fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
When is it Not Wrong to Want More?
By: Jocelyn Soriano
Tags: Christianity, Catholic, Faith, Spirituality, Religion

How much do I really need in this life to be happy?

To this, I used to say, “nothing much”. I believed I only needed a few things. I just wanted to live a simple life, and I don’t need the luxuries many people strive so hard for.

As the years went by, however, I have learned to face my inner desires. I have learned that though I pride myself in claiming to want a simple life, the inclination to want more is not really far from me.

Why wouldn’t I want more wealth for myself and my loved ones? Why wouldn’t I want to be honored? Why wouldn’t I desire for people to like me?

Wealth, honor, pleasure — these can be good things, too. These can help us make this world a far better place for those we love. Why then do I still refrain from seeking them as other people do?

It is because I want “more”. Yes, I don’t want less, but more! For even if I could possess more of such things, I know I wouldn’t be satisfied. It could make me excited for a while but the satisfaction I’d get from it would soon run out. I’d still want more.

Here is what I really want:

I want never ending good… riches that never run out… beauty that never fades… Yes, I want more, infinitely more! I have this very deep desire within me that could never be satisfied by anything or anyone in this world… nothing indeed, except for One who is infinitely rich, infinitely good and infinitely beautiful – God!

St. Augustine was right when he said that our hearts are restless until it rests in God. And if a simple life is what we need to claim more of what is infinite and beautiful and true, then I would gladly give up much of what the world sees as valuable.
Hushed: A Horror Story in Pieces
By: Joel Eisenberg
Tags: Horror, Fiction, Short Fiction, Crime Fiction, Fiction Writing

Though the time and place had been decided upon for nearly a month, complications ensued early the morning of the incident when Tom received a text from his sister-in-law:

Tom, I’m coming out Saturday night. Will you and Annette be around?

The first thought that entered his afflicted mind must have been something like: Damn it. I may have to make myself available a few more hours. Offending my brother’s widow is out of the question.

I know because for breakfast I was sitting alone at the adjoining table in a Greek restaurant — whose name I’ll spare until later to protect their reputation as none of this was their fault — where I overheard the wife say, “I like this new you. You’re so quiet. I’ll never get used to it!”

And here I am worried about offending someone, Tom thought. Not worth the stress. I have enough to deal with here and regardless, I’ll be hushed within 24.

I recognized him straight away. I knew his face. Handsome devil in person; marvelous head of hair for a man of his age. Though we did not know each other personally, I had seen enough interviews with the man to last me a lifetime. Something in him snapped. Precisely when I cannot be certain, but those veins in his neck were already blue and prominent when he checked his phone. There was something about him, though, at that moment, like a snake coiled and ready to strike, and I watched him as he forced a smile and responded.

‘Nah, I’m just four days coffee sober,” he said. “Caffeine withdrawal.”

“Well I like it,” his wife repeated.

His relationship with his sister-in-law had long been cool. Cool veering on the positive. She looked up to him, and his late brother loved him. But we’ll delve further into the details of that sordid tragedy later. For now, Tom was clearly a threat, to either himself or his wife, or both, and as the restaurant patrons enjoyed their meals I could not take my eyes off the man who threatened to be tomorrow’s front-page news.

And then some.
Federer Aims to become №1 in Rotterdam
By: Johannes Riese
Tags: Sports, Tennis, Rotterdam, Federer

Roger Federer is participating in the ATP 500 ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam this week in order to become the oldest male №1 at the age of 36.

Source AFP

On Wednesday Federer began his campaign by beating defeating Ruben Bemelmans 6–1 6–2 in 47 minutes. The Swiss tennis player will need to make the semifinals by winning two more matches in order to regain the №1 ranking from Rafael Nadal of Spain.

Andre Agassi currently holds the record for being the oldest №1 at the age of 33. Federer first become the highest ranked tennis player 14 years ago in 2004, and the last time he held the top ranking was in October 2012.

Federer is a two-time champion in Rotterdam, having won it in 2005 and 2012. Other top-10 players such as Grigor Dimitrov, David Goffin and Alexander Zverev are also participating this year.

Sources:

ATP, Fox Sports, Sky Sports
COFFNB DeFi 서비스에 APIX 스테이킹 풀 추가 및 스테이킹 이벤트 진행
By: Sophie Ha
Tags: Finance, Cryptocurrency, Kor, Blockchain, Notice

APISplatform

Official publication for APIS, the world-first masternode…
Wakanda Forever
Tags: Poetry, This Happened To Me, Comics, BlackLivesMatter, Life Lessons

Wakanda Forever

‘Till my lungs give out

Chadwick Boseman — The angel that walked among us

Tell me how

To carry a heavy heart

Tell me how

To vow

Not to let you down

When I can’t even hold up my crown

I saw a King

In my dreams

Last night

He didn’t lose his fight

He just earned his rest

He gave me a smile

Said no matter how hard the trial

No matter how vile

The world is

You’ve got this

I raced through an exam

Just to see you on screen

It was more than just a movie

To me

How do I fix my mouth to say

You were so much more

Than just a king

A superhero

Walked among us

Whether he was Black Panther

Jackie Robinson

Thurgood Marshall

James Brown

or Chadwick Boseman

An angel

Touched our lives

Even when he was fighting

The fiercest battle

On the inside

Tell me how to write

When a part of me died

Can you tell my Mom hi

For me?

You two fought the same war

Purple-heart warriors

Mamba mentality

So many losses

I’m waiting on the world

To Mortal Kombat fatality

Tell me how to cry

When there’s too much pain inside

How do I keep my stride

A heavy heart

Threatens to carve its way

Out of my chest

Part of me screamed wait -

Up for me

Never thought you’d leave

So soon

Mamba mentality

Charging for the basket

Despite the agony

Speaking up

For the people who can’t

Working to be a better man

Arms across my chest

Saying “Wakanda Forever”

Till my last breath
Treaties in Islam
By: Virtual Mosque
Tags: Islam, Beheading, Beheaded

We are the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam and this publication is dedicated to portraying the true, peaceful instructions of the final religion through our live broadcasts in the UK and regular editorials.

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Creating Ripple(s) in the Cryptoverse
By: Jitender Tokas
Tags: Crypto, Cryptocurrency Investment, Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency News, Xrp

XRP has been on a tear lately, first doubling in a 24 hour period on 21–22nd Sep and then settling in the $0.55–60 range. Expectedly this sharp move has resulted in an intense interest in XRP trading.

The Delta community too wanted to participate in this action. Being a traders’ first exchange, we acted quickly and worked round the clock to launch XRP Futures, with ample liquidity.

I am happy to announce that now you can trade XRP Futures contract with up to 20x leverage on Delta. The contract is quoted and settled in BTC and will expire on 28th Dec.. Full contract specs are available here. Happy trading!

Delta is a cryptocurrency derivatives exchange that is build on the values of trust, transparency and integrity. To know more about Delta, pls check out:
Happy New Year
By: Charlene Marron
Tags: Purpose Driven Life, Meaningful Life, New Year Resolution, Poetry, Acrostic

Introvert on the outside living loudly on the inside. Practical by day, whimsical the rest of the time. Poetry is my flow.

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Part 3: Bitwise OR, AND’s sibling
By: Cédric Bellet
Tags: Programming, JavaScript, Bitwise, Data Visualization

The result of a bitwise OR operation between two bit words b1 and b2 is a bit word containing 1s in slots where either b1 or b2 contains 1s. In the example above, b1 has 1s in positions 2, 3, 5 (from right to left), and b2 has 1s in positions 2, 3, 4, 7, so b1 ∨ b2 is a bit string with 1s in positions 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, that is, 01011110. Again, simple.

The ‘numeric’ OR function. Less simple. Source: Wikipedia

Just like we did in The beauty of bitwise AND, we will ignore the numeric function, and try to find the pattern of OR, by examining simple properties as well as some of the first values of a ∨ b. Let’s go!

If we note f : (a, b) → a ∨ b, where ∨ is the OR operation, f has the following properties:

f is symmetrical: f(a, b) = f(b, a)

f(a, a) = a

Since OR takes all the positive bits from both operands, a ∨ b is always greater than the greater operand, i.e. f(a, b) ≥ max(a, b)

With these observations and a few manual calculations, we get the following graph:

OR, 16x16

The pattern is familiar. It shares with that of AND, that it is organized in tiers, with 3, 7, 15 playing key roles in separating those tiers; each tier possesses three square blocks, and all blocks are tied by simple mathematical relationships. (Note: tiers and blocks are defined in the previous post)

The generalized OR pattern

However, unlike AND:

OR tiers are organized around predecessors of powers of 2 (3, 7, 15…), whereas AND tiers are organized around powers of 2 (2, 4, 8, 16..)

(3, 7, 15…), whereas AND tiers are organized around powers of 2 (2, 4, 8, 16..) Within tiers, Tₙ blocks are identical , whereas we found that AND tiers were organized around one ‘principal’ and two ‘auxiliary’ blocks.

, whereas we found that AND tiers were organized around one ‘principal’ and two ‘auxiliary’ blocks. Blocks Tₙ of a tier are equal to the same-size blocks to their lower left plus 2ⁿ. You can verify in the OR graph that T3 is equal to the block found between rows and columns 0 to 6, plus the constant 8 (2³).

This is enough information to define an iterative way to draw an OR graph of arbitrary size. Here are the results:
The Boy Within the Man
By: Dylan Kelly
Tags: Masculinity, Childhood, Boyhood, Coming Of Age, Poetry

The boy within the man

lives and sleeps inside a dream

that the man does not remember.

And yet, the boy within the man

doesn’t seem to feel too small

even when the world seems so big.

But the boy within the man

learns not to raise his voice

when he is lonely and afraid.

In time,

the boy will stay quiet.

The boy will cave in.

The man will meet the world,

and move with its rhythm…

until the day he dies

with the boy still inside.
Does Your Company Know How It Makes Decisions?
By: Thomas P Seager
Tags: Teamwork, Decision Making, Education, Leadership, Management And Leadership

My undergraduate students in engineering business practices typically fall into the same consensus-based no-decision trap that my software development team did. Without an explicit assignment of decision rights, they’re bogged down in a self-recursive loop of indecision.

To avoid this, members of an organization have to understand how decisions are made.

Ray Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates — the world’s largest hedge fund — chronicles his company’s decision-making processes in his book, Principles. According to Dalio, decisions that can be reduced to algorithms are codified in computer code rather than in bureaucracy. For every other decision, there’s a credibility-weighted consensus-based process. If it sounds complicated, that’s because it is.

Ray Dalio on decision-making.

Your company doesn’t have to do it like Bridgewater. There are other models of decision-making. The point is that the people in your company or on your team absolutely must know how decisions get made. In his TED Talk (above), Dalio embraces mistakes as a source of knowledge that will improve future decisions. He believes in creating a culture of accountability and evaluation of decision quality.

Similarly, in my undergraduate class, I require students to form teams and file a management plan. The plan assigns roles and responsibilities to each of them and describes their decision-making processes.

Most importantly, I ask my undergraduates to decide how to allocate a finite number of grade points to their team members. I call it their “compensation plan.” At the end of the assignment, they must divide 100 additional experience points among the members of the team. They can use any decision process they want for this allocation, but they must describe the process before beginning the assignment.

Most students say, “We are going to allocate the grade points equally,” which fails to create the incentive structure necessary to motivate team members to do good work. In fact, it creates a free-rider problem, in which students who contribute minimally still receive the full benefit of being a member of the team.

Decision-making is a skill, and it improves with deliberate practice.

There are alternative decision processes. The most successful teams I’ve had thus far have appointed a Chief Executive Officer. The responsibility of assigning points falls to the CEO, to whom the other team members report. The CEO allocates or delegates decision rights to other team members but remains accountable for the team’s performance.

Under this management structure, it’s important for the team to know who the CEO is accountable to. Teams that do best with this process create an advisory board, like a board of directors, that includes the other team members. The advisory board has the power to remove the CEO and appoint a new one.

This system is much less complicated than Dalio’s believability-based collective approach — but it’s much more complicated than the typical approach to student teamwork. And it works much better.
Main Street Hub Launches New Website
By: Main Street Hub
Tags: Website, Branding, Website Design, Company Culture, Stories

Main Street Hub Launches New Website

We’re telling our story better than ever before

Main Street Hub is a people-powered, tech-enabled company with a big heart for local. Our passion for helping local businesses grow and succeed is the foundation for everything we do. It’s why we’re building the best products in the local space, and why we’re constantly innovating to improve the lives of local business owners and better tell their stories.

Today, we are proud to announce the launch of our new website so we can better tell our own story.

Using technology, data, and creativity, we provide a best-in-class experience for our local business customers. We took that same approach with our website, researching, testing, and harnessing our data and the creativity of our team to create our strongest online experience yet for potential and current customers. The result is a visualization of our company that seamlessly communicates who we are, what we do, and why our services are invaluable to local business owners.

“Launching this new site lets us tell the Main Street Hub story in a new, powerful way while showcasing the talents of our team. A huge benefit to this launch is this that site will also be dynamic — we’ll keep enhancing our content to engage, inform, and entertain visitors. It’s worth a bookmark for anyone passionate about the success of local businesses. Stay tuned!” — Hemant Sharma, Product Manager, Growth

With our new site, we’re able to showcase our company’s mission, values, and culture better than ever before. We tell the stories of our team and the incredible local businesses we serve, and shed light on how we empower them and help their business by authentically representing them online.

“When our customers share the stories of their partnerships with Main Street Hub, that’s when we really get to understand the impact our work has on their lives and the impact it can have on local businesses everywhere. That’s why customer stories and testimonials are such an invaluable part of our website, and something we focused on throughout our redesign — because stories are powerful, and our customers’ stories are an essential part of ours.” — Sarah Milbrath, Product Marketing Associate

We show that our mission is to create thriving local economies by bringing businesses and their customers closer together, helping them discover community. We show how we do that with technology and a world-class team of expert writers, designers, and engineers, among many others, to drive growth for our local business customers and delight them in ways they never imagined.

We hope this new visualization of who we are and what we do will allow us to help more local businesses across the country discover community.
Code Reading of Clipping Object in Three.js Example
By: Mitsuya Watanabe
Tags: 3d, Threejs, JavaScript, Javascript Tips

Code Reading of Clipping Object in Three.js Example

Generative Coding Drill

Example

I have been learning of Three.js, and I would like to put forth my code with a great idea someday. Therefore I have started to read and understand by Thee.js Examples. Through this challenge, I would make progress for a creative coder.

First of all, I picked up the following example.

Sample image

In this example, the originating object is cropped by invisible planes in surrounding. Besides, the cut mouth is coloured with specific colour material, magenta. They call this technic that applying materials to the cut face a stencil because the behaviour is similar to seal the content on the object. Once you remove the invisible plane, you will see the logic in visual.
ICO Alert Crypto Minute: March 4, 2018
By: Kyle Protho
Tags: Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, Crypto Minute, Netherlands, Blockchain

Rabobank Considering Addition of Cryptocurrency Wallet Support to Online Banking Platform

Rabobank, a large Dutch multinational bank headquartered in Utrecht, is considering the integration of cryptocurrency wallets to its online banking system. According to Bitcoin Magazine, the integration, called Rabobit, would enable customers to store cryptocurrencies in a wallet hosted in the bank’s secure online environment. Consumers would also be able to store and access fiat with their cryptocurrencies in one bank account.

Virtu Financial Taking Legal Action Against Fake Cryptocurrency Project, Virt Coin

Virtu Financial, a large Wall Street trading firm, is taking legal action against Virt Coin for allegedly using its likeness and claiming a connection to the firm. According to Business Insider, Virt Coin is a fake cryptocurrency project that published a press release Thursday claiming it was the new cryptocurrency of Virtu Financial. In addition to the false claims, Virt Coin’s whitepaper uses “stock photos of 20-year-olds to show the company’s upper management, instead of its actual staff.”

JD To Launch Transparent Blockchain-Based Supply Chain Data of Meat Products for Customers

JD, Wal-Mart’s partner in China and competitor to Alibaba, is implementing blockchain-based supply chain management for its meat products. According to Business Insider, this implementation will enable JD’s customers to track “each piece” of beef to each of its sources in Australia. The software is expected to be launch this coming spring, and it will provide customers access with transparent data, including “where and how the specific animal was raised, how the meat was processed, and how it was transported.”

Approximately 600 Cryptocurrency Mining Computers Stolen from Data Centers in Iceland

Approximately 600 computers used to mine cryptocurrencies have been stolen from data centers in Iceland. According to the Associated Press, 11 people were arrested, including a security guard from one of the data centers. However, the computers, which are worth about USD 2 million, have not been recovered. Police are monitoring electric consumption across the country in hopes of recovering the computers as they are used for mining.
Content Marketing Case Study: How a Small, B2B Company Successfully Enticed Consumers
Tags: SEO

Content Marketing Case Study: How a Small, B2B Company Successfully Enticed Consumers

The challenge: Increase organic search traffic and elevate company credibility among consumers

For years, Rental History Reports was a trusted resource for building owners and landlords who needed professional consumer background checks. The company had been in business for 20 years, and had good relationships and a strong reputation in the industry. But when the small Minnesota firm recently decided to offer its service direct to consumers, it found itself in unfamiliar territory. Called My Rental History Reports (MRHR), this new service needed to be marketed nationally to individual consumers rather than to other businesses, and the company knew it required some good advice on how to reach consumers online and build credibility in a new arena.

The solution: High-quality, regularly updated blog content

Rental History Reports wanted to increase organic search results, drive engaged and organic search traffic to its website, reduce pay-per-click spending and build trust and relevancy with a new online audience. The company consulted Brandpoint about a year ago, and the recommendation for confronting these challenges was simple: boost their content marketing efforts with a regular blog.

The idea was to provide high-quality, optimized content on a consistent basis that would help to improve organic search results, but also speak to the concerns of consumers and at the same time establish the company as a leader in the marketplace. Brandpoint provided content that included targeted keywords and phrases, and, most importantly, addressed the questions of consumers around rental history information. Brandpoint helped the company refine content topic areas, established a strategically focused editorial calendar, and created original posts three times a week or more as needed.

The results: Increased organic traffic and sales, and improved search results

Rental History Reports now shows up on page one in organic Google searches for its targeted key words and phrases.

Organic traffic to the website increased by more than 400 percent within six months.

Page views per visit increased by 260 percent.

Pay-per-click spending was slashed.

More than half of the company’s sales are now a result of organic traffic.

The summary: High-quality original content posted consistently gets results

Brandpoint used original blog content to tell the consumer story and consumers responded. Rental History Reports’ blog became a resource for people searching for answers on everything from how to find rental property in a good neighborhood and how to develop a good relationship with a landlord, to how to stand out in a competitive rental situation. Targeting the blog to a specific consumer audience — potential renters — and offering that audience the information they needed raised the company’s profile and positioned it as a trusted resource in the industry.
How to Change the Color of an Image With CSS
By: Matthew Croak
Tags: Programming, Software Development, HTML, Web Development, CSS

How to Change the Color of an Image With CSS

Just because you got an image in a certain color doesn’t mean it has to stay that way

Original photo (no BW) by Alexandre Debiève on Unsplash.

Imagine you receive a specific image from the product team that is meant to act as an icon for a button. The button has a white background, black border, black text, and the image itself is darker.

Initial element state

The CSS for this element can be seen below:

When the user hovers over the button, the desired behavior is that the background color changes to black, the font turns white, and the image is also white.

Hover element state

The background-color , color , and border changes when the user hovers over the button are straightforward. You can declare these updated styles under the :hover selector in your stylesheet:

These styles take care of most of the changes, but they do not account for the image color change. How can we handle the expected change?

If the product team was kind enough to also provide a white version of the image, you can simply toggle the image’s src on hover. This can be done using JavaScript. You can use an onmouseover function that sets the image’s src to white.png and then an onmouseleave function that sets the image’s src to black.png .

This works, but we can actually accomplish this task with pure CSS. This, however, would require including another element to wrap the image in. By having a wrapper for the image, you can assign the background-image property either black.png or white.png depending on if you’ve hovered over it or not:

For more on how to use CSS to change an image’s src on hover, see this thread on Stack Overflow.

While this solution does work, you still need to add more HTML and it only works if you were fortunate enough to get a second asset. What if you only want to use CSS, no additional markup, and you don’t want to have to rely on the product team for another asset? Can it be done? Yes. Yes, it can.

With the filter CSS property, it’s easy to take our existing image and alter its coloration to fit our current needs. All we need to use is full grayscale and full inversion. See below:
Purple Octopus
By: Whitney Rose
Tags: Poetry, Poems On Medium, Poetry On Medium, Poem, Nature

Flicker and Flight is a Poetry Publication that has married the art of Photography. This publication focuses on supporting Nature, Love/Unity, Spirituality, and Growth, through the beauty of Word-Play and Images.

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Babies for the Winter
By: D Abboh
Tags: Poetry, Relationships, Short Story, Love, Lockdown

You drive my car way too fast — despite my protests. We know — we ain’t right. Placing your hand on my thigh, your lips twitch up into a smirk that reaches your pretty brown eyes — as you watch and feel my senses come alive. My body cannot lie, though I’m still upset over yesterday’s fight — we’ll be getting it on again and again tonight. For now, I want to turn my back to you and the wind — and the blurred snapshots of people doing ordinary things. I let the radio play and draw me in as it sings ‘don’t rush, slow touch’ — and for a few moments everything — slows down just enough for me to see and fill my lungs with the scents of London in the Spring. We could drive like this for hours, from dawn to dusk, not knowing where we are going in such a rush — with nothing but misadventure before the two of us.
Not everybody’s worth trying to identify with.
Tags: Comics, Sociopath, Cats, Humor

It’s the Year of the Sociopath. Be careful out there.

https://www.dieselsweeties.com/ics/962/
Thursday. Hold my beer
By: Martino Pietropoli
Tags: Art, Drawing, Comics, Thursday, Humor

First thing in the morning: a glass of water and a cartoon by The Fluxus.

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Price Of CIVIC In India (CVC/INR)
By: Abhey Arora
Tags: India, Altcoins, Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin

Civic is blockchain-based a decentralized model on-demand, secure and low-cost access to identity verification (IDV). It removes the need for background and personal information verification checks that are undertaken every time a new institution requires one.

CVC/INR is one of the most popular pair of digital currencies in the cryptocurrency world. CVC launched in July 2017 with an opening price of Civic in INR 10.49

it is designed to facilitate on-demand, secure and low-cost access to identity verification (“IDV”) services via the blockchain, such that background and personal information verification checks is no longer need to be undertaken from the ground up every time. So it’s demand increased and it reached at its highest value of Civic in INR 46.93

After the Cryptocurrency Market crashed down and the Price of Civic in INR was reached at 17.56 in November 2017

But after the market crash when other cryptocurrencies flush down but CVC maintained its position in top 20 cryptocurrencies because of its features of providing secure platform not only for coin exchange but also be used to verify identities in fields like medicine, law, e-commerce, and social networking.At the K(NO)W Identity Conference 2017, Civic has won the Best New Startup award. At the end of the year 2017 ,Civic in INR was 59.17

On 1st January 2018,price of Civic in INR was 60.29

It’s value is continuously increasing because of high demand because investor got good ROI in 2017 .

Over 20 well-known internet platforms collaborated with Civic’s secure identity service. Civic seems at current levels highly demanding and has the potential to become one of the Top 10 coins by market capitalization.

To know the current rate of civic in India you can check BuyUcoin rate page.
Christine Blasey Ford: The Conference Room
By: Katie Fustich
Tags: Essay, Feminism, Politics, Activism, News

The Wing, San Francisco | Twitter

Today, an image struck me: a photograph of a newly-minted conference room at the San Francisco branch of women’s only social club The Wing. The space shows women sitting around a white table with black chairs; tasteful, modern decor placed here and there. The camera’s focus, though, is in the foreground, where painted in gold leaf across the clear glass door is the name Christine Blasey Ford.

Dr. Ford’s name has appeared daily across all major news networks for the last month; the result of her status as one of (now Supreme Court Justice) Brett Kavanaugh’s numerous sexual violence victims. In late September of 2018, Ford gave a composed and detailed summary of her assault before the Senate Judiciary Committee, and the rest of the world. This televised display of trauma proved, unsurprisingly, to be a small piece of a larger scam in which Ford’s pain, and the echoed pain of millions of women, was acknowledged to a satisfactory degree, and Kavanaugh’s confirmation strode through its checkpoints, largely without actual technical issue.

Despite the brute force that has worked to silence her, Ford has stood tall. Her actions are undoubtedly brave by any standard, and her words and actions have given way to a renewed, powerful ripple of the Me Too movement, now officially one year old and finding its footing amidst the gray areas and the difficult questions.

That said, Christine Blasey Ford is not a conference room. The reopened wounds of women everywhere are not sutured by three words stenciled on a door inside a space that costs $2,000 a year to occupy, in one of the most expensive and rapidly-gentrifying cities in the world. What some may say is merely a respectful gesture in Ford’s direction is a continuation of the flattening of her character that has been so ardently forced since she arrived on the national scene. It is a PR stunt to capitalize on a moment and sell memberships, wrapped in a pussy hat costume.
4 Ways to Be Happy With What You Have While Still Wanting More
By: Chris Schatz Ed.D
Tags: Self Improvement, Life, Happiness, Life Lessons, Inspiration

Your desire for continuous improvement is what drives you. It motivates you to get out of bed in the morning, to put in the long hours and fight through the stress and setbacks. It allows you to dismiss the inevitable naysayers saying you’ll fail.

Continuous improvement can be a double-edged sword though. It can rob us of happiness because we’re always yearning for more, never content with where we’re at.

“One of the greatest challenges in life is being happy with what you have, while in pursuit of what you want.” -Jim Rohn

How can we strive for more while maintaining happiness now?

#1: Understand that to strive is to be human

What motivates us varies, but the drive for continuous improvement is a common human trait. When you accomplish something your brain releases a small dose of dopamine, a type of neurotransmitter that’s responsible (among other things) for motivation, learning, and mood. It helps you feel pleasure; it allows you to focus, to strive to complete tasks, and to find things interesting. After accomplishing something even as small as checking an item off your to-do list you’ll get a small dose of dopamine, which propels you forward to do and accomplish even more.

#2: Seek balance and moderation

Like most things though, too much a good thing can be a bad thing. This is where balance and moderation come in. Let all things serve but not intrude, because sometimes your innate drive for accomplishment and goal setting can have a detrimental impact on your life. You might end up running in circles, chasing that next high.

#3: Practice gratitude and patience

Express gratitude for all that you have. You have many things to be thankful for. You’re alive, you’re able to read the words on this screen. You probably even own the device you’re using to read these words. There’s a lot to be thankful for, if you look in the right places.

Also express gratitude for what you don’t have. When viewed correctly this can be a blessing.

Do you have poor health?

Are you still in that negative relationship?

Do you have an empty refrigerator and wondering where your next meal is coming from?

No? Be thankful!

Next, be actively patient. Don’t passively wait for the good things to happen to you, but take an active role in making them happen. Know that all good things will come in their due time. Be patient.

“Inch by inch everything is a cinch” –Steve Harvey

You won’t get there today, and probably not even tomorrow. Nothing truly worthwhile is accomplished so easily.

Eventually though, you’ll get there.

#4: Look both ways

Sure, look out the front window while you’re driving down the road, but don’t forget to enjoy the scenery along the way. Take the opportunity to glance in the rear-view too and appreciate where you’ve been.

Attempt to implement these 4 practices to be happy with what you have in life, while still wanting more for yourself.
Trump Drives the Final Stake Through the Hearts of American Veterans
By: Joe Duncan
Tags: Military, Trump, Crime, United States, Politics

Hold up. This is a lot to wrap my brain around. The Republican Party’s new leader is now waging an overt political war against the U.S. Military itself?What might cause him to do such a thing?

First, he’s upset that the government hasn’t eliminated section 230 from the U.S. penal code, a section that grants websites federal protections from lawsuits for the content that their user's post. Section 230 essentially can’t be repealed without breaking the Internet, as the vast majority of internet sites feature comments sections and user feedback. Trump said, quote:

“Your failure to terminate the very dangerous national security risk of Section 230 will make our intelligence virtually impossible to conduct without everyone knowing what we are doing at every step,”

Second, he’s angry that the military spending bill includes name changes for the military bases that are named after long-dead (and much traitorous) Confederates, people who fought in the American Civil War to preserve the institution of slavery and secede from the United States, tearing down the Republic as it stood.

This is the final stake that’s been driven through the heart of American veterans and the Republican Party is guilty by association. Destroying the name of U.S. Military while simultaneously holding up their pay and our defense spending so you can throw a tizzy tantrum is no bridge too far for Trump.

And you know what? The more I think about it, the more it makes sense. It all makes sense in the most bizarre, twisted, fucked up way thinkable.

It makes sense if you secretly believe that the United States has veered off course and become an “illegitimate government” as many in the Trump-leaning militia movements and right-wing political groups, including white nationalist groups, believe.

It makes sense if your subscription to the Trump identity is one that believes that the entire Democratic Republic and all of the American values are so irredeemably corrupted that you’d rather burn it to the ground and install an autocrat atop the ashes than try to fix things from within the political framework we’ve been granted. That’s what a lot of people wanted when they voted for him, isn’t it? Didn’t they clamor to “drain the swamp” and shake things up?

Doing politics is hard. It requires persuasion, convincing, reaching out, having conversations, and listening to others who see the world differently from you. The temptation is great for many to throw their hands up and say burn the whole society to the ground, or, at the very least, throw veterans and the U.S. military under the bus the moment you don’t get your way about something.
Getting Even with Gravity
By: Marilyn Flower
Tags: Body Image, Death, Poetry, Aging, Humor

Getting Even with Gravity

Is an uphill battle

Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash

The march of time

across my body

is always in a southerly direction.

I’m letting gravity have its way with me —

cause otherwise it’s an uphill battle

I’m not prepared to fight.

Were I was,

it would involve a suit of modern armor —

perhaps more form-fitting Spandex

than rubber, elastic or chain mail from days of yore…

But you can have your wonder bras

And Spanx, thank you very much.

I will relish the caresses

of fresh breezes

between my breasts and kneeses

for as long as I comfortably can.

And when every last breath has left my body,

deck me out in full regalia,

girdle me up, cinch me in,

push me out, redden my skin…

Make me up like a doll

in corpse bride splendor one last time,

before the final torch’s fiery Baptism

melts me down to ashes

and your precious hands

cast me into the winds

where I finally

get even

with gravity.
Aug. 18th Bybit Analysis： BTC is leading ETH
Tags: Eth, Bitcoin, Bybit, Market Analysis

As the first cryptocurrency, BTC is still leading all the cryptocurrencies including ETH. Since the BTC now stopped going up at a strong resistance, the odd of ETH bull stops here is getting higher.

ETHUSD

We gave a short advice at 280 in last analysis, now it already stopped out with a 10% loss. However,I’m not changing my position.

The price now is getting close to the consolidation area in Aug. 12th which is a strong resistance. If the price shows a 15 USD’s red candle. It can be seen as a short signal, stop loss at 330, targeting 250.

BTCUSD

BTCUSD has tested its’ resistance at least 4 times since Aug. 9th , if it shows a 150 USD’s red candle, It can be seen as a short signal, stop loss at 6700, targeting 5800.

Alternatively, if it goes up above 6800, then it will be a signal to long it , stop loss at 6500, targeting 7800.

Where to Find Us:

Website: www.bybit.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/Bybitofficial

Twitter: www.twitter.com/Bybit_Official

Reddit: www.reddit.com/r/Bybit/

Medium: www.medium.com/bybit

Telegram(English): bit.ly/2LG0paB

Telegram(Chinese): bit.ly/2mLl1Aj

YouTube:www.youtube.com/channel/UChwL8TDRufr2PDkU6GJUkLQ/featured?view_as=subscriber
July 10 — KiCAD proto class
By: Ruth Grace Wong
Tags: Hardware

The lovely Chris, who works at OSH Park, ran a class today with two students (myself and Nick), where he taught us how to use KiCAD. I made the most gnarly board ever!

I also have all my parts for LED prototyping!

Chris helped me figure out how to connect my things. Turns out the LED driver that the lights come with already connect directly to AC wall current, so I didn’t even need the $50 power supply that I bought.

Also got some soldering advice for connecting wires end to end:
Spokkz: A Streaming Community for Fans to Partner Up with their Favourite Film Producers
Tags: Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, Entertainment, Blockchain, Media

Spokkz: A Streaming Community for Fans to Partner Up with their Favourite Film Producers Spokkz Follow Jul 19, 2018 · 2 min read

We live in the age of a thriving sharing economy whereby one membership subscription can unlock an entire platform’s wares. With a single platform membership, we can indiscriminately enjoy all available songs, movies and more. By “Sharing” our recommendations and reviews on the world wide web, we help our friends to find good content while boosting the works of deserving content creators.

Spokkz, a tokenised ICO platform conceived by OTT content-streaming giant Spuul, extends this sharing culture one step further. It allows viewer audiences to have a share in the creative genius of their favourite content creators via interactive crowdfunding. With Spokkz’s token-based system, viewers are involved in a close and supportive partnership with the creators they look up to.

Spuul’s existing 60 million-strong platform provides Spokkz with an active community to reach out to. On top of that, each viewer’s Watch History and community chat logs provide important intel on their current and potential film interests. Filmmakers and content creators can now pitch their ideas directly to potential stakeholders — the fans who actively watch their content.

Imagine a producer (think Steven Spielberg or even Wes Anderson) asking you to partner up with him in his quest to produce the next big blockbuster/indie hit — and letting you in on his big idea before it hits the screens. This is not just a dream; with Spokkz, fans can use their SPKZ tokens to crowdfund their favourite shows before they are even released. As stakeholders, they will share in the fame and success of the shows they support as well as engage in a dream-team partnership with their favourite filmmakers.

Within the revolutionary Spokkz ecosystem, tokens can also be used to watch OTT content or to buy exclusive merchandise directly from filmmakers. Viewers also get rewarded with tokens for spreading their love for their favourite shows among the community — it’s a win-win scenario from every angle.

Spokkz is all about sharing and making the creative realm of content creation and consumption a more inclusive one. You’ll never think of movie binge-watching as an anti-social activity ever again — not when the vibrant Spokkz community awaits!

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SpokkzOfficial

Reddit: https://reddit.com/r/Spokkz

Telegram: https://t.me/SpokkzOfficial

[Announcements] BitcoinTalk: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4480708

[Bounty] BitcoinTalk: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4662191

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWtrnwbeAUwNDzTcilDWCBQ
How we made the entire company* cross-functional**
By: Robert Kalweit
Tags: Agile, Leadership, Evolution, Organizational Change, Okr

Quandoo & OKRs

2017: OKRs done wrong

Quandoo has a history of working with OKRs dating back to 2017. Back then we were doing monthly OKRs down to the individual level. There was quite a lot wrong with that (yes, we know!). Since we, of course, wanted strong alignment, huge efforts were invested in structuring these OKRs. Now though, with the nature of OKRs being that one level’s key results are potentially the next level’s objectives, things soon got out of hand.

Not to mention that these OKRs were documented in countless disconnected spreadsheets. Also, it was no surprise that since we tried to do this monthly we were not only late in defining OKRs each month, and any person above ‘team member’ level didn’t get much done besides this.

2018: OKRs done better

The changes we made weren’t necessarily on a yearly cadence, but these sections best represent the rough situation during the time. So, in 2018 we transitioned to what can be described as Delivery Agile with some flaws. Goals and OKRs were top-down, while experimenting and delivery worked very well on execution level. Unfortunately, both goals and OKRs were still set first on a three-month, then a six-month basis, which still resulted in a lot of planning, focus change during the year, and huge alignment efforts.

2019: OKRs done okay

In 2019 we set yearly top-level OKRs for the first time. This was great, because it meant we were following a consistent path that you knew wouldn’t change for the foreseeable future. This was the first time we weren’t struggling with goal setting on time or working on the right things in realistic timeframes. Great!

However, we were still struggling with alignment between OKRs, teams and departments.

2020: OKRs done well

We had been learning this for quite some time, while still focusing each year on the operational side, still getting things done and still growing the business and the company. Because we value the following:

Working software over processes and tools.

In 2019 we realized that two more things needed to change:
The 4 Newest JavaScript Operations: An Introduction
By: Jennifer Fu
Tags: Programming, Nodejs, Software Development, JavaScript, Ecmascript

The 4 Newest JavaScript Operations: An Introduction

Learn the exponentiation, nullish coalescing, optional chaining, and pipeline operators

Photo by Shahadat Rahman on Unsplash

Technical Committee 39 (TC39) is a group of JavaScript experts who work on the standardization of ECMAScript.

The TC39 process has a number of stages:

Stage 0 (Strawperson): Take input for the specification.

Take input for the specification. Stage 1 (Proposal): Propose the high-level API for review.

Propose the high-level API for review. Stage 2 (Draft): Precisely describe the syntax and semantics using formal spec language.

Precisely describe the syntax and semantics using formal spec language. Stage 3 (Candidate): Designated reviewers have signed off on the current spec text.

Designated reviewers have signed off on the current spec text. Stage 4 (Finished): The addition is ready for inclusion in the formal ECMAScript standard.

After stage 4, proposals will be included in the next revision of ECMAScript. When the spec goes through its yearly ratification as a standard, the proposal is ratified as part of it.
Solitude
By: Ana Pérez
Tags: Solitude, Poetry

Photo by Jordan Steranka on Unsplash

This solitary night

This crimson sunset

This sky ablaze

These thoughts of you

One alone cannot witness

The magic of seeing as two

The sacred world-communing

Of you through me

Of me through you
Token-Curating the Truth
By: Alex Van De Sande
Tags: Ethereum, Trustory, Blockchain, Token Curated Registries, Tcr

I never did any work on Eternal September since sending it to Preethi and AFAIK nobody is (if you want to work on it, let me know). She is, instead, building something completely different and in a ways, more important. While the problem I started with was “my subreddit isn’t what it used to be”, hers is the Fake News™ issue, or “how can we prevent the most important network of free speech ever built to be used as vector of false stories that undermine the society that built it?”. When I met her, she had a lot of the basics of stake-voting and tokenizing reputation, but through our talks she started considering many elements of TCRs, bonded curves and off-chain disputes.

I am very passionate about the issue of the rapid proliferation of untrue but outrageous content on social networks: it’s a real problem affecting democracies everywhere, one that arises directly from values I deeply believe in (that everyone in the world should have access to a global network for free speech), yet the “solutions” currently proposed are methods I deeply dissaprove of (giving central authorities–be them private corporations or governments–tools to censor and control the flow of information). In short: it’s an issue we created with the tools we built (a free Internet) and we need to solve them ourselves without risking fundamental freedoms or someone else will.

After talking multiple times over the phone I decided to accept an invitation to be a technical advisor for TruStory. What that means is that I am in contact with the team and offer advice on how to deal with technical challenges, as well as voice my opinion about many issues. Which is sort of what I already do unofficially for many other teams. This does not mean I am aware of every decision made, audit their finances or every line of code, it does not mean that I endorse any sort of investment in the company or any token they might launch. I might be compensated in some form for my work (honestly I have no idea about values) so it only means that if it all goes bust, we’re doing this together. This also doesn’t mean that I will publicize the project: in fact I actually avoid talking about it online because of my connection to them, and this very post is an attempt to put that on the record.

I am a fan of the project and root for it, like I root for many other projects in the space. And while I avoid being “advisor” as much as I can, I do like giving advice to people who need it, so if you find me in a conference, feel free to tell me about your project.