fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Eyes on America
Tags: Dollar, Election 2020, Turkey, Trump, Joe Biden

Eyes on America

What will happen next?

The U.S.A. elections, unfortunately, do not only affect the Americans. It affects the world in waves, especially the economy. For a few days Turkey slept with the American election and got up with the election and finally, Joe Biden was elected. Actually, both candidates were worse than the other. I can’t believe how a superpower like America cannot put forward better candidates. Actually, a lot of people waited to see Trump, not Biden. I think Joe Biden elected because of Trump’s haters. Please, close Trump’s Twitter forever for world peace.

Currently, Joe Biden’s election victory, Trump’s election objection, the resignation of our country’s economy minister Berat Albayrak, the dismissal of central bank president Murat Uysal are on the agenda of our country. The dollar depreciated against the Turkish lira on the first Monday after the election but it started to rise. The dollar is expected to rise further with Joe Biden. We use Turkish lira but also we buy almost everything from abroad with the dollar. Life will get more expensive.

Turkey’s relations with America about our real position in the Middle East and the Halk Bank of problems waiting to be solved. We will see Joe Biden’s Middle East strategy. I think he has a lot of plans for Turkey and it scares us. The experts said that a dark winter waiting for Turkey in financial and also political.

Trump also during the presidency of Turkey; He stated that there were important disagreements regarding the fight against terrorist organizations, the S-400, or the fetö. These issues matter what the president will again be on the agenda.

Yeah, what will happen next?
Building a magic company
By: Haje Jan Kamps
Tags: The Future of Work, Company Culture, Diversity, Startup

Building a magic company

We’re not going to get anywhere by floating with the current.

One definition of madness is to try the same thing twice and expect a different result. At Konf, we’re done with that. We’re tearing up the rulebook and taking a fresh look at how to run a company. We’re re-evaluating how we want to show up in the world.

Damien and I are both organizational nerds (teal organizations, anyone?) with an environmental bent. When building a new kind of organization — when questioning accepted ways of doing things — a ton of new things suddenly become possible.

It’s in those liminal spaces — the gaps between the could-be and the should-be, and betwixt the ‘maybe’ and the ‘wait, what?’ — that true magic is prone to happen. As you might suspect, we don’t have a ‘push here for magic’ button. If we did, we’d be in a different industry. What we do have is the ability to build an organization that is ready to catalyze magic, and harness it when it shows itself. We are collecting a team of humans who know to recognize and amplify magic when they see it. And we attract customers and investors who share that vision — who know that memorable, life-shifting events don’t happen by accident.

Our team slide from our angel investor deck. “More than 50% are people of color. 50% are women. And 100% are awesome humans who are passionate about building the future of virtual events”.

As you might expect, the magic doesn’t show up in just one way. It shows up everywhere you turn, in the places you least expect it.

It’s not just lip service. Our company values are deeply embedded into the work we do, and that shows up in every way. Our team is extraordinarily diverse, and we are distributed across three continents and nine time zones. We are taking a stance for the things we care about: We are offering free event hosting for organizations that are working on climate change. Many of us are parents, and we are a family-friendly company. Black lives matter. Diversity matters. Inclusion matters. We’re a team that’s able to inject humor into the serious and extract meaning from the zany.
How to Buy and Trade $PPAY on Uniswap and Plasma.Finance
Tags: Ppay, Uniswap

PPAY is the utility token that confers huge benefits to its users including rewards, governance rights and a multitude of utilities within the Plasma.Finance ecosystem.

First though, you need to get your hands on the tokens themselves. Here we offer a handy guide on how to buy and trade PPAY on Uniswap and Plasma.Finance to get you on the path to enjoying all that our native token has to offer.

Uniswap

From the Uniswap homepage you can click the Launch App button or go directly to the app by clicking here. Then simply connect Uniswap to a Web 3.0 wallet such as Metamask, WalletConnect, Coinbase Wallet, Fortmatic or Portis.

From the swap page on Uniswap you can then transfer any existing ERC20 tokens (ETH, USDT) into PPAY.

NOTE: No matter what token you intend to swap for PPAY you will have to have at least some ETH in your wallet to pay for gas fees.

First select the From field to select the token you wish to swap for PPAY. Then go to the To field below and select PPAY. We advise using the contract address to ensure you are swapping into the genuine PPAY token. The contract address for PPAY is:

0x054d64b73d3d8a21af3d764efd76bcaa774f3bb2

The Enter an amount button should then change to Swap. Click to proceed with the token swap. From there, your wallet should pop up and tell you the gas costs and to confirm the transaction.

Plasma.Finance

From the Plasma.Finance dashboard you will be invited to Connect to a Web 3.0 wallet such as Metamask, WalletConnect, Coinbase Wallet, Fortmatic, Portis or, of course, your PlasmaPay wallet.

On the left hand side of the screen click on the Swap tab directly below the Overview button. This will then present the token swap page.

This screen should be simple and easy to operate for anyone familiar with Uniswap.

However, unlike Uniswap if you select a token amount in the From field higher than the current balance of your wallet you will be invited to Set Max to use the maximum number currently in your wallet, or to Buy More tokens including with Credit Card, or European bank details. You simply state the amount of tokens you want and then choose Buy Now.

Here we show the process from ETH to USDT as an example.

Once you have the required amount of tokens simply click Swap and Confirm Swap to complete the transaction.

Easy.

Bringing DeFi to the Masses

As you can see, whether you use Uniswap or Plasma.Finance, getting your hands on our PPAY token could not be simpler. We invite you to join us as we make DeFi a mass movement.

Website | Whitepaper | Telegram | Twitter | Reddit | Github
Beginning of New Social Media Era
By: Akhil Nayak
Tags: Reddcoin, Crypto, Social Media, Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency

Reddcoin, a new chapter in the era of social media, is here. With this coin, its users will not be only generating content, but also earning from the content generated. Find out how it going to be beneficial to us.

With all these innovations in blockchain technology, the web is entering into a new phase. It would we really worth to see what the future holds for us.
Online Fundraising to the Rescue
By: Robb Clarke
Tags: Canada, Charity, Animals, Fundraising, Startup

Donation buckets. Charity dinners. Meet and greets. What do you do when the risk of a fatal disease derails your regular means of fundraising? The animal rescues that The Lotto Factory are working with are all well aware of this and have partnered with us to adjust to the “new normal.”

Working with over a dozen animal rescues from every corner of the country, our online 50/50 fundraisers are just what the veterinarian ordered for our animal rescue partners.
False Advertising
By: Kathy Jacobs
Tags: Blue Wave Coming, Poetry, Trump, Resistance Poetry, Resistance

You strut around the stage

Like a peacock waving its tail

You don’t seem to recognize

That the world is bigger than yourself

You wave your falsities, your lies

Like he waves his tail feathers

Trying to convince the world

That lies are truth, that bad is good

You try to overpower all around you

With bluster, with show, with fakes

Like the eyes on his feathers

Try to confuse those going after him

You surround yourself with people

Who will pretend to believe you

So they can corrupt our nation

Stay in power, make money

Peacock like, you have come to believe

The lies you tell everyone else

You have forgotten that the world

Sees through your cheats, lies, rip-offs

But soon a peacock blue wave

Will come along to wash you away,

To bring a day of reckoning

For you, your children, your cult

Once you have been removed,

Justice will be served

Whether here at home

Or wherever you land

You will end up in a cage

Of your own making

Be it a small cell at prison

Or in a country far away

You will no longer be able

To roam freely, breaking rules

Your wealth is gone already

Your freedom will be soon
The Month in Crypto — August 19. The News
By: Alex Clegg
Tags: Blockchain, Jp Morgan, Binance, Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency

The News

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange launched a USD backed stablecoin. The stablecoin was launched with approval from the New York State Department of Financial Services. binance

The physically-settled bitcoin futures exchange, Bakkt, was launched on the 23rd September. Despite low volumes being traded, the launch was blamed for a 15% price tumble the following day. A similar fall was seen when CME launched their bitcoin futures product in 2017. forbes

The SEC fined blockchain company block.one $24M for conducting an unregistered initial coin offering that raised the equivalent of several billion dollars. reuters

Capital

Everledger closed a $20M equity round led by Tencent with Bloomberg Beta, Rakuten and Fidelity participating. Everldeger offers an immutable ledger to secure assets like diamonds and wine. venturebeat

The blockchain forensics firm, Elliptic raised $23M led by SBI Holdings. Elliptic are known for finding the funds and actors behind several large cryptocurrency hacks. coindesk

Binance acquired the cryptocurrency exchange JEX for an undisclosed amount to boost their crypto derivatives offering. coindesk

Adoption

Deutsche Bank have joined the interbank information network, a blockchain based payments network built by JP Morgan. theblockcrypto

Switzerland’s largest supermarket chain announced the implementation of a blockchain food tracking solution to provide visibility to their supply chain. forbes

Wells Fargo announced they are trialling a digital currency for faster and cheaper internal transactions. reuters

Market:

September was a stable month until the launch of the Bakkt futures exchange on the 23rd. The day following, bitcoin slid 15% in one hour, falling through support levels. Overall bitcoin was down 12% in September, finishing the month at $8,450 USD. Ethereum performed stronger to finish the month 5% up at $178 USD.
Verasity & Friends Blockchain Meet-Up! With Wine Tasting Courtesy of WIV
Tags: Blockchain, Verasityevent, ICO, London, Cryptocurrency

Verasity has teamed up with WIV to offer a night of Wine Tasting and industry insights on Thursday 6th December 2018 from 6:30pm to 9:00pm GMT. The event will be taking place at WeWork 7th Floor, 90 York Way, N1 9AG, London.

We have brought together a mix of different companies, to share some great insights into how the industry is performing and how the future might look like. There will be 4 speakers below followed by wine tasting and networking:

Chris Gale, Verasity Co-founder

Enabling engaged communities through video Airdrops

Creating the direct relationship between content providers and viewers using GenesisPlayer

How we completed our successful ICO using video airdrops and helped 15+ organizations with theirs

www.genesisplayer.com

Tommy Nordam Jensen, CEO & Co-Founder WiV

Empowering Fine Wine with blockchain

WiV is applying Blockchain technologies to the world of wine investments. Tokenizing wine and creating a seamless trading transaction for wine.

Why are we Tokenizing Wine?

www.wiv.io

Ryan Hanley VP of Business Development, TokenMarket

Helping core blockchain technology companies to execute successful ICO and STOs.

TokenMarket provides a platform for organizing blockchain token or virtual currency sales. Its seasoned professionals combine market experience, resources and data assets to create a winning solution to execute ICO’s & STO’s safely and securely

Security Token Offerings: The Next Step in Equity Fundraising

https://tokenmarket.net/

Nick Martin, CEO & Founder Wine Owners

Fine Wine collection and trading exchange

Wine Owners is an online wine collection management platform and trading community for people who love and collect fine wine.

Investing in Fine Wine — Why fine wine is one of the most sought-after assets for the HNW

www.wineowners.com

To book your tickets, book them by clicking this link for EventBrite.

To read more about Verasity and WiV, please visit their official sites below:

http://www.verasity.io
This Email Sums Up Why I Hated Working In An Office
By: Tom Stevenson
Tags: Jobs, Work, Life, Life Lessons, Communication

This Email Sums Up Why I Hated Working In An Office

The politics of office life

Photo by Chris on Reshot

I have written before about how I hated working in an office. I understand the role that I did is not reflective of all office jobs.

This was the first time I had worked in an office. I’m sure there are offices where working practices and morale are much better. But, working at that place filled with me dread.

One of the worst things about working there was the emails. We were working in a performance-orientated department, which focused on a form of mis-sold insurance. If you are from or have lived in the UK over the past few years, you will know what I am talking about.

There were a lot of claims to deal with. We were under no illusions that we had to get responses out the door as quickly as possible but work with the utmost diligence while doing so.

Yes, that is a contradiction. You have to work as fast as you can, but you have to be accurate and diligent at the same time! Thankfully, once you got the hang of the job, it wasn’t too hard to do this.

There was just one problem, no matter how well we did as a team, it would never be enough for our manager or those above him.

There was always the expectation that we could do more. That we could work harder. This led to divisions in the team where some people bought into this poor attempt at motivation, while others, like myself, saw through it as a simple attempt to get us to work harder for nothing.

One email rammed home how much I hated working there, and how glad I was that I handed in my notice and left.

Our team was coming off the back of an outstanding week where we had shifted more cases than most of the other teams put together. You would think this would be a suitable time to send a message congratulating us on our hard work?

You would be wrong!

What we got instead was a 2,500-word diatribe on how we could do better as a team and a reminder that we had to adhere to several arcane rules. This email was also sent on a Friday afternoon to rub salt into the wound!

If I hadn’t already handed in my notice, I would have handed it in on the spot, because this email was ridiculous. Looking back now, it’s clear that despite the downsides to blogging full-time, I made the right choice to go down this path.

The environment in the office was toxic. It wasn’t an enjoyable place to work. Emails like this one are why offices get such a bad rep.
What is ThunderCore?
By: Ico Alert
Tags: Blockchain, Dapps, Token Sale, Cryptocurrency, Decentralization

An objective analysis

What is ThunderCore?

ThunderCore is its own blockchain with its own native cryptocurrency, Thunder tokens. Developed by industry-leading experts, it is EVM-compatible with throughput of 1,200+ TPS, sub-second confirmation times, and low gas costs — making it quick and easy for dApps to deploy and scale.

Team

There is no doubt that the team behind ThunderCore is talented. The CEO, Chris Wang, graduated with a PhD in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University at the age of 22. Since then, he founded a social gaming company, Playdom, which was sold to Disney for approximately $500 million. However, it’s important to note that ThunderCore only displays three team members on their website. They are currently hiring for about 15 different positions, with a focus on engineering talent. It appears that ThunderCore is attempting to scale the company, however, may be having difficulty finding top talent. This is noteworthy, given the fact that talented blockchain engineers are in high demand, and there is a clear supply shortage in the market. Furthermore, building a layer 1 blockchain protocol supporting dApps is no easy task, and will require a built out team in order to be successful. While Block.One is a global organization, ThunderCore appears to be operating solely out of Silicon Valley. This raises the concern of whether Thunder Token can compete at a global scale. For comparison purposes, see the employee statistics for Block.One and Thunder Token below.

Funding

Block.One has secured over $4 billion in funding via an ICO; with a notable strategic round led by PayPal co-founder, Peter Thiel. Block.One has also set aside $1 billion to help fund applications utilizing the EOS.IO software.

Thunder Token is also attracting interest from top VCs, raising an undisclosed amount in seed funding and a private ICO. However, it is still unclear how ThunderCore will attempt to incentivize entrepreneurs to build on top of its platform. Developer activity on the platform is key to attracting users, which then allows for value accrual at the protocol level.

To read the rest of this post, visit blog.icoalert.com.
[Notice]링커코인 도난 피해자 구제 정책 안내
By: Exnomy X Linkercoin
Tags: Blockchain, Linkercoin

Written by

EXNOMY — DECENTRALIZED FINANCE ‘ ‘ Linker Coin — Linker Coin Project will connect prospective and pre-existing coins with Linker Coin.
Pass parameters to React event handler without wrapping the function
Tags: Event Handlers, Programming, React, JavaScript, Reactjs

Its common to need to pass arguments to a React event handler (such as onClick or onChange) when a button is clicked or radio input changed.

In the following code we pass the rate function to the onClick property, the problem is that we also want to pass the selected rating to the handler

const rate = (val) => {

// Send rating

} return (<button onClick={rate}>Rate 1</button>);

There are many ways of achieving this.

We could wrap function in another anonymous function, giving us control over the arguments that are passed.

const rate = (val) => {

// Send rating

} return (<button onClick={() => rate(1)}>Rate 1</button>);

Or maybe bind the required value to create a new function that has the argument(s) bound.

const rate = (val) => {

// Send rating

} return (<button onClick={rate.bind(null, 1)}>Rate 1</button>);

We could also create a factory function that will return a new function that calls rate with the correct value.

const rate = (val) => {

// Send rating

} const rateFactory = (val) => () => rate(val); return (<button onClick={rateFactory(1)}>Rate 1</button>);

The problem with the above options is that we are creating new functions each time. This is probably fine with one or two elements, but if we are attaching click events to a large number of elements we need a better solution.

We can take advantage of data-* attributes as medium for passing the data to the handler function. They can be accessed via the React event argument passed to the function.

const rate = () => {

const { value, category } = event.target.dataset; // Send rating

} return (<button data-value={1} data-category={'sandwich'} onClick={rate}>Rate 1</button>);

Caveat

Values assign to dataset are always serialized to strings, so to pass a JSON blob you would have to `JSON.stringify()` the value. Likewise with numbers, in the handler function you will need to convert the string to a number.

Bonus

data-* attributes can be accessed by your css
Tips For Onboarding Portfolio Companies
By: Jordan Odinsky
Tags: Venture Portfolio, Portfolio Companies, Onboarding, Venture Capital, Startup

Photo by Matthew Sleeper on Unsplash

The way venture firms onboard portfolio companies varies firm to firm, partner to partner. Some have a formal process, other’s don’t. Yesterday, we formally onboarded another company to OurCrowd’s family of startups. Throughout the past year, we’ve experimented with a few different onboarding models and have learned a lot.

Here are a few lessons we’ve learned along the way.

Set Expectations Upfront

If you walk away with one piece of information, it’s this. Not every VC can help with everything. That’s ok. Pretending you’re the answer to the company’s prayers is where problems begin. As a VC, you should find your superpowers (talent, BD, operations, etc.) and be open and honest about what you can and can’t help with. Be clear about what your value-add is, how founders can extract value, and what kind of communication they should expect moving forward.

Define The Lead

At some firms, the partner that led the investment takes the board seat and leads all communications with the company. In other firms, the platform team handles the post investment processes. And in many firms, it’s all ad-hoc. It’s important for your founders that you communicate who they should be in touch with when they need help.

Meet On Their Turf

As often as you can, meet at the offices of your portfolio companies. This boosts culture and morale for the founders and their teams. Show that your the type of VC that’s willing to make the trek to them. Seeing investors in the office imbues a sense of confidence and validation, and it helps VCs see the people who are hustling to help their investment grow.

Focus

Too often, these meetings become pitch sessions. If you find yourself talking about the market size or competitive analysis, you’ve missed the point. This is your time to define strategic goals and to brainstorm how investors can leverage their expertise and network to bring you to your next milestone.
Ostentatious
By: Anna Rozwadowska
Tags: Humanity, Poetry, Being, Life, Motion

In the proper composition,

in the proper titration, sink beneath and feel the water’s edge

resting upon you, as you float by independence in frigid waters.

Erroneous as it may be, collectively meandering,

one belongs to spectacular displays of fjords,

steam rises from volcanic craters, black obsidian is formed,

and white feathers speak of God, certainly a positive notion.
How Social Media Converts More Ticket Buyers
By: Jake Rush
Tags: Case Study, Social Media Marketing, Toneden, Advertising, Music Marketing

The right approach to advertising online

There are a handful of key tactics that advertisers overlook when building their online ad campaigns. Working with a limited budget, Matt could not afford to make any mistakes. Wasting time or money by advertising to the wrong individuals would drastically hurt a performance’s revenue.

Matt decide to use ToneDen to help advertise Electric Factory’s upcoming performance. He quickly created multiple ad campaigns: one for the show’s announcement and one for the on-sale period.

Throughout his campaigns, budget optimization steered the budget to the best-performing audiences to make his advertising dollars as effective as possible.
5 Underestimated Medium Features
By: Tom Fenske
Tags: Writing, Publishing, Readers, Editing, Writing Tips

Use the Kicker

The Kicker is part of the editor’s built-in headline structure. Do you already know how to set up a title and a sub-title using the big T-icon and the small one respectively? Great!

Now insert a line over your main headline and format it as a small title with the small T-icon. The editor will translate it into a Kicker appearing shaded on top of your main title. You can use it for categorization or highlighting a specific story tag.

Screenshot by author

I do like this feature because it adds another layer of structure to your story. Your reader is guided from the main topic in the Kicker over to your main title and then to the subtitle. By then, he has an excellent idea of what to expect from your story.
Insomnia and Words — Cioran and Cohen
By: Editorial Literary Impulse
Tags: Insomnia, Writing, Letters From Li, Literary Impulse, Essay

Insomnia and Words — Cioran and Cohen

Friday Select Editorial

Spilliaert, Woman at the Shoreline (1910)

Emile Cioran, the famous Romanian philosopher of philosophical pessimism and Existentialism says, “Insomnia is a vertiginous lucidity that can convert paradise itself into a place of torture.” He is not far from the truth. Whereas Leonard Cohen, the Canadian folk soft rock songwriter/singer, says, “The last refuge of the insomniac is a sense of superiority to the sleeping world.”

I think — depending on the state we are in, we choose one of them. When we are suffering from insomnia, we choose Cioran. And when we have ‘temporarily’ come out of it, we go for Cohen. Cohen is more pragmatic. Cioran is more truthful. And if we read their two quotes in succession, as in —

“Insomnia is a vertiginous lucidity that can convert paradise itself into a place of torture. The last refuge of the insomniac is a sense of superiority to the sleeping world.”

… we come to accept a kind of Satanism, inadvertently. We think we are like Satan, the fallen angel, who thought he was superior to God (perhaps he was), who threw him into a place of torture, because He preferred sleeping angels around him, sleepwalking through his orders. And thereby comes my conclusion, which is —

ALL WRITERS ARE SATANISTS.

With this let me enumerate the Friday Selects for this week.

FICTION — Alone with Vi by Annine Teresa Raffaella Massaro

POETRY — Para Kaya Pravesh by Prajakta

POETRY — The Last Room by Sethuraj
I Was Not Meant to Be a Homeschool Teacher
By: Kelsey Jane
Tags: Parenting, Motherhood, Children, Education, Family

I Was Not Meant to Be a Homeschool Teacher

Kudos to all elementary school teachers. I am not equipped for your job.

Photo by JESHOOTS.COM on Unsplash

Strange times always call for strange measures. The COVID-19 pandemic certainly hasn’t been an exception. It’s shaken all of our worlds and what we once thought was dependable.

My home state closed public schools for the remainder of the school year in mid-March. Now, our local school board has just announced that all grades will follow a solely virtual learning model at least until late October.

Since the first announcement of school closures, I’ve been wearing every hat in my figurative closet — mom, wife, daughter of elderly and thus vulnerable parents, employee, and last but not least, teacher.

Each week that passes seems to take just a little more of my sanity with it.
Fresh Topics from ILLUMINATION
By: Dr Mehmet Yildiz
Tags: Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Love, Technology, Business

We are excited to share our insights coming from our hearts and minds. We focus our energy on delighting our readers who keep supporting us.

Our content is empowered by our core values: Diversity, Synergy, Fusion, Serendipity
Impact: 5th November 2014
By: Oasis Church Birmingham
Tags: Articles

Impact

5th November 2014

The evenings are getting darker and the days are getting busier as we head into winter, so how do we make the most of those long nights? One way is to come along to Impact, our monthly live music event that takes place at The Bulls Head, Moseley. Impact is designed to influence the city by promoting Birmingham’s pioneering music scene, highlighting the city’s most exciting bands and artists, and celebrating musical talent. It always gets a great reception from those who play, and provides a space for a varied but always enjoyable mix of acts to showcase their work.

This time features The Scribers, one of Birmingham’s biggest indie bands, and Mount Fuji, who’ll be opening the night with their fresh, mathy rock style. Yes, it’s bonfire night, but there’s always Vale Fireworks on Thursday for that: this month’s Impact is for one night only! It all kicks off from 8pm, and for just £1 on the door. Check out the Impact Facebook page for more info here.
Allow Me to Introduce Myself
By: Jennifer Macdonald
Tags: This Is Me, Writing, Autobiography, Introduction, Illumination

Personal Interests

I have a variety of things that I am passionate about. They also happen to make good inspiration for writing material.

Books

I am an avid reader. I will read anything I can get my hands on for the most part. Some of my favorite authors are Karen Rose, Dean Koontz, and Nora Roberts. I have eclectic tastes.

I also love the Twilight series, and I refuse to apologize for that!

Conventions

In 2013, I started watching a tv show called Supernatural. I quickly became obsessed and soon after that, I discovered the exciting world of fan conventions. Since then, I have attended 24 different cons, 12 of which were dedicated exclusively to Supernatural. I have met a total of 113 various celebrities in the last seven years. It’s been a wild ride that I cannot wait to continue (if we’re ever allowed to have massive gatherings of people again.)

Music

I have a passionate love for music in all its forms. I studied vocal music all through high school. I was also an active member of the school choir every year. Singing was like breathing to me — necessary to live every day.

I have very eclectic musical tastes. There’s very little music that I won’t give at least a tentative listen. For the last several years, I’ve also been (very slowly) teaching myself to play the guitar. It’s a work in progress.

Writing

I know. This one is rather obvious, right? I mean, why else would I be here? I’ve had a passionate love of the written word for as long as I can remember. I love to express my thoughts via writing (whether through articles like this or through poetry). I find writing incredibly cathartic. It helps me make sense of the chaotic world around me.

Movies & Television

Growing up as an introvert, I spent a lot of my free time on my own. As a result, my love of film and television began. They allowed me to escape into someone else’s reality for a little while. I own hundreds of movies and shows on DVD, and I retreat to them quite frequently.

Musical Theater

I love going to watch Broadway-style musicals in person. There’s something magical about getting lost in those worlds for a few hours at a time. Some of my favorites are Rent, Les Miserables, Wicked, The Lion King, and The Phantom of the Opera. I miss experiencing live musical theater. I hope we can get it back soon.

Travel

I caught the travel bug in my early 20s when I took a vacation to Las Vegas. Since then, I have traveled to six different countries and visited 15 states in the US (some of them multiple times). Oddly enough, I have never been outside of my own province when it comes to visiting places in my own country. Some day, when we finally have the freedom to travel again, I hope to remedy that mistake.
The Ultimate Guide to Staying Injury Free as a Runner
By: David Liira
Tags: Lifestyle, Fitness, Science, Running, Health

Wouldn’t it be nice to have an injury-free 2021? What if we could achieve all of our running goals for the year while avoiding the roadblocks? While I can’t promise anything, I’m confident that we can make strides towards this lofty aim if we get serious about injury prevention. We often hold an outlook that getting hurt while running is ‘bad luck’. While there can be an element of randomness and misfortune, we must realize that we hold the fate of our health and wellness in our own hands.

I’ll live and die by the philosophy of primary prevention, both for the running community and our world as a whole. If we want better health outcomes, we must put in the preliminary work to avoid injuries and diseases before they strike. It should be noted that this is easier said than done. There are accessibility and education barriers that often cause us to fall short of optimal living.

To break down the walls and provide clarity, I’ve constructed a simple ten-step guide to becoming injury-free from running. Of course, this won’t cover every single detail, but it’s a start to prioritizing science-backed strategies that work. Our anatomy, environments, and situations are all different, so please don’t view this as a one-size-fits-all program. Instead, identify what tips resonate with you and begin to implement them into your training.

If all goes well… injury-free running awaits!
I don’t get writer’s block. I get writer’s bottleneck.
By: Todd A
Tags: Writing, Making, Creative Writing, Art

The ketchup is the idea sauce.

I’ve blogged a few times about what I call “Writer’s Bottleneck” but I don’t know that I’ve ever elaborated well. In general, I don’t experience writer’s block. And in fact, when I think of that term, I’m reminded of the scene inWonder Boys when Professor Tripp says “I don’t believe in writer’s block” and his student James Leer looks at Tripp’s towering manuscript and replies, “no kidding.”

I don’t have manuscripts teetering under their own weight around my room but I have lists and notes and to-do lists filled with ideas for essays, blog posts, stories, books. What happens to me is that I put off assigning a priority to anything and before I know it, I’m surrounded by ideas. Once I choose the next topic to write, the rest find their own priority. I forget about them or I intentionally postpone them. But until I forge ahead by picking anything, I get anxious about the ideas backing up and I don’t write.

I had a clear priority over the summer. I wrote a book. While I was coming up with chapters and a plan to write, I was overwhelmed with other ideas to write. I outlined a couple of stories and drafted several articles. But once I focused on the book, everything else fell away.

Now I’ve published that book and I’m back to being surrounded by ideas. I know I need to blog to promote the book. I want to blog about the experience of writing a non-fiction book about work. I want to blog about this experience of self-publishing. I want to blog about the books I’m reading and the movies I’ve been watching. So I’m just adding to the lists right now. Once I focus, it will be easy to forget all the middling ideas and execute.

But for now, I’m practicing another technique I’ve learned to break the bottleneck: writing about the bottleneck.
Living In Abundance
By: Ann Litts
Tags: Sacred Feminine, Self-awareness, Life Lessons, Gratitude, Abundance

When I was six-years-old, my family suffered a house fire that destroyed all my possessions. The only things I had left to call my own were the clothes on my back I had worn to school that day. The gift of this experience of great loss at a tender age was to witness that All. The. Things. the fire destroyed was just Stuff. In the months following the fire — my parents would eventually replace The Stuff. I learned that we had not lost any “Thing” we could not replace. We had not lost each other.

I believe this experience led to a natural inclination towards minimalism. You won’t find ‘decorative’ items in my home. Everything here is built for function. The art on my walls are the works of my daughter and granddaughters. My ‘theme’ in almost every room is Family — as photos of those I love grace all the flat surfaces.

Plus — I really hate shopping. And decorating.

This propensity has made the transition to retirement sinfully easy. When I look at my spending habits — I can accommodate my reduced income without issue.

Because Time is more important to me than Things.

Even my usual monthly expenditure at my yoga studio has been replaced with my home practice, an occasional Zoom class, and a most excellent yoga app. I find myself going deeper and feeling stronger in my practice than I ever have before. And while I dearly hope my yoga studio braves these rough fiscal waters, the gift of isolation has given me back a sense of my own inner knowing. I am more in tune with my body.

The pandemic has also helped keep my budget austere. Gone are all the experiences I loved so much. No concerts, plays, or symphonies this year. No travel or vacations to new and exciting lands. And yet, I am still here. Loving. Learning. Growing. And Joy-filled.
The Ruhrstahl Ru 344 X-4 World’s First Wire Guided Air-to-Air Missile.
Tags: guided missile, air to air, WIB History, The Ruhrstahl Ru 344 X-4, Wib Air

The Ruhrstahl Ru 344 X-4 was the world’s first wire guided air-to-air missile. It was also the prototype to the Malkara, developed by the UK and later perfected for the US as the TOW missile. So a connecting wire spooled out behind the

The idea was a missile that could not be jammed, and so the wire guided method kept the controller in touch with his weapon until explosion. The flight obviously gave it extended range and once it to was launched from the outside of the bomber in jst moments it could be made to hit large slower bombers. The warhead was big enough so two dozen yards away from target was well within a kill radius that would be devastating. It was developed by Dr. Max Kramer at Ruhrstahl in June 1943.

It had a solid rocket propelled motor. It was about 6 feet long and the world’s first MCLOS missile, or Manual Command Line Of Sight, which means the operator had to see the missile while he guided it.

Tagged as: air to air, guided missile, The Ruhrstahl Ru 344 X-4
Trick or Treating
Tags: Medford Township, Trick Or Treating, Headlines, Halloween

The hours for Halloween Trick or Treating on Saturday, Oct. 31 in Medford Township are 3–8 p.m.

Residents and businesses that will be giving away treats are asked to turn on porch lights. Participants are asked not to visit homes or businesses that do not have lights on.

Children should wear light colors and/or reflective gear and carry a flashlight after dark.
Blank Pages
By: Anna Da Silva
Tags: Ideas, Poetry, Writing, Creativity, Self

My thanks to Suntonu Bhadra for the inspiration to write this “multiplier of five” series. The challenge is to write five poems of 25 words each, in five days, all on a common theme. I have chosen the theme of “leaves”. This is my fourth in the series, you can find the first three here:
Stick At Something Long Enough, And It’s Gonna Pop!
By: Larry G. Maguire
Tags: Careers, Work, Art, Creativity, Education

Stick At Something Long Enough, And It’s Gonna Pop!

The first step is to get started. Build slowly, and when the time is right, break free from that shitty job and fly solo.

It’s tough, y’know?

We have utility bills that have to pay, and there is food that has to be bought. Kids need school books and uniforms, and having dinner out with the family on a Saturday afternoon is a luxury you can’t usually afford.

Your job stinks, and things are tight, but how can you possibly leave and do something that otherwise commands your curiosity? You’ll be broke as a pie crust inside the first month!

So instead, you work at things you’d rather not and endure the daily torturous feeling that you left something real behind. That you exchanged your favourite thing for something bright and shiny that never really worked. You were sold a pup, and now you feel that your favourite thing may be gone forever.

You’re not alone.

The 2019 World Happiness Report suggests that in America, most adults feel unhappy, and that’s despite material affluence[1]. The decline in happiness has been suggested to reflect a decline in social capital and social support. One of the authors of the report, Jean M. Twenge, indicates that how we spend our leisure time is another factor. I would hazard to suggest that work satisfaction is also a significant factor.

You see, we’ve been caught in a game, not of our own design and we’ve been playing by someone else’s rules. As such, for many of us, it’s hard to see a way out. It’s impossible to envision a future where we can actually make a living at that creative work we’re drawn to do.

From the time we were kids, we have been sold on the notion that getting a good education and working hard will give us everything we need. Forget about what you’re interested in, stick to traditional subjects like science, engineering, mathematics and languages and you’ll be ok. Although perhaps not explicit, it is implicit in the narrative.

I’m not suggesting traditional education is a bad idea, of course not. But a too regimental and narrow focus on too few subjects does not give kids of varying interests and abilities a fair chance. As Julian Astle wrote in a 2018 article for the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts (RSA)[3];
British man with ‘Taiwan’ tattooed on his forehead beat up by 10 Chinese men at Cambodian bar
Tags: China, Tattoo, Taiwan

British man with ‘Taiwan’ tattooed on his forehead beat up by 10 Chinese men at Cambodian bar

The men reportedly demanded that he admit that Taiwan is part of China

A British man who drunkenly decided to get the characters “Taiwan” tattooed across his forehead says that he was brutally beaten over the weekend by a group of angry Chinese men in Cambodia.

According to the Taiwan Observer, the incident occurred on Saturday night at a bar in the coastal Cambodian city of Sihanoukville. Here’s how the British expat named Paul described the beating in a Facebook post:

While on vacation in Cambodia , a group of Chinese got enraged simply because my tattoo said Taiwan, and a large group of ten of them attacked me with metal poles and I’ve lost a tooth and two teeth drastically pushed forward, now cannot properly close my mouth. All that sparked it was I took my cap off for a second and one in the group read my tattoo ” Taiwan” and shouted ‘Taiwan zhong guo’ I simply replied ‘Taiwan Taiwan’ and they went insane grabbed poles and started attacking me.

Taiwan News reports that the Chinese men demanded that Paul concede that Taiwan is part of China. In the end, fearing for his life, Paul said, “Okay, you think Taiwan is China I’ll say Taiwan is China, I just want to leave.”

In his Facebook post, Paul included some photos of himself which show blood smeared around his mouth and his shirt torn.

He also included a photo of the tooth that the men had knocked out in the beating.

Paul has lived in Taiwan for 14 years. He married a Taiwanese woman 7 years ago and owns a bar in Kaohsiung.

Last October, he became famous across the island for getting the traditional Chinese characters “Taiwan” (臺灣) tattooed across his forehead and a pro Taiwanese independence flag tattooed on his chin.

Afterward, Paul called the tattoos a foolish, “rash decision” that he made while drunk and now very much regretted. Photos of his face went viral after he visited another tattoo parlor to see if the tattoos could be removed or modified. Unsure what to do, the artist posted a photo of Paul’s face online, asking for help.

In his account of the beating in Cambodia, Paul once again expressed his regret about getting the tattoos, noting that he is planning to get the characters on his forehead removed and that the flag on his chin is gone after four laser treatments:
Data Visualization Tools for Amateurs and Professionals
By: Rayyan Zahid
Tags: Reddit, Data Visualization, Data, Data Science, Data Analysis

Data Visualization Tools for Amateurs and Professionals

It’s time to take data literacy seriously and look towards a life beyond pre-installed software

In the early days of the industrial revolution, mathematics as a subject in high school was still considered a non-essential skill. It took decades before the subject was made mandatory for high-schoolers across America. As E. O. Wilson — the Pulitzer Prize winning biologist — mentioned in his book “Letters to a Young Scientist”:

I finally got around to calculus as a thirty-two-year-old tenured professor at Harvard, where I sat uncomfortably in classes with undergraduate students only a bit more than half my age. — E. O. Wilson, Pulitzer Prize–winning biologist.

In present times, you cannot graduate high school without achieving a minimum degree of proficiency in it. In similar fashion data analysis and visualization stands today as one of such non-essential skill. It combines your fundamental understanding of computing with data processing, and as our lives becomes more entwined with the digital revolution, this skill will prove to be more important than what it seems.

Not only will you need to be data literate on a professional level but also on a personal level. Fortunately, you don’t have to wait for a policy to integrate data analysis as part of your life long learning. With a computer and the internet, practically anyone can learn data processing.

In this feature we will be exploring some of the data visualization tools that we had seen contestants from a popular data competition use. The competition known as DataViz Battle is hosted by the subreddit /r/DataIsBeautiful. You can see the pragmatic, stylistic and powerful graphs the contestants made in this compilation of the winners and honorable mentions from the data competition. Get a preview of what you can make by learning these new tools.

Whether you are an amateur, a student or a professional, if you find anything worth exploring in this article then don’t hesitate to learn a new data skill.

It is easy to get trapped in the sunk-cost fallacy: the resistance to engage in something unfamiliar when one has previously invested your time and money in an outdated but similar system.

Like Sisyphus, who was condemned to eternally roll the stone to the top of the mountain (even when it fell back down), the ever evolving world expects us to keep moving forward, and software is no different.

Before we dive in, 3 things to note (skip if short on time):
Nude & Smoky
By: Joanna Vang
Tags: Poetry, Literary Impulse, Love, Coincidence, Thoughts

Nude & Smoky

Poetry

Created by the author

Never coincidence cared about our blindness

our disguised absent-mindedness but revealed as

a transparent existence to our eyes

a complex interference to our mind

an impermanent pleasure to our ears

an inanimate ghost to our life

a voracious appetite to swirl

fervently in our empty feelings

this ardour no one misunderstood

more cheerful and interesting in

heart’s fluttering innocence

Never coincidence had an antagonist

whose existence had been passed in loneliness

out in the dark, dusty, burning view of the night

If for a single moment I thought I was uninvited

in a tale that left us shelterless

and felt the love becoming sheer skin and bone

I wouldn’t dare to whisper I love you

without capturing a strange palpitation of my heart

to assuage the secret pain that holds me still

Joanna Vang 2020
Custom tryCatch(…) in R
Tags: Rstats, Data Science, Code

Custom tryCatch(…) in R

Returning warning messages along with function results.

This weekend I spent a considerable amount of time trying to debug a code chunk consisting of a modeling function inside a for loop. The code was running through the entire loop and outputting a series of warnings at the end. And because it’s looping through a non-trivial modeling function on a sizable data, the run-time was almost an hour.

In my first debugging attempt, I changed the warnings to errors to break the code whenever there were warnings by using options(warn = 2). Note that in R warnings will only generate a message and errors will stop the code from running. The default option for warnings is options(warn = 0).

The problem with this method is that I really don’t want to have to sit in front of my computer waiting for the code to run through to the next modeling issue and break for every different warning message. It would be great if I could let the code completely run through and along with warning messages, also flag which iteration of the modeling function was causing issues.

I had written tryCatch functions before in R to return customized warnings but never had to write one that also returned the result of the function tried inside the tryCatch. The only way I could figure out how to do this was to run the modeling function twice in each iteration. Because run-time was a concern, I dug around various websites. It took longer than expected to find what I was looking for, but here it is from user2161065 on stackoverflow.

This custom tryCatch returns a 3-part list that consists of the value of the function tried, warnings, and errors. It combines a solution presented by Martin Morgan and R’s internal help files. I found it to be incredibly useful and will be adding it to my personal R package (future post!). Here’s the output of the use case examples: