fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Stop Redefining White Supremacy If You Want To Be Taken Seriously
By: Jacob Brunton
Tags: Racism, White Supremacy

If you want people to take you seriously when you denounce things like “white supremacy” and “racism,” the first thing you should do is denounce those who have manipulatively redefined those terms.

Anyone worth listening to in the public sphere today knows that those terms have been wildly re-defined in such a way as to include relatively innocent (and sometimes *righteous*) beliefs and actions. This isn’t a secret. It’s everywhere. In the culture AND in the Church.

If you’re genuinely concerned about actual white supremacy (i.e., beliefs that white people are superior to others), you should be eager to distance yourself from those who abuse that term to refer to something as (comparatively) innocent as voting against welfare.

If you’re genuinely concerned about actual racism (i.e., believing and acting as though skin color or lineage carries any moral significance), you should be eager to distance yourself from those who abuse that term to refer to something as (comparatively) innocent as voting Republican.

Given the current context, anyone who claims to care about fighting white supremacy and racism without explicitly distancing themselves from the gross redefinitions of those terms is going to be viewed with suspicion. And rightfully so.

The willingness to morally equate race-based hatred with comparatively innocent things like “conservative values” under the common terms of “racism” or “white supremacy” reveals that you don’t think racism and white supremacy are really all that bad. Likewise with the unwillingness to denounce those who make such a moral equivocation.

Have you ever considered that maybe those who reject and fight against the redefinitions are doing so because they want to safeguard the moral weight of the sins of actual racism and actual white supremacy? It’s shameful that anyone would discourage such an effort.

If the entire culture around you is manipulating the meaning of terms, don’t clutch your pearls when someone asks what you mean by one of those terms. You know why they’re asking. And they ought to ask. A refusal to answer as clearly as possible likely reveals bad motives.

This isn’t rocket science. This isn’t complex. This is basic human decency applied to conversation.

Honesty abhors equivocations. The honest ask for clarification. And the honest eagerly give it.

Not so the deceitful.

Which are you?

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‘We Will Conquer Ebola!’: Voices and Faces of the Battle Against the Ebola Epidemic in the DRC
By: World Bank
Tags: Africa, Health, Epidemic, Ebola

‘We Will Conquer Ebola!’: Voices and Faces of the Battle Against the Ebola Epidemic in the DRC

By Franck Sidney Chrysantheme Bitemo

Pictures of health professionals clothed in full protective gear, disinfecting compounds cordoned off by orange nets, wrapping corpses in body bags or caring for patients in CUBEs (Bio-safe Epidemic Emergency Rooms) have been seen around the world and have become synonymous with Ebola. And so it should be, because these unknown individuals who risk their lives each day in the hope of containing Ebola and saving lives are quite extraordinary.

Who are these people whose faces are often hidden behind masks? Here are five profiles of unsung heroes who work at the Ebola Treatment Center (ETC) set up by the ALIMA medical NGO in Beni, a town in North Kivu, one of the epicenters of the epidemic in the DRC.

Dr. Junior Ikomo, 33, Doctor
This Week’s Prompt: 14–20.09
By: 𝘋𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘢 𝘊.
Tags: Energy, Enlightenment, Love, Newsletterandprompts, Short Story

Good morning/afternoon/evening, now and forever!

A wise woman once said: “Don’t hide in spiritual circles.” This woman is Desiree and I am grateful to have come across her words. Her encouragement to begin addressing to a larger audience was a game changer.

In one of her recent articles, Ravyne described Know Thyself as a Zen garden. A small, intimate publication that welcomes all. My heart filled with joy when I read the description. This is exactly how I wish Know Thyself to be perceived. Remember the movie “Lilo and Stich?” At some point, Stich reminds Lilo’s sister what ‘Ohana’ stands for: “Ohana means family. Family means nobody gets left behind.”

Furthermore, in Africa, there is a concept known as “Ubuntu”, which means “I am because we are.” We are connected…What we do affects the whole world. This is what Know Thyself is about.

However, that is what many other publications on Medium are about as well. I encourage you to explore and not limit yourself to one alone. Spread your wings wide and touch as many hearts as possible!

But before you do, please remember that us, writers, send out a massive amount of energy to the rest of the world, through our words. Our choice of words and the state of mind we’re in when we are writing, affects how our messages are perceived and absorbed. Before submitting an article or clicking the ‘publish’ button, we should always ask ourselves: Are we writing from a place of love? A place of compassion? Understanding? Empowerment?
Original Falsehood
By: J.D. Harms
Tags: Relationships, Love, Intimacy, Poetry, Image

It was never true that you weren’t beautiful

that the scarves and sweaters you hid behind

were anything more than a prelude

to loving the Botticelli muse you are

It wasn’t true that I abandoned you to your

coffee and cake without a thought

I just had to call the pen and arrange a meeting

later

I came upon your statue, years after the fact

witnessed again your curves and intimacy

the warmth bleeding right through my hand

In fact, it was brutal to have sat through time

just like this, cold hand on marble

mind on the history I didn’t want to write

I printed everything I could remember about you

then wondered what I’d left out

and my own taunting ego

hears a different chorus, wants to leave again

before I finish copying this down
Nukes Nag Hawaii
By: Christyl Rivers
Tags: Politics, Resistance Poetry, Nuclear War, Poetry, Nuclear Weapons

Trumpocolypse courtesy Huffington Post

Nukes Nag Hawaii

Saturday morning was not a drill

It was simply a mistake

Incoming missile whistle and trill

Jolted us awake

Always in the shadows of our minds

To agitate and alienate

The death grit that this grifter grinds

Melts much more than mere snowflakes
Childfree Is A Legitimate Choice
By: The Nib
Tags: Women, Feminism, Comics, Motherhood, Parenting

Sign up for Taking Stock of COVID: New comics from The Nib

By The Nib

New comics from Matt Lubchansky, Keith Knight, and Niccolo Pizarro. Plus How Seniors Are Living With COVID-19. Take a look
Quali strumenti per un’Agenda Digitale?
By: Oscar Badoino
Tags: Agenda Digitale, Verbania, Piemonte, Innovazione, Infographics

in Both Sides of the Table
A Love Note
By: David Byrne
Tags: Streetbegging, Regret, Sadness And Loss, Poverty, Love Letters

A publication for all modest multipotentialite’s who are taking time to decide what is worth doing exclusively. Read articles, essays, poetry and short stories along with snippets designed to inspire inner reactive creativity. All posts adorned with original artworks.

Follow
If My Luck Could Talk
By: Nupoor Raj
Tags: Wit, Humor, Funny, 1 Min Reads, Fiction

If My Luck Could Talk

humor

Photo by Wolfgang Hasselmann on Unsplash

Heya!

Did you find another wooing crush?

Cool. Here I am again. At the right time. 😙(though I secretly know you aren’t happy about it. Psst…!)

In fact, you never have thanked me for being there each time I helped. 😧

But it’s okay. Am magnanimous hearted. I will endure the contempt.😉

So you are actually going on a date with him? I see. That’s exciting. How about letting your families know? 😋

See, I believe in adventures. 🌟

Trust me, it will give you a memory you won’t forget. Haven’t I already given you some awesome life memories?!😁

How was the afternoon-sun date where you both mended the flat tire on the road? Could a date turn out more unique?

I bet none of your friends have had that part.

And do you remember the Valentine’s? When the surprise cake you ordered had someone else’s name on it, with your message in sender’s name! The reaction on his face was epic. 😆

I love you to the moon and back. And I know you love me too, though you don’t express!

I promise to never leave you alone and keep creating memorable moments now and then. 😉
New Yorkers Are Not Like You
By: Melissa Toldy
Tags: Culture, Cities, Lifestyle, New York, Diversity

My mother is Danish, and I lived in Denmark as a kid, so I understand the appeal of homogeneity. When like meets like, there’s less friction, more fluidity. However, one doesn’t become Danish; one is born Danish, bred Danish, with no desire to be anything but Danish. I can’t really call myself a Dane because I lived most of my life in the United States. My mom can’t really call herself an American because she’s so Danish, it’s irreversible.

I can call myself a New Yorker because I’ve paid my dues, surviving in this city for over a decade. But being a New Yorker doesn’t mean you have a shared set of values with your fellow neighbors. If anything, being a New Yorker means you’ve had to summon your individuality.

After all, that’s what makes New York so special: millions of incongruous elements somehow fitting together.

This summer, I visited Amsterdam, again. It’s a city I keep finding myself in because my travel companions want to go there. On this trip, for a brief moment, I thought, I could live here. No doubt, I was under the influence of the best coffee I’ve ever tasted when I had that thought.

But then I thought, I bet I can find Indonesian beans in New York.

New York has everything. That’s why it’s so hard to leave this city. Why do people leave? Peace and quiet. More space. Better weather. More space. Cheaper cost of living. More space. Since moving here, I have a recurring dream about finding secret doors in my apartment. What’s behind the secret door? Big, empty rooms, waiting to be filled with my life.
I Had A Bully
By: Chris Hedges
Tags: Tsunicorn, Transgender, LGBTQ, This Happened To Me, Bullying

A little about Fire Island and it’s LGBTQ community. Now that I think back on it, maybe my bully had a crush on me. I didn’t know about Fire Island until he talked about it. Something to consider. How did he know about it?

Fire Island is only about 60 miles away from New York City, but it feels much, much farther. Maybe it's the cumulative…

Writes Alexandra Charitan in “Deer, Dunes and Drag”:

While there have been great strides in acceptance and notable legal victories for the LGBTQ rights movement, Cherry Grove still feels utopian.

People of all genders, races, sizes, and ages pass each other with waves and friendly greetings; they come to the island to slow down, lower their guards, and relax by the shore or the pool.

Every body is a beach body here and something as simple as holding my girlfriend’s hand no longer feels revolutionary.

No place is perfect, but on a hazy, late summer day, Cherry Grove gets pretty close.
A More Human Interface Through AI
By: Andrew Coyle
Tags: Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Design, UI, Product Design

A More Human Interface Through AI

Use machine learning to adapt UI to the individual user

Users are individuals. Their goals and action are unique. In the name of user-centricity, designers bucket people into groups based on their similar goals and behaviors. This grouping focuses the outcome of the interface, but is contradictory. To be genuinely user-centered, designers should treat each user as an individual human being.

What if designers used artificial intelligence to augment their decisions?

The old methods of user experience will continue to be invaluable to the product design process and will direct the significant design decisions. Machine learning will take it one step further by continually calibrating design based on user activity.

AI will recognize usage patterns and create subtle changes to the UI. These small changes will have a compound effect over time, designing the ideal interface to accommodate a person’s needs and abilities.

What could go wrong?

The moral dilemma of AI influenced UI

As Eli Pariser points out in his book The Filter Bubble, personalizing content based on a user’s previous interactions further isolates them in their preconceived reality.

Allowing an algorithm to manipulate a user interface to fit an individual’s usage patterns is far different from allowing an algorithm to manipulate the content people view.

However, as every media critic likes to point out, the medium is the message. This phrase was coined by Marshall McLuhan, who believed the medium content is distributed through influences how it is perceived, thus changing the meaning of the message. Does the user interface design change a user’s actions, thereby changing the content the action produces? Undoubtedly so. Could AI adapt UI toward perilous ends? Perhaps.

Despite the risks, I think designers should embrace artificial intelligence to augment their decisions. Picture a world in which UI is forever calibrating to user activity until the interface and human are interwoven together.

Building a better UI foundation

Operating systems go through endless refreshes and redesigns in an attempt to keep up with changing paradigms. This constant evolution is a good thing, and one in which machine learning should accelerate.

Designers must lay an universal foundation to work successfully with artificial intelligence. Is anyone working on this?

Contact me on Twitter, and Dribbble.
“Lost Keys”
By: John Teehan
Tags: Poetry On Medium, Religion, Poetry, Words, Poem

Exeter Cathedral, Exeter, Devon, UK. Source: pixabay.com

“Lost Keys”

St. Peter walks into a bar… a poem

In a little pub outside Exeter Cathedral

St. Peter lost his keys

They were just here,

he said.

Right here, on the bar, and by this glass

(Oh, man. I am in so much trouble.)

He (by which I mean we) got down

to hands and knees, to search among the stools,

the chairs and cigarette butts.

What did they look like?

He peered at me (down there),

shook his head, then reached a gnarled old hand

behind the radiator

What did they look like?

mocking me, St. Peter was

They look like gate keys, you idjit

but, he paused

St Peter done scowled, and sighed,

then stood up and patted his robe

But bigger, you know, and pearly-like.

he paused a’more

frowned, then said

and they glow… a little. Just a little.

Ah,

says I

And shut off the lights.

And we looked and found them

hanging from a peg

next to his halo.
BitBns is supporting Spark Token Airdrop by The Flare Network
Tags: Blockchain, Cryptocurrency

Dear User,

We are supporting Spark airdrop for XRP holders on Bitbns.

What is Spark Token?

Spark token is a native token of the Flare network. The Flare Network is a disseminated system running the Avalanche consensus protocol and uniting the supremacy of smart contracts on Ethereum and the speed of the XRP Ledger. The network operates on the protocol adapted for the Ethereum Virtual Machine and Federated Byzantine Agreement. Instead of establishing an ITO, Flare Networks will perform a utility fork to bring worth to the original chain. The Spark token will be used on the network as a native token for governance voting as the foundation will be taking technical direction from the Spark owners to develop Flare and execute upgrades and changes to the network.

How to receive a Spark token airdrop?

Anyone who holds XRP in BitBns exchange wallet is eligible for this airdrop. So, Don’t wait start depositing XRP in your BitBns wallet now.

When will Spark tokens be distributed?

Bitbns will support scheduled snapshot on December 12, 2020. Authorized date of the circulation will be announced after Flare blockchain is fully developed, Please join Bitbns Announcements Channel and follow Flare Networks on twitter.

Can I get and use these tokens now?

XRP & Flare are different networks and the Flare network is not launched yet, so you cannot use these tokens currently. Testnet is alread running and date and time for usage of Spark token will be revealed very soon.

How much will I receive?

The number of Spark tokens will be distributed at 1:1 ratio. 1 Spark token for 1 XRP in your wallet on the date of the snapshot, 12th December.

Will users have to do anything?

BitBns users don’t need to worry about anything. They can simply deposit XRP to their wallet then wait for snapshot and distribution.

Have more questions? Join our community.

Thanks for your support!

Team Bitbns
Inflow
By: The Nonconformist Magazine
Tags: Poetry On Medium, Poetry Writing, Poet, Poetry, Poem

POETRY

Inflow

by Gavin Bourke

On a slow-moving,

lake-surface, freely,

aboard on an octagonal,

wooden boat.

Floating,

directionless,

with the lake’s motion.

Purposeless, aimless, motionless,

somnolence, covering eyes,

squinting, with the beaming sun.

Closing one eye, closing both,

opening one, opening two.

Lying on new wood,

drifting, with the light current,

rising, falling, synchronising.

Neither awake, nor dreaming,

but somewhere in limb,

Grateful,

to be part,

of something greater,

than the human body.
How to Find Data Science Jobs During COVID-19
By: Rashi Desai
Tags: Coronavirus, Data Science, Jobs, Technology, Data

Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash

It’s no secret that the novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak is deeply affecting the lives of millions around the world, both directly and indirectly. The United States alone has shed nearly 10 million jobs in the past two weeks due to the COVID-19 shutdown.

Several conferences, meetups, classes, concerts, and other cultural events have been postponed, canceled, or moved online where appropriate. And there are data science, data engineering, and data analytics positions among them as well that have moved online.

However, surveys indicate that the data teams are long yet to see widespread layoffs or furloughs at this time, particularly among larger companies. So, strike at the jobs while it lasts?

Data is inevitable to any company at any given point of time and in situations like this, Data positions at beginner level might be a stack, but you just cannot give up. We all fathom the uncertainty there is right now about what the national and global impact will be on hiring, but there are ways you can stay positive and proactive about job searching during this tumultuous time.

I have been reading a lot of articles these days about how are job transitioning these days or how to job search during the pandemic, how to stay sane. In this story, I have put together 7 things to do right now to continue your Data Science job search. Here we go…

1. Strengthen your connections

Invest time in connecting to people from your area of interest, Data Leads, data teams at companies that are hiring. Take out a minimum of one or two hours connecting with people on professional networks.

While you might be extremely tempted to ask for referrals, take a moment to understand their body of work, how are things at their firm, how does the near future look like, the job requirements and expectations.

Tap your time into your network and their network to find if they know anyone who’s hiring or any organizations with open roles. Seek like-minded professionals that you might have always admired to spark conversations about possible opportunities and virtual networking events and chats. Participate in more online events, workshops, labs to see if there exists a chance to work it out to an interview

PRO TIP: Join professional groups online like the ones on Facebook and LinkedIn to expand your job search and network. During this lockdown, it’s the perfect opportunity to make new, authentic connections and revive the old ones.
The Unique Love of Jesus
By: John Ross
Tags: Inspiration, Religion, Faith, Love, Christianity

“The Christian gospel is that I am so flawed that Jesus had to die for me, yet I am so loved and valued that Jesus was glad to die for me.” — Tim Keller

Sometimes, it’s hard to accept how flawed we are. And other times, it’s hard to accept how loved we are. It doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t compute. It doesn’t add up.

And that’s the gospel.

It’s something that doesn’t make sense. Unless love.

When we love someone, no matter how flawed they are, we would do anything for them. We’d do anything to get to them. To be with them.

And the gospel is exactly that.

That we are so loved and valued that no matter what flaws we have, we have a Savior who will do anything to be with us.
Trust: Why AI Ethics and MLOps go hand-in-hand
By: Dr. Susara Van Den Heever
Tags: AI, Ai Trust, Data Science, Ai Ethics

Trust: Why AI Ethics and MLOps go hand-in-hand

The worst thing that can happen to your AI endeavor, is that you end up damaging people’s lives through good intentions.

Photo by lauren lulu taylor on Unsplash

The worst thing that can happen to your AI endeavor, is that you end up damaging people’s lives through good intentions.

Without proper AI ethics practices, your clever AI application could be filtering the best candidates from job applications due to their gender, you could be preventing good citizens from qualifying for loans, or your AI application might even result in children unfairly being taken from their parents.

Extreme as some of these examples sound, they have all happened, impacting people’s lives in very bad ways. Yet they could have been prevented if AI Ethics best practices had been followed by the creators of these applications.

AI Ethics has many dimensions, including:

Executive sponsorship and oversight

AI Ethics committees that create and implement best practices

AI and business professionals trained in AI Ethics

AI platforms and tools that can automatically detect and fix bias, and explain the reasons behind AI-based recommendations to humans

AI methods that enforce bias detection and explainability — this is where MLOps comes in

MLOps is often described as combining the work of the data scientists and the operations teams to manage the ML lifecycle.

I would take this a step further: MLOps, in combination with AI Ethics best practices, combines the work of the data scientists and operations teams to deliver ethical AI at scale.

MLOps involves best practices to move data science POCs to pre-production and then production, by implementing Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) pipelines. How do you make these pipelines ethical? By ensuring that your MLOps best practices include:

monitoring for bias

automated correction of bias

fairness detection

drift detection

model explainability

This is how MLOps and AI Ethics combine to make AI’s good intentions reality.

To read more about Trust & AI: https://towardsdatascience.com/how-to-not-only-survive-but-lead-in-the-ai-revolution-981d249f1bc7

To read more about ML Ops and the AI Lifecycle, see this great post by my colleague IBM Distinguished Engineer John Thomas: https://medium.com/inside-machine-learning/ai-ops-managing-the-end-to-end-lifecycle-of-ai-3606a59591b0

What do you think — please write in the comments what would YOU need to trust AI for your most important decisions?
Make A Difference At Cocktails & Conversations — Katy Nissan
By: Katy Nissan
Tags: Katy, Fundraiser, Domestic Violence, Katy Fundraiser

The community here in Katy, Texas works hard to push a feeling of love and support. Just one example of this is the Cocktails & Conversations event, as well as the Silent Witness event, held each year. Both events work to raise money and awareness for domestic violence. If you or someone you know has suffered from domestic violence before, keep reading to see how you can lend a hand and participate!

The Cause

Every year an event is held in Katy called the Silent Witness: A Night to Remember Those Lost to Domestic Violence. The event is centered around bringing awareness of domestic violence to those who attend and teaching prevention knowledge as well. The Silent Witness project is a travelling exhibit of life-sized, red wooden silhouettes that represent a victim of domestic violence from Harris, Fort Bend, and Waller Counties. This serves as a reminder just how much domestic violence can impact everyone involved.

The Silent Witness event will take place on October 24 from 6 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. It will be held at Westland Baptist Church 1407 West Grand Parkway South, Katy, TX 77494 and is free to attend!

The Event

Before October 24, though, comes Cocktails & Conversations, a fundraising event to raise money for the Silent Witness. This event, which will take place on October 9, will be a night full of community and support for all to attend. From live entertainment to a silent auction to light bites & drinks, there will be lots to look forward to, and you can enjoy the whole night knowing you’re helping an awesome cause! Tickets are $15 and the attire is business casual. There will also be a super special performance by Fenyx Aerial Arts on this night! So come out for a memorable night remembering those who have lost their lives to domestic violence.

You might also like: Brunchin’ In Katy

The Sponsor

Katy Nissan is proud to sponsor Cocktails & Conversations and all who participate. As a sponsor, we hope to show our dedication to the community we serve, and also reflect how much we value the relationships we have made within Katy. If you find yourself in need of a new vehicle, a member of our sales team would love to show you around our inventory of new and pre-owned Nissan vehicles to get you in the best one possible for you and your family. Let us show you first-hand how much we care!

Originally published at http://shop.katynissan.com on September 30, 2019.
Empty Room (September 2020)
By: Vlad Alex, Merzmensch
Tags: Theater, Artificial Intelligence, Published Narrative, Merznlp, Art

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Essential Data Structures for Every Programmer
By: Mahdhi Rezvi
Tags: Data Structures, Software Development, Programming, Startup, Learning To Code

Hash Table

Hash Table data structure stores data in key-value pairs. This means that each key in the hash table has a corresponding value associated with it. This simple layout makes hash tables very efficient in the insertion and searching of data, regardless of the size of the table.

Although this is similar to a regular key-value pair data store, the generation of the keys makes hash tables unique. Keys are generated with a special process called hashing.

Hashing (hash function)

Hashing is a process that converts a key with a hash function in order to receive a hashed key. This hash function determines the index of the table or structure where the value should be stored.

h(k) = k % m

h: Hash function

Hash function k: Key of which the hash value should be determined

Key of which the hash value should be determined m: Size of the hash table.

For example, consider using a hash function, k%17. If the original key is 20, the hashed key would 20%17=3. This means that the value would be stored in index 3 of our hash table.

Hash function for keys — Source: SnappyGoat

Why do we hash?

Sometimes people might wonder why should we go through this additional process of hashing when we can simply map the values directly with the key. Although direct mapping is simple, it might not be an efficient solution when used with a large data set. With hashing, we can achieve a near-constant time of O(1).

Collisions

Since a common hash function is used for converting all keys, there’s the possibility of collisions. Let’s have a look at the below example considering our hash function k%17 .

When k = 18, h(18) = 18%17 = 1.

When k = 20, h(20) = 20%17 = 3.

When k = 35, h(35) = 35%17 = 1.

As seen above, when the keys are 18 and 35, there is a collision happening as both keys direct to index 1.

Collisions can be resolved by using strategies such as separate chaining and open addressing.

Basic hash table operations

Search : Search for an element within the hash table

: Search for an element within the hash table Insert : Insert an element into the hash table

: Insert an element into the hash table Delete : Remove an element from the hash table

Applications of hash tables
IDLE MIND
Tags: Life Lessons, Thesceneandheard, Spiritual Growth, Mindfulness, Poetry

The spirits that play, never stay long

Linger enough ‘til something goes wrong

So many souls, so little time

Creating confusion, delusions, and grime

People get hateful, smiles turn into grins

Eyes lose their shine, greed slowly drips in

Looking around, your friends aren’t the same

Spirits get bored, their souls they have claimed!

Spirits that play, never stay long

Lusting for fun, you dance to their song

So little time, and you don’t have a clue

As you flirt with the devil, just what he will do

Chaotic eyes stare back from the mirror

You adapt to the crowd, thoughts get unclear

The spirits that play, never stay long

Right on your tail, as your life moves on

Wicked schemes, empty dreams got you so high

Not accomplishing a thing, time passes you by

Spirits get bored from the souls they have claimed

Idle mind, devil’s workshop is the name of this game!
The Shunning
By: Kittie Phoenix
Tags: Christianity, Poetry, Independence, Women

Image Source: Pixabay

They shook their heads.

They laughed.

They turned their backs.

They thought she’d change…

She danced barefoot in the moonlight.

She streaked her halls with joy.

She breathed for the first time in ages.

She sang herself into the very being they feared most.

They forgot one thing —

She who stands alone learns no other is needed.

She seeks only Him.

He’s already singing and dancing and leaping over her.

Why exactly does she need them again?!?
Frozen Edges
By: William J Spirdione
Tags: Seasons, Ice, Winter, Poetry, Sonnet

Frozen Edges

A sonnet

photo by William J Spirdione

Thin layers on top of more thin layers,

Of ice line frozen edge of the pond’s bank.

Freezing and thawing, slow winter breakers,

Crashing as clear ice as waves crest and sink.

On these mossy shores no water shall reach,

Splashing will have to wait for warmer day.

It’s freezing cold. It’s no day at the beach.

The sun is shining to no one’s dismay.

Lines almost musical, hear frozen flow,

Light glowing on leading edge of each wave.

Notes skating across to the page below,

Until foot crashes through as glass behaves.

Don’t step on the very edge of the ice.

Sometimes you have to step over advice.
I Took a Cut in Working Hours to Be Home for My Son
By: Rosalind Pagan
Tags: Life Lessons, Family, Love, Time, Parenting

I Took a Cut in Working Hours to Be Home for My Son

You can live without luxuries but you can never overvalue the commodity of time.

Photo by Paige Cody on Unsplash

Having four babies in my twenties and then one at forty has given me the unusual parenting advantage of hindsight.

There is nothing I regret more from the years when I had my older children at home, than putting things off until “later”.

If your children are small, you can be forgiven for thinking you will have them forever. But I can promise you the time will come, in all likelihood before you are ready for it, when they will be grown and flown and no longer needing you on a daily basis. And sometimes just not at all, ever.
BTHS Jazz Nouveau singers become first back-to-back champs at Berklee High School Jazz Fest
By: Mary Ellen Cagnassola
Tags: Music, Schools, Students, Burlington County, New Jersey

BTHS Jazz Nouveau singers become first back-to-back champs at Berklee High School Jazz Fest

The ensemble scored the highest of any large ensemble from 200 schools across the U.S.

Escorted into the Burlington Township High School parking lot by the celebratory sirens of fire trucks and police vehicles, the decorated Jazz Nouveau returned home from the 50th annual Berklee High School Jazz Festival on Feb. 11 with yet another first-place national title.

This year’s win marks the second in a row for the Jazz Nouveau, a 28-member a cappella jazz vocal ensemble at BTHS, making them the first in the top-level V1 division to ever clinch back-to-back national championships. The group also scored a near-perfect 295 out of 300 points, the highest score of any large ensemble out of the 5,000 participants from more than 200 high schools.

“The Falcon is not only flying high, it flew all the way to Boston and back!” district public information officer Liz Scott said. “We are so proud of what you did and how you represented Burlington Township.”

The Berklee High School Jazz Festival, held every year in Boston, is the largest of its kind in the United States. Big bands, combos and vocal jazz ensembles perform and compete throughout the daylong competition, and all ensembles are adjudicated by a panel of faculty from Berklee College of Music. Top-ranked ensembles are awarded partial scholarships to the college’s five-week summer performance program.

Senior Darian Lambert was recognized for the Judge’s Choice Award, which is given to the best solo performer in a given group.

“I wasn’t expecting it at all, it’s really crazy. I definitely wouldn’t have been able to do anything without this group,” Lambert said of her award. “They’re the most supportive people — I’m so happy to call them family and I love them.”

Thanking Burlington Township School District’s administrators and group leaders Emma Rulli and Jordyn Gross, Nouveau director Steve Bishop said he was again elated by the outcome of their participation in the festival. He added it was remarkable to watch the group, which trains diligently and performs without a conductor, continue to grow and improve even in the four weeks leading up to the competition.

“This is a group that has grown the most I have ever seen. I don’t think I will ever be fortunate enough to have a group like this again, that takes what they do so seriously and pushes themselves,” said Bishop, a former Broadway director who started the ensemble eight years ago. “Our mantra this time around was simply this: It’s more important to be us than to win. That’s how we started, and that’s how we’re always going to continue. We have a very unique, novel sound, no one does things quite like we do, and they have all embraced that. I’m so proud of this program and where is has gone in the past few years.”

To see the Jazz Nouveau’s return-home performance, visit facebook.com/BurlTwpSch.
Dating in the age of Grindr & Tinder
Tags: Attention Economy, Dating, Tinder, Social Media, Grindr

Dating sometimes sucks. Alright, it often sucks. After a solid year of doing a lot of it, I feel reasonably comfortable making that assessment.

Gay guys were the first to be treated to the new digital dating experience with Grindr, which shows you people’s profiles sorted by how close they physically are to you, presenting you with a catalogue of faces (or faceless torsos 😩) that you peruse at your leisure to order from, as if you were on Amazon. Straight people and everybody else now have a broad range of similar apps too, the biggest of which is no doubt Tinder.

But for all their promise, because they indubitably increase your opportunity to date and find someone right for you, they also have significant downsides if used improperly.

If we used them just as much as we used a bar for dating in ages past, maybe 3 hours on a Friday or Saturday evening, that would be great. And it would be very effective and a huge timesaver compared to going to a bar. Easier communication, more people, what’s not to like?

Alas, that is not what we do. These apps are businesses, they try to make money. Most users use them for free, so the business model is to capture as much of our attention as possible. And so we overuse them, sometimes for 2h or more per day.

Our behaviour is the problem

That increased time spent chatting with people doesn’t mean we get 7 times as many dates or actual human interactions as we would have in the Friday night in a bar. Our dating prospects don’t go up. We instead become frustrated and ever more unwilling to make an effort when we’re talking to somebody new. So we simply don’t respond to people. Or we write things like “Hi — wanna f***?” Or we don’t bother responding anymore (“ghosting”) because nothing feels like it has consequences — these people are all strangers we might never actually meet — and we know just how easy it is to talk to someone else.

The way in which we use these apps makes our behaviour appalling: it often makes us not take the necessary time to get to know someone, because the pool of opportunities seems infinite, and we’re less than kind to many of the people we interact with on those platforms.

As a result, we don’t get more dates or connections, we might actually get fewer meaningful ones. In the best case, if we do get the same amount of dates / relationships, we’ve spent vastly more time and energy to get the same result. All to make other people rich.

Is that really how we want to spend our time?

This problem doesn’t just affect dating apps, but also social media like Facebook, Instagram, and others. I strongly recommend Cal Newport’s book Digital Minimalism on that topic. He’d probably recommend you do keep using these apps for their benefits but schedule your time on them (let’s say 10 minutes in the evening from 6 to 6.10) and quickly transition to human face-to-face interaction with whomever you’re talking to, because it provides much more information and offers less room for misinterpretation or pretending.
You Are
Tags: Music, Songs, Culture, Blue Insights, Artist

Blast From The Musical Past

You Are

— A song by Lionel Richie

Source: Depositphotos.com

Baby you’ll find, There’s only one love, Yours and mine, I’ve got so much love And needing you so, My love for you, I’ll never let go, I’ve got so much love

All I want is to hold you, Let me show how much I love you baby (Show you)

I don’t and I don’t mind (Loving you)

Girl I love you, There’s no one above you

You are the sun, You are the rain, That makes my life this foolish game

You need to know I love you so

And I’d do it all again and again….

I know you know the way I feel, And I need your love for always, ‘Cos when I’m with you, I fall in love, Again and again and again, baby…

He gave us lots of cool blues to massage our romantic senses. Straight from his days with The Commodores. I can’t definitely pick “YOU ARE” as his best song, considering many other lovely ones he churned out that surely make it hard for me to choose. There’s no doubt that Lionel is a genius when it comes to dishing out love songs that drop panties. And I can confidently say this is one of his best in that category.

Check it out and have fun!
2020 PIMS-CNRS IRL Fellowships
By: Pacific Institute For The Mathematical Sciences
Tags: Research, Collaboration, Mathematics, Science, Education

2020 PIMS-CNRS IRL Fellowships

The PIMS-CNRS International Research Lab #3069, originally signed in 2007, has been an integral component of efforts to facilitate and encourage transatlantic research opportunities.

By Jimmy Fryers

Each year several Fellowships are awarded to faculty-member researchers from the PIMS community to visit institutes and collaborate with colleagues in France.

In 2020 two researchers have been awarded the PIMS-CNRS IRL Fellowship and will be spending time in France. Here are their stories:

Jennifer McLoud-Mann, Professor and Chair

Dr. McLoud-Mann is a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Washington Bothell where she chairs the division of engineering and mathematics.

Which institute will you be visiting and who will you be collaborating with?

I will be visiting Laboratoire Bordelais de Recherche en Informatique (LaBRI), working with Sébastien Labbé.

When will you undertake your fellowship?

The fellowship will run between September 16, 2019, and June 15, 2020

What is the topic of the research you will be undertaking?

There have been some very exciting advances in the area of Wang tiles in recent years. Recently, Michael Rao and Emmanuel Jeandel demonstrated the existence of an aperiodic protoset of 11 Wang tiles and proved that 11 is the minimal size of such a protoset.

It has long been understood that Wang tiles provide a platform for universal computation; that is, Wang tiles can model the behaviour of Turing machines. This deep connection between computation, geometry, and symbolic dynamics is at the core of recent work on Wang tiles.

Labbé has begun explorations and made significant advances into the dynamics of aperiodic Wang tile sets, and I am excited to learn from and contribute to his exciting research program.

What you hope to achieve during the fellowship?

Mathematically I hope is to gain a deeper understanding of Wang tiles, learn about interesting topics in other fields that seem to be closely connected to them, and establish research results in this area.

Personally I want to establish a meaningful research collaboration with Sebastién and possibly others in France.

In addition, I want to take full advantage of my first time living abroad by learning more about the working life at a French university and the leisure outside of it in the Bordeaux region.

Why did you apply for the PIMS-CNRS IRL Fellowship?

On sabbatical, I have a reduced salary and this fellowship will help me financially, especially since I am living abroad. I was recently informed about this opportunity from another PIMS faculty who I met on sabbatical.
Hallo-WEAK
By: Background Noise Comics
Tags: Humor, Comics, Joker, It, Halloween

Hey grumpy ghouls, it’s time to get into sync about how to celebrate the season of the witch!
An Intentional Holiday
By: Lucy The Eggcademic, She Her
Tags: Intentions, Journalling, Self Care Tips, Poetry Prompt, Poetry

#DecemberSelfCare

An Intentional Holiday

Poetry Prompt: holiday & winter intentions

Photo by pure julia on Unsplash

What are your

intentions for the week?

Where would you ideally

like this week to go?

I commit to checking in

with myself

to make sure

that ideas from past me

still match with current me

and current me’s circumstances.
Ghosts in my heart
By: Roxana Ștefan
Tags: Poetry On Medium, Love, Poetry, Thoughts, Poem

I feel lost inside those walls,

maps of old stories.

They’ve been waiting for me,

yes,

they’ve been waiting for me,

waiting for my spirit to grow warm.

And I did it. I’m a sweet voice of mysteries;

a dark poem.

But please, dear…

those walls are broken.

please, please,

don’t ask me to be there anymore.

so many unspoken words,

fears and fights,

sins and lies.

Take my heart and let’s go,

far away from those old walls.
Woman reveals superficial reason she left her marriage
By: Moyosore Sheriff Quadri
Tags: Marriage, Humor, Moseries, Satire

Mo- If h-factor is such a turn off, why did you marry him in the first place? You must have heard it at some point

Lucille- I honestly didn’t. Until our marriage he always talked really slowly, like very very slow, it annoyed a lot of our friends but it didn’t seem to bother me. I always thought it was Wole Soyinka-esque

Mo- At what point in your marriage did you first notice the defect?

Lucille- I think this is the stage where I inform you that we were only married for 8 months before separation. To answer your question, It was rampant after our marriage, the first time I recall suspecting the defect was on our wedding day. He said “Hi do”

Mo: Well that’s unfortunate

Lucille: I thought it was a mistake, little did I know that I was signing up for a lifetime of breathless conversations. He once passed out after trying to say “Hannah had a hell of a harvest and I hope Henry appreciates her efforts”

Mo: Although I don’t think anyone can get through that sentence alive, do you stand by your decision to have left your marriage for what many would consider trivial ?

Lucille: Yes. Yes I do.

The moral of Lucille’s revelation is that no one should feel like they have to stay in an uncomfortable relationship.

For better or worse? Not if you’re pronouncing ‘or’ with the ‘h’ sound.
Saving Santa’s IT architecture with AI and cognitive services
By: Iulia Feroli
Tags: Cognitive Services, Automation, Azure, AI, Christmas

On the last few days of work before Christmas our internal architect team hosted a “Save Santa” hackathon where we were given some pain points that Santa and his elves may have to deal with in their IT system.

As these pains may be transferable beyond the North Pole, hereby my team’s complete Azure solution to automate and add AI capabilities to an email-triggered insight gathering pipeline.

YouTube video where I do the solution walkthrough

The pains we are targeting:

Overwhelming number of emails coming in that have to be answered / sorted / processed / dealt with. (Santa’s wish lists being sent over from all over the world)

2. Getting insights out of data at a first glance such as:

Dealing with data in different languages coming in (that needs to all be converted into one source of truth before further processing)

Understanding the sentiment of text (deal with sad kids first, or take different actions based on different readings)

Get a quick summary of important details in messages (if kids take forever to get to the point)

Classify images (picture attachments of toys kids might want)

Aggregate all these insights into one place, automate all these steps, have it all running in one platform with one authentication method (Azure Active Directory).

Overview of solution

Needed resources for this solution

Detect emails with attachments and key word “wish list” in subject. Process email to remove html and store the body (text) and images of presents Create a notebook using cognitive services & custom vision APIs to process the text and images of the email request. (A. Translate the email and gather more insights from the wish like sentiment, key phrases. B. Classification of the received image into pre-set gift categories) A. Connect the notebook to the data lake, and B. Run a blob trigger when new email items have been stored to start text. Centralize all information and create dashboard

example of an email from a kid that would trigger our pipelines

1 & 2: Email detection with Logic Apps and cleaning with custom Azure Functions

This section handles the email detection by monitoring my inbox (or Santa’s) for wishes from children.

We assume kids would send images of the toys they want, and use a type of language in the email subject.
We will be hosting a live YouTube AMA on 21st of August, at 16:00BST with our co-founders, Linda and Steve!
Tags: Blockchain, P2p Lending, Ama, Cryptocurrency

We will be hosting a live YouTube AMA on 21st of August, at 16:00BST with our co-founders, Linda and Steve! Alex Follow Aug 2, 2018 · 1 min read

Hi all!

Linda and Steve will be hosting a live AMA on YouTube on the 21st of August, at 16:00 BST.

Timer to AMA: https://tinyurl.com/ycucz7jh

The broadcast will take place on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSW4xLO-6zXYI6BVT0o64Eg

Please leave your questions in this Reddit thread: https://redd.it/93nnmp