fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Are Liberals Really Guilty of Anti-Conservative Bias?
By: Luca Rossi
Tags: Society, Psychology, Philosophy, History, Politics

Are Liberals Really Guilty of Anti-Conservative Bias?

Is this bias real? Should we trust those who say that it isn’t? Also, can we really say that “both sides are equal”?

This story is more about observations and opinions rather than hard facts. Opinions are as valuable as assholes. Don’t take them too seriously.

Also, this is a very biased story. You may get offended. I warned you.

Photo by visuals on Unsplash

While sane people write about sane issues on Medium, I like to write articles that give me a small existential crisis, like pretty much all you can find on I, Human.

Now the same is happening as I’m writing the second part (from now on, S2) of this story (S1). I don’t know who I can trust anymore.

Writing about politics is less easy than it seems. Every one of us has their own political views and biases, even “centrists”, and it’s tough to try to see both sides’ perspectives at the same time.

In my stories about politics, I want to be as unbiased as possible and consider “both sides as equal”. I have to admit; I often find it difficult to see both sides as equal. Sometimes I think that one is better than the other. This is not to say that one is right¹ and the other is wrong. Both sides suck, but one sucks more than the other.

I tried to promote a broader perspective in S1, proposing alternatives to the left-right dichotomy. It sounds nice in theory, but in the real world, politics is a sport. Every one of us picks their favorite team.

As a liberal, I started my journey into becoming a conservative. Well, at least for the time needed to understand their viewpoints so I could write S2.
Qanday qilib 10 qator kod orqali obyektlarni tanib oluvchi dastur tuzish mumkin?!
By: Shohjahon Rahmataliyev
Tags: AI, Machine Learning, Programming, Python, Facedetection

Welcome to Python.org

The official home of the Python Programming Language
House affordability at its worse since 2007
By: Hip Property
Tags: Hip Property, ICO, Homeownership, Property, Housing

House prices are lurching forward and are at their least affordable for over eleven years, according to a report from Lloyds Bank.

City dwellers have seen a 36 per cent rise in the past five years with an average cost of an urban home at £233,000.

However, average annual earnings have risen to £33,420, just a nine percent rise in the same period.

Unsurprisingly, the report has Greater London down as having the highest property price a £480,800, but it was Oxford who has been crowned the least affordable city in the UK, where the average house costs £430,000–11.5 times the average earnings in the area.

Taking into account earnings, it means that the capital is joint third with Brighton and Hove with wages higher in London than elsewhere.

The 2014 Mortgage Market Review imposed tougher rules on lenders meaning that it was not possible for buyers to borrow more than 4.5 times their salary.

This means, buyers in Oxford, London, Brighton and other cities, would need to stump up a significant deposit in order to be able to buy in their area.

While city living has its fair share of perks, especially if you’re working in the area, it is at is least affordable in over ten years.

Despite this, the news looks brighter in the north, which houses the top twenty most affordable cities.

Coming in at number one for the most affordable is Stirling in Scotland, whose average house price is around four times the average yearly wage at £186,000.

Derry in Northern Ireland, Bradford, Lancaster and Durham make up the top five cheapest cities to live in relation to average wages.

In fact, the only Northern City to make the most unaffordable list was York, which has house prices eight times the gross annual earnings.

Which is precisely why HiP exists — we are democratising the whole property market to make it affordable — for everybody.

We’re in the middle of rolling out our ICO. If you’re interested in changing the way owning property works, Google “hip property ICO” to help us decentralise the real estate market and to get maximum token discounts.

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Last chance to join the crowdsale on April 27–28 (exactly Block #3,613,560)
Tags: Blockchain, Ethereum, Crowdsale, Dapps, Bitcoin

Greetings! The Lunyr crowdsale is reaching a conclusion. We’ve had massive support and want to express our appreciation for having such a wonderful community. It’s the last chance to join the crowdsale before it closes.

Follow the instructions here to join!

Note: There’s a correction we’d like to announce. The crowdsale is run through a smart contract that was programmed to end at Ethereum block number 3,613,560. We do not control the end time. You can find the latest block number on https://etherscan.io/. Due to longer block times the end date is now slightly further than what was approximated at the time of deployment. The end date is now April 27–28 depending on your time zone.

See also:
NGINX for Elasticsearch
Tags: Elasticsearch, Nginx

I started configuring NGINX proxy for elasticsearch cluster and had some hiccups on the way. I thought it will be a good idea for me to document what I did.

Installing the NGINX is a simple process, you can google that based on your linux flavour.

Once that is installed, you will have to configure NGINX to proxy all the requests to the ES nodes.

My NGINX proxy config for ES is looks as below :
Are Lyft customers nicer than Uber customers?
By: Anthony Cospito
Tags: Mobile, Business, Technology

Every Lyft driver I rode with mentioned it, “Lyft customers are much nicer than Uber customers.” They’re not sure why, but the attitudes are miles apart.

Most drive for both Uber and Lyft so they would know, and regardless of city they say the same thing. What then, does it say about the brands themselves?

The drivers I spoke with in the NYC area and Boston describe Uber customers as being rude, demanding, and full of complaints. Is it Uber’s infamous surge pricing practices that put customers on the defensive? If so, should Uber tell its customers to “Uber-have?”

Drivers said Uber customers make them feel “like a second class citizen”, saying they are “angry and bossy”, and often leave “a mess of food and drinks.” One driver even mentioned an Uber customer who brought a huge dog into her tiny car, while another started polishing her nails — fumes on high.

Lyft customers go the other way. Drivers say most are “extremely considerate” and “pleasant to deal with.” One driver said she feels safer when customers are happier, “when there’s no stress in the air, we lower our chance of an accident.” A recent tweet by a Lyft driver goes a bit further:

“I picked up a passenger and we got along so well we ended up grabbing dinner. I love people!”

But that’s the odd part, the service between Uber and Lyft is the same. Exactly the same. Same car, same driver. Same same. So why the difference in disposition?

Are Uber customers reflecting back on the brand they’ve come to know and be wary of? Mistrust has been known to put a damper on budding relationships. Perhaps it’s Lyft’s pink moustache of days gone by that inspires more smiles more than scowls. Or, maybe it’s how the brands approach new customers. The homepages of Uber and Lyft provided some direction.

Uber.com has rotating images at the top, most of which target new drivers — not riders. Lyft.com is all about the customer, and makes it easy to get a car with a dead simple form. Competitive brands like Gett are coming up fast with a solid product, growing market share and global ambitions.

In a sector where disruption is the norm, both Uber and Lyft need to keep their eyes on the road — and in the rear view mirror. Smart underdogs like Gett have a history of blowing past the status quo.

Bigger picture implications? Brands not 100% customer-obsessed (especially those in the competitive segment of transportation) should hit the brakes and get ready to make a u-turn.

— Anthony Cospito, Managing Director, Popbox Digital

Originally published at popboxdigital.com on June 24, 2015.
Why Would Anyone Listen to Your Podcast?
By: Denis Murphy
Tags: Podcasting Tips, Podcasting, Productivity, Personal Development, Self Improvement

Why Would Anyone Listen to Your Podcast?

It only took 115 podcast episodes for me to realise this.

Your first thirty podcast episodes will be the toughest. You’ll tell yourself I’ve got this, but your body won’t believe you.

You don’t have any experience with podcasting, and your body knows this. The body doesn’t lie, and you’ll feel the anxiety in your body when you hit the record button.

Don’t believe me? Check out the book — The Body Keeps Score by Bessel van der Kolk.

You know that if you don’t start your podcast, you’ll feel even worse. Your lack of follow-through will make you feel lethargic, lacking in confidence and like you’re perpetually living in someone else’s world and playing by their rules.

But. This is normal. If you expect to feel anxious about your initial thirty or so episodes, it will make it easier to be consistent.

It Shouldn’t Be a Slog Forever

The biggest problem you face right now is inertia.

Consider this quote from Ben Shapiro

“I’ve never seen anyone’s life get better by complaining about reality, I’ve seen it get better by accepting reality as it is and then making personal decisions to make it better.”

The reality is that podcasting will be really difficult initially there is no getting around this.

You want an audience of dedicated listeners. You want to see messages of appreciation from some of them. You want to feel like you’re helping them come unstuck in the same way you came unstuck in your life.

With high expectations comes a great sense of pressure. You will put yourself under a lot of stress when expectation doesn’t meet reality.

But it shouldn’t be a slog forever. If it is, then it won’t last very long.

You won’t consistently do things for several years if you hate every minute of it. You won’t be able to face the truth that it might take the first one hundred episodes before you start creating something that resembles good content and another three hundred episodes before you start making genuinely great content.
How to Stop Feeling Sorry for Yourself and Start Taking Action
By: Itxy Lopez
Tags: Advice, Personal Development, Self Improvement, Self, Life

I felt like giving up.

I wanted to abandon all hope. My bed was calling my name, trying to convince me never to get back up. I was done.

Do you ever feel that way? Do you ever feel off-balanced, as if the weight of the world wasn’t on both of your shoulders, but one of them? At this point, you’ve hoped and remained positive and kept working, but you haven’t gotten what you desire.

This sadness and stress clog your chest, and it seems, every area of your life. It makes work and even your hobbies difficult to enjoy.

You tinker with the idea of quitting. If, after years, the fruits of your efforts have yet to sprout, then what’s the point in continuing?

That’s a good question. But tell me — what’s the point of quitting?
WAZIUP launches its community forum website
By: Wazihub Iot
Tags: Iot Platform, IoT, Waziup, Wazihub, Forum

YEAY! We launched our community forum

Forum page screenshot

We are very excited to announce the launch of the community forum on WAZIUP website. The forum is a space where makers, developers, and entrepreneurs can:

- give feedback and share hacks on the WaziDev, WaziGate and Cloud Platform

- share their challenges and get support from our experts

- be informed about new software release and other announcements

This forum is also an opportunity to build a network of engaged makers who share experiences on the IoT ecosystem in Africa.

Join the community now!
How s.Oliver burst onto the fashion scene using Instagram influencers
Tags: Marketing, Influencer Campaigns, Fashion, Influencer Marketing, Social Media

For more information about Julius or our blog, please contact Russell Wilde Jr.

By: Liza Peiffer

The fashion brand s.Oliver has launched an impressive social media strategy to build its reputation. s.Oliver’s overall strategy invests heavily in working with Instagram influencers to connect with a younger audience.

The influencers that they work with are from all over the world, creating buzz about the brand to multiple audience groups. s.Oliver works with creators to have them showcase their clothing with a shout out to the brand in the content copy. Jania Uhse, who is based in Germany, is one influencer who has recently highlighted the company.

s.Oliver influencer marketing post featuring Jania Uhse

Marco Wallenburg is another one of the influencers that s.Oliver has worked with. Although the logo of the brand was not directly apparent in his photo, his caption explained how he was involved with the s.Oliver campaign. Wallenburg also blogged his look and linked back to the s.Oliver site so his readers could find where to purchase the outfit.

s.Oliver influencer marketing post featuring Marco Wallenburg

By collaborating with content creators, s.Oliver is able to align their brand with key influencers in the fashion space. Although s.Oliver is a smaller company on the rise, they have effectively inserted themselves in the fashion social media world by working with creators. Their authentic campaigns use influencers who can inform their audience of the line and attract new customers for s.Oliver.
Rose-Ribbons
By: Vaishali Paliwal
Tags: Poetry, Roses, Seasons, Love, Soul And Sea Prompts

Starting here a chain of pink love and rose light for the residents or guests of Soul & Sea. Feel free to add on to this soft and divine love of Mother Nature and for Self.
5 tips to became a software architect
By: Marco Domenico Marino
Tags: Programming Languages, Programming, Sofware Engineering, Software Architecture, Software

The world of the software engineering today is too extensive….

It is very hard to know all the techniques, the programming languages or the frameworks: is required to know all? Is it necessary to be omniscient?

In my opinion these are the 5 fundamental tips:

Languages omniscience

Abstraction layers

Philosophy of the programming languages

Specialization

Read, inform, study

Now we’ll start a travel in these 5 simple tips to keep in mind when you decide to begin a career in architecture of the software.

Let’s go!
The Man Who Ate the Art
By: Colleen Murphy
Tags: Artist, Business, Art, Creativity, Life

The Man Who Ate the Art

The bizarre incident of the man who ate a $120,000 banana.

Photo by Cherylyn Ang on Unsplash

I love art. It moves me to see what people create. Every gallery I enter holds curiosities that make me think about message and motivation. Even the most bizarre displays are fascinating. But sometimes I am left thinking, what on earth does it mean?

Artist Maurizio Cattelan, displayed a banana purchased at a local grocery store and fixed it to the wall with a single piece of duct tape. He called it “Comedian”.

Indeed.

The piece was priced at $120,000 and was placed on display at Art Basel Miami.

Interesting note, the artist left no instruction to the purchaser on what to do when the art begins to decay. I love this story.

Unbelievably, of the three banana works on display, two had already sold. Gallery founder Emmanuel Perrotin told CNN the bananas are “a symbol of global trade, a double entendre, as well as a classic device for humor.”

I know it doesn’t seem possible, but the story got much funnier.

Enter David Datuna, performance artist.

This guy walks into the gallery, pulls the banana off the wall and starts eating to the horror of the crowd. Of course, someone whipped out their phone and shared on Instagram. Thank goodness. You must see the awkward scene.

Apparently, gallery attendees were begging David not to do it. But he ate it anyway.

Taping a banana to a wall begs the obvious question, is this art?

You can find endless definitions of art. Ask anyone what constitutes art and you will get a wide variety of definitions. But in fact, it falls in three main categories: representation or imitation, expression of emotion or formal.

Imitation is simply a copy of something beautiful. A painting of a field of flowers. The portrait of a child. Expression of emotion is the sticky one. Art intended to evoke an emotional response. It provokes. A banana taped to a wall. Formal art is without concept and adheres to a conventional set of principles. How literally can you create?

People love to say, my kid could paint that.

Maybe he could. He certainly could tape a banana to a wall. But did he?

The question of art is in novelty, expression of an idea, evoking a response. Things do not have to make literal sense. They can be funny or weird. But do they make you think? Has your curiosity and creativity been sparked?

Our banana eating friend felt the artistic expression did not end with the fruit taped to the wall. He felt it needed something.

“I love Maurizio Cattelan artwork and I really love this installation. It’s very delicious.” -David Datuna

The fact of the matter is that taping a banana to a wall is funny. But eating it in a packed gallery is even funnier. For a piece titled Comedian, I would say mission accomplished.
Ordinary Is Where Love Grows
By: Megan Minutillo
Tags: Self Discovery, Life Lessons, Poetry, Moments, Love

Ordinary Is Where Love Grows

A poem.

Photo by Íris Juana on Unsplash

Be careful not to discount the

“ordinary” moments of life in

the anticipation of something

more exciting.

Ordinary is where love grows.

It’s waking up to the smell of

coffee, knowing that the human

you adore more than anything

is the one who brewed it for you.

It’s quiet moments of work, and

tiny victories that mean something

to you and only you.

It’s a day where everything goes

wrong, but then everything feels

right as you feast on the sounds

of laughter as you sit around your

kitchen table.

It’s a hot shower on a cold day,

and pizza on a Friday night, and

quiet time in the morning before

the rest of the house wakes up.

Ordinary is where love grows,

ordinary is where life is lived.
Creating Video Tutorials for Poly Machines
By: Pay Estakhri
Tags: Mathematics, Edtech, Tutorial, Computer Science, Creativity

We’re all about creating new and exciting puzzles here at Polyup. That’s why we have given you the creative power to create your own machines as well!

At this point you may have created a new machine filled with many different chips, but how will people know how to complete the chips? The answer is this tutorial! Here we will go over how you can create a tutorial script for newly created machines to correspond with video tutorials. A video tutorial script is a step-by-step walk-through of the concepts presented in the machine.

If you’d like to learn more about creating machines, please review this blog post.

Every tutorial should correspond to the first chip (or most basic chip) in the machine that introduces each player to the overall concept of the machine. From there, the scripts should follow the same basic formula:

Introduction: In the video tutorials introduction, it is important to acknowledge the viewers first with a greeting. After the greeting, you should follow with an explanation of what mathematical concepts the players will be learning by playing your machine. Briefly explain what the concepts are, try to keep it clear and concise! This should be no more than 2–4 sentences. Explaining the Problem: Now we can move onto solving the first chip of the machine. Begin by describing what is in the machine. For simpler machines, this can be as easy as describing the available blocks on the palette and on Poly’s main stack. This should also be no more than 2–4 sentences. Solving the Chip: Explain the reasoning behind solving the chip, remember that we’re trying to show the thought process of arriving at the solution and not just giving the viewers the answer right away. Describe what blocks to put in and in what positions. This should be no more than 2–3 sentences. Conclusion: Once we have arrived at the solution, congratulate the players! Let them know that they are ready to complete the rest of the chips in the machine. This should be no more than 1–2 sentences.

These scripts should aim to be ~1 minute in length, with about 30 seconds of leeway in either direction. We want to be able to explain the concept thoroughly and in a timely manner, while also presenting the player with an easy example demonstrating the concept that they can use as a reference to solve the rest of the chips in this machine.

For examples of these type of tutorials, please explore some of the tutorial videos we have created available on our YouTube channel. Don’t forget to subscribe while you’re there!
White Denim
By: Esther C. Werdiger
Tags: Clothing, White Denim, New York City, Bodies, Comics

Esther Werdiger‘s work has appeared in Lenny, Buzzfeed, The Awl, The Hairpin, Tablet Magazine, and Electric Literature.

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It’s the remix: Pulled Beef Pie
By: Ashleigh Eg.
Tags: Health, Recipe, Nutrition, Food, Healthy Foods

It’s the remix: Pulled Beef Pie

Fresh takes on your old faves — it’s the remix! Try our Pulled Beef with Sweet Potato Mash remixed as a classic potato top pie.

Get messy with the Chef’s remixes

Our meals are great to grab on the go, ready to heat and eat whatever you’ve got planned for the day. If you fancy a quick and tasty new take on your fave food though, the Chef has some easy remix ideas ready for you!

It’s the remix: Pulled Beef Pie

Lean Aussie beef, slow cooked for 14 hours in red wine and dark chocolate, pulled by hand & served with a side of sweet potato mash and peas.

Sweet potato is an everyday superfood, with an incredible number of health benefits wrapped up in a tasty orange package!

They’re a great source of low GI carbs, which provide slow burning energy and no hunger pains right after eating. The high fibre content also helps to keep you feeling full and happy, long after meal time is over.

Paired with the protein in lean beef, you’ve got yourself a hunger crushing health boosting meal, perfect post workout for recovery and replenishing your energy levels.

The Remix: Sweet Potato Top Pulled Beef Pie

Who doesn’t love a good pie — and a nicely cheesy potato top is always a winner!

What you’ll need:

Red Wine & Dark Choc Pulled Beef meal

Some parmesan cheese

Ramekins (or a small bowl)
Reflection on Principle 7 — Working software is the primary measure of progress
By: Imran Qazi
Tags: Agile

This article is part of 12 agile principles in 12 sprints blog series.

“These days we do not program software module by module; we program software feature by feature” — Mary Poppendieck

A great quote by Mary; this is the essence of how we should approach software development and measure the progress of the projects i.e. in the form of tangible working software that provides an end-to-end implementation of business features.

To practice this principle, we ask the team to focus on completing the working features and passing the working software to the QA team as early as possible.

The team focused on:

Reducing the time spent on technical tasks such as setting up infrastructure, development environments and starting on feature development asap. We did this by only setting up the minimum essential infra that is required to start implementing the first feature.

2. Split the user stories using S.P.I.D.R approach (by @mikeCohen). The aim is to reduce the size so that the user stories can be developed and released for QA process no more than a couple of days. This can provide early feedback to developers from QA and Product Owner. It is ideal if product owners can review the implementation as well.

3. Ensure that the user stories comply with ‘tracer bullet’ test. The idea of a tracer bullet in software development comes from Andy Hunt and Dave Thomas in their book, The Pragmatic Programmer. In writing user stories do this by describing the stories that go through the entire technology stack. User stories should describe the end to end business feature instead of describing the user interface, backend or database.

Being conscious of delivering working software and making small changes to achieve this can really help the team deliver more value to your clients each sprint.
[Internship Review] Business Development ที่ Artisan Digital!
By: Aki Pi
Tags: Artisan, Internships, Business Development, Intern, Review

We are a full-scale digital agency based in Chiang Mai, Thailand, specializing in software development, design, and digital marketing consulting.

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Being Still
By: Christina Meier Ph.D
Tags: Spiritual, Spiritual Secrets, Poetry, Connection, Prayer

Being Still

Brings connection

Photo by Raychan on Unsplash

When I close my eyes

and still my mind

I can raise my arms

and know you

I become grounded

yet elevated, connected

spiritually, prayerfully

in awe, in worship

I forget my cares, my needs

disappear, I realise again

that you are everything
INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW DAY CELEBRATED IN THE PRESENCE OF PRESIDENT
By: International Relations
Tags: Humanitarian Aid, Conference, Law, Humanitarian, President Anton Caragea

INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW DAY CELEBRATED IN THE PRESENCE OF PRESIDENT

Under the High Patronage of the President of Institute of International Relations and Economic Cooperation Professor Dr. Anton Caragea the public debate on celebrating The International Humanitarian Law Day has taken place.

The Institute of International Relations and Economic Cooperation (IRICE) has mark down with a public debate and roundtable the celebration of the International Humanitarian Law Day in Romania.

Under the High Patronage of the President of Institute of International Relations and Economic Cooperation Professor Dr. Anton Caragea the public debate on celebrating The International Humanitarian Law Day in Romania has taken place.

The debate reunited diplomats and humanitarians and civic society representatives, under the High Patronage of the President of Institute of International Relations and Economic Cooperation Professor Dr. Anton Caragea, and was dedicated to note and emphasize the importance of respecting international humanitarian law, as a set of rules with the role of mitigating the negative effects of armed conflicts and of protecting the victims.

Also, this is a reconfirmation of the Romania’s attachment to the values of international humanitarian law, under the baton of The Institute of International Relations and Economic Cooperation.

In this context, IRICE President Professor Dr. Anton Caragea, attended today the opening of the round table organized by the Academician Mircea Constantinescu and his IRICE team on the international humanitarian law in the current international climate.

On this occasion, The Institute of International Relations and Economic Cooperation President underlined that IRICE will continue to act at national and international level in order to improve respect for the international humanitarian law.

Academician Mircea Constantinescu mentioned also the steady support provided by IRICE to the actions promoting international humanitarian law rules among the institutions tasked with responsibilities in this area, as well as among civil society, especially among young people.

In recognition of his role in promoting international diplomacy and global dialogue the President of Institute of International Relations and Economic Cooperation Professor Dr. Anton Caragea has being recently awarded the NATIONAL ORDER.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Additional informations:

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

The International Humanitarian Law Day is celebrated by The Institute of International Relations and Economic Cooperation, on a yearly basis, starting from 2014, through educational, cultural and scientific actions dedicated to a better knowledge and promotion of international humanitarian law.
Who Did You Really Let Down?
By: Andrew Brewerton
Tags: Culture, Work, Business, Relationships, Life

The importance and value of people you can rely on in life.

Photo by Claudia Mañas on Unsplash

The call was for an early morning start; it might as well still be the middle of the night; that’s how it felt. Yesterday had been a long hard, challenging day and the evening, well there was no evening. By the time we finished, everyone was ready for bed.

We’ve all been there, worked long days, even pulled a few all-nighters. It’s sometimes what’s required to get the job done. We’ve all been here too, tucked beneath a warm duck down duvet in a comfy bed. You’ve hit snooze on the alarm, just another five minutes. Then another five, what harm can it do, as your mind is busy weighing up the available options. In the space of five minutes, you’ve determined you don’t owe them anything. In another five, you arrive at a decision the worlds not going to end, and it’s not all going to fall apart by not turning up for work.

For people who say they will, then don’t!

If you believe it is acceptable to send an email or possibly worse a poxy text, or indeed much worse ask your mum to call in on your behalf, as you roll over and slip back under the duvet. Your sleepy decision has just let you down.

What your sleepy decision making has overlooked is that moments earlier you’re day ahead, not yet fully mapped out, held so much promise and potential — a new exciting day packed with opportunities. New faces you’ve yet to meet and interactions to be exchanged, that could change your life, and all you had to do was turn up. You’ll never know what doors destiny had selected for you to step through today.

The day you missed will have had some certainties. You will have ended the day knowing more than when you started. Rarely do we wake and learn nothing before bedtime ( of course an absolute stinker of a cold or a pretty severe hangover can be a hindrance to the learning experience but on the whole) you’ll retire to bed a smarter more knowledgeable individual.

Photo by Andisheh A on Unsplash

While you have remained stationary during your 24-hour stagnation, the world did not standstill. Your decision has now placed you in a position of playing catch up, which is never much fun.

You can change your mind, but why would you, when the duvet is so warm and the bed so comfy. One reason you might consider is as I understand it life is not a rehearsal, what we have today, this minute, right now, that breath you just took, is the real deal. Don’t waste this moment, as you will discover one day, time is not on your side and is most definitely not infinite!

Of course, it’s never really that bad, and the good news is, it’s never too late, until it is too late. Respect and trust are hard earned but easily dented, or worse lost. An unseen hairline fracture appears, and left unattended will weaken and is susceptible to breaking. Now all the hard work you put in to building bridges and attaching positives to you and your contribution have evaporated.
Joe Biden’s Space Policy?
By: John Mulnix
Tags: NASA, Space, Public Policy, Space Policy, Politics

Joe Biden’s Space Policy?

A quick thought on a past statement and hope for the future.

Like many in the space community, I’m interested to learn more about Joe Biden’s record on space policy and NASA programs. While there isn’t a ton to go on, I found this statement he made in the Congressional Record from 6/19/73 to be interesting.

Screen capture from the 1973 Congressional Record. Full version can be seen here.

Nearly 40 years have passed from when he made this statement, so obviously, his policy positions could be markedly different. I find it interesting from a historical perspective and realize policy positions can/do change.

If the Republicans continue to control the Senate, NASA could be in for a period of relative stability in the coming four years. If the Democratic party gains control of the Senate, should we expect changes in policy that would move support to programs “which would be much more deserving” of funding?

Regardless of which party controls Congress, I hope NASA can continue work on the Artemis program and the Artemis Accords in this decade. Artemis could provide a Biden administration with a great tool for soft power and an opportunity for scientists to explore our closest celestial neighbor.

The SpaceX Dragon capsule “Resilience” heading to Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center. Picture- NASA Flickr

Continuing the successes of the Trump, Obama, and Bush administrations for commercial spaceflight is of paramount importance for the incoming Biden administration.

It’s heartening to see that the Democratic party supports NASA’s human spaceflight endeavors, but interesting that Joe Biden had no explicit policy positions during the campaign. In any case, I am excited to see what the Biden transition team recommends for NASA and I am hopeful for the future of NASA’s human and robitic spaceflight endeavors. I just hope we get more details soon!
i.m. Vasily Zaystev
By: John Edward Marks, Jem
Tags: Heroism, Stalingrad, Snipers, Red Army, Sacrifice

Photo by David Clode on Unsplash

Vasily Grigoryevich Zaytsev was a Soviet sniper during World War II. Between 10 November 1942 and 17 December 1942, during the Battle of Stalingrad, he killed 225 enemy soldiers, including 11 SS snipers

Who controls the past controls the future:

Said an anonymous red army soldier,

With a slightly Asiatic glint to his eye,

Just like Vasily, at the gates of Auschwitz,

Who stated unstintingly: ‘This was why we fought

The fascists so hard at Stalingrad.’

1.8–2 million Russian soldiers (including women),

killed, wounded or captured.

On 19 November 1942, the Red Army launched

A two-pronged attack targeting the weaker Romanians and Hungarians,

Protecting the German 6th Army’s flank from snipers like Vasily.

The Nazis on the flanks were overrun

The 6th Army was cut off and surrounded in Stalingrad.

The Nazis surrendered.

World War 2 was effectively won. The cost?

25 million Russian dead.

There was no taboo on feeling among the Soviet troops

They had a vital job to do, which they did heroically.

As witness the deeds and expertise of the sniper Vasily Zaytsev.

If this happened now would we make the same sacrifices?

Or would we negotiate with the Neo-Nazis?

Would we try to understand the other’s pain?

Nazis are human too you know.

Or would we be prepared to risk our lives?

No. We are so weak, even afraid of refugee children,

Terrified to help a persecuted Christian woman, Asia Bibi,

As the Islamo-Fascist mobs in Islamabad scream for her to be hung

Born between Belsen and Korea

These C21 collaborators, quislings in the culture wars,

Turn the luck of birth into personal worth.

Ignore the world’s hoi polloi

Those with little but the aspiration to live…

O! money makes these machine men mean:

Status, aura,class, the need to seem

To be esteemed:

Empty virtues in undecorated graves.
Drawing: Smell the Roses
By: Rolli, Https, Ko-Fi.Com Rolliwrites
Tags: Drawing, Cities, Art, Self, Life

Drawing by Rolli

It’s important to remember — and easy to forget — to smell the roses.

You should try it, some time.

Artist’s Note №1

This drawing will earn no money (Medium recently all-but-demonetized poetry, cartoons, flash fiction and other short articles). Please consider buying me a coffee. More coffee=more drawings for you to enjoy.

Artist’s Note №2

This drawing is brought to you by the letter “D.” “D” is for Dr. Franklin’s Staticy Cat and Other Outrageous Tales, my collection of humorous stories and drawings for children.

Artist’s Note №3

My new one-man Medium magazine is called — Rolli. Subscribe today.

Artist’s Note №4

From now on, I’m letting my readers determine how often I post new material. When this post reaches 1000 claps — but not before — I’ll post something new.
Birth, School, Work, Death
By: Scott Ebisch
Tags: Education, Comics, Music

In the 1980’s there was a band called “The Godfathers” who released the only song I remember from them in which there was a stadium like anthem/chant that just repeated “BIRTH. SCHOOL. WORK. DEATH!” and it occurred to me that, that phrase summed up life in total.

Four simple words.

Four phases of life that make up who we are.

Kind of depressing.
How to Beat the Odds as a Content Creator
By: Jazelle Handoush
Tags: Marketing, Content Creation, Content Marketing, Marketing Strategies, Content Strategy

How to Beat the Odds as a Content Creator

Five tips from everyone’s favorite vampire slayer

Photo by James Pond on Unsplash

If you’ve ever watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer, you know the Big Bads always require Buffy to think things through. When it comes to slaying it as a marketing content creator, a bit of planning doesn’t hurt there, either.

According to Forbes, 93% of B2B companies claim contenting marketing brings in more leads than the traditional tactics.

As your team’s content creator, it’s your responsibility to boost brand awareness to bring in those leads. Better yet, your badass content can kick up quality leads. That way, no one’s wasting time attracting the wrong sort of houseguests.

Here are five tips to help you become a pro marketing content creator. Then, you can bring in new business leads and watch your company rise to every opportunity.
CME Will Add Trading For Ethereum Futures in Feb 2021
By: The Crypto Basic
Tags: Crypto, Altcoins, Cryptocurrency, Ethereum, Cryptocurrency News

CME, the world leading derivate marketplace, announced that after the high demand of Bitcoin futures trading on CME, The exchange will add Ethereum futures.

Read the company statement.

Bidding for the new product will start on February 8, 2021. The calculation will be based on ETH/USD exchange rate.

CME said that the addition of contracts for Ethereum is dictated by demand and the Bitcoin futures market’s steady growth.

In 2018, Tim McCord, managing director of the CME, announced plans to test the possibility of launching futures products on Ethereum.

In November 2020, the volume of open positions (OI) on Bitcoin futures on the CME came close to $1 billion. Such an interest in Bitcoin futures has motivated CME to launch futures trading on the world’s second top cryptocurrency Ethereum.

“Based on the growing customer demand and the steady growth of our bitcoin futures and options markets, we believe that the addition of ether futures will provide our clients with a valuable tool for trading and hedging this growing cryptocurrency,”

Said Tim McCourt, Global Head of Stock Indices and Alternative Investment Products at CME Group. He also Added
Covid-19 impact: Stretch Marks Treatment Market Size To Reach $3.9 Billion By 2026
By: Rajesh Varma
Tags: Global Health, Medical Devices, Stretch Marks Treatment, Medical, Covid 19

Stretch Marks Treatment Market Growth & Trends

The global stretch marks treatment market size is projected to reach USD 3.9 billion by 2026, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. It is expected to expand at a CAGR of 8.04% during the forecast period. Increasing awareness among women regarding the treating stretch marks caused during pregnancy is significantly driving the growth. Also, the growing prevalence of stretch marks in adolescents and teenagers is predicted to fuel the demand for their treatment.

High number of obese population in North America is majorly driving the market in the region. This is an opportunity for the players for expanding their consumer target and strengthening their market presence. Moreover, the increasing number of key players in the region is another factor driving the competition, thereby positively influencing the stretch marks treatment market.

Growing number of online portals for the sale of topical products for treating stretch marks is another opportunity for the players. The key players can thus, increase their sale through these online portals and expand their product portfolio. Moreover, consumer preference for topical products is augmenting its demand, thus affecting the market.

Rise in the launch of new products and adoption of growth strategies, such as partnerships and innovations are trending in the market. Growing Asia Pacific economies and rise in spending power of consumers in these regions is also influencing the market growth positively.

Request a free sample copy or view report summary:

www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/stretch-marks-treatment-market/request/rs1

Stretch Marks Treatment Market Report Highlights
The Benefits of Using Do/Catch in Swift
By: Bruno Rocha
Tags: Swift, Xcode, Programming, iOS, Mobile

The Benefits of Using Do/Catch in Swift

Are they Swift’s most underrated feature?

Photo by Tim Marshall on Unsplash.

I’ve always found throwing functions ( try/catch or do/catch ) to be a very underrated feature in the Swift community. While many native APIs from iOS rely on it, very few people seem to actually use them in their daily projects. Most people seem to either optionally unwrap them ( try? ) or use other features like the Result type. In my opinion, this stems from the fact that unless your entire project is built around throwing, the parts that do use it are somewhat annoying to deal with and don't look very nice code-wise:

I’ve personally avoided this feature a lot for these reasons in favor of things like promises or the new Result<> type, but even then, I still felt that my way of handling errors wasn't good. In fact, I was often falling into the same pitfalls — just in different ways.

When I recently refactored one of my open-source CLI tools, I noticed that parts of it would not only look better if they used throwing functions instead, but they also would be considerably easier to unit-test. I decided to try it out by refactoring that tool to use this feature, but to avoid falling into that same pit, I made the entire tool rely on it. The results exceeded all of my expectations. With about 80% code coverage, the tool is now very easy to maintain and evolve thanks to the benefits of throwing functions.

In this article, I’ll identify the benefits of this feature that have caught my attention the most and share some of my thoughts on why you should give it a second chance.
Cloud Security. The author of the article uses this…
Tags: Artificial Intelligence, Oracle, Data Science, Technology, Data

The author of the article Phil March uses the analogy of Separation of Church and State to stress on Larry Ellison’s message.

“We will never put our cloud control code on the same computer that houses customer code — this creates an incredible vulnerability.” Larry Ellison

Read Full article here
Converting Medium Posts to Markdown for Your Blog
By: Will Koehrsen
Tags: Education, Web Development, Programming, Writing

Using Medium-to-Markdown on the Command Line

The medium-to-markdown command line package is written in Javascript which means you’ll need node to run and npm to install the package. If you’re on Windows, use this page to install both (it takes about 3 minutes). Then, install the package using npm install medium-to-markdown . The actual script you’ll need to run is available here, and also shown below.

Medium to Markdown JS script

To run, save the script as medium-to-markdown.js , change the "<medium post url"> to the address of your published post, and type node medium-to-markdown.js at the command line (making sure the script is in your directory.

This will output the entire post as Markdown in your console. To redirect the output to a file, you can type node medium-to-markdown.js >> file.md If you’re using GitHub Pages + Jekyll for your blog, you’ll want to save the md file in the _posts/ directory of your repository as date-title.md . For example, my latest post file is _posts/2018-09-16-Five-Minutes-to-Your-Own-Website.md . Once the article has been converted to a properly named Markdown file, it can be published by pushing the repository to GitHub.

Personally, I found that process of manually renaming the file tedious, so I wrote a Python script that accepts a url of a published Medium post along a date, calls the medium-to-markdown.js conversion script with the url, and saves the resulting markdown with the correct file name. The script can be found here, and the command line usage is below:

Command line usage of Python script for converting medium to Markdown.

Overall, it takes 15 seconds to run the script and about 5 minutes for the website to update! Go to your blog to see the article rendered.
The Eleventh of August
By: Elizabeth Helmich
Tags: Poetry, Presence, Reflections, Peace, Vacation

poems from the north, day 8

Stone lion — photo, my own

The stone lion resumes its watch.

Overlording thoughts

on air quality and what makes

a house, home.

I become a sphinx, too,

squinting at lanky grass

that sways in tune

with the arthropods

who gulp and swallow air

unapologetically,

their Buddha bellies filled

with the sounds of being.

Others try to paint me

into fights unbelonging to me.

Vying for the same space

at the front of the line.

It’s not for me to decide

how it ends.

All I can do is reflect

that which is already known.

Last night, beneath

a half-moon grinning dopily

over our shaded silhouettes,

he asked where I was.

Twice, I repeated, only here.

Where else might I be,

I wondered, but remembered

as the last breeze of night

prickled my arms.

Old souls

don’t often know how to be

anywhere else.
New Rules of the Road for California and Autonomous Vehicles
By: Nuro Team
Tags: Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous Cars, Self Driving Cars, Autonomous Vehicles, Nuro

By: Aidan Ali-Sullivan

Regional Lead of Public Policy and Government Relations

Today marks an exciting moment for the future of local commerce in California. The Department of Motor Vehicles has implemented regulations allowing self-driving vehicles designed and operated for goods delivery to operate under the same robust permitting requirements applicable to other types of autonomous vehicles. We applaud the DMV for completing this regulatory update and unlocking a valuable new service that promises to reduce the number of shopping errands made by Californians every year for groceries, hot food, and other local products.

This change creates certainty for companies like Nuro to advance our AV technology by mapping, testing, and deploying our delivery service right here in our home state of California. It will allow us to build closer and deeper relationships with our retail partners, and will develop our connection with the communities we serve. The revised regulation will, for the first time, enable autonomous vehicles designed solely to carry goods and not passengers to operate in California. By removing passengers from the vehicle entirely, we can reduce the number of people on the road, offering greater protection from potential collisions or incidents.

Since we first launched our self-driving delivery service in 2018, our goal has always been to expand the size and accessibility of our fleet in order to accelerate the benefits of robotics for everyday life. The learnings we’ll gain from testing and eventually deploying our commercial service in California will allow us to advance our mission. We look forward to bringing our custom unmanned vehicles and delivery services to the communities we call home.

We are hiring! Join our rapidly growing team.

For more, follow the Nuro blog, and connect with us on Twitter and LinkedIn.