#Also Nikita: Why did you choose the number three?

[mythlived]

❛   @duskwilt​​​​​​ asked:    [Pyrrha; Nikita] "There are some things you cannot control, and I am at least three of them." ❜    !  

      (  ⚔  )  —   Pyrrha, Nikita has found, is an interesting personality. That, at the very least, he could admit.  ❝  People should never seek to control other people, so I can't say I'm surprised or disappointed that you're at least three of the things I can't control.  ❞  He offers this statement with perfect nonchalance. Nikita would, of course, be lying if he said that he didn’t do his best to control every possible variable of any given situation and while he wasn’t particularly perturbed by lying, he also didn’t count people within controllable variables. They very rarely were. Even when you took every possible precaution to keep a person on a certain track and within your own sphere of influence things still inevitably went awry—he, Rhys, and Rasmus were evidence enough of that. To control a human, he supposed you would have to take away every aspect of their humanity. But even stripped away down to the very basics of what they needed to survive and function, people would always be people. They would always claw their way into whatever they wanted to be. 

He knew Pyrrha was likely poking fun with some level of truth underlying what she said. It seemed to be something she did fairly often. As if the gravity of any given situation could be lessened in jest. Perhaps it could. Though he thought that was an ideal in which their basic beliefs differed. Then again, perhaps he was relying too much on his own observation and assumption. Oh well, a thought for another time. 

❝  But also why three  ?  ❞  

[zashamalkin]

Translation of Anna Kasterova’s live interview on 5/29/20.

Thanks to my amazing Gino Anon, the entire interview is translated below the cut. Final word count, btw, is 2405 so like, send big thanks their way. Holy shit! 

Anna got sick few days before the interview. Not covid, just a cold, that later turned into otitis. It was very painful, but now she’s feeling way better, though she still has some trouble hearing with her left ear. They talk a bit about the weather in Miami (it’s been raining there for a few days, but it’s still pretty hot). Igor asks if they’re allowed to swim during the quarantine. Anna says that the 1/ 

beaches were recently open, but there are obviously rules about keeping the safe distance. “Is Zhenya a good swimmer?” “Yeah, he’s great. He’s spending a lot of time with Nikita, teaching him how to swim. More in the pool though, than in the ocean.” “How do you and Zhenya feel about the latest news in NHL?” “I think, the idea is pretty good. Everyone has been waiting on some news about this season. I asked Zhenya if he preferred for the season to be cancelled. He said, he wanted to finish it 2/ 

properly. This season has been great for him, he’s in a great shape. And even though he hasn’t been skating for 2 months, he’s still been training pretty hard, running, roller skating and he didn’t lose his shape.” She thinks everything is turning pretty good so far and it’s great that the teams will have a time for training camps and a chance to go to playoffs.“In your opinion, were the players mentally prepared to continue the season?” “I think, those, who genuinely want to go to playoffs, 3/ 

have been working very hard to be ready, when the time comes. But, for sure, there are some players, who spent more time relaxing, rather than training. A lot of teams are asking their players to come back and start training on the ice and not all of the players follow their instructions.” “What are the rules about practice right now? Are they allowed to train in groups or…?” “There are no details about it yet. It haven’t even been decided yet, what cities will be chosen as Hub cities. So far 4/ 

the coaches are asking players to stay in shape. They have video calls together, where they go through different footage every time. But, as far as I understand, the organization and the coaching staff are ready for the players to come back.” “How do the players feel about the new rules for playoffs this season?” “No negative feelings. They’ve been under a lot of mental pressure, not knowing anything about the season and the playoffs. Everything seems pretty logical and they’re very happy to 5/ 

get back on ice and to have a chance to fight for SC.” “Is there any inside information about what cities will be chosen as Hubs?” “No one knows anything for sure. But I know that they’re very carefully considering epidemiological situation in the cities and will choose the safest options. ” *I SUCK at translating hockey terminology from Russian to English, so I’m sorry if anything is incorrect.* “Do you think it would’ve been fairer to include the numbers of “play-in” (I have no idea what he 6/ 

means by “play-in”) as well as the Robin Rounds into the statistics of regular season? Because it would give the players, like Ovechkin and Panarin, and Malkin to gain more points.” “It’s a very difficult question. But I’m sure NHL and NHLPA have gone over all the possible scenarios and have chosen the best one.” “How has Geno been handling the quarantine?” “He’s been very calm and collected. He’s been doing great mentally, smiling and cracking jokes, and keeping us safe and happy.” “Why did 7/

your family (meaning Geno, Anna and Nikita) decide to do a covid testing in early April?” “I had a pneumonia in November and wanted to find out for myself, if it was covid-induced, if I had any antibodies for the virus. But all the testing came back negative. None of us had it.” “What books did you and Zhenya read during the quarantine?” “Zhenya likes to read fantasy books. He’s been reading “Quantum Warrior: The Future of the Mind” by John Kehoe.” “Does he read in English?” “No, in English 8/

he’s mostly watching TV shows.” “I was very impressed by the story, that after his 1st season in NHL, Zhenya hired Russian language and literature teacher.” “He’s had a lot of free time these past 2 months and he’s hired 2 tutors: English language tutor to work on his grammar and Russian language tutor. (*Sorry, I don’t know if I need to explain this, but Geno obviously knows how to speak Russian. What I think Anna means here, is that the pronunciation of the words in Russian changes depending9/

on where the person is from. Every region has its own accent. I think, what Geno is trying to do, is lose his Magnitogorsk accent and start to speak clearer Russian, like ppl in Moscow of St. Petersburg do.*) He has classes with his tutors Monday to Friday. I’m very happy for him.” One of Geno’s friends in Russia has been robbed recently. Igor is asking Anna, if they ever considered buying a gun, since it’s allowed in US. Anna says no, they feel safe and they live a good neighborhood. She 10/

doesn’t think it necessary or appropriate. They talk a bit about Ovi’s second child being born recently and if Geno and Anna are planning on having a second child any time soon. “Of course, we wouldn’t mind having another child. If it happens, we’ll be very happy. I would like to have a girl, though.” “What’s the best way to describe Zhenya’s and Ovechkin’s relationships today? Are they friends or rivals” “Both. And healthy rivalry is very important in order to reach their personal goals.” 11/

“When Caps and Pens play each other, is it possible for them to go have dinner after.” “No.” “What can you say about the relationships between Zhenya and Sidney Crosby? When we talked with Zhenya last year, he said very nice and kind things about him. Even though Zhenya is in Sid’s shadow a lot of the time.” “I can talk about it for hours. They push each other and make each other stronger. But they also can step in and do more than anyone, when the other is hurt and not playing. Off the ice, 12/

they are very good friends and they support each other. Have I ever thought about what his life would be like, if he was the only star player in a team? I think, he’d be the best player in the whole NHL. He’s very intelligent in terms of building a game, always plans 2-3 steps ahead. He’s very fearless in his game, very talented and vey multilateral player. He’s very unique. They won together THREE STANLEY CUPS! No one's saying Crosby is less talented. He’s an incredible player, he works very13/

hard every day. They are 2 number 1 players in this team. If Zhenya ever asked me if I’d like him to play in New York, f/e, I’d say, no. Pittsburgh is his city, his home. And management and coaching staff are also a very important part of team success. The relationship inside the team is very important. And Pens are the best in that, imo.” “You two watched Super Bowl at Sid’s place. What’s it like there?” “It’s a tradition. Every year Sid invites the team with their wifes/gfs/kids to watch 14/

Super Bowl. His gf Kathy does all the cooking. She’s a very geart person, very hospitable. *omg, this is the first time I hear any1 talking about Sid’s gf 😀, aww* Everyone on the team is very open, very kind, they are great guys. It’s the best thing about Pens. So we’re always happy to accept Sid’s invitation and we always have a great time.” “Do you want Nikita to become a hockey player?” “We’re not gonna push him to it. If it’s something he wants, sure. But I have big plans for his 15/

education. I’d like him to know 2 languages, (English) and Russian, especially grammar, not just being able to speak it freely. I’m studying with him and for an almost 4 yo he already knows quite a lot. And it’s always very hard for a child of a parent, who has achieved so much, to surpass that kind of success. And I don’t want my son to have this kind of pressure on him. I don’t want him to be known solely as “Malkin’s son”. For me it’s very important for him to get a good education and to 16/

choose his path in life.” “Talking about the tv series about Michael Jordan, would you like a bio series to be shot about Zhenya?” “I know he wants to act, in a tv series or in a movie. He talked about it many times. As for a biopic, of course I would like that. He has a huge success story. A man from a simple, working class family. It’s very expensive to play hockey. And he was so talented even in a young age, that his coaches would sometimes bring him a puck, or a stick, or a uniform, for 17/

free. Add to that a story about him finally getting to NHL.” “Zhenya said once in an interview, that you fight sometimes about him not being open enough w/ you, not sharing his problems etc. Has it changed during the quarantine?” “Everything’s been great during quarantine. During the season, he’s under a lot of pressure and always takes it hard if the team loses or if he doesn’t score. Right now he’s very calm and happy, and everything is great.” A question about a conflict around Geno having18/

a USA passport (a lot of people in Russia, his celebrity friends especially, weren’t happy with that, and judged him for that). What does Anna think about it? “He’s a patriot. He loves his country and his city. We were in a hopeless situation, when I needed to get all the documents ready ASAP, and we needed to get married, and him having a US passport would speed that up. You could say, he did it for me. On the other hand, America is his 2nd home. He spends here more time than in Russia. He’s19/

been working here for years. Why is that such a big problem? It’s not like he turned his back on Russia or anything.” Then she talked about Geno’s donation to families in Magnitogorsk, who suffered bc of explosion that happened there in December 2018, and how much he gives to his community in Russia, that ppl don’t know about, bc he prefers not to advertise it. Then Igor keeps asking political questions and Anna is getting more and more irritated by them. Geno publicly supported Putin’s 20/

reelection whenever that was, and interviewer is asking whether him having an American passport is appropriate, considering that he’s a part of Putin team? “Why is it inappropriate? America and Russia are not enemies. Yes, there are some unresolved political issues. They are 2 huge countries, of course they will always feel threatened by each other. But I don’t see any serious political confrontation. Maybe bc we’re in US right now. But Zhenya has a great respect for his president. *bleh, I 21/

don’t like Putin. I know, she has to say nice things about him, bc as long as Geno is a part of Team Russia and wants to have a life in Russia, they can’t be openly against him. But both Geno and Anna don’t strike me as ppl, who will support Putin’s ideals. Sorry for me butting in w/ my opinion*” Question about Geno’s new diet after 18-19 season. “He never drinks alcohol during season. He doesn’t eat potatoes anymore. It’s very hard to cook him a soup w/o any potatoes in it. No sweet things,22/

no gluten. Now before games, he eats gluten-free pasta.” “Is he very superstitious? Do you try to wean him off some of them?” “No, if it makes him feel comfortable, why would I do that?” She declined to name any of them, bc it’s a personal thing for Geno. “Do you put in any work in Zhenya’s image and style?” “I think so, a bit. His sense of style has become better, his taste in literature.” “Zhenya’s favorite music?” “Russian pop-music mostly.” Question about Geno’s gaming habits. Anna 23/

doesn’t try to control him or tell him not to play, bc for him these computer games are a way to relax. She doesn’t mind. It’s his personal time. He doesn’t have his computer in Miami, so he found another way to spend time – studying with his tutors. Question about Olympics. “Yes, he’d like to win a gold medal with Team Russia, when the time comes.” He doesn’t feel jealous about Datsyuk or Kovalchuk, who have an Olympic gold. “Do you think, Zhenya’s last hockey season before retirement will 24/

be in Magnitogorsk?” “Sure, I don’t see why not. He’s very grateful for everything Metallurg gave him and it would seem logical for him to come back there before retiring.” “What is Zhenya’s biggest motivation right now?” “He’s very self-critical (she means Geno’s words about his skills in 18-19 season). He always has a high bar for himself and je always tries to reach it.” Question about Geno reaching 1000 pts. “It was a very big moment for us and a big win for him. He was very inspired 25/

by it and it gave him a lot of self-confidence.” ‘Was Zhenya mad about not making NHL’s 100 players list?” “I was. I was very angry. But he knows his value and what he’s achieved as a player. But it was very strange for me.” “Who do you think Zhenya wil be after his career ends? And how will your life together change? Will you spend more time in Russia or in US?” “It’s a tough question. I imagine a house by the lake, in Russia, with kids and, later, grandkids. With a big fireplace. I think, 26/

after finishing his career, we’d like to travel a bit. But I don’t know. It’s something you should ask him.”

[thevividgreenmoss]

The right has been trying to sell Americans on consumption-based standards of freedom for years. Indeed, the CEA’s report on the baleful impact of socialism makes much more sense when one remembers that the current head of the agency is Kevin Hassett, a longtime fixture at the American Enterprise Institute, one of the foremost think tanks of the American conservative movement. (Hassett’s also the coauthor, with rabid supply-sider James Glassman, of one of the most ridiculous books of all time, 1999’s Dow 36,000.) This is the level of persuasion one expects from a person whose career has largely been devoted to persuading rich people to subsidize the production of dubious research praising the system that allowed them to get rich.

These think tanks specialize in that sort of “me or your lying eyes” approach to selling Americans on American-style capitalism (which you’d think, if it were working correctly, wouldn’t need so much marketing help). That’s why the Heritage Foundation, perhaps the most influential conservative think tank, periodically tells us that there’s no real poverty in America—or at least that while there might be some, it is, all in all, pretty pleasant poverty—in reports with titles like 2011’s “Air Conditioning, Cable TV, and an Xbox: What is Poverty in the United States Today?”

…All of these reports—and scores more pieces of commentary making the exact same arguments and citing the exact same figures—were authored or co-authored by Robert Rector, who has been shaping conservative arguments on poverty since joining the Heritage Foundation in 1984. He’s been called the “intellectual god-father” of the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, also known as welfare reform. Considering his part in that triumph of bipartisanship, which really did, as Bill Clinton promised, “end welfare as we know it,” it’s clear why Rector is so invested in the argument that to be poor in twenty-first century America is a cakewalk—he’s responsible for creating a whole new population of poor people.

…The tendency for American capitalism to justify itself by the gadgets it is capable of making affordable is an old one. It was the basis of the notorious 1959 “kitchen debate” between Vice President Richard Nixon and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, which took place at an exhibition of American technological wizardry set up in the heart of Moscow. The American pavilion featured the latest in American time-saving household appliances, and the debate almost immediately took on a legendary character in the United States, where we told ourselves that Soviet citizens were entranced by our washing machines and Polaroid cameras. The Americans faked the automated kitchen, of course—there was a guy behind a two-way mirror making the proto-Roomba move and turning on the “automated” dishwasher, Joe Maxwell, one of the industrial designers responsible for the kitchen, told Gizmodo decades later—as part of the mission was to convince the Russians that things being marketed to middle-class Americans, including things that were years away from any sort of commercial viability, were commonplace in homes across the country. (The Soviet exhibition in the United States, meanwhile, featured a modest three-room apartment. And Sputnik.) While the Soviets were suitably impressed with the quality of our kitchen appliances, this message left in the exhibition’s visitors’ book seems pertinent: “A shortcoming: you show what you produce, but you do not show what you produce it with.”

At the time, the (real, non-automated) dishwashers would have been manufactured in the United States, to be sold to middle-class families to help wives more efficiently carry out their unpaid domestic labor while their husbands were at work manufacturing dishwashers. The government subsidized the construction and (for white families) debt-financed purchasing of large suburban homes so that there would be somewhere to put all the dishwashers—and so that the people who built homes would have enough homes to build to afford their own dishwashers and large suburban homes. This was called “capitalism.” (The Council of Economic Advisers report on socialism quotes the late economist Sherwin Rosen’s dismissive description of Sweden as a place where “a large fraction of women work in the public sector to take care of the children of other women who work in the public sector to care for the parents of the women who are looking after their children.” Just think of all the surplus labor going to waste caring for people instead of being expropriated by the owners of capital!)

Eventually, the sort of people who own household appliance companies saw the return on their investments begin to stall out, due to inflation and labor power, so that system was phased out in favor of one in which many people still got large, debt-financed homes, but there were fewer dishwasher manufacturing jobs. The dishwashers got a lot cheaper, though, to help the new arrangements seem more palatable.

Yet still, despite the dirt cheap vacuums and flat-screen TVs, something seems wrong. People keep complaining about “income inequality” and writing books about how grindingly difficult it is for an alarmingly large number of Americans to get by.

Conservatives seem to have noticed that their primary argument—why do you feel so poor when you have such a large TV?—has had trouble making inroads among people who actually experience life in the United States and who don’t work within the think tank–lobbying firm–Council of Economic Advisers circuit. They’ve noticed, too, that while TVs, for example, are quite cheap, things essential to live—and things essential to “get ahead” in the United States—are only becoming more expensive.

The American Enterprise Institute even produced a chart illustrating the problem. It shows the prices of things like new cars, clothing, toys, and TVs staying steady or dramatically falling relative to the inflation rate, while food, housing, child care, and—especially—medical care skyrocket in price. If you want an explanation of why non-wealthy Americans feel so stretched thin even in a time of supposed abundance, there it is. They can afford to get their kids toys but not bachelor’s degrees.

…Ex–Cold Warriors still fondly recall the kitchen debate. They still chuckle at the crummy cars and televisions the Soviet citizenry had to endure as Americans innovated cruise control and Betamax tapes. But during the periods when life was stable in the Soviet Union, its people were reasonably satisfied. The years since the end of Communism, on the other hand, have been devastating to a generation of Russians. As Masha Gessen wrote for The New York Review of Books in 2014:

In the seventeen years between 1992 and 2009, the Russian population declined by almost seven million people, or nearly 5 percent—a rate of loss unheard of in Europe since World War II. Moreover, much of this appears to be caused by rising mortality. By the mid-1990s, the average St. Petersburg man lived for seven fewer years than he did at the end of the Communist period; in Moscow, the dip was even greater, with death coming nearly eight years sooner.

Many of those deaths were violent or self-imposed. Deaths from injuries and poisoning are five times higher in Russia than in Western Europe. “We would never expect to find premature mortality on the Russian scale in a society with Russia’s present income and educational profiles and typically Western readings on trust, happiness, radius of voluntary association, and other factors adduced to represent social capital,” the economist Nicholas Eberstadt writes. In her review of scholars’ attempts to explain the story of the Russian death rate, Gessen wonders if the problem might be a sort of inherited cultural despair—whether “Russians are dying for lack of hope.”

Millions of former Soviet citizens now have access to the consumer bounty Americans lorded over them during the Cold War. It has not helped them adapt to life without a safety net. However often those notoriously unreliable Lada cars might have broken down, an inferior product line drove many fewer Russians to drink themselves to death than economic shock therapy did.

The year after Gessen wrote that piece, Princeton economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton published their paper showing that, after declining for decades, the mortality rate for middle-aged white Americans had been steadily climbing between 1999 and 2013. They updated their report in 2017, with data showing that non-college-educated white American men were increasingly dying of “diseases of despair,” meaning mainly drug and alcohol abuse and suicide.

The connecting thread in both the Russian and American cases seems to be decline in living standards—not absolute deprivation. By historical and international standards, there are much worse things to be than a member of the stagnant or declining middle class in America, or even post-Soviet Russia—nearly everyone we’re talking about probably has televisions and refrigerators among other cheaply produced pieces of gadgetry. But people seem to choose to obliterate themselves not when their current situation is dire, but when there is no apparent path to a better one.

Non-college-educated white American men are also, we’re told, President Trump’s base. His Council of Economic Advisers would like them to be grateful for all the room our large country has provided for them to park their trucks.

[nightspsyche]

TAGGED BY: @frightfortheharvest

TAG PEOPLE YOU WANT TO KNOW BETTER: Quite honestly anyone who would like to :)

NICKNAMES: Pippin, Raven, Badger.

TIME RN: 11:46am EST

LAST THING I GOOGLED: Likely images for Elana’s gear list.

FAVORITE MUSIC ARTIST(S): I have so many to name tbh. U2, Halestorm, Anberlin, Red, Disturbed, Rammstein, the list goes on.

SONG STUCK IN MY HEAD: Room to Breathe - You Me at Six. I swear this song is in my head 90% of the time.

LAST MOVIE I WATCHED: It was something on TV with Kathryn Winnick in it. Some kind of thriller movie.

LAST TV SHOW I WATCHED: Robot Chicken.

WHAT AM I WEARING RIGHT NOW: A dark gray Rolling Stones t-shirt, and baggy lighter gray pj pants because I feel awful today. OH! And my Dean Ambrose hoodie (Ps: He’s a wrestler).

WHEN I CREATED THIS BLOG: This one in particular was January 8th of this year. The very first incarnation of it was about a year and a half ago probably.

THE KIND OF STUFF I POST: Role play things, life lessons via quotes or happy/cheery inspirational posts, photos. Too many ooc posts xD

DO I HAVE OTHER BLOGS: I have three others yep. A Marvel OC that is temporarily closed atm, a Mass Effect canon account for Shepard, and a DC canon account for Raven.

DO I GET ASKS REGULARLY: Negatory. I’d love to change that though. Doesn’t ever have to be memes either. I’m fine with people asking me questions about myself or the muse tbh.

WHY DID I CHOOSE MY URL: I originally had her as heiressofdeath because well, she’s an heiress who is part of the League of Assassins [shruggy arms]. Then I deleted that account like a damned dope. And remade this one, ties in with her League of Assassins name (it translates to Butterfly lol).

HOGWARTS HOUSE: I think it was Gryffindor or Hufflepuff. I really can’t remember.

POKEMON TEAM: I’ve no idea lmao.

FAVORITE COLORS: Blue, black, silver, red.

AVERAGE HOURS OF SLEEP: Uh... Between insomnia, anxiety, migraines and over all ewy pain? I’m lucky if I can even fall asleep lmao. But i tend to get about 6ish if I’m lucky. This is why I’m forgetful a lot of the time.

LUCKY NUMBERS: 22.

FAVORITE CHARACTERS: Barry Allen, heart eyes!!! Ray Palmer, also heart eyes. Daryl Dixon, Rick Grimes, Michonne, Maggie Rhee. Alex from Nikita. Ash from the Evil Dead movies/series, though really Bruce Campbell in general is amazing. Oh right Oliver Queen, damn can’t forget the Arrow! Kate Austen from Lost, though I really hate some of the shit they did with her character. Um.. I dunno I generally have a lot.

BLANKETS I SLEEP WITH: Anywhere from two to three, not including a sheet.

[aureyix-blog]

The National Football League and its commissioner

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[thefeedpost]

Great deals of glamour and also great deals of glam however exists money in being a regional social networks celebrity? We went excavating!

46 minutes ago

Nikita Coetzee

Aqeelah Harron Ally (Photo: Abdul Malick Ally)

Johannesburg – At some point in this article I will walk you through what happened when I tried to post on Instagram like an influencer for a day. But for now, let me tell you why I decided to write this feature. 

A few weeks ago, if you had asked me what an influencer is, I would have probably just have said: “It’s someone who’s popular on social media”. 

But then I watched Netflix’s Fyre Festival documentary and that all changed. 

I’ll give you a quick rundown if you haven’t seen it (spoilers up ahead so be careful). 

Fyre Festival was a failed music festival founded by Billy McFarland. It was advertised as a luxury experience on a deserted island in the Bahamas. To get the word out about the event, Billy got some of the world’s most recognised influencers to take part in an advertisement and later share posts about the festival on their social media pages. This was all it took, and scores of people flocked to the Fyre Festival website to fork out thousands on tickets, not knowing that everything being sold to them – the island, the chalets, the yachts – was nothing but a mere dream. 

I was in awe. I had clearly underestimated the power influencers have in society today. Think about it – have you ever gone out and purchased an item because a popular YouTuber listed it as one of their favourites?

Or maybe you’ve noticed a number of Instagram models seem to be partying at a cool new spot, so you just had to check it out for yourself. 

I decided to delve into the world of the influencer to find out what goes on behind-the-scenes of those pretty pictures, captivating videos, and most importantly, if you can actually make money from this in South Africa. Here’s what I discovered. 

The power of the influencer 

Before we go any further, let’s break down exactly what an influencer is. Influencer Marketing Hub calls it: “an individual who has the power to affect purchase decisions of others”, while DIY Marketers explains it as: “anyone who can cause a reaction or impacts the way people feel and think about things.” 

Both of these explanations come from a new type of marketing company that has surfaced with the rise of social media – influencer marketing. Basically, companies have realised just how powerful influencers are, leading them to hire these social media stars to market their brands. 

Pieter Groenewald, CEO of one such company in SA called The Salt, explains exactly how it works. “The reason why it came around is because brands are battling to penetrate tribes.”

In this case a “tribe” refers to a certain market or group that a company is targeting with their product. 

He goes on to say: “Individuals belong to a tribe. Brands are sitting outside those tribes and they try shouting in with their messages. Then they realised there may be a way to penetrate a tribe through people who already belong to those tribes, and that’s where influencer marketing started.” 

According to Pieter, there’s more than one type of influencer – micro influencers, which in the South African market means you’ve got a following of between 10 000 and 200 000, and macro influencers which are individuals who have soared above the 200 000 mark. Nano influencer refers to the everyday person who may not have a large social media following.

Now that we have an idea of what an influencer is. Let’s follow it up with a very popular question I keep hearing. How do I become one? 

For this, I had to go straight to the source. I spoke to two of SA’s most sort after influencers – Grant Hinds, a gaming expert with a big YouTube following, and Aqeelah Harron Ally, a popular fashion, lifestyle and beauty blogger. 

This is what I asked them: 

What does it take? 

What I expected to hear was that you just have to be good at taking pictures or recording and editing videos. I assumed it also helped a little if you were already popular IRL. So I was quite surprised when both Grant and Aqeelah referred to what they do in the same way an entrepreneur would talk about their company. 

“It’s building a business,” Grant explains.  “There’s this old cliché that you’re a brand and essentially that’s the truth, and all brands need to have a business strategy,” he stressed this point with a lot of passion. 

Aqeelah also tells me about the importance of “having a strategy”. ” It’s definitely something you need to work at all the time.” 

Both Grant and Aqeelah have spent close to a decade perfecting their brands. It is for this reason that they are able to rely solely on their jobs as influencers for their income. 

Can you make money from it?

My mother always told me it was rude to ask people about their salaries. So you can imagine how awkward it was for me to bring up this topic. But this was important research that had to be done. Sorry, mother. 

I’ll let Aqeelah give you the answer to that. “This is what I do full-time and it’s been what I’ve been doing full-time for three years now. The reason I stopped by previous job as a copywriter is because I was earning more from my blog.” 

The fashionista tells me that she has just secured another branding deal with Canal Walk mall in Cape Town which will take care of her expenses for the rest of the year. Whatever she makes on the side will be an added bonus.

As for Grant, he too says he’s making a living from his online presence and he’s quite happy.

In terms of how much an influencer can make, they both say it’s hard to estimate because it varies from person to person. “It’s a tough one to ask cause it depends on the brand and it depends on the influencer,” Grant explains. 

Aqeelah does, however, tell me about pricing systems that some influencers choose to follow. “Some people say you should charge 10 percent of your following, so if your following is 50 000 you could charge R5000 for your Instagram post. And then other people say you should be charging based on the amount of likes you get. So if you get 1000 likes you should be charging R1000. That’s R1 per like.” She believes in the 10 percent rule. 

Pieter also gives me a rough estimate of how much someone with a following of around 50 000 can make. “It can range from $100 (R1 450 at current exchange rate) to up to possibly $2000 (R29 000 at current exchange rate) for a proper YouTube video.”  

Is it easy to become an influencer?

I recall Grant chuckling a bit when these words slipped from my mouth. The short answer is no. 

The day I decided to be an influencer 

I excel at many things in life. Social media is not one of them. However, I’d be lying if I told you I have not fantasized about what it would be like to live the life of a social media influencer.

Which is why I decided I would give it a go for 24 hours. My Instagram account would be the test subject, popular Instagrammer Chloe Sandberg would be my Mr. Miyagi, and I would take on the role of Daniel. 

Chloe has got over 17 000 Instagram followers. She is a model and an aspiring beauty queen. I handed over my phone, allowing her to critique my Instagram account. 

Her feedback was as follows: “You need to stay up-to-date, girl. Your last selfie was the 14th of August 2016.”

I’ll admit, I’ve been slacking in the selfie department. 

She told me that in order to build a following and get more likes on my posts I would have to start sharing more often, making sure that my pictures were high quality. I was also advised to keep the snaps creative and give people a glimpse into my life and what I get up to on a daily basis. My bio needed some work too. 

WATCH: A POPULAR MODEL GAVE ME ADVICE ON HOW TO GET MORE LIKES ON INSTAGRAM

The results

So with these tips in mind, I set out to capture the perfect picture. My goal was to see if, within 24 hours, I would get more likes and interaction on the new pictures than I have with previous ones. 

THIS WOULD BE THE CONTROL PICTURE:

It’s my most liked picture on Instagram so far, with 66 likes that was garnered over a period of about two weeks. Sad, I know. 

AFTER APPLYING ALL THE TIPS I GOT FROM CHLOE, THIS WAS THE OUTCOME:

In a period of 24 hours I had 61 likes. Fewer than my most-liked picture, but taking into consideration that it happened within a shorter time-frame, I’ll count that as a win. 

So am I famous now? No. 

To be honest, I did not expect a few hours to make a difference in my social media standing. And it didn’t.

But I must say I have a new-found respect for people who are able to share beautiful OOTD (Outfit Of The Day) images every single day. It’s hard work. I took over 160 pictures before I got what I thought was the perfect shot.

Besides dealing with odd stares from the people around me as I ventured into gardens and climbed on top of tables, I also had to deal with the added stress of finding the perfect lighting and coming up with different poses, which is a lot more difficult than it sounds. 

Though I may not choose to venture into the world of the influencer anytime soon, If you’re thinking about it, here’s some parting advice from Grant: “Firstly, define why you’re doing it. If it’s to be a successful business, that’s fine, go ahead, but then be serious about approaching it as a business.”

(Photos: Grant Hinds/Abdul Malick Ally/Pexels)

The post Great deals of glamour and also great deals of glam however exists money in being a regional social networks celebrity? We went excavating! appeared first on TheFeedPost.

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Puck Daddy Bag of Mail: Tweaking the playoff format

The current playoff format could disadvantage the Predators who figure to run into a strong Jets team earlier than they’d like. (Getty Images)

It’s awards season at this point. Most playoff races are decided, most good teams are resting players, and most bad teams are already starting to at least think about packing up the stall for the summer.

So you can forgive people if they really don’t care much about the last 10-13 games their teams are scheduled to play here. Very few teams are playing for anything worth anything, and it’s mostly just players taking runs at point- and goalscoring titles. (In the games on Tuesday night, a few guys really emptied the tanks; Brad Marchand and Nikita Kucherov each had three points, Erik Karlsson had two to pull within three points of the league lead among defensemen with six fewer games played than the leader.)

But perhaps most interesting this week was Pierre LeBrun asking a bunch of GMs if they want to expand the playoffs when Seattle gets its team. They predictably said yes (for obvious, job-preservation-related reasons) and everyone groaned. There’s really that little to talk about at this point.

So here are a bunch of questions that have little to do with the rest of the season. Let’s roll:

Megan asks: “If you could make a single change to the playoff seeding system, what would it be?”

Pretty obvious here, but if we’re sticking with the 16-team format — and we absolutely should not! — then you go No. 1 vs. No. 16, No. 2 vs. No. 15, and so on and so forth.

The NBA, a league run with plenty of competence versus the NHL’s complete lack thereof, is reportedly considering just such a move because it recognizes how fundamentally flawed the current 1-8 East/West format is. That, also, is a league without ties and loser points, which helps to uncloud how big the gaps there are for Nos. 1 and 8. The NHL at least gets to pretend because of its very dumb points system that this isn’t an issue.

There are, as Adam Silver points out, plenty of issues with this; in the NHL, if Tampa is the No. 1 team and, say, Calgary is the No. 16, they might be at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to travel versus a No. 2 like Nashville facing a No. 15 like Columbus. Then you have to build extra days into the schedule, the playoffs take even longer, etc.

But I think that’s probably the fairest way to handle this overall. Certainly everyone in the world thinks the current format sucks. But I think there should also be a 60-game regular season, so the NHL doesn’t want to hear my ideas on this.

Raul asks: “Which team will be the worst to make the Conference Finals this year?”

Speaking of the very bad playoff format, it basically guarantees at least one relatively weak team makes the Conference Finals every year. See: Senators, Ottawa.

This year, I think the pretty obvious answer is whichever team comes out of the Pacific, because I don’t see Dallas as being a particularly big impediment for Vegas in the first round (if that is who they end up facing) and I think the 2-3 matchup in the Pacific isn’t gonna produce a great competitor either.

The fact that you’re just gonna have Nashville and Winnipeg hitting each other in the ribs with aluminum baseball bats for six or seven games seems wildly unfair to both the fans and those teams, but that’s what we have to live with.

I don’t think any of the four or five legit contenders for the Eastern Conference Final (Tampa, Boston, Pittsburgh, Toronto, and maybe Philly all seem plausible here) would be illegitimate.

Ashmead asks: “Why do NHL teams recall players for a few hours (e.g. Dylan Strome)?”

In the case of Dylan Strome, that was an emergency call-up in case Derek Stepan couldn’t go that night (I want to say on Monday?) but it turned out Stepan was healthy enough to dress so they sent Strome back down with an eye toward giving him a runout over the last eight or 10 games.

But the reason I picked this question was because about a week ago, I saw a bit of confusion on Twitter about a few teams sending down young roster players then recalling them shortly thereafter. This was on the AHL roster deadline day, so it behooved players to “send down” guys on two-way contracts so they would be eligible for the Calder Cup playoffs. These were purely paper transactions to ensure that even if teams were eliminated from Stanley Cup contention, their 22-year-olds (or whatever) could still get as many playoff games as possible.

Just a quick explainer but in a lot of cases, those are the two reasons teams would rapidly move players back and forth between the AHL and NHL.

Dana asks: “Why isn’t the recent influx of First Nations players such as Bear, Whitecloud, Montour etc. a bigger deal?”

There’s no real good answer to this question, I’m afraid. I think part of it is certainly that many of them do not appear as though they are of a different race (many have Western names, etc.), but also because there has been an increased presence of First Nations players in the league for some time now.

While there were only a handful active native players on NHL rosters to start the season (including Carey Price and TJ Oshie, among others), the call-up of Ethan Bear and signing of Zach Whitecloud added a lot to that number, proportionally.

The league can and should certainly do more to help native players — especially in remote parts of Canada — get access to affordable hockey. Otherwise you hear the stories about Jonathan Cheechoo (I think) taking a long helicopter ride multiple times a week just to get some ice time with other kids. I know a number of native players who made a good living in the league have certainly made those kinds of efforts, but given that there are so few, those efforts can only go so far.

As with the question of why aren’t there more black players in the league, it seems like the answer is “opportunity,” and that leads to a lot of uncomfortable questions about inclusivity if Hockey Is, indeed, For Everyone.

Pokecheque asks: “What would be your ideal fix for the NHL draft lottery?”

Well as long as we’re asking how I would fix the league, I would say there is no NHL draft and players are free to sign with whichever teams they like as they enter the league. Of course, you can impose limits on how many players a team can have on entry-level deals as a means of curtailing any handful of clubs from stockpiling elite players.

Drafts are anti-competitive and as a capital-L Labor guy, it’s unfair to enforce where players are able to work so tightly. I’d also get rid of restricted free agency, but that’s a different subject entirely.

Anyway, I don’t think you need to fix the concept of the draft lottery. I’m all for tanking to get the best guy. I can see why most people are not, but I am unmoored from the sport’s toxic cultural mores.

If you think tanking is a problem, I’d probably tweak the odds a bit so maybe every team has the same chance  regardless of whether they finish two or 40 points out of the playoffs. That would create chaos and chaos is funny.

Rebecca asks: “When the (hopefully) new Seattle NHL team starts playing, they’ll have a natural rivalry with Vancouver but the NHL seems to like smooshing together random teams for ‘rivalry night.’ What manufactured rivalries can you see the NHL pushing for Seattle?”

They’re for-sure going to be in a rivalry with Vegas as the two most recent expansion teams. That’s not even negotiable.

Otherwise, you probably have to look to other sports for rivalry inspiration. The Seahawks also have a long-standing rivalry with the 49ers, and that’s close enough to lump the Sharks in. The Sonics used to have a big rivalry with the Lakers so maybe you say the Kings.

The real answer to this is “Whatever NHL team moves to Oklahoma City soon” but y’know.

Jones asks: “How would you alter the salary cap?”

I think the cap works pretty well for what it is, as it stands right now. I might incentivize teams to get better at drafting and developing by giving them a slight discount on re-signing players that made their NHL debuts with the clubs. I’ve seen people propose a 50 percent drop but that’s preposterous; imagine giving the Oilers Connor McDavid for $6.25 million AAV next year? FOH.

But if you wanna say 10 percent? Even 20 percent? I have a lot of time for that.

I might also add some mid-level exceptions like they have in the NBA, just to encourage a little more of a middle class in NHL salaries.

Plus it seems fine to let NHL teams retain as much salary as they want, but put a limit on how much of their cap obligations it can account for.

Those are the big ones for me but I’m sure I could come up with more if I really put my mind to it.

Stephen asks: “What college free agents do I want on my team?”

I’m not going to get into this too much (naming players, etc.) because I’ve answered this same question at least three times this season, including literally last week. Go back through the archives.

But the reason I’m answering this one is simple: To plead with you not to get your hopes up. The number of college free agents who really and truly become something in the NHL is pretty small, but there’s a sweepstakes or three every year. This leads to people dramatically overrating players, like say oh I don’t know just to choose a random example from the recent past who got insanely overrated and everyone shouted at me for saying he wasn’t that good but I ended up being right, Jimmy Vesey.

How much did I say to people, “Do NOT get super-excited about Jimmy Vesey?” How much did those people tell me to take a walk? How many goals does Jimmy Vesey have in 147 career games at almost 25 years old? It’s just 31.

Similar “sweepstakes” were held for Christian Folin (173 career games), Matt Gilroy (225 games), Matt O’Connor (1 game), Spencer Foo (0 career games), Danny DeKeyser (368 games, but he’s really bad), Justin Schultz (395 games but he had to change cities before people stopped throwing garbage at him on the streets), etc.

There are success stories: Kevin Hayes, Torey Krug, Chris Kunitz, Tyler Bozak, etc. But with the exception of Hayes, who simply let his draft rights with Chicago expire, what do a lot of those guys have in common? Yeah, they’re undersized,  “late bloomers,” or both, that’s correct.

A lot of NCAA free agents aren’t “late bloomers” so much as they never really bloom into being real NHL players, and that’s totally fine, but let’s just try to be realistic. Any guy your team gets at this time of year is a free asset who has a max ceiling of Chris Kunitz or Tyler Bozak. These aren’t bad players, but they’re not even close to being superstars.

Adjust your expectations accordingly.

Ryan Lambert is a Puck Daddy columnist. His email is here and his Twitter is here.

All stats via Corsica unless noted otherwise.

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Ramblings: Atkinson Scratched, Marner Breaks Point Slump (Dec 10)

Atkinson Scratched, Marner Breaks Point Slump, plus much more…

Let’s start with the early game. The good news for Jaden Schwartz owners: he scored a goal in the first period of Saturday’s matinee game. The bad news: he was forced to leave the game later in the period after blocking a shot with his ankle. Fortunately x-rays came back negative (which is a good thing despite the term “negative”), so consider Schwartz day-to-day for now.  

Jimmy Howard was pulled after two periods after allowing four goals on ten shots to the Blues. You probably want to use Howard at your own risk, as he is 1-4-3 with a 4.64 goals-against average and .836 save percentage in his past nine games. As well, we might start to see Petr Mrazek factor into the Wings’ goaltending situation more than he has. Howard has played over twice as many games (24) as Mrazek has (10) this season.

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Tyler Bozak entered Saturday’s game with just four goals in 28 games. But he finished the game with his first three-point game of the season, scoring two goals and adding an assist. If you are kicking yourself for not starting Bozak in a daily format, keep in mind that he had not scored a goal in 13 games.

Talk about an instant buy-low opportunity for me. I picked up Mitch Marner off waivers in one of my leagues, and he rewarded me with three assists. Considering that this is my shallowest league, I can kind of see why he was dropped, as he has scored just two goals all season and no points in his last seven games. Of course, before adding him I looked at the shots on goal total (56) along with the goals. As best as I could do math in my head, I determined that his shooting percentage was below 5 percent (3.4 percent now that I’ve had a chance to look it up). So that has nowhere to go but up. He’s 84 percent owned in Yahoo leagues as I write this.

Auston Matthews was clutching his head after taking a hit during the third period. I’m shocked that the Toronto sports media provided little speculation about his condition after the game, considering that the Leafs play again on Sunday.

Do any of you who follow the Leafs closely know why William Nylander played only 8:39 in this game? I was mainly channel surfing during the early games. Three games at the same time on HNIC.

Tristan Jarry was pulled at the end of the first period after allowing three goals on 16 shots. Maybe he couldn’t make the big save, but the Penguins’ issues of less-than-stellar 5-on-5 play seems to be surfacing. Jarry has seen action in seven consecutive games, so as much as you’ll want to start him whenever possible, remember that this is a lot happening very quickly for a 22-year-old goalie who expected to spend the season in the AHL.

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Moving Tyler Johnson up to a line with Steven Stamkos and Vladislav Namestnikov has helped revive his fantasy stock, although Johnson was moved again on Saturday to a line with Ondrej Palat and Brayden Point. TJ recorded another two assists to extend his point streak to four and give him points in six of his last seven games, although the assist was on the power play on Yanni Gourde’s goal. By the way, Gourde has a four-game point streak of his own.

Full disclosure: Perhaps my worst keeper decision was choosing Johnson over Nikita Kucherov when the two were in a virtual dead heat in fantasy value (after the 2014-15 season). But I doubt anyone at the time knew he would be top-of-the-scoring-race good. If you did, maybe you should be giving me fantasy hockey advice.

I was disappointed that the Jets/Lightning overtime lasted only 36 seconds, since 3-on-3 OT was made for those two teams. But that doesn’t take away from the winning goal by Brayden Point, who finished with two points in this game.  

Brayden Point + 3-on-3 + Bob Cole = @SUBWAYCanada OT magic. pic.twitter.com/fPluM90jvA

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) December 10, 2017

Dustin Byfuglien left this game in the third period with a lower-body injury. The Jets’ next game is at home on Monday, which makes for a difficult decision if you need to set your weekly roster by Sunday night.

On the Hot Stove, Nick Kypreos mentioned Michael Hutchinson as a possibility for teams that need a goalie right now (Edmonton, Florida). Hutchinson has a 9-1-0 record with a 1.73 GAA for the Manitoba Moose of the AHL this season. If you play in one of those super deep leagues where most backups, let alone starters, are on someone’s roster, Hutch might be a goalie to secure.

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Historically, Carey Price has been money on Saturday night, but he was pulled early in the second period after allowing four goals on 14 shots. As subpar as the season stats might be, his numbers since returning from injury are 5-2-1 with a 2.30 GAA and .928 SV%. Timing is everything, so you might still be able to buy low after the awful start.

Jujhar Khaira led the Oilers’ charge with two goals. He has quietly produced for the Oilers (five goals and nine points in 16 games). But he’s probably not at the point where you should be adding him, as his shooting accuracy is cruising at a very high 20 percent. The fact that he receives virtually no power-play time isn’t going to help his cause either.

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Sergei Bobrovsky stopped all 35 shots he faced in the Blue Jackets’ 1-0 shutout win over Arizona. Bob now leads the NHL with four shutouts.

Antti Raanta was the hard-luck loser, stopping 33 of 34 shots he faced.

It’s John Tortorella message-sending time. You may have heard that Dobber’s baby Cam Atkinson was a healthy scratch for this game. Atkinson was benched for the third period of Friday’s game and played just 9:36 total. What has Atkinson done to deserve this treatment? How about no points in his last six games and just nine points in 25 games.    

Honestly think Torts should have scratched him a month ago. For once, Torts was actually patient with a guy. Let's hope it gets Cam going https://t.co/KqQjVViAuN

— Dobber (@DobberHockey) December 9, 2017

Either that or it’s somehow the beginning of the end for Atkinson in Columbus. In Torts’ world, everything is black and white. Atkinson will be back for the next game, but this is no way means that Torts has or will regain faith in Atkinson. I’m just thinking back to the Ryan Johansen situation. Also remember that this was a coach who benched Roberto Luongo for the Heritage Classic because Eddie Lack was the hotter goalie, which turned out to be the end for Luongo in Vancouver.

I’m not saying that the Atkinson situation will play out this way, but I wouldn’t be totally surprised if it did either. But let’s assume that what I just said in the last paragraph is hyperbole for now.

Is Atkinson a great buy low? His shooting percentage is down (6.54 5on5 SH%, down from the last two seasons), and he’s missed a bit of time because of injury, so the season hasn’t really gotten off the ground. He’s shooting at roughly the same number of shots per game (3 SOG/GP), so better luck combined with the motivation to prove Torts wrong could result in much stronger second-half splits. So I’d say yes, it’s worth a shot. At the right price, of course.

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With two assists, David Pastrnak extended his point streak to eight games. During that stretch he has four goals and ten points and a plus-7.

Brad Marchand received a five-minute major for a hit to the head of John Tavares. Normally we’d assume the five-minute major would be enough. But this is Marchand we’re talking about, so there could be supplemental discipline.

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Mats Zuccarello scored two goals for the Rangers in their 5-2 win over the Devils. He also saved another one from going in.  

MATS ZUCCARELLO GRABS THE PUCK OFF THE GOAL LINE AND KEEPS IT OUT TO KEEP THE RANGERS UP! pic.twitter.com/qQKchHKgRF

— NHL Daily 365 (@NHLDaily365) December 10, 2017

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In the Avalanche’s 7-3 win over Florida, you were probably hoping Nathan MacKinnon, Gabriel Landeskog, or Mikko Rantanen would have piled up the points. Instead, it was Matt Nieto who led the team in scoring with a goal and two assists. Nieto is the definition of a streaky scorer. He had not scored a goal since October 24, when he recorded a hat trick. Needless to say, fantasy owners can’t be that patient.

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Matthew Tkachuk had gone 11 games without a goal and was coming off a recent one-game suspension, so he’s been receiving his fair share of criticism. So he responded well on Saturday, scoring the game-tying goal and an empty-net goal in the Flames’ 4-2 win over Vancouver. Tkachuk is known more for his chippy play than anything, but his goal/assist ratio suggests he is much more of a passer than a shooter. In just over 100 games, Tkachuk has 19 career goals compared to 48 assists.  

With no Bo Horvat, Markus Granlund was taking faceoffs on the Canucks’ first-unit power play on Saturday. Before your jaw drops to the floor, Brandon Sutter played a similar role last season. So this is nothing new.

Sven Baertschi left this game after taking a puck to the face, adding to the Canucks’ injury woes.

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Aaron Dell stopped all 25 shots he faced in the Sharks’ 5-0 win over Ottawa. Dell remains one of the league’s top backups with a sub-2.00 goals-against average. He’s worth streaming for sure and is even worth a roster spot in very deep leagues.

Logan Couture scored a goal and added two assists in the win. He has nine goals in ten Saturday games, but six goals spread out through the rest of the week this season. If you play daily leagues for some weekend fun on a busy Saturday, Couture wouldn’t be a bad player to target. Otherwise, that’s a fairly useless stat.

I’m at the point where I’m now starting Jaroslav Halak over Craig Anderson on one of my teams. But Anderson can’t be totally held to blame in the Sens’ loss, as he faced 50 shots in total. But being an Anderson owner is testing your patience (didn’t someone writing for this site say the same about Matt Duchene not too long ago?) Anderson has not earned a win since November 11, which makes it nine appearances without a win.

But the light at the end of the tunnel might be Tuesday’s game against Buffalo. That’s what we have to call one of those “something’s gotta give” games. Unless, of course, Mike Condon is named the starter for that game. The Sens play another game on Wednesday against the Rangers.

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For more fantasy hockey information, follow me on Twitter @Ian_Gooding.

  from All About Sports http://www.dobberhockey.com/hockey-rambling/ramblings-atkinson-scratched-marner-breaks-point-slump-dec-10/

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PHP 7: A New Guide for Web Development

Are you a web developer or a website owner? Do your sites run on on custom PHP frameworks or PHP-enabled CMS development services such as Drupal,WordPress, Joomla or Magento? Then, this article is for you. Here, we will discuss everything about the latest version of one of the most popular programming languages in world: PHP Web application

On June 23, 2016, the PHP software development team has revolutionized the web app development industry by announcing the stable release of PHP 7.0.8. From security issue fixes to new capabilities, there’s a lot to get excited about in the latest PHP overhaul.

This is the reason that PHP web development is among the most preferred technologies for website development. Moreover, because it has existed for so many years, it is backed by a huge community of developers and thus looking for patches of solutions or even hiring developers, just everything is much convenient. Even academically, many select php web application development as the scripting language to study even today. But is the latest version any good or does it still keep the standards of PHP in par with its past? So, Let us understand PHP 7 and its benefits for web development.

What Drove the Need for PHP 7?

Nearly 82 percent of websites use PHP, which means that most of the Web relies on the language to at least some extent. With an increasing number of people coming online, including a rapidly growing number of mobile users who often rely on relatively slow 3G connections, it is necessary for the servers that power the world’s websites to be able to react quickly to user requests. Studies show that 40 percent of people will abandon a web page that takes more than three seconds to load, demonstrating that speed is a crucial factor in website design.

Stay Informed– Is PHP Dying?

Significant changes to PHP have increased the performance of sites that use the language dramatically. In fact, it is estimated that PHP 7 offers a 100% improvement in performance speed over PHP 5.6. This major improvement in speed allows web developers to create sites that provide interesting and engaging interactive features that still respond to user input as quickly as modern web users have come to expect.

Another motivation for the development of PHP 7 is the need to develop scripting languages that run more efficiently. This demand is driven by two factors: the need to reduce costs and the need to reduce power consumption to protect the environment. Compared to PHP 5.6, PHP 7 places substantially reduced demands on servers, which makes it a more cost-effective and environmentally friendly choice, as comparatively less energy is needed to power servers running PHP 7 applications.

One question might be popping in your mind is “how much PHP 7 is more efficient than its previous version”. Here is the performance comparison of PHP 5.6, PHP 7 and HHVM 3.7:

What Is New in PHP 7?

1. PHP#NG– the New Zend Engine for PHP 7

Since 1999, Zend engine is responsible for powering all versions of PHP.

Note that the Zend engine is not the same as Zend Framework. Zend Framework is an open-source C based engine which works as an interpreter for PHP language.

Also Read : Get Ready For PHP 7 Revolution

Currently, the PHP 5.X uses Zend Engine II which powerfully enhances the functionality of the PHP 5.x based websites and adds the extensible object model, providing performance boost to the language.

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2. Twice the speed of Previous Versions

One of the most undeniable and visible advantages of the new PHPNG engine is the improvement in performance. PHPNG’s development team successfully refactored their Zend Engine and strives to provide remarkable improvement in memory. It also includes Just-In-Time (JIT) that provides the compilation done in run time — avoiding it to be done before the code execution.

A huge improvement in speed between PHP 5.6 and PHP 7 can be seen from the following benchmark tests for the WordPress versions, 4.1 and 3.6.

This concludes that fewer servers will serve the exact number of users when using PHP 7, but code will be executed just as quick if not quicker. PHP 7 has also managed to outdone HHVM.

3. Simplifies Error Handling

For PHP coders (until now), handling catchable fatal and just fatal errors was never an easy task. The newest Engine Exceptions allows you to replace such errors, keeping exceptions. Just in case the exception remains undiscovered, PHP will to return to the same fatal errors as they have in the 5.x version.

The newest Engine Exception object does not spread to the Exception Base Class. This cases backward compatibility and leads to two kinds of exceptions in terms of error handling:

1. Traditional exceptions

2. Engine exceptions

In order to allow the developers to catch both errors, PHP 7 gives a whole new shared Parent Class, named as Base Exception.

4. 64-Bit Windows Systems Support

For those who didn’t know, PHP is a vital member of LAMP stack. This concludes that LINUX is their native environment, but it is possible to use PHP on Windows system as well. The 5.x version does not provide the 64-bit integer as of yet.

On the other hand, PHP 7 is set to change this by launching their consistent support to 64-bit, meaning that it will give both natives the support of large files and 64-bit integers. It gives developers the confidence of running language on their 64-bit Windows system as well.

5. New Operators: Null Coalescing and Spaceship

PHP 7 has introduced two new operators; Spaceship and Null Coalescing.

Spaceship operator is also known as the three-way comparison operator and runs under the Combined Comparison Operator name. If the left is smaller, it returns to -1, if both are equal, then it is 0 and if the right is smaller, then it returns to `1. Spaceship is already the part of programming languages like Ruby and Perl.

Null Coalescing operator has two question marks (??) as its notion. It is used to see when you are looking for something which exists or doesn’t. In case nothing exists, it will return to its default value.

The Coalesce operator returns to the result of the initial operand, if there was any and is not null.

6. Gives out Accurate Type Declarations

Did you ever think about preventing the unintended return values through the return of a function type? If you did, it previously wasn’t possible, but now it is. The new PHP 7 allows developers to boost the quality of the code through the return type declaration’s help.

For example, through the simple use of foo() function, it will return an array.

To improve the feature even more, PHP 7 has introduced four new type declarations for the scalar types:

1. Bool 2. String 3. Float

These new scalar types allow the website owners and developers to denote the expecting Booleans, strings, floats and integers which may return. These PHP 7 introduced scalar types also augment Type Hints — allowing the developers to force the parameters of type after the PHP 5.X version. This is a whole new thing and perhaps, also one of the biggest advantages for the web developers, if they use it correctly.

7. Addition of Anonymous Classes

With the benefit of adding Java and C+, PHP 7 allows programmers to add any anonymous class to their code. For those who do not know, an anonymous class is a class that has no name. Nonetheless, the object being instantiated has similar functionality as the named class object.

The Syntax is similar to the previous traditional PHP classes — just that the name is missing.

If you know how to properly use the anonymous classes, then you can speed up the execution time and the coding. It is wise to use anonymous classes just for the execution and in times when there is no need for a class to be documented.

8. Facilitates Imports from the Same Namespace

Group Use Declaration will be a God-send for those who are looking forward to importing a number of classes from the same namespace. The new Syntax save typing time, makes the code easier on the eyes as well as tidier and also cuts verbosity.

It also makes the reading through and the debugging codes since the group has declarations to identify the number of imports that come from the same module.

9. Provides You with A lot of Space

The main aim of PHP 7 was to set up free space in order to provide improvements in this version. This is why it was important to get rid of the deprecated functionalities, along with the unsupported, old Server extensions and APIs. This largely helped in giving out free space.

In PHP 5, the removed items are deprecated for some time. However, if you are thinking about running your old PHP version app, PHP 7 may break the code.

Knowing how advance PHP 7 is, this was just the tip of the iceberg. There will be a number of more changes and enhancements in the next PHP version. You might come across a number of bugs, but that is all the part of your PHP development and you will learn more.

Who Spearheaded the Development of PHP 7?

The development of PHP 7 was spearheaded by Dmitry Stogov, Xinchen Hui, and Nikita Popov. These three developers created an experimental branch of PHP that they originally called PHP Next Generation, often abbreviated as PHPNG. The PHP community embraced this new branch of the scripting language, as it offered significant improvements in performance, and continued to develop it into the stable version of the language now known as PHP 7.

PHP 7 has been through several months of beta testing and was finally released in its stable form in December 2015, just one month after the predicted release date.

PHP is Beyond!

In the recent times, we have seen how other CMS development frameworks or open source frameworks were giving tough competition to PHP development. But with the latest release of PHP 7, it still stands strong for development of heavy and complex web application and website development. I recommend Outsourcing PHP software development company for even better results where you find deals that are much cost effective than hiring a freelancer in Europe.

Wrapping Up:

It’s clear that the new version of PHP boasts many new & exciting features and now its more efficient. PHP 7 cater to the need of present website. If you also want to develop your website on PHP 7 or have any query related to the this new version, you can contact PixelCrayons: A leading PHP web development company in India.