#we mostly read really short samples and articles besides that.

[perenlop]

thinking about the animal literature class i took last spring that was pushed as a class all around symbolism but it ended up being an ARA focus and my professor and i were talking about my black beauty paper and she said something like “you dont think of all the ways the author is actually promoting animal harm though… like why doesnt she criticize the use of carriage horses at all? does she think its ethical for animals to work for humans instead of alternative means?”

well besides the obvious bullshit there… THIS BOOK TAKES PLACE IN THE 1800s!!!!!! THERE WERE NO CARS!!!

[gymbunnycandiehart]

4 Reasons why Men Need “Girly-Boy” Friends

Having healthy friendships is simply a healthy way of living.  We all need them. As a girly-boy, friendships are even more important for the panty-encased men. I have often considered myself lucky enough to have a wife who gets me, who tolerates this in me, and sometimes encourages my girly-boy ways, my actions as well as my dress.  But I also need friendships outside of marriage.  No, I crave them.  That’s not always easy unless I can push my girliness to the side. Being a girly-boy among men who like things manly can be awkward.  It shouldn’t be that way, though, should it?

Let’s flip things around. Men (the macho manly alpha men) need guy friends who are girly—perhaps best friends who are girly-boys.  A few years ago, I did a posting about why women need a girly boy as a gym partner.  I have thought many times, as well as having read many posts, about how women benefit from having friendships with girly men, dating girly men, or making their men girly.  I’ve seen those kinky ones about why men need a girly-boy for a toy (a sexy sissy).  I have also posted and have seen other blogs along the lines of how society benefits from girly men.  As of yet, I haven’t seen that post or article as to how manly men can benefit from being good friends with girly boys.  So, I’m giving it a go.  

Men CAN benefit greatly from a close friendship with a girly-boy and it be completely platonic and helpful for both.  So here is my own list of 4 Reasons why Men Need Girly-Boy Friends.

**note: if you’re looking for something a bit teasing, you might read on.  If you’re looking for something raunchy, there’s no reason to read further.  This is a genuine, albeit somewhat fantasy-laden, post about having a great friendship between a heterosexual manly man and a girly boy.

PERSPECTIVE: Even in my girliest of days, I lack a strong understanding of women.  My perspective, however, is much clearer than the average Tarzan.  I have a lot of Jane in me; and if a guy doesn’t want to look like a complete ape, he’d do well to keep me in his jungle—dressed of course in my sexiest leopard print bikini. Whether he is married, dating, or on the prowl, girly boys have a truer understanding of the women they have their sights on.  We understand their feelings better than most men.  We “get it” about clothes, makeup, and jewelry; and all the shopping and time associated with it.  Because we relate so well with girliness, all the way down to the lingerie, we have insight that can be shared and we can willingly demonstrate it, model it, and work it as well.  We can definitely give a manly man better perspective on shopping all day for the next pair of cute shoes that will match our new summer outfits!

AFFECTION: Girly Boys need affection and are beyond willing to give it, if only people would let them. A lot of manly men may say they don’t need it and would perhaps cringe at the thought of a “dude” being so physically close.  Any man could stand to let his guard down and cuddle up with someone, even if that someone is another feminine person besides his SO.  Who better to cuddle with than a man who is soft around the edges?  Men like things that are soft to the touch, but they may not have anything like that in their wardrobe.  Girly boys have it.  We probably have lots of it.  We have soft sweaters, thin pants, shaved legs, and moistened skin.  We smell sweet too. Having a girly boy dressed in fluffy sweatshirt and yoga pants and leaning into a man to snuggle while watching a movie can be a very comfortable feeling for any manly man—if he’d just let it happen. 

FILL IN: When a guy doesn’t have a special girl in his life, a void needs to be filled.  He needs a friend to turn to that can satisfy those needs. And when I say “needs” I’m not talking about sexual urges.  He needs someone that can be his “girl”—the type of friend who can straighten his tie, give a sweet smile of approval, or even flirt in a friendly way.  Imagine a guy and a girly-boy friend hanging out at home, in a bar, at the movies or a ballgame.  For a man to have a guy friend dressed in a cute feminine outfit, hanging on to his arm, joyously laughing at his jokes, and teasing him as a girl would, it would give him some sense of contentment, even if it’s only temporary and not lead to a romp in the sack.  As well, a girly boy would help him to feel strong, needed, and to have purpose of giving someone security.  Although we are strong in our own right, girly boys thrive on offering ourselves as those who need a strong peace of mind in our lives.  We like strong hands that can gently slide our flats off and give us foot massages.  We enjoy that as much as any girl.

TOLERANCE: The social aspect of having a friend who is a girly boy is perhaps the hardest for a straight, manly, macho guy.  The fear of “what will people think?” or “Girls will think I’m gay!”  Really?! How shallow can people be? There is nothing wrong with a boy who is girly.  It says nothing about his gender attraction and it says nothing for a man who is his friend, even close friend.  If anything, it says much about a man’s open-mindedness, which should be a very attractive quality that any good woman would be looking for in a man. If a man can’t walk down the beach without feeling embarrassed with a guy friend who is wearing short shorts and a crop top, he’s probably not the open-minded guy some girls would want to date.  But if he can do that while carrying his friend’s wedge sandals, and not think a thing of it, he’s probably a keeper.

Several other ideas have popped into my head, but I don’t have the time or energy to lay them all completely out.  So here is a sampling of ideas:

1)    Great Fashion sense

2)    A Good Wing “Man”

3)    Brings good Balance into life and conversations

4)    Experience in the realm of femininity

5)    Dating practice—take that however you wish  

And one final note on this blog: Please know that this post treats the “manly man” in it as mostly, if not completely, heterosexual. This in no way implies that a manly man can’t be gay. It neither implies that a girly boy is only gay. Basically, take this the way it is. It’s meant to be fun, maybe somewhat kinky, but mostly just for fun.

Have a girly fun day, my friends,

CandieHart

[makeitwithmike]

How I Generate 300,000 Unique Blog Visitors Per Month

By Pauline Cabrera

Alright, so you’ve taken the plunge and decided to start your own website. Love it.

It shows that you’re serious about your business. You may have even made some financial investments, via design or web hosting.

Whatever it is, just know that the time you’re putting in, and the money you’ve spent will come back to you.

Now that the pep talk is out of the way, we need to face certain realities.

YOU HAVE NO VISITORS.

I’m sure it’s no secret to you guys how crucial web traffic is if you want to grow your business.

Despite all of your hard efforts, something just isn’t clicking. You don’t have to feel alone.

Many bloggers just starting out can barely crack 100 visitors a day, let alone thousands.

As a fellow blogger, I know EXACTLY how you guys feel because I was once there. There is no secret formula. You just need a strategy.

Here’s the overview of my users in 2016 for TwelveSkip.com. See how I’ve consistently generated 300,000+ users per month throughout the year?

Here’s what you can do to generate a big amount of traffic in no time:

1. Invest in social media marketing

I’ve learned that every social media channel is different. Some networks may work for you while others may not.

While I use every major social media network myself, I choose to focus on two channels – Facebook Groups and Pinterest. I did invest in other social networks too but I figured that only these two work well for me, mostly because of my niche.

Check out this stat from 2016: (see how Pinterest and Facebook bring the most social traffic?)

In Pinterest, most of my own pins generate thousands of repins. Some of them get over 10,000 repins. My Pinterest generates over 900,000 views per month. In Facebook, I started a group where bloggers help promote each other. Now it has over 7,000 members and 100+ bloggers active daily.

Image Source: Pinterest

How did I do this? Besides reading a lot of tutorials, I also followed some successful people and observed how they use social media. Like they say, learning from the best is always one of the best methods to generate ideas and techniques.

Lesson here? Be active on all social media by using a scheduling tool (to save time) but only focus on those that work well for your niche. Determine where your target audience hangs out the most. Each network works differently so research for tutorials on how to promote on each social network effectively. Lastly, watch how your competitors use social media.

Here’s what I’ve noticed:

Pinterest works well for those who are in the creative industry (bloggers, fashion, makeup, weddings). Most people use Pinterest to search and curate ideas.

Facebook works well for those who are in the entertainment industry. The audience here usually likes and/or shares content that sparks emotion.

Instagram works well for those who are in the creative industry as well. It’s similar to Pinterest but you share your own photos and you need to be active daily in order to make it work well for you.

Here are some useful tutorials: Generate Traffic from Pinterest, Driving More Facebook Traffic, How to Grow Followers on Instagram

Social media should be a part of your daily marketing and that is a non-negotiable – at least until you are able to build up a big enough following.

2. Provide freebies that your target market craves

People think that in order to sell, that making money must be their entire focus. Of course, you want to make money.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t throw out a free nugget of wisdom every so often for your new or loyal visitors.

People LOVE free. If you keep churning out free content that is relevant, you create trust with your visitors. The more they trust you, the more often they will visit your site, and eventually purchase whatever product or service you are selling.

I use this tactic all the time and it works.

In my blog post, 100+ Blog Post Title Templates That Grab Attention, I break down the simple, yet effective way to create catchy blog titles. Here’s an example:

This article really generated a lot of positive feedback because, not only did I write about what works and what doesn’t, but I also provide over 100 title templates for them.

People need information but they don’t necessarily have a lot of time to implement the new information they are absorbing.

This step-by-step formula made it easy for people to create powerful titles, without having to waste precious brain power to create them.

This gives entrepreneurs more time to focus on their business, rather than small details that can often drive people crazy.

What do I get in return? I’ve been racking up relevant backlinks and email subscribers. More backlinks = better search rankings = more traffic = more email subscribers.

This is Google GOLD!

3. Prioritize email list building

Imagine, I started prioritizing this method after about a year of blogging and I really wish I started earlier than that.

As of 2017, here’s my current number of subscribers – 100K!

It does bring a decent amount of website traffic, and no it’s really not as hard as you think.

Here are the methods I use to generate subscribers:

Offer an incentive. Remember, people love free stuff. So offer them something they crave in exchange for their emails.

Place your opt-in in multiple places. Create several catchy opt-ins and place them somewhere visible on your website. This can be done via pop-ups, top bar, bottom right or within your blog posts.

Make it easy to subscribe. Remember, you want to make people’s lives easier. Only request 1 or 2 pieces of information (email and name).

Take advantage of your most popular blog posts. This is actually the most effective method for generating subscribers. 50% of my subscribers come from my most popular blog posts. Check your most popular pages via Google Analytics and offer freebies that are relevant to the current article. For example, you’re offering advice on how to write a catchy title, create a template for them with sample title templates.

You can check out my website (TwelveSkip.com) and see how I place my opt-in forms. There is one on the top, there is one pop up, some within my blog posts and at the bottom of every blog post.

Here’s an example post:

Encourage your readers to subscribe by using beautiful visuals and an effective call to action button. Let them know exactly what they’re getting.

4. Make your content easy to read

Remember, one of your goals is to make a good impression (to keep your visitors coming back).

You want people to remember that your content is easy to follow or scan. You don’t want to scare them off with lengthy, uninterrupted text.

Organize your content in an easy-to-follow format. This includes everything from having images that are big and clear, to making sure your content is easy to read.

Here’s what I do:

Keep your paragraphs short. I like to break up my paragraphs, so users don’t get bogged down by too many words. When you break up the paragraphs, users can read a lot faster. This is particularly useful for articles, which are over 1,000 words.

Use lists. Not only does it make your content look more appealing but it also give your readers a visual break.

Use readable fonts. Use fonts that are easy to read. I recommend using commonly-used ones such as Arial, Georgia, Times New Roman or Trebuchet MS. Do not use less than 12px in size.

Use visual aids. Keep your readers’ attention and make reading a lot more enjoyable with relevant and appealing visuals.

5. Infuse SEO

SEO has always been my most favorite method for driving website traffic. Here’s a stat from Google Analytics. In 2016, about 70% of my visitors came from search engines. Amazing, right?

Let’s take a look at this example post with over 1.8 million views:

When you type “Twitter Header” or “Twitter Cover” on most search engines, you will see that my The New Twitter Header Dimensions + Templates Included (2017) post is on the first page of the Google search.

Why? Not only is it useful, but it’s also optimized for search engines.

See how I use long tail keywords in the post title itself? Instead of just using “Twitter Cover Dimension”, I added “NEW” and “2017” because I know Twitter keeps changing their layout, and people would always search for the latest and most updated template.

Here are some other methods I use to get better search rankings:

Generate backlinks. In order to generate backlinks, create useful content, provide freebies and link to authority websites. Be active on promoting your content by spreading out on social media, engage with other bloggers within your industry, and guest post for high-quality blogs.

Use keywords effectively. Determine what keywords you need to use by defining your target market’s wants and needs, and by watching your competitors. Here’s a good guide for you.

Improve user experience. One of your goals is to get visitors to stay longer on your website and decrease your bounce rate. How? Make your website responsive (mobile friendly). Use a reliable web hosting company. Remember, your website’s speed impacts search ranking so be sure to choose the right web hosting for you. Make your website easy to navigate and easy to scan (ask yourself: when you go to your website, do you immediately understand what it’s all about?)

Apply on-page SEO methods. I optimize my content for search engines by using SEO-friendly URLs, linking to authority websites, using ALT tags on images, removing duplicate content, optimizing meta tags, using headings and doing internal links effectively.

Wrapping up

You may be feeling all alone when it comes to increasing the traffic of your website. But I promise you that if you start implementing these tips, you will experience massive amounts of growth in no time!

What are your favorite ways to increase traffic? Time to share!

Guest Author: Pauline Cabrera is a digital strategist based in Toronto, Ontario. She helps bloggers & businesses get noticed online using effective internet marketing strategies combined with web design, SEO + email marketing.

The post How I Generate 300,000 Unique Blog Visitors Per Month appeared first on Jeffbullas’s Blog.

The post How I Generate 300,000 Unique Blog Visitors Per Month appeared first on Make It With Michael.

from How I Generate 300,000 Unique Blog Visitors Per Month

[automationgeeks]

What's The Difference: Writing An Article Vs Writing A Blog Post - How Writers Can Earn More

Which is kind of the thing about most blogging advice.

Your service or product is your voice, Your area of expertise is your worldview.

Your interests and passions range across a whole inner landscape. It's a well fiction Writer. Relates to why readers get obsessed with books and authors, the things that keep the writer up at night. With that said, this also encourages people to find that core thread in their work -the questions you mention. I have one client with whom I always use the word article when talking about these pieces, and another with whom I use the word blog.

Time to raise my rates for the blog client and remember to use the word article when appropriate!

Not surprisingly, rates for my article client are a big bit higher than my blog client for quite similar work.

Danielle, there's nobody best thing to blog about if there were, every single blog will be about it, right? It's intending to depend on your experience and interests, and your research into whether a particular niche is easily monetized or not. Their audience doesn't care. However, a couple of us are sticklers for grammar and some not, Shivani…I know p bloggers who have a typo in every article, and are earning huge sums. With all that said... It depends on the audience. I'm sure it sounds familiar. I've even seen ebooks that are riddled with grammar and spelling quite a few more at $ 600- $ 2000, determined by length and complexity. Remember, where most writers are lucky to get $ 100 a post for blog posts and I recommend you try to make that your floor for blog writing article rates are usually a whole lot better.

One difference between a blog post and a magazine article is that blog posts often contain links to other posts on a company's site, that is a means of keeping the reader on the site for as long as possible.

They are written so that shows readers how they can benefit from these services, albeit these can be articles.

Articles for corporate blogs, for sake of example, often discuss some problem in the industry and after that illustrate how the company is working to solve it. I agree that posts are essentially articles and might be compensated as such, especially when you must have deep knowledge of a company or industry to write the material, the word blog sounds hipper. Blog posts are often written with the intention of convincing readers that they need a particular service offered by the company. Let me tell you something. These posts have great value to companies as they may result in thousands of dollars of business every time a tally new client is acquired and a sale is made. I think they thought they'd get a n of unqualified people if they knew who the employer was.

I responded to one ad once, for example, and it turned out to be a website owned by CBS. I agree quite a few there are scams, there can be legit reasons for not revealing the company. Recently, I got plenty of response to my call for freelance writers to stop writing blog posts. Lots of writers were confused about just what the difference is. That's not the dividing line. Shampa, look, there're certainly articles that lack interviews, and blog posts that have them. I mean technically, an article is in a magazine, and a blog post is on a blog…but the point of my article is that if you look for to be paid more for blogging, you have to do work more on the order of what you'd do for a typical article namely, interviews and more indepth research. Nonetheless, sEO focused junk writing will never pay well, and it's also a shrinking marketplace, would start moving away from the stigma of a blog post being a cheap fix. Here's what to do instead. It doesn't have to be complex. Normally, even simple sentences can be well written. As a result, I disagree with you on one point. For example, it's a really helpful post. We must always encourage people to write with correct spelling and grammar as that helps the case for clear writing. However, they presented interesting data. Posts got longer as bloggers sought to stand out and deliver more value, until 1000 words has become fairly standard, and 2000 word posts are not uncommon. Blog posts began to have more interviews. Nevertheless, sEO keywords' value lessened as Google cracked down on 'keywordstuffed' content. As blogs got more professional, lots of hired editors. Sometimes these get mixed by many who may consider it to be essentially identical. Very much interesting and enlightening comparison which most people often miss. Thanks and I going to be sharing. You see, this excellent write up will also what actually is expected of them as they take a venture. Notice that you also get the bonus of learning to report a story, that lays the groundwork for getting betterpaying articles in future, from businesses or magazines.

Have the advantage of giving you more impressive clips for your portfolio, loads of smaller daily papers pay in the $ 75- $ 100 range for short articles. I would like to ask you something. I am working on my autobiography and someone suggested that I do a blog instead but I have to find out whether that is the writer forum for my story plus how do I protect the rights to my story?

Will you not suggest writing an autobiography on a blog?

I come from a journalism background so I'm comfortable with the more traditional article approach.

I've tried doing some seo content writing and found it really difficult and not very enjoyable. Thanks for the clarification, it's really useful to be aware of this developing trend. We look for posts to be fun and easy to read, not stuffy and dry. We expect factual and wellsourced posts, not rambling rehashes of other people's work or wild conjecture, Accuracy and strong attention to detail are an absolute must. Now let me tell you something. It's a good idea to also be cognizant of online publishing realities and be able to use key search engine keywords in your posts and headlines without sounding robotic, you must have an ideal ear for language.

It's a high visibility opportunity and we are looking for the very best writing talent, that is why we pay a premium over other blogs. We look for to hear from you, Therefore if you think you are a great fit. I have recently started my own blog. Actually, I also write poetry. Also, how should I market that to my readers? I'm sure you heard about this. In order for me to get it up and running I've been doing some research. Should that also correlate to your blog, as far as the articles. Is it best to keep it to the theme of the blog or write about what interests you? So, my question for you is what really is better thing to blog about? I like the fact that you distinguished between an article and a blog. It must definitely stick to a niche, though all successful blogs do.

I have a couple resources to recommend on blogging I learned to build my blog from AList Blogging's Kickstart Your Blog course, and my How to Be a Well Paid Freelance Blogger e book is packed with tips on how to leverage your personal blog to get paying gigs from clients.

Your blog post has come out at the right time.

I am sure they need to be educated about the difference between blog post and article. Basically, I wish to say that all the time, those hire writers are not clear about exactly what they look for. It's more ‘blog post' type writing than article writing. Besides, I wouldn't expect to be well paid for this work type. Since you're not adding any value, simply recycling previously written biographies is more of a blog post.

Uneducated clients who don't really know these two forms been busy muddying up the conversation about them for years. That's made it hard for writers to define writing projects and bid them appropriately. Mostly, copyright attaches at the time of publication on your blog, and you can prove when you wrote it because of how blogs date things…and who is planning to steal your life story? I think most people who're blogging a book don't put it all on their blog they put parts of it, and similar parts are exclusive to the final book. For instance, probably not a huge concern. Lots of print magazines began posting copies of their articles online. They published more opiniondriven pieces from thought leaders. Some also put up blogs where they let writers hit the ‘publish' button on their own. That's interesting. Suddenly, magazine headlines needed to drive traffic, just like blogpost headlines, and headline styles evolved. Yes, that's right! On the 'articlewriting' side, there was also movement. Now look. They impress more of your client's customers.

Then the projects might be more successful, and those clients gonna be more going to hire you back to write more.

As long as they'll be happier with the results they get, it's a classic 'win' you can charge more at the start. I'm sure that the fact is, articles and articlestyle blog posts convey more authority. Do not send story clips as an attachment. Nonetheless, applications that do not meet shall not be considered really. Now regarding the aforementioned fact... Your email subject line must read gooseberry application followed by your full name or it may be deleted, when responding. Please also include three brief story ideas that meet the criteria outlined above so we can get a feeling of your understanding of the audience and the foregoing story guidelines. Your resume might be a single attachment to your email.

Please send your resume, a letter of interest, and clips to published samples of work that is of relevance to the individual biz space.

Blog posts are growing up they're increasingly not the ugly stepsister of articles.

Good news is, the convergence of blog posts and articles should offer writers better pay opportunities. They ought to pay more like the articles they often are. Yes, occasionally a real company wanders on there and posts, not this kind of a poor reputation with freelancers for offering up mostly junk. I know an awful lot of writers for whom $ 2K a month for writing one post a day would've been heaven, Amel! By the way, a long 'writeup' that does not contain any interview and is written about the achievements of some great personalities hereafter in that case, will this work be called an article or blog? Is interview necessary for an article? Oftentimes I know blog is a first person writeup but the write up I am talking about is in third person but is simply based upon biography so, how must I term it?

[silver-and-ivory]

You suggested Yudkowsky in a previous ask. How do you respond to the accusations that he is a crank? People make these accusations for a variety of reasons. For reference, consider rationalwiki's less than flattering article on him and his work. I am asking this question from a sincerely unbiased and simply curious standpoint. Thank you for receiving it, and, if you choose to respond, thank you for responding.

Hmm.

First of all, thanks a lot for how polite this was! Thank you for asking, and I am happy to respond for you. :)

I have in fact heard of these accusations.

To be perfectly honest, I don’t think these allegations are at all relevant to the validity of his philosophy in the Sequences. Ideas should be judged on their own merit; of course, we don’t have infinite time, so we have to use heuristics to figure out who to listen to, such as general correctness of beliefs; but I have already read Yudkowsky’s ideas and find him compelling. Since you (probably?) think I have relevant and non-terrible opinions, the heuristic “follow recommendations from your favored authors” (or whatever) should override the weaker heuristic about what to draw to your attention.

But I want to address the accusations in more detail, since they seemed interesting and I don’t think it would be satisfying to you if I didn’t. Keep in mind that I’m not qualified to evaluate many of the technical claims (like around physics or AI) in terms of knowledge or expertise. I’ll mostly be defending the idea that Yudkowsky’s ideas in the Sequences have merit independent of whatever weird shit he got into otherwise, but I also will make an effort to refute exaggerated or inaccurate claims.

So let’s get into discussing the accusations in question (long ass post below):

From what I’ve heard, they’re mostly as follows:

Roko’s Basilisk Debacle. I have no idea what happened here. Yudkowsky may have made a mistake in his comportment or in his logic, but it seems to be a sincere attempt to make the world better.

MIRI Work Inconsequential, Sub-par: Again, I don’t know anything about AI. I’ve never met Yudkowsky or MIRI at work, so I can’t really evaluate how hard they’re working or whatever.

AI Apocalypse is a Bit of a Sketchy Theory: I don’t know anything about AI, but the arguments I’ve seen are very unconvincing. After all, making the leap from “machine that does preprogrammed stuff really (really (really) (etc.))) quickly” to “thing with ability to manipulate, self-modify, and seep into the darkness of the internet to achieve its goals” doesn’t seem to be as easy as the arguments assume.

On the other hand, Yudkowsky might well be 1) operating off information I don’t know 2) concluded different, but equally reasonable (at this point in time) things from the information we share such that AI stuff is a major risk 3) giving into the bias that the things he’s interested in are Really Important or 4) something I didn’t think of that nevertheless doesn’t make him unreliable.

He might be wrong, but that doesn’t necessarily say anything about the other aspects of his ideology/philosophy. People make mistakes, they follow their biases too far, they get obsessed with strange things, they get stuck in bubbles. It’s erroneous to conclude that all of his ideas must be wrong just because he failed to live up to it.

Alternatively,, he could be doing it for personal gain - such as for fame - and therefore lying, which would bring his entire ideology into doubt as one could not know where he fabricated ideas versus where he was sincere.

Argument With Hanson: I honestly don’t care if he disagreed with Hanson over who the rightful caliph was AI foom. Ratwiki says:

It was immediately after this debate that Yudkowsky left Overcoming Bias (now Hanson’s personal blog) and moved the Sequences to LessWrong.

This insinuates a kind of foul play or bad faith on Yudkowsky’s side. I notice that it is unsourced, and secondly that Hanson and Yudkowsky both seem on still be on reasonable terms (as far as I know). Perhaps the split was already in the works, and Hanson and Yudkowsky regularly had similarly intense debate which was only “remarkable” because of the leave. Perhaps they believed it was confusing for readers to see a blog arguing with itself.

And besides, Yudkowsky couldn’t have decided based on this incident to create LessWrong in that short a time-span, which makes it highly unlikely that it was a petty reaction or whatever.

Yudkowsky Has Not Achieved Much:

Quoting from ratwiki here:

Yudkowsky is almost entirely unpublished outside of his own foundation and blogs[12] and never finished high school, much less did any actual AI research. No samples of his AI coding have been made public.

It is important to note that, as well as no training in his claimed field, Yudkowsky has pretty much no accomplishments of any sort to his credit beyond getting Peter Thiel to give him money. Even his fans admit “A recurring theme here seems to be ‘grandiose plans, left unfinished’.”[13] He claims to be a skilled computer programmer, but has no code available other than Flare, an unfinished computer language for AI programming with XML-based syntax.[14] His papers are generally self-published and have a total of two cites on JSTOR-archived journals (neither to do with AI) as of 2015, one of which is from his friend Nick Bostrom at the closely-associated Future of Humanity Institute.[15]

His actual, observable results in the real world are a popular fan fiction (which to his credit he did in fact finish, unusually for the genre), a pastiche erotic light novel,[16] a large pile of blog posts and a surprisingly well-funded research organisation — that has produced fewer papers in a decade and a half than a single graduate student produces in the course of a physics Ph.D, and the latter’s would be peer reviewed. Although Yudkowsky is working on a replacement for peer review.[17]

I really do not care how many successes Yudkowsky has had. His ideas are the issue here, not his actual abilities. Some of the more grandiose claims (”optimize the universe!”) are perhaps, well, grandiose; but that doesn’t undermine the other aspects of them.

(And in fact Yudkowsky has been able to create an entire movement of people, with highly influential members such as Scott Alexander and the Unit of Caring, which I notice is far more than is typical.

As for the allegations about MIRI, see above.)

Whether Yudkowsky considers himself a genius is unclear totally clear; he refers to himself as a genius six times in his “autobiography.” However he admits to possibly being less smart than John Conway.[18] As a homeschooled individual with no college degree, Yudkowsky may not be in an ideal position to estimate his own smartness. That many of his followers think he is a genius is an understatement.[19][20] Similarly, some of his followers are derisive of mainstream scientists, just look for comments about “not smart outside the lab” and “for a celebrity scientist.”[21] Yudkowsky believes that a doctorate in AI is a net negative when it comes to Seed AI.[22] While Yudkowsky doesn’t attack Einstein, he does indeed think the scientific method cannot handle things like the Many worlds Interpretation as well as his view on Bayes’ theorem.[23] LessWrong does indeed have its unique jargon.[24]

Yudkowsky may or may not have an overly large ego. I don’t think this is relevant to his philosophy.

Disagreement with Yudkowsky’s ideas is often attributed to “undiscriminating skepticism.” If you don’t believe cryonics works, it’s because you have watched Penn & Teller: Bullshit!.[25] It’s just not a possibility that you don’t believe it works because it has failed tests and is made improbable by the facts.[26]

I notice that “often” is doing a lot of work here. The citation links to Yudkowsky’s article on Undiscriminating Skepticism, in which he does not make the claim that “if you don’t believe cryonics works, it must be because you believed in Penn & Teller: Bullshit!”. Instead, he makes this (verbose and difficult to parse) claim (emphasis mine):

To put it more formally, before I believe that someone is performing useful cognitive work, I want to know that their skepticism discriminates truth from falsehood, making a contribution over and above the contribution of this-sounds-weird-and-is-not-a-tribal-belief.  In Bayesian terms, I want to know that p(mockery|belief false & not a tribal belief) > p(mockery|belief true & not a tribal belief).

If I recall correctly, the US Air Force’s Project Blue Book, on UFOs, explained away as a sighting of the planet Venus what turned out to actually be an experimental aircraft.  No, I don’t believe in UFOs either; but if you’re going to explain away experimental aircraft as Venus, then nothing else you say provides further Bayesian evidence against UFOs either.  You are merely an undiscriminating skeptic.  I don’t believe in UFOs, but in order to credit Project Blue Book with additional help in establishing this, I would have to believe that if there were UFOs then Project Blue Book would have turned in a different report.

And so if you’re just as skeptical of a weird, non-tribal belief that turns out to have pretty good support, you just blew the whole deal - that is, if I pay any extra attention to your skepticism, it ought to be because I believe you wouldn’t mock a weird non-tribal belief that was worthy of debate.

Personally, I think that Michael Shermer blew it by mocking molecular nanotechnology, and Penn and Teller blew it by mocking cryonics (justification: more or less exactly the same reasons I gave for Artificial Intelligence).  Conversely, Richard Dawkins scooped up a huge truckload of actual-discriminating-skeptic points, at least in my book, for not making fun of the many-worlds interpretation when he was asked about in an interview; indeed, Dawkins noted (correctly) that the traditional collapse postulate pretty much has to be incorrect.  The many-worlds interpretation isn’t just the formally simplest explanation that fits the facts, it also sounds weird and is not yet a tribal belief of the educated crowd; so whether someone makes fun of MWI is indeed a good test of whether they understand Occam’s Razor or are just mocking everything that’s not a tribal belief.

But I do propose that before you give anyone credit for being a smart, rational skeptic, that you ask them to defend some non-mainstream belief.  And no, atheism doesn’t count as non-mainstream anymore, no matter what the polls show.  It has to be something that most of their social circle doesn’t believe, or something that most of their social circle does believe which they think is wrong.  Dawkins endorsing many-worlds still counts for now, although its usefulness as an indicator is fading fast… but the point is not to endorse many-worlds, but to see them take some sort of positive stance on where the frontiers of knowledge should change.

But it’s dangerous to let people pick up too much credit just for slamming astrology and homeopathy and UFOs and God.  What if they become famous skeptics by picking off the cheap targets, and then use that prestige and credibility to go after nanotechnology?  Who will dare to consider cryonics now that it’s been featured on an episode of Penn and Teller’s “Bullshit”? 

So Yudkowsky isn’t saying that everyone who disagrees with him on e.g. many-worlds or cryonics is a P&T-thumper. Instead, here’s my interpretation of what he’s saying:

1. You can easily accumulate Skeptic Points by having certain views that don’t actually require that much mental effort to come up with, such as “homeopathy is dumb”.

2. These are not really relevant to your actual level of credibility.

3. Certain organizations, like Penn and Teller, have accumulated a lot of Skeptic Points by mocking things like homeopathy.

4. Mockery is not an argument. Organizations like Penn and Teller often mock things based on them being weird, which means that their mockery should mean absolutely nothing.

5.Unfortunately, due to the Skeptic Points that Penn and Teller has, their mockery has an outsize influence, which is bad.

6. If you want to assign Skeptic Points to actual credible people, you should test to make sure they’re not just parroting back their ingroup’s talking points.

The ratwiki interpretation is astonishingly uncharitable, and it also lacks substantiation for the claim it makes.

Note that I don’t know how accurate EY’s interpretation of the facts about cryonics and Penn and Teller is. It’s just that he didn’t say anything like what ratwiki characterizes him (an internet dweller? a random asshole on the bus?) as saying in the link, and that’s not how the principle was intended.

Yudkowsky Has Weird Viewpoints That Are Controversial:

Quoting again from ratwiki since I am very irritated at this point with them:

Despite being viewed as the smartest two-legged being to ever walk this planet on LessWrong, Yudkowsky (and by consequence much of the LessWrong community) endorses positions as TruthTMthat are actually controversial in their respective fields. Below is a partial list:

Transhumanism is correct. Cryonics might someday work. The Singularity is near![citation NOT needed]

Bayes’ theorem and the scientific method don’t always lead to the same conclusions (and therefore Bayes is better than science).[27]

Bayesian probability can be applied indiscriminately.[28]

Non-computable results, such as Kolmogorov complexity, are totally a reasonable basis for the entire epistemology. Solomonoff, baby!

Many Worlds Interpretation (MWI) of quantum physics is correct (a “slam dunk”), despite the lack of consensus among quantum physicists.[29]

Evolutionary psychology is well-established science.

Utilitarianism is a correct theory of morality. In particular, he proposes a framework by which an extremely, extremely huge number of people experiencing a speck of dust in their eyes for a moment could be worse than a man being tortured for 50 years.[30]

Yudkowsky believes some strange controversial things! Also, some people on the internet have presented evidence that doesn’t agree with Yudkowsky’s conclusions! Shock! He must be a total crock of shit!

Ironically, this falls into appeal to mockery, the same issue EY addresses in the essay linked above.

Again, I don’t agree with everything EY says, but it’s incredibly uncharitable to characterize his beliefs this way. For example, the dust-speck problem isn’t meant to be Obvious Truth- there was a massive debate around it on LW, in fact, and it appears to be construed specifically to be difficult to answer.

A wrong belief on something doesn’t make you discredited. It just makes you wrong on that thing.

Of course, you’d expect someone as smart as Yudkowsky to have a lot of correct opinions. But I don’t know whether his opinions are correct or not since I’m not an expert in his field. I recommend him based on my personal experience applying and thinking about his philosophy, not based on any particular object-level accuracy of his.

Yudkowsky Once Wrote a Story Where Rape Is Legal and It Wasn’t a Dystopia (rape cw):

Also, while it is not very clear what his actual position is on this, he wrote a short sci-fi story where rape was briefly mentioned as legal.[31] That the character remarking on it didn’t seem to be referring to consensual sex in the same way we do today didn’t prevent a massive reaction in the comments section. He responded “The fact that it’s taken over the comments is not as good as I hoped, but neither was the reaction as bad as I feared.” He described the science fiction world he had in mind as a “Weirdtopia” rather than a dystopia.[32]

Yes, and the point is?

Yudkowsky doesn’t go around raping people - though his non-rape-related philosophy wouldn’t necessarily be wrong even if he did - and he doesn’t go around advocating for a society like this.

It may or may not be morally wrong that he does not address it seriously. This wiki article doesn’t make any argument about that, though.

This is also irrelevant to his meta-philosophy.

In Conclusion

The ratwiki article on Yudkowsky managed to insinuate various terrible things about him which are often implausible, inaccurate, or technically-true but with false implications. It is nothing other than a mockingly snide attempt at character assassination.

It has little or nothing to do with Yudkowsky’s actual philosophy, and manages to strawman him badly.

I continue to recommend Yudkowsky for (critical, skeptical) reading. Thank you again for asking.

[keremulusoy]

Every question has an answer in this place, so long as it is abaout coffee, history, and Balat!

Mister Serhat Ersürel, founder of Cumbalı Kahve (Bay Window Coffee House) is a magnificent man. He has given years of his life for this work, all but specialized in coffee and presentation, and he welcomes his precious guests with his deep knowledge of history, after learning and knowing everything there is to know about Balat. Cumbalı Kahve may be just one of the 115 cafés in Balat, but it maybe is the most specialized among them.

Mr. Serhat begins talking by telling us “We make only and only coffee here”, and continues “I am even more pleased when my customers ask for coffee with no or little sugar.” When we ordered coffee with no sugar without knowing this when he asked how we would prefer the coffee he was to treated us to, he displayed his contentment through his body language, as if saying “that’s it”. He virtually created a coffee civilization inside a 9.5 m2 store. He does not offer chocolate or Turkish delight with the coffee, saying “That spoils the taste of coffee” and breaking the mold. “We, as Cumbalı Kahve, prepare brewed filter coffee and high-quality Turkish coffee together with all techniques and unknown aspects and offer them to our customers. We prefer coffee to be with no sugar. This enables us to better perceive the tastes, scents, and aromas inside coffee. In fact, there are some false facts that people think are right about Turkish coffee. For instance, time to consume, the manner of crushing, use of correct pH, and coffee cups. We try here to use all these along the methods we know to be true.”

The store of Mr. Serhat may be small but his horizons go far beyond. He may tell you anything and everything you are curious about coffee. He even sells Jamaica Blue Mountain, Hawai Cona, Panama Esmeralda Geisha, Yemen Mocca that are among the best 10 coffees of the world and products like coffee fruit Cascara, and he can tell everything there is to know about all these products.

“Besides water, coffee is the cheapest drink in the world. Our familiarity with coffee begins at around the year 1517 when Özdemir Pasha, governor of Yemen that was conquered stage by stage since the age of Yavuz Sultan Selim, presented coffee to the palace; and coffee was then most liked at the palace. The public also appreciated coffee, after which coffee began popular in our culture. Orderly coffee farms were first established in Yemen by the order of the Ottomans. Thus we introduced Turkish coffee, the only coffee cooked over fire different from other cooking and brewing methods, to the world. So there is something called Turkish coffee in world literature. When an Italian comes to this store, we have a hard time having him drink our coffee, Turkish coffee, he has his own culture and he preserves his own culture. You cannot have him drink it, it is just not possible. And here we are, as Cumbalı Kahve, trying to form our own culture, an informed Turkish coffee culture. You cannot find anything other than coffee here. There is no tea in this store. Neither breakfast nor anything else. There are coffee and water. Well, there is also Balat, there are history and books.”

Following a brief smile, Mr. Serhat continues telling. We understand from what he tells that he follows all local or foreign masters about coffee. He goes on, “Try, go and try at every coffee store. Sample the coffees of different coffee roasters. Try, always try and find the coffee that is best for you and your taste. Even then after finding the perfect coffee for you, still, continue trying new tastes from time to time.”

When you visit Cumbalı Kahve, this small but one of the rarest of places to visit of Balat and even of the country, the place itself tells you of so many things that you say to yourself, ‘This store, this owner of the store, they really went through so much experience.’ Mr. Serhat gives you such coffee techniques and hints that you even begin to question your coffee habits. He explains to you about all things coffee, from the cup choice you use to whether to use ground or roasted coffee, the right consistency and the time to offer each. We can say that Cumbalı Kahve enjoys a magnificent experience in regards to the coffee repertoire. He may explain all techniques for many minutes and will not forget to tell at the end, “I make only and only coffee here.”  This is the kind of place it is and this is the kind of person Mr. Serhat is.

Cumbalı Kahve and its experienced owner is not merely a coffee expert. He also has other fields of expertise. He came to know many different cultures closely. He says, “You cannot become localized without becoming universalized, you have to know closely the people and the tourists to whom you are to sell coffee.” and continues, “I have read many many books for the 5 years before opening up this store, I know as much Greek history as any Greek, as much Jewish history as any Jew, and as much Armenian history as any Armenian.” And going on after highlighting that he is a complete admirer of Balat, he says, “This place is the new rising trend of İstanbul. So to say, in this quarter which was neglected until recently, million dollars are spoken now. Now everybody comes to visit Balat with tours lead by local guides and contributes significantly to the economy of the quarter. I think that as a person living in Balat, I should know this place like the palm of my hand. When our guests come, we have to direct them to the best breakfast café, best restaurant, best soup store, best meatball store, best tripe store, and best dessert store, because we lead the way for them to come back to Balat when they receive the best services. Guides know me well, they always come and go, I gather information from them and they gather information from me.”

Cumbalı Kahve is an utterly decent place at the corner of the street. It has a very elegant design, and books strike your attention right in the center of the place. These books are mostly about Balat and coffee. Such as Fener-Balat-Ayvansaray of Ahmet Faik Özbilge and Topraktan Fincana Kahve (Coffee from the Soil to Your Cup) of Cenk R. Girginol. Serhat places so much importance on these two books. He points of reading and improve oneself  by telling us, “I read a lot of books but I prefer to read books about Balat and coffee as a priority, and of course history books. Because my store is in Balat, and I am a businessman offering coffee. It would be a great failing for me if there was a new development about my field and I do not know it.”

When you enter Cumbalı Kahve, you will see over the door writing that perhaps you may see nowhere else. Let this be a surprise for you to get curious about until you go visit. From that very writing you will understand that, just as Cumbalı Kahve, also its owner Mr. Serhat looks into life with certain rules, and provides us with many lectures on life as if saying ‘you have to have a story of yourself, it will not do otherwise’. Besides these, while Cumbalı Kahve is utterly particular and strict in terms of serving coffee, but Mr. Serhat has begun to sell also espresso-based coffees in response to the insistence of some of his customers since one year ago. He expresses, with a somewhat compelled attitude, “I do not understand those who consume milk-based coffees when they could drink exquisite Turkish coffee and brewed filtered coffee produced from high-quality beans but what can I do, I make the necessary explanation to everyone and then prepare their coffee as they desire.” In short, you will find only coffee when you visit Cumbalı Kahve. Even to the finest details of all lands and all techniques. But especially you will find brewed filtered coffee and high-quality Turkish coffee. While becoming deeply knowledgeable in regards to the history and landmarks of Balat, you will also learn of where to eat, what to do where in the quarter. And of course, the books… They will also tell you many things. Through the wise manner of Mr. Serhat.

NOTE: Balat is one of the rare quarters of the city where the older and newer texture of İstanbul may be seen together. Balat quarter is among those neighbourhoods of İstanbul that differ with its narrow streets, old houses, solitary and blind alleys and historical places… Bay window houses, stairway ramps, narrow cobblestone streets, laundry hang up on ropes stretching from house to house, neighbourhood inhabitants sitting on street stairways…  Balat offer cafés, teahouses at every street where you could take a break. Different cultures lived together in this quarter for hundreds of years. You can see holy and historical places such as churches, mosques and synagogues together at the same area.

Yazan: Okan Işık / Fotoğraf: Sevinç Doğu Yılmaz

*This article was  published in the  March-April issue of Marmara Life. 

Cumbali Kahve Every question has an answer in this place, so long as it is abaout coffee, history, and Balat!

[droneseco]

4k HDR Streaming is Now a Thing, with the AVerMedia Live Gamer 4K (Review and Giveaway)

Our verdict of the AVerMedia Live Gamer 4K: The best 4k capture card around, but it's pricey if you don't actually need 4k.1010

For those times when you absolutely must capture and stream 4K HDR gaming moments, AVerMedia’s Live Gamer 4K is your only choice. This PCI-Express card can capture 4k High Dynamic Range (HDR) content at 60 Frames Per Second (FPS).

Costing $300, is it worth your time? Let’s find out.

Thanks to AVerMedia, we’ve got one of these stunning Live Gamer 4K capture cards to give away. Enter the competition at the end of this review to be in with a chance to win!

AVerMedia Live Gamer 4K Specs

Measuring 4.92 x 5.94 x 0.84 inches and weighing 7.33 oz, this card won’t take up much room inside your case.

1 x HDMI 2.0 input

1 x HDMI 2.0 output (pass-through)

2160p60 HDR and 1080p240 resolution and refresh rates supported

H.264+AAC or H.265+AAC recording with included software

Yep, you read that right. You can capture 4k60 HDR footage straight out of your Xbox One X or PS4 Pro. You can capture PC streams as well, but that’s only useful if you’ve got two PCs—one to stream on, and one to play games on.

AVerMedia GC573 Live Gamer 4K AVerMedia GC573 Live Gamer 4K Buy Now At Amazon $285.00

Features

The Live Gamer 4k sits alongside the Live Gamer Ultra in a lineup of no fewer than 16 capture cards. AVerMedia’s product range could do with simplifying, but the Live Gamer 4k is the latest and greatest product. The Live Gamer Ultra is mostly the same device, but with a USB Type-C connector. The Live Gamer 4k installs into a spare PCI-Express Gen 2 x4 lane.

On the back of the card you’ll find a status light. This lights up and flashes depending on your capture status, and can be changed to any color desired. It’s a nice feature, but only one you’ll see if you have a windowed computer case.

Inside the box, you’ll find the Live Gamer 4K, a quick start manual, HDMI 2.0 cable, and a CyberLink PowerDirector 15 Product Key Card.

The capture card is very well made. Once installed, it looks like nothing more than two HDMI ports from the outside, but it has a lovely plastic casing, with the AVerMedia logo showing through a multi-colored gradient. In short: it looks awesome!

The first HDMI port is an HDMI input. This is where you’ll connect the console or device you want to capture. The second is the HDMI passthrough. This won’t output your computer like a graphics card, rather it will mirror the input port, so you can connect your console to your television, with this capture card in the middle.

Finally, you’ll need a reasonable computer to start capturing in 4k. You’ll need a minimum of 8GB RAM, an Intel i5 6000 series or better processor, and a Nvidia GTX 1060 or better graphics card. Don’t forget all the storage space for your captured footage, along with a solid internet connection for streaming in 4k. You can get away with far lower specs if capturing 1080p footage, but don’t bother buying this card if you don’t need 4k!

As you’d expect from anything 4k, it’s rather an expensive proposition. Not only do you need a 4k TV, console, and capture card, but a solid computer to handle it all.

Installation is simple—you insert the card and tighten the screw. You can read our guide on how to build a PC if you’re unsure. There’s no additional power cable to install, as is the case with larger graphics cards.

Capturing Consoles

Once installed, you’re almost ready to get started! You’ll need to install the Windows-only driver, and the optional “AVerMedia Gaming Utility”. This utility shows you the device status and information, but it’s mainly used to configure the input resolution. You can configure the Extended Display Identification Data (EDID) metadata here, so if you’re not using the pass-through port you can still force a resolution that your console will “see”. This works well, but it really is a basic configuration tool.

For anything more advanced, you’ll need to use the included product keys to download CyberLink PowerDirector 15 for video editing. We gave this a quick go, and as a basic video editor it’s ok, but it’s not produced by AVerMedia. These two companies have partnered together to bundle PowerDirector in with the Live Gamer 4k. It takes some getting used to, but it’s a reasonable editor. For anything more serious, you may wish to upgrade to Adobe Premiere Pro, or Apple Final Cut Pro.

AVerMedia do however produce the fantastic RECentral streaming software. This works on Windows or Mac, but good luck finding a Mac driver for the Live Gamer 4k—it’s designed for Windows. Available to download for free, RECentral lets you stream, record, and edit in real-time. You can chroma key, prepare different scenes, mix audio, and upload in a lower quality than the recording. It’s a fantastic piece of software and unlocks the potential of the Live Gamer 4k. Other software packages are available, but RECentral does such a good job for the majority of tasks, that you’ll rarely need to look elsewhere.

Image Quality

When recording with RECentral, you can record into H.264 or H.265 codecs. These are very good at reducing file size, at the expense of image quality. They don’t ruin the image, but an uncompressed container does provide better results. H.264 or h.265 are the only sensible choices, however, as anything else consumes far too much storage space to be useful.

Image quality is amazing, as you’d expect. HDR content looks stunning, but you’ll still need an HDR capable 4k monitor such as the BenQ EW3270U to see your console in full quality.

If you have a strange combination of 4k capable console, reasonable gaming PC but no 4k monitor or television, then you can use the Live Gamer 4k to “fake it”. You can receive the 4k console input by forcing this card to set the correct EDID, as mentioned above. The HDMI pass-through won’t downscale the signal though, so you’ll have to view it through your computer. I don’t recommend doing this, but the option if you wanted to record 4k content without actually viewing it in 4k.

Similarly, this card won’t convert HDR to SDR, so you’ll still need an HDR capable monitor to really get the best out of your console, but you already knew that!

If you’d like to see what this can do in full 4k, then take a look at our 4k sample video below. The Live Gamer 4k captured all these from an Xbox One X.

Should You Stream in 4k with the Live Gamer 4k?

The Live Gamer 4k is a fantastic capture card and one we highly recommend. It is expensive, but for your money, you get a device that can capture any console on the market right now, alongside some excellent free software, and all from a company that has an extensive track record of great capture cards. The Live Gamer Ultra is the same thing but with a USB Type-C connector.

The only downside is the price and hardware requirements, but that shouldn’t be a surprise—anything 4k related is computationally and monetarily expensive, and when compared to the cost of all the other hardware you need, it’s almost a bargain. Besides, you could always use it to make money from YouTube.

AVerMedia GC573 Live Gamer 4K AVerMedia GC573 Live Gamer 4K Buy Now At Amazon $285.00

Thanks to AVerMedia, we’ve got a brand new Live Gamer 4k to giveaway! All you have to do to is enter our prize draw below.

  Enter the Competition!

AVerMedia Live Gamer 4K Giveaway

Read the full article: 4k HDR Streaming is Now a Thing, with the AVerMedia Live Gamer 4K (Review and Giveaway)

4k HDR Streaming is Now a Thing, with the AVerMedia Live Gamer 4K (Review and Giveaway) published first on http://droneseco.tumblr.com/

[thegloober]

Using graph database technology to tackle diabetes

More on innovation

Understanding more about diabetes is key to treating and preventing the disease. Germany’s DZD centre of diabetic research is using graph database technology from Neo4j to learn more about the illness. ZDNet spoke to DZD’s head of data and knowledge management, Dr Alexander Jarasch, to find out more.

ZDNet: Can you tell me about your organisation?

Jarasch: We are a non-profit organisation doing research on diabetes. We are not developing drugs but are interested in research into the prevention of diabetes and the treatment of diabetic patients.

We combine different entities or different disciplines, which means that in hospitals we are connecting basic research and adding models to it. And in this research we are using graph technology.

Here in the UK diabetes is massively on the increase, is it a similar story in Germany?

It is similar, as it is in the US. Roughly 10 percent of the population are diabetics. In children, it is mostly Type 1 diabetes and it was always assumed that it was the older people who had Type 2 diabetes. But it turned out that two thirds of the population with diabetes is of a working age. Diabetes is a critical disease for people of working age. Those with diabetes have less productivity, they are getting sick much earlier, and they have lots of complications like strokes or heart attacks. Obviously, this is an area where we are doing a lot of research.

So where does Neo4j’s software fit into this?

In biology or medicine, data is connected. You know that entities are connected — they are dependent on each other. The reason why we chose graph technology and Neo4j is because all the entities are connected.

SEE: Sensor’d enterprise: IoT, ML, and big data (ZDNet special report) | Download the report as a PDF (TechRepublic)

And we have our data in various relational databases but we wanted to build a new layer on top of these different datasets or databases in order to gain a much wider knowledge of diabetes and to see the metabolic disease from many different perspectives simultaneously.

What particular aspects of diabetes are you looking at?

We are connecting patients’ data, so we have prevention and lifestyle intervention data from the clinics. We have bio-samples — samples of blood, urine, liver samples, kidney samples and things like that. Then we can measure specific parameters and animal models like mice or pre-diabetic pigs. Then we have all the basic research — genomics, lipidomics and so on. So it’s all kinds of research around specific molecule classes.

You obviously collect a lot of data covering a lot of areas. How do you bring this down into a form that you can use?

We started with Neo4j about one year ago and we tried to connect these different disciplines — hospitals, basic research, animal models and so on. We tried to connect them on a very simple data model that is valid for all the different disciplines and different locations and we tried to learn from these different techniques together in a new way. Because nowadays one discipline is not sufficient anymore to answer a biomedical question.

Dr Alexander Jarasch

Photo: DZD

What area do you find the most interesting?

Personally, I think the biomarker findings are the most interesting. You can use graph technology and very modern machine-learning techniques to provide better prevention or treatments for diabetic patients. That���s what’s driving me.

The second point — what I find really interesting — is that with graph technology you can not only connect data, but when I think about our medical doctors or researchers that are not computer scientists, they find it much easier to look at the data models. That’s because after some short practice they are able to decipher the data. With graph technology it’s very easy to visualise the data. We use the visualisation browser of Neo4j to visualise the data and spot the areas that are connected to each other. Users like it because it’s so intuitive.

Are there other aspects that you find particularly useful?

Absolutely. Particularly when we have these different data points from all the different disciplines. We can ask the graph: “Are any of these nodes connected to these different nodes?”

That’s very interesting, because some of these relationships and connections we may have seen before or not. In some cases it’s like linking hundreds and hundreds of Excel sheets or relational databases to it.

On the other hand, there are areas where we do not see any connections of the data, but with graph technology it is so easy to connect them and find the connections or relations between them.

And this is what makes it easy because so many graph algorithms are already ready to use, and you can easily use them with [Neo4j] APOC Libraries or different cipher queries.

What other areas can you use it for?

Besides our organisation there are five other German organisations studying cancer, Alzheimer’s, infectious diseases, lung diseases and so on. And there are already connections between these different diseases. And this is where you find connections between Alzheimer’s and diabetes. There are also connections between cancer and diabetes.

We want to also study where a disease comes from. Where do these complications with diabetes come from and are they related to Alzheimer’s and other complications?

For this we develop a small prototype using natural languages processing and this is also a very interesting topic because we have a public database of peer-reviewed articles. There are over 30 million scientific items from different publications there. Of course, nobody in the world can read all this — you can’t be up-to-date every day or every week. So, we try to analyse those texts according to our specific, bio-medical questions.

SEE: Exomedicine arrives: How labs in space could pave the way for healthcare breakthroughs on Earth (cover story PDF)

We want to analyse these texts automatically with natural language processing and we want to learn some specific words or key words like “gene”. Is there a gene called ABC co-appearing in lots of texts linked with diabetes? Or are there many genes that are co-mentioned with cancer and diabetes?

When we learn from these texts automatically, we can feed them into our graph for genes and proteins and then we can write a pipeline to study questions like: “Is this gene related to some data that we have in our organisation?”

We also connect public data with data that is in our organisation. Sometimes, or many times, this information is protected by the GDPR so we have patient data that we can’t make public but within our organisation we can link this data via graph technology.

This is a lot of information. Do you have any idea of the size of the files you are dealing with?

That’s a tricky question. The smallest datasets are one thing but we can go to our large files, such as high-resolution microscopies, where one dataset is between 40 and 200 GB, and we have hundreds or thousands of them.

Analytics in the name of medicine: Graph database can show the links and pathways of millions of apparently unrelated details.

Photo: DZD

More on technology in scientific research

CSIRO engaging Australians for energy research

With energy a hot topic in Australia, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is looking for a better way forward for providers and consumers.

Singapore university puts up $18.1M to help students, researchers create startups

National University of Singapore (NUS) has pledged S$25 million (US$18.18 million) over five years to co-create 250 tech startups with its graduate students and research staff.

How edge computing transformed marine biology research at Oregon State University

With the global Internet of Things (IoT) market expected to exceed $721bn by 2023, many organizations are going to be searching for a way to process all of their IoT data quickly, and in a manner that allows them to derive real business value.

Google can now search for datasets. First research, then the world?

What used to be the realm of researchers and geeks is now the bread and butter of an ever-growing array of professionals, organisations, and tools, not to mention self-service enthusiasts.

Google DeepMind founder Demis Hassabis: Three truths about AI (TechRepublic)

One of the creators of the AI research company famed for building the pioneering AlphaGo AI spells out the technology’s impact and future development.

Garvan Institute gets new supercomputer for genomic research

The Garvan Institute of Medical Research has announced that it will be receiving a new high-performance computing (HPC) system to support genomic research and analysis.

Scientists create most powerful indoor magnetic field, blow up own lab (CNET)

Watch as the newly built instrument goes BANG, after generating a magnetic field strength of 1,200 teslas.

Source: https://bloghyped.com/using-graph-database-technology-to-tackle-diabetes/

[moremoxe-blog]

The Power of Being “Integrative”

By Margaret A. Zorrilla-Cortez, PR Intern.

Even though the word “creative” is not explicit on PR job titles, it is definitely embedded within its purpose as a tool. Creativity is not often perceived on PR pieces. Perhaps, it is not determined by a logo, typography or color palette. Storytelling is what truly defines creativity behind PR. The idea is to infatuate the reader through content, making it worthy of their time. It should be engaging and valuable. It should provoke feelings like passion, admiration and/or inspiration no matter the topic. Even products of basic necessity like body wash could develop the most creative ideas.

Writing is the primary vehicle when pitching and delivering the story but does it really stop there? The majority of successful PR campaigns are an integration of all areas within an Advertising or PR agency. For example, Old Spice body wash went viral after a week of releasing their campaign “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” in July 2010.[2]

Old Spice | The Man Your Man Could Smell Like

The creator of this sexy, fun and well-produced campaign was Wieden + Kennedy, an advertising agency that transformed a brand recognized by 73-years old to the most engaging 30 seconds with “the man of your dreams.” Notice the commercial wasn’t even targeted to men specifically but to their ladies. This is how they pitched a second campaign for Old Spice. Short and sweet, with sample bites of the final product:

Isaiah Mustafa is the face (and body) of Old Spice, who captivated the audience through his confidence and charm — mostly personality traits, of course — and who obviously, had to appear on the second campaign. This is how those “stills” turned out:

Old Spice | Questions

Simple products can present many opportunities for thinking outside the box. At Moxē, cleaning and pest control can certainly become interesting topics and even entrepreneurial sources of inspiration. Services like these and SoFi, a personal finance company, can certainly encounter opportunities where to explore new trends like the popular “tiny kitchens.” Yes, literally, miniature kitchens. A concept SoFi chose to demonstrate that personal loans for home improvement projects can totally be accessible and “...how much better a life-sized version might look.”[1]

SoFi |  Tiny Kitchen Makeover

Butterbar, a viral marketing agency, was the creator of this piece and a second video called “Med School in 2 Minutes” focused on student loans, which started building SoFi’s social media presence and following. Christine Zalocha, Director of Content and Social Strategy at SoFi, explained “If you start with the goal of entertaining people first, then audiences are incredibly receptive to the message you are trying to deliver."[1] Once again the integration factor comes into play. It wasn’t only a PR approach or a cute ad. It was an entire well-produced campaign transferred to social media in order to “... surprise and delight our potential members and then educate them about what we have to offer,”[1] Zalocha stated. And it was indeed a creative way to offer a financial service.

Besides the entertainment additive, there are many other ingredients that can help boost creativity no matter the subject:

Planning. Creativity involves lots of planning. In fact, “planners remain the most sought-after type of creative talent...”[4] according to Arun Sudhaman, CEO and editor-in-chief at The Holmes Report. David Gallagher, chairman of PR firm Ketchum London and CEO of Ketchum Europe, also supports these results by explaining that clients expect two different skill sets: “They want people who can identify insights and tell compelling stories across paid, earned, shared and owned media. But they also want people who can apply an uncommon perspective and help them connect the dots.”[5]

Pretending more. Certainly, imagination comes into play when creating something new out of existing things. Pretend you are the reader or journalist. What would interest you more than anything? “Think beyond what you perceive. Is that stick a stick? No, it’s a magical wand that turns rooms into butterflies”[3]

Laugh, cry or feel frightened. Helen Campbell, Founder of Campbell Brown PR, confirms that “if you can barely interview your case study for giggling or holding back tears then either you are over-emotional or you have a great story on your hands”[5] Are the words transporting you somewhere else? How does it feel to be there?

Collaboration. The magic happens when all team members share their creative juices and mix them up. Today, the word “integrative” is becoming more and more popular among agencies because a campaign that transfers consistently throughout several medias, will most likely succeed when delivering the message and aiming its purpose.

One thing is for sure, there IS creativity in PR — without a doubt. It is only a matter of feeling it and nurturing it, making it fun and encouraging collaboration across all departments.

[1]Beltrone, G. (2018, April 3). It’s Incredibly Satisfying to Watch This Miniature, Crappy Kitchen Get Remodeled. AdWeek. Retrieved from adweek.com/brand-marketing/its-incredibly-satisfying-to-watch-this-miniature-crappy-kitchen-get-remodeled/

[2]Ciarallo, J. (2010, July 15). PR Is ‘Winning’ Social Media, That’s Why We Created the Old Spice Campaign…Oh, Wait. AdWeek. Retrieved from adweek.com/digital/pr-is-winning-social-media-thats-why-we-created-the-old-spice-campaign-oh-wait/Month day, 2018

[3]Pollard, C. (2017, December 06). Three Steps to Getting More Creative with Your PR. Huffington Post. Retrieved from huffingtonpost.com/catriona-pollard/three-steps-to-getting-mo_b_11048636.html

[4]Sudhaman, A. (2017, December 11). Creativity in PR 2017: The Rise of the Creative Director. The Holmes Report. Retrieved from holmesreport.com/long-reads/article/creativity-in-pr-2017-the-rise-of-the-creative-director

[5](2014, October 16). How to Make PR More Creative. PR Moment. Retrieved from prmoment.com/category/pr-insight/how-to-make-pr-more-creative

[char27martin]

Literary Agent Interview: Claire Draper, InkWell Management

Claire Draper is a new literary agent at InkWell Management. She’s studied Queer Diversity in Children’s Literature at New York University. Before becoming an agent, she interned at Rare Bird Lit, InkWell Management and the Children’s Book Council. This Southern California native now lives in Brooklyn. She enjoys young adult fiction, graphic novels and the latest collection of feminist essays. She is seeking diverse novels with strong LGBTQIA representation.

How did you become an agent?

I’ve wanted to be a part of books for years, so my intention with going to college was to eventually be a part of publishing. I interned at InkWell Management while studying Diversity in Children’s Literature at NYU, and ended up loving InkWell so much that when it was time join publishing long term, I came back to the place that had taught me so much. Then, I signed my first client a little over a year later from a #PitMad entry, and officially became an agent.

What’s something you’ve sold that comes out now/soon that you’re excited about?

Being as new to agent-ing as I am, I haven’t sold anything yet, but my clients have some projects in the pipeline that I can’t wait for the world to see.

Are you open for submissions? If so help writers understand what kind of fiction and nonfiction projects you take queries for.

I am open to submissions! Ultimately, I am really looking for authors who are diverse with stories that are as dynamic as the world we live in. No matter the genre (sci-fi, fantasy, contemporary, romance), we need more YA and graphic novels that tell stories we haven’t heard with voices that have been pushed aside. I want more stories where a main character is coping with their mental health and in addition to having an adventurous storyline. Just tell me a story I haven’t heard before from a point-of-view I haven’t heard it from. On the nonfiction side, the same thing goes, but I am more specifically looking for feminist memoirs/essay collections. And I am also a sucker for poetry.

Besides “good writing,” what are you looking for right now and not getting?

I always have more interest when it’s a good opening. Tell me you’ve done your research by opening with how you found me and why I stuck out to you as someone worth querying. And ultimately, I am looking for more queer stories and more mental health stories. Those to me are a big part of my life, and I really want to read more manuscripts with characters that have these as a part of their story.

Guide to Literary Agents 2018

What are you tired of seeing?

I am not quite a fan of stories where the diversity is all in the background or existing in secondary characters. Of course, it needs to be in those places, but I really want to see it in the main character and their story line.

What makes a manuscript stand out on a first read?

Tugging on my heart strings always stands out to me over anything else. If it’s not making me sob or want to throw the book, it’s not pulling at my emotions enough.

What do many emerging novelists often get wrong and how can they correct it?

Revising. As has been said before by many greater than myself, writing is mostly revising. You’re going to have to do a lot of revising in the editorial process both with your agent and your editor, so get comfortable doing it on your own first. The draft you send out to agents should be your best foot forward and much like writing an essay for a teacher, reading, rereading, and writing multiple drafts is incredibly important to creating your best work.

Do you have any tips for querying authors? 

Do your research. There’s nothing more flattering than someone who took the time to find out that their writing and my taste really align. And proofread! If your query letter isn’t beautifully written, I can’t be sure that your manuscript will be either.

What things should writers avoid when sending you submissions?

In the same way you wouldn’t want a form rejection, don’t send a form query. Some of the details can be the same (bio, summary of the manuscript) but catering your letter to each agent will go a long way towards getting your query read. You’ve spent a lot of time on your manuscript; spend a lot of time on your query letter, as it is a representation of you and your work.

What genres or types of novels are selling the most?

Contemporary stories dealing with activism in some way and dark fantasy with strong female protagonists are doing really well in terms of what people are reading.

What markets do you believe are oversaturated or are not selling as well?

I think we’re stepping away from the dystopian stories, just because it’s already been done so well.

What misconceptions do you think people have about agents?

I think people tend not to realize how important an agent is to your writing career. Agents want you to succeed and are going to their best to get you there. Once the book is sold to an editor, there’s still tons of work to be done, even long after the book is published.

What questions should an author ask an agent when they call to offer representation?

How do they envision pitching your book? What imprints do they have in mind for submitting your book? What revisions do they want you to make to your book before it goes to editors? They should have a vision for your book and your career if they’re serious about taking you on as a client.

Do you have a dream client?

My dream client (though I already have two dream clients) would be one where their work accomplishes more than just creating entertainment for the reader, but also changes the world, if even just a little bit.

Will you be at any upcoming writers conferences where writers can meet and pitch you?

I’ll be at the Writer’s Digest Conference here in NYC this August, but am open to doing other conferences this year.

New Literary Agent Alert: Kieryn Ziegler of Dystel, Goderich & Bourret

Is there something personal about you writers would be surprised to know?

I’m pretty much an open book, but most people are interested to hear that I love crafting in my free time. If there’s a how-to article on Pinterest, I’ve already read it and made it.

And finally, any last piece of advice for writers seeking an agent?

I can’t say this enough but do your research and proofread are the big ones. But also try to get your work published in magazines or other small publications. Agents want to know that your work has been read and received well by other people. It bodes well for trying to get an editor to love your work as much as they do, if another publication liked your work. Try getting short stories published elsewhere in the process of trying to find an agent would be my last bit of advice.

How to Submit: submissions@inkwellmanagement.com

In the body of your email, please include a query letter and a short writing sample (1-2 chapters). Emails with large attachments will be discarded. We currently accept submissions in all genres except screenplays. Due to the volume of queries we receive, we may not be able to respond to your query. If we are interested in reading more, we will respond within two months.

The post Literary Agent Interview: Claire Draper, InkWell Management appeared first on WritersDigest.com.

from Writing Editor Blogs – WritersDigest.com http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/guide-to-literary-agents/literary-agent/literary-agent-interview-claire-draper-inkwell-management

[sierralikethemountainsandmi-blog]

Johnlock

(This is my first time writing fanfic, please feel free to leave any comments or constructive criticism) 

Click click click clatter clack click.

Sherlock looked up from the blood cells under his microscope and gazed at John, across the flat in the sitting area, typing away furiously at his computer. He hoped he was alright. Ever since Mary left, on that fateful night when Sherlock had finally returned from his long, hard pursuit to destroy every trace of Jim Moriarty, John had seemed distant, angry. He supposed it was his fault. If Sherlock hadn’t decided to show up that night, John would have proposed, and started a new life, without a highly-functioning-sociopath to mess it all up. Neither of them had brought up that night in the three months since. Neither had they mentioned the fateful day over two years ago. With a frown upon his long, heavily-cheekboned face, he decided to make a small attempt at conversation.

“What are you writing?” He asked, in a sort of bored tone of voice, turning back to his work.

“The Adventure of Thor Bridge.” A short pause. “Can’t think of a more original title at this exact moment. You recall the case?”

“Yes, the one where that woman shot the maid that her husband was sleeping with. Quite simple, really. Boring. Matches your title.” He could hear John sigh all the way in the kitchen, and could almost feel him rolling his eyes. A small smile tickled the edges of his lips. The laptop closed with a snap, and Sherlock felt John’s footsteps behind him as he walked over to the fridge and opened it.

“Really, Sherlock?” he snapped, exasperated.

“What?” he asked, looking up from the microscope.

“I thought I told you to buy more milk,” John said, shaking the empty carton.

Sherlock felt his heart sink just a little bit. He hated letting John down, even about the smallest things. For some reason it always made him think of the fall, and that day at the cemetery, when John had asked for just one more miracle, but still had to wait those two long years. “I was busy,” he said, trying to remain nonchalant.

“With what? What are you doing with all that blood, anyway?”

“Trying to find a simpler way to extract DNA samples,” Sherlock replied, glad that John at least found the situation only a slight nuisance. Besides, this experiment could very possibly revolutionize the art of detection.

“Huh,” John said. After a long silence, he spoke another word. “Dinner?”

“Starving.” He stood up the moment the word left John’s lips, and straightened a few things laying on the kitchen table as John walked away to grab his coat. Once he was sure he could pick up the experiment where he left off, Sherlock strode quickly to the coat rack. He reached it at the exact same moment as John. He reached under John’s outstretched arm, but with too much momentum. With a soft bump, he slid into a sort of awkward half-hug, with his lips about an inch or two from John’s. Both men froze. Sherlock couldn’t help but glance at John’s lips. He looked away quickly, but found his gaze locked deep in John’s eyes. They were a dark blueish grey, like the Thames just past sunset, before the stars made their twinkling cliche appearance, so calm and majestic and stoic.

“Uh,” John said, looking away and clearing his throat, “So, uh, where do you want to go tonight?” He took his coat from the hook and backed away a few steps. Had he ever seen Sherlock’s eyes so close before? They were a vivid greenish blue, like those pictures of nebulas he had found in a magazine that morning, so brilliant and strange and unreal.

“Your pick,” said Sherlock, looking away quickly and wrapping his coat around himself. Why were tears pricking his eyes? Stop it, stop it, stop it.

“Ok.” There was a long, awkward pause. John cleared his throat again, and said: “Why don’t we go to that place we were at during our first case? Before we went chasing that cab?”

Sherlock smiled faintly, and turned to face John, having resumed his untouchable sociopath facade. “Yes, where I proved your limp truly was psychosomatic.”

John rolled his eyes at the memory, then looked up at Sherlock, with a sort of sly half-smile. Why was he doing that?

After an awkward, silent cab ride, they arrived at the restaurant. Sherlock immediately swept to the table where they had sat during that first case, where John had saved him the first time.

“And how are you two gentlemen tonight?,” a waiter said jovially. Without waiting for an answer, he continued with his overly enthusiastic jabber. “Oh, let’s put a candle there, more romantic.”

“What-- We’re not--” John stammered, his cheeks turning ever so slightly red.

“Oh, come off it, John, let him have his fun,” Sherlock found himself saying. Somehow, he didn’t want to hear the words that always followed that stammering sentence that John declared so often. The waiter lit the candle, handed them both menus, and slipped away to another table, a man and a woman, married, and a long time, judging by--

He stopped himself. Not tonight. No deductions. Just him and John. Tonight he would try to fix what he broke-- John’s normal life. He stared at the candle on the table. Such a small little item that seemed to make all the difference. How could a little string, dipped in wax and set afire, cause such a difference in the chemistry of a situation?

John watched Sherlock, wondering what was happening in his brain just that moment. He couldn’t help but keep flashing back to that moment on the stairwell. How Sherlock’s eyes, for that brief, tiny moment, flitted downward, toward his lips. Could it be? Did Sherlock, the unfeeling, untouchable sociopath, have feelings… for him? Even after abandoning him for two years? Maybe tonight he would finally have the courage to ask him why he left, and why for so long. Now more than ever, he knew it had to be a good reason, something serious.

“So what will you be having?” Sherlock asked, suddenly very interested in his menu.

“Probably the normal, toasted sandwich and tomato soup with chips,” John replied, carefully avoiding Sherlock’s eyes.

“Perhaps I’ll try it tonight,” Sherlock said loftily.

“Okay,” John murmured, unsure of how to reply, but not wanting to leave his thought unanswered. Not that he wasn’t used to it. There were many a day where John would leave the flat on some errand, with Sherlock babbling about something or other to do with his experiments or cases, and come home with him still jabbering on and on. To be perfectly honest, John found it endearing and almost adorable when Sherlock got so wrapped up in something like that.

“Can I take your orders?” the waiter asked, breaking the two of them from their thoughts.

“Ah, yes, I’ll have the toasted sandwich with soup and chips,” John answered quickly.

“I’ll have the same,” Sherlock declared, snapping his menu shut and handing it over with that tight, forced smile that he always gave when he was in any sort of remotely social situation.

“And to drink?”

“Shandy, please.”

“I’ll have the same.”

The waiter wrote down their orders, nodded, and disappeared into the kitchen. The two men sat there for a moment, pondering what to say.

“How’s your, uh, DNA thing coming?” John asked.

“Not very well, actually. Whoever came up with the current method was quite smart, and as I have a very limited education in the field, I’m afraid I won’t find anything. But, Mrs. Hudson is quite fed up with me shooting at the wall, so I suppose it’s a welcome alternative.” They both smiled at the meager joke.

After dinner, they found themselves strolling down a bike path that ran along the Thames. Despite the late hour, they showed no intention of heading home yet. The sun had set, but the stars had not yet made an appearance. John sat on a park bench overlooking the river, and Sherlock placed himself next to him.

“Beautiful, isn’t it,” John said softly, in an attempt to coax a conversation out of Sherlock.

“Yes, I suppose so,” Sherlock found himself saying, although he didn’t believe much in beauty. All relative. But he wanted to relate with John just then, so he let the technicality pass by unnoticed. “And calm, and majestic, and stoic.”

“Almost sounds like you’re describing a person,” John commented, laughing lightly. Sherlock smiled, a barely noticeable smile. But John noticed.

“What is it?”

“Oh, nothing. You know how my brain works, a million miles a minute,” Sherlock murmured, glancing down and away from John.

“Actually, I don’t really know how your brain works. You do a very good job of hiding it.” He looked at Sherlock with those eyes that perfectly matched the Thames at that very moment. “Maybe you could try to explain. How about we start with what’s on your mind right now.”

“Oh, many things,” Sherlock replied quickly. Too quickly. He cleared his throat. “Um, well, actually, just one thing, ah…”

“Your DNA experiment?”

“Oh dear god, no, boring, tedious, a terrible alternative to working a case, or even shooting that damned wall. No, not that.” For a few seconds, they said nothing. A few stars began to peek out of the sky, throwing little pinpoints of light onto the Thames. John couldn’t help but recall those pictures of nebulas he’d been reading about earlier that morning, vivid green and blue. Like Sherlock’s eyes.

“Then what is on your mind?” he inquired softly. Sherlock didn’t answer.

“What was that article you were reading this morning?” he asked instead.

“Oh, nothing of real importance. Just something about nebulas, I was mostly looking at the pictures, to be perfectly honest. They’re incredible, all green and blue and brilliant and strange and unreal. It’s odd to think that all that is out there, when all we can see from here are little dots.”

“Well… I don’t know much about the solar system and all that-- what did you call it, unreal?-- stuff, but… well, I’d say these stars are… quite nice, and… rather… beautiful, at least to my eyes, I don’t know about--”

“Yes,” John whispered, not looking away from Sherlock, “they are beautiful.” Sherlock lowered his gaze from the sky to John. “What else do you find beautiful in the world?”

Still looking into John’s eyes, he said “the Thames at twilight, just after the sun has set, but before the stars come out, when it’s that deep, unbroken greyish blue. When the river could be described like a person. Someone who is… calm, and majestic, and stoic, and… and brave, and kind, and wise… someone who… who makes you feel whole. Who makes you feel like the arsehole you are, but in a… in a positive way, if you know what I mean, where you want to fix it for… for him.”

Neither of them moved or spoke for a long moment.

“Maybe… maybe that’s why I like the nebulas,” John began, “because they make me think of someone… someone who… is brilliant, and strange, and unreal… and amazing, and incredible, and selfless… and I guess makes you want to scream sometimes, whether it’s because you want to strangle them or kiss them… but I guess mostly both, the former due to the latter, most often… maybe.” They stared at each other, both wondering if he had screwed up, if he had said something wrong, if the other had taken his monologue the wrong way. Sherlock was the first to speak.

“John…”

“Sherlock, I don’t know if you’ve been avoiding the topic on purpose, but I have to know,” John said shakily, fiddling with his hands, “Why did you leave me? And for so… for so god damned long… why? Why did you…” Despite his great efforts to remain strong, and stoic, and majestic, and calm, John found himself crying, tears slipping down his cheeks like a stream. Before he knew what was happening, Sherlock’s arms were wrapped around him, with one hand resting protectively on the nape of his neck, and the other rubbing his back gently.

“I didn’t want to,” he heard Sherlock say, the words rumbling through his chest, “I didn’t… I didn’t have a choice, I… Moriarty, he… he had guns trained on… on you, and Mrs. Hudson, and Lestrade… I… I couldn’t put you in danger. I couldn’t do it. Not like this. I… My only regret is not being able to come home sooner.” John could feel Sherlock fighting tears, could feel him reliving whatever it was he had gone through during those two years where he had tried to move on, to be normal, but hated every second of it. He lifted his head, and looked deep into Sherlock’s eyes. He could see how vulnerable he was just then, how uncomfortable and afraid and every emotion Sherlock had never dared to express since Redbeard all those years and years ago.

“Come on,” John whispered, lifting his head, “Let’s go ho--”

Sherlock leaned down and planted his lips firmly on John’s. For a moment, John felt himself tensing up before melting into Sherlock’s embrace. He laced his arms around the tall man’s waist, and pulled him in closer, tighter. For a long moment, they stayed there, faces pressed together, bodies twined together, longings fulfilled together. John pulled his head away first. They stared at each other for a long time, John’s face full of shock, Sherlock’s with a light smirk. All of a sudden, John’s shocked expression melted into a relieved smile.

“Thank God,” he breathed, “I always hoped, but… I never… who would’ve thought…”

“If you had ever observed,” Sherlock interrupted softly, “you would have realized that nearly everyone around us knew it was going to happen.”

John paused for a moment, remembering all their past cases, and all the times he’d told those lies, “not a couple”, or “not gay”. He smiled.

“Yes. Yes, I suppose you’re right.” They laughed, and stood.

“Let’s go home,” Sherlock suggested.

“Yes,” John agreed, “Let’s.”

(Sorry it’s so long, thanks for reading!) 

[seo1code-blog]

How To Generate 300,000 Unique Blog Visitors Per Month

Alright, so you’ve taken the plunge and decided to start your own website. Love it.

It shows that you’re serious about your business. You may have even made some financial investments, via design or web hosting.

Whatever it is, just know that the time you’re putting in, and the money you’ve spent will come back to you.

Now that the pep talk is out of the way, we need to face certain realities.

YOU HAVE NO VISITORS.

I’m sure it’s no secret to you guys how crucial web traffic is if you want to grow your business.

Despite all of your hard efforts, something just isn’t clicking. You don’t have to feel alone.

Many bloggers just starting out can barely crack 100 visitors a day, let alone thousands.

As a fellow blogger, I know EXACTLY how you guys feel because I was once there. There is no secret formula. You just need a strategy.

Here’s the overview of my users in 2016 for TwelveSkip.com. See how I’ve consistently generated 300,000+ users per month throughout the year?

Here’s what you can do to generate a big amount of traffic in no time:

1. Invest in social media marketing

I’ve learned that every social media channel is different. Some networks may work for you while others may not.

While I use every major social media network myself, I choose to focus on two channels – Facebook Groups and Pinterest. I did invest in other social networks too but I figured that only these two work well for me, mostly because of my niche.

Check out this stat from 2016: (see how Pinterest and Facebook bring the most social traffic?)

In Pinterest, most of my own pins generate thousands of repins. Some of them get over 10,000 repins. My Pinterest generates over 900,000 views per month. In Facebook, I started a group where bloggers help promote each other. Now it has over 7,000 members and 100+ bloggers active daily.

Image Source: Pinterest

How did I do this? Besides reading a lot of tutorials, I also followed some successful people and observed how they use social media. Like they say, learning from the best is always one of the best methods to generate ideas and techniques.

Lesson here? Be active on all social media by using a scheduling tool (to save time) but only focus on those that work well for your niche. Determine where your target audience hangs out the most. Each network works differently so research for tutorials on how to promote on each social network effectively. Lastly, watch how your competitors use social media.

Here’s what I’ve noticed:

Pinterest works well for those who are in the creative industry (bloggers, fashion, makeup, weddings). Most people use Pinterest to search and curate ideas.

Facebook works well for those who are in the entertainment industry. The audience here usually likes and/or shares content that sparks emotion.

Instagram works well for those who are in the creative industry as well. It’s similar to Pinterest but you share your own photos and you need to be active daily in order to make it work well for you.

Here are some useful tutorials: Generate Traffic from Pinterest, Driving More Facebook Traffic, How to Grow Followers on Instagram

Social media should be a part of your daily marketing and that is a non-negotiable – at least until you are able to build up a big enough following.

2. Provide freebies that your target market craves

People think that in order to sell, that making money must be their entire focus.  Of course, you want to make money.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t throw out a free nugget of wisdom every so often for your new or loyal visitors.

People LOVE free. If you keep churning out free content that is relevant, you create trust with your visitors. The more they trust you, the more often they will visit your site, and eventually purchase whatever product or service you are selling.

I use this tactic all the time and it works.

In my blog post, 100+ Blog Post Title Templates That Grab Attention, I break down the simple, yet effective way to create catchy blog titles. Here’s an example:

This article really generated a lot of positive feedback because, not only did I write about what works and what doesn’t, but I also provide over 100 title templates for them.

People need information but they don’t necessarily have a lot of time to implement the new information they are absorbing.

This step-by-step formula made it easy for people to create powerful titles, without having to waste precious brain power to create them.

This gives entrepreneurs more time to focus on their business, rather than small details that can often drive people crazy.

What do I get in return? I’ve been racking up relevant backlinks and email subscribers. More backlinks = better search rankings = more traffic = more email subscribers.

This is Google GOLD!

3. Prioritize email list building

Imagine, I started prioritizing this method after about a year of blogging and I really wish I started earlier than that.

As of 2017, here’s my current number of subscribers – 100K!

It does bring a decent amount of website traffic, and no it’s really not as hard as you think.

Here are the methods I use to generate subscribers:

Offer an incentive. Remember, people love free stuff. So offer them something they crave in exchange for their emails.

Place your opt-in in multiple places. Create several catchy opt-ins and place them somewhere visible on your website. This can be done via pop-ups, top bar, bottom right or within your blog posts.

Make it easy to subscribe. Remember, you want to make people’s lives easier. Only request 1 or 2 pieces of information (email and name).

Take advantage of your most popular blog posts. This is actually the most effective method for generating subscribers. 50% of my subscribers come from my most popular blog posts. Check your most popular pages via Google Analytics and offer freebies that are relevant to the current article. For example, you’re offering advice on how to write a catchy title, create a template for them with sample title templates.

You can check out my website (TwelveSkip.com) and see how I place my opt-in forms. There is one on the top, there is one pop up, some within my blog posts and at the bottom of every blog post.

Here’s an example post:

Encourage your readers to subscribe by using beautiful visuals and an effective call to action button. Let them know exactly what they’re getting.

4. Make your content easy to read

Remember, one of your goals is to make a good impression (to keep your visitors coming back).

You want people to remember that your content is easy to follow or scan. You don’t want to scare them off with lengthy, uninterrupted text.

Organize your content in an easy-to-follow format. This includes everything from having images that are big and clear, to making sure your content is easy to read.

Here’s what I do:

Keep your paragraphs short. I like to break up my paragraphs, so users don’t get bogged down by too many words. When you break up the paragraphs, users can read a lot faster. This is particularly useful for articles, which are over 1,000 words.

Use lists. Not only does it make your content look more appealing but it also give your readers a visual break.

Use readable fonts. Use fonts that are easy to read. I recommend using commonly-used ones such as Arial, Georgia, Times New Roman or Trebuchet MS. Do not use less than 12px in size.

Use visual aids. Keep your readers’ attention and make reading a lot more enjoyable with relevant and appealing visuals.

5. Infuse SEO

SEO has always been my most favorite method for driving website traffic. Here’s a stat from Google Analytics. In 2016, about 70% of my visitors came from search engines. Amazing, right?

Let’s take a look at this example post with over 1.8 million views:

When you type “Twitter Header” or “Twitter Cover” on most search engines, you will see that my The New Twitter Header Dimensions + Templates Included (2017) post is on the first page of the Google search.

Why? Not only is it useful, but it’s also optimized for search engines.

See how I use long tail keywords in the post title itself? Instead of just using “Twitter Cover Dimension”, I added “NEW” and “2017” because I know Twitter keeps changing their layout, and people would always search for the latest and most updated template.

Here are some other methods I use to get better search rankings:

Generate backlinks. In order to generate backlinks, create useful content, provide freebies and link to authority websites. Be active on promoting your content by spreading out on social media, engage with other bloggers within your industry, and guest post for high-quality blogs.

Use keywords effectively. Determine what keywords you need to use by defining your target market’s wants and needs, and by watching your competitors. Here’s a good guide for you.

Improve user experience. One of your goals is to get visitors to stay longer on your website and decrease your bounce rate. How? Make your website responsive (mobile friendly). Use a reliable web hosting company. Remember, your website’s speed impacts search ranking so be sure to choose the right web hosting for you. Make your website easy to navigate and easy to scan (ask yourself: when you go to your website, do you immediately understand what it’s all about?)

Apply on-page SEO methods. I optimize my content for search engines by using SEO-friendly URLs, linking to authority websites, using ALT tags on images, removing duplicate content, optimizing meta tags, using headings and doing internal links effectively.

Wrapping up

You may be feeling all alone when it comes to increasing the traffic of your website. But I promise you that if you start implementing these tips, you will experience massive amounts of growth in no time!

What are your favorite ways to increase traffic? Time to share!

Guest Author: Pauline Cabrera is a digital strategist based in Toronto, Ontario. She helps bloggers & businesses get noticed online using effective internet marketing strategies combined with web design, SEO + email marketing.