#(technically...the primary source date quote

[fideidefenswhore]

'henry viii: appendix', in letters and papers, foreign and domestic, henry viii, volume 6 (1533) / the lovers who changed history (2014) / 'venice: may 1557, 11-15', in calendar of state papers relating to english affairs in the archives of venice, volume 6 (1557) / ‘simancas: december 1558', in calendar of state papers, spain (simancas), volume 1, 1558-1567 (1558) / a portrait of king henry viii (1491-1547), after joos van cleve (c.1485-1540) / frauen, die geschichte machten (2013) / dust bowl dance (2009), mumford & sons / elizabeth i when a princess (1546), william scrots

[bluemeteormarcom]

How PIM for Electrical Distributors Improve Data Accuracy?

Electrical distribution systems rely on accurate, timely, and consistent data to operate efficiently. With countless products, components, and specifications, managing this data effectively can be a daunting task. Distributors face challenges such as incorrect product details, outdated specifications, and inconsistent formats that can lead to costly errors, supply chain inefficiencies, and customer dissatisfaction.

Product Information Management (PIM) systems address these challenges by centralizing, standardizing, and automating the handling of product data. Adopting PIM for Electrical Distributors, they can ensure data accuracy across all channels, enabling smoother operations and better customer experiences. Whether it’s ensuring accurate voltage ratings, compatibility specifications, or product dimensions, a PIM system becomes the cornerstone of efficient product management. This blog explores how PIM improves data accuracy, reduces errors, and streamlines processes in the electrical distribution sector.

Centralized Data Management

One of the primary advantages of a PIM system is its ability to centralize product information. Instead of managing data across multiple spreadsheets or siloed systems, distributors can consolidate all product details in a single source of truth. This eliminates discrepancies that arise when data is spread across various departments and systems.

For instance, in electrical distribution, product details like power ratings, compliance certifications, or installation guidelines must be consistent across catalogues, websites, and internal systems. A PIM ensures that every stakeholder accesses the same, up-to-date information, minimizing errors and fostering operational consistency.

Enhanced Data Validation and Standardization

Electrical products often come with complex specifications that must adhere to industry standards. A PIM system allows for automated validation of data against predefined rules, ensuring accuracy before it is published or shared. For example, it can flag incorrect amperage ratings or incomplete descriptions, enabling distributors to correct errors proactively.

Moreover, PIM standardizes data formats, making it easier to integrate with third-party systems or distribute information to partners and customers. This uniformity reduces the likelihood of misinterpretation or miscommunication, which is critical in the highly technical world of electrical distribution.

Real-Time Updates Across Channels

In an industry where product specifications and availability can change frequently, ensuring real-time updates is essential. PIM for Electrical Distributors facilitates instant synchronization of data across all sales and communication channels, from e-commerce platforms to printed catalogues.

This capability is especially valuable for electrical distributors who deal with high volumes of SKUs (Stock Keeping Units). Whether a manufacturer updates product certifications or introduces a new version, a PIM ensures that these changes are reflected immediately, keeping the distributor’s information current and reliable.

Improved Collaboration Across Teams

Marketing teams can enrich product descriptions with compelling content, while technical teams ensure specifications meet compliance standards—all within the same system.

For electrical distributors, this collaboration is crucial. For example, accurate data is vital for sales teams when providing quotes, and for logistics teams when managing inventory. A PIM system bridges these functions, reducing errors and enhancing overall efficiency.

Streamlined Compliance Management

Compliance with industry regulations is non-negotiable in electrical distribution. Incorrect or outdated information can lead to penalties or unsafe installations. PIM systems simplify compliance management by ensuring all product data meets regulatory standards.

For example, a PIM can store and organize certifications, safety data sheets, and other compliance documents, making them easily accessible and updatable. This reduces the risk of non-compliance and ensures that distributors can confidently deliver products that meet all requirements.

Final Words

Product Information Management (PIM) is a transformative solution for electrical distributors, enhancing data accuracy, operational efficiency, and customer satisfaction. PIM for Electrical Distributors reduce errors, ensures compliance, and fosters team collaboration by centralising and automating data management.To elevate your data management strategy and enhance your operations, explore Bluemeteor. They offer cutting-edge PIM solutions. Their expertise in optimizing product data for distributors can help you achieve unparalleled accuracy and efficiency in your electrical distribution processes.

[write-my-thesis4u]

Footnotes to Bibliographies: An Easy-to-Use Guide on How to Master Citations

Citations play a backbone role in academics and professional writing, ensuring that ideas come with proper credits, arguments gain validity, and intellectual integrity is maintained. Whether you write a research paper, a book, or a business report, mastering citations is extremely important. This guide will assist you through the essentials of citation format, common mistakes to be avoided, and best practices for creating flawless references-to-footnotes and bibliographies-and beyond.

Why Citations Matter

Citations perform three primary functions:

Credit: Citations allow you to provide due recognition to the owners of a thought or study.

Evidence: Using citations increases your strength in an argument because credible sources are involved.

Preventing Plagiarism: Without citations, there would be little preventing accusations of intellectual theft against a person. Knowledge of these factors helps cultivate academic honesty and professionalism.

Kinds of Citation Styles

There are citation styles applied in the different disciplines because each is peculiar to the needs of a particular field. Here is a brief view:

1.APA, or American Psychological Association For: Social sciences such as psychology, sociology, and education. The citation format places more emphasis on the author's name and the year published. Here's an illustration: -In-text: (Smith, 2020) -Reference: Smith, J. The Art of Research. Academic Press.2020

2.MLA Best Used For: Humanities, in particular, literature and languages. Most of the concentration for MLA is to be able to have a more compact in-text citation which utilizes an author-page format. Example:

In-text: (Smith 45) Bibliography: Smith, John. The Art of Research. Academic Press, 2020.

3.Chicago/Turabian

Best For: History, art, and business studies.

Key Features: It provides two systems—Notes and Bibliography or Author-Date.

Example:

Footnote: John Smith, The Art of Research (Academic Press, 2020), 45.

Bibliography: Smith, John. The Art of Research. Academic Press, 2020.

4.Harvard

Best For: Widely used in the UK and Australia for most subjects. .

Key Features: As easy to use as APA, almost identical.

Example:

In-text: (Smith, 2020)

Bibliography: Smith, J. 2020, The Art of Research, Academic Press.

5.IEEE

Best For: For engineering, computer science, and technical studies. - Main Features: Numbers in the brackets for the references. - Sample:

In-text: [1] - Bibliography: [1] J. Smith, The Art of Research, Academic Press, 2020.

General Mistakes to Avoid When Quoting

Failure to Provide Information Publication dates or page numbers omitted lessen the strength of your citations. Always check the source carefully.

2.Inconsistent Style Mixing styles, such as APA and MLA, in one paper is confusing to readers. Choose a style and use it all through your paper.

3.Overuse of Footnotes Although footnotes are useful for giving additional information, too many of them on a page overwhelm the reader. Use them wisely.

4.Updates Not Given Online sources frequently change. Be sure to include access dates for digital references to keep your work valid.

Best Practices for Mastering Citations

Utilize Citation Tools With contemporary software such as Zotero, EndNote, and online generators like EasyBib, you can save time while being accurate.

Organize Your References As you research, maintain a concentrated list of sources to avoid missing some. Spreadsheets or reference managers may help here.

Consult Your Style Guide Every citation style has minute differences. Always consult the latest edition of the style guide for further clarification.

4.Integrate Smoothly Citations should naturally fit into your text. Do not have clunky or overly technical insertions.

Mastery in citation goes way beyond academic and professional compliance but to the pride of displaying the level of credibility for intellectual property. Mastering nuances from APA to MLA, the error commonly made should be addressed using a methodical approach in the work you do. Use the right tools and stay organized; you are sure to get from footnotes to bibliographies.

Citations may seem scary at first, but with practice, they come so naturally. Use this as your guide, and have each reference build upon quality and integrity of your work.

For any research-related help reach out to us on our Whatsapp https://wa.me/+918217879258

[qu-film-history-to-1968]

Not All Noir Films Have to Be Noir

Julia Merolle

     A reading that intrigued me this week that I found to be very informative was “Notes on Film Noir” by Paul Schrader (1972). This quote was interesting to me because it discussed the genre of film noir and what can be considered a part of that category. The quote states, “Almost every critic has his own definition of film noir, and personal list of film titles and dates to back it up. Personal and descriptive definitions, however, can get a bit sticky. A film of urban night life is not necessarily a film noir, and a film noir need not necessarily concern crime and corruption. Since film noir is defined by tone rather than genre, it is almost impossible to argue one critic’s descriptive definition against another’s. How many noir elements does it take to make film noir noir? Rather than haggle definitions, I would rather attempt to reduce film noir to its primary colors (all shades of black), those cultural and stylistic elements to which any definition must return.” (page 54). The reason that this quote intrigued me is because the author stated that while everyone else may have their specific definition of film noir, he is making it such a broad category, which is making film noir specifically films that are in black and white (highlighting the use of shadows) and using certain stylistic elements.

     This quote connects to a film that I recently watched for this course, which was La Belle et Le Bete. The reason that I am connecting such a drastic movie that doesn’t apply to the genre of noir at all is because of Schrader’s definition. Schrader states that film noir could be defined by tone, rather than genre, and therefore, that makes a film like La Belle et Le Bete a noir due to the undertones of Avenant and Ludovic going against the Beast and the sneaky way that they handled the situation, especially at the end of the film when they are scaling Diana’s Pavilion. Due to Schrader’s definition, a film such as La Belle et Le Bete could technically be classified as a noir, not to mention the entirety of the film is black and white. This quote also doesn’t apply to this film because this is an old fairytale, and while there are aspects that could be seen as film noir, it mostly is a fantasy film.

     Another film that I recently watched that this quote connects to was the film Saloum (2021). The reason that I am connecting this film is that it has many different genres combined in it, one of them being very close to noir which is a crime. The film has many inspirations and combinations of genres, most notably being taken from video games, which seem to have a lot of crime and noir films in them as well. This film wasn’t shot in black and white, but the undertones of it with the main characters being mercenaries and having to deal with a drug lord made this film have noir themes. This quote also doesn’t apply to this film because there are lots of aspects of African folklore in it, which doesn’t apply to the noir genre.

     In conclusion, this quote intrigued me because noir can be such a broad category, and sometimes include films such as La Belle et Le Bete and Saloum, even though they aren’t traditional, typical noir films.

Source:

Schrader, Paul. Notes on Film Noir. Accessed 1972. 

[armthearmour]

Book Review: Medieval Arms and Armour: A Sourcebook

In writing Medieval Arms and Armour:A Sourcebook, Ralph Moffatt aims to provide a reference guide suitable to all scholars and enthusiasts of arms and armor, regardless of their level of experience. This work begins with a series of prefaces which provide a complete list of the illustrations and primary documents used throughout the work. Here the author also discusses his motivations for putting together this sourcebook together, as well as providing sections which teach the reader how to use a sourcebook and the correct English pronunciations for a number of the more complex technical terms used throughout the work.

The main body of the text is divided into three sections. The first section is an “Introduction to the Source-Types.” The author discusses separately both textual and material sources, discussing his processes for translation and transcription, and providing an overview of the types of documents he uses for the study of armor. The material sources Moffatt further subdivides into extant archaeological material and artistic material, briefly articulating the benefits and shortcomings of each source type.

The second section contains the documents. 151 documents are included, and each document is numbered. Moffatt includes a full library reference for the work being taken from, as well as any known author and date. The relevant quotation is then provided, transcribed in its original language, before finally a translation is presented. The quotes vary in length from just a few words briefly describing an item (for example, document 151, simply “my son Philip a hauberk of Milan [make]) to several paragraphs which occupy several pages.

The sources included in this work are varied, and draw upon documents produced by all manner of people. A large number of legal documents are present, including wills, inventories, house payments, craft statutes, etc. as well as prose sources such as biographical and chronicler accounts, and religious works.

One unfortunate restriction it seems the author placed upon himself, however, is the nationality of the documents. Every document included in Moffatt’s work is either British or French. Though some correspondences include an individual who is from outside France or the British Isles, one of the correspondents is British or French. This restriction is understandable for the sake of space, however, it does render the title somewhat misleading, as those looking for fourteenth century sources from the rest of medieval Europe will not be served by this book.

The third and final section of Medieval Arms and Armour: A Sourcebook is an illustrated glossary. This section includes a large number of artistic and archaeological sources which provide the reader with a visual representation of the elements of arms and armor which are discussed by the book. Accompanied by short definitions of the words in question, this section will be extremely valuable to those who are new to the study of arms and armor.

Finally, Moffatt includes a bibliography and index. The bibliography contains not only the scholarly sources Moffatt consulted for this work, but also a full list of primary sources. While a majority of the scholarly sources Moffatt consulted are English or French, here he did not neglect German scholarship.

Despite its few shortcomings, this book should find a welcome home on the shelf of every arms and armor enthusiast in the world. The wealth of sources of all types is immense, and the footnotes included by the author make finding references a simple task. For that reason, even the professional scholar will find this book of use, but the contextualizing information the author provides in the prefixes, as well as the discussion on sources and the illustrated glossary make this a truly invaluable source for those who are new to the discipline.

[queersadguy]

Difference between gay and homosexual

Your probably thinking that they mean the same thing but actually technically not quite.

For starters

The term gay dates back to early in the English language in the 13th century uk,

from Old French gai, most likely deriving ultimately from a Germanic source. In English, the word's primary meaning was "joyful", "carefree", "bright and showy

where it was loosly used by the British under  this point for centuries afterward.

It wasn't until the 20th century when it became used as slang jargon for people who were thought to be homosexual. Specifically men who had sex with men, since then they have been used interchagably, and the original use of the word gay began to fall out of usage.

( apparently it wasn't and still isnt as fround apon if it's two woman, for some reason)

Read the history of the word gay here:

http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2010/02/how-gay-came-to-mean-homosexual/

Homosexual was coined out of the Bible to quote same sex attractions and it's sinfullness. It became more commonplace to use in the 19th and 20th centuries.

So now what's the difference?

Gay is more broad, it todays term it can simply mean a guy who likes other guys,

and nothing more .

Homosexual is a person who is sexually attracted to the same sex.

This can be guy to guy or woman to woman

While homosexual describes just the SEXUAL ATTRACTION, Gay could be more Broad , to simply just "like"

Like could be:

Romantic/alterius connection ( more than just friends but not quite "a thing"

Aethstietic attraction (looks, physical features)

Sensual attraction (physical closeness or affection)

Or any other stronger than platonic connection/attraction

Andophille attracted to masculinity or masculine like traits

Homosocial

Even more broad still it is loosly used and interchanged with QUEER or other non straight orientation.

Two woman who like each other are called lesbian, while gay is more ofently used for males

Homosexual people are gay yes, but someone who is gay or identifies gay may not necessarily be homosexual.

[sun-stormz]

The CallmeCarson Situation

tw//Talk about sexual content, Grooming, pedophilia

DISCLAMER: If you find false info, Please Please Please, point it out to me!

As alot of people have heard, Call me carson has allegedly exchanged sexual content with minors. Now I’m not here to explain the whole situation into detail, my problem is that people say ‘oh but the agegape was only 2 years, she was 17 he was 19, thats fine’. Now im from europe, and here it would be legal and fine, but america is special and after alot of research there is a simple answer to it.

Its illegal.

Carson is, as far as i have found, lives in california. In the state of california, the age of consent is 18. On top of that, there is a law in of itself, where is states that age state age of consent becomes irrelivant when it comes to owning sexual imagery of minors.

Quote: “Images of child pornography are not protected under First Amendment rights, and are illegal contraband under federal law. Section 2256 of Title 18, United States Code, defines child pornography as any visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct involving a minor (someone under 18 years of age).  Visual depictions include photographs, videos, digital or computer generated images indistinguishable from an actual minor, and images created, adapted, or modified, but appear to depict an identifiable, actual minor.  Undeveloped film, undeveloped videotape, and electronically stored data that can be converted into a visual image of child pornography are also deemed illegal visual depictions under federal law.

Notably, the legal definition of sexually explicit conduct does not require that an image depict a child engaging in sexual activity.  A picture of a naked child may constitute illegal child pornography if it is sufficiently sexually suggestive.  Additionally, the age of consent for sexual activity in a given state is irrelevant; any depiction of a minor under 18 years of age engaging in sexually explicit conduct is illegal.” ( source: https://www.justice.gov/criminal-ceos/citizens-guide-us-federal-law-child-pornography)

End Quote.

While ethically speacking a relationship between a 17 & 19 year old isnt seen as a big deal, the situation at hand goes agains laws of the USA.

Now, the grooming situation, i’ll let this paragraph talk for itself.

Quote: “Child grooming refers to an act of deliberately establishing an emotional connection with a child to prepare the child for child abuse. Child grooming is undertaken usually to carry out sexual abuse and other child exploitation like trafficking of children, child prostitution or the production of child pornography.  Currently child grooming occur through the use of internet. In the U.S. child grooming is considered a federal offence pursuant to 18 USCS § 2422.  the provision of the section reads as

“(a) Whoever knowingly persuades, induces, entices, or coerces any individual to travel in interstate or foreign commerce, or in any Territory or Possession of the United States, to engage in prostitution, or in any sexual activity for which any person can be charged with a criminal offense, or attempts to do so, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both.”

(b) Whoever, using the mail or any facility or means of interstate or foreign commerce, or within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States knowingly persuades, induces, entices, or coerces any individual who has not attained the age of 18 years, to engage in prostitution or any sexual activity for which any person can be charged with a criminal offense, or attempts to do so, shall be fined under this title and imprisoned not less than 10 years or for life”. (source: https://definitions.uslegal.com/c/child-grooming/ )

End quote.

After all this info it should be clear, that, by law, Carson has commited a criminal offense that can end him in prision. The age gap being only 2 years isnt the problem, the fact that by law he fucked up is.

So, by the law and the info we have, he has commited a crime.

Also, just a fun fact, what he has done isnt called pedophilia but Ephebophilia.

Quote: “Ephebophilia is the primary sexual interest in mid-to-late adolescents, generally ages 15 to 19. The term was originally used in the late 19th to mid 20th century. It is one of a number of sexual preferences across age groups subsumed under the technical term chronophilia.” (Sorce: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephebophilia)

Now, all of this aside, i have heard that people that know him IRL have gotten the law involved, but i cant find much on that. We pople online cant do much and if its really been reported to the law, it will he handled with.

With that been done, everyone stay safe, and dont go around fighting others over whats true or not.

Peace out

Edit: Slimecicle has stated that they have gotten the law involved ob their twitter.

Edit2: because people where talinkge about the Romeo and Juliet law

Quote:” In the United States, many states have adopted close-in-age exemptions. These laws, known as "Romeo and Juliet laws"[54] provide that a person can legally have consensual sex with a minor provided that he or she is not more than a given number of years older, generally four years or less.[55][56] Some Romeo and Juliet laws (such as the law in Michigan[57] and Florida[58]) do not make it legal for a person below the age of consent to have sex with a slightly older person, but may exempt the older partner from sex offender registration. Romeo and Juliet laws were passed in 2007 in Connecticut and Indiana.[56] In Indiana, a change in the law decriminalizes consensual sex between adolescents if they are found by a court to be in a "dating relationship" with an age difference of four years or less[56] and other states have adopted other reforms. Michigan passed a Romeo and Juliet Law in 2011.[59] These reforms have been controversial. In Texas, Governor Rick Perry vetoed Romeo and Juliet laws that had been passed by the legislature in 2009,[60] but signed one in 2011 to go into effect in September of that year.[61] A 2011 Romeo and Juliet bill failed to pass in the Illinois legislature.[62] In the State v. Limon case, Kansas's Romeo and Juliet law was found to be unconstitutional because it excluded same-sex sexual conduct.” (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_consent_reform#Close-in-age_exemptions)

End Quote

[purplesurveys]

1131

survey by lilprincess

Approx. Time you began this survey: 6:46 on a Wednesday evening.

Describe your mood right now: Erm, a bit exhausted because I just ended a work shift; but content for the same reason. Right now I’m simply looking forward to dinner and crashing on the couch or my bed, wherever I feel like sleeping tonight.

Spell your first name without vowels: Rbn. Let’s just also remove y for this one.

Age you will be on your next birthday: 23.

Zodiac Sign: Taurus.

Do you believe what your horoscope says about your sign? I do not believe in astrology whatsoever.

What state/region do you live in? Somewhere in the Philippines somewhere close to Metro Manila.

Height: Like 5′1″ ish. I had a massive growth spurt in 4th grade that also ended in 4th grade, which will always be a funny story to tell people lmao. I went from being placed at the back of the class line to the front really quickly.

Do you smoke? Super occasionally. My last cigarette was like...all the way back in February last year. It was easier to hide the smell around my family before, but because my parents and siblings have mostly been staying at home in the last year it would be so easy to weed out the smell. I never feel like smoking anyway since I vape, so there’s been no reason to seek it out.

Do you drink? Yeah, sometimes socially and sometimes on my own if I wanna unwind and feel a lil buzz come through.

What's your ethnic background? Southeast Asian, specifically Filipino.

What's your religious background? Technically my ~background~ would be Catholic since I was born and baptized in that faith, but I’ve long let go of this. Excluding one very brief period in high school, religion was something I never held much belief and faith in, even if I've been taken to literally every Sunday mass for the last 23 years and even if I was enrolled in Catholic school from preschool to high school.

What's your natural hair color? Black.

What;s your natural eye color? Dark brown, almost black.

Do you have any bad habits you want to break? I do overtime work a lot but used to seldom file it on our company shift log sheet because I get shy that they must think I’m doing it just to be paid more, lol. I’m starting to file them every time I do OT though because fuck it, pay me.

Name a few of your positive habits. I like that I always find a way to meet deadlines. I like that I’m selfless, even though some would see it as a flaw. I’d rather do too much than say I never did anything at all.

Have you ever lived in a foreign country? No, the most I’ve done was travel to one for a week.

Did you vote in the Nov. 6 2012 presidential election? No because I am not American -___- The last election that took place before I was eligible was in 2010, and had I been able to vote then, I would’ve given mine to Gibo Teodoro, who I believe was the most qualified at the time.

Are you even eligible to vote? Yeah, I’ve been for the last 5 years. I’ve voted twice - once for the presidential elections back in 2016, and the next was for the senatorial elections in 2019.

Are you right handed or left handed? Right-handed.

When you write, is your penmanship usually neat or do you tend to scribble? It starts off neat for the most part, but it gradually gets messy and becomes more like a scribble if we’re talking about writing several essays in one sitting, which was usually the case in my exams in college.

Have you ever experienced an accident? (of any type): Sure, I’ve been in car accidents before. I’ve also been shocked once.

Do you have/want children? They would be nice to have, yeah. 

Are you environmentally conscious? For the most part, yeah. But there are some things that can’t be helped, like me driving. Unless the government does something about the shitty public transport system that we have and have had for decades, I refuse to take it.

What's your favorite mode of transportation? Like I said, my own car. If I’m traveling, by plane.

Do you prefer 80's - 90's music compared to today's music? Eh, not at all. I prefer music produced these days.

Are you more of an introvert (quiet/shy), or extrovert (social butterfly)? I’ve been more of an extrovert in the last few years but I will always be shy at first upon meeting new people, like that will never change. I warm up a lot quickly now, though.

What's your favorite emoticon? :)

Do you miss the good old days of hand-written letters? I caught the super super super last part of this era, so I didn’t even get to experience it. I know snail mail was still kind of a thing when I was a kid, but at the same time that was happening my mom was also already using email to keep in touch with my dad, so.

Nowadays, though, when I do write letters to loved ones, I will still prefer to make handwritten ones, especially for a significant other or best friend. I don’t think I’ve ever sent out a computerized long letter.

Do you enjoy receiving or giving more? Giving, but it’s nice to be treated too sometimes.

Are you good at keeping secrets? Sure.

Do you take or give advice more often? I don’t usually get into situations wherein I’d have to do either, but I think I’ve been asking for advice more, especially over the last few months.

Do you have your driver's license? “I got my driver’s license last week, just like we always talked about...” Haha this question made me sing a bit. Anyway, yeah, I got it shortly after I turned 18 since I needed to quickly learn before college started.

Would you rather be poor & happy or rich but miserable? Rich but miserable. Soz but I’d solve 4854983594857 of my problems if I never had to worry about money.

Have you ever had a pregnancy scare? Never.

Have you ever blocked someone on Facebook? Probably not blocked, but I’ve unfollowed some current Facebook friends and unfriended others entirely.

Do you think recreational marijuana should be nationally legalized? Idk much about the topic since it’s taboo enough where I live, but sure, I guess?I haven’t heard one bad word about the effects of marijuana.

Describe your perfect first date. I’ve never really had a first date, but I imagine an ideal one would be pretty lowkey, just a stroll around a nice city and maybe have fancyish dinner somewhere.

Have you ever been high? Nope.

Have you ever watched a NC-17 rated film? Sure. A good handful of Kubrick films pass for NC-17, right? I’d be surprised if they weren’t, lol. I’ve been scarred by some of them for sure.

If you ever become reincarnated as an animal, what would you want it to be? A dog.

Do you remember where you were/what you were doing on September 11, 2001? No; I was 2 years old. I did ask my parents where they were in those moments, and my mom understandably missed most of it since the entire thing unfolded in the late evening in the Philippines. The only thing she can recall was being insanely worried for my dad, who had just started to work in the US back then.

Do you ever wish you were of a different nationality/religion? Yeah, to a certain extent, just because the political and socioeconomic situation here is very messy and it doesn’t really give us the nicest reputation in front of the world. I’m proud of my Filipino culture and heritage though.

Are you more of a junk food addict or health nut? Health nut is the last thing anyone should be calling me. But I’m not so much a junk food addict either? I do like spoiling myself with food, but I still monitor my intake.

Do you believe Antarctica should be considered the 7th world continent? Isn’t it already though?? We’ve always been taught there were 7 continents and Antarctica is one of them lol.

Describe your own sense of humor in 1 word: Gen-Z, if that counts as one word.

Have you ever quoted the Bible (or any other Holy Book)? If I ever did it was probably meant to be sarcasm.

Have you ever completed a Sudoku puzzle? No. Never figured out how to play it either.

Would you rather be a nuclear physicist or marine biologist? Marine biologist. That’s one step closer to one of my loves, biology. Plus I was never any good with physics, so.

Do you have a deep, dark secret you're hiding from every one? I guess.

Would you rather be able to soar like an eagle or swim like a dolphin? I’d make my childhood self happy and go with flight.

If you wanted to learn a foreign language, what would it be? Korean so I can finally stop reading subs, hahah.

Are you bi-curious? No.

Did you watch the Disney Channel or Nickelodeon more as a kid? The Nickelodeon cartoons were far more interesting to me. I think I only got into Disney when I got a little bit older, once I was able to appreciate the more mature content in shows like The Suite Life, That’s So Raven, etc. But for the most part our TV was always tuned into Nick Jr., Spongebob, Jimmy Neutron and the other Nick shows.

Name 5 films that were made the year you were born: American History X (great watch), The Truman Show, Mulan, La Vita e Bella if I’m not mistaken (one of my faves, no matter how gut-wrenching it is), and Shakespeare in Love.

Did you have a lot of friends in high school? Yes, eventually I did.

Do you rely more on the newspaper, Internet or TV as your news source? Social media these days since I find that online writers are far more discerning in their reporting than TV anchors, who stay neutral at best.

True or false: Bigger is better. Very vaguely put, but not always, I guess.

Do you think religion is the primary cause of war? No? There’ve been plenty other reasons for war.

What's your favorite pizza topping? ...Cheese.

Think of your wardrobe. What color do you wear the most? It’s still black, I think.

Have you ever been to a planetarium? Just once, on a middle school field trip. I’d love to come back, though.

Do you feel like you connect more with animals or other people? I don’t get to be with animals a lot other than my dogs, so I’ll go with people.

Do you feel like sometimes you have to lie in order to protect yourself? Wow so dramatically put haha but yeah, I suppose it does feel that way sometimes.

How often do you exercise? Literally never. I’ve stopped working out this year since I didn’t see the point, and I’ve stopped feeling like I had to ‘get back’ at my ex just by getting a more toned figure. I’m totally at peace with how my body looks, plus I never want to give up on my favorite foods and snacks lol so there’s that.

Can you swear in a different language? Putangina mong bobo kang gago ka. That’s three for ya.

Do you think teachers/doctors deserve to get paid more than pro athletes? Everyone deserves to be paid fairly to the point that no comparison should be necessary, period.

From a scale of 1- 5, you would rate this survey: Erm, a 4.5. I had to delete some questions I didn’t feel comfortable answering or that I found a little meh, but the rest I fairly enjoyed.

Do you think most of these questions were more original or more ordinary? It’s a bit in between.

Approx. time you completed this survey: Hahahahah 10:38 PM. I took a million breaks.

[k-young-audio]

Non-creative applications in audio programming and processing.

The success of an audio processing application to be used in a creative success can be argued as subjective. In the world of plug-ins audio application has been programmed to have a purpose, but weather that purpose is successful depends on the individual using it. In some cases, an individual with a non-academic background can use the audio application in a musical sense, apply it to their music while not necessarily being able to describe what it does.

In this blog post, I want to focus on the other side of audio processing; audio applications that have been designed for a non-musical purpose. As well as delve into how we measure their success.

Audio processing for a medical use- Hearing Aids.

Within non-creative, non-musical audio devices, the hearing aid stands out as a simple design to forfill a medical need to help people who have been born with, or have developed hearing loss. Digital hearing aids are designed around and analogue/digital converter, a means to amplfy the signal, and finally a digital to analogue converter directed towards the ear drum.

Schneider. T, Brennan. R, Balsiger. P, Heubi. A (1999) An Ultra Low-power Programmable DSP System for Hearing Aids and Other Audio Applications (Online) ICSPAT’99 Proceedings, November 1-4, 1999, Orlando, FL. Available at

https://www.onsemi.jp/site/pdf/DSP_System.pdf (Accessed 18th Nov 2020)

This is a patent for technology used to describe an application specific signal processor suitable for hearing aids amongst other audio applications. This patent is particularly good at specifying the limitations of DSP in a real-time environment and offers solutions as how to conduct DSP with ultra low power. Section 3 lays out the fundamentals of the programming design. This source is dated and is not relevant to creating audio plug-ins specifically, and, although dated, the information provided is valuable as an insight into the fundamentals of DSP theory in audio as the hearing aid was a breakthrough in ultra low powered DSP.

Digital hearing aids are now the standard QUOTE, so we can see, objectively, that the development of the hearing aid as an audio device was a success.

Audio processing for support evidence -Audio forensics.

Audio forensics is a field where audio is used to obtain evidence through enhancing or processing an audio signal to gather information to support a criminal or civil case. This process is non-creative and non-musical, and should be approached with an objective mindset as the aim is not to make something sound good musically, but use audio as a means to support an investigation.

“Audio forensic evidence may come from a criminal investigation by law enforcement or as part of an official inquiry into an accident, fraud, accusation of slander, or some other civil incident. The primary aspects of audio forensics are establishing the authenticity of audio evidence, performing enhancement of audio recordings to improve speech intelligibility and the audibility of low-level sounds, and interpreting and documenting sonic evidence, such as identifying talkers, transcribing dialog, and reconstructing crime or accident scenes and timelines.” (Audio Forensics Expert, n.d.)

Upon investigating signal processing in audio forensics, I encountered this article, supporting the idea that audio forensics is an entirely different discipline to audio engineering.  “Audio engineers can go with whatever feels good, without worrying about documenting their processes, but forensic analysts must only apply what can be referenced and proven to be an accepted technique, and have to write down everything. And with the implementation of the ISO 17025 guidelines making the transition to the audio forensics world infinitely more difficult, anyone who wants to get into the field in the future could find themselves jumping through a whole lot more hoops.“ (Zjalic, 2018)

I feel article relays an important message, especially within my professional practice of audio programming; understanding that audio isn’t just about producing audio for a creative means, and there is another side that requires objectivity and an understanding of the physics and inner workings of sound.

One notable case where audio was used as supporting evidence was the Watergate case, an example that shows not only that audio can be used as evidence, but “doctored” audio can be detected and used as supporting evidence too. Below I have included an extract from an article describing the audio tapes in the Watergate cover-up.

“In 1974, interest turned to a particular recording of a con- versation between President Nixon and his Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman recorded in 1972 in the EOB. The investigators were suspicious that the recorded conversation included re- marks about the Watergate cover-up, but when the record- ing was examined, the investigators discovered that 181⁄2 minutes of the recording were obliterated by an unexplained gap consisting of audible buzz sounds but no discernable speech. Investigators suspected that someone had deliber- ately erased or recorded over that section of the tape to de- stroy the originally recorded conversation, perhaps with the intention of eliminating incriminating remarks.

John J. Sirica, Chief Judge of the US District Court for the District of Columbia, determined that the potentially altered tape required expert analysis beyond the routine capability of the court (McKnight and Weiss, 1976). He requested that the Watergate Special Prosecutor and the counsel for the president jointly nominate a group of six outside technical experts (including several ASA members) to form a special Advisory Panel on White House Tapes “...to study relevant aspects of the tape and the sounds recorded on it” (Advisory Panel on White House Tapes, 1974).

The Advisory Panel analysed the physical tape itself and the electrical signals observed on playback and, ultimately of greatest importance, performed magnetic development us- ing ferrofluid to reveal latent magnetic domain patterns on the tape and the magnetization signatures of the recording and erase heads installed in the tape recorders known to be present in the White House. The magnetic development of the tape led the Advisory Panel to the conclusion that the 181⁄2-minute gap consisted of several overlapping start-stop erasures performed with a specific tape recorder available in the White House but not the same device that was used to make the original recording (Advisory Panel on White House Tapes, 1974).” (The New York Times, 1974)

A piece of audio should be subjected to critical analysis when being used as evidence, the reliability of the audio can be questionable “Assessing the reliability of audio forensic opinions can be a challenge. Unlike DNA comparisons that can be expressed in a formal statistical sense, a forensic acoustics question such as “Is the utterance present in the evidentiary recording the voice of Suspect A?” (Maher, 2016)Especially if the audio is from a low quality source and noises can be difficult to determine.

Modern audio tools have been programmed to change the audio in order to help determine noise sources and allow for a clearer picture for the listener to make an informed critical analysis of what they are listening to. An example of these are some of the audio tools in Izotope RX. RX allows the user to see a detailed report of the audio, and then deconstruct the audio in order to enhance specific noise sources.

I have created the following example using Izotope RX.

Audio for speed detection- Speed cameras.

Kubera. E, Wieczorkowski. A, Kuranc. A, Słowik. T (2019) Discovering Speed Changes of Vehicles from Audio Data (Online)  Advance in Sensors and Sensing Systems for Driving and Transportation. Available at https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/19/14/3067. (Accessed 18 Nov 2020.)

I have found further research into devices and methodology utilising non-musical audio processing. This is a piece of research with the aim of using audio to detect car driving speed. Viewing the research shows that the research was successful in detecting an fairly accurate speed audio data recorded from the vehicle.  “The presented results show that even a simple feature vector, representing lines in a spectrogram, yields 90% accuracy, even though tracking these lines is difficult, and errors in these parameters are possible.” While the accuracy is high enough for the general research to be considered a success, using recorded audio to replace speed cameras in the modern world woulf be problematic and inpractical, as it is less accurate, leaving it far more open to legal disputes than speed cameras that have a lower margin of error, that are already often legally disputed for their accuracy. “Speed cameras are officially described as being calibrated to an accuracy of two per cent. However, in recent years some well-publicised court cases have hinged upon alleged inaccuracies in the speed camera evidence.” (nationalprobationservice, 2015)

Although this research at this time is not accurate enough to be used practically, one can question how this research can be expanded on to for the purpose of a practical need. In future, audio speed detectors could be used to detect speed in low visibility conditions.

Exploring these non-musical/creatives avenues has been especially useful for my practice as an audio programmer because they have shown the potential that audio signal processing can have in society, as well as show the benefits of approaching audio programming with an objective mindset. All of the devices I have found have been created for a practical use, and it is interesting to see where societal needs have been filled by audio programming and how this research can be taken further.  To become a practitioner in creating audio devices for practical solutions, an understanding of audio from an objective viewpoint is fundamental. Approaching audio in this way is essential to my practice as programming is rooted in having a logical and objective discipline. Even if one is programming a tool for the purpose of creativity, as an audio programmer, one needs to understand exactly what is happening in the program.

References

Audio Forensics Expert. (n.d.). Retrieved 12 2020, from https://www.audioforensicexpert.com/what-is-audio-forensics/

Maher, R. C. (2016). Lending an Ear in the Courtroom: Forensic Acoustics. Retrieved 12 2020, from Acoustics Today: https://acousticstoday.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Lending-an-Ear-in-the-Courtroom-Forensic-Acoustics-Forensic-acoustics-deals-with-acquisition-analysis-and-evaluation-of-audio-recordings-to-be-used-as-evidence-in-an-official-legal-inquiry..pdf

nationalprobationservice. (2015). nationalprobationservice. Retrieved 11 2020, from nationalprobationservice/speedcameras: https://www.nationalprobationservice.co.uk/speedcameras.html

The New York Times. (1974, 1). ext of Advisory Panel's Report to Judge Sirica on Tape Recording. Retrieved 12 2020, from The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/1974/01/16/archives/text-of-advisory-panels-report-to-judge-sirica-on-tape-recording.html

[theliberaltony]

via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

It’s been a very unusual convention season. Both major parties had to improvise on the traditional convention playbook because of the novel coronavirus pandemic, holding nearly all-virtual gatherings instead. But the Republican National Convention cast aside other traditions too — featuring some of the norm-breaking (and possible law-breaking!) that we’ve come to expect from the Trump administration and blurring the lines that separate governance from party politics, and party politics from personal advancement.

As we’ve noted here before, there’s a difference between norms and democratic values. Norms are nice, and even important sometimes. But not always: Both conventions featured new forms of roll-call voting, for example, losing some norms but not in a problematic way. Other norms, though, help enforce democratic values. And that kind of norm-breaking is the one we should really worry about.

So what values — if any — are at stake in the norm violations at the 2020 RNC?

Election integrity and good governance

Most of the norms-based criticisms of the RNC revolved around the use of government resources and governing powers for a political event. On the second night, the convention kicked off with President Trump pardoning Jon Ponder. The same night, the convention aired a pre-taped naturalization ceremony filmed at the White House. And on Thursday, Trump delivered his acceptance speech from the White House’s South Lawn. All this drew sharp criticism, including questions about whether the Trump administration had violated the Hatch Act, which bans federal officials from mixing their government work with political activities.

Indeed, since last week, the Hatch Act has been having a moment. But are there democratic values embodied in this 1939 piece of legislation? On Wednesday morning, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows was quoted saying that only “Beltway insiders” cared about such things. And civil service regulation might not seem like the most exciting or relevant topic. But the Hatch Act came after many years of political struggles, and other, unsuccessful legislative attempts to address the relationship between politics and governance. These kinds of rules are in place to protect the governing process from improper political influence and elections from the sway of powerful actors. The civil service reform movement in the 1880s sought to create an effective federal government, staffed by civil servants who were trained for their work and free from fear of losing their jobs over politics. The idea of protecting elections dates back to at least the 1830s. The Hatch Act itself came about as the result of concern about the FDR administration using the Works Progress Administration for political gain and becoming overly involved in the 1938 primaries in an effort to defeat conservative Democrats. In other words, the act, which was controversial at the time and has been controversial since, was aimed at curbing the role of politics in governance and keeping the president from having too much influence over elections. The Hatch Act and other rules like it aren’t just about obscure regulations or Washington norms — they safeguard the values of election integrity and good governance.

Nonpartisan foreign policy

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s speech from Jerusalem also prompted Hatch Act questions. It’s possible the speech didn’t technically violate the law. And it’s not unheard of for Cabinet secretaries to speak at conventions about domestic issues. But regardless of who paid for what, the appearance of a secretary of state at a convention links partisan politics to foreign policy statecraft and diplomacy. And there’s a reason why foreign policy is different.

As Scott Anderson explained on the Lawfare podcast, the principles behind State Department policies banning partisan activities by overseas diplomats are that they represent the entire nation – not just one political party. Suggesting that one party is better than the other to our allies runs the risk of undermining our national position and credibility when the other party takes power. It defies the concept that both parties are equally invested in the security and safety of the nation, ultimately denying the legitimate role of opposition — the idea that the party out of power is still a legitimate part of the nation, and a crucial democratic value.

Equality and access

At the Democratic National Convention this year, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris both had family members speak about them. But at the RNC, in addition to Ivanka Trump’s introduction of her father, three of Trump’s children had evening speaking slots. His sons, Eric and Donald Jr., spoke about politics, castigating “cancel culture” and the Biden campaign. Contrasted with Melania Trump’s speech as first lady, the Trump children — and his sons, in particular — stepped out of the ceremonial role as “first family” and into a more partisan, political one. As some commentators noted, the speeches sounded like they were gearing up to run for office.

Family political dynasties are hardly unusual in American politics. There are the Bushes, the Romneys and of course, the Kennedys — as well as many others. And political conventions are supposed to showcase speakers who might run for office later. But combining these two things flies in the face of core democratic values like equality and access and instead turns the political party into a personal vehicle for the president and his family.

Personalistic leadership

The deeper democratic value violation in the RNC’s use of these presidential powers — both real and ceremonial — in a convention context is what political scientists call personalistic leadership. It’s not just that Trump merged governance and party politics. It’s that, in this merging, the impression is given that Trump himself — rather than the Constitution or the office — is the source of privileges like granting pardons and citizenship. This gets directly at one of the principles the nation’s founders worried about when creating the office of the presidency: that it would place too much power in the hands of a single individual, endangering the idea of a “government of laws and not of men.”

Finally, and relatedly, Trump accepted the nomination in a closing speech on the South Lawn of the White House, followed up with “Trump 2020” fireworks over the Washington Monument. Some commentators have questioned not only the propriety of this but also suggested these events were illegal. (A gathering of 1,500 people, most of them unmasked, also violated local laws, though federal property is exempt from those laws.)

Political parties have become more focused on the presidency over time, with candidates rarely stepping up to challenge incumbent presidents for the nomination. And it’s standard for the conventions to focus heavily on the sitting president in that way, highlighting that this is the person already in the office while also competing to stay there. But Thursday’s use of the White House, accompanied by Trump’s declaration of “we’re here and they’re not” in his renomination acceptance speech, undercuts the reality that all presidents occupy that space temporarily. The separation of the presidency from the president is a key democratic value. The presidency and its symbols do not belong to one president or his supporters, but to all of the American people.

[resilientsovl]

BASIC INFORMATION

FULL NAME:  samuel  william  winchester. PRONUNCIATION:  pronounced  how  it’s  spelled. MEANING:  so  from   the  hebrew  name  שְׁמוּאֵל,  it  means  god  has  heard,  or  name  of  god.  it’s  a  little  ironic  considering  sam  is  lucifer,  god’s  fallen  son’s,  true  vessel.   REASONING:  sam  was  named  after  his  maternal  grandfather,  samuel  campbell. NICKNAME(S):  sam,  sammy,  little  winchester,  moose,  738273  other  height  related  nicknames. PREFERRED NAME(S):   sam. BIRTH DATE:  may  2,  1983. AGE:  honestly  he’s  not  sure.  he’s  died  3-4  times,  been  the  vessel  for  demons  and  archangels  which  probably  stalled  his  physical  aging  too.  i  say  he’s  probably  biologically  somewhere  around  35,  even  though  he’s  technically  47ish. ZODIAC: taurus. GENDER:  cismale. PRONOUNS:   he/him. ROMANTIC ORIENTATION:  heteroromantic. SEXUAL ORIENTATION:  bisexual.  (  he  can  appreciate  that  men  are  attractive,  has  probably  even  slept  with  a  couple,  but  has  no  desire  to  be  in  romantic,  serious,  relationships  with  men.  ) NATIONALITY:  american. ETHNICITY:   wonderbread  white. CURRENT LOCATION:  san  francisco,  ca. LIVING CONDITIONS:   a  crappy  two  bedroom  apartment  he  rents  by  the  month.  it’s  small,  not  in  a  great  neighborhood,  but  it  does  the  trick.   TITLE(S):   n/a.

BACKGROUND

BIRTH PLACE:   lawrence,  kansas. HOMETOWN:  technically  lawrence  kansas,  but  they  moved  around  frequently.   SOCIAL CLASS:  blue  collar. EDUCATION LEVEL:   undergraduate  degree  from  stanford.   FATHER:   john  winchester. MOTHER:   mary  winchester  (  neé  campbell  ).   SIBLING(S):   dean  winchester,  adam  milligan  (  half  ).   BIRTH ORDER:  dean,  sam,  adam.   CHILDREN:  jack  kline  (  adopted  /  unofficially  ) PET(S):   n/a. OTHER IMPORTANT RELATIVES:  bobby  singer,  pseudo  uncle.   castiel,  pseudo  brother  /  brother-in-law.   SIGNIFICANT  OTHER:   natasha  herrera,  wife.  (  separated  ) PREVIOUS RELATIONSHIPS:   jessica  moore,  amelia  richardson,  meg,  sarah  blake,  ruby,  a  few  one  night  stands,  amy  pond  (  first  kiss  ),  etc.   ARRESTS?:  a  few,  yes.   PRISON TIME?:  minimal,  seen  in  folsom  prison  blues.  

OCCUPATION & INCOME

PRIMARY SOURCE OF INCOME:   credit  card  scams,  illegal  activity.   SECONDARY SOURCE OF INCOME:   n/a. TERTIARY SOURCE(S) OF INCOME:   hunting,  but  it  pays  for  shit.   APPROXIMATE AMOUNT PER YEAR:   unknown.   CONTENT WITH THEIR JOB (OR LACK THERE OF)?:   this  is  never  the  job  he  wanted.  so  no,  definitely  not.   PAST JOB(S):   student.   SPENDING HABITS:  extremely  frugal,  only  on  necessities.   MOST VALUABLE POSSESSION:  john  winchester’s  journal.  

SKILLS & ABILITIES

PHYSICAL STRENGTH:   peak  physical  condition,  human,  in-shape.   OFFENSE:   extremely  skilled  with  weapons  and  hand  to  hand.   DEFENSE:  extremely  skilled  with  lethal  and  non-lethal  defensive  moves.   SPEED:  faster  than  average. INTELLIGENCE:  educated  and  above  average.   ACCURACY:   above  average. AGILITY:   above  average.   STAMINA:   above  average.   TEAMWORK:   below  average.  he  doesn’t  work  well  with  people  he  doesn’t  know  or  trust.  it  takes  time  to  develop  a  bond  /  ease  of  working  with  others.   TALENTS:   computer  skills,  digesting  information,  critical  thinking  skills. SHORTCOMINGS:   stubborn,  naive,  reckless,  deep  psychological  trauma,  suicidal  ideation,  a  nice  grabbag  of  issues.   LANGUAGE(S) SPOKEN:   latin,  english,  probably  a  bunch  of  other  old,  dead,  languages  that  might  come  in  handy.  he  probably  also  took  spanish  in  school.   DRIVE?:   yes. JUMP-STAR A CAR?:   yes. CHANGE A FLAT TIRE?:   yes.   RIDE A BICYCLE?:   yes. SWIM?:   yes.   PLAY AN INSTRUMENT?:   no. PLAY CHESS?:   yes. BRAID HAIR?:   no. TIE A TIE?:   yes. PICK A LOCK?:  yes.  

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE & CHARACTERISTICS

FACE CLAIM:   jared  padalecki.   EYE COLOR:   hazel. HAIR COLOR:   brown. HAIR TYPE/STYLE:   long  and  flowing.   GLASSES/CONTACTS?:   n/a. DOMINANT HAND:   right.   HEIGHT:  6′4 WEIGHT:   220  ish  lbs. BUILD:   slender  but  muscular.   EXERCISE HABITS:  rigorous.  he  jogs  in  the  mornings,  does  sit  ups  /  pull  ups  at  night,  and  lifts  weights  during  the  day  in  between  cases.  he  stays  in  shape.   SKIN TONE:   tanned.   TATTOOS:   anti-possession  tattoo  over  his  heart.   it  was  carved  out  in  2026  but  the  scar  has  been  tattooed  over,  replacing  the  original.   PEIRCINGS:   none.   MARKS/SCARS:   he’s  died  and  come  back  so  many  times,  it’s  hard  to  say  what’s  still  there  and  what’s  gone.   he  does  still  have  the  bullet  wound  from  where  he  shot  chuck  though.  it  never  healed.   NOTABLE FEATURES:   nose,  hair.   USUAL EXPRESSION:   smirk  of  disbelief,  concern.   CLOTHING STYLE:   lumberjack  lesbian.   JEWELRY:    he  wears  a  chain  with  his  wedding  ring  around  his  neck,  the  one  he  never  got  to  put  on  for  real.   ALLERGIES:   none.   BODY TEMPERATURE:   normal. DIET:   not  great.  hence  the  need  to  work  out. PHYSICAL AILMENTS:   general  fatigue  from  a  rigorously  active  lifestyle.  

PSYCHOLOGY

JUNG TYPE:  INFJ JUNG SUBTYPE:  Introvert(47%)  iNtuitive (34%)  Feeling(31%)  Judging(38%) You have moderate preference of Introversion over Extraversion (47%) You have moderate preference of Intuition over Sensing (34%) You have moderate preference of Feeling over Thinking (31%) You have moderate preference of Judging over Perceiving (38%) ENNEAGRAM TYPE:   the  reformer  or  the  challenger.   MORAL ALIGNMENT:  chaotic  good.   TEMPERAMENT:   melancholic.   ELEMENT:   taurus  are  usually  earth  elements,  but  i  think  air  suits  sam  better.   PRIMARY INTELLIGENCE TYPE:   logical-mathematical,  probably.   APPROXIMATE IQ:   unknown.  we  know  he  scored  a  174  on  the  LSAT,  which  is  incredible,  but  that  doesn’t  always  translate  over  to  IQ.  i  would  say  he’s  got  a  pretty  high  IQ  even  if  he  lacks  a  few  common  sense  points.   MENTAL CONDITIONS/DISORDERS:   undiagnosed  depression,  anxiety,  PTSD,  imposter  syndrome,  and  survivor’s  guilt  —  and  that’s  just  the  tip  of  the  iceberg.   don’t  ask  me  to  psychoanalyze  the  winchesters,  it’ll  break  us  all.   SOCIABILITY:   he  doesn’t  seek  it  out  but  he  can  keep  up  with  the  joneses.   EMOTIONAL STABILITY:   not  good.  he  has  exhibited  severe  signs  of  codependency,  suicidal  ideation,  lack  of  regard  for  his  own  life,  and  believe  that  he’s  cursed.  the  boy  is  a  mess.   OBSESSION(S):  vengeance  after  significant  loss,  saving  people  (  even  if  it’s  from  themselves  ),  trying  to  make  up  for  all  of  the  blood  on  his  hands.   PHOBIA(S):   clowns.  not  a  fan.   ADDICTION(S):   demon  blood  (  previously  ) DRUG USE:   no. ALCOHOL USE:  recreationally.   PRONE TO VIOLENCE?:  can  be,  yes.  

MANNERISMS

SPEECH STYLE:  casual. ACCENT:   american.  nothing  specific.   QUIRKS:   chewing  on  pen  caps,  tapping  to  songs  on  the  radio  against  the  steering  wheel  with  his  fingers.   HOBBIES:   reading,  researching,  pool,  morning  crosswords.   HABITS:   stress  pacing,  irritability  under  extreme  pressure. NERVOUS TICKS:   jaw  clench,  nostrils  flaring,  hands  curled  into  fists.   DRIVES/MOTIVATIONS:  vengeance,  restoring  order  /  protecting  people,  survival.   FEARS:  losing  the  people  he  loves,  hurting  innocents,  isolation.   POSITIVE TRAITS:   dependable,  loyal,  protective,  determined,  strong,  honest,  vulnerable. NEGATIVE TRAITS:  impulsive,  reckless,  guilt-stricken,  naive,  obtuse,  too  trusting.   SENSE OF HUMOR:   dry,  sarcastic.   DO THEY CURSE OFTEN?:   no. CATCHPHRASE(S):  damnit, dean.    jerk  /  bitch.  

FAVORITES

ACTIVITY:   long  drives.   ANIMAL:  hedgehogs. BEVERAGE:   monster  energy  drinks.   BOOK:   probably  the  classics,  or  something  by  neil  gaiman. CELEBRITY:   he  doesn’t  have  one. COLOR:   blue.   DESIGNER:   doesn’t  have  one.   FOOD:  philly  cheesesteak.   maybe  mashed  potatoes,  if  not  the  cheesesteak.   FLOWER:   sunflowers. GEM:   none. HOLIDAY:    none.   MODE OF TRANSPORTATION:   car.   MOVIE:   mallrats.   MUSICAL ARTIST:  none.  he’ll  just  listen  to  whatever  they  have  in  the  car,  or  is  on  the  radio.  before  i  think  he  was  probably  into  top  40,  maybe  even  classic  rock  as  much  as  he  complained  about it.   QUOTE/SAYING:   none. SCENERY:   autumn  leaves  falling  from  trees.   SCENT:   linen.   SPORT:   none.  he  doesn’t  care.   SPORTS TEAM:   see  above.   TELEVISION SHOW:   none.  he  probably  only  watches  soap  operas  every  now  and  then  again.  he  doesn’t  watch  anything  he  would  have  to  invest  time  and  energy  in.   maybe  pawnstars,  or  mythbusters.   WEATHER:  drizzle.   VACATION DESTINATION:  somewhere  warm,  tropic,  and  free  of  monsters.  

ATTITUDES

GREATEST DREAM:   to  have  a  normal  life.   he  knows  he’ll  never  get  it,  has  come  to  terms  with  the  fact  that  he  was  never  going  to  be  normal.   GREATEST FEAR:   ending  up  alone,  watching  everyone  he  loves  die.   MOST AT EASE WHEN:  around  the  people  he  loves.   LEAST AT EASE WHEN:   on  a  hunt  that’s  starting  to  go  awry.   WORST POSSIBLE THING THAT COULD HAPPEN:   turning  into  a  monster  —  the  very  thing  he’s  dedicated  his  life  to  hunting,  or  becoming  evil.  being  forced  into  killing  his  own  brother,  or  someone  he  loves  like  family,  would  also  make  the  list.   BIGGEST ACHIEVEMENT:  in  a  really  soft  way,  i  want  to  say  it’s  becoming  a  pseudo  dad  to  jack.  it  might  not  have  been  what  he  saw  for  himself,  or  how  he  imagined  being  a  dad,  but  he  loves  the  kid.   if  not  that,  maybe  stopping  the  apocalypse.   not  that  it  lasted  for  very  long.   BIGGEST REGRET:   not  telling  jessica  the  truth.  he  will  always  believe  he  got  her  killed.  that  guilt  will  set  with  him  until  the  day  he  dies.   MOST EMBARRASSING MOMENT:   too  many  to  count.   BIGGEST SECRET:   he  remembers  a  lot  of  what  the  demon  did  when  it  possessed  him  in  2026.   he  fought  with  everything  he  had,  but  every  time  he  broke  through  they  pushed  him  back  down.   TOP PRIORITIES:  figuring  out  what  comes  next,  i  suppose.  

[sylleboi]

𝕱𝖎𝖗𝖘𝖙𝖘𝖎𝖙𝖊 𝖆𝖓𝖉 𝖗𝖊𝖘𝖊𝖆𝖗𝖈𝖍𝖎𝖓𝖌 | 08/01/20

Morning:

For the first half of the day we were given a brief titles “Out of rocks and earth: Drawing workshop”. The workshop we were about to do is based on the work of Henry Moore, one of the three key artists we are studying for this months brief.

The task was to develop ideas using Moores’ methods of doing so, using it to create these ideas for future three-dimensional figures.

𝕿𝖆𝖘𝖐 𝖔𝖓𝖊:

Work in pairs to create a ‘free-standing’ sculpture using rocks and clay. The clay should be used only as a material to join the rocks and make them stand, therefore it’s important to smooth out the clay to form with the natural curvatures of the rock/rocks.

With a classmate, we did the same together, creating our first rock figure;

And later also our second. We tried to go for a look opposite to our previous that looked more soft and rounded. For the one below, we picked out rocks that looked more jagged and rough, creating this little bridge:

Below is a picture showing all of the little stone sculptures the class put together in their little groups:

Using wax and ink, fill a page with drawings of your sculpture/sculptures from different angles. The drawing should be a mix of linear and tonal studies, using different scale.

Below is a video of my teacher showing and explaining to the class how this should be done:

So we then went ahead and began doing this ourselves:

After we had finished doing all of the drawing (looking drawing looking drawing) using the wax, we then went over how to further create a sense of depth by going over the wax with ink. Using the ink gives us the opportunity to play around with values to a further extend, making the drawings appear more three-dimensional, much like sculptures.

Below is yet another video of our teacher demonstrating this for us before testing it out for ourselves:

Here is a better picture showing what our teacher had done:

𝕿𝖆𝖘𝖐 𝖙𝖜𝖔:

Giving life - Firstly, photocopy your drawing onto cartridge paper, then, study the form of the drawings. Can you see characters emerging? Are they human or of some other form?

The aim now, is to give these shapes life. Work over each drawing, creating ideas for three-dimensional figures.

As told, we photocopied all of the pages we had drawn on, in my case that would be two.

Now we could focus on letting the pages come to life. This process straight away reminded me of when we did the inkblot test (Rorschach test) from the first brief where we focused on surrealism and the unconscious mind.

I began just drawing away using a fineliner;

𝕰𝖝𝖙𝖊𝖓𝖘𝖎𝖔𝖓:

Write a story for one or a few of the characters.

On the pictures above I wrote some short ideas for a backstory to give personality and context to the creatures that I came up with. After finishing these, we chose one of our creatures and introduces them to the rest of the class.

Afternoon:

Right before lunchtime, we went to Firstsite in town to see the work of Antony Gormley and his installation art piece Field for the British Isles. Gormley is also one of the three main artists that we are studying for this brief, so to be able to see some of his work up close and in real life is a great opportunity to understand his processes.

Field for the British Isles, 1993:

We then filled out the little booklet we all were given;

As we were about to leave for lunch, I decided to take a quick little detour through the rest of the expeditions displayed, finding appeal and inspiration in a few:

They reminded me of shape, form and texture, (which can all be applied into a three-dimensional subject such as clay sculpting) three of several terms of visual language. I wonder if I’ll be finding myself referring back to these in the future(?).

When we returned from firstsite, we began focusing on research methods:

𝕸𝖆𝖐𝖎𝖓𝖌 𝖈𝖔𝖓𝖓𝖊𝖈𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓𝖘:

Aims & objectives:

To identify the possible influences of research

To identify methods of effective presentation

To use research to influence and support idea development

Artists to research connected to the brief:

Anthony Gormley

Henry Moore

Shaun Tan

Artists that I have chosen to research, based on the brief:

Johnson Tsang

Choi Xooang

𝕿𝖆𝖘𝖐:

List the types of research you might need throughout a project, from start to finish. Primary research: Interviews, looking and studying imagery, galleries, museums, exhibitions Secondary research: Book, documentaries, the internet, presentations, articles

Next to this list, identify how each type of research could influence you, e.g. Definitions of the brief - given ideas for primary research... Doing research using museums and exhibitions help to aid figuring out how the artist has come to the finished product of art, as well as letting you view it in person rather than seeing it on a screen.

𝕳𝖔𝖜 𝖉𝖔𝖊𝖘 𝖗𝖊𝖘𝖊𝖆𝖗𝖈𝖍 𝖍𝖊𝖑𝖕 𝖉𝖊𝖛𝖊𝖑𝖔𝖕 𝖞𝖔𝖚𝖗 𝖕𝖗𝖔𝖏𝖊𝖈𝖙?

We were a bunch of different slides, there to aid us in our research for this project and the projects to come. Because I myself learn well by writing down everything, I decided to recreate a few of the slides myself, taking my time and making sure I understood each bit. As I did this, we went over a few other key things to keep in mind to make sure our research is of high standard; mainly focusing on improving since when we first began the term last year (2019).

Showing a clear connection between research and ones development is vital. Along with this, it’s also important to make sure that we are responding to all the research studies we do for the reason that it gives value. Some ways that ones response could be evidenced, could be by:

Using arrows, pointers and annotations to show what you find interesting/have learnt. - Using arrows helps show what you are discussing and can be used to make comparisons between images or information.

Mapping your ideas following research to show the influences.

Highlighting quotes or text and listing your ideas around it. - It’s important to always list the titles, names and dates of the works you are analysing, so highlighting can be very useful in a context as such, but you could also draw over the images to further emphasise on something within the artwork.

Sketching or planning your ideas.

Making comparison between their (peers or artists) work and your primary images or development.

So to sum it all up while trying to keep it as brief and simple as possible;

Research (includes fx. the name of the artist, examples of their work, asking about the context a.k.a. asking “who?”, “what?”, “when?”, “where?” and “why?”) results in you then being able to reflect and respond to what you have found out; this includes both some form of analysis to reflect your own opinion, as well as incorporating some development of personal ideas. Photocopying or printing information is a valid method of research. Highlight and annotate the information to show what you find important and always list the source. Some examples of this could be from journals, magazine or books.

𝕳𝖔𝖜 𝖙𝖔 𝖒𝖆𝖐𝖊 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖗𝖊𝖘𝖊𝖆𝖗𝖈𝖍 𝖑𝖎𝖓𝖐𝖘

The aim of research is to develop your understadning throughout a project.

Research can be used to develop your knowledge of a theme, the context of your work and your technical skills.

The way you use research at each stage may be different, but it can be considered and presented in the same ways. Here are some examples;

𝕿𝖆𝖘𝖐 𝖔𝖓𝖊

In groups, find definitions of the key words of the brief- look also at the similar terms and synonyms to broaden the possibilities, list all of these. We will come back to these terms later...

𝕿𝖆𝖘𝖐 𝖙𝖜𝖔

Now take the artist Shaun Tan and use the following terms to make further investigations

[starlingsrps]

kate ward char. dev.

BASIC INFORMATION

FULL NAME: kathleen grace ward (technically harper but yanno)

REASONING: nah, not really

NICKNAME(S): kate, katie, kat

PREFERRED NAME(S): kate

BIRTH DATE: october 13, 1986

AGE: thirty three

GENDER: female

PRONOUNS: she/her

ROMANTIC/SEXUAL ORIENTATION:  heterosexual

NATIONALITY: american

ETHNICITY: caucasian

CURRENT LOCATION: holly point, ga

LIVING CONDITIONS: small house, giant garden.

TITLE(S): no.

BACKGROUND

BIRTH PLACE: holly point, ga

HOMETOWN: same

SOCIAL CLASS: middle

EDUCATION LEVEL: associate's in business

FATHER: terry ward, 58, preacher

MOTHER: ellen ward, 57, preacher's wife

SIBLING(S): jeffrey ward, 30

BIRTH ORDER: oldest

CHILDREN: noooooope.

PET(S): black poodle mix named lola

OTHER IMPORTANT RELATIVES: her paternal grandmother, rosemarie. rosemarie will put the fear of god in you.

PREVIOUS RELATIONSHIPS: like, a few but griffin is absolutely the most major. even though she's, y'know, into her thirties, she's still got the preacher's daughter thing going and it makes dating a little tricky. also, y'know: still legally married.

CURRENT RELATIONSHIP: nah.

OCCUPATION & INCOME

PRIMARY SOURCE OF INCOME: co-owner of a yet to be named floral shop

CONTENT WITH THEIR JOB (OR LACK THERE OF)?: yes!

PAST JOB(S): waitressing, church secretary

SPENDING HABITS: responsible.

MOST VALUABLE POSSESSION: lola

SKILLS & ABILITIES

PHYSICAL STRENGTH: decent enough for what she needs to do

DEFENSE: floral snips?

SPEED: she can keep up

INTELLIGENCE: big reader

ACCURACY: not bad

AGILITY: nimble

STAMINA: endless

TEAMWORK: excellent

TALENTS: floral design, generosity.

SHORTCOMINGS: the world's worst at organization

LANGUAGE(S) SPOKEN: english, high school french

DRIVE?: yes

JUMP-STAR A CAR?: yep

CHANGE A FLAT TIRE?: yep

RIDE A BICYCLE?: yep

SWIM?: yes.

PLAY AN INSTRUMENT?: nah.

PLAY CHESS?: nope.

BRAID HAIR?: hers and talia's but no one else.

TIE A TIE?: nope

PICK A LOCK?: no.

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE & CHARACTERISTICS

FACE CLAIM: danielle panabaker

EYE COLOR: hazel

HAIR COLOR: brown

HAIR TYPE/STYLE: long, thick and usually wound up in a topknot.

GLASSES/CONTACTS?: nah

DOMINANT HAND: right

HEIGHT: 5'6

BUILD: average

EXERCISE HABITS: ...no.

SKIN TONE: fair

TATTOOS: her mother would lose her shit so no.

PIERCINGS: ears

MARKS/SCARS: freckles

USUAL EXPRESSION: pleasant

CLOTHING STYLE: jeans and a cute top, generally. she's got a hell of a collection of flannels but also cute af dresses for when she feels like looking adorable.

JEWELRY: earrings and a necklace, yes. bracelet and rings? nah. she keeps her rings from griffin in the waaaaaaaaaaay back of her sock drawer.

ALLERGIES: cats

DIET: p reasonable unless her mom is cooking.

PHYSICAL AILMENTS: migraines.

PSYCHOLOGY

ENNEAGRAM TYPE: 9 - the peacemaker

MORAL ALIGNMENT: lawful good

TEMPERAMENT: sanguine

MBTI: ESFJ

MENTAL CONDITIONS/DISORDERS: not really? garden variety anxiety

SOCIABILITY: extrovert

EMOTIONAL STABILITY: even keel

PHOBIA(S): eh, nothing too life altering?

ADDICTION(S): nah

DRUG USE: nah

ALCOHOL USE: wine dog mom

PRONE TO VIOLENCE?: not at all

MANNERISMS

SPEECH STYLE: smooth and sweet

ACCENT: thick af georgia accent

HOBBIES: gardening and reading

NERVOUS TICKS: shuffling things around if they're within reach.

DRIVES/MOTIVATIONS: being her own person

FEARS: tornados

POSITIVE TRAITS: sweet, charismatic, warm, confident, responsible, team player.

NEGATIVE TRAITS: unorganized, impractical, needy, complacent

SENSE OF HUMOR: pretty much anything tbh

DO THEY CURSE OFTEN?: seldom

FAVORITES

WEATHER: fall, for sure.

ACTIVITY: gardening, long walks, hanging out with her dog

ANIMAL: dogs

BEVERAGE: water

BOOK: honestly, the more romcoms the better.

COLOR: red

DESIGNER: madewell

FOOD: pancakes

FLOWER: gladiolas

GEM: pearls

QUOTE: "she lost him but she found herself and somehow that was everything"

HOLIDAY: thanksgiving

MODE OF TRANSPORTATION: walking

MOVIE: sweet home alabama

MUSICAL ARTIST: taylor swift

SONG: “tim mcgraw"

SCENERY: her garden in late spring

SCENT: roses

TELEVISION SHOW: the bachelor

VACATION DESTINATION: the beach

ATTITUDES

GREATEST DREAM: keeping the business going, being the best person she can be.

GREATEST FEAR: oh boy. losing her family? like that might be about it. she's very close to her family and can't picture life without them.

MOST AT EASE WHEN: working in the shop with anjali and listening to music.

LEAST AT EASE WHEN:

BIGGEST ACHIEVEMENT: she's really proud of the woman she's become since griffin left.

BIGGEST REGRET: welp, since finding out those divorce papers never got signed....

BIGGEST SECRET: honestly, isn't she kind of the secret so to speak?

TOP PRIORITIES: family, friends, work.

[iambloop]

Education & Democracy

Consider a ship. The ship is to undertake a journey - it has to sail through several oceans to reach a land far away. On its way, it will encounter difficult waters, storms even - it is guaranteed to be a difficult journey. Such a voyage requires a skilled captain. In order to determine who should command this ship, a committee of people is going to be established. These people will decide which person is best equipped for this task.

You are the first member of this committee, and you are assigned with the task of recruiting other people for this committee. Note that your task right now is not to choose the captain, but to simply assemble a group of people who will make that decision. Contemplate for a moment - on what basis should this committee be chosen?  

The objective of this committee is to choose the best candidate for captain. To do this, we begin by defining a criteria to judge whether a person is a good fit for captain or not. There are, broadly speaking, two categories of concern here.

The first one is technical: what route does the captain plan to take, how does she plan on dealing with storms, etc. The other is not technical: the voyage is not simply about going from point A to point B, it is to ensure that the people onboard are safe and that there is peace and harmony on the ship. For this, we question: is the captain prudent? Is she wise and careful? Is she aggressive? Is she kind?

As average people, it is not possible for us to be experts in each technical aspect - however, in order to judge whether the captain is qualified, it is necessary for at least some of us to possess basic knowledge regarding the technical aspects of sailing.

Now that we’ve established the qualities that we seek in a captain, we can determine the qualities that our committee members must possess.

To judge whether someone has a certain quality, we must possess an understanding of that quality itself. We must understand the benefits of such a quality, and if we seek our captain to have this quality, it must be a good quality, and if it is a good quality, we must ourselves wish to have it. Hence, the people who select the captain must possess the same qualities that they seek in the captain. Our task then boils down to looking for people who possess a subset of the qualities that we wish for the captain to have. Note that if they possess all the qualities that the captain should have, then perhaps they should be captain themselves. Therefore, we restrict our search to people who are strictly less qualified than required for captaincy - they possess certain but not all qualities that are required to become captain.

The people who select the captain, therefore, must be a partial reflection of the captain: the committee must be comprised of people who possess the basics of the technical know-how in order to judge whether the applicant is qualified or not, and also, the values required to judge whether the applicant is the right person to lead and manage the voyage in its non-technical aspects.

* * *

The idea of democracy emerged in ancient Greece. The word comes from ‘demos’ - common people, and ‘kratos’ - strength. Democracy is a Greek concept, and interestingly, one of the strongest criticisms against democracy comes from the founding father of Greek philosophy, Socrates. The story above is simply an extension of the argument that Socrates offered - the ship is the society, the captain is the elected government and the committee of people are the voters.

In a democracy by birthright, each citizen that has attained 18 years of age is allowed to vote. That is to say, each citizen’s opinion is given equal weight in the democratic process. This is equivalent to allowing all the sailors on the boat to be a part of the committee that selects the captain - it is, naturally, ‘equal’, but logically, it guarantees an inefficiency in the outcome of the democratic process - it accounts for the opinion of those who do not possess the skills necessary to make an informed decision. In a highly literate society, this would be a small cost to bear - as long as the majority is capable of critical thinking, the outcome would be efficient, along with the positive side effect of creating a sense of equality amongst the citizens. However, we are not living in a highly ‘literate’ society. Statistically higher literacy rates have failed to account for the limitations of the education.

Education all over the world has been moving further and further away from humanities, closer to natural sciences. Particularly in this part of the world, the education system involves very little amount of compulsory education in philosophy or political science. As jobs in these fields are not economically rewarding, students too lack the incentives to take up these fields or study them. However, what this has created is a society of highly educated illiterates - we understand trigonometry but we do not understand how to reason outside the realm of numbers. Engineering is held in high regard, but political literacy, an education in reasoning, in morality and ethics, it is often dismissed as ‘unnecessary’ for the simple fact that these do not lend themselves very easily to jobs that the capitalist society can absorb. By the virtue of understanding calculus or the laws of motion, one is not naturally equipped to make better decisions. The tools necessary to calculate the trajectory of objects are not the same tools that can be used to differentiate between right and wrong, good and bad - the progress of society has been lopsided.

* * *

“Government of the people, by the people, for the people” - nearly every introduction to the idea of democracy is built around this quote by Abraham Lincoln. It successfully highlights the essence of a democratic institution: people. The people are essentially the engine of a democracy. They participate in the process by adopting different roles: as citizens, journalists, civil servants, political leaders, etc. A democracy works only when all of these perform their functions effectively. Essentially, people are the ground upon which the 4 pillars of a democracy stand.

Our goal, then, becomes to ensure that this ground is firm, that it is fertile, which is to say, to ensure that people are not just well trained but well educated. This is an uncommon belief, in the sense that nobody would rationally disagree with this statement but there are not many people who understand its implications as well as what it demands from us as human beings - it demands a process of constant education - of learning, unlearning and relearning.

The reluctance to devote time and energy to human sciences is a product of several things. The present job market is one of those factors - but then, we don’t do everything just for the sake of work. There is another factor, one that discourages people from moving beyond newspapers and TV and social media - it is the subjectivity.

Society and its functioning does not have a basis in science, at least not in the same sense as the science of the physical world - there are no exact rules that dictate how society works, or how society should work. There are different schools of thought, and each of these lead us on different paths - perhaps, then, there is no objective measure to navigate this space, to understand this world. This belief is only amplified by the environment - the primary source for information in these matters is the news channels, the newspapers. Information has increased, sensationalism has increased, and without being familiar with the fundamentals the govern the debate, we watch news anchors spit over each other, fact after fact, accusation after accusation. With no simple way to understand and to catch up, it seems, the act of being an informed citizen demands far too much these days - how can we be expected to follow the chain of thought and to verify the information being thrown at us, when all of it is happening so quickly? Most people resort to making their own judgements about this information, then, and here too, our judgement is affected by the limits of our knowledge - without a real ‘education’, not just training, but education, our judgement is simply a byproduct of our sentiments - perhaps, this news channel is reliable, or this anchor seems to make sense, or in the past, he has been correct, or his stance is popular. We employ shortcuts in thinking - heuristics - to arrive at what seems to be an approximately correct answer. However, it is far from correct.

Human sciences are subjective, there is no doubt to this - but how subjective? There is no rule, no method that works in every situation - but are there rules that work well in most situations? Is there a way of thinking that can guide us, generally at least, in processing information and understanding society? This is exactly the purpose behind studying history, political science, economics and philosophy. An education in these subjects is essential in developing an understanding of society and participating efficiently in it. People dismiss the study of history - it is true, I gain nothing from learning the exact date that Hitler came to power. However, that is not the true objective of studying history - it is to understand the world that existed before us, so that we can understand how we got here. It is to learn from the mistakes of the past, so that we are not doomed to repeat it. Philosophy, perhaps, receives the strongest criticism - outside academic spaces, it is considered to be a form of intellectual masturbation, with no meaning to be derived from it. Logic is a branch of philosophy that enables us to understand how to reason for ourselves, to determine the validity of a belief, an idea. It is through philosophy that we study ethics, that we learn about morality, the differentiation between right and wrong, good and bad - terms that we encounter every day in our lives, not only in the broader political domain but the personal one too. Yet, most of us receive nearly no formal education in philosophy, and our education in history is limited to learning dates and listing out, in a formulaic manner, the cause and effect of historical events - 8 points for 4 marks, 10 points for 5 marks. To compensate for the lack of critical thinking, some schools have introduced sessions for moral values - to teach kids what is right and what is wrong. Still, the vision is missing - society continues to evolve - the challenges our parents faced are radically different from the ones we face today. It is not enough to teach them what is right and what is wrong -  what is necessary is to introduce them to a method through which they can determine this for themselves, for the countless challenges that they will face.

Democracy is flawed because its foundation is flawed: most people are not ‘educated’ in the true sense of being educated - they are highly trained to perform specific jobs. They work as engineers, doctors, businessmen, scientists, designers. The difference between training and education is subtle - but it counts, in every way. Our goal then, to be better people, to be better citizens, involves an education that does not end. It is a pursuit without a fixed answer, and as long as the answer keeps changing, we must keep learning.

[thinksmartsoft]

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It also provides thousands of modules and designs that let to build any dreamlike website. As a leading provider of Drupal web development services, we are in the business for the last few years and are catering the clients around the globe. Our services are highly satisfactory and profit-driven that will unquestionably add value to your business.

Best Tips For New Drupal Developers Are

INSTALLATION OF DRUPAL BY HELP OF PROFILES

Drupal arrives in ‘core' format that can be downloaded from Drupal.com with the latest version. If the site is to be made on specified need, a website of political campaign or news, use one of the distributions or assigned profiles that are created by developers on hundreds of hours of coding to create. They have pre-designed themes, modules, or ready-to-deliver functions that help to make an ideal site instead of downloading and configuring your own multiple modules.

IMPORTANT USER

Have good care to a record Email ID, username, and password of the first user. This user name is used as a primary user or the website owner. You have to keep on check on the site and keep it up to date.

BE FAMILIAR WITH THE BASIC STRUCTURE OF URL FOR THE CONTENT

After the necessary installation is done, you may be able to produce unique content by driving undeviatingly to this website URL.

Drupal website content is known as a node. A node can be anything such as a page, an image, a narrative, a declaration, or it can be said that a node is an individual content unit.

SEARCH ENGINE AS A FRIEND

Undeviatingly from the starting, you may face installation errors; this may be because Drupal installation is different from the one that is installed at a remote hosting setting. Whenever there is a problem like this take the help of Google, copy & paste the specific fault that is shown. With the double quotes ("") so that the search engine can show the accurate search results.

TROUBLESHOOT WHITE SCREEN OF DEATH

Some times while navigating Drupal website, you notice nothing except a screen of pale white color termed as the "white-screen-of-death." It means Drupal development services have confronted a PHP error. Several kinds of stuff can be a result of this; even it can be triggered by missing a semicolon it. Whenever such a problem is there allow reporting of PHP error to find the place of issue.

BACK UP OF DATABASE

Backup is necessary for the database as it may contain important files, so safe location is needed to find out. For small business websites, you can email the file of SQL and store it yourself.

CLEAN CACHE DATA WHEN SOMETHING IS WRONG

Whenever a page is entreated, Drupal creates a cache of content. When your website behaves strange clear the cache.  

USERS ROLE AND PERMISSIONS

Once you have a grasp on every type of module, you have to decide and specify on what kind of user you will assign permission. Default user roles are given as follows;

 User Anonymous

 User Authenticated

 Admin user

UNDERSTANDING BASIC THEME OF DEVELOPING CONCEPTS

There are numerous types of themes available for free download paid download or can be of unique customization created by web designers.

USE OF CONTACT FORM

Most the clients require some web form; it is usually known as a contact form for their site users can message them. The Drupal web development services that we offer will assist you in accessing the built-in contact form; it is better to enable it and can make necessary changes to it before deploying to Drupal site.

MANAGEMENT OF YOUR NAVIGATION MENU

Drupal comes with three types of menu blocks:

 Navigating link- it is the main menu with linked personally and interactively by Drupal.

 Links that are primary- major parts of the site, such as tabs that are located on the top of the page.

 Secondarily links- it is an additional set of link for items such as legal notice, details of the contact, and other types of least important navigation element.

LOVE FOR THE VIEWS

By using views, you get a terrific control on the task that is tedious and displays your information. By use of editor views, you can edit your nodes and display in various styles like grid, list or tables and arrange them in a manner way.

Having a partnership with the hosting provider of trust

If your host provider doesn't have an experience of hosting Drupal, choose to have a host having a good grip on technical support and have a responsible team that understands your work and concern, and of your clients also.

Node js best practices are becoming a popular and famous platform in the last few years. It is to get started with the node.js the project, but after getting once ahead of the basic app that is hello world, then dealing with the finding of the best structure for your code and dealing with the errors, sometimes becomes a nightmare.

And such types of nightmare make the difference the robust, perfect produced application and disastrous launch.

Let’s have a look over some node.js traps

Starting of the project with NPM init

Many people are being familiar with NPM, the way of installing dependencies, but it can work much more than this.

.npmrc for the setup

If you used .npm before, then you have also used - -save a flag which helps in updating package.json. When the developers clone or copy a project, they can become sure to have the right type of dependency due to this. 

For drupal web development services, our team of certified experts comprising of the drupal developers and architects for solutions that make a cost-effective and developing an agile approach to creating enterprise-level applications and websites. We have been known to how to build Drupal sites which can make the company earn money, saving time, and reaching customers.

We help you here to develop solutions for e-commerce website using Drupal development services to build your e-commerce or any other website for business and also provides solutions relating to various delivery modes, payments, calculation of taxes to accomplish your task in a better way.

As a very famous Drupal web development company, we provide you with professional, scalable, and robust Drupal development services for publishing, hi-tech enterprise, and e-commerce. Besides, our team of Drupal developer has a super experience of creating a website using Drupal headless in which content can be used by the different application and can be reused base on the circumstances. We here give you an unmatchable Drupal web development services to have you the experience of the digital world.  

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Just Digital Marketing

Digital Marketing Agency (DMA) is a web advertising employer that offers search engine optimization offerings, PPC services, social media advertising offerings, internet layout services, internet improvement services and a host of different online advertising offerings. Search engine optimization (search engine marketing) is a collection of techniques used to increase a Web website's ranking in search engine consequences pages. You will no longer want to be blacklisted with the aid of search engines in an effort to translate into loss in income and profits. Digital advertising businesses make this pivotal technique less difficult by using applying positive recommendations and techniques. The takeaway right here is that brands have a lot room to set themselves other than their competition in phrases of content and voice. Brafton is a Boston-primarily based digital marketing enterprise founded in 2008.

This approach improved the patron's keywords and content material usage, elevating them in the hunt engine ranks. Blanket advertising is great for the ones who have lots of finances to be had and who feel that they will be able to advantage many customers from the plan. The shift to digital media has become very famous due to the smooth personalized get admission to that every enterprise owner has, and additionally because it's far less difficult to track the progress and consequences of an marketing marketing campaign at each degree. PACK gives begin-ups & tough manufacturers a tailored package to master virtual marketing and social media.

This Utah-based totally agency and its 250+ employees pride themselves on price-effective search engine marketing and advertising offerings for small to medium-sized corporations. By doing all of your research you may see that human beings use the time period Pre-owned extra than second hand and as it isn't a web enterprise, I use the place to refine the hunt. A higher rating inside the serps implies a higher variety of site visitors, higher conversion costs and better revenue thereby. With all of the up to date algorithms, natural content has a hard time accomplishing most of the people of your target audience.

I know that sounds simple but it is true and the records lower back it up. The fact is that social media advertising fails to inform you that Facebook is a social community no longer a search engine and notwithstanding the variety of Facebook customers and Google users being across the same, people don't use Facebook in the identical manner that they use a seek engine like Google (which has round half of the search engine marketplace), Yahoo and Bing to look for business or products. Whether you are interested by primary copywriting concepts, or superior copywriting strategies for search engine marketing, Udemy has a course that will help you make it as a copywriter.

If you are one of those new faces in the business international, you're counseled to touch any close by seo services and ask them for a quote. Everything you post at the net is marketing collateral, ready to be found via your best clients thru search engines like google and social media So, how do you have interaction potentialities on line and get them to the end of the client's adventure? Having a strong social media presence will stay crucial for groups to higher connect with possibilities and clients. Companies rely on the creativity of copywriters in enhancing their productiveness and income.

For example, maybe one in every of your competitors is dominant on Facebook, however has positioned little effort into Twitter or Instagram. Digital advertising is the advertising of products or services using virtual technology, mainly at the Internet, but also which include cellular phones, show advertising and marketing, and any other digital medium. You must actually connect, communicate and have interaction with humans on social media earlier than they start trusting you. Discover hundreds of keywords to target in conjunction with Keyword Difficulty scores, competitor research, and SERP analysis.

Instead of forcing human beings to call and take a seat on maintain for half-hour or greater, consumers have grown accustom to heading to social media after they need a faster reaction. AIS Media helped a construction employer enhance its net presence and entice customers from across the united states. You will no longer genuinely have manage of who sees your advertising and marketing, but you'll have the capability to attain many people. Google additionally finds pages thru links from different pages. You'll note that the technical copywriter specializes in persuading you to buy a product.

Search Copywriter jobs. Harvard Business Review found out that seventy five% of the businesses in the survey are not privy to their most precious customers. The Author allows clients to marketplace their merchandise, services successfully through press launch distribution offerings You can discover a listing of free PR sources at his website online Recently he has launched an particular loose press launch listing in which you could get you PR allotted without spending a dime to Journalists and Media. Below I've indexed my smooth 5 step system for growing a method for social media advertising.

Today, shoppers do not need companies to attain out to them to discover new services and products. Rather than use a crude inbound link checking tool, you could additionally access this information directly thru the search engines using the hyperlink operator within the query: link:URL. If you get on their radar as an authoritative, interesting source of beneficial facts, they could share your content with their own fans, which could put you and your business in the front of a big new audience. While many will truely use internal resource to get the writing achieved, many turn to a contract copywriter to help them out.

Plus, as your paintings, you may additionally do online virtual advertising courses or specialisation guides and enhance your career potentialities. Below is a pattern search end result showing the newly posted government contracts and bids in copywriting and publishing. With everything turning into virtual, the utility of search engine optimization, social media advertising, AdWords goes to assist the marketers to bag new possibilities and trap customers to purchasing their product. With fewer than 50 personnel, KoMarketing works to improve client efficiency and enterprise approach.