![]() But allowances should be made for the polemical style. ![]() Unfortunately too many places in the world could lay claim to that description. People in North Korea or ISIS-controlled territory in Syria or Iraq, for example, may take issue with his suggestion that “the cruel reality of extreme hostility to human rights has made documenting human rights in China the most dangerous cause in the world”. Gao’s analysis could be criticised for hyperbole. China, under Xi Jinping is, he says, enduring “the harshest and most brutal political oppression since the end of Mao Zedong’s rule”. He covers a wide range of themes, from violations of freedom of expression and religious persecution to land rights and police brutality, and describes China as a “killing field”. Somehow despite the Chinese state’s authoritarianism, he was able to compile an analysis of the regime’s human rights violations, drawing on information provided by what he calls “a petitioner in dark nights”. On 7 August 2014 Gao was released from prison, but in August this year he disappeared again. He was then returned to prison for a further three years. On one occasion he was held incommunicado and tortured for six weeks. During his probation period he was forcibly ‘disappeared’ at least six times. He was then sentenced to three years in jail but given a five-year suspended sentence on probation, charged with incitement to subvert state power. Known for defending Christians, Falun Gong practitioners and other vulnerable groups, Gao’s licence was revoked and his law firm closed down in 2006. Gao Zhisheng is perhaps China’s best known human rights lawyer, and certainly one of its bravest. Those in Hong Kong and mainland China who challenge the Communist Party face a far graver fate. I suffered an unpleasant inconvenience, but within 24 hours I was safely home in London, able to see family and friends, and free to speak out. Yet that campaign of repression takes far more serious forms for Chinese activists, in Hong Kong and the mainland, than anything I experienced. My experience helped shine a spotlight on the erosion of Hong Kong’s freedoms and autonomy, and on Xi Jinping’s intense repression of any and all dissent. The Global Times, a mouthpiece for the Chinese Communist Party, argued that any country has a right to refuse entry to anyone who poses a “serious threat to the security, stability and interests of the nation” – correct in principle, but hardly a category I had ever imagined belonging to. I was put on a return flight to Bangkok, just two hours after I had landed, and found myself at the centre of a media storm and diplomatic row. Just under a month ago, I was denied entry to Hong Kong, on the orders of the Chinese government.
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![]() ![]() ![]() The process of converting human-readable data into a specified format, for the secured transmission of data is known as encoding. Note that this works with pandas and not with the file operations using the open() function.Ä®xample: When using the Pandas libraryâs read_csv() function, you can specify the engine parameter as shown below: import pandas as pdįile_data=pd.read_csv(path_to_file, engine="python") BONUS Read Encoding and Decoding Hence, this fix deserves a mention in the list of our solutions. Passing the engine=âpythonâ has fixed the issues in some cases. import pandas as pdįile_data=pd.read_csv(path_to_file, encoding=âutf-8â³, encoding_errors=âignoreâ) When you are using pandas, you can achieve the same result using the following code snippet. string_with_issue.encode(encoding = âUTF-8â,errors = âignoreâ) Use any of the following snippets to ignore the characters while youâre reading the file using file operations. Your program does not expect any Unicode characters to be present, for example. You encounter this error while cleaning the file to extract some information. You can opt to ignore the characters if they are not necessary for further processing and you are only concerned with getting rid of the error. To read the Unicode characters, open the file in read binary(rb) mode.Ä®xample: file_data = open(path_to_the_file, mode="rb") #Fix 3: Ignore the Un-Encodable Characters When you open a file for reading, the file opens in the read mode by default. Try this fix if you see the error working with the log files or text files. To use unicode_escape as the encoding parameter, use the below code snippet.Ä®xample: file_data=pd.read_csv(path_to_file, encoding="unicode_escape") #Fix 2: Read the File in Binary Format Note: In most cases, people have found that setting the encoding parameter to âunicode_escapeâ, âlatin-1â, or âISO-8859-1â has helped. Result = tect(raw_data.encode())į.seek(0,0) # reset the file pointer to the beginning of the file.Äata= pd.read_csv(f,delimiter=",", encoding=encoding_format) ⤠unicode_escape Then, use the below code snippet to identify the encoding format and then pass this value to the encoding parameter.Firstly, install the chardet using the following command : pip install chardet.Letâs have a look at couple of different scenarios and how we can use the correct encoding scheme to avoid the occurence of an error: Scenario 1: Fixing Normal File Operations file_data = open(path_to_the_file, mode="r", encoding="latin1") Example 2: The Pandas Fix import pandas as pdįile_data=pd.read_csv(path_to_file, encoding="latin1")Ä«ut, what if you do not know the encoding scheme of the file? You can find one using the chardet package. Only way to eliminate this error is to pass the proper/appropriate encoding scheme of the file as a parameter while reading it. So, without further delay let the games(fixes) begin! #Fix 1: Use the Appropriate Encoding Standard In this tutorial, we will have a look at various ways to fix this error. UnicodeDecodeError: 'utf-8' codec can't decode byte 0xf8 in position 0: invalid start byte Output: Traceback (most recent call last):įile "C:\Users\SHUBHAM SAYON\PycharmProjects\Finxer\UnicodeEncode.py", line 2, inThat is, there is no mapping corresponding to this character in utf-8. Thus, the error means that the byte 0xa05 at position 0 in the input file cannot be decoded using the encoding format utf-8.When the input file contains characters (non-ASCII) that are not mapped to the encoding standard in use, the decode() function will fail, and this kind of error will be seen as a result of that. Often, while reading the input files, you might encounter an UnicodeDecodeError.The character, $, for example, corresponds to U 0024 in the utf-8 encoding standard, U 0024 in the UTF-16 encoding standard, and may not correspond to any value in any other encoding standard. The most common ones are utf-8, utf-16, and latin. A Unicode character can be encoded using a variety of encoding schemes. Using a specific standard to convert letters, symbols and numbers from one form to another is termed as Encoding. Problem Statement: How to fix â UnicodeDecodeError: âutf8â codec canât decode byte 0xa5 in position 0: invalid start byteâ in Python? ![]() Here are photos and stories from across America since the reversal of Roe v. Matt Gaetz and other GOP members who say they wont vote for him as speaker.'. Other women, who were and seeking abortions while living in states with strict abortion bans shared also shared their experience with The Post through calls, text messages and other documentation that supported their accounts. TikTok video from MSNBC (msnbc): 'Kevin McCarthy calls Rep. Post-Roe America: With Roe overturned, women who had secret abortions before Roe v. Here’s how the ruling could impact access to the abortion pill mifepristone. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), after a friend likely implicated him in federal. ![]() 47K views, 561 likes, 79 loves, 243 comments, 70 shares, Facebook Watch Videos from HuffPost: Time seems to be running out for Rep. BREAKING: The crowd at today’s hearing just erupted into laughter as a witness humiliated Republican Matt Gaetz in brilliant fashion. That was so good I almost had to smoke a cigarette afterwards, Gaetz said. 47K views, 561 likes, 79 loves, 243 comments, 70 shares, Facebook Watch Videos from HuffPost: Time seems to be running out for Rep. His response was pretty sleazy, and Faulkner seemed a little surprised by the graphic analysis. Wade.Ībortion pills: Abortion advocates are concerned a Texas judge’s upcoming abortion pill ruling could halt over half the legal abortions carried out nationwide. After Greene’s press conference was over, Fox News host Harris Faulkner asked Gaetz how he thought it went. The Post is tracking states where abortion is banned or under threat, as well as Democratic-dominated states that moved to protect abortion rights enshrined in Roe v. ![]() What happens now? The legality of abortion is left to individual states. Wade, which for nearly 50 years has protected the right to abortion. In June 2022 the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. According to Newsweek, after Joel Greenberg, his former confidant and wingman, plead guilty to six felony charges that may involve Gaetz, a banner could be seen over the Florida courthouse. ![]() On the English board the equivalent alternative games are to start with a hole and end with a peg at the same position. This mirror image notation is used, amongst other reasons, since on the European board, one set of alternative games is to start with a hole at some position and to end with a single peg in its mirrored position. There are many different solutions to the standard problem, and one notation used to describe them assigns letters to the holes (although numbers may also be used): On an English board, the first three moves might be: Thus valid moves in each of the four orthogonal directions are: A blue ¤ is the hole the current peg moved from a red * is the final position of that peg, a red o is the hole of the peg that was jumped and removed. indicates a peg in a hole, * emboldened indicates the peg to be moved, and o indicates an empty hole. ![]() The objective is, making valid moves, to empty the entire board except for a solitary peg in the central hole.Ī man playing triangular peg solitaire at a Cracker Barrel restaurant.Ī valid move is to jump a peg orthogonally over an adjacent peg into a hole two positions away and then to remove the jumped peg. The standard game fills the entire board with pegs except for the central hole. This is the first known reference to the game in print. The August 1697 edition of the French literary magazine Mercure galant contains a description of the board, rules and sample problems. The first evidence of the game can be traced back to the court of Louis XIV, and the specific date of 1697, with an engraving made ten years later by Claude Auguste Berey of Anne de Rohan-Chabot, Princess of Soubise, with the puzzle by her side. ![]() It is also called Brainvita in India, where sets are sold commercially under this name. The game is known as solitaire in Britain and as peg solitaire in the US where 'solitaire' is now the common name for patience. Some sets use marbles in a board with indentations. Peg solitaire, Solo Noble or simply Solitaire is a board game for one player involving movement of pegs on a board with holes. The Princess of Soubise playing solitaire, 1697 Soulver - allows you to write expressions in plain English:ģ. Soulver not lost the skills of their prime "brothers":Įxpressions are considered as they are entered rather than at the end.Ģ. However, it also contains a number of other interesting features.ġ. Soulver - an innovative new type of calculator that allows you to perform calculations using simple English. Support for calculations in binary and hex.All the standard mathematical functions.Create variables to hold frequently used numbers.Connect your lines together using answer tokens.Do calculations with stocks ("100 AAPL").Do easy conversions ("10 USD in Euros, "25 meters in feet").Use words amid your calculations so your numbers make sense.See all your calculations all the time, and go back and change any of them.Use Soulver to play around with numbers, do "back of the envelope" quick calculations, and solve day-to-day problems. ![]() Soulver is great for adding things up, easily doing percentages, and converting things, like currencies. You can do calculations over multiple lines, and use words alongside your numbers so they make sense. You type out your problems as you would on paper, and Soulver calculates your answer as you type. It's quicker to use than a spreadsheet, and smarter and clearer than a traditional calculator. Numi is created by a developer from Belarus, which is a country only slightly better than DPRK and I would very much like to have Numi in a sandbox.Soulver helps you do quick calculations and work things out. Edit: I don't like that Numi is not available on the App Store either. Numi has more functionality, looks much better and has fewer bugs. Unfortunately, I found Numi after I purchased Soulver 3, but I have ditched Soulver 3 for Numi. Numi is a a copy of Soulver, but has bypassed the original. The new Soulver 3 UI could be better and I especially find it annoying that the window has a rather large fixed min-width and I also don't like the different color for the right column. It has gained support for date time calculation which is very nice, like 'today + 30 days', but Numi does this better and also has a 'now' variable for current time you can do calculations with. Bit flicking operators does not work anymore, which was so useful for programming. I'm sure this will be addressed in further releases, but for now, it has no iCloud sharing and you cannot share documents with the iOS app. They rewrote the parser and math engine in Swift and a lot of functionality has been lost in the process. Soulver 3 has actually been a bit of a disappointment. The downside now, is that my Soulver 3 App has megabytes of Paddle API frameworks embedded in it that is not used, and Little Snitch reports that Soulver 3 tries to connect to paddle 2 times every freaking time I start the app. Ended up purchasing through the web-site. But sure enough, the in-app purchase experience did not work and crashed when going to PayPal. I did purchase Soulver 3 though because I wanted to support the developer as I have been using Soulver 2 almost daily for 10 years. ![]() But most importantly, Mac App Store Apps must run in a sandbox which is much more secure, than just downloading an app from the internet which might run with root privileges on your Mac. ![]() You can easily install the app on another Mac and it updates automatically and all my apps are in the same place with just one account. It is easy to purchase and with buyer protection. Unpopular opinion, but I always try to buy Apps from the Mac App Store. I almost never buy an app from the Mac App Store when it's also available directly. Beginners will find it easy to create great looking pictures. ![]() An explanation of the tools appears when you hover over the icons, while for more complex tools, such as red-eye removal, full instructions appear in the toolbar on the side. Picasa is incredibly easy to use for photo editing. There are tons of cool filters available, all of which are fully customizable and make the photos look great. You can also use the Fun and Useful Image Processing options to apply filters. Improvements include crop, straighten, auto light, color and contrast correction, sharpening enhancement, and red-eye correction. Picasa isn't professional editing software, but it offers a host of cool features that you can use to do basic editing, image-by-image, in parallel or in batch. The tabs in the interface separate other projects from the library and import.įeatures of Picasa Fast, effective editing without frills You can change the way images are displayed and easily switch between Library View and Edit View (found in the View menu ). Picasa's interface is quite basic and now looks out of date. You can also tag people in the picture so you can easily find them. Picasa also lets you add tags to your photos so you can organize them easily, including adding your photo location (although this has to be entered manually now). You can rearrange and move photos from one location to another by dragging and dropping. Once photos have been added to Picasa, they are organized into albums that appear in the folders with the same name in which they were taken. You don't have to manually import new pictures. Picasa also lets you choose which drives and folders to scan and gives you the option to sync automatically every time you open the software. Viewers can open different file types, including. Upon launching the program, users can choose where Picasa imports photos from his PC: Choose to search only via My Documents, My Pictures, and Desktop, or search across the computer.Īt this stage, you can also choose to use Picasa Photo Viewer to view photos directly from Windows Explorer. What can be done with Picasa?ĭownloading and installing Picasa is easy using the Windows installer. This tool is currently out of development, but is still available for download. It allows you to view images and send them to the Recycle Bin, and that's pretty much it.Picasa Accessible and beginner-oriented, it's easy to use Picasa's photo editing tools to enhance photos, remove red-eye, and correct contrast and color. LeafView is a minimalist image viewer that offers its users a WYSIWYG experience. ![]() To be fair, while by no means impressive, the app's GUI does look rather clean (since there are no menus). The app allows you to open various graphic formats, open single or multiple pictures at once, and send them to the Recycle Bin, and that's pretty much it. ![]() For example, You can't edit pictures, can't copy them to the clipboard, and you can't share or print them. You don't the features that even the most basic image viewers provide. ![]() Its main focus is being as simple and as fast as possible.Īnother great advantage is the fact that the app is designed to be as resource-friendly as possible, and it's also worth noting that your personal information stays safe during its use as the app does not collect any privacy-related info. LeafView is a Microsoft Store app designed with some of the latest web technologies such as Electron and Leaflet.js. Probably the most uncomplicated image viewer out thereīut, how about something even simpler than the standard Windows 10 image viewer? If you're into clean, lean, minimalists designs when it comes to image viewers, then you might want to check out LeafView. However, if you're looking for something with a bit more features, there are plenty of extremely good image viewers out there. The default image viewer (Photos) of Windows 10 is pretty decent both in terms of features and looks, and it caters to most users' needs. ![]() ![]() Case 2: Using Tableau Prep & TabPy to make API requests The script should now run successfully to process your dataset and clean it the way you defined it in your script. py file here and select the function name you defined. This should establish the connection as you see here. Select your server as localhost and Port as 9004 (what you got in the command prompt window) and hit Sign in. This will open up the Settings pane at the bottom where you will select TabPy Server and add the localhost connection by going to Help (at the top) > Settings & Performance> Manage Analytics Extensions Connection. TabPy Server Connection Details (Image by Author) It is in a format that needs to be changed to a more ingestible format for Tableau. Notice the Stands table which gives the list of which stands can be accessed by which gates at an airport terminal. My intention here is not to solve the challenge but to use an excerpt from this flow and show how the data manipulation could be achieved either with in-built features or using the Script feature. ![]() You can also download the source files, Tableau Prep flows, and Python scripts here in case you would like to follow along. I would strongly encourage you to go check this out if you want to challenge yourself with the best ways to prep data (& compare with the provided solutions). Case 1: Using Tableau Prep Features & Python Script interchangeably:įor this example, I have selected a dataset from the Week 48 Challenge. Tableau Prep allows you to handle these changes independently and transition into a cleaned output file for analysis. However, when you are dealing with data where fields might change (courtesy: collaborative worksheets) followed by a pivoting of rows to columns/ unpivoting of columns to rows, it becomes prone to breaking when the source file gets refreshed. For all the data prep nerds out there, I wanted to walk you through a couple of examples of when Scripts on Tableau Prep can prove to be extremely handy.įor most of the cases, Joins & Blends, Level of Detail (LOD) Calculations, and limited Data manipulation that Tableau Desktop allows might suffice. Does that sound like you? That was definitely me a couple of months ago until I discovered the power of scripts: a feature that was released just last year. While Tableau Prep has been around for quite some time, not every Tableau user can vouch for using it extensively. ![]() Traditionally, waste management systems have used a pre-defined route based on historical patterns to schedule garbage collection and recycling point receptacle emptying, whether they were full or not. ![]() There are three critical areas where IoT enables waste management processes. These technologies offer cost and power-efficiency options that leverage existing networks while also having strong built-in security, making them ideal for smart city applications. Instead, it’s LPWA (low-power, wide area) technologies ( LTE-M and NB-IoT) that are leading the way. ![]() And it’s not the conventional cellular technologies – 2G/3G/4G – that are driving growth. While existing units can be retrofitted, wireless sensors are increasingly being pre-integrated into waste bins. Smart waste bins rely primarily on cellular networks, which accounted for about three quarters of connected waste collection points in 2020. The number of smart bins is expected to reach 2.4 million by 2025, and according to Berg Insight, the rapid adoption of smart waste sensors will result in 29.8% growth through 2025. The use of IoT in waste management has the potential to reduce unnecessary expenses that are the result of operational inefficiencies in trash collection processes. Smart waste management has become an essential part of the smart city ecosystem, with IoT-enabled smart waste sensors enabling cities to optimize waste collection, reduce the number of overflowing bins, and manage resources. Valued at just under $1.5 billion in 2018, the smart management market is projected to top $5 billion by 2025. Fortunately, smart city initiatives are driving innovation in the waste management sector. Waste disposal expenses are on the rise as well, with the World Bank predicting global garbage collection costs to top $375 billion in the next five years. The world produces 2.01 billion tons of solid waste annually, with the amount of garbage produced by urban dwellers on track to reach 3.40 billion tons by 2050. But with almost two-thirds of the world’s population predicted to be living in urban areas by 2030, one of the biggest challenges cities will face is waste disposal. IoT plays a crucial role in enhancing smart city applications through real-time monitoring and management of city processes. The room was bright and fresh, however I did notice that perhaps they had finished the fit-out in a rush, as the carpet seemed a bit rough around the edges, and indeed wasn’t quite big enough to make it to the edge of the room and poorly joined. Interestingly, the hair dryer was left on the shelf above the wardrobe hooks – not quite sure how someone in a wheelchair would be expected to reach that! ![]() The room had a large 32” TV with a large selection of channels, and an open wardrobe area. However, whilst they get bonus points for putting plugs and USB charging points next to the bed (usually a real irritation of mine about poorly planned hotel rooms) – it’s let down by the fact there is no shelf or table on the other side of the bed so unless you have a long lead, your phone will be dangling halfway down the wall! I like the bright and clean design of the room, and the quirky use of an airline style trolley for a bedside table / storage area for bottled water and the kettle with complimentary tea/coffee. The soundproofing was also good – there was hardly a peep from outside or from the corridor/other rooms. ![]() The bed was comfy – with a memory foam topper and good quality pillows. From viewing the other pictures on the hotel’s website, it seems this type of room is much more spacious than standard kings. We were allocated an Accessible room on the rear of the property overlooking the car park courtyard. Upgraded?Īs a limited service brand, the Ibis Styles only has standard Double, King or Family rooms, so no upgrades are possible. The check-in staff were in casual clothes – not sure if this is part of the “relaxed” theme of the hotel, but they didn’t even have badges or ID that would mark them out as employees which I found a little odd for a chain hotel. I understand airport hotels must see many travellers who don’t speak English as a first language, or at all, but there could be a little more effort to engage with me, or at least use full sentences. The check in process was quick, but not particularly friendly or welcoming – limited to short instructions along the lines of: We arrived around 9pm at night, having been dropped off by a family member. I also particularly enjoyed the irony of stepping off a free public bus to check in for a First Class flight! Check In We definitely got to the airport faster than the other passengers I could still see hanging around the hotel entrance £5 lighter, waiting for the Hoppa as we boarded the 140 bus. The bus was practically empty and we had tons of space for our luggage. Quick and free – but maybe not the most glamorous airport arrival! The next stop after BM is Heathrow Central Bus Station, in under 5mins – from which you can walk to Terminals 2 and 3, or transfer to the Heathrow Shuttle Trains to T4 or T5. There is a pelican crossing across Bath Road by the petrol station next to the hotel, and then it is a 30 second walk to the bus stop – total hotel room door to bus stop time, maybe 2 minutes? From Bus Stop BM, you can then hop onto public bus routes 105/111/140/285 which run around every 10mins for FREE, due to the TFL Heathrow Free Travel Zone. The really great thing about this hotel’s location, is that literally across the road is bus stop “BM”. The hotel advertises the private National Express Hotel-Hoppa bus service to the terminals, which costs £5 per person – but personally I think you’d be mad to use it. ![]() This is useful for stocking up on snacks and drinks that are more reasonably priced than the hotel or airport. Next door is a Texaco petrol station with a Co-Op shop attached. The Ibis Styles Heathrow is located in the “centre” of Bath Road right opposite Heathrow, less than a minute from the M4 junction. I was also more hopeful for the state of the rooms given its newness, as I have been less than impressed with the state of some more “mature” airport properties given the battering they seem to get from high volumes of one night stayers! Location The Ibis Styles, which opened in July 2016, was the cheapest option. Whilst I am normally an IHG/ Hilton loyalist, of which there a numerous options around Heathrow, in light of the current circumstances my focus this time was on spending as little as possible whilst having a comfortable night. Some links to products and partners on this website will earn an affiliate commission.Īfter booking my First Class “dream redemption”, and knowing that I would want to get into the lounge bright and early to maximise our experience, I decided to book a hotel near Heathrow for the night before. ![]() She especially enjoys working with young people who have experienced a first episode of psychosis. ![]() She has expertise in working with individuals experiencing medical symptoms or conditions that may be exacerbated by stress, including tension headaches and migraines, chronic pain, gastrointestinal distress, hypertension, overeating and substance misuse. Height specializes in working with adolescents and adults who are having difficulty coping with stress, experiencing symptoms of anxiety, interpersonal conflict, low mood, concentration and attention problems, emotional dysregulation, eating disorders, body dysmorphia, substance use difficulties, personality disorders and sleep problems. Height believes in the interconnectedness of the mind and the body and that treatment should be geared toward helping the whole person improve health and wellbeing. Prior to moving to New Hampshire in 2014, she was an assistant professor of psychiatry at Yale University and Clinical Director of the Yale Stress Center, a cutting edge interdisciplinary clinical and research center specializing in interventions for stress and addictive behaviors.ĭr. She received her doctorate degree from University of Hartford and completed an APA accredited pre-doctoral internship and post-doctoral fellowship at Yale University School of Medicine. she is licensed in both New Hampshire and Vermont and is also certified to provide tele-therapy through the PSYPACT, which allows her to accept clients from 17 additional states. Height is a clinical psychologist and Assistant Professor at The Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. |