Neol

A Short History of the World, by H. G. Wells, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here . PRIMITIVE NEOLITHIC CIVILIZATIONS PRIMITIVE NEOLITHIC CIVILIZATIONS About 10,000 B.C. the geography of the world was very similar in its general outline to that of the world to-day. It is probable that by that time the great barrier across the Straits of Gibraltar that had hitherto banked back the ocean waters from the Mediterranean valley had been eaten through, and that the Mediterranean was a sea following much the same coastlines as it does now. The Caspian Sea was probably still far more extensive than it is at present, and it may have been continuous with the Black Sea to the north of the Caucasus Mountains. About this great Central Asian sea lands that are now steppes and deserts were fertile and habitable. Generally it was a moister and more fertile world. European Russia was much more a land of swamp and lake than it is now, and there may still have been a land connexion between Asia and America at Behring Straits. It would have been already possible at that time to have distinguished the main racial divisions of mankind as we know them to-day. Across the warm temperate regions of this rather warmer and better-wooded world, and along the coasts, stretched the brownish peoples of the Heliolithic culture, the ancestors of the bulk of the living inhabitants of the Mediterranean world, of the Berbers, the Egyptians and of much of the population of South and Eastern Asia. This great race had of course a number of varieties. The Iberian or Mediterranean or “dark-white” race of the Atlantic and Mediterranean coast, the “Hamitic” peoples which include the Berbers and Egyptians, the Dravidians; the darker people of India, a multitude of East Indian people, many Polynesian races and the Maoris are all divisions of various value of this great main mass of humanity. Its western varieties are whiter than its eastern. In the forests of central and northern Europe a more blonde variety of men with blue eyes was becoming distinguishable, branching off from the main mass of brownish people, a variety which many people now speak of as the Nordic race. In the more open regions of northeastern Asia was another differentiation of this brownish humanity in the direction of a type with more oblique eyes, high cheek-bones, a yellowish skin, and very straight black hair, the Mongolian peoples. In South Africa, Australia, in many tropical islands in the south of Asia were remains of the early negroid peoples. The central parts of Africa were already a region of racial intermixture. Nearly all the coloured races of Africa to-day seem to be blends of the brownish peoples of the north with a negroid substratum. We have to remember that human races can all interbreed freely and that they separate, mingle and reunite as clouds do. Human races do not branch out like trees with branches that never come together again. It is a thing we need to bear constantly in mind, this remingling of races at any opportunity. It will save us from many cruel delusions and prejudices if we do so. People will use such a word as race in the loosest manner, and base the most preposterous generalizations upon it. They will speak of a “British” race or of a “European” race. But nearly all the European nations are confused mixtures of brownish, dark-white, white and Mongolian elements. A MAYA STELE Showing a worshipper and a Serpent God. Note the grotesque faces in the writing Brit. Mus. It was at the Neolithic phase of human development that peoples of the Mongolian breed first made their way into America. Apparently they came by way of Behring Straits and spread southward. They found caribou, the American reindeer, in the north and great herds of bison in the south. When they reached South America there were still living the Glyptodon, a gigantic armadillo, and the Megatherium, a monstrous clumsy sloth as high as an elephant. They probably exterminated the latter beast, which was as helpless as it was big. The greater portion of these American tribes never rose above a hunting nomadic Neolithic life. They never discovered the use of iron, and their chief metal possessions were native gold and copper. But in Mexico, Yucatan and Peru conditions existed favourable to settled cultivation, and here about 1000 B.C. or so arose very interesting civilizations of a parallel but different type from the old-world civilization. Like the much earlier primitive civilizations of the old world these communities displayed a great development of human sacrifice about the processes of seed time and harvest; but while in the old world, as we shall see, these primary ideas were ultimately mitigated, complicated and overlaid by others, in America they developed and were elaborated, to a very high degree of intensity. These American civilized countries were essentially priest-ruled countries; their war chiefs and rulers were under a rigorous rule of law and omen. These priests carried astronomical science to a high level of accuracy. They knew their year better than the Babylonians of whom we shall presently tell. In Yucatan they had a kind of writing, the Maya writing, of the most curious and elaborate character. So far as we have been able to decipher it, it was used mainly for keeping the exact and complicated calendars upon which the priests expended their intelligence. The art of the Maya civilization came to a climax about 700 or 800 A.D. The sculptured work of these people amazes the modern observer by its great plastic power and its frequent beauty, and perplexes him by a grotesqueness and by a sort of insane conventionality and intricacy outside the circle of his ideas. There is nothing quite like it in the old world. The nearest approach, and that is a remote one, is found in archaic Indian carvings. Everywhere there are woven feathers and serpents twine in and out. Many Maya inscriptions resemble a certain sort of elaborate drawing made by lunatics in European asylums, more than any other old-world work. It is as if the Maya mind had developed upon a different line from the old-world mind, had a different twist to its ideas, was not, by old-world standards, a rational mind at all. This linking of these aberrant American civilizations to the idea of a general mental aberration finds support in their extraordinary obsession by the shedding of human blood. The Mexican civilization in particular ran blood; it offered thousands of human victims yearly. The cutting open of living victims, the tearing out of the still beating heart, was an act that dominated the minds and lives of these strange priesthoods. The public life, the national festivities all turned on this fantastically horrible act. NEOLITHIC WARRIOR Modelled from drawing by Prof. Rutot The ordinary existence of the common people in these communities was very like the ordinary existence of any other barbaric peasantry. Their pottery, weaving and dyeing was very good. The Maya writing was not only carven on stone but written and painted upon skins and the like. The European and American museums contain many enigmatical Maya manuscripts of which at present little has been deciphered except the dates. In Peru there were beginnings of a similar writing but they were superseded by a method of keeping records by knotting cords. A similar method of mnemonics was in use in China thousands of years ago. In the old world before 4000 or 5000 B.C., that is to say three or four thousand years earlier, there were primitive civilizations not unlike these American civilizations; civilizations based upon a temple, having a vast quantity of blood sacrifices and with an intensely astronomical priesthood. But in the old world the primitive civilizations reacted upon one another and developed towards the conditions of our own world. In America these primitive civilizations never progressed beyond this primitive stage. Each of them was in a little world of its own. Mexico it seems knew little or nothing of Peru, until the Europeans came to America. The potato, which was the principal food stuff in Peru, was unknown in Mexico. Age by age these peoples lived and marvelled at their gods and made their sacrifices and died. Maya art rose to high levels of decorative beauty. Men made love and tribes made war. Drought and plenty, pestilence and health, followed one another. The priests elaborated their calendar and their sacrificial ritual through long centuries, but made little progress in other directions. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. H. G. Wells (2011). A Short History of the World. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022, from https://www.gutenberg.org/files/11870/11870-h/11870-h.htm This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org , located at https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html .

PRIMITIVE NEOLITHIC CIVILIZATIONS

NEOLITHIC MAN IN EUROPE

**BREVARD, NC, April 2nd, 2024/Chainwire/--**In a significant move within the decentralized finance (DeFi) real estate landscape, is set to revolutionize the ecosystem with the launch of its native token, $YAKS, on the Arbitrum network, available for trading on Uniswap starting April 2, 2024. This launch is not just a testament to YakDAO's innovative approach in DeFi but also highlights its pre-sale success and strategic partnerships aimed at fostering strength, resilience, and long-term success. YakDAO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXbG_5lnzKI&embedable=true Innovative Integration of Real-World Assets: YakDAO has ventured into integrating real-world assets (RWAs) into its ecosystem, with its first property in Brevard, NC. This venture according to the team, not only showcases YakDAO's innovative spirit but also marks a significant step towards bridging the gap between decentralized finance and real world assets. The YakDAO's Brevard property has begun generating revenue through bookings, illustrating how Real World Assets can play a role in the DeFi sector and contribute to the utility of the $YAKS token. $YAKS Pre-sale milestones include: TrustSwap: Showed an oversubscription rate of over 1,200%, indicating to the team a strong interest and confidence in YakDAO's vision and potential. DuckDAO: Sold out in merely an hour, reflecting for the team the high demand and enthusiasm from the community. NeoLaunch and TokenFi: Both platforms witnessed the $YAKS token selling out in minutes, underlining in the team's view of the support and anticipation for YakDAO's initiatives. YakDAO: Opening Luxury Real Estate YakDAO focuses on creating luxury camping resorts, areas traditionally dominated by investors and institutional private equity funds. The team states that YakDAO offers broader access to a highly profitable real estate sector, previously out of reach for 98% of individuals. The YakDAO team is passionate about solving these problems and has the experience to do it. The team has worked at the intersection of technology and the outdoors recreation industry for nearly a decade. RWAs are a hot niche for crypto in this market cycle as major players look to scale tokenization. YakDAO sets itself apart, having built in the bear market, and is poised for growth in 2024 and the years to follow. YakDAO's strategic partnerships are meticulously chosen to contribute unique strengths, propelling the organization forward in its mission to democratize access to DeFi services. These alliances not only reinforce YakDAO's ecosystem but also enhance user experiences, ensuring a seamless integration of decentralized financial services. "We are incredibly proud to announce the launch of $YAKS on Arbitrum and its availability on Uniswap," said David Woodbury, CEO and ChiefYak of . YakDAO "The overwhelming success of our pre-sale and the strength of our strategic partnerships underscore the community's trust in our vision. We are excited to continue building on this momentum, driving innovation, and unlocking new possibilities within the DeFi, sustainable expansion of monetization of land in the RWA space. YakDAO is truly a passion project for our team!" For more details on the $YAKS token and YakDAO's future initiatives, users can . visit About aims to revolutionize the fusion of luxurious glamping experiences with the dynamic world of decentralized finance (DeFi). Launched in 2022 to establish a global network of upscale camping sites, YakDAO blends the beauty of nature with the power of digital finance, starting with a successful glampsite acquired in 2022 as a testament to this innovative model. YakDAO Contact CMO Brent Rangen YakDAO Brent@Yak.Camp This story was distributed as a release by Chainwire under HackerNoon’s Business Blogging Program. Learn more about the program here.

YakDAO Debuts $YAKS Token On Arbitrum, Innovating DeFi Real Estate

This paper is available on arxiv under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 DEED license. Authors: (1) Alyvia Walters, Rutgers University, USA; (2) Tawfiq Ammaris, Rutgers University, USA; (3) Kiran Garimella, Rutgers University, USA; (4) Shagun Jhaver, Rutgers University, USA. Table of Links Abstract & Introduction Background and Related Work Methods The Tools of CRT Meme Production Knowledge Production in a Post-Truth World Conclusion & References The Tools of CRT Meme Production After iteratively coding each meme, we were left with 21 unique codes which could be subsumed under one or more of the following major rhetorical tactics: 1) struggles over definition, or how the meme makes sense of what critical race theory is; 2) constructing “antiracism,” or the ways in which the meme’s ideologies are coded as definitively not-racist to its intended audience; and 3) appeals to authority, or the ways in which the meme uses people or symbols to appear correct. These strategies, then, appear to be the most salient paths through which both pro- and anti-CRT arguments within these memes are built. Defining CRT With two exceptions, neither the pro- nor anti-CRT memes analyzed appear to be concerned with the “real” critical legal studies definition of critical race theory. Because CRT was not generally circulated within public discourse prior to the early 2020s, as mentioned above, there was a wide berth for political and epistemological work to be done in the construction of this definition in the public consciousness. Our analysis reveals that these memes do just that: while both proand anti-CRT memes provide a technically incorrect definition of what CRT actually is, the politics of sensemaking unfolds within these memes. Their consumers are left with bifurcating definitions of the bounds, risks, and benefits of critical race theory that ultimately serve to re-define the bounds and values of the communities in which these memes circulate. Within pro-CRT memes, the aggregated definition reads something like this: critical race theory means teaching history accurately and not being a racist and/or a Republican. These memes went to far fewer lengths than anti-CRT memes to define what CRT actually is, and relied instead upon defining it against other things: racism, Republicans, and/or the erasure of history. The top-circulated meme in our analysis is a prime example of this. In this meme, artist Jonathan Harris stands alongside his now-viral artwork entitled “Critical Race Theory,” which depicts the literal whitewashing of Black history (Figure 1). While this does nothing to define critical race theory, it certainly defines what it is not: the erasure of America’s violent, racist past. Similarly, image cluster 4 (Figure 2) is a computer-generated text-heavy meme that reads, “Republicans are not afraid of critical race theory. They don’t even know what it is. They’re afraid of theories critical of racists. They know who they are.” The irony, of course, is that this meme also does not indicate a real definition of CRT, or an indication of “knowing what it is”–it simply defines CRT against racists and Republicans, both of which believers in CRT cannot be. In contrast to this strategy, anti-CRT memes often utilize quite specific points of definition. Take, for instance, cluster 22 (Figure 3): In providing a six-point bulleted list, this meme lays out, in no uncertain terms, how its consumers are meant to understand CRT. These definitional strategies, however, are not always so concrete as a bulleted list. Whereas proCRT memes defined CRT against other ideas, anti-CRT memes sometimes worked to define it by conflating it with other “anti-American” ideas, such as Marxism (Figure 4) and straying from Christianity (Figure 5). In other words, antiCRT memes often tied CRT to other “woke” ideologies in order to define it, even as “wokeness,” in and of itself, lacks definitive boundaries. In all, anti-CRT memes essentially define critical race theory in the following way: CRT is a racist idea that makes people believe that race matters more than it should, and it is yet another way that “wokeness” is destroying America. This conceptualization is starkly different than that of the pro-CRT memes, and both are far from the “real” legal studies definition, as outlined above. As such, there is obvious political struggle in the fight to win the hegemonic, accepted definition of critical race theory — a definition which has little to do with its origins in critical theory and law. In this discussion on the political struggle over defining CRT, one particularly interesting meme to highlight is that of Cluster 27 (Figure 6). Metadiscourse on the Stakes of Defining CRT In this meme, a screenshot of a quoted tweet, two people are explicitly naming this struggle and pointing to its risks. By indicating that The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank known for their right-wing ideologies, is a top hit in searching for information on critical race theory, the original tweet author is pointing out that knowledge acquisition via the internet is deeply politicized, and without careful, critical consumption habits, people can be easily misled by seemingly authoritative information. The quote tweet, agreeing with this view, further interpolates into an ongoing debate in U.S. culture on whose “job” it is to educate on topics surrounding race and racism: people of color, who are exhausted by confronting this responsibility every day, but are also the people who have actual experience with racism; or white people, who are the ones who should be expending energy into acquiring knowledge to better educate themselves, without needing to further exploit the time and energy of people of color to do so (see, for example, Zheng (2021)). Both Twitter users, “naima, an improvisation,” and “Ramy” land in the same place: passing this responsibility to educate over to the internet is dangerous territory in a politicized information environment. If “some reactionary think tank” such as The Heritage Foundation is where people are gaining their knowledge because “Google is free” and no one else is providing this information, the struggle over defining these words–words which have actual policy impact, as seen through Youngkin’s Executive Order 1–is of utmost importance, and it appears that memes are one avenue in which this epistemological struggle occurs. Defining “Antiracism” These pro- and anti-CRT battles over definition, and the recognition in the metadiscourse that this is, indeed, a battle, is almost exclusively fought on the same grounds: that of antiracism. While there are some other nods to bigotry in its various forms, for example, transphobia as displayed in Figure 5, race and racism are unsurprisingly the main sites upon which definitions of critical race theory and its risks and/or benefits, are built. However, in a similar fashion to how “critical race theory” was defined to meet community needs rather than to reflect a “real” definition of the term, “antiracism,” too, is made into a fungible ideal constructed to meet the dire need of both sides of this argument to appear not-racist: a near necessity in 2023 America. According to Ferguson (2022), antiracism has suffered from a lack of coherent and accessible academic definition. Thus, she proposes a paraphrase of Black author and activist Ijeoma Oluo’s tweeted definition: “the commitment to eradicate racism in all its forms,” with a noted special interest in recognizing the difference between systemic and interpersonal racism. However, the tension we encounter in the analysis of these images is that, under this definition, both overt racism and a quieter “not-racism,” a term we will more clearly define below, is easily able to masquerade as antiracism to the undiscerning eye. In this way, the memes’ constructed definitions of antiracism become a technology through which racism is perpetuated. Bonilla-Silva (1997)’s oft-cited definition of racism demands recognition of both structural and interpersonal forms of racism, and it also demands acknowledgment of the difference between the two. Because these pro-CRT memes often fail to address structural racism, they fall short of forwarding truly antiracist ideologies even as they consistently present themselves as performing antiracism. These failures come through in what we are deeming “not-racism,” or essentially a focus on the interpersonal aspects of racism only, rather than on the structural ones. For instance, in Cluster 4 (Figure 2), the deflective “they” indicates several things all at once: first, that “we,” those who identify with this meme, are not like “them,” the racist Republicans; and second, that the stakes of this argument on critical race theory reside at the individual, interpersonal level. Each of these two implications constructs racism as something that happens within the hearts and minds of individuals, rather than at the structural level, and further, it absolves those who resonate with the meme from racism: “I am not a racist, because I support critical race theory.” This is not-racism in practice: a positionality that is not reflective of true antiracism, which is an ideology and practice that requires recognition of and action toward dismantling systems of racism, interpersonal racism, and the implicit bias that each of us holds. This is not to say that pro-CRT memes always failed at performing antiracism, either. There certainly were instances of successful acknowledgement of structural racism, such as in Cluster 7, which reads “If people attacked White Supremacy like they are attacking critical race theory, there would be no need for critical race theory.” However, the failures were all failing in the same way: by framing themselves and their ideologies as not-racist, and falsely equating that with doing antiracist work. On the other hand, anti-CRT memes wholly fail at performing true anti-racism, and they fail in many different ways: through rhetorics of racial neoliberalism, colorblind racism, and not-racism. Importantly, each of these tools of racism are constructed as antiracism, and sold to audiences as such. While not-racism presents a bit differently on this side of the aisle, the main takeaway is meant to be rhetorically the same: “we” are not the racists, “they” are. For instance, Figure 3 reads, in part, “What does critical race theory teach?...The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination.” This swiftly both dismisses racism as in the “past,” thus ignoring its structural persistence and constructs those that support critical race theory as the racists. In this way, both pro- and anti-CRT memes variably fail at performing antiracism, often forwarding what Blake et al. (2019) call “antiracist appropriation,” or a strategy that is “primarily concerned with deciphering who is a racist and who is not, rather than working to dismantle racism’s socially shared institutional and affective structures” (p. 23). By forwarding this claim, we do not mean to engage in an uncritical false balance (Rietdijk and Archer 2021) analysis here, as there is clearly one group that is getting closer to actual antiracism than the other: pro-CRT memes. It is important to note, however, that even pro-CRT memes are not actually accomplishing an antiracist agenda, as they are rather uncritical of the structural aspects of racism and choose to focus, instead, on interpersonal-level issues. Though using appeals to authority is not a groundbreaking rhetorical strategy and is, in fact, one of the pillars of Aristotelian rhetorical philosophy, the ways in which this ethos appears within these memes present an interesting finding: equally often, both pro-and anti-CRT memes deployed the imagery and/or quotes of Black people. Through circulating these images widely, those captured in these memes essentially stand in as Black spokespeople for each side of the argument, lending credence to the meme’s ideology–no matter the side of the argument–through the color of their skin. Appeals to Black Authority Anti-CRT memes that used this rhetorical strategy–all of which, notably, were produced and originally disseminated by the conservative Media Research Center (MRC)†–constructed these Black spokespeople as both authoritative in their experience and authoritative in their Blackness. Alveda King, Civil Rights Leader; Dr. Ben Carson, M.D. and former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; and Dr. Carol Swain, Ph.D. and professor of political science and law appeared in these memes, each in visage and in quote (see Figure 7 for an example of these memes, each of which followed this aesthetic template). The embodied Black professional positionalities which these people inhabit make it difficult for pro-CRT advocates to argue against their claims—claims which invariably speak to the sure pitfalls of socioculturally adopting critical race theory—and thus a comfortable space of disseminating racism through the rhetorics of not-racism opens up. Using Black spokespeople to deliver implicitly or explicitly racist information has been a tactic used for decades to make news reporting (Entman and Rojecki 2007), campaign strategy, and political policy (Mendelberg 2001) appear notracist. The implicit suggestion is that if a Black person indicates something is not racist, it must not be. This, then, “bolsters [whites’] denials that racism still impedes the lives of African Americans” (Entman and Rojecki 2007, p. 106) and invites a level of assurance that they, too, are notracist. In the context of the memes analyzed for this study, these Black spokespeople are consistently reflecting a well-established space of Black conservative thought which taps into individualism, self-help, and egalitarianism as answers to discussions on racism (Lewis 2005). Critical race theory–the “real,” institutional one–actually warns against this very scenario: CRT argues that constructing Black spokespeople as people who can speak for the entire race is both essentialist and ignorant to the importance of intersectionality (Delgado and Stefancic 2023). While it is true that Black Democrats far outweigh Black Republicans in the electorate (Cox 2022), and thus pro-CRT memes that deploy Black spokespeople likely reflect a larger share of Black thought, it is still unproductive to count any single person as representative of a race of people. Despite this, however, constructing Black spokespeople through memes–Black spokespeople who are made to appear as the reasonable “Black voice”–was a way of building authority and “assurances” for those against CRT that they were not thinking in a racist way. While their Blackness operates, rhetorically, as an appeal to authority in a conversation about race, the idea of the “Black spokesperson” takes on a different function and meaning in these pro-CRT memes. Whereas anti-CRT memes were curating quotes from a very specific set of Black spokespeople, seeking out those who have said something condemning CRT, overlaying these quotes on an image of the Black orator, and circulating that image, those on the pro-side of the issue are more often amplifying already-existing media that Black people created. For example, the image of artist Jonathan Harris (Figure 1) was an organic, pre-existing photograph of the artist posing with his work–not a computer-generated, curated message that was created without his knowledge or consent. Similarly, the meme featuring Michael Eric Dyson’s thoughts (Figure 4) is simply a screenshot of a tweet he chose to write and publish on the internet–again, not something that an outside entity needed to create. The only exception is the meme featuring John Legend (Figure 9). This meme has a similar aesthetic to the anti-CRT memes in that it is a computer-generated image of Legend alongside a quote about Black parents needing to get involved in conversations around the banning of critical race theory. This meme represents just one way that anti- and pro-CRT memes perform “not-racism” in rhetorically similar ways, even if they have different end goals. [†] The Media Research Center (MRC) is more than simply a Facebook page, which is where many of these other memes are sourced. To the contrary, MRC is an entire conservative media network that self-describes its mission as being in accordance with "America’s founding principles and Judeo-Christian values." For more, see mrctv.org

Online Knowledge Production in Polarized Political Memes: The Tools of CRT Meme Production

This paper is available on arxiv under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 DEED license. Authors: (1) Alyvia Walters, Rutgers University, USA; (2) Tawfiq Ammaris, Rutgers University, USA; (3) Kiran Garimella, Rutgers University, USA; (4) Shagun Jhaver, Rutgers University, USA. Table of Links Abstract & Introduction Background and Related Work Methods The Tools of CRT Meme Production Knowledge Production in a Post-Truth World Conclusion & References Conclusion This study entices us to continue asking how we might confront mis-/disinformation in our current moment. It becomes especially urgent as we encounter the fact that much of the information circulating through highly transmissible media, such as memes, is not only incorrect but is also fungible: in the case of CRT-centered memes, CRT could “mean” almost anything race-related to forward each camp’s agenda, and seemingly very few care to engage with an institutional definition. When politicized definitions are a practice in power assertion, the discursive work these definitions do–“correct” or not–is more necessary than ever to understand. As Cassam (2021) warns us, it is important not to mistake a lack of engagement with “true” definitions as a disregard for the truth as a whole, and assuming that mis- /disinformation is merely bullshit is perhaps an unproductive lens through which to view knowledge production. We must take these definitions seriously, as they are, from a political epistemology stance, thoughtfully crafted messages that are “true” in some way to their consumers. There are several fruitful routes that we can identify for further work around the production and consumption of these memes as they relate to knowledge-building practices. In the space of production, contacting those who created these media objects would potentially lend useful insight about how they, as creators, gained their own understanding of CRT, and why they chose to disseminate this information in these particular ways attached to these particular visual formats. The Media Research Center would be an interesting first place to start, as they crafted each of their anti-CRT memes in the same aesthetic format with the same rhetorical appeals to Black spokespeople. Additionally, study of those who consume these memes is warranted to uncover how users’ encounters with these media shape their understandings of CRT and their opinions on it. Further, we argue that platforms, too, have some responsibility to contextualize memes such as these through content moderation practices. We acknowledge that this is more than a simple technical issue: filters for racist material, for example, would not flag memes as nuanced as these, and indeed, platforms would likely encounter bad publicity around censorship if any of the memes included in this study were removed. However, there are ways to approach this information landscape through socio-technical solutions, such as by providing the public, experts, and other cultural gatekeepers the ability to contextualize information on social networking sites (Morrow et al. 2022). By adding “notes,” or otherwise interacting with the information in such a way that its complex relationships to institutional fact are immediately evident to users who may encounter that information, platforms could greatly diminish the power of partisan information masquerading as fact. Finally, educational curricula and the students who learn from them would deeply benefit from incorporating critical media consumption practices into their core goals and outcomes. It is no longer possible to separate learning from media consumption in the everyday lives of the vast majority of students in the U.S., and we all suffer when there is a lack of commitment to creating critical media consumers who are trained to think before believing–and even more importantly, re-circulating–a politicized meme. Training young people on how mis-/disinformation and hate speech are disguised as fact and/or humor in memes is an important step forward in strengthening our information landscape and democratic future. Teachers are extraordinarily overburdened already, but a curriculum that integrates media literacy as a guiding principle would partially shift the burden from teachers directly and instead task those who guide the direction of school districts nationwide with creating pathways to teach this skill in all subject areas. There is no simple solution to curtailing the circulation of harmful visual media, as it is neither a purely tech issue nor purely a lack of education: this is a social issue which can only be resolved through the engagement of a wide variety of actors. It is incumbent upon all of us to take these seemingly insignificant memes seriously for their social impact and what they reveal about current ideological trends. It is crucial to better understand how bottom-up knowledge production on politicized topics, such as CRT, occurs on social media, particularly through compact, madeto-share media such as memes. In doing so, we can move beyond a deterministic conception of post-truth politics which generalizes disregard for truth, and instead interrogate the construction of politicized “truth” as a sustained process of thoughtful rhetorical decision-making with real-world effects. References Askanius T (2021) Memes and media’s role in radicalization. The Journal of Intelligence, Conflict, and Warfare 4(2): 115–121. DOI:10.21810/jicw.v4i2.3753. Barakat M and Rankin S (2022) Youngkin looks to root out critical race theory in virginia. URL https://apnews.com/article/education-richmondrace-and-ethnicity-racial-injustice-virginia8ad5da65b9cb05265f2b8081c41827cd. Beauchamp Z (2021) Did critical race theory really swing the virginia election? URL https://www.vox.com/policy-andpolitics/2021/11/4/22761168/virginia-governorglenn-youngkin-critical-race-theory. Bonilla-Silva E (1997) Rethinking racism: Toward a structural interpretation. American Sociological Review 62(3): 465–480. DOI:10.2307/2657316. Burroughs B (2020) Fake memetics: Political rhetoric and circulation in political campaigns. The MIT Press. Carney N (2016) All lives matter, but so does race. Humanity & Society 40(2): 180–199. DOI:10.1177/0160597616643868. Cassam Q (2021) Bullshit, Post-Truth, and Propaganda. Oxford University Press. Cestone LM, Jones LV, Harris M, Quezada N and Roest-Gyimah N (2022) Black americans’ social emotional responses to race-related discriminatory content on social media. Journal of Ethnic & Cultural Diversity in Social Work : 1–12DOI: 10.1080/15313204.2022.2137716. Cox K (2022) 10 facts about black republicans. URL https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/ 11/07/10-facts-about-black-republicans/. CrowdTangle T (2022) Crowdtangle. facebook, menlo park, california, US. list id: 1733230. https://crowdtangle.com/ . Dean J (2018) Sorted for memes and gifs: Visual media and everyday digital politics. Political Studies Review 17(3): 255–266. 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Online Knowledge Production in Polarized Political Memes: Conclusion & References

581 Stories To Learn About Non Fiction

I. Introduction Web applications keep getting more advanced and multifaceted, providing users with tons of features. But this also makes them more vulnerable to performance problems, especially when handling lots of requests simultaneously. That can lead to slow response times, crashes, errors, and even downtime - all of which hurt the user experience and company reputation. To make sure web apps deliver high-quality service and meet user expectations, it's crucial to do load testing. Load testing simulates real user scenarios and measures how the app handles different load levels. It can identify and fix bottlenecks, optimize resources, improve scalability, and ensure reliability and availability. Mastering load testing for web apps takes understanding the basics, the process, tools, best practices, common pitfalls, and future trends. So, let's dive in and take a look. II. Load Testing Basics Before we get into the process and tools for load testing, let's first define what load testing is and the key metrics used. Definition Load testing simulates realistic user traffic to see how a web application handles varying load levels. It should be done on all the steps of the software lifecycle like development, integration, and deployment. The main goals are to: Verify that the app can handle expected and peak traffic without hurting performance. Find and fix bottlenecks that cause slow responses, crashes, errors, or downtime. Optimize resource use like CPU, memory, disk, and network by tuning configs. Improve scalability by determining max capacity and throughput, and how to increase them. Ensure reliability and availability by testing recovery from failures and consistent performance. Key Metrics To evaluate performance under load, we measure key metrics like: - how long requests take to process and respond. Affects user satisfaction so should be low. Response time - requests handled per unit of time. Indicates efficiency and capacity so should be high. Throughput - the percentage of failed requests. Indicates reliability so should be low. Error rate - resources consumed during testing like CPU, memory, etc. Should be within acceptable limits. Resource utilization III. The Load Testing Process The load testing process consists of four main steps: identifying workload and performance requirements, test scenarios and environment setup, test execution, and result analysis. Identifying Workload and Performance Requirements The first step in load testing is defining the expected performance and goals under different loads. This includes: - The minimum response time, throughput, etc. that should be met. Performance requirements - How users interact with the app. This covers user types, actions, locations, concurrency, arrival rate, think time, and more. Workload - The normal, peak, and stress loads that will be tested. Load levels These points should be realistic, based on business needs, user feedback, historical data, industry benchmarks, and other sources. Test Scenarios and Environment Setup The next step is designing a test plan and setting up the test environment to execute the load tests. The test cases should cover the most critical and frequently used functions, as well as the riskiest scenarios under load. They should align with the workload model and load levels. The test environment should mirror production as closely as possible in terms of hardware, software, network, configs, data, etc. It should include: - Generates and sends requests per the test cases and workload model. Load generator - Distributes requests across multiple app instances or servers. Load balancer - The app being tested. Application under test - Collects and displays performance metrics of the app and components during testing. Monitoring system Test Execution and Result Analysis The third step in load testing is to execute the test cases and analyze the results. The test execution should be done according to a predefined test plan that specifies the order, duration, frequency, and intensity of each test case. The test execution should also be monitored and controlled by adjusting the load levels, stopping, or restarting the tests, etc. The result analysis should be done by comparing the actual performance metrics with the performance requirements and identifying any deviations or anomalies. The result analysis should also include identifying and diagnosing the root causes of any performance issues, such as code defects, configuration errors, resource bottlenecks, etc. Test Reporting and Improvement The final step is reporting the findings and recommendations and implementing improvements based on the analysis. The test report should summarize the objectives, methodology, environment, execution, results, analysis, findings, recommendations, and conclusions. It should include supporting data like graphs, charts, tables, screenshots, logs, etc. Improvements may involve applying fixes or optimizations to the code, configs, architecture, design, etc. Changes should be verified by re-running load tests to validate their effectiveness. IV. Load Testing Tools A diverse array of tools exists for load-testing web applications, each with unique capabilities. , an open-source Java tool, enables load generation and performance measurement across various protocols like HTTP, WebSocket, and FTP. It provides recording, scripting, dynamic data simulation, result analysis, and more. Extensibility through plugins is a key benefit. JMeter by Micro Focus excels at load testing beyond just the web, with support for mobile, IoT, and media. Scripting uses languages like C and JavaScript. Visual analysis is facilitated through dashboards. LoadRunner , written in Scala, separates test logic from execution for scalability. Recording HTTP sessions and converting them to code accelerates test creation. Interactive charts empower insightful results analysis. Gatling leverages Python for load test scripting. Its master-slave architecture readily scales simulated users across multiple machines. An intuitive web interface displays live test metrics. Locust These tools and many others each have unique strengths. Careful selection based on the technology, test environment, metrics, integrations, and workflows to be assessed is advised. Thorough evaluation guides the way to the optimal choice. V. Best Practices and Common Pitfalls Mastering the art of load testing requires adhering to key best practices while avoiding frequent missteps. To conduct effective load testing: Set clear, realistic performance targets based on business needs, user feedback, historical data, and industry benchmarks. Don't define criteria that are unattainably high or low; Design comprehensive test cases that cover critical functions and probable high-risk scenarios under load. Align cases to workload models and load levels; Pay special attention to possible peak load scenarios: new marketing campaign planned and a lot of new users expected? Make sure to test the registration and login parts. Black Friday coming? Check scenarios for huge simultaneous checkouts; Build a test environment that closely resembles production in terms of hardware, software, network, configs, and data. Isolate it from anything that could skew results; Use capable, reliable load-testing tools that can simulate workflows and measure metrics accurately per the technology stack. Avoid inappropriate or unstable tools; Make sure test servers and bandwidth can generate the load required for testing. Using one request-generating server to test 100 servers might not generate the required load that would result in incorrect test results; Execute load tests per a systematic plan defining order, duration, frequency, and intensity. Monitor and adjust load levels carefully during execution; Analyse results by comparing metrics to criteria and diagnosing issues through data visualization and statistics. Avoid raw data or unclear graphs; Implement optimizations, then re-test to validate improvements. Don't deploy changes without verifying effectiveness. Common pitfalls to avoid: Inaccurate performance targets leading to false positives or negatives; Incomplete test cases missing critical functions and scenarios; Unrealistic test environments that skew metrics due to differences from production; Poorly matched tools that can't simulate workflows, generate required load, or measure metrics properly; Lack of execution plan causing disorganized, inefficient test runs; Weak analysis lacking visualization and statistics to surface meaningful insights; Failure to re-test and validate the impact of optimizations before deployment. VI. Future Trends in Load Testing Load testing continues to evolve as web development advances. Key emerging trends include: leverages scalable cloud computing services like and for benefits such as flexibility, cost savings, and geographic reach. The cloud enables large-scale distributed testing. Cloud-based load testing BlazeMeter Grafana Cloud k6 are transforming load testing through intelligent automation. AI can generate realistic workloads, predict metrics, diagnose issues, and recommend solutions. Tools like , , and incorporate these technologies. Artificial intelligence and machine learning Dynatrace Neoload Apica helps identify and prevent vulnerabilities under load. , and are examples of WAST tools that can detect risks like denial-of-service attacks and cross-site scripting. Integrating web application security testing (WAST) OWASP ZAP , Nmap Burp Suite Mastering these emerging practices will be key for load testing excellence as the web evolves. Forward-looking organizations are already putting them into practice. VII. Conclusion Mastering load testing is critical for releasing high-performing web applications. It requires blending technical and analytical expertise to model realistic user behaviors, select appropriate tools, develop comprehensive test cases, conduct controlled experiments, and extract meaningful performance insights. As technology evolves, agile adaptation alongside diligent mastery of load testing fundamentals will remain key. By building robust in-house competencies or working with experienced partners, organizations can gain a significant competitive advantage through expertise in this vital discipline. References Top 15 Open-Source Load Testing Software 2023 | TestGuild 9 Load Testing Best Practices (Don't Make These Mistakes) (testguild.com) Load testing best practices  |  Cloud Run Documentation  |  Google Cloud What is Load Testing: Process, Tools, & Best Practices | BrowserStack Load Testing Best Practices (multiple.dev)

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