The last few months I gave a talk on how to get started with event sourcing at several conferences and user groups. I took the time to record the talk at home. It's now published on YouTube so everybody can enjoy it.
The video below is targeted at newcomers to event sourcing. We'll first explain a ...
You may have seen a much-circulated story, allegedly posted on CNN’s website, in which a Cornell University student claims to have lost 37 pounds through a diet regimen consisting of apple cider vinegar and supplements of Garcinia cambogia, a type of tropical fruit.
If it is not immediately obvious to you, this is an internet ad for weight loss supplements, not a CNN story. The woman interviewed in the story doesn’t exist. Apple cider vinegar and Garcinia cambogia do not do what the ad claims they do, and can in fact be harmful when taken as suggested.
Everything about this ad is a lie. It lies about big things that could hurt people’s health and it lies about stupid little things like celebrity diets. It is a lie smothered in lies and served open-faced on a bed of lies. Let’s unpack this.
Claim: The story is from “CNN Nutrition”
Fact: A good way to tell where a story is from is to look at where the story is from. If I were to write, “This story you are reading on www.gov.uk represents official UK policy on phony diet ads,” you could look at the top of your browser and see that you are in fact on qz.com and I am lying. CNN’s URL is cnn.com, not independant-research.com, and that is not how “independent” is spelled.
Claim: “By Suzanne Pischner”
Fact: There is no Suzanne Pischner on LinkedIn or Twitter. Her byline appears only on other fishy-looking weight loss ads, including one purporting to be from TMZ posted under the URL trompe l’oeil tmzf.itness.co. Suzanne, if you are real and reading this, please send a notarized birth certificate to hi@qz.com.
Claim: “Amanda Haughman, a student at Cornell University, was able to drop 37lbs off her waist in 1 month without ever using a dime of her own money.”
This is not Amanda Haughman.
There is no Amanda Haughman in Cornell’s current student or alumni directories. In December, a nearly identical ad for a product called “Premiere Garcinia Cambogia” labeled a completely different woman’s photo as “Cornell student Amanda Haughman.” A lifestyle blogger pointed out that the photo was in fact of a Scottish woman named Seana Forbes, and was taken from a YouTube ad for a fitness app.
Claim: “Since the study, Amanda shared the TrimGenesis Garcinia and apple cider vinegar combination with her close friend, Mark, who had also been struggling with his weight.”
Yes, this is Mark, but not that Mark.
Fact: The image of the man identified as Mark was lifted from a 2015 story in the Daily Star, a UK daily tabloid, about a man named Mark Smithers. Here a pellet of truth is dropped in the rabbit hutch of lies: there is a Mark and he did lose weight. But he did not use this product and is not a close friend of Amanda, who is not real.
Claim: “We sat down with Amanda”
Fact: Amanda can’t sit. She has no lower extremities. She doesn’t exist.
Claim: “I was able to find a radio interview where [Melissa] McCarthy credited her entire weight loss to combining TrimGenesis Garcinia with apple cider vinegar.”
Right person, wrong dates.
Fact: The photo labeled “2016” is from 2015; the one labeled “2015” is from 2014. No such interview with McCarthy exists. In actual interviews, McCarthy has politely rebuffed repeated requests to talk about if or how she may have lost weight, for the same reason US speaker of the house Paul Ryan has never released his colonoscopy reports—it’s nobody’s business and it’s a kind of weird thing to ask about in the first place.
Claim: “TrimGenesis Garcinia contains the naturally occurring ingredient, hydroxycitcric acid, which boosts weight loss by blocking excess body fat production while increasing resting metabolism by more than 130%.”
This is where TrimGenesis’s claims go from absurd to potentially dangerous. Hydroxycitric acid (not “hydroxycitcric,” as above) is a type of citric acid found in many tropical plants, including Garcinia cambogia. In the world of unregulated supplements, “natural” is an often-abused term that has no bearing on how safe or effective a product is. Arsenic is naturally occurring. Mercury is naturally occurring. Nature makes a lot of stuff. Humans aren’t supposed to eat it all.
A 1998 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found no significant difference in weight loss between participants who took Garcinia cambogia and those who took a placebo. A 2011 meta-review in the Journal of Obesity found that while there was some evidence of short-term weight loss in patients using the supplement, those that took it were also twice as likely to have bad gastrointestinal side effects. Another 2013 review of 17 studies deemed Garcinia cambogia safe for human consumption, but concluded that its effect on weight loss was unclear.
The unproven benefits of Garcinia cambogia have not stopped assorted hucksters from pushing it as a weight loss wonder drug; television personality Mehmet Oz called it “a revolutionary fat buster” on a 2012 show.
“I don’t get why you need to say this stuff ‘cause you know it’s not true,” Claire McCaskill, a Democratic senator from Missouri, said at a 2014 Senate hearing on Oz’s false claims (quoted in this actual CNN story).
“I do personally believe in the items that I talk about on my show. I passionately study them,” Oz, a trained surgeon, responded. This is an acceptable defense for an amateur Bigfoot hunter, but not a scientist.
Claim: “TrimGenesis Garcinia with apple cider vinegar has been clinically proven to…”
Fact: Several claims follow; they are all bogus. There have been zero clinical studies on the effects of apple cider vinegar combined with Garcinia cambogia.
The ad never discusses the supposed benefits of drinking the apple cider vinegar, though here “Suzanne Pischner” may be relying readers’ previous familiarity with the subject. A long-time favorite of health food advocates, apple cider vinegar is increasingly popular as a home remedy for maladies including sore throats, high cholesterol, high blood sugar, acne, and jellyfish stings.
“There is ample scientific evidence” that vinegar does in fact help control blood sugar, if taken as one tablespoon diluted in a cup of water at the start of a meal, says Carol Johnston, a professor and associate director at Arizona State University’s School of Nutrition and Health Promotion. “The evidence on weight loss is meager but there are hints of this—particularly in the rat model,” she added. “If vinegar impacts body weight, it is very subtle and not what most have in mind when they start a weight loss trial.”
The active ingredient in apple cider vinegar that helps control blood sugar (and possibly weight) is acetic acid, which is found in all vinegar. And while drinking one to two teaspoons in water as recommended by Cornell/Harvard/MSU/National University of Singapore grad Amanda Haughman probably isn’t harmful to most people, it’s worth remembering that vinegar is an acid, and drinking acid straight can be dangerous.
Ultimately, the ad serves apple cider vinegar as a folksy side dish to a weight loss supplement that could have harmful side effects. The US Food and Drug Administration says weight loss supplements, including those purporting to contain Garciniacambogia, often contain undisclosed ingredients, including active drugs.
The danger of weight-loss related fake news is that—like their political counterparts—they make ridiculous claims that can distract from the fact that they are still lies masquerading as the truth, and could end up hurting someone.
In memory of Amanda Haughman (1995-2017), a victim of the Bowling Green Massacre.
Garcinia cambogia extract is non-toxic, tasteless, odorless powder and found to be very effective herbal alternate for controlling obesity and cholesterol by inhibiting lipogenesis in our body.
Garcinia Cambogia has been used for thousands of years in the Orient as a food supplement. It is used as an appetite suppressant and to inhibit the absorption and synthesis of fat, cholesterol and triglycerides.
The global Garcinia Cambogia Extract market is valued at xx million US$ in 2018 is expected to reach xx million US$ by the end of 2025, growing at a CAGR of xx% during 2019-2025.
This report focuses on Garcinia Cambogia Extract volume and value at global level, regional level and company level. From a global perspective, this report represents overall Garcinia Cambogia Extract market size by analyzing historical data and future prospect. Regionally, this report focuses on several key regions: North America, Europe, China and Japan.
Key companies profiled in Garcinia Cambogia Extract Market report areXi’an Lyphar Biotech, Shaanxi Fuheng (Fh) Biotechnology, Shaanxi Guanjie Technology, Wuhan Vanz Pharm, Hunan Kanerga Pharmaceutical Sales, Two Blue Diamonds, Maruti Futuristic Pharma, Kinal Global Care, Nutra Graceand more in term of company basic information, Product Introduction, Application, Specification, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2014-2019), etc.
The great thing about typography is that it always makes sense. You do not need to read between the lines to get the point of an idea. Everything lies just on the surface. But, even though it’s self-explanatory, type is still able to provide our designs with a compelling, story-like feel.
And when typography is the driving force behind brand identity, it always catches an eye. Even though it does not possess all of the same qualities as other types of art, it is still very flexible. It can be minimal or, on the contrary, wildly extravagant. It can be monochromatic or packed with bright colors. It can feature common type families or custom ones.
Indeed, typography-centric designs can be incredibly creative, exquisite and multi-faceted. To prove this in practice, we have put together a roundup of splendid examples where typography plays the first fiddle. Each and every masterpiece in our collection will delight you with not only realization, but also an idea that is simply brilliant.
The name of the project speaks for itself. Publishing is widely associated with books; therefore, the author has used the word “book” set in an eccentric custom font as a basis for the design. Not only is it featured in the logotype, but also in the background and decorative elements. Concentric circles that can lead eyes wherever you need them to stand behind the beauty of this unique design. Although Maurizio Pagnozzi may have taken it a little too literally, the result is fantastic.
Letter “A” is the heart and soul of this project. The idea is simple yet clever. The team of the creative studio Pop & Pac shows us how the minimal approach can shine when in the right hands. Inspired by beautiful the “rotational” designs of Frank Lloyd Wright and some other famous artists, they managed to demonstrate their unique take on reinterpreting geometry.
This project falls into the group of artworks that stick to the “less is more” principle. The design is incredibly oversimplified. This does not mean that it is boring or primitive. On the contrary, it charms with the complexity of forms and intricacy of an idea. Smooth curved lines that do not have any beginning or end form each letter as well as decorative details.
The personal branding of Dianne Butial screams out the eagerness of the artist to create bold ideas. Without a doubt, her current project made a statement, and a skillful play with typography helped her to do this. The beautifully elongated letterforms have transformed a simple word into a decorative tool. It is used as a logotype as well as the pattern for prettifying the back side of the business card, along with some other stationery items.
Pooja Bhapkar and her branding project naturally catch an eye with its whimsical design. The beautiful, hand-crafted typography aims to tell readers a colorful story. It is so expressive that you do not need any other decorative elements. The typographic centerpiece is bold, multifaceted, bizarre and truly unique.
If you find yourself trying to guess what this is, then you might be unfamiliar with the Arabic language. I highly recommend you to dive in because you are missing something interesting and inspiring. The Arabic alphabet, as well as the East Asian alphabets, have a unique charm and a powerful personality that are difficult to resist. And this concept created by Tariq Yosef is a vivid proof of that.
Using the simplest geometric shapes, the artist has created fantastic letterforms. They are bold, playful and just inspiring. Although the concept was created to please the eyes of visitors to Amman design week, it is hard not to notice its enormous potential for enriching brand identity.
Much like in the previous example, a beautiful Arabic alphabet occupies the center stage here. It is used to create the logo as well as the pattern for decorating other elements of brand identity. Simple geometric forms and a gorgeous blue color easily convey a lovely atmosphere of the hotel for which the concept was created.
This concept by Happycentro may look a bit like archAssist by Pop & Pac Studio, featured at the beginning of our article. Here, the team also bets on lots of space, primitive geometric shapes, and a halftone effect for spicing things up.
However, they are different. In the case of Premio AV 5th edition, there are two symbols: “A” and “5”. Together they represent the fifth anniversary of the magazine «AV». And, there is no mystery – the design is clear and explicit.
Typography and a well-thought-out color palette are the two main components of personal branding created by Daniela Flores Chacón. Note, it does not look girlish or schmaltzy. On the contrary, it looks serious and businesslike, making it a strong player in the masculine world as well. Taking the word “hey” as a central element of the design, Daniele has created a pattern that is used for enriching the background. It is also featured on the back side of the business card, serving as a welcoming message.
Our collection wouldn’t be complete without Chalkboard Lettering Stationery Set by Lisa Nemetz. It is an entire direction that has both its fans and haters. The project feels rustic, authentic and hipster-like. The most inspiring aspect lies in an intricate combination of words and decorative details. It is here where typography blossoms.
Even though this kind of lettering demands a chalkboard-like surface to reveal its beauty, nevertheless, grainy surfaces of various colors as well as non-uniform backgrounds will do the trick – giving you lots of room for creativity.
Creating a Strong Identity
When it comes to business cards, notebooks and other types of stationery that are seen in brand identity projects, you need to be rational, reasonable and conservative. After all, you are limited by space. However, even though you are obliged to fit your idea onto a small sheet of paper, you aren’t restricted by your imagination.
Using typography as a tool for creating the entire entourage is a way out. With a selection of custom type families, you can go for a minimalistic approach like Pop & Pac Studio did with their concept “archAssist” or highly-decorative one like Pooja Bhapkar did with her branding.
Not only will it stand behind the overall beauty, but it will also support the message and communicate the story behind the brand. Typography was, is, and always will be a valid option for your design projects – regardless of their scale.
As per the latest study by Persistence Market Research (PMR), the global weight loss dietary supplements market is anticipated to witness healthy growth. The market is likely to register 6.0% CAGR throughout the forecast period 2017-2026. The global weight loss dietary supplements market is also estimated to bring in US$ 37,177.6 million revenue by 2026 end.
With obesity becoming a global health concern, weight loss continues to be one of the most focused areas. Hence, increasing number of companies are coming up with the new products in weight loss supplements. The increasing consumption and demand for weight loss dietary supplements, regulations on the production of these supplements along with ingredients used are also gaining traction in various countries. The government in various countries are also focusing on the quality and quantity of ingredients used and if any of these ingredients can have severe side-effects, affecting the health of the consumers negatively.
Increasing use of Natural and Organic Ingredients in the Weight Loss Dietary Supplements
The negative effects of being obese and overweight are resulting in the increasing use of weight management products. Consumers are also adopting weight loss supplements in forms of pill, liquid, and powder. Hence, with the increase in the use of these supplements, manufacturers are also trying to produce safer products, thereby using organic and natural ingredients and plant-based ingredients. Among various ingredients, green tea extract is considered as one of the most popular and safest ingredients in the weight loss dietary supplements. Similarly, Garcinia cambogia is also being considered as an ingredient in the weight loss supplements. However, these ingredients have been reported to have adverse effects like a headache, constipation, UTI. Hence, there has been an increase in the investment in the research on other organic ingredients that can be used to produce weight loss supplements.
Global Weight Loss Dietary Supplements Market: Segmental Insights
The global weight loss dietary supplements market includes various segments such as end-user, form, ingredients, distribution channel, and region. Based on the form, the market is categorized into powder, liquid, and soft gell/pills. Soft gell/pills are expected to dominate the market during the forecast period. By the end of 2026, soft gell/pills are expected to exceed US$ 18,500 million revenue.
Based on the end-user, the segment consists of men, women and senior citizen. Among these, women are expected to be the largest users of weight loss dietary supplements. Women segment as the end-user is estimated to create an incremental opportunity of more than US$ 7,900 million between 2017 and 2026.
By Distribution Channel, pharmacies drug store is expected to emerge as the largest distribution channel for the weight loss dietary supplements. Pharmacies drug store is estimated to account for more than one-third of the revenue share by the end of 2017.
Based on the ingredients, the segment consists of amino acids, vitamins minerals, botanical supplements, and others. Vitamins minerals are expected to emerge as one of the largest used ingredients in the weight loss dietary supplements. By the end of 2026, vitamins minerals are estimated to exceed US$ 16,900 million revenue.
Region-wise, the market is categorized into Europe, North America, Asia Pacific Excluding Japan (APEJ), Latin America, Japan, and the Middle East and Africa (MEA). Among the given regions, North America is expected to dominate the global weight loss dietary supplements market throughout the forecast period 2017-2026.
Global Weight Loss Dietary Supplements Market: Competitive Assessment
Key players in the global weight loss dietary supplements market are Amway (Nutrilite), Abott Laboratories, GlaxoSmithKline, Glanbia, Herbalife International, Pfizer, American Health, Stepan, Nature’s Sunshine Products, and FANCL.
Last week, I did some system updates, and then decided to compile the most
recent PHP releases. I've used phpbrew to
manage multiple PHP releases for a number of years, and having it install a new
version is fairly routine.
Except this time, it wasn't. Due to updates I installed, I was getting errors
first with compiling the GD extension, then with ext-intl:
If you want Freetype support in ext-gd, you are expected to install the
package libfreetype-dev. On Ubuntu, this now installs libfreetype6-dev, which
no longer includes the freetype-config binary that PHP's configure script
uses to determine what features it supports.
Similarly, ext-intl depends on the package libicu-dev. Ubuntu's package now
omits the icu-config binary used by PHP to determine feature support.
I searched for quite some time to find packages that would resolve these
problems. I could have found the source code and compiled it and linked to that,
but that would mean keeping that up-to-date on top of my PHP installs.
I even looked in the ondrej/php PPA, as that repository
has multiple PHP versions already, including source packages.
And then I thought: why not try using those instead of phpbrew?
The rest of this post is how I made that work.
I use Ubuntu for my operating system. The instructions I present here should
work on any Debian-based system, but your mileage may vary. If you are using
an RPM-based system, yum will be your friend, but I have no idea how to add
repositories in that system, nor if update-alternatives is available. As
such, these instructions may or may not help you.
Which is okay. I mainly wrote them to help future me.
Register the PPA
First, I had to add the PPA to the system:
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php
Then the usual:
$ sudo apt update
Approach to installation
I first identified the extensions I typically install, matched them to
packages in the PPA, and made a list. I knew I'd be installing the same
extensions across all PHP versions I wanted, so I figured I could script it a
bit.
From there, I executed the following from the CLI:
$ for VERSION in 5.6 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3;do
for> for EXTENSION in {listed all extensions here};do
for for> sudo apt install php${VERSION}-${EXTENSION}
for for> done
for> done
This grabbed and installed each PHP I needed along with all extensions I wanted.
Switching between versions
To switch between versions, you have two options:
Use the version-specific binaries: /usr/bin/php5.6, /usr/bin/php7.0, etc.
which will give you a listing, and an ability to select the one to use.
Rootless alternatives
What if you'd rather not be root to switch the default version, though?
Fortunately, update-alternatives allows specifying alternate config and admin
directories.
Define the following alias in your shell's configuration:
alias update-my-alternatives='update-alternatives \
--altdir ~/.local/etc/alternatives \
--admindir ~/.local/var/lib/alternatives'
Additionally, make sure you add $HOME/.local/bin to your $PATH; since
defining $PATH varies based on the shell you use, I'll leave that for you to
accomplish.
If you open a new shell, the alias will now be available; alternately, source
the file in which you defined it to have it take effect immediately.
Once you've done that, you can run the following, based on the PHP versions
you've installed:
$ for VERSION in 5.6 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3;do
for> update-my-alternatives --install $HOME/.local/bin/php php /usr/bin/php${VERSION} ${VERSION//./0}
for> done
This will create alternatives entries local to your own user, prioritizing them
by version; as a result, the default, auto-selected version will be the most
recently installed.
You can verify this by running update-my-alternatives --config php:
There are 5 choices for the alternative php (providing $HOME/.local/bin/php).
Selection Path Priority Status
---------------
Truncated by Planet PHP, read more at the original (another 7476 bytes)
In Episode 19
Eric, John, and Oscar record together again to discuss the April 2019 issue on the new frontend fundamentals, php[tek], and quite a lot more about web browsers than anyone anticipated.
Topics
Eric and John get a look behind the scenes into what goes into producing each magazine issu...
It’s a well-known feature, but still in some cases it may require longer research to find the good regex patterns for defining constraints for our route parameters. Let’s see some idea.
Getting Started
First of all, let’s see how to even use patterns to create rules for our rout...
PSR-14: Example - PSR-14 in a non-blocking application server
We continue our exploration of PSR-14's potential with a guest post. Cees-Jan Kiewiet was the Sponsor of PSR-14 (meaning the member of the Core Committee who bridged from the Working Group to the Core Committee), and is on...