Waching daily Apr 26 2018

Bibliophiles of the internet, my name's Adriana and today I'm here to attempt to answer the question of

whether "Emergency Contact" by Mary H.K. Choi is worth the hype or not.

To be fair, that is a *completely* subjective question on every possible level.

But, y'know, maybe the things that make me tick are the same things that make you tick.

So really, we're all just out here doing our best.

"Emergency Contact" is a YA contemporary story about a Korean-American teenager named Penny,

who is starting her first year of college in Austin, Texas.

She's extremely introverted and anti-social. She's studying to become a writer,

but she doesn't really know her way around people, and her roommates are trying to force her to deal with that.

The other POV character is Sam, who lives below the poverty line ever since his alcoholic mother

kicked him out of their mobile home and after he ran into alcohol issues himself with his ex.

And now he works in—and lives above—this kitschy little off-campus coffee shop.

As you might have guessed, Sam and Penny run into each other at the coffee shop. It's extremely awkward,

and they only meet each other again when Sam finds himself having a panic attack in public.

After that, Penny puts her number in his phone so that he can call her if he ever finds himself alone

and in trouble again, and from there an unexpectedly intimate text friendship blossoms.

Let's start with the positive stuff, because while there's good things to point out,

I think that's gonna be the shorter portion of this video.

First off, to back to that dynamic of text messaging, I thought that element was relatively successful,

because what Sam and Penny have is so easy and honest.

For whatever reason, they're able to let their guards down when they're on their phones,

and there's no rhyme or reason to their discussions, either.

They're kind of just throwing random thoughts and questions into the void and seeing what sticks,

and luckily between them there's no judgment.

I think that element is what draws a lot of people to this story specifically, and I think it's something many of us

entering that first phase of adulthood can relate to,

because we maintain and build a lot of our important relationships through our phones.

And the story does a fairly good job of exploring how when you maintain these virtual relationships,

you have to strike a balance between the urge to carefully cultivate yourself

and trying to leave space to be vulnerable and expose your truth.

Admittedly, I could've used even *more* of that text messaging element.

Another detail I enjoyed was how Penny and Sam are both unironically pursuing the arts.

It's really cool to see an Asian-American character, especially, unabashedly chasing her dream of becoming a writer.

And what's more, she's not facing any push-back, her mother is in full support of her goals,

and for the level she's at, she is finding success. It's a non-issue in her life.

Sam is also an artist. He's an aspiring film maker, with an interest in documentaries.

And even though he doesn't have the privileges or the access to resources that a lot of other students do,

he's still out there trying to show the world the way it is.

And neither of these characters are stressing about whether they'll have successful careers.

They're just trying to learn as much as they can about their craft.

On a related note, I also really enjoyed the parallels drawn between

Penny's developing short story and her own life.

It's really fascinating *and* realistic to see the direct connection Penny's experiences have with her writing process.

Because sometimes when you have a personal breakthrough, you have a breakthrough on the page.

Sometimes you channel *your* conflict into the energy of the draft.

And sometimes you're going about your day-to-day life and you figure out that thing that's been blocking you,

and that switch flips just like that.

So it was really great to be able to actually read the drafts of her story as it takes shape.

And in fact, sometimes I was maybe more invested in the drafts of her story than I was in her actual life.

That's probably it as far as positives.

Now we get into the not-so-cute stuff.

The first huge red flag I ran into with this book, within a few pages,

was an extremely alarming amount of girl-on-girl hate.

Honestly, I'm OVER this idea that young women, especially, inherently hate each other in order to

validate themselves or to find value in their work or their existence.

It's a MYTH that we keep feeding younger generations. And not only do you have to ask yourself

who does this myth benefit, but at some point, it has to *stop*.

And pretty much everyone in this story is female, besides Sam, (who is the only non-feminine person)

and *every* girl is presented as ditzy, vapid, fake, irresponsible, not to be trusted.

With the obvious exception of Penny, of course.

And on top of that, both and Penny and Sam are cynical and judgmental, to the extreme,

and a big part of their dynamic is this idea that no one understands them.

They're ~soooo~ different from everyone else.

And yet, neither of them project any kind of empathy. Neither of them can see people, even cursory people,

as complex beings, especially when they discuss other girls.

It's just so unnecessary at this point.

It's 2018. It's okay to be cynical. It's okay to not like every person you meet.

But if your basic-ass brand of humor comes at the expense other people,

I have no interest.

Because I could see that sometimes the narration was going for this pithy, darkly sarcastic tone,

but at what cost?

Like these characters say randomly borderline offensive, if not full-on offensive, stuff.

Once Penny said that Australians aren't really that interesting, because they're just "off-brand Brits."

And the first time she met Sam, she noticed that his hands were small,

and she honest-to-God figured that meant he was gay.

...WHAT???

And their dynamic could be really strange or unhealthy sometimes.

Like I guess Sam is in his 20's and Penny's an older teenager, so there's a few times where Sam actually says

they can never really be friends because Penny "doesn't count as a person yet."

[sarcastically] Maybe she'll count when she's twenty-five!

And Penny has this inferiority complex when it comes to Sam because he's ~soooo~ hot and wounded and cool.

And why would he ever descend from the heavens to shoot her a text, when she's so clearly "a nobody"???

At one point she says that if Sam is talking to her, he's "slumming it,"

because how could she, "a lowly tree frog" take up so much of his time?

Again...I'm over it.

It's just more nonsense that we need to banish in 2018,

especially when it comes to stories that we brand as "romances."

To get beneath that, I guess what I'm really saying is that I'm done with jerks,

and I'm done with stories that glorify, celebrate, or romanticize jerks.

Which, unfortunately, this book does.

And it's not that every character has to be a beacon of perfection. It's not that protagonists have to be likeable

or palatable, or that they have to be nice about everyone and everything they come across.

But if you just as an ass for the sake of being an ass and there's no real confrontation of your flaws,

there's just no point.

Another really big thing that I haven't really seen anyone mention is the fact that Penny was assaulted

in high school. And it's framed as a plot twist and this big moment of character development,

which is fairly problematic.

The way this event effects her is so deeply buried that it's never hinted at, and the way she talks about it

is so detached. She refers to it as "awkward" and "so embarrassing."

It's just not written with the proper respect.

I mean, if you have this character who's pursuing a new romantic relationship, it would most likely bring up

her relationship with her body, whether or not this trauma effected the way she interacts with young men.

But none of that ever comes up.

And then it's just thrown into this random conversation where Penny and Sam are getting to know each other better.

It's like, "Oh, hey Sam, I'm not just this awkward, judgmental person."

"There's so more to me. I was *drum roll* assaulted."

Yeah, like I said: not framed well and not a great moment.

Which leads into my last point, about how this book tries to come off as a quirky romance,

takes on all this serious subject matter, and then does NONE of it justice.

Among many things, this book tries to deal with issues of alcoholism, poverty, broken families, homelessness,

anxiety and panic attacks, teenage pregnancy, sexual assault, toxic parent-child relationships,

and all of it is just half-baked, at best.

That's what really gets to me, I think, the fact the characters address these things so flippantly,

and with so much nonchalance, and they never really get *beneath* any of these issues

before they're dropped and tossed away.

A lot of these ideas and lines are just throw-away content, which only does the story a disservice.

Because it *would* be cool to have a cute romance that also addresses realistic topics and shows how these

characters are at a point in their lives where they're ready to change their narrative.

But instead it's another classic case of a story that wants to take a stab at everything

and ultimately accomplishes *nothing* by doing so.

To go back to the question of whether or not this book is worth the hype,

again I can only speak for myself. And for me, it was not.

The insides of this book, in my opinion, don't match what's presented on the surface.

So there you have it, those are my thoughts on "Emergency Contact."

Those are things I wish *I'd* known going into it.

So if you've read this one yourself or if you plan to read it in the future,

feel free to let me know what you think in the comments.

But that's everything I had for this book review today. Thank you so much for watching this video.

I really hope that you enjoyed it, and I will catch YOU on the flip-side of the page.

Bye!

[♫ snazzy end screen music ♫]

For more infomation >> Is "Emergency Contact" Worth the Hype? - Duration: 9:02.

-------------------------------------------

What Is Quantum Computing (Future of AI Computing) - Duration: 14:40.

Hi, thanks for tuning into Singularity

Prosperity. This video is the ninth in a

multi-part series discussing computing

and the second discussing non-classical

computing. In this video, we'll be

discussing what quantum computing is, how

it works and the impact it will have on

the field of computing. The foundation of

this paradigm shift in computing is the

quantum bit, qubit for short, as the unit

of measurement for quantum information.

While a classical binary digit, bit, can

only be either 0 or 1, a qubit can be both

0 and 1 due to superposition.

Superposition is a property of quantum

mechanics in which when not measuring a

system, the resultant can be a variety, more

specifically, a probability of two or

more states. However, when we measure the

system, a final state must be adhered to.

An example most people are familiar with

is, Schrodinger's cat, both alive and dead

in the box at the same time, until we

open it up. A more concrete example is

the famous double slit experiment which

showed the wave-particle duality of light.

When firing electrons through a sheet

with two slits, we'd expect that the

particle would go through one slit or

the other and produce light in-line with

the slit on the wall behind it, and this

is in fact what happens when we observe

the result. However, when we're not

observing, the electron produces light on

the wall representative of an

interference pattern, with an

interference pattern being the result

that would be seen if a wave, say of

water, was to go through slits, with the

constructive and destructive

interference producing the same exact

pattern as single electrons going

through. With electrons however, the

result on the wall is determined not by

interference but by a Bayesian probability

spread, the probability that we'd find

the electron at a specific point on the

wall, with higher probabilities in the

center and getting lower as we move

outwards. In fact, the electron actually

goes through both slits, and one slit, and

the other slit, and no slits...all at the

same time and produces this spread. Another

property of quantum mechanics is

entanglement, in which two or more

particles can have correlated final

states when measured. This meaning if one

particle is measured have an upward spin

for example, and if there is an other

particle entangled with a negative

correlation, then that second particle

would have a downward spin. This is what

Einstein referred to as, spooky action

at a distance, you can create an entangled

pair, move them across the universe and

they would still instantaneously receive

information about one another. For more

information on quantum mechanics, be sure

to check out other creators on this

platform such as, Frame of Essence. Moving

on, now that we have a basic

'understanding' of quantum properties, how

does this translate to quantum computers?

To represent a qubit multiple avenues

can be taken: the spin-up and spin-down

states of an electron, the spin states of

a nucleus in an atom and the

polarization state of a photon. Both bits

and qubits scale in the same way, 1

bit is equivalent to 2 potential

states, 2 to 4, 3 to 8 and

so on. However, with bits in classical

computers, all those potential output

states can only be computed one state at

a time,

serial operation. In quantum computers,

all states are effectively computed

together, true parallel operation. As a

side note, quantum bits are represented

using a bloch sphere. With 0 and 1

only having a z-axis value and all the

other superposition states with only an

x and y-axis value. N qubits translates

to 2^N parallel paths of execution,

to highlight how important this is in

terms of computing, watch this clip on

the power of exponentials that IBM in

fact played in the 1960s to highlight

the power of computing performance:

This is an old story, but it reminds us

of the surprises we can get when even a

small number like 2 is multiplied by

itself many times. King Sharam of India was

so pleased when his Grand Vizier

presented him with the game of

chess, that he asked him to name his

own reward.

The request was so modest, but the happy

King immediately complied. What the Grand

Vizier had asked was this, that one grain

of wheat be placed on the first square

of the chessboard, two grains on the

second square, four on the third, eight on

the fourth, 16 on the fifth square and so on.

Doubling the amount of wheat on each

succeeding square until all 64 squares

were accounted for. When the King's

steward had gotten to the 17th square

the table was well filled, by the 26th

square the chamber held considerable

wheat and a nervous King ordered the

steward to speed up the count.

When 42 squares were accounted for the

palace itself was swamped, now fit to be

tied King Sharam learns from the court

mathematician that had the process

continued, the wheat required would have

covered all India to a depth of over 50

feet. Incidentally, laying this many

grains of wheat end-to-end also does

something rather spectacular, they would

stretch from the Earth, beyond the Sun

past the orbits of the planets, far out

across the galaxy to the star Alpha

Centauri, four light-years away. They

would then stretch back to Earth, back to

Alpha Centauri and back to the Earth

again.

So, after seeing the scale of parallel

operations a quantum computer can do, how

do quantum computers compute? Step One)

Activate The Spread: The quantum bits

required for the calculation are

acquired and entangled. Visualizing this

in a bloch sphere, these entangled bits

are in an equal spread of the

superposition of all the 2^N

states. Step Two) Encode The Problem: The

problem is encoded onto the system via

quantum gates which we'll discuss later

in this video. These gates reorient the

qubits into new superpositions for all

the 2^N states by altering

their phase and amplitudes. Step Three)

Unleash The Power: The quantum computer

comes to a solution by using the

principles of interference to magnify

the amplitudes of the most probable

answers and shrink the improbable

answers. Some recursive problems will

require running through the steps again.

The final step draws parallels to the

double slit experiment we discussed

earlier, through interference patterns a

Bayesian probability spread is produced,

showing the likelihood of the most

probable solutions, just like the

probability spread showing where the

light would be most likely to shine.

There are problems a classical computer

simply can't solve, this is part of the P

versus NP problem. Simply put, P versus NP

is problems that could be solved in a

reasonable amount of time versus problems

that can never be solved or would take

too long to obtain a solution. One such

problem is factoring a number into

primes, this is called Shor's algorithm,

which is also the basis of modern

encryption. A classical computer would

take in the order of quadrillions of

years to solve an encryption problem

without a key, going through each

potential output sequentially. A quantum

computer could solve this in the span of

a few days or less due to parallel

computation. A more in-depth discussion

on quantum encryption and security is a

topic best left for a future video on

cyber security. Also as a side note, if

you want more information on the P

versus NP problem, be sure to check out

the best video on the topic by creator,

hackerdashery. Back on topic, another

huge problem set that quantum computers

can solve and will drastically impact

the world are optimization problems.

Classical computers can do optimization

problems up to a certain point, before a

combinatorial explosion occurs. This is the

point where the number of different

combinations that must be explored in a

given problem grows exponentially. Take

the optimal seating plan for 14

people at a banquet dinner for example.

With 2 people there is 2! 'factorial', in

other words, 2 combinations, 3

people is 6 combinations, 4 24, 5 120,

6 720, 7 5040. As you can see, the problem is

slowly reaching an exponential tipping

point, now going forward by another seven

people at 14 people there are over 87

billion different seating combinations.

This simplistic example serves well for

visualizing the scale optimization

complexity can reach, and how problems

while simple at first can get out of

reach for classical computers very fast.

Now a field of computer science that has

seen a lot of traction recently and aims

to solve optimization problems is

machine learning, further extending to

artificial intelligence. These algorithms

are able to solve problems previously

thought not possible by the P versus NP

problem. We'll cover this topic very

intensively in this channels AI series,

but essentially machine learning

algorithms solve problems by crawling

through large sets of data and finding

commonalities and correlations which

help it form its own optimal solution

rather than explicit programed code. Data

crawling, sorting and path optimization

are fields of computer science in

themselves, with algorithms

designed to reduce the time required,

such as bubble sort, shear sort, Dijkstra

and countless others. All these

algorithms are classical in nature and

even though some might implement

asynchronous techniques, they are still

serial, so a 1 million element list for

example is still sorted element by

element. Quantum computing algorithms as

discussed in the previous section will

be able to sort and optimize data much

faster through their parallel operation,

this translates to exponentially

increasing AI performance. From circuit

design, the shape of vehicles for optimal

drag performance, Google Maps, other

complex P versus NP problems such as

protein folding and simulating chemical

reactions, the list can go on and on.

Quantum computing algorithms and AI will

revolutionize nearly every field from

bio and nanotechnology to marketing to

ideas we can't even imagine possible

today - many videos on this channel will

be dedicated to covering these ideas in

the future. It is highly improbable we will

see quantum computers on a desktop

anytime soon, however, through the concept

of heterogeneous system architecture

which we discussed in a previous video

in this computing series, there will

still be ways we can get the benefits of

quantum performance. One such method will

be quantum computers in the cloud. You

access them with problems through your

normal devices such as a desktop, laptop

or mobile phone and quantum computers in

the cloud will reduce the probability

space, return the most probable answers

and your device will have enough computing

power to take it from there. Coming up

we'll cover some quantum computers we'll

see in the cloud in the near future and

some that are already there now!

[Music]

2018 is for quantum computing like 1968

was for our current classical computers:

computers are the size of entire rooms,

the cutting edge of all types of

research is pouring into them and more

organizations and people are entering

the race to quantum supremacy every year.

Quantum supremacy is the point at which

quantum computers will become more

powerful than classical computers, this

milestone is set at 50 qubits. There is a

difference however between the

methodology of quantum computing used to

get there, not all quantum computers are

made equal. Dwave for example uses a

type of quantum computer based on

quantum annealing, this allows them to

scale up much faster in the qubits used:

from 128 in 2011, 512 in 2013, 1000 in 2015,

2048 in 2017 and a 5,000 qubit system is

expected this year, 2018. Quantum

annealing however doesn't operate like a

typical quantum computer and relies on

energy minimization problems which

lowers the scope of problems that it can

solve. These problems are still in the NP

section, and referred to as QUBO, quadratic

unconstrained binary optimization,

problems. Essentially a pattern matching

technique which also has applications

that are useful in machine learning. It

is hard to quantify when quantum

annealing will reach a point of quantum

supremacy due to its problem scope,

however, this approach is the fastest to

scale and will bring public quantum

computing faster than gate based quantum

computing. The 50 qubit quantum supremacy

milestone is set for gate based quantum

computing, this is what we discussed

about earlier in the video, where all

qubits in the system are entangled and a

probability spread outputted. There are

various initiatives to achieve this, to

list a few: Intel with there 49 qubit

chip unveiled at CES 2018, IBM with

development of a 50 qubit chip

announced late 2017, Google who have built

a 50 qubit chip and are now testing and

Rigetti who have plans for a 50 qubit

chip by 2019. For more information on

current initiatives be sure to check out

other creators on his platform, as the

quantum race is ever-changing and

expanding. Now to see how complex quantum

computers are, check out this video of

IBM's quantum computer, Q: This is the

first IBM Q computation center, where the

commercial quantum systems used by the

IBM Q network live. The IBM Q network is

a worldwide organization of industrial,

research and academic institutions -

joining IBM to advance quantum computing

and launched the first commercial

applications.

Here we see a 20 qubits system which

will be accessed online by members of

the IBM Q network, in the future they

will have access to 50 qubit systems

which IBM recently prototyped. Listen to

the tinkling whoosh the system makes as

it maintains the ultra-cold, 15

millikelvin temperature, required for

IBM's superconducting qubits to operate.

That's colder than outer space, cold

enough to make atoms almost completely

motionless.

This is an open dilution refrigerator

that contains the qubits of niobium,

silicon and aluminum - it's so dark and

cold inside, that it's almost impossible

to find even one photon of light. The 20

qubit quantum computer you just saw is

available for public use through IBM

cloud services, and has a great community

of developers and people just venturing

into learning quantum algorithms with

many resources on what types of quantum

gates there are and their effect on

results. This system is global with over

60,000 users from more than 1,500

universities, 300 high schools and many

institutions - running over 2 million

experiments with over 35 research papers

and growing. In fact, the first quantum

video game has been created by one of

these users, Quantum Battleships, you can

hit miss and both at the same time ;)!

Microsoft also has a development

environment and extensive documentation

for simulating a quantum computer and

running quantum algorithms on your

computer at home. This is a fairly

computationally intensive process, with

simulation correlated to your RAM.

Simulating 30 qubits requires 16 gigabytes

of RAM, adding just one more qubit

doubles the amount of RAM needed, one

less halves the memory required -

extrapolating forward, simulating 40

qubits requires 16 terabytes of memory,

which is why there is also the ability

to run simulations off Microsoft's Azure

cloud! Commercial adoption of quantum

computing is still a ways off, but as

stated earlier, 2018 is the 1968 of quantum

computers, with inevitability that they

will be the basis for future computation.

This field of computing is still in its

infancy, but accelerating at an

increasingly exciting and rapid pace!

[Music]

At this point the video has come to a

conclusion, I'd like to thank you for

taking the time to watch it. If you

enjoyed it consider supporting me on

Patreon to keep this channel growing and

if you want me to elaborate on any of the

topics discussed or have any topic

suggestions please leave them in the

comments below.

Consider subscribing for more content,

follow my Medium publication for

accompanying blogs and like my Facebook

page for more bite-sized chunks of

content. This has been an Ankur, you've

been watching Singularity Prosperity

and I'll see you again soon!

[Music]

For more infomation >> What Is Quantum Computing (Future of AI Computing) - Duration: 14:40.

-------------------------------------------

See Hilarious Reason Why Maxine Waters is Now Begging Trump to Resign - Duration: 2:31.

For more infomation >> See Hilarious Reason Why Maxine Waters is Now Begging Trump to Resign - Duration: 2:31.

-------------------------------------------

Lee Sang Yoon Is A Charismatic Chaebol For "About Time" - Duration: 3:22.

For more infomation >> Lee Sang Yoon Is A Charismatic Chaebol For "About Time" - Duration: 3:22.

-------------------------------------------

Prince William Is Prince Harry's Best Man at the Royal Wedding - Duration: 1:54.

Prince William Is Prince Harry's Best Man at the Royal Wedding

As if Prince Harry would have asked anyone else to be his best man!. Kensington Palace announced Thursday that the grooms older brother, Prince William, will be by his side when he marries Meghan Markle.

The Duke of Cambridge is honored to have been asked, a spokesperson said, and is very much looking forward to supporting his brother at St.

Georges Chapel, Windsor, on May 19. William is returning the favor, as his younger brother served as his best man when he wed Kate Middleton at Westminster Abbey on Apr.

A source tells E! News that William is expected to read something at the wedding ceremony, and he will likely make a toast at the evening reception.

The source has heard whispers that the piece William reads will be a poem or prose that their late mother, Princess Diana, favored.

In January, radio host Roman Kemp asked the elder prince whether hed be Harrys best man. He hasnt asked me yet, just to clear that up, William replied. It could be a sensitive subject!.

Because of their mothers tragic death in 1997, William added, Our relationship is closer than its been because of the situation weve been through. Losing our mother at a young age, its helped us travel through that difficult patch together.

You go through similar things. Its a bond, and its something you know youve tackled together and come out better for it.

Thats the thing about being a best mate: Inevitably one of you is sometimes on an up, while the other is on a down. Youre always there for each other and repaying that favor..

Harry and Meghan have yet to reveal who else is in their wedding party. Traditionally, there isnt a best man at a royal wedding. Instead, grooms have supporters—meaning William broke with tradition in 2011.

In fact, his father, Prince Charles, asked his brothers, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward, to be his supporters when he wed Diana in 1981. Watch Daily Pop weekdays on E! at 12 p.

For more infomation >> Prince William Is Prince Harry's Best Man at the Royal Wedding - Duration: 1:54.

-------------------------------------------

How important is happiness at work? - Duration: 2:19.

(gentle music)

What makes us happy at work?

Most of us think it's a nice schedule and it's a big salary,

but those two s's, schedule and salary,

actually are meaningless when it comes to our happiness.

They are actually just hygiene needs.

They may get you in the door,

but once you're working somewhere, they don't help at all.

Instead, a happy workplace has what I call the four s's.

And they are social, structure, stimulation, and story.

Social, we are the most social mammals on the planet

for a good reason.

It's the strength of our relationships with our friends

and family that do the greatest increase

of our happiness of anything else.

So do you like your coworkers?

Does the CEO do an AMA?

Is there a running group at lunch?

Is there some sort of social connection at work

that you can hook into that you feel a part of.

Structure, what's your reason

to get out of bed in the morning?

Do you have a schedule that helps you feel fulfilled?

Do you in your 168-hour work week, know hey you know what?

I got 56 hours for sleep, I got 56 hours for home

and my kids and my passions.

But that 56 hours in the middle, those work hours,

do they give you the structure that both affords,

justifies, and pays for the rest

of the passions in your life.

Stimulation, are you always learning?

There is so many people in a role atrophy position

of doing the same thing forever.

That ruins things for ya.

You gotta always have the steepest learning curve

between amount you're contributing

and amount you're learning.

Always be doing something different and be stimulated.

And finally, story, that is the fourth s.

That means that you're part of a group of people

doing something bigger than you could do yourself.

If you're at Wikipedia, you're giving the sum

of human knowledge to every single earthling for free.

If you're at Google,

you're organizing the world's information.

If you're at the Toronto Star,

you're increasing knowledge in a community.

What are you doing that you couldn't do by yourself?

Social, structure, stimulation, story.

If you have those, you'll have a happy job.

- Okay, but let's get on with the game.

(gentle music)

For more infomation >> How important is happiness at work? - Duration: 2:19.

-------------------------------------------

Where is the Sweet Spot on a Baseball Bat? - Duration: 2:56.

If you haven't played baseball since Little League, you might have forgotten how much

batting hurts.

Especially if you're bad at it.

When you hit a baseball on the sweet spot, the ball just pops right off the bat.

But miss it and your hands sting like hell.

As if you needed another reminder that you're bad at baseball.

Frst, let's talk about where the sweet spot is.

The exact position varies from bat to bat, but it's always about a two-inch-wide zone

a few inches from the end of the barrel.

Inside this zone, there are actually multiple "sweet spots," depending on how we want

to define it.

Some people think it's about where the bat creates the least sting.

Others say it's the point where the ball gets the most power from the bat.

But really, they're both talking about the same thing: how much the bat vibrates.

Every solid object has a vibrational pattern, meaning when you hit it, it will wiggle in

particular ways each time.

This is just as true for a two-by-four as it is for a baseball bat, or for a hockey

stick or a cricket bat.

You hit them, they vibrate.

But the thing about vibrational patterns is that they have spots called nodes.

Nodes are where the wave is at its minimum point, so If you hit an object at a node,

it won't vibrate.

Every object has multiple patterns and multiple nodes, but they tend to overlap quite

a bit.

And on a baseball bat, the nodes fall in that roughly two-inch-wide zone, just a few inches

from the end of the barrel.

Otherwise known as: the sweet spot.

You can even find the sweet spot using this little trick.

You take a wooden baseball bat, attach a cone of paper to the end

Loosen it up a little bit. And you take a baseball...

Tap it up here... vibrates. Down at the end it vibrates....

And if you tap along the barrel... that's the sweet spot.

Because the bat doesn't vibrate when the ball hits that zone, it feels good in the

batter's hands—there's no sting.

The ball also doesn't lose any energy to making those vibrations, so it doesn't slow

down as much when it's hit.

Fewer vibrations means more power.

And in baseball, hitting the ball one mile an hour faster could mean an extra few feet—and

turn a fly ball into a home run.

For more infomation >> Where is the Sweet Spot on a Baseball Bat? - Duration: 2:56.

-------------------------------------------

This Week in Fish and Wildlife: State's mussel inspection process is working - Duration: 3:22.

For more infomation >> This Week in Fish and Wildlife: State's mussel inspection process is working - Duration: 3:22.

-------------------------------------------

What is meant by Leadership? - Duration: 2:21.

Hello together, today I want to tell you something about leadership in general

and perhaps you might think: What should this guy tell us new about leadership?

Well, I don't know if I can tell you something new, because I don't know if

you already listened to me. I'm pretty sure, if you go in your office or

in your living room, having a look at the books that you have about

leadership, well it's quite possible to find hundreds of different books about

leadership. But if you ask yourself, if you distinguish between leadership and

management, when we talk about leadership or if you think that managers are

automatically leaders, then please go have a look into your books and you will find

out, that not really all the books distinguish between

leadership and management. But this is very important if we want to talk about

leadership in general. Leadership is people work, leadership is to build a job

wise home, leadership is to develop people, to bring people to be high

performer and having really high identification with their job and with

their leader. Management is more about structures,

procedures, standards. So to work on the systems in a company. If you are

right now at the point to take a decision if you want to follow the

leadership path or a management path or, let's say, a special matter expert path,

then I can only really give you the adwise: try it out. It's really worth it and it

makes a lot of fun to work with people together, to develop people and to bring

them to a high performer. But be pretty sure, that it's a long day that you have

to path because leadership is about an inner attitude that you have. So it's

a 24/7 job that you have and not a nine-to-five job. So be

pretty sure that a thirty-five hours week,

at least, Wednesday lunchtime will already be over. Thank You.

For more infomation >> What is meant by Leadership? - Duration: 2:21.

-------------------------------------------

The Best Emailer in the World | This is That - Duration: 4:17.

(suspenseful music)

Paula: The sound of typing...

Yeah.

The sound of typing is my favourite sound.

It's the sound of love lost,

deals made...

needing reminders...

The sound of communication really, it's...

the sound of email.

(lively piano)

My name is Paula Meer

and I'm a professional emailer.

You send emails, obviously?

Right, well I get paid to write emails for clients.

Paula: Hey, team, how's it going?

For example if a client is

having trouble communicating

what they want to say,

they call me.

And I have my team look it over.

I just have to say one thing though, hun,

you need to take out, "Hey, everyone," okay?

I don't like it at all.

I think it needs to be something like,

"Hello, team."

Yeah.

Try it.

Paula: My clients range from heads of state to

major CEOs to major celebrities.

And I'm asked to do anything from

thank you notes to follow-up emails

to birthday wishes.

I feel so lucky to be working with an artist like Paula.

I mean, my generation can't really appreciate

the email - the art that is email.

I mean, to learn from a master...

you know, somebody who's been doing this

for years and years,

like probably since it was created.

That's special.

Paula: For me the email doesn't get written on a computer,

it gets written in here.

When I receive a brief for an email I usually turn to

nature for inspiration.

Yeah, I'll take my ideas and I'll bounce them off the trees

and I'll bounce them off the lake.

I'll bounce it off a bird if I have to.

And then like magic the email takes shape.

[scoffs]

No, no, no.

No, before I even look at my computer I have to handwrite it.

I don't know.

I don't know.

Paula: Then and only then I take it to the keys.

And I write five quick drafts,

slightly altering the verbiage in each one.

Right now for example, we're working on

an e-introduction from a top creative director

introducing the client to the new vice-president of sales.

So I'll do,

"Hi Mr. Olin,

I'd like you to meet Alison Watford...

Then I print out the drafts

and I have my team look it over.

Too big.

Too small.

More could be done.

This is a piece of crap.

This, I think is the closest that we're gonna get

at this point.

Ultimately it's a feeling.

If it looks simple but communicates something

the job is usually done.

(clapping)

Nice work, everybody.

My name is Paula Meer and I am a professional emailer.

All right, let's get going on the email to let them

know their email's done.

Okay.

For more infomation >> The Best Emailer in the World | This is That - Duration: 4:17.

-------------------------------------------

WHAT IS LOVE - TWICE(트와이스) | DANCE TUTORIAL PART 2 [ F&P Dance Studio ] - Duration: 5:10.

For more infomation >> WHAT IS LOVE - TWICE(트와이스) | DANCE TUTORIAL PART 2 [ F&P Dance Studio ] - Duration: 5:10.

-------------------------------------------

This Week in Fish and Wildlife: State's mussel inspection process is working - Duration: 3:22.

For more infomation >> This Week in Fish and Wildlife: State's mussel inspection process is working - Duration: 3:22.

-------------------------------------------

What is Parkinson's law? - Duration: 1:41.

(playful music)

In 1955, a strange article appeared on the pages

of The Economist magazine.

It was written by General Northcote Parkinson

and it was titled Parkinson's Law.

The very first sentence of the article said

it is a commonplace observation

that work rises to fill the time available

for its completion.

That all sounds totally legit, right?

I mean, if the essay's due Friday at midnight

and you can hand it in at 11:59,

we all do that.

The contents of your purse expand to fill the purse.

The ultimate inspiration is the deadline.

We take as much time as we are allowed to use.

That's what Parkinson's law says.

So, what is one way to create more time in your life?

Move all your deadlines up.

A famous tech entrepreneur actually doesn't spend 6 months

developing new websites like all his competitors do.

He takes this entire 60 person team offsite

for one day.

He says, "Hey, I've got all the coders,

the developers, the copy editors, the layout people,

they're all here.

There's no meetings, there's no out of offices,

there's no setting things up,

we aren't leaving 'til we get the whole website finished."

So, it gets done and they are creating more time

after that day to do everything else.

Parkinson's law is something we should all follow.

If work rises to fill the time available

for its completion, the way to be happier

and to create more space in your life

is moving all your deadlines up.

Yeah.

Do only nerds to their homework on Friday night?

It's true, they do.

But, they're the only ones with the whole weekend

to party.

(playful music)