council of the AFL-CIO: “It sort of has this connotation of being a dirty job. ‘It’s hard work--I want something better for my son or daughter.’”

Of the $200 million that California is spending on vocational education, $6 million is going into a campaign to improve the way people regard it. The Lake Washington Institute of Technology changed its name from Lake Washington Technical College, said Goings, its president, to avoid being stereotyped as a vocational school.

These perceptions fuel the worry that, if students are urged as early as the seventh grade to consider the trades, then low-income, first-generation and ethnic and racial minority high school students will be channeled into blue-collar jobs while wealthier and white classmates are pushed by their parents to get bachelor’s degrees.

“When CTE was vocational education, part of the reason we had a real disinvestment from the system was because we were tracking low-income and minority kids into these pathways,” Kreamer said. “There is this tension between, do you want to focus on the people who would get the most benefit from these programs, and--is that tracking?”

In a quest for prestige and rankings, and to bolster real-estate values, high schools also like to emphasize the number of their graduates who go on to four-year colleges and universities.

Jessica Bruce followed that path, enrolling in community college after high school for one main reason: because she was recruited to play fast-pitch softball. “I was still trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life,” she said.

Now, she’s an apprentice ironworker, making $32.42 an hour, or more than $60,000 a year, while continuing her training. At 5-foot-2, “I can run with the big boys,” she said, laughing.

As for whether anyone looks down on her for not having a bachelor’s degree, Bruce doesn’t particularly care.

“The misconception,” she said, “is that we don’t make as much money.”

And then she laughed again.

#college education #trade jobs #skilled trades #vocational education

1 note · View note

jennielim · 4 years

Text

0 notes

nxfury · 4 years

Text

Making The "SpookPhone"

So I've had lots of privacy scares in the past, with people trying to steal my identity, my banking info and so on. Over the past few years, I've grown fed up with this over time and have been looking for ways to hide my own personal information from theft, prevent telemarketing annoyance, and even gain the added benefit of making it just a little bit harder to be spied on by the government to preserve my own personal freedom.

Enter The PinePhone

What if I wanted a smartphone? I have been using a Google Pixel with a custom Android build for a while now, but I'm beginning to worry that's not enough. I've been hearing through my friends and online about this company called Pine64 that works on Open Source board designs for tech devices, such as smartphones, laptops, tablets and (recently) smartwatches.

So the Pine64 smartphone, or Pinephone, has pretty crappy hardware inside compared to a flagship smartphone. But given the $200 USD price point, I could buy three for the price of a "popular" phone. Also, it runs Linux as well as Android which means it supports the new and coming PureOS- a secured Linux build based on Debian. PureOS is actively made by the company Purism, who releases their own smartphone with this system. But can I run it on some cheap device?

Flashing PureOS

The Pinephone Comes with 16Gb eMMC storage and is extensible with an SD card. To flash PureOS, 2 things need to be downloaded: - JumpDrive- a tool for flashing the eMMC - The Latest PureOS Image for PinePhone

Now take a spare SD Card that's lying around and flash JumpDrive to it, using dd if on Linux, BSD or MacOS. If on Windows, use Win32DiskImager. When this is done, plug the Pinephone into the computer and plug the SD card into the phone. Booting up the phone will boot Jumpdrive, and allow you to flash the eMMC as if an SD card was plugged into the PC. This time, we are going to flash PureOS (again using dd or Win32DiskImager).

Once this completes, power the phone off and unplug the SD Card. Restarting the phone should boot you into PureOS. The default credentials are:

username: purism pass: 123456

Configuration

Naturally, that password STINKS. So change the password to something more secure before doing anything else. To do this, fire up the terminal and type passwd. You will be asked to type your password and there will be no characters to verify what you typed- instead it will confirm twice.

Now we can update the system by running sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade && sudo apt dist-upgrade. It is also possible to install the application gparted (if not already installed) to resize PureOS to use the entire eMMC storage space. With this accomplished, all that's left is just to install some software and reformat the SD Card to provide additional storage.

Putting a SIM Card in will allow for Texts, Calling and SMS out of the box. For LTE to work, some small tweaking with modemmanager will allow access to cellular data- although this is often not recommended for privacy, as WiFi is abundant and LTE forces the user to be connected to the cell network constantly, even if the user happens to be in "airplane mode".

Why Go To All This Effort?

Many might consider a cheap, secure and disposable smartphone a silly idea. But given the appeal of being able to run anything you please on the device, having documentation on how it works, and even being able to upgrade all aspects of it sounds rather appealing.

Without privacy in mind, the phone is a bit trashy- but the low price point makes it affordable and disposable, and the ability to install what you want gives you control.

With privacy in mind, total control of your device spells out absolute freedom. Install what system you like, remove what software you like, upgrade the hardware if you prefer, or just use the device as a display. It's all up to you, and no one is there to stand in your way or snoop in on you.

About PureOS

PureOS is effectively a heavily modified Debian Linux, with extreme security fixes applied, a custom environment tailored specifically to smartphones that is actually GNOME 3 but also modified, and it's on-screen keyboard software and other odds and ends leave it feeling like a full-fledged smartphone system.

Because PureOS is effectively Debian, this means it is possible to connect full-fledged keyboards and monitors to the phone and use it as a makeshift desktop, use it as a portable development environment, and actually do more than just what a smartphone is capable of.

Normally, PureOS only ships on the Purism Librem smartphone line, which is a bit expensive for regular consumers- so having the ability to use it on devices that are less expensive is awesome for people on a budget, or those who like to tinker.

Until Next time!

Liked This Content? Check Out Our Discord Community and Become an email subscriber!

0 notes

noisyunknownturtle · 5 years

Text

The Blockchain Africa Participants Optimistic About Continent Becoming Center of Progress

The Blockchain Africa conference produced a swathe of optimism for Africa to become a driving force behind the development and use of new blockchain-powered technologies.

Over the past few years, blockchain has replaced cryptocurrency as the “it” word in the fintech space. It is a fact that was mirrored by the Blockchain Africa conference itself, with speakers focusing more on the possibilities of blockchain answering a number of industry inefficiencies, and far less on cryptocurrency trading and tokenized solutions.

Africa has its own unique challenges in the global space given that many of its countries are trailing behind the rest of the world in infrastructure development. While the asymmetric digital subscriber lines and fiber internet connectivity is still being rolled out in many countries, mobile tower services have driven the proliferation of mobile payments systems.

To say that Africans have taken to these services would be an understatement. The M-Pesa mobile payment service is a prime example that shows Africans can quickly adopt technologies that improve their day-to-day lives. Mobile network provider Vodafone estimates that over 37 million people across seven African countries currently use M-Pesa, which was launched in 2007.

This is just one example of how people in Africa have benefitted from a future-forward solution to build a bridge to the people that are unbanked on the continent. In general, fintech solutions are being readily adopted and driven by African countries and companies. As Cointelegraph reported in an event recap of the Blockchain Africa conference, blockchain technology is already being explored by trade finance, supply chain and self-sovereign identity sectors. Here are the main use cases that can be observed right now:

A solution for Africa’s ID problems

The issue of Self-Sovereign Identity is a particularly interesting one in an African context, given the difficulty many people on the continent face when trying to obtain ID documentation. By way of definition, SSI refers to a situation where individuals hold and control their own identification credentials.

Victor Mapunda, CEO and founder of startup FlexFinTx, made a compelling case for a move to digital-based identities at the Blockchain Africa conference. In his presentation, data quoted by Mapunda estimates that nearly 400 million Africans do not have proper identification credentials. This then leads to a multitude of difficulties, as these people are unable to open bank accounts, apply for insurance or other financial products.

Related: Blockchain Digital ID — Putting People in Control of Their Data

Being banked and having insurance is a luxury when considering the deeper problems that are plaguing the continent. Referring to information supplied by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, only eight African countries have birth registration systems that cover 90% of the population.

Countries like Chad and Tanzania are only able to cover 12% of births in the country. Conversely, Egypt, Mauritius and Seychelles are the only three African countries that register deaths covering more than 90% of their population.

The key takeaway is that there is a sizable gap in providing Africans with vital identification documentation, which is primarily due to institutional inefficiencies. Data capturing and information sharing is therefore impacted, leaving various institutions lacking in information, unable to serve the public needs efficiently.

Mapunda hails from Zimbabwe and began exploring the issue of SSI when he faced his own difficulties in trying to register a bank account after studying abroad. FlexFinTx seeks to provide people with a digital ID through WhatsApp, which facilitates the issuance of a FlexID that is cryptographically secured by the Algorand blockchain. Users then have self-sovereign control over how their data is shared. Speaking to Cointelegraph after his presentation, Mapunda said that African people can quickly take to solutions that solve wide-ranging problems:

“I think Africans, when it comes to adoption of technology, are some of the most dynamic people in the world, this is because, for the most part, we don’t have a lot of legacy infrastructure and institutions. Most of the things we’ve grown up with didn’t work.”

Mapunda pointed to innovations such as mobile money and internet-based communication applications drastically improving Africans’ quality of life, saying, “Mobile money is a great example. We jumped on it,” and adding that no one even had to market it to the population. He went on to expand further:

“WhatsApp is a very good example of an application that didn’t have a single billboard, yet it managed to spread like wildfire across Africa. It solved a major problem — the cost of communication was too expensive and it’s a natural solution that people gravitate to.”

An answer to supply chain challenges

Blockchain technology has long been touted as a key tool in improving current supply chain systems across the world. In the past three years, major strides have been conducted in this regard, providing real use cases to back up the theory. The subject was covered extensively at the Blockchain Africa conference and was particularly important considering the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area in May last year.

The move created a free-trade area that now includes 28 African countries, which requires member states to remove tariffs to provide the free trade of goods and services. While it improves the ease of trade, there are still some hurdles to clear in the trade finance and supply chain.

Thavash Govender, a data and AI specialist at Microsoft South Africa, spoke to Cointelegraph during the summit and said that blockchain technology could hold a number of benefits for trade across the continent:

“The one challenge that we have at the moment is trust between different countries. If I’m going to drop my trade barriers and say you can bring all your products into my country, I need to know that we aren’t allowing counterfeit goods in.”

Perhaps more importantly, Govender suggested that systems that are improved through the use of blockchain technology could drastically reduce the amount of time it takes for trade to take place due to inefficiencies in various processes, elaborating:

“If I’m an SME, I’m going to open up to a whole bunch of institutions that I just don’t know. If we’re all part of the same blockchain consortium, then I know I can trust what is written on the chain. Because I can trust the information, I can move a lot quicker. It’s not going to take me weeks of investigation, so I can grant loans quicker or get the trade finance process going a lot faster.”

Public procurement and corruption

Another interesting implementation of blockchain technology is in the space of public procurement by government organizations. Corruption is not a uniquely African problem, but it is one that affects many countries on the continent. Sope Williams-Elegbe, a professor and deputy director of the African Procurement Law Unit at Stellenbosch University, gave a presentation on the possibilities of blockchain addressing corruption in public procurement.

Related: Zimbabwe U-Turns on Crypto, Looking to Stabilize Local Economy

Williams-Elegbe said that 15%–22% of South Africa’s gross domestic product goes to public procurement. The problem is that the country loses 50% of this to corruption and fraud.

The professor believes that blockchain could be used to address procurement corruption but admitted that there are few to no use cases as of now. There is a lack of technical applications for public procurement, and it presents an opportunity for new solutions.

Forget the hype, build on working tech

Michelle Nsanzumuco, who acts as a senior advisor to the government of Bermuda and the Africa lead for Fintech4Good, spoke about a number of the sectors described above as being potential drivers of blockchain technology.

In an interview with Cointelegraph, Nsanzumuco highlighted supply chain and logistics as the key industry that can leverage blockchain due to the complexities of trade created by the sheer number of players in a value chain. Nsanzumuco said that a number of entrepreneurs and SMEs that she has interacted with often complained about the difficulties they face when conducting trade inside their own country:

“They’re finding barriers just within their own countries because they’re dealing with so many different players, fill in so much documentation before they can even get their products from A to B. Now we haven’t even talked about cross-border transactions and trade. I can see it being a very strong use case for Africa specifically around supply chain and health care.”

Nsanzumuco added that blockchain solutions could improve the way health care systems track vaccinations and medications. Another factor is improving government services by digitizing a variety of manual data-capturing processes. Additionally, while strongly agreeing that the continent could be a leader in the blockchain space, Nsanzumuco cautioned against touting “blockchain” tech because of its marketability:

“A big warning for me having traveled around the world is not getting caught up in the hype. Let’s leverage real solutions in particular sectors where it can have an impact in Africa.”

The post The Blockchain Africa Participants Optimistic About Continent Becoming Center of Progress appeared first on For Crypto.

from For Crypto https://ift.tt/3ae5sbz

#For Crypto

0 notes

angryconnoisseurface · 5 years

Text

The Blockchain Africa Participants Optimistic About Continent Becoming Center of Progress

The Blockchain Africa conference produced a swathe of optimism for Africa to become a driving force behind the development and use of new blockchain-powered technologies.

A solution for Africa’s ID problems

Related: Blockchain Digital ID — Putting People in Control of Their Data

An answer to supply chain challenges

Public procurement and corruption

Related: Zimbabwe U-Turns on Crypto, Looking to Stabilize Local Economy

Williams-Elegbe said that 15%–22% of South Africa’s gross domestic product goes to public procurement. The problem is that the country loses 50% of this to corruption and fraud.

Forget the hype, build on working tech

“A big warning for me having traveled around the world is not getting caught up in the hype. Let’s leverage real solutions in particular sectors where it can have an impact in Africa.”

The post The Blockchain Africa Participants Optimistic About Continent Becoming Center of Progress appeared first on Tip Crypto.

from Tip Crypto https://ift.tt/2QGNOFs

#Tip Crypto

0 notes

coinfirst · 5 years

Text

The Blockchain Africa Participants Optimistic About Continent Becoming Center of Progress

The Blockchain Africa conference produced a swathe of optimism for Africa to become a driving force behind the development and use of new blockchain-powered technologies.

A solution for Africa’s ID problems

Related: Blockchain Digital ID — Putting People in Control of Their Data

An answer to supply chain challenges

Public procurement and corruption

Related: Zimbabwe U-Turns on Crypto, Looking to Stabilize Local Economy

Williams-Elegbe said that 15%–22% of South Africa’s gross domestic product goes to public procurement. The problem is that the country loses 50% of this to corruption and fraud.

Forget the hype, build on working tech

“A big warning for me having traveled around the world is not getting caught up in the hype. Let’s leverage real solutions in particular sectors where it can have an impact in Africa.”

The post The Blockchain Africa Participants Optimistic About Continent Becoming Center of Progress appeared first on Coin First.

from Coin First https://ift.tt/39f1ttX

#Coin First

0 notes

cryptowavesxyz · 5 years

Text

The Blockchain Africa Participants Optimistic About Continent Becoming Center of Progress

The Blockchain Africa conference produced a swathe of optimism for Africa to become a driving force behind the development and use of new blockchain-powered technologies.

A solution for Africa’s ID problems

Related: Blockchain Digital ID — Putting People in Control of Their Data

An answer to supply chain challenges

Public procurement and corruption

Related: Zimbabwe U-Turns on Crypto, Looking to Stabilize Local Economy

Williams-Elegbe said that 15%–22% of South Africa’s gross domestic product goes to public procurement. The problem is that the country loses 50% of this to corruption and fraud.

Forget the hype, build on working tech

“A big warning for me having traveled around the world is not getting caught up in the hype. Let’s leverage real solutions in particular sectors where it can have an impact in Africa.”

The post The Blockchain Africa Participants Optimistic About Continent Becoming Center of Progress appeared first on Crypto Waves.

from Crypto Waves https://ift.tt/3ad0VWV

#IFTTT #Crypto Waves

0 notes

technicalsolutions88 · 5 years

Link

A couple of years ago, the co-founder and CEO of a blood-testing company was publicly taken to task for implying in articles and professional profiles that he has a PhD, when, in reality, he’d left a prestigious graduate group three years after enrolling, without a degree.

The CEO is hardly alone in intentionally or otherwise sowing confusion around his credentials, however. Over the years, we’ve mistakenly believed that a number of founders have obtained specific college degrees based on their LinkedIn bio, only to learn offline that they enrolled for some period of time in a particular program that they didn’t complete.

It happened most recently with the co-founder of a startup who one might surmise has a master’s degree from Harvard based on his LinkedIn profile, but does not. We also misunderstood the CEO of a robotics company to have a PhD based on her LinkedIn. It was our fault; it mentioned under the credit that she’d left to start a company. But anyone scanning the site might have come to the same wrong conclusion. (We pointed this out to her team, and mention of the PhD was deleted.)

In a higher-profile case, James Damore, the fired Google engineer who authored that infamous memo about the company’s diversity practices and whose LinkedIn page cited a PhD in systems biology, removed mention of the degree after Wired confirmed with Harvard that he was enrolled in the program but didn’t complete the doctorate.

Damore tried to defend his own LinkedIn profile, tweeting at the time, “I never told anyone I have a PhD. LinkedIn can’t distinguish between being in the PhD program and having a PhD (I forgot to update it).”

Though few on Twitter found him credible, he wasn’t mistaken on this front. In creating a profile on LinkedIn, the choices one is given are to a) list a completed degree and leave off anything partially completed, no matter how much time was invested in a program or how minuscule its acceptance rate or b) list an incomplete degree without a clear way of explaining that it’s no longer being pursued or whether it will ever be obtained.

LinkedIn doesn’t view the issue as its fault. Asked whether LinkedIn members might be posting incomplete degrees because of the company’s user interface, a spokesperson emailed us today, writing that LinkedIn’s user agreement and “professional community policy” guidelines are “clear that members should provide factual information about themselves on LinkedIn.”

Added this person: “People should definitely add their education details to their LinkedIn profile. The education section includes ‘Start Year’ and ‘End Year (or expected)’ fields. If a member has a partial degree, we recommend they clearly state the status of their degree within the ‘Degree’ and/or ‘Description’ fields.”

Still, that “description” field isn’t easy to find. And why LinkedIn — which has more than 600 million users — hasn’t added fields for partially completed degrees is a bit of a mystery, particularly given that so many people drop out.

A cynic might note that LinkedIn makes a lot of its revenue off recruitment services. Before it was acquired by Microsoft, and the companies’ financials were consolidated, 65% of LinkedIn’s revenue came from recruitment services. And often the more distinguished the degree, the more people will pay to associate themselves with the ostensible degree holder. (LinkedIn itself strongly encourages loading up one’s profile with education-related details, saying these attract “11x” more profile views.)

Yet Jeffrey Pfeffer, a renowned professor at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business who has written extensively about organization theory, suggests that human nature is just as big a factor in the problem.

Asked if he has reason to think more students are listing incomplete degrees on LinkedIn, he points us to research published in 2001 by the payroll and benefits company ADP. What it shows is that of 2.6 million background checks that ADP performed that year, 44% of applicants were discovered to have lied about their work histories, 41% lied about their education and 23% falsified credentials or licenses.

“People lie about everything all the time,” says Pfeffer. “I’m not sure that it’s any worse now than it was 10 or 20 or 30 years ago.”

It’s something recruiters even anticipate, he says, recalling a conversation with a top executive from the search giant Heidrick & Struggles, who Pfeffer had interviewed for one of the many books he has authored. “He said to me, ‘So many people make up credentials that we no longer use fudged credentials as a reason to disqualify a candidate.’ He said recruiters will correct what they find wrong with someone’s resume. But he said if recruiters used exaggerated — even made-up — credentials as a reason to disqualify people, they would never have enough candidates.”

Indeed, while LinkedIn’s limited menu may give more cover to people, Pfeffer cautions not to assign the company too much blame. It’s a little like shooting the messenger, he suggests.

“Sure, LinkedIn could play some role. But they could change the way they operate tomorrow, and people would still find a way to make themselves look more accomplished than they are.”

Maybe so. Given its reach, we’d prefer to see some changes and find out.

from Social – TechCrunch https://ift.tt/33WoaRl Original Content From: https://techcrunch.com

#Technical Solutions #SEO #Online Earning #Youtube Marketing #Android Developer

0 notes

deniseyallen · 6 years

Text

On Senate Floor, Portman Highlights Need to Pass Bipartisan JOBS Act to Increase Access to Job Training Programs

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) spoke on the Senate Floor highlighting his bipartisan Jumpstart Our Businesses By Supporting Students (JOBS) Act, legislation he introduced with Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) that would help students access training for the 7.3 million vacant jobs that are unfilled in part due to a shortage of qualified workers. The JOBS Act would close this “skills gap” by expanding eligibility for Pell Grants to cover high-quality and rigorous short-term job training programs so workers can afford the skills training and credentials that are in high-demand in today’s job market.

A transcript of his remarks is below and a video can be found here.

“I’m here on the floor today to talk about career and technical education and specifically legislation we’ve introduced that would provide a lot more training opportunities for people who need these in-demand jobs that are out there. When people hear about career and technical education sometimes they wonder what we’re referring to. This is really high school programs, used to be called vocational education for many in my generation, they might remember it as that. But it’s not your father’s Oldsmobile, it’s not the old Voc-Ed programs you might remember.

“In fact, it’s really impressive. If you go to these CTE schools today, and Ohio luckily has a lot of great career and technical academies and schools, you’ll see something amazing. You’ll see young people being trained up for some of the most sophisticated jobs out there: in bioscience, technology, welding of course, and manufacturing in Ohio is a big deal. But also truck drivers to get a CDL, a commercial truck driving license. You might see somebody there who is interested in going into firefighting or EMS. This morning I had a chance to visit with a young man who is in a CTE program where he immediately is going to be hired by a fire department. These are great opportunities for our young people.

“Right now, these CTE schools are incredibly important because the skills are needed, the training is needed. One of the challenges that we’ve had is sometimes parents who are advising their kids are saying, ‘You need to go to a four-year college or university like I did or maybe like your uncle or aunt did,’ or maybe that’s the goal they have for their kids, and that’s fine. For many young people that’s appropriate. But for others, what a great opportunity to be able to get out of high school, get a job immediately, a good-paying job with good benefits and then at some point, because often in these schools, including in Ohio, you get college credit while you’re in high school to go on to college later. And perhaps your employer will pay for that.

“This morning I was with a young woman named Jordan. She is at the Great Oaks Career and Technical Center in Southwest Ohio. Jordan is becoming a welder. She is going to have amazing opportunities. She does. She’s got plenty of job opportunities for her because she is going to have the skill so badly needed in Ohio right now. Our manufacturing sector is desperate for welders and they’re willing to pay good money for welders so she can make $45,000, $50,000 a year with good benefits at 18 years old as a welder instead of taking on student debt, and in Ohio it is about $27,000 on average, somebody graduating from community college or a four-year college or university is taking on significant debt. So this is an opportunity for us to get more young people into career and technical education. I think we ought to do it.

“We have a good economy right now, thanks to tax reform and regulatory relief. There’s a lot of hiring going on. There’s actually higher wages right now. In Ohio, we have a number of people who are looking for employees. The help wanted signs are out there. We have about 148,000 jobs available in the state, if you look at Ohiomeansjobs.com, a website that offers these positions. There are about 250,000 Ohioans out of work. How does that make sense? It makes sense because if you look at the jobs that are being offered many of them are jobs where you have to have a skill, you have to be a coder or you have to be a machine operator or a welder or you have to have some bioscience background to be a tech. If we had the skills training, we’d be able to fill these jobs, which would be great for the companies and for the economy, but also just, again, a great opportunity for these young people. In 2018, our economy added 223,000 jobs per month on average. That’s about twice what the pre-tax reform baseline was from the Congressional Budget Office of only 107,000 jobs per month. We more than doubled the job growth. We’ve also had strong wage growth over the last 12 months. Wage growth in the last year is higher than any time in the last decade.

“In Ohio, frankly, for a decade and a half we’ve had flat wages. Finally, we’re now seeing wages going up. Last month the average was about 3.4 percent growth for private-sector workers. By the way, more for blue-collar workers than for white-collar workers, supervisory workers, which is all good news.

“So we’ve got a lot of good things going on in terms of increasing jobs, increasing wages, increasing benefits. Much of that just due to tax reform. I have gone around our state and talked to folks at roundtable discussions. I’ve been to more than 25 businesses to ask specifically, ‘What did you do with the tax savings?’ Every one of them has a great story. But with all of these pro-growth policies kicking in, again the thing I’m hearing now is that ‘tax reform helped us, the regulatory relief was a good idea, but we need workers, we need people and we need them to have the skills to fill the jobs that we have.’ This mismatch between the skills that are out there and these jobs, that skills gap is what we need to close. There are lots of ways to do that.

“If you look at the National Skills Coalition, they’ll estimate that nearly half of all job openings between now and 2022 will be middle-skill jobs that require education beyond high school but not a four-year degree. So again, career and technical opportunities in high school. And then when you get out of high school to have a certificate where you can get into a course where you can learn how to do one of these skills. Although you’re not getting an associate’s degree or bachelor’s degree, you’re getting a certificate, often a stackable certificate, that can lead to a degree later. That’s what’s going to be really needed. If you look at the skills gap right now, Deloitte and the Manufacturing Institute have highlighted that fact that there are so many jobs out there that need these skills. They estimate there are about 2.4 million positions that will likely be unfilled between 2018 and 2028. And this economic impact, not having these jobs filled, is about a $2.5 trillion hit to our economy. This is why all of this is so important.

“About six years ago we started the Career and Technical Caucus here in the Senate. There was two of us, Senator Kaine from Virginia and myself and now we are have 27 senators on the CTE Caucus. Why? Because members are hearing back home about this and this has been good to raise awareness for career and technical education. It’s been helpful for us to be able to put together some bipartisan legislation that helps to promote career and technical education. Last year in the Perkins bill, for instance, Senator Kaine and I got legislation in that helps to improve the quality of CTE programs all around the country, ensuring again that college credit can be offered helping to hold up these programs to make sure that young people and their parents know about this opportunity.

“Just a couple of week ago, Senator Kaine and I reintroduced legislation called Jump-start Our Businesses by Supporting Students Act. That acronym is the JOBS Act. And the JOBS Act is something we’ve introduced in the last couple of Congresses. But I really feel like its time has come. I feel like it’s an opportunity right now for us to move forward with the JOBS Act. One, because we’re hearing from all around the country the need for this, but, second, because we have the likelihood of a higher education bill moving this year, which would be a perfect place to put the JOBS Act. It’s a really common-sense solution to help solve this skills gap problem we’re talking about because it says very simply with regard to Pell grants, which is for low-income students, instead of just making them available for community college or for four-year colleges, universities or for longer-term courses, why not allow Pell Grants to be used for shorter-term training programs. That is what is needed right now.

“I think this is really a fairness issue. When I talk to students, as I did this morning here in Washington, as I do back in the state of Ohio, what they tell me is, ‘Rob, I don’t have the money to get a driver’s license sometimes, to go through that process much less to get a certificate to become a welder or to become a coder or a tech in a hospital setting. And yet the government will give me a Pell Grant for me to go to a junior college or a community college or a university, but I can’t get a Pell Grant to help me get the training I need to actually get out there to get a job that I know is right there ready, good pay, good benefits.’ To me, that shows how our system is not working with regard to the modern economy and the needs that we have right now. And it’s not fair to those students. So I think we ought to be able to allow those students to use those Pell Grants for theses shorter-term training programs of less than 15 weeks.

“I also think it is a matter of efficiency for the Pell Grant and the taxpayer. Unfortunately with regard to Pell most people who take a Pell who go to school, go to a college, don’t graduate, and there are lots of reasons for that. I think the main reason is many of them have to drop out because they have to work, but in the meantime they don’t have the degree. So they have the Pell but they don’t get the degree, not even a certificate, whereas in the short-term training programs, 15-week training programs, trust me, if somebody starts off one of these training programs, it is much more likely that they’re going to wind up getting the certificate. Again, they can see just around the corner where the job is. The certificate is, in a sense, the ticket to that job and it is a shorter-term prospect. So I think it’s a very efficient use also of the Pell Grant and we should expand the Pell Grant. Let’s not take it away from colleges and universities, not at all. The Pell Grant is an important program, but let’s allow it to be used for the short-term training programs.

“I was at the CT program in Akron, Ohio recently. I also went to Stark State community college. They have a new campus there. We had a roundtable on workforce development. We had a lot of local businesses there who were talking about how great these programs have been for them. We had students there, we had the Chamber of Commerce and the Mayor of Akron, Dan Horrigan was there and Summit County Executive Ilene Shapiro. I heard from some of those students who were already working, in high school and in college in this community college for some of the local employers. Businesses like the K company which is a HVAC company based in Akron, they work with Stark State and local high schools and get young people on the right educational track to be able to work in the HVAC field, where there are plenty of jobs right now. If you’re an HVAC tech, you can get a job. It’s been a great example where they are helping the economy, they are helping this particular business, they are really helping these students to be able to get a great job.

“The Stark State president, Dr. Para Jones, is very innovative and working again with our high schools and working with the business community trying to ensure we’re all working together on this. I’ll tell you, Dr. Jones, the employers who were around that table, the educators around the table, the students around the table, all of them were really excited about the JOBS Act. Because they know it will work. They know this will help them deal with exactly the kind of problems they are seeing in the local community.

“Last week I also toured a company in Hubbard, Ohio, called Warren Fabricating and Machining. As always, I heard about the need for skilled workers. It’s a great example of a company that has taken full advantage of the tax reform and tax cuts. They bought a beautiful new machine that is incredibly important for their effectiveness as a company to be table to compete with China and others, they’ve been able to raise people’s salaries and increase the benefits with their tax savings. But their issue now is getting the workforce. They want to operate at full capacity but they can’t find the people. They’ve got openings right now.

“I also visited an advanced manufacturer called Rhinestahl Corporation in Mason, right outside of Cincinnati. They manufacture high precision parts for the aerospace and defense industry. Other employers were there, as well as Butler Tech, which is a local CTE program which has done real incredible work, really innovative. There I had an opportunity to meet with a lot of students and one of them was a high school student named Jake. He’s a chemical operator at a nearby manufacturer called Pilot. He’s a veteran, he’s completed his certificate training and his employer is now paying for him to continue his education and to be able to get a degree while he is working for them.

“Connor was there, a high school student running machines and learning advanced manufacturing while working at a place called RB Tool. Torres, a 19 year old who went through that program, is now in charge of calibration and making sure precision tools are up to speed at these company called Rhinestahl. The teacher of all these students, a guy named Dave Fox was there. He said that his last class of 28 graduates had a combined total of 100 job offers. Think about this. These are young people going through these certificate programs, 28 young people, they had more than 100 job offers. Again, these are good job offers, we’re talking about $40,000, $50,000 a year, jobs that pay $18-$20 an hour and good benefits. And again a lot of employers will also continue to pay for them to continue their education, should they choose to do so.

“Just last week, President Trump came to the Joint Systems Manufacturing Center in Lima, Ohio. This is an incredible manufacturing company that does something pretty unique in America, which is they build tanks. So the kind of welding they have to be trained on is incredibly sophisticated, difficult to do. The kind of machine work they have to do is really difficult, cutting the tanks’ steel is an incredibly difficult task plus some other alloys that they use to protect our troops out in the field. They need to hire about 400 additional workers in the next year or so. Partly because with the defense buildup we’re putting more money into the plant, and I’m very pleased to say that President Trump in his budget put more funding into the Lima Tank plant for this year, but we need workers. They need help training people. They need skilled welders, machinists, assembly workers, various types of engineers. Again, these are good-paying jobs, great opportunities for young people whether they are coming up through the ranks, through their high school or mid-career and changing jobs, it would be great for us to help them get the people they need. And the JOBS Act, they all say, would be exactly what they need to help do that.

“At a roundtable discussion at Staub Manufacturing in Dayton recently, the CEO of the company told me that he believes welders coming out of high school will be better off financially than many attorneys or doctors. I asked him what he meant by that. He pointed out that while an attorney or another professional might make more coming out of school, by the time they get out of school, law school as an example, and get out of debt and start investing, that welders are well on their way to building a significant nest egg. That’s true when you think about it. A welder makes $50,000 a year starting at age 18. Let’s say no student debt because, again, through the certificate program and through a Pell if we get the JOBS Act passed in particular, this person’s able to be table to do so without any student debt.

“Using an online calculator and assuming about 8 percent growth, that individual sets aside 10 percent of their income for retirement at the age of 18 up to age 67. This assumes that a person gets no raise at all, which of course that’s not going to happen. The person will get a higher salary over time as that person gets more seniority. But assuming no raise, $50,000 a year, $2.8 million in retirement savings at age 67. That is a nice nest egg to be able to live comfortably in retirement with peace of mind. Compare that to an attorney making $100,000 a year at a big law firm, starts investing it at 30 years old after getting through school, paying off debt. That person sets aside 10 percent of his or her income will produce $2.2 million by age 67. Even though the attorney had a higher salary and was investing twice as much each month, it’s the welder making $50,000 a year that will be better off.

“Part of this is getting people into these jobs, getting them into these jobs when they are young where they can make investments in their retirement, but also make investments in a car, be able to buy a house, able to put money aside for their kids’ education. Just to be able to have that peace of mind that comes with knowing that you will have this profession and this opportunity to get ahead early in life. So I’m hoping that we can get the JOBS Act passed because it will help provide so many people, particularly young people, these opportunities if we can shift the paradigm. You know, stop this notion of thinking that everybody who is going through high school needs to go to a four-year college or university right away.

“Instead think about how do you ensure that this young person can have an opportunity to get ahead in life and learn a skill where there is an immediate need and actually help our economy, because our biggest challenge right now as I see, not just in the manufacturing sector where it is particularly obvious, but across the board in bioscience certainly moving, truck driving and other professions, the biggest challenge we have right now is workforce. So this would do both. The JOBS Act has been endorsed now by the National Skills Coalition, the Association of Career and Technical Education, and the Association of Community Colleges. I know the community colleges have put this highest on their list. And the American Association of Community Colleges and other groups.

“I’m also pleased to say again it’s in President Trump’s budget. This year’s budget actually has our JOBS Act included in it. So it’s one that is totally bipartisan. Senator Kaine from Virginia and I have been co-authors of this legislation over the years, we continue to work closely together on this. We have 10 cosponsors already, having just introduced this a couple of weeks ago. It’s a bipartisan group, mixed Republican and Democrat. We also have a lot of outside stakeholders supporting it and, again, now in the president’s budget.

“The reason we’re getting all this support is that it works. It works. It will cover programs that at a minimum require 150 hours and eight weeks to complete. There’s some alternative programs that limit the programs by requiring them to be 320 hours. I will just tell you our community colleges tell us that none of their short-term training programs would qualify for that higher number of hours. Programs like welding, precision machining, electrical trades, all those programs will fit in the JOBS Act but not in some of the alternatives that are being discussed.

“We need the JOBS Act now, and we think there is a great vehicle for it, which is the Higher Education Act this year. By the way, a big fan of career and technical education is the chairman of that committee, Senator Lamar Alexander. He understands the need for us to provide the kind of skills training that’s needed to fill the jobs that are out there that companies are desperate to fill. He sees this in his own state of Tennessee where he has a lot of manufacturing jobs, including auto manufacturers who are looking for more skilled workers every day.

“As we work to reauthorize that legislation, the Higher Education Act, my hope is that colleagues on both sides of the aisle will join us in ensuring that the JOBS Act is included in that. Let’s be sure that we do deal with the fairness issue here, that we have a sense of understanding about our economy and what the needs are right now and a lot of that need is in skills and the kind of skills that the JOBS Act would provide. It just makes too much sense.

“If we make career and technical education a priority, if we enact the JOBS Act I just discussed today, we will help tens of thousands of our young people be able to achieve their dreams, have better opportunities and just as important we’re going to be able to help our economy. Help to ensure that we do have, here in the United States, a growing economy where we have better tax policy, better regulation policy but also the workers to ensure companies don’t pick up and move because they don’t have the workforce here.

“As companies tell me in Ohio, ‘Rob, we could do what we’re doing here in other places and not just Indiana which is next to Ohio but maybe India.’ We don’t want that. We want to have the workforce here that is needed to be able to keep these good jobs and keep these companies here in this country to ensure we can keep moving in a positive direction. And again, ensure that Ohioans can develop the skills they need to grow the career of their choice and to fulfill their potential in life.”

###

from Rob Portman http://www.portman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ContentRecord_id=8C60B123-1DA5-4CD9-9F2A-BABFD3B80515

0 notes

toddbirchard-architect · 7 years

Photo

Do Good PMs Need A Technical Background? http://ift.tt/2xl5cF9

Product management messaging boards are typically filled with timeless clichés, most of which are questions from aspiring product managers. Of the usual inquiries young PMs have, there is one in particular which I find to be misrepresented: "Do I need a technical background to be a good PM?"

When looking to the large tech companies in Silicon Valley, many people entering the realm of product find the requirements daunting: "BS in Computer Science or equivalent required." This is when most undoubtedly turn to the internet for answers, usually to be consoled by PMs currently in the field. The response is more or less always the same. Consensus amongst employed PMs is nearly always that a technical background is not required, and that one's own curiosity and people skills. As I typically do, I'd like to take the path less traveled on this topic.

In order to be a good product manager (emphasis on good), I believe you must have some degree of technical background. Is it possible to be a product manager without this knowledge? Of course, the overwhelming majority of PMs have little to no programming experience, and almost zero formal training in product management itself... which is to be expected considering the youth of the profession. It is my opinion however that in order to achieve a higher level of product management professionalism, one's "curiosity" for technology needs to have some substance. With the current influx of young talent in product management, what constitutes good should be held to a higher standard.

Technology Braindrain

In recent months there has been a massive influx of people discovering and taking on roles in product management. Most interesting has been who these people are: the business and marketing majors of over a decade ago are now flooding into technology leadership roles, shaping products and leading teams of skilled engineers. A lot of the time, these were the people skipping classes while I was learning programming languages... a fear I had previously expressed only to become actualized faster than imagined.

Personal qualms aside, the trend of anti-intellectualism is not something limited to product management or technology, but nationwide across all verticals. As talent continues to flock from previously established hubs in the US and UK, the need for intelligent T-shaped employees is becoming ever more important. If not for their own personal growth, product managers entering the field now should realize the importance of skills for the good of their own organizations, or such organizations may not exist tomorrow.

The floodgates are open for colorful personalities to overtake product management- a trend I don't foresee ending any time soon. Product managers should realize that being a self-proclaimed entrepreneur or 'product guy' is simply not good enough to hold a long-term position in this profession. While there may have been a time when basic knowledge of startup funding was enough to impress past the job interview, a bubbling market should have used car salesmen worried for themselves. It will quickly become obvious that PMs without technical abilities are entirely expendable in a market where young talent is endless. Before jumping into this profession without any intent of learning the nuts and bolts, one truth about employment should be considered:

You Are Worth The Cost Of Your Replacement.

Workers are not compensated by how hard they work, as should be obvious given the plummeting wages of unskilled labor over time. Your salary, worth, and job security are all dependent on what you personally offer your employer over the next person in line. If your skills are truly difficult to find, such will be reflected in your success. Otherwise, don't expect a pretty face or bubbly personality to get you very far... younger generations only see themselves more and more as Instagram celebrities, betting on the intangibles is a horrible bet.

Leading by Example

Let's make something clear: by choosing to be a product manager of any organization, you are personally choosing to represent the vision and execution of technology products. While you may not be a leader, you are leading a company and team's strategy & efforts in a technical space. If you want to be considered the "CEO of the product," how are you expecting a complete disinterest in your own field to go over with those executing the work?

Having no hands-on technical experience sends a negative message to the teams one is managing. To find out how developers feel about their PMs, simply go out of organization and ask any dev their thoughts on PMs as whole. The responses are almost overwhelming negative: PMs usually have a standing reputation for being the A-type personality with little knowledge doing who-knows-what. While this may be a generalization, the vast majority of development teams do not have strong faith in their product managers, as they have not been given a reason to hold such a faith. This of course is not limited to development teams, but rather all cross-functional skilled labor.

I am a strong proponent of leading by example. It is hard to imagine how a general would rally their troops if it had been revealed that he himself had never seen combat. Similarly, development teams who have dates dictated to them by individuals who have no credentials or real-life experience to set such dates have no reason to be respected... and why should they?

A product manager who understands the intricacies of programming is offered many advantages over their non-technical counterparts, starting with the respect of the team they are managing. When driving a team of skilled professionals, the management strategy of ruling with an iron fist simply does not work. Perhaps in the time of the industrial revolution did the foreman have a relevant career, but times have changed since the workforce was dominated by sewing machines and assembly lines. Development is a mind intensive task which relies on problem solving skills, and simply cannot be forced by artificial deadlines or pressure.

The only thing that inspires skilled teams to work faster is their choice to do so.

Skilled labor is a battle of the mind, and minds have a finite ability to focus over periods of time. Good PMs are people that designers, developers, and so forth respect, thus want to work for. Otherwise, the team will be as mediocre as the product manager themselves.

The Gift Of Foresight

Individuals with experience in a given field are immediately at an advantage, even if they themselves are not the ones executing the work. An underestimated attribute in the field of product management is the luxury of foresight.

Foresight is important in technology execution settings as it kills a number of steps that may otherwise exist, and allows the PM to immediately set ballpark expectations in the face of stakeholder requests before they bubble up to something larger. This is a massive differentiator: almost any experienced PM knows that one of the largest hurdles in the field is the the juggling of stakeholder requests. A PM who is able to speak to some of the technical implications of asks will immediately find themselves ahead when compared to a non-technical product manager.

Having foresight is also important when collecting estimates for projects, setting timelines, and communicating dates to stakeholders. Estimation is perhaps one of the most notoriously elusive aspects of building technology... a PM who is able to gut check design and dev estimates and adequately pad timelines is effectively nullifying the biggest question mark faced when delivering products.

Other Advantages Of Technical Abilities

Technical skills goes even further beyond the realm of leadership, expectations, and estimation. Here are some additional advantages afforded to those with technical backgrounds:

The benefit of the doubt. In many circles, PMs have created an image of themselves which comes off as a naive communicator between two parties. The ability to speak to technical implications with the credentials to back up statements makes things a lot easier for everybody.

Effectively building feature backlogs. Something which absolutely crushes team morale is a product manager which frequently puts forward absurd feature requests in terms of technical implications.

Offering perspective. Product managers should be knowledgable enough to add a worthwhile opinion to problems that teams face. In the facer of bugs or hurdles to a team, PMs are well served as being a helpful voice.

Unblocking teams. A technical PM has the knowledge to resolve blocking issues that non-technical PMs cannot, such as building out logic flows and answering questions which would otherwise need to occupy a resource who should be working.

In all of these advantages, there is a takeaway underlying theme:

Product managers should exist to maximize the ability of their teams, and never slow them down.

A product manager who slows a team down with absurd requests is not a good product manager. If a PM has no ability to take up a piece of the work to keep teams moving, they are not adding enough to their team.

Should I Become A Product Manager?

Product Managers should have a love for technology and an ambition to contribute something meaningful to the field. I personally find it hard to believe that a person who has exerted zero effort to learn the craft they are hoping to lead has this sort of passion.

That said, I would value the willingness to learn over preexisting knowledge any day. Those looking to become PMs today without technology credentials are still positioned to do well, as long as there is legitimate love for the field and intent to improve one's self. Young PMs should not have a problem landing a product management jobs in today's market without a CS background or equivalent, but that could very well change tomorrow. Product managers looking to take the next step in their career, even with a modest raise, may be surprised to find hesitant employers who know very well that the same skills exist for cheap in the existing market.

If the prospect of learning is something scary to you, I would consider pursuing a role outside of technology. Product management will not fulfill any expectations of taking on a leadership role, and may leave ambitions to climb a corporate ladder stale after realizing just how difficult it is to be considered a good PM. Otherwise if you consider yourself to be clever, hungry, and unafraid to fail, I'd like to personally welcome you to the profession.

September 21, 2017 at 09:21AM

0 notes

mariannewhughes · 7 years

Text

Green Electronics Standards Are Broken

Ever wonder how tech companies can make unrepairable, non-upgradeable, hard to recycle products—and still get away with calling themselves green? Because those same tech companies actually help write US standards for greener electronics, according to a new report from Repair.org.

If we want better environmental standards, we’ve got to stop letting the fox guard the henhouse: we can’t let companies like Apple, Oracle, and Sony tell us what makes cell phones, servers, and computers environmentally sound. We need to demand better, more repairable, more sustainable product designs.

What are green electronics standards, anyways?

Strictly speaking, no electronic device is “good” for the environment—they’re resource intensive to make and too many of them end up in the trash too soon. Tech companies can really only make electronics that are “less bad” for the environment. Green standards give electronics manufacturers a clear path to “less bad”—weighing things like materials use, packaging, energy efficiency, lifespan, and recyclability to rate products. If a new product meets enough of the criteria on the standard, it gets listed on EPEAT’s green product registry with a Bronze, Silver, or Gold designation. The more criteria the new gadget meets in its standard, the higher the designation.

But manufacturers don’t just seek green certifications out of the goodness of their hearts. It’s strategic. Consumers prefer to purchase sustainable products and we’ll pay more for them. Plus, the federal government—the single largest purchaser of IT equipment in the world—is actually required to buy electronics vetted by these standards. It may not be easy being green, but tech companies can make a chunk of money doing it.

Products scores are designed to be quantitative, so you can’t really fudge your final rating in a standard. But what if you could design a standard that your products are guaranteed to pass? It’s like rigging a test: instead of improving the product, manufacturers change the scoring system to match their products. Their gadget is dubbed “green,” consumers get to buy it guilt-free, and everyone wins—except the environment.

Rigging the system

So let’s say you’ve designed a server that’s coming out next year. You want it to get a high rating on the green standard, but you don’t want to change your design. No problem! Just join the open committee that develops the standard and object to any progressive rules that might flunk your product. Standards are consensus-based, so the negative voices carry the day.

“Manufacturers often make up such a large portion of standards committees, they can easily vote against policies they deem too challenging and approve more lax requirements,” writes Mark Schaffer, a standards expert and author of Repair.org’s new report on the standards development process, Electronics Standards Are In Need of Repair.

Here’s an infuriating tidbit: There doesn’t seem to be a single non-profit environmental organization in the group that’s developing the standard for greener servers. There are a whole lot of tech companies, server-makers, and chemical companies, though. What sort of standard do you think they’re gonna come up with?

When manufacturers design standards, of course they’ll fit the standard to their existing products. I saw it firsthand during the six years I spent working on UL 110—a standard for greener mobile phones. Tech companies banded together to push forward the criteria they wanted and shot down the ones they didn’t. And they were especially hostile towards any criteria that would have made mobile phones easier to repair or recycle.

We managed to get in a few repair-related criteria into the standard, but the language got so watered down that even Samsung’s Galaxy S8 can apparently meet the criterion for ease-of-disassembly. And that’s not a phone that’s easy to take apart—it’s glued together. In the end, the only really strong, effective repair criteria we managed to get into the standard—over Apple’s vocal objection—was an optional point for phones with batteries that can be removed without tools.

That’s it.

With 14 years under his belt, Schaffer has been involved in electronics standards far longer than I have. And he’s noticed a trend: In the last five years, green standards for electronics have gotten weaker. As his report details, the computer standard has become saturated with top-tier level products over the last few years. As of July 2017—the report notes—64% of 1700+ devices registered in the US to the EPEAT computer standard earned a Gold designation. And 97% of devices were listed as either Gold or Silver.

That’s a hell of a high percentage of top-performing devices for a standard that’s meant to call out only the best products on the market. And no wonder: most of the standard is over 10 years old. It’s in the middle of a revision, but standards take years to write—mostly because it’s incredibly hard for manufacturers to agree with everyone else.

Nonprofit groups and academic researchers that actually do care about the environment don’t have enough resources to invest years into writing standards, so they have a tendency to burn out and disappear. Tech companies, though, have lots of time and money, so they can afford to drag their feet until they get their way.

Green standards for electronics don’t lead anymore, says Schaffer—because tech companies don’t want them to. And despite concerted efforts to make products more reusable, more repairable, and easier to recycle—there’s been little actual progress.

“Instead, [green standards] have become a complicated way for manufacturers to greenwash products that have a devastating environmental impact and pat themselves on the back for business as usual,” Schaffer’s report concludes.

Fallen green giant

It wasn’t always like this. The first sustainable electronics standard—for laptops and computers—was adopted in 2006. At the time, the development group was smaller, and they succeeded in setting the stage for “greener” computers with a demanding standard.

At first, not a single product initially passed the standard with a gold rating and just 60 products made it on the registry at all. But manufacturers rose to the challenge. By 2008, 1,000 products were listed on the registry. EPEAT did what leadership standards are supposed to do: it led.

Not anymore.

EPEAT’s current computer standard requires that products be upgradeable, batteries removable, and hard drives accessible with a common tool. They barely make laptops like that anymore. Yet laptops like the 2012 MacBook Pro Retina (a non-upgradeable laptop with a glued-down battery and tamper-resistant screws) still met the standard. When people balked, EPEAT determined that technically an external USB port made the laptop upgradeable, that you could technically pry up a glued-down battery, and that Apple’s proprietary security screw was technically common enough.

Sure, they technically adhered to the standard’s wording, but they clearly violated its spirit. And now pretty much any laptop gets points for upgradeability, whether it’s actually upgradeable or not.

And it keeps getting worse. The mobile phone standard that I worked on for so long was just published—and the very first batch of phones were just added to EPEAT for meeting the standard. Of the 8 listed, 7 of the phones earned EPEAT gold.

“The gold-dense scoring line-up is troubling in a standard so new. A properly-developed leadership standard should start off with devices just barely able to achieve the bronze level—as the initial computer standard did in 2006. The fact that two of the largest producers of mobile phones were immediately able to achieve gold designations for their existing products indicates that the leadership standard substantially reflects the status quo. It doesn’t lead—and the new criteria isn’t driving device design in a more sustainable direction,” Schaffer writes in the report.

Repair is important

US tech companies won’t be able to dig their heels in forever. They’re losing their grip. Things are changing. This year, a dozen US states introduced Right to Repair legislation that would require tech companies to provide repair instructions, and sell spare parts for broken devices—two things manufacturers have managed to keep out of green standards for electronics. And new, balanced standards development through organizations like NSF promise better processes.

Government leaders around the world are pushing for greener, more reusable electronics, as well. France made planned obsolescence illegal in 2015. Sweden implemented tax breaks for people who repair their things instead of replacing them. And the EU Parliament recently voted to recommend “longer product lifespan” through “robust, easily repairable and good quality products.” And while the rest of the world is trying make electronics better, tech companies in the US have found a way to fake their green credentials on their way to make more greenbacks.

“Green standards play an important role. They are supposed to shape the electronics industry for the better and encourage manufacturers to make more sustainable products. As consumers, we should be able to trust them to identify only the most sustainable products,” says Gay Gordon-Byrne, Executive Director of Repair.org. “Instead, members of the IT industry have co-opted standards for their own benefit, warping them into a tool that drives sales at the expense of the environment. This is patently unacceptable, and it needs to change.”

If you think so too, then you’ve got to demand more sustainable, easier-to-repair, easier-to-recycle products from manufacturers. Join standards committees. Buy repairable products. Support Right to Repair legislation in your state. And tell your tech companies that you want longer-lasting, better products. Greenpeace has a petition you can sign here.

0 notes

type2diabetestreatments-blog · 8 years

Text

Ask D'Mine: Job Hunt Disclosure, Diabetes and Dementia

New Post has been published on http://type2diabetestreatment.net/diabetes-mellitus/ask-dmine-job-hunt-disclosure-diabetes-and-dementia/

Ask D'Mine: Job Hunt Disclosure, Diabetes and Dementia

Two more tough topics await in this week's edition of our "curiously strong" diabetes advice column, Ask D'Mine — hosted by veteran type 1, diabetes author and community educator Wil Dubois.

Take a gander, and don't forget to send us YOUR queries related to life with diabetes. Not much is off-limits here! (except of course specific medical instructions for your own care; that's what doctors are for)

Need help navigating life with diabetes? Email us at [email protected]

Ed from Pennsylvania, type 1, writes: I'm getting ready to interview for jobs now and not sure if I should state upfront that I have type 1 diabetes. Some people have said that type 1 diabetes is a protected "disability." So should I mark that I am "disabled" on Human Resource questionnaires? In other words, is it better to tell or not to tell?

Wil@Ask D'Mine answers: First and foremost diabetes is not a disability. It's an inconvenience. So you should never label yourself as disabled or think of yourself as disabled. Ever. Period.

Well... OK... that's not quite true. Diabetes is, in fact, protected under the American with Disabilities Act, but it's not a "disability" in the way most Americans think of it — which is to say you cannot collect social security benefits or be covered under Medicaid simply because you have diabetes. We ran a guest post by diabetes lawyer Kriss Halpern a little while back that explains all the intricacies of the laws.

But for our purposes here: to tell, or not to tell, that is the question.

Oh dear. Was that the sound of Shakespeare rolling in his grave?

Don't tell. Not on the first date. You're not legally or morally obligated to tell a company about your diabetes when applying for a job. On top of that, doing so is probably a really bad idea.

Jumping into the legal end of the pool first: according to the American Diabetes Association, by law, you're not required to reveal your diabetes until after a job has been offered to you. Federal law protects us against employment discrimination, both in hiring, and on the job after we're hired. Well, in theory, anyway. But there's a reason the ADA has an entire battalion of lawyers on standby at all times. What the law dictates and what human nature fuels are not the same.

Now we're at the moral end of the pool: to tell or not to tell. Remember, there's a lot of bad info about diabetes out there in the world. Hell, even our loved ones don't "get it" half the time. I wouldn't expect more of a potential employer, who even if they (#1) totally "got" diabetes and (#2) knew the law, might find themselves worrying about how a type 1 on the company books might affect the already double-digit annual inflation on health insurance costs that are already draining the company coffers.

I would absolutely keep my lips sealed during application and interview process, unless I was trying to land a job with JDRF, or a diabetes clinic, or a Pharma company. In any of those cases, I would suspect that having diabetes would be an additional credential; otherwise, I wouldn't muddy the water with it.

A true story from the trenches: So I have a good friend who's type 1 like me. Let's call him Samuel. He's Mister High Tech. He originally came to me (and still does) as a diabetes education patient. Samuel told me that it made his day when he spotted a guy wearing an insulin pump and a stethoscope at the clinic. I mainly help him plow through the reams of data from his CGM, and help him fine tune his pump. He traveled a great deal, and that made for some fun biological and technical challenges. Later he became one of my gang of Diabetes Peer Educators.

Anyway, the economy being what it is, Samuel found himself out of work about a year ago. Just when things were getting really desperate for Samuel and his family, he finally got a lead on a job and was flown to another state for an interview. He asked if he could list me as a personal reference. I said sure thing.

A few weeks later I get a call from a vice president at the company Samuel was applying to. And this vice pres asks me how I know Samuel.

And without thinking I say something like I've been helping Samuel with his diabetes for years and he's one of our volunteer educators at the clinic.

And then there's a long silence on the phone and the guy says, "Oh. I didn't realize Samuel was diabetic. He didn't mention that."

And I'm like, fuuuuuu**!

Then the guy says, "He's a type 1?" And I say, "yeah."

Then the vice president of this company says, "Yeah, me too."

And Samuel got the job. Whew!

Juanita from Arizona, type 3, asks: Does diabetes effect dementia? My mother-in-law's Alzheimer's seems worse when her blood sugar is high. Do you think her years of poorly controlled diabetes might have caused her dementia?

Wil@Ask D'Mine answers: Who gets dementia? Mainly old people. Who has the highest rates of diabetes? Old people. Are the two just associated, or does diabetes drive dementia?

What's needed is a study that separates the wheat from the chaff by looking not at the relative rates of dementia and diabetes in a population, but by looking at well-controlled older diabetes patients and poorly controlled older diabetes patients; and back in 2003 Dr. Yousef Mohammad at Ohio State did just that. He looked at older, poorly controlled diabetes patients, older nicely controlled diabetes patents, older pre-diabetes patients, and garden-variety old folks with no diabetes whatsoever.

And what did he find? The poorly controlled D-folk were the most demented. By a landslide. Fast forward to 2008. One study arm of ACCORD linked elevated A1C scores to lower "cognitive function."

But before you get too excited, consider the 2009 study that suggests that low blood sugar in people with diabetes is linked to dementia, too. Yet other studies poo-poo diabetes altogether and say that belly fat is the real culprit.

A few years ago research announced at the Alzheimer's Association annual meeting in Madrid, Spain, showed such a close association between Alzheimer's and diabetes that the press starting calling Alzheimer's a "third kind of diabetes."

Oh, and adding to this mess, some of the meds for dementia have an interesting side effect: they raise blood sugar.

Great. So what're we to make of all this conflicting evidence?

Hold on a sec, it gets even more confusing.

I noticed that you said your mother-in-law has Alzheimer's. Alzheimer's is one of many kinds of dementia that can strike us in our older years. For the most part, the only way to really sort out what type of dementia you have is at your autopsy. Alzheimer's is characterized by plaque buildup in the brain, other types of dementia are more vascular in nature. Blood vessel stuff. The early studies linked diabetes to this vascular dementia. Logically this makes a lot of sense, as we know that long-term elevated blood sugars tend to trash-out the vascular system. High blood sugar tears up your kidneys, your eyes, your heart, and the capillaries in your feet. Why the hell not in your brain too? In fact, for many years it was believed that Alzheimer's didn't have any logical biological connection to diabetes. That's all changed. Now it turns out that the pancreas isn't the only game in town when it comes to insulin. The brain apparently produces it too, where it is used to help file and store memories. Who knew?

So bottom line: While the devil is in the details, it sure looks like elevated blood sugar screws with your mind, just like it screws with the rest of your body. At this point, would fixing your mother-in-law's blood sugar help? Or is it too late?

Sorry, I simply don't know. And I don't think anyone else does yet, either.

But that point may be moot, because where the rubber meets the road in the real world, it gets really, really, really difficult. Dementia can make diabetes uncontrollable in some circumstances. Just last week I had a really hard call to make. We have a dementia patient whose cognitive function is getting really bad. She recently attacked her daughter with a broom. She didn't recognize her daughter and mistook her for an intruder.

This patient, like many type 2's who've been in the club for a long time, is treated with insulin. Wonderful drug insulin. Unless you take five shots instead of one because your mind is so far gone you don't remember you just took a shot. The doc asked me to evaluate the patient and give a recommendation.

I'll spare you the details, agony, and second guessing I went through. I knew if we left her on the insulin, she might kill herself with it, and that if we took her off it, her blood sugars would shoot up and maybe make her dementia worse. And don't flame me with comments about why didn't we get a visiting nurse to give shots or whatever. It's too long and sad a story, but none of the resources you'd expect a civilized society to provide are available in this case.

My recommendation? Stop the insulin. It was the lesser of evils. But don't think I felt good about it or slept well that night. Or the next night.

Or the night after that.

Or the next.

This is not a medical advice column. We are PWDs freely and openly sharing the wisdom of our collected experiences — our been-there-done-that knowledge from the trenches. But we are not MDs, RNs, NPs, PAs, CDEs, or partridges in pear trees. Bottom line: we are only a small part of your total prescription. You still need the professional advice, treatment, and care of a licensed medical professional.

Disclaimer: Content created by the Diabetes Mine team. For more details click here.

Disclaimer

This content is created for Diabetes Mine, a consumer health blog focused on the diabetes community. The content is not medically reviewed and doesn't adhere to Healthline's editorial guidelines. For more information about Healthline's partnership with Diabetes Mine, please click here.

Type 2 Diabetes Treatment Type 2 Diabetes Diet Diabetes Destroyer Reviews Original Article

0 notes