fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Introducing AiSara
Tags: No Code, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Predictive Analytics, Data Analytics Tools

AiSara stands for artificial intelligence for solution approximation with robust algorithm. Aisara proprietary algorithm enables automated analysis which quickly gains clarity as the algorithm has only one mission: to find the pattern in your data with no hassle. At AiSara, we believe that artificial intelligence is made for everyone which is why we have made AiSara easy to use to allow users of all levels to benefit from it with no coding knowledge required.

Utilize AiSara to make prediction, optimization. No coding, no fuss, easiest to use. - Zaim Awang -

No matter what industry you’re in, AiSara can assist you in finding your solutions. Commonly, in your spreadsheet, you have both input and output data and with more additional input data you want to be able to make a prediction on the output.

Using AiSara, you can utilize the power of artificial intelligence with no coding, no model design, and no hassle. AiSara will do all the work for you, taking your data to prediction in only a matter of minutes.

AiSara has launched multiple services, each suited for different fields. The following demos are up for you to try:

General

Testdrive

Oil & Gas Production Forecast

Oil & Gas History Matching

Hyperparameter tuning

Try the demos yourself at https://demo.aisara.ai/. For more information about AiSara and our company go to https://www.aisara.ai/
Draper Venture Network bids 2018 “Adieu” “Sayonara” “Adios” “Farewell”
By: Draper Venture Network
Tags: Startup

Thoughts on venture capital and entrepreneurship from our VC funds in tech hubs across the world.

Follow
Data Literacy —The ABCs in the Age of Data (Part I)
By: Joseph Tan
Tags: Govtech, Data Science, AI, Capability Development, Data Literacy

Word cloud of feedback for the Data Literacy ePrimer, an eLearning course we designed

Getting someone to navigate and understand the complexities of what Data Science and AI really is, can be difficult in the face of the hype surrounding it.

We started out with a simple ambition to help public officers understand more about Data Science & AI (“DSAI”). By the end of our journey, we created an eLearning course with about 4 hours of videos, diagrams, and explanations, teaching a broad range of topics from DSAI use cases, importance of data, visual analytics principles, Machine Learning as well as a framework on how to scope a data project. When we received positive reviews and feedback for the Data Literacy ePrimer, we knew that the effort over the past 1+ year was well worth it.

Here’s a look back at the development journey of how we built up the content, and hopefully inspire our public officers reading this to pick up the ePrimer. We believe it is important knowledge that will serve you well going into the age of data.

The Problem

The Data Science & AI Division at GovTech has been collaborating with public officers across various agencies on projects for a few years. We have a thriving community of enthusiasts and practitioners which we engage with regularly as well. Over the years of project collaboration and community engagement, we slowly developed a sense of what the common misconceptions about data are, and what baseline knowledge, we think, would really help raise the overall understanding about data for the public service as a whole.

We call that pool of knowledge data literacy. Unfortunately, this body of knowledge is not something you learn about comprehensively in most data-related courses out there.

Based on our framework on data training, both Data Literacy and acquiring applied analytics skills are equally important.

You can probably attend half-day seminars about how cool Data Science & AI is, but you may not gain a deeper appreciation of why good data is of paramount importance.

You can attend 3-day courses on advanced analytics features in Excel to work with real data, but you won’t learn why some charts and dashboards just help people understand the presented insights better.

You can also attend 5-day courses on visual analytics principles and how to use tools to visualise data, but you will not be able to peel open the black box of how machine learning helps you predict outcomes.

How many of these courses can a person realistically attend? Going for one or two of such courses are often inadequate to understand the full picture behind what makes Data Science & AI useful.

And it’s no wonder why management can’t reconcile why their “trained” staff did not come back with the right skills to perform magic with data.
Happy 30th Birthday!
By: Lynne Wintergerst
Tags: Culture Change, Happy Birthday, Lonely

Last night we celebrated our son’s 30th birthday at a wild and hilarious Onesies Party – outside! in Onesies! on a freezing Melbourne Winter’s night!

“7pm – late” the invitation said and it was certainly every bit of that. The stump of the old grapefruit tree was kept blazing through the night while a bizarre gathering of animals and other creatures chatted about old times and – even more bizarrely discussed the wicked problems holding society in its claws. The bonfire under the stars, the conversation pit around the copper fireplace on the deck, the fridges – portable and fixed, the constantly changing food choices and eclectic music videos were only condiments for the main course: friends and family from 30 years of life coming together in one place to honour one person. It was wonderful to be part of it all.

This morning I thought back to my 30th Birthday. How different that was!

Five months earlier I had made a massive shift from the rural foothills of Melbourne, where I was a cook in an Anglican Summer Semester on a live-in campus, to living alone in a tiny workers cottage a stone’s throw from Toorak Road in the upmarket urban culture of South Yarra. I now worked as a Finance Broker’s PA in a 2-man partnership that was in serious trouble. On the morning of my birthday one partner and I waited for the other to go golfing as was his typical behaviour. As soon as he left we set to packing exactly half of the partnership into boxes – right down to counting the stationery and postage stamps – and moving it and us to a tiny cottage in South Melbourne. The files that we took were only those of ‘our’ side of the partnership. It was dark by the time we had set up the new office and the power was not yet connected. We were exhausted from the intrigue and adrenaline rush that had by now left us spent. As we sat on the floor by the light of his torch, we shared what was left of the sandwiches I had bought for lunch. “It’s my birthday,” I said. “How old?” “My Thirtieth.” “Happy birthday, Lynne. And thanks for today.” We ate on in silence then stood up stiffly and, without another word, made our respective ways home, each to lonely rentals. Tomorrow would be another day and my big birthday had slipped through to the keeper.
Meet Baset, David, Robin & Leann.
Tags: Music, Inspiration, Gofundme Heroes, Crowdfunding, Education

In January 2014, Dallas clarinetist Robin Korevaar traveled to Kabul to be a visiting teacher at the Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM). The school teaches both Afghan and Western music and reserves special slots for girls — all strictly forbidden under the former Taliban regime, which has made the school a target for insurgents.

Robin Korevaar, Dallas clarinetist and music teacher.

While teaching at ANIM, Robin met a charming young trumpeter named Baset. After she returned to the US, they connected on social media to stay in touch.

Not long after Robin left, ANIM’s trumpet teacher — one of the only trumpet players in Afghanistan — left the school, leaving Baset without an instructor.

Instead of giving up, Baset turned to the Internet and watched trumpet videos on repeat, attempting to teach himself.

One day, he stumbled on a video of a trumpet player who produced the sound he had always heard in his head and dreamed of creating. The musician was David Bilger, Principal Trumpet of The Philadelphia Orchestra.

Baset couldn’t stop thinking about the sound. A few days later, he reached out to David on social media.

“It was really hilarious because it started out with Baset introducing himself as the best trumpet player in Afghanistan — because there are only two,” says David. “It was so compelling. I had to see what he really wanted.”

David Bilger, Principal Trumpet of The Philadelphia Orchestra.

Impressed by Baset’s determination, David began coaching him for free over Skype. To accommodate the 8-½ hour time difference, their lessons began at 11pm Eastern: “We’d share our sleep deprivation to make sure the lessons got done.”

Several months into their night-owl lessons, Baset told David his dream: to spend his senior year at the prestigious Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan, where he could study and prepare for college auditions in a safe environment.

David promised to help Baset with his repertoire for the audition, but he didn’t have time to help with the school and visa applications. Baset suggested that maybe Robin could help.

David and Robin began championing Baset’s cause in earnest — David with coaching and Robin with logistics. The only barrier that remained was money. Baset would hopefully get an academic scholarship from Interlochen, but it wouldn’t cover travel or living expenses.

“‘No’ is not in Robin’s vocabulary,” says David, laughing. “She told me, ‘We’ll make it work. We’ll look under every rock.’”

That’s where GoFundMe came in.

David set up the GoFundMe under his account, and Robin sent the updates. “I’d donated to a GoFundMe campaign but had never set one up. It was a real joy,” says David. “People wanted to feel like they were making a tangible difference, and through GoFundMe they had a way to do that.”

Meanwhile, Baset prepared tirelessly for his audition. After four months of hard work, they succeeded — David and Robin reached their fundraising goal, and Baset aced his audition. He was headed to Interlochen.
Morpheus Labs partners with V-ID
By: Morpheus Labs Team
Tags: Smart Contracts, Morpheus Labs, Blockchain, V Id, Dapps

Morpheus Labs is proud to announce a partnership with V-ID, whose mission is to safely certify and secure digital assets, so fraud and error no longer hold back society’s innovations in digitalization.

V-ID secures any digital file against unlawful manipulation. The validation process involves extracting the fingerprints of files and saving them in the Blockchain. If a file is changed by one byte, pixel, character or anything else, the file is deemed unlawful.

Morpheus Labs has developed a platform that onboards Blockchain-based solutions through the partner-driven model. Our primary aim is to build a comprehensive and inclusive Blockchain Platform-as-a-Service (BPaaS) and App Marketplace that enables organisations and developers to rapidly design, deploy and operate distributed ledgers at a fraction of the current cost and time.

Protecting DApps

V-ID and Morpheus Labs will work together on several use-cases. On the marketplace, V-ID can ensure every written DApp has a unique fingerprint, which will prevent anyone else from fraudulently copying a DApp to monetize it.

Example of a V-ID ‘stamp’ on the Morpheus Labs Marketplace

Morpheus Labs has a direct interest in aiding talented developers, smart contract writers, and blockchain specialists. Fortunately, more Blockchains, companies, and universities are joining hands to facilitate educational opportunities across the globe to ensure Blockchain will grow to its full potential. Our long term vision is to heavily engage in blockchain education and adoption by working together with other Blockchain companies, enterprises and universities.

Validated Hackathon Certificates

With V-ID, we’re going to create certificates for hackathon participants and blockchain students. V-ID’s validation is suited to protect and secure these documents. By having these documents on the Blockchain, students and developers can add these to their curriculum vitae, both online and offline.

Example of a V-ID/Morpheus Labs certificate

Morpheus Labs and V-ID will continue to explore future synergies together with the sole aim of strengthening the ecosystem as a whole.
U.S. University Is Making Headway on the Problem of Bitcoin Scalability
Tags: Blockchain, University, Bitcoin, Scalability

Northwestern University, Illinois, and bloXroute Labs have been developing a scalability solution for Bitcoin and other mainstream blockchains

A team of researchers at Northwestern University, Illinois, is making headway against one of the biggest problems facing the Bitcoin network: scalability. The team is working alongside bloXroute Labs, an innovative company that looks to provide a solution to the scalability issue facing many blockchains without compromising the decentralized nature of their networks.

We are scaling at 100 times better than what bitcoin is doing now / Sarit Markovich, Clinical Associate Professor of Strategy at Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University

BloXroute Labs and the Northwestern University (NU) team are taking a refreshing approach to solving scalability. Traditionally, blocks are mined on the Bitcoin network, and then broadcast through a peer-to-peer relay until the entire network has received the new block. This process is cumbersome, as network participants must wait until all members have received the block before the network can move forward with verifying the set of transactions. NU is working around this “scalability bottleneck” by compressing blocks, allowing the network to send smaller sized chunks of data, while still maintaining the same amount of information.

While the bloXroute whitepaper explains the proposed scalability solution in full, one key concept from the whitepaper can help us understand what the team is trying to do. Essentially, bloXroute looks to semi-centralize a blockchain by creating an ecosystem where a trusted set of independent servers propagates blocks throughout the network. This is similar to the existing centralized blockchains of projects like Ripple, but reversed, thus maintaining the decentralized and trustless nature of the blockchain.

While centralized systems place trust in a subset of nodes to enable scalability, bloXroute enables scalability by using a small set of servers which place trust in the entire network instead. The system utilizes a Blockchain Distribution Network (BDN) to enable scaling, yet nodes need not place any trust in the BDN. Instead, the BDN blindly serves the nodes, without knowledge of the blocks it propagates, their origin, or their destination. / bloXroute whitepaper

The bloXroute solution is exciting in that it could help solve the scalability issues of not only Bitcoin but of other mainstream blockchains as well. Scalability is one of the biggest hurdles facing crypto-adoption, and if a solution such as bloXroute can help bring cryptocurrency networks on-par with those of central banks, many believe we would see a mass-movement towards decentralized currencies.

Disclaimer: information contained herein is provided without considering your personal circumstances, therefore should not be construed as financial advice, investment recommendation or an offer of, or solicitation for, any transactions in cryptocurrencies.
Extending the Olive Branch
Tags: Valentines Day, Irony, Love, Mindfulness, Scene And Heard

Excluded

As water is to oil

Magnetic fields

Harvested beyond fertilization

Sold at the only market i know.

One against another

In refusal of speech

One to another

Taking each hand in mine

Fingers reaching to grasp and intertwine

Tangible love

Not found within

In each of us existing without

Now or later

Laying tracks

Rusted at birth

Pulling nails to puncture

This new age

Stalling

Never to stall

Encaged and eager in longing

Endearment of this eternal view

So censored to recreate this pinnacle of beauty

I often call to mind

As a single tear

Seeps into croaking soil

Appreciation unbound is released with steam

Once fallen through sunken earth

To live and move

Useless as found once more

Unsound

I have no intention

To be as such

What determines

Such determination

To pass on

Without debt or profit

From myself

To myself

In most romantic regret
Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood — A Strange, Twisted Fairy-Tale
By: Ryan Nachnani
Tags: Cinema, Hollywood, Film, Fairy Tale, Movies

The following article contains spoilers for Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood:

It doesn’t have talking animals. It doesn’t have magic. And it doesn’t have princes or princesses. However, despite all that, it would seem that Quentin Tarantino’s latest cinematic outing is a fairy-tale, though a strange one at that.

Coming off of 2015’s The Hateful Eight, fans of Tarantino’s work were excited to see where the director would take us next. Needless to say, it was a little off-putting when it was announced that his next film would be a period piece set in the ’60s with the purpose of paying tribute to the golden age of Hollywood. Fast forward a few years and here we are, with Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood officially having hit theatres.

From the second this movie starts, it’s clear that one thing will differentiate it from Tarantino’s other works. It’s the tone. This movie, for all intents and purposes, is a comedy. It’s incredibly light-hearted and stylistic. Yet, there’s a true sense of dread and tension that permeates the film, bearing the presence of Sharon Tate as well as the Manson Family. It’s this unusual blend of fantasy and real-world history that sets this film apart from others, and while it may be a fairy-tale, it’s definitely not one for the kids.
All the King’s Horses and All the King’s Men…
By: Petr Swedock
Tags: Government, Trump, Politics

For all the disaster and mayhem, Donald Trump is not the villain here. He’s a sad, quite possibly mentally ill, person. The true villains in this piece are, first, those who cheer Trump on and secondly, those who enable Trumps behavior, likely while driving their own agenda through the breaches of decorum, sanity and the rule of law laid waste by Trumps raging unconscious and unconscionable rampages.

He’s not fooling them either. They like it this way.

Those who cheer Trump on, make no mistake, are the immoral, so-called ‘conservatives,’ who are willing, as the saying goes, to ‘eat dung every day of the week in the hopes a liberal will be forced to smell their breath on Sunday.’ They rejoice in the ruin and mayhem but even more so they rejoice in the anger and anguish felt by the entire rest of the country. This is the former hegemons’ schizoid attempt at shaedenfruede: the joy a defeated conqueror feels at flinging feces at the purported new conqueror. It feels so disjoint and abrupt and off-kilter exactly and precisely because it is so ridiculously mistaken: there is no new conqueror. But that discomfort in being mistaken and wrong, to the conservative, is folded up into the pumped-up delight of manufacturing battle. Who cares if they have to conjure an enemy to hate… just so long as the hate keeps supplying that adrenaline rush holding back the crushing weight of all the falsehoods they’ve been taught to fear.

On the entire other hand, those amoral few who enable Trump, are merely using him as a screen for their behind the scenes machinations: Steve Mnuchin is busy dismantling regulations at Treasury; Rick Perry, until recently, spent the bulk of his days undoing the work of men so much smarter than he as to be unmeasurable; Andrew Wheeler is continuing the scything of environmental protection at the EPA, begun by the only man in government to outdo the stupid of Rick Perry and the corruption of Donald Trump, Scott Pruitt. Worse yet, the newly minted, Smuggest-Man-In-America, Neil Gorsuch and his boy-blunder sidekick, Brett Kavanaugh, are taking the Supreme out of the Court, lowering it to such a pitch that Ruth Bader Ginsberg simply cannot die for the outrage: she’s fueled by all the righteousness Gorsuch and Kavanaugh have sucked out of jurisprudence.

All these people will, likely, still be around when Trump is relegated to the ash-heap of history. Sure, we should impeach Trump and get rid of him, but let us not pretend that will solve anything but the most immediate problem.
Flutter on the web の 2019年末時点での現状まとめ🎄
By: Mono
Tags: Software Development, Flutter, Web, Dart, Flutter Interact

[cloud_firestore] Add support for web · Issue #45293 · flutter/flutter

You can't perform that action at this time. You signed in with another tab or window. You signed out in another tab or…
Truthy vs Falsy values in JavaScript
By: Uday Hiwarale
Tags: Typescript, JavaScript, Programming, Nodejs, Web Development

When you write if/else statement in any programming language, you expect to pass a value in the if() condition that is strictly boolean which means either true or false . It could also be an expression that evaluates to one of these values as demonstrated below.

However, JavaScript goes beyond that. In JavaScript, if/else statement checks if a value is truthy or falsy. A truthy value is like true and a falsy value is like false . These are as follows.

falsy -> false, '', "", 0, -0, 0n, NaN, null, undefined

truthy -> anything that is not mentioned above

Therefore, if you use one of these values in if/else statement, you are going to get the same treatment as native true and false values as shown below. You can also use an expression that returns these values.

You can convert a truthy and falsy value to a corresponding native boolean value. There are two ways to do that. Ether you can use logical NOT operator (!) or you can use Boolean constructor as a function.

As you can see, you can use single or multiple ! operators to coerce a truthy or falsy value to a boolean value. I would recommend you use parentheses while using ! operator such as !(0+1) which evaluates to false .
Here is what you need to know about dynamic components in Angular
By: Max Koretskyi
Tags: Angular, JavaScript, Javascript Frameworks, Angular2, Web Development

AngularInDepth is moving away from Medium. This article, its updates and more recent articles are hosted on the new platform inDepth.dev

If you’ve been programming with AngularJS (first generation of the framework) you probably got used to generating HTML strings on the fly, running them through $compile service and linking to a data model (scope) to get two-way data binding.

const template = '<span>generated on the fly: {{name}}</span>'

const linkFn = $compile(template);

const dataModel = $scope.$new();

dataModel.name = 'dynamic'



// link data model to a template

linkFn(dataModel);

In AngularJS a directive can modify DOM in any way possible and the framework has no clue what the modifications will be. But the problem with such approach is the same as with any dynamic environment — it’s hard to optimize for speed. Dynamic template evaluation is of course not the main culprit of AngularJS being viewed as a slow framework, but it certainly contributed to the reputation.

After studying Angular internals for quite some time it seems to be that the newer framework design was very much driven by the need for speed. You’ll find many comments like this in the sources:

Attention: Adding fields to this is performance sensitive!



Note: We use one type for all nodes so that loops that loop over all nodes of a ViewDefinition stay monomorphic!



For performance reasons, we want to check and update the list every five seconds.

So Angular guys in the newer framework decided to provide less flexibility in return for a much greater speed. And introduced a JIT and AOT compilers and static templates. And factories. And factory resolver. And many other things that look hostile and unfamiliar to AngularJS community. But no worries. If you’ve come across these concepts before and is wondering what these are read on and achieve enlightenment.
Interactive Visualizations with Python
By: Esteban Solorzano
Tags: Programming, Python, Data Science, Dashboard, Data Visualization

Dash

Dash is a framework for Python written on top of Flask, Plotly.js, and React.js. It is a library designed to create web applications focused on data visualization, it’s very complete even if you don’t know React, you can make a complete application using only Python.

Here’s a simple example of a Dash App that ties a Dropdown to a D3.js Plotly Graph. As the user selects a value in the Dropdown, the application code dynamically exports data from Google Finance into a Pandas DataFrame.

A basic example of a Dash App

Dash applications are composed of 2 different parts, the first one describes how the application looks like and the other one describes the interaction of its components.

This library provides a couple of modules with which through Python we can generate different HTML elements, containers, buttons, text fields, and most importantly Graphics. Each of these classes we use to create applications is what we know as Layout.

In the case of Interactivity, Dash provides some functions which will work as Callbacks that will be executed automatically when any property of our elements changes.

The previous example was written in just 43 lines of code:

Since it is built using the Flask micro-framework, it allows in a very simple way to raise your server. And every setting or extension can be used to create even more complex applications.

And as they mentioned in their announcement, being able to use React to build great interactions of the elements practically in “real-time” is fantastic and more than this is easy to create because Dash takes advantage of both libraries for those who may not be experts in web development and can do everything from Python.

Reactive Web Apps using Python Dash

As I mentioned at the beginning, there are many tools for data visualization, some more complex than others. However, it is always good to know the advantages or limitations and choose the one that is useful for you.

Remember you can use Dash to create any kind of application. Check out their gallery.

Additional resources
NEL Second Bi-weekly Report of September
By: Robbie Wang
Tags: API, Neo, Node, Blockchain, Report

This report tells the NEL latest development in the second half of September

NEORAY2.0

Added the default value of the transaction selection box on the debugging page. When there is no contract selected or when there is no transaction in the contract, the current contract has no transaction record option.

Modified the font size of the output box

NELScan(NEO blockchain explorer) NEO3.0 version

Added NEO3.0 TestNet node selection

When the node is switched to neo3.0, the data request interface is uniformly modified to the neo3.0 interface.

According to the neo3.0 data, all the lists containing the transaction data are modified and judged, and the system is displayed when the input and output are empty.

According to the neo3.0 data, the transaction details page, the block details page, and the address details page are modified to be compatible with the new data structure.

The display of sender was added to the transaction details page.

The display of domain name service is hidden when the currently viewed node is neo3.0 TestNet

Node and background service

Tested server building neo3 development test environment

Deployed the node for neo3.

Developed a warehousing plugin for the official node that can log some data from the node into mongodb.

Modified the API to adapt to neo3 changes so that neo3 blockchain explorer can display the correct data.
Through The Looking Glass
By: Melissa R. Mendelson
Tags: Pets, Love, A Few Words, Fiction, Short Story

Through The Looking Glass

NYC Midnight Short Story

Photo by Ahmed Zayan on Unsplash

“Help me! My cat’s not responding, and she is not going to make it.”

“Mrs. Whisper, calm down.” The veterinarian appeared behind her. “Let me take her from you.”

Mrs. Whisper handed the cat to him. “She’s still breathing. I can’t lose her. I just lost my husband last year.”

The veterinarian placed a hand on her shoulder. “Breathe,” he said. “I’m going to take her into the exam room.”

“Okay.” She wiped her tears away. “Will you be euth….”

“Euthanizing her? I don’t think I need to.” The veterinarian walked into the exam room and placed the cat on a small table. He reached for a box of tissues, handing them to Mrs. Whisper.

“Thank you,” and Mrs. Whisper blew her nose. She watched the veterinarian open a drawer, expecting him to pull out a syringe. He took out a magnifying glass and handed it to her.

“I’m going to leave the room, but I’m dimming the lights first. When you’re alone, hold the magnifying glass over the cat. What’s your cat’s name?”

“Jelly Bean. What does the magnifying glass do? Can’t you see that my cat is dying?”

“She is, and I want to give you a chance to say good-bye.” The veterinarian dimmed the lights and left the room.

Mrs. Whisper looked at the cat. “I’m not going anywhere,” and she held the magnifying glass over the cat.

Dim light trickled down from the ceiling. It floated like a million little golden feathers, and the cat’s body began to hum. Her limbs turned into legs and arms, and her face morphed from cat to human. An older woman sat up on the small table.

Mrs. Whisper nearly dropped the magnifying glass, but her arm was frozen in the air. “What’s wrong with my arm? Am I having a stroke?”

“No, Mary. You’re not,” the woman said. “Could I have that blanket you are holding?” Mrs. Whisper gave her the blanket. “Thank you,” and she wrapped the blanket around herself.

“Who are you?”

“Jelly Bean.”

“No, Jelly Bean is a cat.”

“It’s easier this way. You’ve been through so much, Mary, and we had our own ups and downs. I forgive you.” Mrs. Whisper cried, and Jelly Bean held her as she cried.

“I can’t lose you,” Mrs. Whisper howled. “I’ll be alone.”

“Call your daughters,” Jelly Bean said. “I don’t want you to be alone.”

“I love you.”

“I love you too.” The older woman turned back into a cat. A moment later, she was gone.

The veterinarian stepped into the room. He took the magnifying glass from Mrs. Whisper and placed it back in the drawer. He took the blanket and covered Jelly Bean. “I’m sorry,” he said.

“Thank you. How much do I owe you?”

“Nothing. When the ashes come back, I’ll call you. Go home. Call your daughters.”

“I’m going to miss her.”

“When you see your reflection, take a closer look, and she’ll be there.” The veterinarian watched Mrs. Whisper leave the room.
You Must Wash Your Hands Until They Bleed
By: Jennifer Patino
Tags: Poetry On Medium, A Cornered Gurl, Covid 19, Quarantine, Poetry

I.

There’s a monster keeping us apart.

invisible threat, it’s become

a bad habit to fear you.

i never believed i could

keep you out, but oh,

how i hoped. see, i know

i’m not that powerful.

you’re showing me

some things. you’re showing me

evil.

II.

When your husband receives a positive result

you should:

immediately separate. wear masks even though

your vigilance about them didn’t protect you.

get used to sleeping on the floor. your back

will scream at you. your hips will feel shattered.

ignore this.

will your already chronically diseased

body to work for you for once. force it.

cry when you need to because holding

that back only hurts more. allow anger

to happen but don’t let it overtake you.

you should (you must) wash your hands

until they bleed.

reach out for support from others

outside your home when you need to.

video chat him from the next room.

(remember when we were dating

long distance & this is how it was?)

take trash out every day. keep that 6 ft. of

distance when you deliver what he needs.

check in. don’t panic if he’s been sleeping

for a long time. wear a mask & make sure

he’s breathing, if only to ease that panic

you tried so hard to keep at bay.

wash his dishes immediately. wash them

twice. disinfect them. disinfect everything.

disinfect your willpower. get used to the

smell of Lysol.

hope for the best. pray. pray. pray.

trust. trust something even if that

trust, that faith, feels diminished.

avoid news. if social media upsets you,

log out. delete the app. turn notifications

off for everyone except him.

keep track of the days. take each one

as it comes. treat symptoms

as they come. have a plan but don’t freak out

if the plan falls through. if you can’t do something,

wait for the moment when you can.

smile for him.

you must wash your hands until they bleed.

III.

I will never break these habits:

i’ll hate walls forever. i’ll be angry at everyone

not taking a pandemic seriously forever.

i’ll seriously contemplate going off the grid

(again). i’ll wish i were in Antarctica. i’ll

associate Christmas time with another bad thing,

but i won’t let it kill my love of it.

i’ll curse capitalism. i’ll want to throw up

at the phrase “profit over people.”

i’ll dream of our hands touching.

i’ll dream of him being better.

i will feel his suffering like a sword

through my own heart. i’ll think of

every habit. every goodnight kiss.

every moment we laugh because

i’ll want to remember. it’s a habit.

i’ll never break it.

i will enjoy all the cheesy movies

we watch together on

separate screens. in separate spaces.

for once, i will be glad for technology.

i will thank God for it.

i will pray. i will wash my hands until

they bleed. i will hope to remain

healthy. i will call it a miracle every

day I have no symptoms. i will

rejoice when a fever breaks. i will believe

in the “when this is over.”

i will. i will.

i must. i must.

i am. i am.
I hope my daughters or their daughters live in a world where this doesn’t have to matter: where…
By: Robert Merrill
Tags: Engineering, Space, Women In Tech, Mars

I hope my daughters or their daughters live in a world where this doesn’t have to matter: where opportunities for each gender is as equal as the sunshine on us all each day.

But it’s not yet.

So this must be shared and this wonderful story must be known.
Yes, Jerusalem is Israel’s capital
By: Jd Rucker
Tags: Politics, Jerusaelm, Middle East, Israel, Donald Trump

What would Americans do if other countries and the United Nations told us our actual capital was Los Angeles? We can say it’s Washington DC all we want, but shouldn’t we just accept it if the international community decides they want Los Angeles to be the capital? Of course not.

This idea seems to be lost on those who refuse to acknowledge Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Now, President Trump can be counted as one of those people who, despite very clear campaign promises, has decided to do what every U.S. President has done for years. He’s proactively not moving the U.S. Embassy there.

It’s important to note that this is an active decision. If he had done nothing, it would have been on the State Department to make the move immediately or lose funding. Instead, the President waived a law requiring the move. This doesn’t jibe with a simple campaign promise.

“We will move the American embassy to the eternal capital of the Jewish people, Jerusalem,” he told an extremely excited crowd.

As Jared Kushner, Reince Priebus, and others in his administration would note, any such move would do damage to America’s relationship with Muslim nations in the Middle East. They claim East Jerusalem as theirs, often claiming that it’s part of their religious history. What they won’t tell you is that it isn’t mentioned in the Quran. Not once. They also aren’t interested in the fact that it was claimed as the Jewish capital over a millennium-and-a-half before Islam was even established.

None of that’s important when feathers might be ruffled, right?

The notion that this is a temporary move is ridiculous. There’s never going to be a good time to keep this campaign promise. Never.

Some might throw up a silly argument that we don’t need to mess with international affairs, that Trump’s “America First” pledge supersedes all other promises. They might even say we can’t afford it (though we can somehow afford everything under the sun in the spending agreement DC just passed), but that’s even sillier. Trump could say, “We’re going to move the embassy to Jerusalem, and Israel’s going to pay for it.”

They would. In a heartbeat.

The list of broken promises is already piling up almost as quickly as President Obama’s did when he took office in 2009. The difference is that President Trump is passing on some of the easiest. Moving the embassy to Jerusalem is a layup. Whether it’s his advisers, some backroom deals he made with Muslim countries, or influence from “the orb” that’s making him backtrack, this is not what we were promised when we put him in the White House.

Article originally published on DaTechGuyBlog.
The One
By: Pawan Kumar
Tags: Relationships, Love, Poetry, Poem, Storytelling

Prettier than the Stars.

More stunning than the Sun.

Beautiful, you’re the One.
I Am the Movie Television Coder
By: Matthew Macdonald
Tags: Programming, Humor, Hacking, Technology, Software Engineering

Maybe you think you know what makes a great programmer. Like foreseeing potential problems. (Wrong.) Writing the least amount of code. (Nope.) Elevating the work of your peers. (No.)

No, it’s something more subtle. It’s in the way my black hoodie falls around my sunken eyes. The way I hit you with my coder talk. My socially awkward vocal stylings.

I am the Hollywood hacker.

Computers work differently in my world. Here, code runs without compiling. Debugging? Please. Testing? Don’t make me delete your digital identity again.

I can break into any account using the Back Door™. I find fugitives with Google. Don’t believe me? Pass me that security cam footage. I’ll get your man. I have a knack for finding things that other people miss.

I like to start by enhancing every video 10 times. Wait, is he wearing a scarf? Enhance that section 10 times. (Like this upscaling algorithm? I wrote it myself. Only noobs lose image quality.)

Where is that scarf from, anyway? We’ll find out. Enhance the label 100 times.

Perfect.

Based on that label, it looks like our perp shops at TJ Maxx. Let’s take a moment to scan the purchase records. Hold on, 2,086 people bought that scarf last year. No problem — I’ll cross-reference that with the people who live in a five-mile radius of the crime scene. I’ve got a friend who used to be a cop, so I have access to cloud databases with fine-grained data about every American citizen. [Editor’s note: It’s only a slight exaggeration!]

OK, here’s a picture of our perp. Yep, says here he’s pretty sketchy.

It looks like we’ll need to break into his system. Can I do it? Of course. What programming language will I use? The one where you rearrange all those 3D shapes.

Wait, this guy is serious. Everything is encrypted with Blowfish. I can break it, but it’s going to take some time. OK, done.

I’m in.

It looks like he has videos of all his crimes. Just like the guy last week! We just need to download them. Let me start the process. We’ll need watch each file flash by, one at a time, while it copies to my computer. In my world breaking encryption is fast, but copying files is suspensefully slow.

Uh oh, he’s on to us. He’s trying to reroute our firewalls. I think I can stop him, but I need to break out my most specialized hacker skillset.

You know the one:

Thanks Typing Tutor. I don’t even own a mouse.

And if that isn’t working, I just might invite a friend:

OK, time to celebrate this success in a stereotypically nerdy way. Anyone want to go to the Star Wars convention after work? Wait, didn’t you see my tattoos? I’m not the autistic nerd hacker, I’m the cool alt-lifestyle hacker. I’m going to a club where everyone has leather and piercings. You could come, but you’re not really the type. You look a bit too corporate to be a programmer. Can you even count in binary? Maybe in your next life.
ทำไมราคา Bitcoin ร่วงหนักมาก.. กับการวิเคราะห์เรื่อง Future Contract
By: Charkrid Th.
Tags: Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency

ชุมชน คนเชื่อใน บล็อกเชน — A Thai community of Blockchain believers who want to facilitate a better future

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We aren’t all Serial Killers!
By: Chelsea Rose
Tags: Mental Health Awareness, Mental Health, Humor, Bipolar, Life

We aren’t all Serial Killers!

Living with Bipolar

Benjavisa / Getty Images

There’s a very good chance that many of you reading this today, do not personally know someone with Bipolar. Thus, your impression is likely shaped by the media and misinformation from others.

I would like to be the first to say, that despite how we are portrayed on television (here’s looking at you Law and Order), I have actually never been a serial killer. In fact, none of my friends who are Bipolar have killed anyone, not even just for fun!

Source: Wikimedia Commons

I often joke with a friend of mine who has Bipolar, that whenever a murderer on a crime drama has a mental illness, it’s either Bipolar or Schizophrenia. Honestly! Dick Wolf and other producers, can you stop discriminating! I’m sure there are many serial killers with OCD and Tourettes that are feeling left out.

Granted, living with Bipolar is tough, but not, where am I going to hide my victims tough! Sorry to burst your bubble, but most of us lead normal, non murderous lives. For instance, I work in Compliance, enjoy being with friends and family and I love a good pub quiz. OK, so sometimes I hear the walls talking to me, or I believe I can fly, but none of that actually endangers you. If anything, I’m much more likely to hurt myself than you.

Bipolar loves variety, and it manifests itself differently in everyone. I tend to describe it as extreme mood swings. I’ve actually gotten mad at spilled milk and made legit plans to go to the Olympics after swimming one length of a swimming pool without dying.

Sometimes I find myself angry over the smallest thing, like having no more space in the basement for the bodies, I mean bikes! Other times I feel a deep love for a stranger I just met.

Anyway, what I am trying to say is that those with Bipolar may experience life differently, but we are honestly just trying to live our best lives. Our best may involve crying for no reason or starting a thousand projects and not finishing any of them, but we’re trying. Therefore, there’s no need to be afraid or worried or treat someone as a lesser being just because they have Bipolar. We aren’t CRAZY. We also have very little desire to cause anyone pain, as we live every day with internal pain and suffering, and won’t wish that on anyone.

Now, I need to head off, and attend to the excessive banging at my basement door!
Twelve Long Years of Growing Division, Can We Finally All Just Get Along
By: R. Scott
Tags: Racism, United States, Opinion, Politics

Twelve Long Years of Growing Division, Can We Finally All Just Get Along

Martin Luther King had a dream, one we need to honor with fulfillment

Photo by Unseen Histories on Unsplash

I pray that now is the time to fulfill Martin Luther King’s dream, a dream so pure and simple that can be easily realized, but so tricky we may never achieve it.

For the last twelve years, our nation has become more divided and pitted against each other, moving beyond the racial divide, we have been split into red and blue. We have taken a step backward, from openness and understand of others’ beliefs to one where people are ostracized for having a different opinion or belief.

The time is now, as a people, as a nation, that we come together and cease putting our beliefs on others, judging them because they don’t share our own.

Looking at someone’s skin color is never an acceptable method of evaluating them, just the same as believing a person’s worth based on their beliefs is not acceptable.

Let us each do our part to correct this mess we have created. Yes, we have made this mess, each and every one of us. From the executive to the gang member, we each have had our part. And each of us has to do our part to fix it, and it can start with a simple hello.

How ever you decide to do it, what way you choose to take your part, do something. Give a chance to the person that invisibly stands next to you, say good morning instead of staring away or into your phone. Strike up a conversation with someone you would usually not talk to and get to know that person for who they are, even though you believe they are not in your acceptable social norm. You might be surprised by what you discover, another human who has worth and meaning in the world.

Martin Luther King had a wonderful dream, and I have mine.

I dream of a land where our children never experience the things we have.

I dream of a world that genuinely cares about others.

I dream of a time where everyone has the same opportunities.

I dream of us all just getting along.

It is easy to do, simple to fulfill. It can be done instantly or never done at all. All it takes is you, me, all of us, and just one moment to decide it is time for the change.
Facebook “Reactions” more important than “Likes”
By: Paul Dughi
Tags: Facebook, Emoji, Social Media, Love, Digital

Facebook has now admitted it places weight on reactions — those love, sad, angry, lol emojis — when determining what to put in your news feed. It values them more than likes.

“Over the past year we’ve found that if people leave a Reaction on a post, it is an even stronger signal that they’d want to see that type of post than if they left a Like on the post,” a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement to Mashable.

Makes sense. First, because it’s easy to hit Like but you have to work a little bit more to call out the emojis. So two clicks instead of one. Secondly, Like is a kind of tepid reaction, but Love or Angry is expressing an emotion.

“…if someone uses a Reaction, we will infer they want to see more of that type of post.” — Sammi Krug, Product Manager, Facebook

For now, Facebook said it isn’t placing any more emphasis on one reaction versus another… so, being in love or really angry with something won’t make a difference in how it’s looked at… just that there’s a strong emotion attached.

In case you’re wondering, people LOVE things more than anything else when it comes to emojis. About half of all reactions are loving stuff.
React Functional Components and Lodash High-Order Functions
By: Vinicius De Antoni
Tags: React, JavaScript, Programming, Lodash, Reactjs

React Functional Components and Lodash High-Order Functions

How to seamlessly use Lodash high-order functions like debounce and throttle in your React functional components

Photo by Bernard Hermant on Unsplash.

Although modern browsers keep adding support to utility functions (thus rendering Lodash not as useful), you may still find yourself in a situation where you need/want to use Lodash for whatever reason.

And with React being one of the most popular front-end libraries, it’s very likely that you will eventually need to use both in conjunction. It might seem like a trivial task (and it is), but when we put functional components and hooks together in the mix, there can be some pitfalls. I hope this article helps you avoid them.
April Edition: Art, Creativity and Data Science
By: Tds Editors
Tags: Tds Features, Monthly Edition, Tds Letter, Data Science Pick

Photo by Andree Brennan from Pexels

One of the main reasons why there is so much interest in Data Science is its various applications. Some examples of fields in which Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered solutions are used every day are Medicine, Finance and the Tech Industry. Although, researchers are now currently working in order to create AI services able to operate in many more ambits.

Can Artificial Intelligence be used in order to create artwork?

Of course, it can!

Thanks to years of research, companies like Google and NVIDIA managed to create different Deep Learning model architectures able to suit this purpose. Some examples are Google DeepDream (used to create dream-like hallucinogenic images from real ones) and NVIDIA GauGAN (which is able to turn doodles into realistic images).

Figure 1: Google DeepDream example

If you are interested in finding out more about how to create artistic works using Data Science, this month’s newsletter provides some of the best articles on Towards Data Science about this topic and more.

Pier Paolo Ippolito — Editorial Associate