fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Econ as a Second Language
By: Fsi Student Programs
Tags: Belgium, Tecfsi, Internships, Fsi Students, Politics

About the author: Kyra Whitelaw’21 is an FSI The Europe Center Intern at Bruegel in Brussels, Belgium. Kyra is current studying Political Science at Stanford University.

This summer I am interning at Bruegel, a European economic policy think tank located in Brussels, Belgium. Coming to Bruegel as a Political Science major mostly focused on American politics, I worried that the high-level academic research occurring at Bruegel would by way out of my depth.

I wasn’t exactly wrong. When I was asked on my first day of work to summarize an article on FDI screening mechanisms, I didn’t know what an “FDI” was let alone how you might “screen” it. I spent most of the day Googling every other word in the article. By the end of that small task though, I had gone from not knowing what national and international investment policies were to being able to describe trends in worldwide adoption of such policies over the past several years, compare the policies held by different countries, and use these analyses to explain patterns in capital flows.

This sequence of events occurred repeatedly over the next couple of weeks when I was asked to complete a literature review on the EU-Mercosur Free Trade Agreement or gather data on the effect of cyberattacks on financial transactions. I would begin a project with absolutely no idea what half the words I was reading meant. By the end of my work, I would be proud to comprehensively describe my final results and findings to a Bruegel researcher.

Furthermore, beyond my day-to-day projects at Bruegel, I think I have learned the most from the friendships I have formed with my colleagues. Bruegel’s staff is very diverse, coming from all different countries across Europe and around the world. In my office alone, there are researchers from Italy, Portugal, Turkey, China, Croatia, Switzerland, and Spain. Simple conversations over lunch have led to deeper discussions about the different political systems, cultural practices, and societal norms we each inhabit.

Before coming to Bruegel, I was worried that doing an internship outside of my normal field of studies would be pointless. I worried that it wouldn’t further my career goals. However, I have found that doing an internship outside of my comfort zone has pushed me and taught me more than another experience would. I can honestly look back on each day that I spend at Bruegel and name ten new things I have learned since I entered the office that morning.
The Need the Church Doesn’t Fulfill
By: Cecily Lawless
Tags: Nature, Religion, Spirituality, Christianity, Catholic

I’ve never felt very at home in Christianity. It’s not that I’ve struggled with existential doubt or felt excluded from the church community — it’s just that I never connected much with the Christian message. It didn’t spark my imagination or inspire an emotional response, and hearing about the beauty of the Church made me roll my eyes. Something always niggled at me.

I blamed the asymmetry of the faith. Other religions look round and complete: Christianity is jagged, broken in two, disproportionate, unaesthetic. I blamed the asexual fabric of the doctrine — the Trinity in its cheery homeostasis, generating and being generated but never longing, colliding, melding, the focus on celibacy.

The disconnect didn’t bother me much until I was introduced to the writings of Luigi Giussani, who emphasized time and time again that Christ and the Church correspond to the needs of our heart. This was best explained to me at a discussion group— I held a guitar close to my ear and someone struck a tuning fork, and I was meant to listen to hear the string that corresponded to that note vibrate in response. Christ is the tuning fork, we are the guitar strings, and whenever we start resounding, when something attracts us, it is a sign of our ‘religious sense’, a course we can follow to God.

I never came closer to losing my religion entirely. I knew that my heart had never vibrated like a guitar string in response to the faith I had followed intentionally for my whole life. Was I that out of tune? Or was there nothing to listen for?
How to find hidden gem’s on Cryptopia
By: Alex Balingit
Tags: Cryptopia, Crypto, Cryptocurrency, Gem, Bitcoin

Go to coin market cap & Look for coins starting at 250k market cap

Make sure the coin is under 50–100m supply

The coin must be at least 2% daily volume of the total market cap.

(Example: 250k cap coin needs a minimum $5000 in daily volume)

Exclude coins with a greater supply than circulating supply!

Check Bitcointalk announcements

– Note activity levels

– Look for roadmaps

Follow this strategy and you’ll be finding gems in no time!
mad there’s no pimp
By: Lisa Martens
Tags: Onlyfans, Social Media, Feminism, Poetry, Sexuality

mad there’s no pimp

an onlyfans poem.

Photo by Moncell Allen on Unsplash

a teacher was fired

after the principal

found her onlyfans.

“but what was the principal doing

on there, anyway?”

“she’s gotta go with the better job.”

“PAY TEACHERS MORE.”

you rant about

dignity, honor, girls who would

do that, stoop so low

come on now

you’re just mad

there’s no pimp

say the soft part loud

you’re just mad

she gets to make money

without having sex

without risking her health

without being exploited.

before, at least, you could say

well i’m better because

i’m not on drugs

well i’m better because

those girls are

exploited, pimped out, high.

she’s stackin

she’s got a 401K

she has stock

she has options

and she doesn’t even have to

fuck anybody.

die mad about it.

you try to report her to the IRS

but she’s paying her taxes

you try to tell her parents

but they already know

you try to tell her she’ll never

get a man

but she’s already married

you tell her she won’t be able to apply for

scholarships but

her tuition is already paid for

you tell her she’ll never get an office job

but she doesn’t want one.

you try to tell her that her kids will judge her

but they’re too busy on their

vacations in Greece to really care.

you try to tell her God will never forgive her

but God is busy doing other things.

you’re just mad

there’s no pimp

you’re just mad

she gets to do it from home

you’re just mad that

she can have tattoos and

dark skin and dark eyes and gauged ears

and still be successful and still

not need you, that she will never

need to repent because she hasn’t

done anything wrong — you’re just mad that she has

all the power

all the control

and all that cash.
Mindful Dining
By: Kallie Allen
Tags: Self, Inspiration, Family, Cooking, Food

Mindful Dining

Charcuterie is for everyone

Photo by Erik Dungan on Unsplash

I first discovered charcuterie at one of the local wineries in the Cowichan Valley, where I’ve lived for the past five years. Cowichan is the anglicized First Nations tribal name Quw’utsun, which means “land warmed by sun.” The fact that there are about twenty wineries within half an hour speaks to the moderate temperatures in the valley.

After years and years of preparing elaborate family dinners and the hours spent in the kitchen showing my love — it was frustrating to see the meals devoured in ten to twenty minutes. All that for this? My efforts felt unappreciated, to say the least.

Hence my interest and enjoyment of my first charcuterie with a glass of wine. How civilized it was — slow, thoughtful, mindful eating. So I started thinking of how I could introduce a charcuterie for lunch or dinner at home and what I would put on the platter that would please everyone. My partner is a meat and potatoes kind of guy, so this had to hit the right balance, right from the beginning.

Photo by Wesual Click on Unsplash

Let’s Start with the Meat

Charcuterie is a French word meaning cooked cold meats or a shop selling cooked cold meats. Meat is the protein and anchoring ingredient of the charcuterie. Cured meats like Genovese salami, prosciutto or chorizo are good to start with and I always like a liver paté for contrast. I recently discovered creton at a farmers market. In Quebec cuisine, this pork spread made with garlic, onions, and spices is normally put on toast for breakfast. To me, it’s as rich as paté and I substituted it in my last charcuterie with great feedback.

I usually put at least three different prepared meats on my platter or board. If I can find Spanish Jamon Iberico (Iberian ham we fell in love with in Madrid), that goes on the board, as does prosciutto, salami and one spreadable meat such as herbed liver pate or creton.
15 Reasons why the Crypto Bull is just Getting Started
Tags: Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency Investment

Photo: Cap’n Surly, via Creative Commons.

Really, it’s just getting warmed up, not even at the starting gate. Let’s run some numbers, shall we?

CONCLUSION

Massive pent-up demand by retail buyers driven by barriers to entry such as closed exchanges. There is also a lack of technical knowledge in simply buying, not to mention securing the crypto currencies.

2018 is the year Institutional money, such as World Banks, and other forms of Nation-based monies will begin entering the market.

Massive amount of money on the sidelines in the form of retirement accounts, stocks, non-performing savings have not even entered the crypto currency market yet.

All point to a robust 2018 for Cryptocurrencies.

Bittrex ban on new signups.
Creator Hangout: Catching up with Green Pea Cookie Creator Larissa Russell
Tags: Food, Kickstarter, Creator To Creator

More food tips from Terry

And while we were on the subject of food, we asked Terry for advice she’d share with anyone considering launching a project in that category:

Make sure your food photos are clear, in-focus, and delicious looking, always. Instagram is overflowing with inspiration when it comes to food photography on a budget (and done with a cellphone!).

The Brigadeiro Bakery team had some great photos on their project page.

And on that note, learn to love Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest . There are huge food communities on these platforms. Make sure what you’re posting is sharable.

. There are huge food communities on these platforms. Make sure what you’re posting is sharable. Stumped for video content ideas? A voice-over in combination with some clips of your ingredients or cooking process stitched together into a short (two minutes or less) video is a fantastic recipe to build on.

Check out the Subzero Superfood video for inspiration.

Want to minimize local shipping (especially great for delicate or chilled products!)? Host a “pick-up” party for backers who opt-in (surveys are your friend). Not only will you cut down on shipping costs, but you’ll have the chance to meet some of your biggest supporters.

Do you have experience shipping your product? Wondering how it will survive transit? Test your shipping and handling! Send test packages to friends or relatives in a few major cities, remote areas, and even internationally. Ask them to report back on how long it took them to receive the package, and the quality of the packaging and food once it arrived.

We hope you enjoyed our month of food chats, tweets, and tips! Thanks to everyone that joined February’s Creator Hangouts, including our friends from New Food Economy.

If you’re interested in joining our next Creator Hangout, check the schedule here or subscribe to our Facebook page to see who we’re talking to next. Peas out! ✌
The Illustrated Interview: Tom Daly
By: Edith Zimmerman
Tags: Spiralbound, Comics, Illustrated Interview, Tom Daly

Every week on Spiralbound we ask one of our featured artists: How do you make comics? This week we spoke (emailed) with Tom Daly, most recently of “In the Park” and “My Karate Black Belt Essay.” (Check them out if you haven’t already! And see here for our full interview archive.)

So, Tom, how do you make comics? (Text from Tom, drawings by Edith Z.)
Evening walk in Shimbashi
By: Dan Hill
Tags: Photojournalism, Urbanism, Street Photography, Tokyo, Photography

Articles, journal entries and images reflecting on places, often cities. The title is lifted from Christopher Isherwood: “I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking.”

Follow
The Most Notorious Pirate Queen of Ireland
By: Mythili The Dreamer
Tags: World, History, Feminism, Culture, Women

The story of Grace O’Malley

Little is known about Grace O’Malley’s childhood. But unlike other girls, she was born in a seafaring family O’Malleys who controlled vast swathes of land on the Irish west coast where the clan fished, traded, and taxed others who fished off their coasts.

And as with any seafaring clan, plundering and piracy was part of the job with the risk that the penalty of piracy is death by hanging. So from a very young age Grace, under the tutelage of her father and other members of the family became an accomplished pirate and was never cut in for housewifery as was the fate of most women of that era.

At 16, she was ‘politically married’ to Dónal Ó Flaithbheartaigh, heir to the lands of Ó Flaithbheartaigh, a powerful clan in west Ireland. The marriage became an excellent launching pad for her career as a pirate as she started expanding her network to Spain and Portugal, leading ambitious raids on the English ships along the coast. Upon the death of her first husband in 1554, she inherited his fighting ships and castle at the age of just 23.

In 1566, O’Malley married again to Risdeárd also known as ‘Iron Richard’, another powerful heir only to divorce him a year later to expand her lands further and take control of his castle. Although they divorced, Grace still managed to maintain his loyalty as a key ally.

At a time when women were used as instruments of alliances by men to be more powerful, Grace was doing just the opposite. At the height of her power, she had hundreds of men and numerous ships at her disposal.

It was the time when the English were rapidly invading Ireland and Grace’s predatory surges on the English did not go unnoticed. They sent a large force of ships and laid siege on Rockfleet Castle, her base of operations. But they had underestimated Grace as within two weeks, the pirate Queen launched such a vicious attack that the English were forced to make a hasty retreat.

But her luck finally ran out when Grace O’Malley was finally captured by Sir Richard Bingham, a ruthless governor that was appointed to rule over Irish territories. Grace managed to escape but lost all her lands and wealth in the process leaving her in dire straits. Bingham also captured her beloved son who was subjected to painful torture every day.

But Grace did not give up. She decided to go over Bingham’s head and straight to his boss, the Queen of England, Elizabeth I.

It was a risky move as she could have been thrown straight into the Tower of London and executed. But she took the chance and sailed to England seeking an audience with the Queen. The Queen was intrigued and agreed to meet the ‘impressive’ woman of Ireland as she called her.

It was obvious Grace managed to impress the queen as at the end of the long meeting, Bingham was instructed to return Grace’s lands, pay her the funds she had demanded, and free her son. In return, Grace would withdraw her support for the Irish rebellion (The Nine Years War whom she supported) and attack only England’s enemies.
Rows or columns?
By: Jan Schultink
Tags: Presentation, Data Visualization, Presentation Design, PowerPoint, Keynote

When designing a table there is always the question: which dimension to put in rows, and which in columns. Personally, I do what looks best, without applying any specific rules.

If one dimension has labels that are very long, I prefer to put them in rows

If one dimension has lots of data points, I tend to put them in rows (16:9 screens give more flexibility for wide designs though)

Years usually go in columns

Big options (1, 2, or 3) usually go in columns

Ranking different values usually is better vertically, it is easier to compare a column of numbers than have your eyes move across a row of numbers.

Art: Lyubov Popova, Air, Man, Space, 1912

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I Failed To Prevent My Kid From Going to College
By: James Altucher
Tags: Debt, College, Higher Education, Student Loans, Life

I failed…

I dropped off my kid at college the other day. I didn’t want her to go to college.

In 2005 or 2006 I wrote a column in The Financial Times that nobody should go to college anymore. I then wrote a book, “40 Alternatives to College”.

For a long time that book was the #1 seller on Amazon in the category of…“College”.

A lot of people were upset at me about this. Everyone had an argument why college was a good thing and that kids should go.

Then people said to me, “Well you went to college so now you are trying to keep people beneath you by not having them go to college.”

And one person threatened to kill me. When I tracked him down it turned out he was a senior at Brown University. Higher education.

And other people who had spent a lot of money on college stopped returning my calls because I was calling into question the decisions they had made for themselves their entire life.

One friend, who got a really great job at a top magazine wrote me, “I never would have gotten this job if I didn’t go to college” and that was the last I heard from her even though we had been good friends.

I don’t know why I feel strongly about this. Maybe I feel it’s an important four years. Why spend it doing homework and learning nothing and getting in debt?

I was the worst student in college. And began the first of many bad relationships. And got into debt. Ugh.
How can real-time data give you the edge on Black Friday?
Tags: Cyber Monday, Ecommerce Marketing, Black Friday, Digital Marketing, Ecommerce Web Development

A good problem to have, but still a problem nonetheless – is gaining too much traffic for your website to handle.

Picture the wave of emails and tweets coming in as Black Friday hits. The last thing you want your visitors (and potential customers) to see are 404 errors, and pages taking minutes to load.

If you’re on a hosted platform like Shopify then you hopefully won’t need to worry too much about traffic spikes taking you down. If you’re hosting your own store, though, it’s a good idea to see how much traffic you can handle.

LoadImpact.com or Blitz.io are handy tools to test the load your site can handle. Be sure to check them out before it’s too late!

You can use real-time analytics on your site to constantly monitor for spikes, and see your traffic building before it reaches tipping point.

You can also spot if part of your site has crumbled under load, or visitors from a particular region have suddenly disappeared. These insights can give you precious minutes to dedicate extra resources, which may prove crucial to keeping your online store snappy, and your customers happy.

Get ready now!

Don’t wait until Black Friday is over before learning lessons — you can now prepare to change as the environment does and be as responsive as possible.

As with many things in life, the sooner you prepare, the more confident you can be for the day.

Many consumers are already on the look out for what to spend their Black Friday budget on, so get your plans together and batten down the hatches for an exciting road over the coming weeks!

A short SlideShare to help you prepare for Black Friday.

An earlier version of this article originally appeared on the GoSquared Blog as “How can real-time give you the edge on Black Friday?”
The Psychology of Islam
By: Virtual Mosque
Tags: Islam, Daily, Prayers

Yahya Saqib speak on the psychology of Islam and explains how it is a carefully designed and purposeful religion. He looks at why we are taught to pray at a very young age and he goes into detail to explain the meaning of Prayer and why we pray five times a day.
Friendly
By: Background Noise Comics
Tags: Humor, Relationships, Friendship, Comics, Cartoon

Happy National Best Friends Day. If you have a best friend (any kind!) tag them!
Why Doesn’t the Law of Attraction Work To Make Your Dreams a Reality?
By: Rajesh Vairapandian
Tags: Universe, Mindfulness, Meditation, Inspiration, Self Improvement

Do not break the chain.

Now let us see the common mistakes of practices the law of attraction. If you eliminate these mistakes, it will be easy to attract your desire. I call it “Do not break the chain.”

Day 1: You are so positive and filled with happiness and doing manifestation practices.

Day 2: Same as above

Day 10: Same as above

Day 11: A small thought of doubt is implanted in your subconscious mind

Day 12: That little thought of doubt/dis-belief grows faster

Day 13: You are trying to be positive but unable to focus on the positivity

Day 14: No result so far, no significant change or the manifestation of your desire

Day 15: You started blaming or thinking negatively about the Law of Attraction and thinking over and over of your past or failures

Day 16: Again, you wanted to be on track with positive thoughts/thinking.

Day 17: No No No, Day 17 should be DAY 1. Have you understood the secret now? To be precise, if you are positive for 14 days and if you become negative entirely on the 15th day, then you have to start from day 1.

Negative thoughts will destroy all your hard work on the first fourteen days, and from day 16, if you want to back with a positive thinking mindset, it will be considered Day1 because you have broken the chain!

Never get disappointed or never disbelieve for one day and spoil all the previous days’ efforts.

I have seen many practitioners in this mindset. They all do the right things. They all positive for several days, and when something is not coming their way, they start feeling low or sad.

It will make them to square one again. We all have only one life, and we should always self-focused on the right thing. If your desire is not manifested, you never know something big might be there for you!

So, never get sad or depressed or feeling low for the delay of your manifestation. You will get what you create. You will get the best of the best. “Have a never-ending FIRM belief even though your manifestation takes time, is the secret.”
NFT Hack Ideas + Bounties. ✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧…
By: Peter
Tags: Untitled Hackathon, Nft Hackathon

NFT Hack Ideas + Bounties

✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧

Start date of hackathon: 8th Oct. (Today)

End date of hackathon: 27th Oct.

Sign up as a hacker:

https://blockchains.typeform.com/to/Wbs4iyTm

Discord community:

https://discord.gg/WuH3CEK

Sponsors:

Big thanks to Matic Network, xDAI, Avastars, MetaCartel

✧ This is an overview of Untitled Hackathon’s bounties and community submitted ideas for everyone to experiment with. Thank you to the 70+ individuals who’ve contributed hackathon ideas ✧

✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧

Avastars

Prize: 5 ETH + Exclusive Avastar

Challenge Description:

Build a codex for Avastars NFTs. We need a codex similar to kittyhelper.co or even like the one for CryptoPunks but for Avastars. This codex can surface information about the collection and a given Avastar.

How many Avastars have 3 Legendary Traits?

How many Common Male Avastars exist in Series 1?

Learn more:

https://gitcoin.co/issue/metacartel/untitled-hackathon/3/100023872

+++

Bonus

+++️

Challenge Description:

Create an educational infographic explaining NFTs!

Learn more:

https://gitcoin.co/issue/metacartel/untitled-hackathon/6/100023901
The Devil Touched My Skin
By: Tania Caan
Tags: Self, Poetry On Medium, Struggle, Poetry, Death

The Devil Touched My Skin

Poem

Photo by Jessie McCall on Unsplash

The Devil touched my skin

He whispered; can I come in?

I pleaded,

Please do not enter.

But he smiled.

Death is coming,

It’s slow and it’s violent.

I said no.

You’re lying

He cannot come in

He has not been invited

He is unwelcome

He cannot come where he is not wanted.

His words floated in the air

Death is unwanted but always expected

He is always uninvited

He goes where he wants

He arrives precisely on time

He knocks three times

Ready to take you to the golden gates

But not you, he whispered. You’re not going there.

You’re going somewhere else.

Somewhere lower.

You’ll be lonely there.
Church
By: Ben Edwards
Tags: Religion, Self Discovery, Spirituality, Personal

I have been thinking lately about going to church. Not that I am going to do it mind you, but I have been thinking about it. When I think about it though I get angry. I really do not like religions and their presumptions that they alone have it right. I would really enjoy to go somewhere once a week and talk about issues, philosophy, the world, whatever, with people of different faiths that also recognize that no one set of beliefs is infallible. We could look to the Quran, the Bible, and the Vedas among many other texts for insight and information. It could be something along the lines of Bahaiism (which I just discovered while researching this idea) but different in key ways also. I think it would truly be enlightening and would think that it would have broad appeal. But that is my optimistic self talking. I fear there are far too many people who just go to the church that their parents went to without questioning why or caring what it means.
Docker — Difference between Docker Container and Virtual Machine (VM)
By: Ashish Patel
Tags: Containers, Vm, Docker, Virtual Machine, Containerization

Docker vs Virtual Machine

The following are the significant differences between Docker and VMs.

1. OS Support and Architecture

Virtual machines have host OS and the guest OS inside each VM. Guest OS can be any OS, like Linux or Windows, irrespective of host OS. In contrast, Docker containers host on a single physical server with a host OS, which shares among them. Sharing the host OS between containers makes them light and increases the boot time. Docker containers are considered suitable to run multiple applications over a single OS kernel; whereas, virtual machines are needed if the applications or services required to run on different OS.

2. Security

Virtual machines are stand-alone with their kernel and security features. Therefore, applications needing more privileges and security run on virtual machines.

On the flip side, providing root access to applications and running them with administrative premises is not recommended in the case of Docker containers because containers share the host kernel. The container technology has access to the kernel subsystems; as a result, a single infected application is capable of hacking the entire host system.

3. Portability

Virtual machines are isolated from their OS, and so, they are not ported across multiple platforms without incurring compatibility issues. At the development level, if an application is to be tested on different platforms, then Docker containers must be considered.

Docker containers packages are self-contained and can run applications in any environment, and since they don’t need a guest OS, they can be easily ported across different platforms. Docker containers can be easily deployed in servers since containers being lightweight can be started and stopped in very less time compared to virtual machines.

4. Performance

Virtual machines are more resource-intensive than Docker containers as the virtual machines need to load the entire OS to start. The lightweight architecture of Docker containers is less resource-intensive than virtual machines.

In the case of virtual machines, resources like CPU, memory, and I/O may not be allocated permanently to containers — unlike in the case of containers, where the resource usage with the load or traffic.

Scaling up and duplicating containers in simple and easy as compared to virtual machines because there is no need to install an operating system in them.
Wheeling Northward
By: Sr Hardy
Tags: Poetry, Nature, Migration, Birds

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Kingdom Death: Monster Fight Optimization
By: Marcello Ricottone
Tags: Shiny, Board Games, Data Science, Projects, R

After another round of Kingdom Death: Monster, I found that the weapon optimization tool I built in my last post here was invaluable. However, it was missing one thing. How does each weapon fit into a team composition?

In KDM, whenever you go out to hunt a monster (or whenever you are hunted by a monster) you can take up to 4 survivors to try to slay your query. Each survivor can be equipped with a weapon which helps them wound the monster. Survivors can also forgo a weapon and opt to fight the monster “fist and tooth.”

As I mentioned in my previous post, each weapon brings its own stats to the table. I was interested in how different combinations would affect the outcome of each battle. Would equipping a team with four bone blades be better or worse than equipping a team with only their fists and one bone axe?

The shiny app below allows you determine which team comp is better. You first select your monster, then your weapons for team a, then your weapons for team b. Hit the go button and 1000 hunts of your monster with your selected weapons are ran and compared. The simulations take anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 minutes (there’s a lot of sword swinging and arrow slinging going on behind the scenes).
O Midnight Owl
By: Vincent Van Patten
Tags: Mindfulness, Time, Wisdom, Poetry, Poem

O Midnight Owl

What does the hoo’ing owl know? A poem

By Vincent Van Patten (Author)

What about the hoo’ing owl

Makes us think she’s wise?

The way she’s perched on arms of trees,

Is it those big brown eyes?

The hoo is muffled, silent call,

No ostentatious claim,

We hear it under starry nights,

Alike the crackling flame.

Not one, not two, but three part hoo,

Has brought me out of sleep,

What have you seen,

O Midnight Owl,

Whose fellowship you keep?

Your life is lived amongst the trees,

With speed you burn through sky,

But now you’re resting by my home,

You’ve chosen not to fly.

And I commend you for this pause,

It seems you’ve had your fill,

No longer soaring,

eyes cast down,

Looking for mice to kill.

So what about the hoo’ing owl,

Makes us think she’s wise?

Perhaps she spends time watching humans,

Noting our demise.

To be at night under the moon,

Not needing more to live,

Your subdued hoo has brought me joy,

Your gift of peace to give.
Life Goes On
By: Paul Mulliner
Tags: Personal Development, Spirituality, Mindfulness, Life, Meditation

photo by Sara Kurfess on Unsplash

Life Goes On

Living with the new normal

Our thoughts take us away from being consciously present in the moment.

Knowing the thought-free, inexpressible presence of conscious awareness is an essential part of life at any time, and especially now, when we find ourselves living in a new reality.

At any moment, we have the opportunity to ask ourselves the crucial question: where’s my attention focused right now?

Is it focused in a stream of thoughts about how difficult things are? Or how terrible things might happen in the future?

We can take a few deep breaths and take the focus of our attention inward with those breaths.

We can gently hold this inner focus of attention inside ourselves and find the deep silence of conscious awareness, the inexpressible presence of consciousness prior to all thought.

There’s only now, and now is always an opportunity to focus our attention away from our thoughts and take it inward, deep into our inner core and find the conscious presence inside us.

This conscious presence is the inexpressible intelligence of universal consciousness in all of us, an always reliable, intuitive source of insight, inspiration and helpful guidance.

Among the daily reminders of how fragile life is, how vulnerable we all are to unexpected change, and how our thoughts and dreams about the future always exist, always have existed, in a continuous unspoken negotiation with chance and circumstance, we can find inside ourselves the one constant wordless presence, an experience beyond thoughts, a realization of the inexpressible nature of being human.

Knowing the conscious now moment, and allowing thoughts of the future, the past, our current life situation and even our separation from others to dissolve away, brings us to the realization that we’re a spacious universal consciousness appearing as a separate person.

Letting go of thinking, so we can appreciate the presence of consciousness, here and now in the present moment, helps us find the inner peace we often look for.

A few moments inwardly focusing our attention, helps us reach into this spacious universal intelligence inside all of us and find the intuitive guidance and resilience to continue living our life reasonably well.

We will get through this.
All-Mart Comics: Wear Jeans Friday
By: Natalia Noa
Tags: Work, Humor, Comic, All Mart

I’ve been working at All-Mart for awhile but a few weeks into the job, the company was rewarding the associates for having so many days without accidents. The reward on this particular occasion was to wear jeans on Friday. I thought this was a waste of a reward. How about free food? I mean, we work at All-Mart. Give us some food!

Transcript:

Natalia: We have “no pants” Friday at work this week… I mean “no Jeans” Friday… or was it “wear jeans” Friday?

Natalia: Anyway — wouldn’t no pants Friday at All-Mart be amazing?

Greeter: Welcome to All-Mart.
Backtrack Cybersecurity Toolkit
By: Eric Vanderburg
Tags: Security Software, Information Security, Backtrack, Linux

I used to recommend Auditor for security testing through Linux. Auditor was similar to Knoppix, the bootable “live” version of Linux, but it came bundled with a ton of security tools.

Now, BackTrack, a combination of Whax and Auditor has replaced it. This build is version 1.0 but if you were a fan of the Knoppix security build, Whax, or Auditor, check it out now. You do not have to invest anything since it can run from the CD. There is no installation required. Just download it, burn it to a CD, and go.
New Advisor Spotlight: Boris Reznikov
Tags: Fintech, Stellar, Blockchain, Advisor, Payments

Boris Reznikov joins the Chynge team as our blockchain subject matter expert advisor.

Boris is the Director of Partnerships at Stellar / Lightyear.io, where he runs the Asset Issuance business line. In this capacity Boris seeks to foster a network that is home to a diverse array of high quality assets by engaging with asset issuers and ecosystem players around the globe. To this role he brings a wealth of industry knowledge in the area of blockchain and distributed ledger technology and how it applies to global payment systems.

Previously, he was Director of Corporate Governance Advisory at D.F. King & Co, and Senior Strategy Consultant with Deloitte Consulting, where he developed growth strategies for clients in a variety of industries. Boris received his B.A in International Economics from the University of California, San Diego, and earned his Master of Business Administration at Duke University.

With his experience at Stellar and in the areas of blockchain, distributed systems, corporate governance, business development and strategy, we look forward to Boris’ guidance on our technology implementation on Stellar with Lightning Network for building out our global footprint.

“I’m fortunate to have the opportunity to meet a wide variety of partners in the Stellar ecosystem. Chynge stands out with their outstanding management team and board of advisors who have cracked the code to process payments with no FX risk to customers. Their work with the UN Ambassador to Brunei around digitization of identity for refugees, distribution of humanitarian aid, and financial inclusion (especially for the ASEAN diaspora), in addition to seamless cross-border payments on Stellar, is why I’m excited to help the Chynge team continue moving forward.”

We are excited to have Boris as an advisor. Chynge is now joined at the hip with Stellar and we will be creating novel financial solutions that will move financial inclusion up the ladder of economies. Boris, with the rest of the advisors, will generate the brainpower needed for Chynge to level up.

Welcome to the Chynge team, Boris!
Feelings. What love birds actually think…
By: Mike Ortega
Tags: Poetry On Medium, Love Life, Poetry, Poem, Poetry Writing

Feelings

love and relationships

Photo by Alex Iby on Unsplash

I drink tea

You drink coffee

That makes both of us

Really happy.

Rose is pink

Sky is blue

Hence I am singing a song for you.

Leaves are green

Birds have wings

Only Gods knows

What we both are doing.

Two lines make the angle

Three lines make a triangle

I will give you two gold bangles.

Vegetables are good

Cold drinks are bad

But I will never make you sad.

you watch Netflix

I play video games

Then who should we blame?

by taking wine

you are always fine

but daily crying

and you are always mine.

I will ride you in sunshine

We will dance in the rain

At last, our relationship will gain.
Koinex Trade Fest 2018 is here!
By: Team Koinex
Tags: Trading, Blockchain, Team, Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin

Koinex Trade Fest 2018 is here!

One year anniversary is around, so here is the first edition of KTF

This August 25, we will turn one year old. Months of development and preparation finally turned into India’s first digital assets exchange which went live the same day, exactly one year ago. We have come a long way since then, and have tried our best to keep the Indian crypto trading community up-to-date with features, tokens, engines, security and more. We have received immense love from our amazing users, which has been the core reason for us to be here today.

On the occasion of our one year anniversary, we are excited to announce Koinex Trade Fest. 4 days, 4 tokens, big prizes. This trading competition will run for a period of four days between 10.00 AM and 10.00 PM every day during August 21, 2018 and August 24, 2018. The competition will be held in different tokens every day. Here is the schedule for #KTF18:

How to be a part of the competition?

There is no special step to participate in #KTF18. Simply begin trading (by placing buy or sell orders) in the markets where the trading competition is live.

How are the traders ranked?

Traders will be ranked based on their daily trade volumes (buy and sell combined) in the competition market of the day.

Top traders will be featured on the #KTF18 Leaderboard.

Winners will be announced everyday after the end of the daily competition.

The Leaderboard will be refreshed every day according to the competition market on that day.

What’s in there for the winners?

We are airdropping tokens worth INR 4,00,000 for our winners and giving away amazing merchandise to the top traders.

The distribution of tokens with respect to the trade volumes/ ranks (based on the total trade volume while the competition was live) per day will be as follows:

Daily Rewards for Winners
Why Do Some States Still Allow for Schools to Physically Assault Children?
By: Greyson Alman
Tags: Coaching, American Football, Education, Leadership, Sports Coaching

Why Do Some States Still Allow for Schools to Physically Assault Children?

Hitting a child in anger is not discipline

Photo by Ben Hershey on Unsplash

Gerrel Williams was coaching a 7 and Under football team in Georgia on December 7th. During a time out, he became extremely angry with one of his players. He then proceeded to slap the player in the helmet as hard as he could twice. The second slap actually knocked the kid to the ground.

If you want to see the video, here it is.

After the incident, he made a couple of questionable claims.

“I was wrong. I shouldn’t have disciplined him in public — I shoulda waited ’til he got back — for doing what he did.

He is sorry, but not for what he did. He is sorry that he didn’t wait to hit the kid until later.

He also said,

“There is no excuse for my actions… he forgave me, and his parents have forgiven me, so nobody else should be bashing me,”

According to this now-former coach and former Chatham County Sheriff’s Office employee, we should not bash him for what he did.

He is wrong on both counts. First of all, you should not hit children just because you are angry, whether in public or private. Secondly, people can and should bash you if you do.

Seeing this incident and watching the mixed response to it lead me to ask the following question.
WebCamWatcher
By: Aleksey Tikhonov
Tags: Neural Networks, Wildlife, Webcam, Object Detection, Telegram

Wildpark-MV, a German wild nature park near the town of Güstrow installed a dozen webcams so that anyone could watch animals in the wild. Most of the cameras are hanging in a natural forest, through which wild animals pass from time to time. And although the places for cameras were chosen meaningfully (the lake, near which bears like to wallow during the day, the place where they leave food for lynx, and so on), it is quite difficult to catch animals. So, in order not to spend a lot of time waiting, I assembled a simple script over the weekend, which every X minutes downloads pictures, passes them through a neural network detector and, if something interesting was found, throws them into a telegram channel WebCamWatcher.

Last time I used Facebook Detectron to measure the queue length, so now I decided to try a pretrained Tensorflow Object Detection out of the box as a detection model. The quality turned out to be so-so: a lot of false positives, and the model regularly recognizes the lynx and wolves as sheep and dogs:
Take It All Away
By: Jonathan Greene
Tags: Technology, Poetry On Medium, Social Media, Poetry, Resistance Poetry

Take It All Away

A Poem

Photo by Aziz Acharki on Unsplash

Unchain me

from my own devices

Release me

from the constant stream

of updates

and notifications

Allow me

to live my life again

without refreshing

No, not a refreshing breath

a screen

refreshing a screen

to see what’s new

when what’s right in front of me

is being forgotten

Bouldered

at the bottom of a pit

after an avalanche

of my own attention deficit

Distracted

Take it all away

and let me live my life again

Let me walk unencumbered

Let me guess the time

Let me not always be waiting

for another ding in my pocket

to tell me something unimportant

but marked as important

by some person on the other end

of a cable or the air or the universe

streaming nonsense at me

every second of every day

Take it all away

and leave me alone

so I can reconnect

with myself

and the world

My world

ignored and placated

by my own wandering eye

Release me

from the crane

of constantly looking down

at something, anything

but what is right in front of me

I can’t see you

I can’t hear you

because I am too busy

fulfilling unwarranted needs

My life is the slot machine

and I allow them to pull

more and more

each day

to stay updated and

ahead of the curve

But I’ve lost myself

inside a tiny computer

that holds my hand

and encourages me to be

someone I’m not

because it looks better

and we all want to look better

online

Take it all away

and fly it to the cloud

The same cloud

that holds all of my life’s data in it

Then drop it from the cloud

and let it all smash

into a million gigabytes

Sweep up the pieces

of my logins

and bookmarks

and cremate them

Hand me a book instead

Let me use a map

Allow me to hail a cab

Let me just live for one second

without you

surveilling everything I do

and every word I say

Take it all away
SiaPrime, a friendly Sia fork
By: Luxor Tech
Tags: Cryptocurrency Mining, Cryptocurrency, Mining Tutorial, Setup Guide, Sia Prime

SiaPrime, decentralized cloud storage for business and corporations:

“Built for a world where companies and organizations around the globe abandon centralized providers and take control of their valuable private data.”

Relevant information

How to mine SiaPrime in Luxor’s Mining Pools?

Given the network difficulty and the lack of up-to-date GPU mining software for the Blake2B PoW algorithm, you’ll need a Blake2B ASIC like Bitmain’s A3 or Innosilicon’s S11.

To start mining, pick one of the Stratum nodes below (ensure it is port 3335), and type in the pool setting as follows:

URL: stratum+tcp://scp-us.luxor.tech:3335(set to your nearest location)

scp-eu.luxor.tech:3335

scp-asia.luxor.tech:3335

Worker: [LuxorUsername or YourSCPAddress].workername (workername can be anything, but avoid using symbols or special characters as it may be invalid). More on user accounts here.

Password: 123

For the other nodes (Pool 2 and Pool 3), feel free to use any of the other region nodes, such as scp-eu.luxor.tech:3335.

Monitoring revenue and machine performance

Once you’ve started hashing, grab yourself a beer! It’ll take about 5 minutes for your worker to appear on our stats page. To find your user, simply go to mining.luxor.tech and type in your wallet address at the top of the searchbar. You should see something like this:
Daily income — Over $10.00USD (Masternode Hosting) Price Varies.
By: Anonymous Duck
Tags: Investing, Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Bitcoin, Business

The BlockNode network allows users to set-up Masternodes and earn rewards on a daily basis, rewards are paid out every 12 hours, and you’re able to sell your coins directly for Bitcoin on an exchange after they have been deposited into your wallet.

You can then sell your Bitcoin for USD or your chosen currency, and earn income daily.

To learn more, visit the BlockNode Telegram Channel: https://t.me/BlocknodeChatGroup
COFFNB DeFiサービスにAPIXステイキングプールの追加とステイキングイベント進行
By: Sophie Ha
Tags: Finance, Cryptocurrency, Jpn, Blockchain, Notice

APISplatform

Official publication for APIS, the world-first masternode…
17: Gardening Tips. It’s a dirty business but someone’s…
By: Adam Ellis
Tags: Humor, Gardening, Comics, Food, Delicious Bradley

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Yoga Flow with Dolores the Slow Loris
By: Amy Kurzweil
Tags: Humor, Health And Fitness, Yoga, Comics, Funny Animal

Dolores the Slow Loris is a feature of GutterFACE comics, original published with drDOCTOR in 2015.
The Quantum Poetry of Mizpah: Why You’re Never Truly Disconnected From Those You Love
By: Ricky Derisz
Tags: Philosophy, Inspiration, Spirituality, Relationships, Life

Self-isolation. Lockdown. Quarantine. Social distancing. The buzzwords of 2020 symbolise forced separation in a world so connected yet so far apart. Seeing loved ones is no longer a given, physical touch is restricted, and many are unable to visit the people they care for the most.

Berlin is in the middle of a second lockdown. I’ve lived here for five years, and it’s been nine years since I left Bristol, my place of birth. I recently reached a tipping point and realised the number of people I’m close to in proximity is fairly small.

This is partly due to corona, partly my tendency for solitude, and Berlin’s tendency as a city of transition. Many people move here, drink it all in, and leave. In the past 18 months, I’ve said goodbye to two close friends who moved here at the same time as me. Many people I’ve got to know since moving here have moved on.

Living in another country has its challenges. Many dear friends live in the UK, not to mention my family. In short, I’m used to missing people. And I sometimes worry my spiritual path may result in losing people I love. This is a concern I’ve contemplated, deeply, and in response, a voice of wisdom illuminated a fundamental truth: emotional bonds are never broken.

So if you’re feeling distant or alone, here’s why you’re never really separate from those you love.