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Swimming star Ellie Simmonds believes reality television and the Black Lives Matter movement have each contributed to improving the image of the Paralympics.

Simmonds is preparing to lead her country into Tokyo 2020 after being chosen as one of Great Britains flagbearers for Tuesdays opening ceremony alongside archer John Stubbs.

The 26-year-old, who has bone growth disorder achondroplasia, will compete at her fourth Games having already won eight medals, including five golds, across appearances in Beijing, London and Rio.

She feels the perception of disability has changed significantly during that time, citing mainstream exposure of Para athletes and the rise of protest campaigns demanding equality as major factors.

Even before Beijing, people thought I was going to special Olympics; the Paralympics and disabilities were still under wraps really, said Simmonds, who was just 13 when she made her debut in China in 2008. People didnt really know what it was.

Disabilities and especially the Paralympics were brought into height in London 2012 and the Paralympic movement and disability has just crept up and its just amazing to see its been showcased and its amazing.

Its not just achondroplasia or different disabilities in sport but its also now in other things: you had Jonnie (Peacock), you had Lauren (Steadman), you had Will (Bayley) in Strictly (Come Dancing), you had Hollie (Arnold) in Im a Celebrity (Get Me Out of Here).

Theres so many athletes out there with disabilities in reality TV and thats so good for all different disabilities.

And not just in those types of reality TV (programmes) but seeing it on TV, so kids growing up are more aware that there are so many different people.

I think also weve seen the rise about it being OK to be different, the likes of Black Lives Matter, the acceptance of all that, the change, the protest and the awareness of there are so many different people out there.

Simmonds arrived in Japan as defending champion in the 200m individual medley.

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The S6 swimmer will bid for a third-successive title in that event on Thursday and is also scheduled to enter the 100m breaststroke and 400m freestyle.

She admits even the prospect of joining the exclusive list of British flagbearers made her teary eyed before being left speechless on Sunday when she received confirmation from chef de mission Penny Briscoe.

My performance director Chris (Furber) rang me before coming out to the holding camp into the (athletes) village and asked if I would like to be nominated, because every sport normally nominates an athlete who they think would like to carry the flag, she said.

I was just like, Oh my gosh, yes. I was driving hands-free, of course but really a bit teary to be honest.

Equestrian star Sir Lee Pearson was ParalympicsGBs flagbearer at Rio 2016 (Adam Davy/PA)

I was just a bit emotional that I even got asked because in the past, Ive seen the greats like Chris Hoy carrying the flag in London 2012 and Lee Pearson in the Paralympics and all those amazing athletes, who are great athletes and who have carried the flags the best of the best.

(When it was confirmed), I was just in awe and just didnt have any words. Its been a challenging year and to be carrying the flag for absolutely everyone, its just a huge honour.

Simmonds has established herself as one of the countrys most recognisable Paralympians during the past 13 years.

However, despite her vast experience and hefty haul of medals, she says the burden of competing at elite level is greater than ever.

As an older woman now, I feel the pressure more, I feel all those different aspects, Im more aware of that, she said.

Whereas as a 13-year-old, as a 17-year-old, you just do swimming, youre just doing it as sport where you dont really think of all the outside bits.

Im more aware of those types of challenges now and I work with the psychologist really well.

For me, these Games are just about going out there, racing, enjoying it, doing the best I can and just being happy and soaking it all in.

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Ellie Simmonds: Reality TV and Black Lives Matter help with image of Paralympics - Yahoo Sports

The artist responsible for a Quebec City mural in honour of Black lives says the piece being vandalized in such a short time reinforces its importance and relevance.

Two new street art pieces a fresco reading "LaViedes Noire.e.s compte," or Black Lives Matter, stretching a full city block in the Saint-Roch neighbourhood, and a collage of photographs depicting people of several races standing in solidarity with Black people in the Saint-Jean Baptiste neighbourhood were inaugurated Monday.

By Wednesday, the collage was defaced with graffiti reading "kebe-quoi?" scrawled across it, with "quoi?" spelled as the French word for "what?"

"I found this particularly difficult for the people who were photographed," said artist Wartin Pantois. "For me it was an act of intolerance."

Michelle Osbourne, one of the people pictured in the mural, said she wasn't surprised the art was defaced. But she's still hurt by its message that people of colour aren't welcome.

"Some people might just see it as graffiti, but it's not," she said."It's tough waking up every day feeling hated for existing."

Osbourne, who's lived in Quebec City for seven years, says she's going to keep fighting, because she doesn't want her daughter, who she plans to raise in the city, see her give up.

"I'm disappointed because we sent a message of solidarity and justice," said Mba-Hadji Mbarewaye, the founder of a collective of five organizations that came together to create the two pieces.

Mbarewaye said he was surprised by how quickly the art was defaced, and that it sends the message that Black people in the city should shut up and suffer in silence, but they will not.

Quebec City police say they received a complaint about the vandalism around 7 p.m. Wednesday.Officers also found graffiti with the same wording on Parvis Street and Fleury Street.

The incidents are being investigated.

Osbourne said she was "humbled, honoured and grateful," to have been included in the project, especially because she sees it as ahistoric piece that would not have happened when she first moved to the city.

"As someone who's had a really difficult time being an anglophone in Quebec City, it makes me so proud," she said.

The collective Mbarewaye started came together in response to a lack of recognition from city officials and police officers of systemic racism.

"There is some concern about us here in Quebec City, especially about racial profiling," Mbarewaye said. "The police service and elected officials in Quebec City don't like to talk about this problem."

He said he's not blaming all police officers, but he's calling for systemic change.

Breakaway11:22Black Lives Matter art installations in Quebec City

In an email earlier this week, the Quebec City police service wrote it does not consider there to be a systemic racism problem within its ranks.

Spokesperson David Pelletier wrote there are hundreds of employees within the SPVQ, which reflects Quebec society, and the organization is paying attention to this issue.

He wrote that officers are trained in what they call a cultural context, which addresses racial profiling.

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.

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Artist and organizers shocked as Black Lives Matter mural in Quebec City defaced in just 3 days - CBC.ca

This week marks the 10th birthday of Facebook Messenger, which was launched as a separate app back in 2011as part of Facebook's broader push to dominate the social communications space.

Though, in fairness, people only really started to care about Messenger in 2014, when Facebook forced users to download its separate messaging app by removing its messaging options from Facebook proper. Since then, however, Messenger has gone from strength to strength, adding millions more users and becoming one of the three biggest messaging platforms in the world, alongside WhatsApp (also owned by Facebook) and WeChat.

The app has gone through a lot of change in its first decade, and to mark the milestone, Facebook has announced a range of new Messenger features, designed to both spark a celebratory mood, while also adding entirely new functionality to prompt further messaging interaction and usage.

First off, Facebook's adding new Poll Games in Messenger, an interactive polling option that enables you to find out new things about your friends.

As explained by Facebook:

"You can now play Most likely to in pollsto help you discover what your friends really think about topics like who is most likely to give gifts on their own birthday?, most likely to fight zombies while everyone else runs away? and most likely to miss their flight?

You can also write your own prompt for your poll - which will doubt lead to varying levels of tension and angst. But it's another option to help boost engagement within Messenger chats, and it could be a fun idea to spark discussion in your groups.

"To play a poll game in your group chat, tap Polls'' and select the Most Likely To tab to pick a question and select the names of chat participants to be included as potential answers."

Facebook's also adding a new way to share Facebook contacts with friends through Messenger.

The process is fairly straightforward:

"Simply select the contact you want to share, access the chat settings and tap Share Contact under the More Actions'' section."

That could make it easier to connect people through the app, and refer people for business, providing potential networking benefits.

Facebook's also taking the opportunity to preview its coming Word Effects option, "an exciting new way to pair words with the emojisthat have meaning to you and your friends".

As you can see in this example, Word Effects will enable you to choose an emoji to be paired with a certain word or term, which will then spark an on-screen explosion of that emoji character whenever it's used within your chat. Which could get annoying, but it might also be an interesting way to spice up your group chats, and highlight specific terms that have special meaning to you and your friends.

Word Effects will be coming to Messenger in the near future.

Facebook's also adding a new birthday gifting option for payments in Messenger, which delivers your money transfer with new wrapping paper and virtual balloon effects, as well as a Birthday chat theme and 360 background, linking into the celebratory tone. It's also adding a birthday song Soundmoji and new effects for messages.

Facebook's also launched aMessenger is 10! sticker pack, if you're overly keen on celebrating the app's longevity.

And finally, Facebook has also shared some insights into key Messenger milestones -which, among other things,shows that voice notes are at an all-time high this year.

Maybe the lockdowns have made us miss hearing other people speak, or maybe it's part of the broader audio social trend. Either way, some interesting insights into Messenger use over time, and the key trends that have influenced the app's development.

It's difficult to measure the relative success of Messenger's first decade, when you consider its varying shifts.

As noted, Messenger usage surged only after Facebook forced users to take their private chats across to the app, which inflated its popularity from the outset, and while it has since remained a key connection tool, Facebook's efforts to expand its functionality -through Messenger Bots, Games, Stories and other functions - have largely fallen short.

Over time, Facebook has struggled to effectively monetize the app, because users are not overly welcoming of ads in their private spaces (see also: WhatsApp), while it's also been forced to scale back its additions to avoid crowding the UI and turning people away.

And while Messenger does have 1.3 billion active users, it reached that milestone back in 2017. Facebook hasn't provided an updated usage stat since.

Does that mean Messenger has plateaued, and people are switching to other messaging options instead, like Instagram Direct or WhatsApp? Overall, Facebook's 'Family of Apps' (Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp) are sitting on 3.5 billion monthly actives, and rising, so it's not like Facebook's at risk of losing its grip on its audience. But it does seem like it's lost some momentum, with Messenger, in particular, seeming to now have a little less steam.

Given this, it's hard to also predict what the future holds for the app. Messenger remains a critical connection option for many, but the increased push towards improved data privacy doesn't bode well for the app -even with its recent addition of more end-to-end encryption options.

Maybe, then, Facebook's push to integrate its messaging apps is as much about solidifying its hold on messaging as it is about improving functionality. By merging its two big messaging apps, Facebook can build a huge, inter-connected messaging network, which benefits from the western market presence of Messenger, and the higher security of, and user trust in WhatsApp.

The risk is that WhatsApp's reputation for security takes a hit - as it did earlier this year when Facebook announced a change to its Privacy Policy. But maybe, if Facebook can weather that, it will be able to solidify both apps as key utilities for more users moving forward.

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Facebook Adds New Tools to Mark the 10th Birthday of Messenger - Social Media Today

Jamf, the popular Apple enterprise partner, has released a new report that details the most common permissions that apps are requesting on Apples App Store.

Jamf used metadata within a sample of almost 100,000 popular apps across the store catalog. This sample was determined by looking at the apps that are installed within Wanderas customer base, which has 2.5 million devices under its management. The metadata analyzed in the research came from aggregated logs that dont contain any identifying information.

Jamfs analysis shows the most requested data type is photos, with at least half the apps across every category requesting access to a devices photo library. The top categories of apps requesting photo library access are:

Apple has tightened up permissions around the photo library, though. With iOS 14, apps now have to give the option to just give access to certain photos.

The camera app is the second most popular permission requested. The top categories of apps requesting access to the camera are:

Apple has gone to great lengths to make sure users know when their camera is being requested and additional permissions and clear UI indicators.

Apple has always been focused on location tracking and privacy. Steve Jobs, before his passing in 2011, had this to say at the D8 conference.

We take privacy extremely seriously, said Jobs. A lot of people in [Silicon] Valley think were old-fashioned about this.

The third most requested permission requested is location. The top categories of apps requesting location information are:

With iOS 13, Allow Once was added as an option for users when an app requests location.

The fourth most popular app permission request is the microphone. The top categories of apps requesting access to the microphone are:

Social Networking (69%) Photo & Video (64%) Business, equal third with Productivity (41%). The Productivity category includes apps such as Asana and Google Calendar.

So what are the key things we should take away from this report? Heres what Jamf had to say:

Despite improvements by both Apple and Google in promoting personal privacy, consumers need to take steps of their own to secure their data. The purpose of this research is to encourage users to consider the data they are sharing before accepting any request that appears on their devices. There are some data points in this analysis that arent surprising, and some that are.

Personal privacy has been in the discussion lately, with the new CSAM and iMessage functionality coming in iOS 15 aimed to prevent harm to children. In my opinion, here are some actionable things you can do as a result of this report: Think twice before giving an app your location, delete apps you no longer need and audit the Privacy section of the Settings app related to location, photo access, and camera access. If you cant think of a reason why a random app would need access to your photos, revoke permissions.

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Jamf: These are the most common permissions requested by popular apps - 9to5Mac

Sayef Turan is a genius Blogger, Wikipedian, Social Media enthusiast and Influencer who shines against all odds to be a social media sensation and has made it big in the digital world. Recently he has achieved something extraordinary. Worlds largest search engine Google recognized him as an influencer and social networking site Facebook has verified hisofficial account. He is the first Bangladeshi wikipedian to be verified on Facebook. Facebook authorities confirmed it through an email to the public figure. Facebooks Verified badge, blue tick mark is designed to let people know that theyre authentic accounts.

Out of the few influencers Sayef Turan is the one who has eventually built his presence as a high-end influencer with humongous fan following on the internet. Hails from Narayanganj, Sayef pursuing his BSc degree in Computer Science & Engineering. He has dwelled deep into the subject of Influencer marketing to emerge gaining in-depth knowledge. His hard work did pay off, and all the sweat and toil and years of practice to master the craft led him to success. He has been ruling the Internet through his social media strategy and creative writing on several international platforms. In an interview with The Independent Sayef expressed about his achievements and passion for social media and plans for the future.

Youre now globally recognised as an authentic public figure, how do you feel?

Ive been using my profile since 2014. I used to upload my personal thoughts there. Its become popular among my fans for its regular updates and provided information. Im very happy that my official Facebook account has been verified by Facebook authority. Few days back, world's largest search engine Google recognized me as an author and influencer too. Now whenever people search me on Google theyll see a knowledge panel with my name.

Please tell us about your principle approach to Wikipedia journey

Wikipedia, the worlds largest volunteer-made online encyclopedia with as many as 55 million articles, it is the 13th most-visited space on the internet. Many people dont know this but Wikipedia is also available in 300 different languages. From the beginning of my journey, I encouraged people to contribute for Wikipedia through their knowledge. Ive been editing Wikipedia since 2018 and have created more than 400 pages and in addition, have edited more than 10,000 pages on Wikipedia

What is your advice toyoung generation ?

Always have a positive approach to your work. Failures come and go, dont let that become a hurdle and stop you from moving forward. Before creating the content, it is important to get in-depth knowledge and understand the target audience. Success can never be measured and there is no end point to it. We should keep hustling to achieve more even after reaching the plateau

Please tell us about your future plan

I believe in multitasking. It is not that I will concentrate on one particular aspect. Im a social media enthusiast so one thing is for sure after completing my study I want to continue my passion on this field

In this cut-throat competitive world, Sayef is one of the emerging stars in the digital world. Started on a small scale, his own venture Sayef Digital in the career of more than three years has collaborated with brands like Unilever, Lakme, Nestl, LOreal, Adidas and various other international names.With dedication and sheer interest, he made his mark on the National as well as the International stage and miles are there for him to reach.

SI

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In conversation with the versatile social media maestro- Sayef Turan - theindependentbd.com