Category Archives: Mind Uploading

This practice of picture-posting is referred to as sharing thirst traps. The Cambridge dictionary defines thirst trap as a statement by or photograph of someone on social media intended to attract attention, or to make people who see it sexually interested in them.

Thirst-trapping is a pronounced culture in the US, popularised by influencers like Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner over the last couple of years. At least 150-200 thirst trap tweets are posted every hour on Twitter on a daily basis and more than half of these are from the US, as per analytics portal Hashtagify. The practice is age-agnostic, with celebrities in their 60s, like Madonna, making headlines for posting thirst traps on Instagram earlier this week.

Thirst trap culture has gained traction in India recently. Google Trends India suggests the interest for the term has peaked thrice in the last six months, indicating its growing influence among Indian social media users. The last spike was seen in May 2020.

These Gen Z women are part of over 470 million people in the country as per Bloomberg analysis born roughly between the year 1996 and 2010. They were born alongside the birth of the internet. Growing up, theyve had their accounts on every social media platform from Facebook to Instagram. And their internet habits are very different from their predecessors, the millennials.

According to Facebooks advertising vertical, Facebook.com/Ads, over 4 million women Instagrammers from India in the 18-24 age group show interest in human sexuality as a topic, as opposed to 2.7 million in the 25-31 cohort.

Theyre fluid about their identity online, notes Ishtaarth Dalmia, an anthropologist and AVP at digital agency Dentsu Webchutney. Most of these womens social media bios don't reflect their names but have emoticons or random words instead. They are quick to open and shut social accounts. They have private Instagram accounts dedicated to posting thirst traps that have several thousand in followers.

Seeking Validation

Thirst trapping is also a shortcut to getting validation, an important marker of identity formation for Gen Z.

This generation feels so overwhelmed by its inability to control everything thats going on in the world that fetching likes and shares brings in a sense of control to them. Its something they can rely on, says Dalmia.

Influencers like the Kardashians glorify this idea as well. They are indirectly sending this message that posting provocative content can make you the next youngest millionaire, says Sascha Kirpalani, a Mumbai-based psychologist.

However, the motivation behind posting thirst traps is a lot deeper, she quickly adds. It is a means to self-expression for a lot of women in this generation, a form of feminism, of reclaiming power over their own body.

To some, like Pooja Mishra from Mumbai, it implies breaking away from the repression theyve seen the previous generations of women go through.

I dont mind sharing thirst traps. Its a part of me, not my entire personality. That's my face and body I walk around with 24x7. I shouldn't have to hide it in the online world because of the threat of someone being creepy, says the Gen Z chartered accountant.

Even its predecessors note that this cohort is far more vocal about its sexuality and love for erotica, both in words and visuals, than they are. What you see them post online is actually a manifestation of what we used to write in our diaries, says Shreemi Verma, a Mumbai-based content creator in her late 20s.

A lot of these women post thirst pictures via their alt-accounts (alternate accounts). Perhaps thats why they find it to be a safer space as it doesnt come with judgement from peers or family, Verma reckons.

Changing Perceptions

Gen Z women are now having an outsized influence on the way women, in general, express their sexuality online.

Before Gen Z Twitter became popular, hardly anyone spoke of erotica. People labelled it as explicit content, notes Srishti Millicent, a digital marketer based in Chandigarh.

Now these 18-23-year-olds put thirst traps and they go viral, she adds.

By the way, Millicent is only 25. But she too feels it's the "younger" girls who make her feel more comfortable about posting thirst traps online now.

On Twitter, thirst traps start with one person from this Gen Z community tweeting and urging others to post their pictures, notes Kejal Shah, a 27-year-old HR professional from Mumbai. Thats how it starts trending. You dont feel awkward doing it because everyone else is getting on board as well.

Shah herself has posted an occasional thirst trap on her social media accounts in recent times.

Pune-based Ira, a 24-year-old radio jockey, sees this trend as part of an attempt where Women make online spaces safer for women.

Ira shares a story of a fellow Gen Z woman who was recently harassed by a man about one of her pictures online. She traced him to his Facebook account which led her to the guys mothers profile. She then confronted him with screenshots of his inappropriate messages, asking if she should show his mother what her son is up to. The guy was profusely apologetic.

Across social media platforms, these women have now created a sorority of their own.

Every Gen Z woman in India, who is comfortable posting thirst traps online, is likely to follow several others like her. Inside this tiny community, people hype each other as enthusiastically as they cancel a member who isnt genuine, says Ira.

They operate under pseudonymous accounts, but a look at the list of people they follow gives an insight into their minds. It has artists, poets, activists, fake news and misinformation fighters. Satire and irony are dominating themes of their content.

For advertisers targetting Gen Z, this segment is still an enigma theyre trying to decrypt, notes Dentsu Webchutney anthropologist Dalmia.

Some of them also post pictures of celebrities they are thirsting for. Others highlight the problematic nature of 365 Days, a Polish erotica movie streaming on Netflix that has been trending on the platform in India for weeks now arguing that it glorifies molestation and abduction.

Many have developed a thick skin when it comes to receiving unwarranted comments from men on their posts. However, some question if these lot are indeed being anti-feminist since they eventually end up catering to a male fantasy of women.

Many thirst trappers end up deleting their pictures after uploading them, fearing negative attention. Some of them also worry they may attach their self-esteem to the number of likes they get on these pictures for good.

They say thirst traps are part of the larger realm of body-positivity content. But they also know that while every thirst trap is body-positive, not all body-positive posts are thirst traps.

On social media, however, all are happily welcome to co-exist.

(Illustration and graphics by Rahul Awasthi)

Read more here:

The rise of Thirst Trap culture among Gen Z Indian women - ETtech.com

Moyra Davey:Drifts [2020] is your most voluptuous and sensuous work to date, even though much of the novel is about struggle and feeling at a miserable impasse with the book you are writing. You manage to both write the problem and, simultaneously, provide the solution. You talk about block, but the writing feels like its opposite: flow. You invoke the [new] texture of boredom, the energy of the internet, its distracted nature and wonder how to invest the writing with these particular drives, how to replicate the mind wandering. You name the affect you crave for your novel and, immediately, the writing serves it up. You have found the perfect form: a novel made up of fragments, using the note-taking practice you find so vital.

I know from the conversations between you and your friends in Drifts that, like me, you prize your relationships with writer-friends, the (usually women) interlocutors who prod us, open doors and offer sympathetic guidance, often with lightning speed. Try to be with flowers, the poet Bhanu Kapil says to you in Drifts; later, in an exchange with the writer Sofia Samatar, you talk about empty[ing] a text in order to fill it. This speaks to a particular difficulty Im having with a shapeless, bloated text, about which Ive come to feel phobic. I wondered if you could expand on that particular point: the emptying out that might lead to structure.

Kate Zambreno:Theres something monstrous to the shapeless. I have a fear of it as well. I like to think of writers block, the dread of it, as resulting from too much material too many notebooks filled up. For the period I dramatize in Drifts, it was also about the desire for my work to feel private and ongoing rather than being instantly published and commodified to be read only by my correspondents, my addressees, entirely women and non-binary writers.

In the book, one of the characters, Anna, says to the narrator that the notes are the work. I tend to gravitate towards writing that is about process yours, Kapils, Samatars, Herv Guiberts and W.G. Sebalds. I dont think about structure, per se, or story, but I am interested in narrative and form and repetition. Theres such an organic flow to the form of your books Les Goddesses/Hemlock Forest [2017] and Burn the Diaries [2014] the titles, the places, the sense of travelling through that every writer who reads them begins to mimic it. These books read like they were written in the time they were conceived and are about time. When my writing feels shapeless and bloated, like it does now, malingering for years around the study of Guibert I have been working on, which was supposed to be a short text, I realize that writing is time, and must take the time it needs.

Ive always been drawn to the suspense in Thomas Bernhard, Sophie Calle, Guibert and Sebald. Their works are note-like and documentary, but also read like detective stories. Theres an atmospheric moodiness or tension, also something thats withheld from us throughout. In The Compassion Protocol [1995], Guiberts narrator says Im paraphrasing here that he most feels like hes writing fiction when hes writing in a diary. Theres a noir or speculative quality to Drifts the sense of a coded reality that the narrator is trying to figure out.

MD:The last line of Drifts mentions beauty not knowing what beauty is, but that it adheres to many things. I wondered how you would end this book, as it builds towards an almost unbearable tension: your fear of not being able to finish it, mounting material anxieties, your pregnant body about to explode. The pressure seems almost uncontainable. And then there is a pause, a muting and you re-emerge using the beautiful device of simply noting a date, 7 December, to mark the event of your daughters birth. It is the opposite of Maggie Nelsons choice to narrate the minutiae of giving birth in The Argonauts [2015], but your laconic version is extraordinary in its own way, communicating something momentous with a rare economy of means. It shifts from the compulsive, yet no less compelling, uploading of life that characterizes most of the book. Drifts gives the fantastic impression of living and writing life simultaneously, and of doing it without shame, or perhaps doing it in such a way that shame becomes beautiful.

KZ:Originally, the ending included more of the duration and exhaustion of my labour; I was in prodromal labour for almost a month. I had already written about this fugue state in Appendix Project [2019], and I always imagined Id pick it up again in Ghosts, the as-yet-unwritten novel thats supposed to be its sequel. Vertigo the second half of Drifts is elliptical and fragmentary; less an exhaustive recitation of the facts of a life and more about the claustrophobic intimacy of it. It was important to me that the book didnt show a journey of motherhood; I didnt want a baby to solve the main protagonists existential crisis, which is a crisis of the book she is trying to write. It was Samatar who told me that too much of the baby even the joy of her overdetermined the book. In a way, it goes against what some readers might want. Also, I am resistant to the ways a birth story is often told as a coherent narrative. Trauma is more fragmented, remembered later, in glimpses.

MD:The few details you give us wholly convey this bewildered state, but you make the experience completely your own. Your tender, yet slightly detached, observations of the baby and the hilarious depiction of the postpartum, scatological scene of retention/expulsion are consistent with all the earlier, non-maternal writing in Drifts. Ive read quite a bit of the literature of motherhood and your voice is like no other Ive encountered.

KZ:I want to hear more about writing and shame, its relationship to beauty, as its something I think about a lot. I wonder if its why we are both so drawn to Guibert, Kapil and David Wojnarowicz. Theres this moment at the end of Drifts where I cite you, trying to reference a work of yours, Dr. Y., Dr. Y. [2014], in which you are naked and pregnant in bed with your dog. A line from Anne Sextons Words for Dr. Y. [1978] frames the central image: Why else keep a journal, if not to examine your own filth? So much of your work, both the videos and the writing, engages with the diary or notebook the intimate space of the domestic. But theres also an intriguing opacity in your work that I identify with, in tension, perhaps, with this beautiful transparency of the daily: the refusal to go back to trauma or childhood, that space of memoir you refer to as the wet in Les Goddesses/Hemlock Forest.

MD:Shame is only ugly when its hidden. It can be breathtakingly beautiful when a writer puts it out there without fanfare. Im quite preoccupied with shame, so I home in on authors whove found ways to write it. Thats what good literature does: in the right hands, shame doesnt even exist because it becomes something else. I think it was Nadine Gordimer who said: Write as if you were dead. This is something I try to do, but I am not there yet. The artwork with my dog and me in bed is surrounded by little photos of her shitting. I thought the curve of her arched back mimicked my pregnant belly; I was no doubt projecting onto her defecation a wish to empty myself out. The unofficial title for that piece was Ante-Partum Document. I showed it to my gallerist at the time, Colin de Land, and he recoiled from it, compared it to the worst of feminist art. I dont hold any of this against him, but I was ashamed and put the piece away. I have Gregg Bordowitz to thank for encouraging me to revisit it nearly 20 years later and remake it using the Sexton quote. I was reading Sexton for another project, the video Notes on Blue [2015], and came across that line in Words for Dr. Y., which is dedicated to her analyst. Entirely coincidentally, Dr. Y. was the name I gave my shrink in the video Fifty Minutes [2006], so I titled the new piece Dr. Y., Dr. Y.

KZ:So much of your art seems to be about The Problem of Reading, to quote the title of a 2003 work of yours.

MD:There are many problems of reading. There is the research problem trying to put your hand on the right thing, and often not knowing what that is. I met a graduate student in Toronto, named Kate Whiteway, who used the expression: Being in the Eros of research. My oldest friend, the writer and translator Alison Strayer, spoke of that zone of reading as a state of bliss, when theres never a question, where one thing leads to another. But, for me, there is also the problem of being over-identified with reading, and so I am trying to change it up. In my latest work-in-progress, I originally decided there would be no citations, but then I felt utterly compelled to write about Hilton Als, Carson McCullers and Christa Wolf. I dont know that Ill ever write something that is not dependent on communion and connection.

KZ:I also feel Im often over-identified with reading. It seems people sometimes read my work to get a bibliography out of it. Which is perverse because I frequently go through periods of extreme reading allergy. So much of Drifts involves searching for books to read but finding everything too porous. Its a relief when I am reading ecstatically, when I have the time and space. Especially when Im pregnant Im again in my second trimester I cant read much. I spend a lot of time looking and thinking and feeling, and then eating and sleeping. I become like my dog. Which reminds me of that moment in Burn the Diaries, where you describe Eileen Myless passage about her dog, Rosie, shitting and you feeling a kinship looking at your own dog, Bella. I felt such an uncanny affinity reading that passage, because so much of my notetaking was observing dailiness. Im inspired by the way your mind makes connections over texts. Much of Drifts came from walking around my neighbourhood and the city, desiring to take series of photographs, whether of my dog on the porch or the bark of the trees or the feral cats or Halloween decorations. Throughout, I was thinking about images, like the 16th-century prints of Albrecht Drer, Peter Hujars photographs of animals [1960s80s], Sarah Charlesworths Stills [1980]. The book includes not only some of my amateur photographs but also collages and diptychs. I admire how you use and philosophize photography, including your own, in your writing. Was your writing practice always concurrent with your image-making practice?

MD:For a long time, I only made photographs, and dabbled in the moving image. I didnt really start to write until after editing Mother Reader [2001], at which point I wanted to take a break from photography and focus on writing and video. My most recent photographs are black and white images of chickens, horses and dogs taken with my late-1960s Hasselblad. The series was spawned partly by a recent film project and partly by a desire to actively channel Hujars animal portraits. That was a humbling learning experience. Its uncanny how we have overlapping spheres of influence and projective desire for certain artists and writers, even down to the title of your forthcoming book on Guibert, To Write as if Already Dead. I love hearing that the impulse to write Drifts was so strongly linked to your photographic drive. Maybe that is the answer to my bloated, stalled text: to reconnect again with images, as filtered through writing.

This article first appeared in frieze issue 212.

Main image: Moyra Davey, Jane (detail), 1984, gelatin silver print, 5141cm. Courtesy: the artist, greengrassi, London, and Galerie Buchholz, Berlin/Cologne/New York

More here:

Moyra Davey and Kate Zambreno on Writing As If You Were Dead - frieze.com

Ah, the Trending tab. YouTubes showcase of videos that a wide range of viewers would find interesting. Like many other facets of the platforms content recommendation algorithm, the Trending tab has been a frequent target of suspicion from creators who want to know more about its inner workingsnotably how and why it surfaces some seemingly popular videos, but not others.

Well likely never get a true peek under the hood from YouTube itself. But thanks to data scientist Ammar Alyousfi, we now have a massive amount of data about every single video that hit the tab in 2019, as well as corresponding conclusions about what qualities these videos tend to share.

To compile his report, Alyousfi ran an automated script that scraped data from YouTubes Trending tab every day throughout the year. According to YouTube, Trending isnt personalized and displays the same list of trending videos in each country to all users so he didnt have to account for the possibility that different videos might show up for users in different regions.

Alyousfi found that over the course of 2019, YouTubes Trending tab displayed 11,177 unique videos. If that sounds smaller than expected, its because Trending actually displayed 72,994 total entries, or around 200 videos per day, but a number of those videos trended for multiple days. For the purpose of his report, Alyousfi chose to examine data on all of the 72,994 trending videos, not on unique trending videos only, he said. The reasoning behind this is that we are interested in videos considered trending by YouTube. So if a video is considered trending for 3 days, then we believe it has more trending power and more trending characteristics than a video trending for 1 day only; thus, it should have more weight. So we include the 3 occurrences of that video in the analysis.

So, which videos had the most trending power? In 2019, six videos appeared on the Trending tab for a staggering 30 days:

Perhaps unsurprisingly, three of them are music videos, and two are related to mega-popular kpop band BTSwhich was also behind YouTubes most-watched Trending video of 2019. The music video for Boy With Luv, its Halsey collaboration, had 195,376,667 views when it first appeared on the tab April 23,Alyousfi found. (For scale, he found 90% of videos hit Trending for the first time when they had less than 2,752,317 views. The smallest number of views a Trending video had when it entered was 53,796, and the average view count was 1,387,466.)

None of the longest-trending videos came from YouTube channels that most frequently produced trending content. Alyousfis data showed that, globally, the top Trending channel of 2019 was Canadian YouTuber Linus Sebastians Linus Tech Tips(11 million subscribers, 120 million views per month), which had a whopping 365 uploads appear on the tab. His channel was closely followed by cooking-focused Binging with Babish (7.3 million, 70 million), which produced around 360 Trending videos.

Other top Trending channels include: culinary magazine Bon Apptit (likely thanks to its incredibly popular, recently controversial series Bon Apptit Test Kitchen) with 355 videos; life hack channel The King of Random (12 million, 40 million) with 350; tech creator and YouTube Original star Marques Brownlee (11 million, 60 million) with 350;WWE (62 million, 1.5 billionyes, seriously, 1.5 billion views per month) with around 345; and Tati Westbrook (9.3 million, 10 million) with 330.

Here are all 19 top Trending channels:

Creators have long wondered whether uploading on specific days or at specific times, using all caps in their titles, or having lengthy/link-riddled descriptions affects the reach of their content. Alyousfi broke down these and a few more hypotheses to find out if any, well, trends show up amongst videos that appeared on the tab.

He found that Trending uploads were spread pretty evenly across days of the week. Tuesday, with 11,986 trending videos, was the highest posting day, while Saturday (7,345) lagged noticeably behind all other days. As for time of day, he found that videos uploaded between noon and 2 p.m. Eastern were the most likely to hit Trending, while videos uploaded between 6 a.m. and 11 a.m. Eastern were the least.

With that in mind, though, its worth noting that the majority of videos did not appear on Trending on the actual day they were published. On average, a video appears on the trending list after 5.6 days of publishing, Alyousfi wrote. Also, 95% of the videos took less than 13 days to appear.

His data showed several additional trends among video titles, including: a full 50% of Trending videos had no all-caps words in their titles; titles were generally between 36 and 64 characters in length; and the most common words used in Trending titles were official, video, 2019, vs, trailer, music, game, new, highlights, first, and challenge. (Also, the fire emoji was the most commonly used on Trending videos.)

One of the last findings Alyousfi discusses is video tags. He says almost all Trending videos used tags, and the average number used per video is 21. But, he notes, YouTube tells creators that, Tags can be useful if content in your video is commonly misspelled. Otherwise, tags play a minimal role in helping viewers find your video.

But if that was true, why would YouTube add a lot of tags to their videos? he asks, pointing out that YouTubes 2019 Rewind video had 39 tags. He didnt reach any concrete conclusions about whether tags affect video surfacing, but said that just 3.5% of Trending videos had no tags.

You can see his full report here.

Follow this link:

What Makes A YouTube Video Hit The Trending Tab? This Data Scientist Broke Down Every Single Video That Trended In 2019. - Tubefilter

Weve had a lot of readers recently ask, Wait, you have a travel forum? While it might not be the most advertised and talked about aspect of our online publication, the answer is a resounding yes!

Fodors forums are going strongweve got explorers from all walks of life giving their expert advice on all things travel, the only thing missing is you. Looking for your starting point? Why not dive in with our monthly photo contest.

To join in on the forum-fun, simply upload your favorite travel photo here (while we all have favorite travel photographers, these photos do have to be your own). For those not quite used to the forum yetit looks more than a little different from our main sitewe have a helpful how-to for uploading a photo.

Dont forget, after you upload your photo, go through and give your other favorites a likethis is a competition where the winner is chosen by you after all. And while were on the topic of winners, one photographer (amateur to professional, all are welcome!) with the most likes will get not only their choice of a Fodors Guidebook, but theyll also get a Fodors swag bag full of exciting surprises!

Enticed? Have a travel photo in mind? Just make sure to check out the official rules before getting started! And, though it probably goes without saying, make sure to keep your travel photos safe for work (while were sure skinny dipping in Greece was thrilling and wed love to hear about it, we should be upfront and say: thats not this website).

Take to your phone, your cameras, whatever it is you snap a photo with, and pick your all-time favorite! And dont worry, because this happens monthly, if you have a few photos you just cant choose between, youll have your chance to share them all over time. So please, head to the forums because we want to hear what you, our favorite travelers, have to say.

Read more here:

Win Big in the Fodor's Forums - Fodor's Travel

Karma Yoga: Sri Krishna has also said in the Gita, has Yoga: Karmasu Kaushalam means to work efficiently. The principle of Karma Yoga is that everything we experience in the present is based on our earlier deeds. Hatha Yoga: These days the prevalence of hatha yoga has increased considerably. By doing this you can stay physically healthy and mentally peaceful.

Ayush Minister Shripad Naik announced that Prime Minister will lead the program on 21 June 2020. International Yoga Day 2020: The main national event to commemorate the 6th International Day of Yoga (IDY) will be held in Leh, capital of Ladakh on June 21, 2020. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be leading the event. This in itself will make the International Yoga Day 2020 celebrations unique and different.

Like every year, this year hardly we will be able to celebrate Yoga Day outside the houses.You all know very well that Yoga has a special place in Indian culture.It is such a power that possesses the art of rooting out the biggest diseases.On June 21, celebrating International Yoga Day began.

It turns out that June 21 is the biggest day of the year.Yoga also gives longevity to humans.The Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi, took the initiative to celebrateInternational YogaDay on 27 September 2014 on 21 June.

This time the whole world is ready to celebrate the sixth International Yoga Day on 21 June 2020. The day was declared International Day by the United Nations General Assembly. This year Prime Minister Narendra Modi is fully ready to celebrate International Yoga Day in Leh on 21 June 2020. Around 20000 people will be invited to this event. During the COVID-19 epidemic, it was seen that everyone wants to become familiar with yoga at this time.

Ministry of AYUSH has organized an international competition called My life, My yoga You can participate in this by uploading a 3-minute video while doing yoga at your home. In such a video, you have to do something similar yoga that you do daily.

In this speech he said

Yoga is an invaluable gift of the ancient tradition of India. It symbolizes the unity of mind and body; harmony between man and nature; is thought-provoking and fulfilling and also provides a holistic approach to health and well-being. It is not about exercise, but about the feeling of unity within ourselves, the pursuit of the world, and nature. By becoming this consciousness in our changing lifestyles, we can help in tackling climate change. So lets work towards adopting an International Yoga Day.Narendra Modi, United Nations General Assembly

Yoga is such an effective form ofwww.realfoodieidea.com/2020/05e-exercise, through which the balance is created not only in body parts but also in mind, brain, and soul. This is the reason that apart from physical ailments from yoga, mental problems can also be overcome. To know what yoga is, we have to go to its core. The word yoga originates from the Sanskrit word Yuj, which means to connect.

There are basically two meanings of yoga, first- joining and second- samadhi. Until we can connect with ourselves, it is difficult to attain the level of samadhi.Yoga is beyond religion, faith, and superstition. Yoga is a direct science. Is experimental science. Yoga is the art of living life. Yoga is a complete medical practice. A complete route is Rajpath. Actually, religion binds people with pegs, and yoga shows the path of liberation from all kinds of pegs.

Raj Yoga:The last stage of yoga is called samadhi. It has been considered the king of all yogas because there is definitely a specialty of all types of yoga.

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

More:

International Yoga Day 21 June 2020: Will it be online? - WhaTech

Kangana Ranaut is constantly in the news in recent days. After the tragic event of Sushant Singh Rajputs death, Kangana Ranaut took to her social media and released a video in which she slammed nepotism in Bollywood. She then went on to pay tribute to martyred soldiers in India-China faceoff at Galwanvalley. Here is what Kangana Ranaut has been up to this week from June 14 to June 20, 2020.

After Sushant Singh Rajputs death, Kangana Ranaut uploaded a two-minute long video on her social media in which she talked about nepotism in Bollywood. In her video, she questioned about Sushant Singh Rajputs movies being ignored in award shows. He also praised his movie Chhichhore.

Also Read |Kangana Ranaut Slams Nepotism Over Sushant Singh's Death, Asks 'why Didn't He Get Awards?'

Kangana Ranaut took to her Twitter and shared the list of martyred jawans who lost their lives in violent clashes at India China border. It was reported that 20 Indian Army personnel lost their lives while 43 casualties were reported on the Chinese side. In her tweet, she saluted the brave hearts and said that their sacrifice will never be forgotten.

Also Read |India-China Faceoff: Kangana Ranaut Pays Tribute To Martyred Soldiers

Kangana Ranaut took to her Twitter and shared a post about Rani Laxmibai on her death anniversary. She remembered the brave queen of Jhansi and said that people have grown up learning to stories Manikarnikas bravery. She also added that her courageous story must be passed on to future generations as a role model.

Also Read |Kangana Ranaut Remembers Rani Of Jhansi On Death Anniversary, Shares Story Of Her Valour

Kangana Ranaut stirred up a storm on social media when she uploaded another video to talk about Sushant Singh Rajputs death. In the latest video by the actor, she called out the blind items that were written on Sushant Singh Rajput in the past and also referred to his death as a murder. She further questioned that why such blind pieces which are intended to defame a certain celebrity are never written on nepo kids?

Also Read |Kangana Ranaut Calls Out Blind Items On Sushant, Asks 'Why Are They Never For Nepo Kids?'

After Sushant Singh Rajputs sudden demise, Kangana Ranaut was one of the celebrities who talked about the nepotism in Bollywood. Her recent videos about the late actor and nepotism in Bollywood have gained her millions of followers on social media. The Bollywood actor has gained more than 1.7 million followers after uploading her first video about Sushant Singh Rajput.

Also Read |Kangana Ranaut's Instagram Gains Millions Of Followers After Nepotism Video; See Responses

Get the latest entertainment news from India & around the world. Now follow your favourite television celebs and telly updates. Republic World is your one-stop destination for trending Bollywood news. Tune in today to stay updated with all the latest news and headlines from the world of entertainment.

Read more:

From paying tribute to speaking her mind, here is what Kangana Ranaut was upto this week - Republic World - Republic World

No piece of technology is going to solve deep-seated trust issues in a community with the police

After a significant increase in calls for its officers to be equipped with body-worn cameras, the RCMP announced last week, on June 8, that it would begin work on a broad deployment of the devices nationwide.

But experts who study these devices say their potential benefits will depend on what plans and policies are adopted by the RCMP for their use.

A common mistake when adopting body cameras is rushing into them, said Aili Malm, a professor of criminology and criminal justice at California State University Long Beach.

Malm provides technical assistance and training for police departments on body-worn cameras throughout the United States, where the devices have been used for longer and are more widespread.

One of the first things we ask departments is, why do you want to do this? What are your goals? she said.

If you dont have clear goals, you dont have a good policy. Youre just implementing technology and no technology is a panacea to all the problems were seeing in policing right now.

When David Qamaniq, Nunavuts MLA for Tununiq, raised the issue of body-worn cameras earlier this year during the winter sitting of the legislature, he did so in favour of methods and technologies which can safeguard us against acts of violence.

Concerns have been raised about violent interactions between police and Nunavummiut. We have read about it in newspapers and seen video clips posted on social media. The concerns are real, he said.

Less than a week later there was an RCMP-involved shooting in Kinngait.

Including that incident, there have been three RCMP-involved shootings in Nunavut since Qamaniq spoke.

Two were fatal and all involved Inuit.

Since then, others have joined the call for cameras, including Nunavut Senator Dennis Patterson and MP Mumilaaq Qaqqaq.

On June 2, the same day that Iqaluit Mayor Kenny Bell expressed his interest in equipping the RCMP with body-worn cameras, a video surfaced on social media that showed a Kinngait RCMP officer knocking down an Inuk man with a vehicle door.

The incident made national news at a time when widespread protests against police brutality had begun in the United States and Canada.

Following that, Amanda Jones, chief superintendent of the Nunavut RCMP, also lent her support for the cameras.

I think we are all on the same page that we would like to bring in the body cams, she said.

On June 8, less than a week later, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, after speaking with RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki about the issue, also voiced his support.

It is something that is, in my opinion, what we need to move forward with, he said.

Im committing to raising this with the provinces this week, so we can move forward as quickly as possible.

Later that day the RCMP responded with a statement: The commissioner has confirmed that the RCMP will engage in work and discussion with policing partners and the NPF [the RCMP union] on a broader rollout of body-worn cameras.

One of the recurring hopes expressed by those in support of the cameras is an increase in trust.

But for Malm, thats problematic.

No piece of technology is going to solve deep-seated trust issues in a community with the police, she said.

That being said, it can be an important piece of the puzzle, if implemented correctly.

Prior to the RCMPs commitment to roll out the cameras nationally, the obstacles in the territory repeatedly flagged by Jones and by Nunavuts minister of justice, Jeannie Ehaloak, were the durability of the devices, their cost and the logistics of video storage.

When Qamaniq first asked about the implementation of body-worn cameras in the legislature during the fall sitting last October, one of the answers he received was a concern about the durability of the devices themselves.

We know that in the wintertime, if you have a camera, because of the harsh climate, we dont know how these cameras will withstand within the weather or in the vehicles, but we are checking into it, responded Ehaloak.

The City of Iqaluit bylaw enforcement has been using body-worn cameras in some capacity for roughly five years, first as a trial and now all four bylaw officers are equipped with one.

According to Rod Mugford, the citys chief enforcement officer, the weather isnt an issue.

They dont freeze up. They dont go dead, he said.

The cold doesnt affect them.

Mugford also said that the devices arent even prone to fogging when transitioning from cold environments to warm ones or vice versa.

Another concern about the cameras was their price.

According to Malm, that concern is shared by many police departments. Its a huge cost.

Often, its not the devices themselves, but the file storage thats expensive.

Most of the large vendors will offer the cameras for free as long as you sign a contract for their storage, said Malm.

The City of Iqaluit uses a vendor called Axon, which uses its own proprietary cloud-based storage system called Evidence.com.

While this requires a reliable internet connection, Mugford said that using the Axon cameras and uploading videos to their storage system hasnt been an issue, particularly given the citys policy of uploading all videos at the end of each shift.

With the logistical obstacles cleared, the question for many departments then becomes whether or not the cost is worth it.

Its a really complicated question, said Malm.

Despite the growing number of studies done into the effectiveness of body-worn cameras, Malm says there havent been many that have done a cost-benefit analysis.

In cities like Las Vegas, the cost-benefit of body-worn cameras comes in the form of reduced litigation against the police, says Malm.

But in Nunavut and across Canada, that wouldnt be the case.

You dont have legal suits against the police that they do down here, so your [financial] benefit is likely to be reduced, said Malm.

The other challenge around the cost-benefit analysis of the cameras is putting a dollar amount on goals.

How much value does the department of the community put on increasing trust in police and how do you accomplish that? asked Malm.

Is it always worth it? No. Should all departments implement body-worn cameras? No, but you should carefully consider what the issues are and if body-worn cameras could help.

When Qamaniq brought up the topic of body-worn cameras again during the winter sitting of the legislature, Ehaloak advised him that although the RCMP and the Department of Justice at this time will not be looking at those options, the Kativik Regional Police Force in Nunavik are doing a pilot project in their territory.

Once that pilot projects results are received, we will be looking at their results and the research, and the pilot project itself, and we will be reviewing our [options], she said.

In May, the KRPF said that the pilot project has seen some success.

KRPF Chief Jean-Pierre Larose reported that the six cameras worn by different officers during the pilot project have recorded video footage from 48 police interventions, with 15 of those videos later used as evidence in criminal files.

Most recently, on June 12, KRPF officers equipped with body-worn cameras arrested an intoxicated man outside the Kuujjuaq hospital for obstruction of a peace officer and for resisting arrest after he refused to cooperate with the officers instructions to leave, and was putting his cell phone near the officers face, said a KRPF news release.

Ive viewed the body-camera footage and the actions of the police officer are appropriate and within our policies, said Capt. Maxime Mercier in the release.

The recording shows that the individual was waving his camera within inches of the officers face, even though the officer repeatedly told the person to stay at a reasonable distance.

The release also states that the recording of the incident has been submitted as evidence to a Crown attorney.

While this may satisfy one of the KRPFs goals of the pilot project, providing additional evidence to the court, it may be harmful to others, said Erick Laming, a Shabot Obaadjiwan First Nation Ph.D. candidate in criminology at the University of Toronto.

The other goals of the KRPF body-worn camera pilot project include increasing police accountability, transparency, public trust, confidence and the efficiency of resolution of complaints against police officers while reducing use of force incidents by and against the police.

Most of the research [on body-worn cameras] suggests that complaints against officers do decrease [when theyre used], said Laming.

But theres a problem with that, because we have no way of knowing if thats a change in officer behaviour, citizen reporting behaviour, or something else.

In his experience researching police use of force and oversight, Laming has asked Indigenous community members if they would be willing to file a complaint against the police after body camera implementation. They said no way.

While this cant be generalized, Laming said that part of the reason behind that may be because theyre already targeted to begin with.

Now if they put in a complaint, everything is going to be captured in the camera. The police have that. Its a little bit more power. Its more surveillance for the police. So that person is going to feel even more vulnerable, especially if it comes back and its found that the police are investigating, said Laming.

So thats not going to really increase any trust. It actually pushes those people away from reporting.

Laming also ties this issue to transparency.

If somebody doesnt want to make a complaint or theyre fearful or they distrust the system to begin with, and its captured on video, are we ever going to know whatever happened if the RCMP dont release it? he asked.

The issue also extends to policies governing the use of the cameras and disciplinary actions if those policies arent adhered to.

In Calgary theyve had cameras for over a year on all officers and we cant even get access to that policy publicly, wed have to go through an FOI [freedom of information request], said Laming.

So if we dont even know what the policy says publicly, how can we trust whats going on?

The KRPF policy regarding camera use is also not publicly available, though when asked via email, Mercier stated, police officers wearing the body cameras must record every intervention involving violence, impaired driving and any other extraordinary circumstances. The goal, as the project progresses, is to eventually record every intervention.

Mercier also noted that Failing to respect the internal procedure on body cameras can result in disciplinary sanctions going from a warning to a dismissal.

For both Laming and Malm, community involvement in the creation of body-worn camera policy is critical.

It cant be just the police department sitting down and saying this is going to be our body-worn camera policy because the policy deals with a lot of different things: How often is footage going to be reviewed? [H]ow are we going to release it to the public? How are we going to deal with instances of abuse when we see it on camera? said Malm.

If you dont get the perspective and the voice of the community in those policies and if the policies arent being enforced, if the department isnt accountable to those policies, then youre going to see much less effect on trust and accountability and transparency.

Despite both being police forces in Inuit Nunangat, what works for the KPRF in Nunavik may not work for the Nunavut RCMP, a national police force operating under a 20-year contract in the territory.

Context is everything. We see such dramatically different [body camera] results in different departments, said Malm.

The Arctic is much different than the City of Montreal or the City of Vancouver and those two cities are different from one another as well, and thats really, really important to keep in mind.

Despite this, the policy for body-worn cameras for the RCMP will be used across the country.

Its something that we have to address on a national level, said Jones.

With that said, Malm, who began her policing career in Canada before moving to the United States, does see the advantages of a national police force and a national body-worn camera policy.

The United States has 18,000 police departments that are all independent from one another, and there are no national guidelines for these police departments, says Malm.

I think the RCMP could be a nice uniting force with the understanding that every jurisdiction is going to have its own challenges and should be able to refine that national policy to suit their needs and their problems, she said.

For Laming, the issue isnt so much with a national RCMP policy on body-worn cameras, its with the inconsistencies within and surrounding the RCMP.

You have specific communities in Nunavut that are wildly different from a municipality in B.C., where the RCMP [also] deliver policing but theyre run under the territorial and provincial governments so they have to abide by the policies in those jurisdictions. But at the same time, the RCMP has its own legislation and policies, so it could conflict in a lot of ways.

This is most apparent in police oversight, says Laming.

If the RCMP shoots and kills somebody in B.C. you have the IIO [Independent Investigations Office of British Columbia] who investigates. If an RCMP officer shoots and kills somebody in Nunavut, another police service investigates, he said.

So you have these inequities and that, from my experience and from talking to a lot of residents, doesnt build trust, if you dont even have a consistent way of dealing with police abuse or serious major incidents.

According to Ehaloak, a new model for civilian oversight of the RCMP in Nunavut could be announced at the legislative assemblys fall sitting.

For Laming, this is something that needs to come before the cameras.

If you implement body cameras without a proper civilian oversight agency, its counterproductive because its still the police investigating the police when it comes to reviewing the footage, he said.

Laming also believes that any proper oversight agency needs to consist of members of the community, leaders and Indigenous leaders that investigate all use of force cases from the video evidence, not just those that resulted in injuries or deaths.

That way we have that independence that can come in and say, Yeah, they were justified or theyre werent justified, heres why and heres what we would recommend for disciplinary mechanisms, said Laming.

Thats the only way we can really, truly, at least improve accountability.

Read this article:

Effectiveness of RCMP body cameras will depend on clear goals, policies, say experts - Nunatsiaq News

Reading Time: 5 minutes

In the last decade, a wave of technology, specifically artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and automation, has swept over every possible industry. Wealth management and tax are no exception. Gone are the days when advisors and accountants are expected to pore over heaps of data and manually mine through it all.

The introduction of automation tax software has made it easier for financial practitioners to leave repetitive processes to technology and shift their focus to skill-based managerial and administrative roles. The rise of robo-advisors means big things for the industry and is changing the face of tax as we know it. In a few years, its safe to assume that many financial companies will invest in tax automation software to some capacity, so lets explore what this brings to the table:

Tax filing is complex and notoriously time-consuming. And with constantly changing regulations, even the best advisors can find it hard to keep an accurate account with minimal errors or anomalies. This problem of labor-intensive, repetition has plagued the industry for years, and with the development of innovative robotic automation software, the scope for automating everything from data collection to filing returns is immense.

Perhaps the biggest and most impactful benefit of automation software is the accuracy it brings to processes. For accurate reports, calculations and data management, data has to be accurately collected at its source. Manual collection of data is always prey to human error and is one of the biggest banes to tax professionals. An article by Accountancy Age aptly explains how automation can change this.

Automated tools can collect data from multiple systems, store the information in a common format and then scan and check the data for inconsistencies and mistakes. Then, multiple compliance engines can use this data repository to automatically populate forms, thus removing the need for transposition and reducing the capacity for error and financial risk. This is especially useful for business tax filing because accurate data collection ensures accurate tax calculations.

Implementing tax automation software is a huge investment. While statistics from Deloitte show that automation software can save companies anywhere between 15% to 90% of their current advisory costs; a 2017 report from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) states that using robotic process automation (RPA) costs less than 50% of the cost of offshore processing. Additionally, RPA offers up to 80% total cost reduction and results in virtually no money being spent on customizing existing or new systems. Finally, there is also a case for saving in terms of future costs by mitigating errors and therefore saving on the expense of fixing them.

When it comes to certain expenses like healthcare or housing and real estate, the data is large and the documents are many. Automated software can avoid backlog by retrieving data from third parties and uploading it straight into repositories, saving both clients and accountants a significant amount of time. For smaller businesses, hiring a managed payroll service that utilizes automation can prove to be beneficial.

The tax industry is infamous for long hours of manual labor, often resulting in high staff turnover for tax teams. In fact, an ACCA survey found that Across the Big Four, only 25% of respondents thought their role provided a good work-life balance, compared with 38% in mid-tier firms and 49% across all sectors. The survey also found that 85% of respondents viewed technology as a way to free up time so as to focus on more value-added opportunities.

Enter tax automation software: It does the prep work and leaves the skill-based work to the professionals, thereby breaking old perceptions of the tax industrys notoriety for long hours and poor work life balance. In turn, this can attract a younger, savvier workforce.

We now know how tax automation software can do wonders for financial advisors but what about their clients? Considering that many individuals dread the approach of tax season, tax automation software can be a boon to business owners. However, this software is only successful if clients can navigate it, understand it and actually enjoy using it. Heres where UX plays a major role:

Its simple: no one wants to use an app they dont like. If it doesnt make their lives easier, they dont stick around and companies that invest in UX for a seamless user experience, reap the benefits. This article by Appnovation puts things in perspective: Tinder, the dating app designed on the same premise as ex-market leaders OkCupid and Match.com, did one thing the latter two didnt. They made the product easier to use. No longer did you have to fill in long forms for your ideal match, you just had to link your social media and voila a 100 new matches!

Another example in the tax world is that of TurboTax. In an article on Forbes, Eunie Kwon, who is the Director of Design at Intuit, states, When we went out and asked thousands of consumers about their tax preparation, most responded with emotions of fear, uncertainty, and doubt. Once we started to unpack their reasons for these feelings, we found opportunities to influence their experience by applying some basic psychological principles and laws of UX heuristics to simplify through mindful design. This approach has led to great success for TurboTax, with clients feeling 100% confident about their tax outcomes through the platform.

The lesson here is simple: if the user experience of the technology doesnt have the customer in mind every step of the way, it reduces its chances of success almost instantly.

If technology has done anything, its allowed brands and firms to tailor the customer experience. Todays mantra is no longer one-size-fits-all. With unprecedented amounts of data being collected, UX can be designed in accordance with customers preferences.

For instance, taking the data you have and applying it to your UX could mean sending certain customers customized notifications for tax filing or timely reminders, or even allowing customers to be constantly in touch with a chatbot as they file their documents so they clear every query they have.

Automation allows tax professionals to finally turn the spotlight onto adding more value to their client relationships through planning, strategy and problem-solving. Technology and convenience is a welcome change in this sector, and while tax automation is certainly the way ahead for financial advisors, its functionality alone wont determine its success. A UX experience that predicts and meets the needs of customers is the key to the triumph of this technology and a strong determinant of its future success.

By: Indiana Lee, BOSS contributor

Continued here:

Tax Automation and User Experience - BOSS Magazine

Nations across the world have taken different yet significant measures to limit the spread ofCOVID-19. The most immediate one taken by almost all countries was to cancel physical face-to-face teaching in schools and higher education institutions. All kinds of social and religious gatherings and public events, too, were banned. With a sudden shift from the classroom to e-learning, many wondered whether the adoption of online education would continue to persist post-pandemic and how such a shift would impact the education market.

Indeed, in India, too, physical classrooms have replaced online classes. The transition has mostly been smooth in private universities though public institutions are yet to adapt to the changes. This has led to widespread debates on the future course of classes whether they should be conducted online or not. Realising the long-term impact of COVID-19, faculty members, too, are finding it hard to conduct online classes with ease. On the other hand, students have been left clinging on to their mobile phones, laptops and computer screens. What, however, is certain is that a post-COVID world must gear itself to adapt to some changes. Being physically present in a classroom may not be the only learning option anymore not with the rise of the internet and new technologies, at least. As long as there is access to a computer with a robust internet connection, students can attend live sessions or watch pre-recorded classes. Does this mean that online education will soon replace classroom education? It should be kept in mind that even though there have been huge technological advancements, they arent flawless. E-learning comes with its own set of challenges.

Challenges and possibilities: In the case of traditional classrooms, lack of engagement is problematic for teachers and students alike. Unlike online education, here, they cannot pause or rewind the classes in case they miss out certain chapters. On the other hand, online education is not as easy as speaking into the microphone at the one end and connecting a laptop or phone and listening on the other. There are other challenges with this form of education that have to be faced by both faculty as well as students. While the former will have to put in extra labour to generate lectures, it will be difficult for the latter to make sense of it online. Then, how will this form of education compensate for the academic loss suffered by students? Practically speaking, there is no alternative to classroom activities.

Most important of all, even after so much digitisation, rural India will face unprecedented challenges due to poor connectivity and frequent power cuts that would affect the productivity of the classroom. Talking about access to electricity, according to Mission Antyodaya, a nationwide survey of villages conducted by the Ministry of Rural Development in 2017-18, 16 per cent of Indias households received one to eight hours of electricity daily, 33 per cent received 9-12 hours and only 47 per cent received more than 12 hours a day. Further, according to data collected by the National Sample Survey as part of the Survey on Education (2014), only 27 per cent of households in India have some member with access to the internet. Access to the internet does not necessarily mean that a household actually has internet at home.

While increasing ethernet connectivity should be the larger goal, in the short term, data on mobile phones must be subsidised. Device ownership, too, is a problem and for this, the Government must provide for cheap smartphones for students to get on with the business of teaching. Organisations such as the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language (NCPUL), IGNOU and other such bodies offering distance education as well as the Government must assess current and future infrastructure requirements for digital age and bridge the gap.

But what if e-learning becomes the way of life for education? What would be the major issues and areas that require introspection? And what does this mean for the students going forward?

Most universities are now offering web-based file-sharing services to their faculty members and research communities. However, there are several other ways to make multimedia resources accessible over the internet. Certainly, the most familiar one is YouTube, which though ubiquitous and easy-to-use, does present challenges to classroom use that must not be ignored. The most glaring one is the comments section. The instructor can take it for granted that some comments will not be suitable for projection on a classroom screen.

Similarly, advertisements found lining the video could be a problem, too. Regardless of the product being promoted, the classroom need not be turned to a search service in order to access multimedia resources. To avoid this, a number of web browser extensions are available that provide for the unsullied viewing experience, hiding comments, menu side bus and advertisements from the view. A number of cloud-based tools, too, are available that allow files to be stored and shared across a remote host, which at the very least offer the instructor the flexibility to adapt. Foremost among these is Dropbox, which is a file hosting service that offers free data storage across several operating platforms. Amazon cloud drive offers 5 GB of free storage and provides a straight forward web-based interface for uploading and retrieval of files. Similarly, GoogleDocs allows for the uploading of entire folders to the cloud, making remote storage of a set of organised files quite easy.

Make the digital transition: Technological prospects for classrooms have evolved in remarkable ways since the COVID-19 pandemic. We have witnessed the successful introduction of smartphones that are capable of running audio-visual clips and interactive language drills; tablets are now replacing the laptop as an essential classroom gear, and there has been a rich array of online dictionaries. Further, news media and Unicode blogs are now searchable in original scripts; a sea of websites are dedicated towards the study and dissemination of literature. The worldwide popularity of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google classroom, Zoom, Cisco Webex and the user-centred design of web has addressed concerns of language use. Even mini tablets are now equipped with a built-in digital camera. In fact, they allow students to use audio and video editing software.

comments

More:

Learning in times of crisis Mysuru Today - citytoday

Get your Pimm's at the ready, as this Saturday (13 June) is the Queens official birthday, and while it's not the actual day she was born (thats the 21 April), this year marks her 94th birthday celebration.

While we won't be sending the Queen a present (because what do you buy a monarch?) you may have a grandparent, great grandparent or another elderly relative's birthday that you need to prepare for.

Shopping for someone over 90-years-old can be tricky, as you want to give them something they can enjoy even when theyre typically less mobile and sharp.

Their eyesight may not be as good, so keep that in mind when looking at smaller items such as books, and how heavy a gift could be, as this could be difficult to carry.

If you have a date approaching to celebrate, find some inspiration in our gifting guide.

You can trust our independent round-ups. We may earn commission from some of the retailers, but we never allow this to influence selections. This revenue helps us to fund journalism across The Independent.

For a gift that keeps on giving, this Bloom and Wild three months of flowers (Bloom and Wild, 60) is a flower subscription that will see fresh blooms arrive at their doorstep monthly.

A three, six or 12-month letterbox flower subscription means there will always be a new bouquet of colourful blooms at their door (Bloom and Wild)

Arriving in a letterbox parcel that can be delivered even if no one is in, theyre easy to arrange in a vase and will last weeks, with flower food and step-by-step care instructions provided in each order.

Indoor foliage is ideal if the recipient may not get out the house very often (or at all during these times) and a house full of plants doesnt only look good, its also been proven to provide a host of psychological benefits such as improved mood, reduced stress levels and longer attention span.

In our guide to the best house plants, the Canopy Plants Monstera minima (Canopy Plants, from 23) impressed us the most. Its easy to care for, fast-growing and only needs watering once a week.

Bring the outside in with an easy to care for house plant (The Independent)

To keep it in the best condition possible, set it in a space that gets sun and shade, and dont forget to trim it if it starts to become overgrown.

Make your gift personal with a piece of artwork to hang in their home, designed from family photos.

This Dorinda Art custom family portrait illustration (Etsy, 12.35), is a digital illustration that can feature up to 10 people, from friends, family, or even pets.

A personalisedfamily photo print will add a special touch to any room that all visitors can enjoy(Etsy)

You can also get creative with a photo album, as a way of preserving memories that your elderly relative can share with younger generations in your family.

Apps like Colourize, which is free to download for iOS and Android, use artificial intelligence to allow you to add colour into photographs that were taken with a black and white camera in past decades.

Its a thoughtful way to learn about your own familys history and you can present them in a decorative album, such as this Begolden coloured leather photo album (Not on the High Street, 32). It's soft to handle with no sharp edges, and you can also personalise with a name, date or occasion.

A soft book photo album is a great way to preserve older pictures and reminisce aboutfond memories (Not On The High Street)

If you have more recent photos, perhaps from weddings or grandchildren being born, you can also create a photo album online by uploading pictures and designing the layout before it arrives fully made at your door. All you have to do is wrap it and add a card.

We like Papier's "the minimalist" photo book (Papier, from 28), as it's a softback and you can choose everything from the cover to captions.

You can also design a photo book online with a hand in its layout, captions, picture size and fonts (Papier)

Its a simple design, hence the name, which will be easy for an elderly relative to browse through.

Food hampers are perfect at doing the hard work for you, especially if your culinary skills aren't quite up to scratch.

If your recipient loves afternoon tea, bring the tradition to them while cafes and restaurants remain closed in lockdown. This Cutter and Squidge afternoon tea at home set (Cutter and Squidge, 29.90), has everything you need to treat them on a special occasion.

While you're unable to take them out for afternoon tea, bring it to them with a food hamper (Cutter and Squidge )

The set for two includes brownies, mini lemon cakes, buttery scones (these will need to be warmed up), clotted cream, fruit jam and loose leaf tea.

John Lewis and Partners also has a wide selection of sweet, savoury and alcoholic hampers to shop from.

Try the brand's taste of Britain hamper (John Lewis & Partners, 40), which comes in a pretty willow basket containing all butter shortbread, milk chocolate, humbugs, strawberries and cream fudge, bakewell tart popcorn, strawberry jam and 10 English tea bags.

When buying a food hamper, make sure you don't buy one with foods that might be difficult to chew (John Lewis and Partners)

For a taste of nostalgia, this old favourites letterbox sweets gift box by Sweets in the Post (Not on The High Street, 12), is a selection of handmade sweets including sherbet lemons, mint humbugs, minty frosty bites and cinnamon balls.

For a sweet tooth, buy them a box of treatsthey may have enjoyed during their childhood (Not On The High Street)

Each box comes with a gift card and personalised message too.

For more birthday gift ideas, read our guide to celebrating milestones during lockdown here, and our round-up of the best letterbox flower services here

IndyBestproduct reviews are unbiased, independent advice you can trust. On some occasions, we earn revenue if you click the links and buy the products, but we never allow this to bias our coverage. The reviews are compiled through a mix of expert opinion and real-world testing.

The rest is here:

As the Queen celebrates her 94th birthday, here's our gift ideas for people in their nineties - The Independent