fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Will Losing in the Supreme Court be Enough to Send Trump Home?
By: Sikander Hayat Khan
Tags: World, Justice, Politics, Election 2020, Government

Right off the bat, I can tell you he is not going to do the honourable thing. Gore knew there was more at stake than him becoming president — it was upholding the rule of law. And if anything, his race was tighter, to begin with. The difference between Bush’s and Gore’s vote tallies in Florida was a mere 0.01%, with Bush’s lead standing at 327 after the recount. Trump is simply screaming “fraud” because he lost.

And what worries me is that this is a tactic used at nearly every election in my country. And the people who use them are what I call “democratic dictators.” They’re elected, yes, but all hell breaks loose after that. However, what separates them from Trump is that, because of my country’s parliamentary democracy, governments change hands almost instantaneously. And that’s why, despite their hue and cry about the count being rigged, nothing happens. It’s the next dictator’s time to rule, and there’s no way he’s giving up his throne.

Trump, however, is still commander-in-chief. And this poses a few problems.

The one that comes straight to mind is declaring a state of emergency. And although this may allow Trump to hang onto power for a short while, no one can say what happens after that — simply because it hasn't happened before. But if one thing is for sure, if that happens, Americans are going to be worried at every single future election if the president they elect is even going to become president. And what even is democracy at that point.

The next option, and far less likely if not impossible, is that of a violent coup. Yes, I’m aware the military isn’t going to consider getting involved to prevent their next commander-in-chief from taking office simply to protect the outgoing one. But because I’ve lived in a country with multiple military coups, I can’t find myself ruling that one out completely.

And thirdly, commander-in-chief means he’s still going to be the most powerful man in the free world. I can’t characterise exactly what that will mean, but I firmly believe Trump is not an idiot. Couple those two factors with the fact that he’s going to want to avoid going to jail, and it doesn't take much to realise he’s going to be doing everything he can to save himself and his family. And I really mean that. I’ve seen politicians in my country turn to treason to save themselves and their families from going to prison.

And if none of this works or Trump realises he can’t get the job done himself, then he’s still got his “Trump army” to lean on.

His supporters are planning what they call a “Million MAGA March” to Washington, D.C. The agenda is to support their president. What that “support” could entail is anyone’s guess. And I say that because they’re calling this a “nice Saturday drive” — and we all remember how just how peaceful their “peaceful escort” in Texas was.
The 5-Step Strategy You Can Use for Your Next Coding Interview
By: Annie Liao
Tags: Programming, Software Development, Interview, Coding, Algorithms

The 5-Step Strategy You Can Use for Your Next Coding Interview

A methodology to reduce awkward silences during coding interviews

Photo by Headway on Unsplash

Unlike coding tests, where you solve algorithm problems with a keyboard silently, coding interviews go beyond keyboard communications.

It can be a daunting task, as the interviewer can see every move you make on a shared screen.

And if that wasn’t nerve-racking enough, you also need to speak out, expressing your thought process to not only elicit some hints from the interviewer but also keep the conversation flowing.

That’s why I was thrilled to see this algorithm design template when attending a coding practice hosted by Women Who Code San Diego:

via Women Who Code San Diego

After following each step in the template during several practices, I have developed a methodology to reduce awkward silences in my coding interviews.

Here’s my consolidated five-step strategy.
Bittersweet
By: Edie Tuck
Tags: Poetry, Forbidden, Secrets, Lovers, Bittersweet

Bittersweet

Unspoken

( Photo by Matthew Henry on Unsplash)

So many words are spoken silently

With a look, a movement, a sigh

Yet so many thoughts are left to linger

Alone in a mind filled with shadows

What shouldn’t be, is, isn’t again

A connection so deeply rooted

Will it be strong enough to survive

The test of time, of truth

Yearnings untouched due to moral sanity

But our hearts are those of humans

They defy all laws unwritten

Falling deeper with every beat

It’s all so bittersweet
Vauld Gets $2 Million Fundraising To Establish Stronghold In India
By: The Capital
Tags: Crypto, Vauld, Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin

Crypto Bank Vauld (previously known as Bank of Holders) gets $2 Million in fundraisings from industry leaders including Pantera, Coinbase Ventures, CMT digital, and individual investors like Robert Leshner of Compound Finance, Tarun Chaitra’s Robot Ventures, CoinShares, Better Capital, New Form Capital, Jesus Rodrigues (the CEO of IntoTheBlock), over the last four months.

Vauld uses these funds to establish and expand crypto banking in India. The company will provide borrowing, lending, trading, and payments. Vauld also looking to expand its reach in Europe and the U.S.

CEO Darshan Bathija said in a statement: “We see institutional capital come into the crypto space with the expectation of banking integrations to complement crypto credit offerings.”

Vauld plans to expand its team of 7 members to 20. “Hiring is the focus of the hour in the Indian market,” Vauld co-founder and CTO Sanju Sony Kurian said in a statement.

Darshan Baithja Co-Founder of Vauld said: “We will work closely with the commodities and banking regulators to ensure that we and our partners are and remain fully compliant through the changing regulatory landscape.”

The company’s aim is to implement an Over the Counter (OTC) desk, debit and credit cards, Fiat, and crypto trading for different countries. Users will get all traditional banking services in a more secure and transparent ecosystem. Vauld has partnered with industry leader custodian Bitgo, the most trusted custodian in the crypto world. BitGo’s wallets are insured by Lloyd’s London for a sum of $100 Million, ensuring the safety of our customers’ deposits, and lending both you and us, peace of mind.

Vauld intends to expand licensing across international crypto hubs including Singapore and the U.K. in the next 24 months

Investor Paul Veradittakit, partner at Pantera Capital, said in a press release his firm is excited about “Vauld’s vision to make cryptocurrencies the preferred instrument of banking by making it simple to use and interoperable with the current banking infrastructure.”

Official Website: https://www.vauld.com/

Telegram: https://t.me/VauldOfficial
Akroma 0.1.1 — Baneslayer
By: Eric Polerecky
Tags: Akroma, https://github.com/akroma-project/akroma/releases/tag/0.1.1, Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Ethereum

We are happy to announce the second release of the Akroma client. This release includes a number of Akroma-specific fixes as well as support for upgrading masternodes and hundreds of fixes brought over from the Ethereum client.

Network Upgrade

At block 1,200,000 the Akroma network will be upgraded to support the Baneslayer rules. All miners, masternodes and exchanges are encouraged to update to the latest version (found here) as soon as possible.

The upgrade process is “drag and drop” meaning that most people can simply stop the Akroma service, replace geth(.exe), and restart the Akroma service.

Masternode Upgrade

For masternode operators, we’ve included a set of scripts that performs the upgrade for you. The script also includes new options for memory management and upgrading the name of the service. You can find the script here: https://github.com/akroma-project/akroma-masternode-management

Coin Supply

The Akroma team spent a great deal of time designing a coin supply system that would reward actors in the Akroma ecosystem while reducing the chance of major price fluctuation. You can read the details here: https://medium.com/akroma/akroma-coin-supply-5cb692a77e1b

Username/Password for RPC

Defense in depth. For those that wish to protect their nodes (masternodes or otherwise) using a username and password combination can now do so.

Ethereum Fixes

Hundreds of fixes were brought over from the upstream Ethereum client. these fixes impact node operators — including those of you that use the desktop client. Here are some of the highlights:

You can see more here

Release Links
Insomnolence
By: Indira Reddy
Tags: Poetic Prose, Musings, Insomnia, Fiction, Short Story

Insomnolence

Experimental narrative

she groans exasperatedly at a body that refuses to relax into the grip of sleep even as the poisons of the day weaken joints, muddy the mind

she opens the curtains, welcomes the life outside in; anything to get rid of the emptiness of an apartment, which a few hours before, was bustling with life

she misses them already, wishes she didn’t have to work this weekend

she remembers their chubby hands waving goodbye as she stood by the window, her heart flying out of her chest and into the uncertain grasp of her three-year-old

a lone tear escapes the high security prison she’s installed in her eyes and makes a bid for freedom; its hopes dashed as a vigilant hand brushes it away

trying to distract herself from her thoughts, she looks down into the street below. the pavement almost empty, the streets thronging with cars carrying the midnight shift at the nearby call center in sullen getaways

the cars pass in a monotonous parade, sheep to sheep

the empty street yearns for company, its palpable loneliness making it creepier than a graveyard in a foggy night

time passes; the street and her commiserate each other

soft yellow rays start fighting with the noxiously xanthic streetlights, as the street’s wishes come true; a band of early morning workers, shoulders bowed with sleep, relegate movement to muscle memory, shuffle slowly into the maw of the corporate jungle

a man turns the corner into the street, carrying his world in his arms, in the space his eyes can rest on. the wave of pedestrians parts in a single fluid motion to let him through

none meet his eyes as he walks confidently over the broken bits of the footpath, faltering on the straight ones, declaiming to the world in a language only he understands

he passes the corner. the space behind him is quickly filled, his world snuffed in a few footsteps

she remembers the left-over food in the fridge and thinks about running down the street to the man — he’d looked famished.

her alarm rings; she wakes from her musings, puts on the raiment of workdays; numb; nothing left but work; she makes her way down to the street

despite their long conversation last night, neither greets the other
Top 10 digital diplomacy moments on Twitter in 2016
By: Andreas Sandre
Tags: Aleppo, Foreign Policy, Digital Diplomacy, Twitter, Social Media

Top 10 digital diplomacy moments on Twitter in 2016

From Bana Al-Abed in Syria to Filippo Grandi of the United Nations, Indi’s Sushma Swaraj, and more.

Here are my picks, in no particular order. What are yours?

1. As the situation in Aleppo is worsening, a 7-year-old girl named Bana Al-Abed has given a voice to many civilians trapped in the city’s rebel-held east. Bana’s Twitter profile *— managed by her English-teacher mother — has been broadcasting scenes of daily life under the siege to over 300,000 followers.

* Bana’s account authenticity is in question, although it is a verified Twitter account.
Rain Is Sweat (From “A World Where” chapbook)
By: Paul Brookes
Tags: Poetry, Rain, Literally Literary, Life, Environmental

Photo by Paul Brookes

pumped from packed grey cumulonimbus

in push up, star jump, full marathon flex.

Folk sigh as fetid air stinks. Sky perspires.

We precipitate rain, snow, sleet and hail

from our pores.

Collect it in water butts

for collection every week to fill

up our reservoirs, provide our tap water,

bottled water. We cannot waste it.

Every drop of sex precipitation

must be channeled and stored.

Rivers, lakes, ocean are perspiration.

Ships must be washed clean.

Air is constantly perfumed and freshened

with anti odour. Flowers bloom in sweat.
Vue 3 Reactivity — Basics. Reactivity is a programming paradigm…
By: Prasad Jayakumar
Tags: Beginner, JavaScript, Vue

reactive and computed method works with collections and array

Vue 3 Reactivity working on array of objects

A sample use case is shown below to highlight the working aspect of effect

Vue 3 Reactivity effect example

💡 watch and watchEffect are part Vue 3 runtime core APIs and they in-turn use effect provided by the Reactivity package. On technical aspects, even computed use effect .

For future read —
Waffles
By: Stephen Ray Brown
Tags: Happiness, Sadness, Songs, Poetry, Blue Insights

Waffles

A song poem that, ironically enough, is not really about waffles

Image by author

I’m so happy,

on top of the world.

Got my best friends

and my best girl.

Maybe someday

we’ll meet that sad guy again.

But until that day

let’s just pretend.

Tell me some good news.

Sing that sappy song.

I’ll make you some waffles

like nothing’s wrong because …

I’m so happy,

on top of the world.

Got my best friends

and my best girl.

Maybe someday

we’ll meet that sad guy again.

But until that day

let’s just pretend.

Let’s go for a walk,

sustain this friendly mood.

Remember those waffles

I made for you?

Weren’t they good?

You only need a few

simple ingredients

to make waffles

and that’s why I say …

I’m so happy,

on top of the world.

Got my best friends

and my best girl.

Maybe someday

we’ll meet that sad guy again.

But until that day

let’s just pretend.

© 2020 Stephen Ray Brown. All rights reserved.
Your Accepting Arms
By: Paroma Sen
Tags: Nature, Humanity, Fiction, Poetry, Prompt

The lake shimmers up to me,

Playing hide and seek, mirth in its every move

In the distance I see mountains

And I trace my fingers through their shoulder to their peaks

The tips become arches in your eyebrows

I trace the raggedy jaggedy coastline

Pressing my fingers into undulating reflections of the trees

The water hungrily grasps at my fingertips

As the coastline turns into the contours of your face

Your nose, your chin, your dimples

Am I asleep, or am I dreaming?

I wonder as I turn around unhurriedly, falling backward

Sinking slowly into your accepting arms
Simplicity Over Complexity!
By: Ines Panker
Tags: Software Development, Software Architecture, Programming, Coding, JavaScript

What Is a Good Reason to Increase Complexity?

On paper, all of the above seems logical. But it is also very vague. There is nothing even resembling an actual definition of either complexity or simplicity, nothing we can use as a rule of thumb to judge which feature is worth a month of effort, which six months, which just a day. And this is where the fog commences and the bickering becomes intense.

The real reason developers and managers don’t care for this guideline is that we don’t agree on the meaning of “simple.”

If I’m at a meeting and our biggest customer convinces me they will leave our company if we don’t deliver X by the end of the quarter, then to me this will seem like an “our-company-is-on-the-line” insanely good reason to increase complexity.

If, however, I am a new developer on the project, and I can see the software all scarred from botched passed projects, I might also be convinced that if we do not act now and start paying for our past misjudgments, then this project is doomed either way.

So what do we do?

We plan ahead.

This situation might be unsolvable. The most efficient way to resolve it is to avoid it. We don’t want to be in the position where the complexity has grown so much that we are having difficulties maintaining this project.

As long as a project is simple, it is easy to add more people to it and, crucially, it is easy to remember all the scenarios we are covering.

The more complex a project is, the longer it takes for new people to help meaningfully. The project becomes more and more dependant on its original authors, the only ones who still know what complexity was added where and why. But the project also becomes more and more buggy because of forgotten features and flows. And as it becomes more buggy, it also uses flexibility. A significant number of bugs sooner or later become features. Users don’t know which functionalities were intended and which were not. They start relying on the broken functionality, and every change from here on is a broken promise.

Interestingly, teams sometimes use tests to alleviate this problem. Even if something was unintentional, as long as a test is asserting it, it will alarm us if we accidentally change the logic. But I would argue that this is a futile defense. Very few tests are properly read, understood, or maintained. Such tests are just like sending perpetual drunken border officers to the border. We see them, but we do not take them seriously.
Bitpie Wallet now support BTC , USDT Loan.
By: Bitpie Wallet
Tags: Loans, Btc, Bitcoin, Usdt

Crypto currency`s loan market is quite useful to users. People can borrow USDT to invest on other new blockchain start-ups to gain profits without losing their BTC if they can payback the margin.

Now, Bitpie Wallet has supported BTC, USDT and CKB borrow and lend function. And here is the instruction of how to use.

Before we start, you should download the newest Bitpie Wallet (bitpie.com) and install it on your phone.

Borrow USDT from the Loan Market

Step 1, find an order you need or create your own order.

When we enter the Loan Page, we can see different orders in the surface. You can view and choose an order that you need or you can Click the ‘Create AD’ button to customize your own order.

You can set the loan period, margin ratio and daily interest ratio by your own, to customize the perfect borrowing order.

Step 2, Find your ADs, Orders and reminding messages

After some one take your order, you can find it and check out the details in ADs, Orders and Message.

Step 3, deposit BTC into the Pie Bank to complete the order.

You can find Pie Bank inside ‘ More ’ and click the ‘ deposit ’ button. Once you have BTC in your Pie Bank, the system will calculate how much BTC you should pledge (Calculation method can be found in the ‘Related Agreements’) and deduct from your Pie Bank account. If you don`t have enough BTC in your Pie Bank account, the system will inform you with a warning message.

Once your order been taken and the system deduct your margin, the USDT will send to your Pie Bank USDT account, then you can withdraw to your address.

Lend USDT to others

The lending process is similar to borrowing, so I made it simplify .

Step 1, create an order for lending out USDT.

Step 2, check out your order and start getting interest

Step 3, Get the margin once the borrower fail to call margin and order been offset.

Most of the time, the borrower will pay back the principle and interest. But in case the BTC price drop sharply, and the borrower fail to call margin. The system will offset the order and give the BTC to the lender as compensate.
How to Change the Colour of Your Bash Prompt on Mac
By: Denisa Blackwood
Tags: Programming, Technology, Bash, iOS App Development, Software Development

How to Change the Colour of Your Bash Prompt on Mac

The syntax is different on macOS Catalina than other *NIX systems.

Photo by Pankaj Patel on Unsplash

If you spend many hours a day working on the command line, readability quickly becomes an issue. Even for the most minimalist of users, a splash of colour can be useful for keeping track of individual commands.

Your Bash prompt lives in a variable called PS1. To see what your Bash prompt contains now, type echo $PS1 after the prompt. Mine looks like this (the default for macOS Catalina):

$ echo $PS1

\h:\W \u\$

Here, \h is the host name, \W is the current directory and \u\ is the current user. You can change the arrangement of these variables, called prompt escapes. This is what the prompt from above looks like in practice:

Machine:~ janedoe$

Now let’s change this prompt. First, save your current prompt in case you mess up and check if it has saved to the local environment.

$ oldprompt=$PS1

$ echo $oldprompt

\h:\W \u\$

To add colour to the prompt, you need to start painting a colour over your text. Bash needs to know when to start painting the colour, and when to stop. This is done by using the following syntax:

\[\033[x;ym\]FEATURE_TO_COLOUR\[\033[0m\]

Where x is the weight of the text (x is 1 for bold and 0 for regular, also 4 for underline) and y is the colour. For example, here is that the first portion of the code above should look like for these main colours:

\[\033[0;30m\] # Black

\[\033[0;31m\] # Red

\[\033[0;32m\] # Green

\[\033[0;33m\] # Yellow

\[\033[0;34m\] # Blue

\[\033[0;35m\] # Purple

\[\033[0;36m\] # Cyan

\[\033[0;37m\] # White

The FEATURE_TO_COLOUR is your prompt escape to colour, for example \u\ for user. Finally, the end portion of the code should remain unchanged. It tells Bash that you want to stop the colour there.

Be mindful of any spaces! They will show up in your prompt. Use them wisely.

For example, I will choose to colour my username janedoe from the example above red and leave everything else unchanged. Here is the command:

$ export PS1=”\h:\W \[\033[1;31m\]\u\\[\033[0m\]$ ”

Compare to what is used to look like:

\h:\W \u\$

All I did was enclose the user \u\ in the colour tags. Congratulations! Your username is now red.
Eight Black Garbage Bags
By: Bj Campbell
Tags: Random

March 16, 2013 at 4:08 PM

Early spring air in Atlanta, thousand feet mean sea level, bottom of the Appalachian Mountains, not quite hot enough yet for the bugs or the deathly wave of pine pollen. Garage cleaning time. First day of the new year with my shirt off. Last day of boat memories.

Garage is a mess of course. Pile of partially used baby toys, baby distracters, baby containment devices. Round molded plastic. How will my son toughen himself? How will my son learn that his health is his own responsibility, not that of the Toy Manufacturer? Need to find some vintage toys, unpolluted by tort law.

Eight black garbage bags in a pile as well. Last of the boat hardware, stripped away. SV Checkered Past in sacks. Each a poorly sorted assortment of different stuff from stowage, each smells the same. That smell of bilge, diesel, salt, oil, and sublime freshness from offshore jaunts where no man has been for at least, oh, days or weeks. The smells mix, and become a unique marker, like an armpit or a dog’s crotch or a fingerprint for your nose. I identify my boat by the smell.

Sailors joke about it. Joke that ‘the admiral’ (wife) wants an air freshener to get rid of it, while they want cologne that captures it. It’s the smell of brown lines around your fingernails from the last oil change. The smell of greasy fingers throwing rib bones and corn cobs over the rail. The smell of salt crystals from the morning bath you took with a bar of soap, hanging off the swim ladder, swatting at the dawn hour deer flies, grabbing at the shampoo. A smell that synthesizes memories.

Eight black garbage bags, full of junk and tools and each only made it back for the memory. Silicone lubricant from the time we serviced the Lewmar winches. Clothes pins from the sheets we’d hang at anchor to avoid the sun, rednecks on the hook. Handheld VHF. Talked on that. Binoculars. Looked through those. Rusty air horn, could of thrown that one away at the marina I’m sure. So much line. If I ever need to hang two hundred feet of halyard from the pine tree in my side yard I’m all set. Wet suit with the zipper frozen from corrosion and God knows what, its smell of however many times the prop got fouled. All of it, to shelves and boxes.

Bet it’s nice on the bay right now.

Bobby waking, over the radio monitor, “daddy.” Hailing on one six, do you copy. Love that boy.
Por qué he pedido a mis amigos que dejen de usar WhatsApp y Telegram
By: Pedro Paredes
Tags: Traducciones, Privacidad, Seguridad, Medios Sociales, Tecnología

Why I told my friends to stop using WhatsApp and Telegram

Even with end-to-end encryption Big Brother is still in your phone: metadata
Cinco nuevas herramientas para tus publicaciones
By: Medium En Español
Tags: Publicación, Actualizaciones, Media, Español

in In Fitness And In Health
Can I visit Nagaland with just a train ticket?
By: Suraj Verma
Tags: General, Northeast India, India, Nagaland, Interesting

Nagaland (Source: Magzter)

The title may seem a little weird in the first read but you’ll soon understand what I mean :).

In this article, we would briefly be discussing what exactly is Inner Line Permit.

Inner Line Permit is a document that allows any Indian citizen to visit or stay in a North Eastern state that is protected under the Inner Line Permit(I.L.P) system. The states that are currently included in the ILP System are Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, and Mizoram. Manipur was recently added to the I.L.P System.

An I.L.P document looks like this (as shown below):

I.L.P doc for Nagaland (Source: Pdfiller)

One can issue their I.L.P passes from the respective state government websites in online mode. It can even be obtained in offline mode. For example, to get an I.L.P pass for Nagaland, visit here.

Now the question arises, When was the I.L.P Act passed?

Well, this has a relation with the colonial era in India. The Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation Act was passed in 1873. This Act gave the power to Britishers to regulate the entry and stay of outsiders in selected areas and limited the trading area of Indians. This Act is responsible for the existence of the I.L.P Act.

Recently (in 2020), the Citizenship Amendment Bill was passed by the government which grants access to non-Muslim refugees from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan to obtain Indian citizenship.

The public has shown their disinterest in the bill as it indirectly threatens the existing culture in the states of India. It would also bring in resistance to the already existing I.L.P Act as North-Eastern states like Mizoram share borders with Bangladesh. This also led to long protests nationwide. By December 2019, the C.A.A bill was passed and it came into force from 10 January 2020!
Next Generation Security for Blockchain Wallets — Now Open Source
By: Rebecca Aspler
Tags: Open Source, Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Security, Bitcoin

Alternative Blockchain Security Solutions

Today’s blockchain security solutions are either free and insecure, or secure but costly and complicated to develop, operate and use. An open source library that Unbound Tech has recently released, is now addressing this challenge.

With blockchain assets (i.e. keys and seed secrets) being a single point of compromise, they are a highly vulnerable and lucrative target when stored in memory, even if using methods such as white-box cryptography, which were proven easy to break (e.g. in the CHES 2017 Capture the Flag Challenge, where 94 white-box implementations were all broken, most of them within less than a day).

More secure methods like Multi Sig introduce significant management complexity and development overhead, as (i) more keys need to be managed and (ii) they are heavily ledger dependent, thereby requiring constant coding efforts in order to support new and existing assets, as well as for maintaining sophisticated approval policies.

Dedicated cryptographic hardware-based solutions such as hardware tokens and HSMs need to support blockchain cryptography (specifically BIP32 and the relevant signing algorithms), otherwise very limited security value is provided; for example, using a mobile device’s secure enclave (assuming it doesn’t support BIP32 in the hardware) provides marginal value, as the BIP32 seed will appear in the clear in the unprotected OS memory when generated and while in use — where it is highly vulnerable.

The alternative of using secure hardware trusted execution environment (TEE) such as Intel SGX sounds tempting, however it was proven to be broken by software side channel attacks over and over in the past few years, so it’s security guarantees are questionable at best.

Moreover, the common problems with all hardware-based solutions such as high cost, platform availability, maintenance and lost devices make it a secure but a highly inconvenient, inflexible and non-crypto agile choice.
You’re absolutely right, we need simpler tools.
Tags: Crypto, Cryptocurrency, Eos, Blockchain, Bitcoin

You’re absolutely right, we need simpler tools. Especially those that have usefulness in our society. I’m not sure if you saw, but the EOS blockchain hackathon had a lot of great ideas💡
The thing that I am
By: Nasar Karim
Tags: Ego, Introspection, Poetry On Medium, Poetry

The thing that I am

A poem about who we we’re supposed to be

Photo by Stefano Pollio on Unsplash

I wish I was not

The thing that I am,

Better the boy

Than ever the man.

I would, could have, should have,

Maybe, taken my time

And answered myself

Instead of looking for signs.

Now the person you see

I feel is not true,

Of course I don’t know

What I look like to you.

The broken reflection

I hear you describe,

A man with my face

Who I don’t recognise.

I see myself

In the heavy abyss

Where I belong

Is not where he is.

I never knew

The man I became

He is nothing I wanted

Though he bears my name.

I pen myself

A story defiled,

Never the man

I saw as a child.
Other Days of July Besides July 4th
By: Tyler Holme
Tags: Humor, America, Satire, Independence Day, July 4

Photo by Maddi Bazzocco on Unsplash

Everybody has heard of the Fourth of July. It’s a very famous day in America in particular. It’s a day known for American Independence, fireworks and plenty of scared dogs. Some people even lovingly refer to this day as, “The Fourth.” But did you know July is FULL of other days as well? Here is a list of some of the lesser-known days of July.

July 2nd

While a majority of people tend to believe that July begins on July 4th, there happen to be three full days prior to it. July 2nd happens to be one of those days. Not much is known about July 2nd, other than it tends to be pretty hot on that day, but it can also be not so hot on that day as well. It all has to do with something called “Climate.” The world is truly a kooky place, isn’t it?

July 5th

Did you know there is a day directly after July 4th called, July 5th? It may not seem right, but it is absolutely true. July 5th also happens to last for 24-hours, much like it’s more famous predecessor. The biggest difference between July 4th and July 5th is July 5th’s eerie silence. No fireworks. No screaming people running through the streets shooting guns into the air. No screaming people running through the streets trying to avoid bullets falling from the sky. Just stone cold silence. No wonder most people don’t know about this day.

July 11th

It happened on a Tuesday once.

July 13th

Many believe July 13th is an Urban legend. A myth. A schoolyard make ’em up. Most calendars don’t even include a “July 13th.” They skip right from July 12th to July 14th. Experts insist July 13th does exist whether we choose to believe it or not. I know a guy who says he experienced a July 13th once. He still walks with a limp to this day.

July 25th

This may be the most well known day on this list, but that wasn’t until recently. July 25th finally hit the public’s radar in 2014 when Paramount Studios released the highly anticipated film, Hercules, starring America’s sweetheart, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Before that, people considered July 25th to be nothing more than just another May 16th, but thanks to Mr. Johnson, this day will forever be in our nation’s consciousness. A truly Herculean accomplishment indeed.

July 31st

Not many people realize July has 31 full days! In fact, a recent study shows 88% of Americans think July probably has maybe 10 or 12 days max. Pretty crazy right? This day, in particular, happens to be my buddy Bob’s birthday. So now that you know this day exists, why don’t you give Bob a nice, solid Happy Birthday High-Five for me if you happen to see him. I’m sure he’d enjoy that.
Devlet-Yönlendirme ve Yönetme Üzerine Cesur Yeni Dünya’dan Birkaç Gözlem
By: Fedakaran-I Mille
Tags: Yönlendirme, Siyaset, Diğer

in In Fitness And In Health
And Then She Danced
By: Shalini C
Tags: Rain, Nature, Poetry, Dance, Literary Impulse

And Then She Danced

A Free-Verse Poem Exploring the Mystical Science of Love As A Lightning-Bolt Event

Photo by David Hofmann on Unsplash

The sky shudders a long, low sigh

loosening stars as infatuated blimps

onto a solitary space — a fortress

her stolid, steady walls built

from a lack of knowing love

and its fluidity through steely resolves

A touch of rhythm breaks and enters

her body in a thrum of light

her limbs swaying

as gossamer curtains in wind

to follow life, and its amorous trail

in the color of raindrop

on never-loved skin

Rising to surface

a core — tender as a broken verse

of a life sitting out dances in waiting

snugly wrapped in the lyrical strain

of an old Floyd song stifling

a rumble within her stillness

in moveable bolts through a sky’s cerulean.
Rage Against The Bland
By: Reuben Salsa
Tags: Social Media, Spoken Word, Poetry, Ideas, Resistance Poetry

Rage Against The Bland

It’s time to introduce the ninth angriest person on Social Media

Photo by Author

I want less control / the need for more anarchy / more randomness to the feed / Less content filtered to match my mood / less bland to calm me down / Less Hindu cow with docile eyes / the doe that bequeath a thousand pleas / more bull in china shops that harass and prolong the terror of a loud crash and bang / More splash of color in a sea of vomit filled conformity / More swearing / More life / More action than Jackson / More actual life / How many more false prophets do we need to hear before we actually make a stand? /

This post is crap / I’m crapping over your feed right now / in this moment / not saying anything / filling the feed one dumb word at a time / Choose to write a book list / Choose your top ten Superpowers / Choose who to follow / Choose ten ways to succeed on Medium / on Instagram / on Facebook / on Tik Tok / tick tock / tick tocking / tick and check that list / that timeless piece that resonates / that gyrates / that liberates / I’m the 9th angriest person on this platform / MAKE ME NUMBER 1 / I’m in a constant quest for an elusive unicorn / The mythical viral post / the potted gold that’ll feed my grandchildren / the endless flatulence that can’t be stubbed / I write virally / I post exclusively / Sign up to email me orally / I’ll reveal all / let out the secret / Leave your name in the comments below / below / bellow / blow / Blown my youth / destroyed my virality / My aged body is a virus / Watch me spawn / watch me dare to dream / watch as the behemoth of my gargantuan body sprawls on your lifetime of regret / It’s a sordid scene of insanity / detached from reality / We’re all flotsam searching for hope / How many angry posts can you read? / I barely listen to me / Pointless wasting your time too / Unfollow now / I’m the first derivative form of the derivative source you last saw wiping his arse on Youtube / I’ve been found fondling sprinkled doughnuts / A hole that needs filling / I am the nugget in the system / I am the ranter you need to avoid / I am the party of one that dances in circles / I am the chip that’s sprinkled with fetid ambition / I don’t cum / I never soar / I rarely conquer / I am in need / I have an ego to feed / FEED ME NOW…

Inspired by Jenny Justice and for you Michelle Monet
From combatant to civilian during COVID-19
By: Un Peacekeeping
Tags: United Nations, Reintegration, Peacekeeping, Disarmament, Covid 19

MONUSCO has provided food, clothes, as well as masks and sanitizers. The former foreign combatants have also been educated about hygiene practices and other preventative measures that can curb the spread of the virus. “We have received proper care. Despite movement restrictions due to the outbreak of COVID-19 that are not allowing us to go home, we are comfortable and have trust in the DDR system,” says Ndahimana Jean Damascene.

Ndahimana Jean Damascene only heard about the Coronavirus after he arrived at the transit centre. Now, he knows what the consequences would be if the virus were to further spread across his community back home. Thanks to the work MONUSCO is doing to prevent the propagation, he confidently claims that he “doesn’t fear COVID-19 while being in the camp.”

Long before the pandemic, however, he remembers fighting for the FDLR/FOCA (Forces Démocratiques de Libération du Rwanda/Forces Combattantes Abacunguzi).

“Life out there, in the bush, was difficult. You were not sure about the next day. […] Anything you needed, whether food or medicine, was a struggle. You were not sure about your personal security. You could not sleep because you never knew: another armed group could attack you at any time,” says Ndahimana Jean Damascene. Their future was sacrificed for a cause they no longer believed in.

In the Munigi transit centre, free from violence and safe from the spread of COVID-19, Ndahimana Jean Damascene, along with his compatriots Tumaini Balthasard and 18-year-old Habinshuti Sadiki, hope to leave their experiences as fighters behind. Though they previously fought in different armed groups, they now all share the same hope: going back home to their families and starting a new life, far away from guns and violence.

Once movement across borders are no longer restricted, Ndahimana Jean Damascene is looking forward to joining the Mutobo demobilization centre in Rwanda. “I expect to engage in a vocational training. I have seen that I will be able to manage and improve my life and the life of my family,” he affirms.

Ndahimana Jean Damascene encourages other ex-combatants not to fear prosecution when attending rehabilitation programmes or upon their return to Rwanda. A path towards peace and rebuilding a life back home is possible, according to him. “It is time to reintegrate back into a normal life,” he declares.

Just like MONUSCO, other missions such as MINUSCA, MINUSMA and UNAMID continue to implement their DDR mandate while adapting to new realities. Every day, their interventions assist former combatants, their dependents and the communities that receive them in their journey towards peace. More information: https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/disarmament-demobilization-and-reintegration

Related article: Ex-combatants in the Central African Republic join the fight against COVID-19
【LUN Airdrop & Trading Campaign】 Huobi Pro launches Lunyr (LUN) on January 29
By: Huobi Global
Tags: Huobi, Lunyr, Blockchain, Bitcoin, Announcements

Dear users,

Lunyr (LUN) will be launched on Huobi Pro on January 29, 2018(GMT+8). Deposits will be available from 16:00, January 29, 2018(GMT+8). LUN/BTC and LUN/ETH trading will be available at New Zone from 15:00, January 30, 2018(GMT+8). Withdrawals will be available from 16:00, January 31, 2018 (GMT+8).

What is Lunyr? Click here: https://www.huobipro.com/en-us/assetintro/#lun

【LUN Airdrop】

From 15:00, January 30 to 24:00, February 1 (GMT+8)，verified users whose average net LUN assets during the campaign is no less than 5LUN can share 3690LUN(worth ￥1 million). LUN assets will be snapshotted at 24:00 every day (GMT+8) during the campaign. Rewards will be given in 5 working days.

【LUN Trading Campaign】

From 15:00 Jan 30 to 17:00 Feb 6 (GMT+8), verified users with cumulative LUN trading volume (Buying + Selling volume without executed volume by your own) will receive the following awards:

TOP1 1845 LUN（worth 500,000 RMB）

TOP2 738LUN（worth 200,000 RMB）

TOP3 369LUN（worth 100,000 RMB）

TOP4–50 Altogether Share 1107LUN（worth 300,000 RMB）

Lucky Awards: Ranking TOP58, 68, 78, 88 and 98 can altogether equally share 1845LUN (worth of 500,000 RMB).

Ranking will be updated on this page every work day before 18:00. Final rewards will be given within 7 working days after the promotion.

*Above promotion is subject to Huobi Pro’s final interpretative decision. Huobi Pro reserves the right to disqualify any person who is known or suspected by Huobi Pro to be cheating or violating any rules and regulations set by Huobi Pro.

Risk Reminder:

Investing in digital assets comes with high risks due to huge price fluctuations. Before investing, please have a full understanding of all the risks of investing in digital assets and be prudent of your own investment decisions.

Huobi.pro-Official (Telegram Group): https://t.me/huobiproofficial

Enjoy your trading on Huobi Pro!

Huobi Pro

January 29, 2018
Restoring hope in the toughest times
By: Haydee Paguaga
Tags: Women Empowerment, Food, Food Assistance, Cash Transfer Program

They are also able to buy from the shops closest to their homes, providing a boost for the local economy. “The project is really good because it is very difficult for us to find a well-paid job,” says Yoselin.

Many men welcome such empowerment. Héctor Lizama, from a community neighbouring Yoselin’s, says: “Women are as essential in the home as they are in the life of the local community. Things go forward when we see that women and men have the same rights.”

“We do not find excuses, we just fight and move forward”

In her smile one can discern the happiness, hope and empowerment Yoselin feels at receiving this financial support and the power it gives her to take up projects that benefit the wider community.

Yoselin recently got together with a few of her neighbours and organized a clean-up of river beds, for instance. The women also got local government to green-light a project that will create home vegetable-gardens to promote healthier eating habits for families.

Yoselin is settled enough at home to focus on community work. Photo: EDUCO

“We made a work plan and decided to carry out clean-up campaigns in the river, the community church and in the well,” says Yoselin. They also looked at rehabilitating water sources, promoting healthy eating, creating organic manure and family vegetable gardens.

“We all have needs but for single mothers this project is particularly good,” says Yoselin. “There are mothers that have very small children and nobody that can look after them.” In the collective she has helped set up, women take turns to look after each other’s children so they can work on community projects.

“I know I can, and do not give myself any excuses,” says Yoselin. “Even if I have my child, I take her with me and carry on. This is the life of rural women — a beautiful one, because we do not find excuses, we just fight and move forward.”

Dream big

Yoselin dreams big — not just for herself, but for her 3-year-old daughter too. “I want my little girl to do well in life,” she says. “I ask her what she wants to be when she grows up and she always says she wants to be a doctor. This fills me with happiness, to know that from such an early age she has this vision to do something for the greater good.”

For 15 October, the International Day of Rural Women, Yoselin has a message: “To all the women who are in the same situation as me, in rural areas, I say we should not find excuses not to keep fighting because there are still lots of things to be achieved.”

Learn more about cash assistance and WFP’s work in El Salvador
One Winter Morning
By: Darshak Rana
Tags: Poetry, Winter, Snow, One Line, A Cornered Gurl

✦A positive-minded guy with a peaceful heart ✦ I write about Life and Spirituality to solve the riddle of WhatIsInsideMe ✦ Connect on Social Media@watisinsideme

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Newsletter
By: The Awl
Tags: Life Lessons, Medium

The Awl newsletter changes in theme, format, and frequency every week — that’s why it’s called Everything Changes — so we can’t give you a good sense of what it’s like or how often you’ll get it. You are signing up to be surprised. That’s the deal. Hopefully you’ll like it.

Click here to sign up.
Ripe and Ready
By: Jupiter Grant
Tags: Erotica, Humour, Satire, Desire, Sex

Ripe and Ready

My mouth started watering the second I laid eyes on you…

Photo by ian dooley on Unsplash

You were ripe and ready, and my mouth started watering the second I laid eyes on you.

You invited me closer with your luscious and exotic curves.

I wanted you so much. I couldn’t wait to sink my teeth into your soft flesh.

Impatiently, I pinched and prodded lightly at your skin;

Oh, my darling, are you ready for me?

I gripped you in both hands and pulled you open, revealing your inner core. I think I may have moaned out loud as your sweet and salty flesh was revealed to me. Soft, buttery, glistening slightly with a light dew, all I could think about was you against my lips, my tongue.

When at last I claimed you, it was with an audible groan of pleasure. The taste of you, ripe and ready on my tongue, was such a heavenly delectation.

But even in that moment, those exquisite moments of pure bliss, I knew I would never be satisfied. I knew right away that I would never get enough to quell my desperate hunger for you.

I want you all the time.

I want you inside me.

I still dream about the taste of you.

You were the best avocado I’ve ever had….
The Tangled Skein
Tags: Poetry, Thesceneandheard, Existentialism, Life, Meaning Of Life

The Tangled Skein

By Brandon Marlon

Exhausted of doxologies, the thoughtful suspire

plaints and doubts, spurred by the urge for truth,

eager to identify veridical strands from the morass

of beliefs and opinions about our existential quandary,

deep waters ventured solely by those who refuse

to indefinitely remain mired in misprision,

who have experienced each in their turn

faith, skepticism, disbelief,

and are ever unnerved by the possibility

of a universe amoral and arational,

by the helices of history that so often seem to us

intolerably desultory and esoteric.

We admit to being at times disinterested yet

never objective; always we weigh equiprobable

notions in our cosmic calculus, keen to perceive

the seams of existence evincing a seamer,

longing to dispel uncertainties, anxious to calm

the gnawing angst in our midst.

Somehow we live with qualms and contradictions;

we recognize the geology of truth and its substrata.

Whoever would our world inspect for intellect,

design, purpose, or meaning by definition

braves an array of questions unanswerable

and considerations unsettling reality itself,

unweaving the fabric of the known

for the sake of glimpsing behind the curtain.

What is science but the art of detecting

hints and clues that reveal piecemeal

prints and marks concealed yet ultimately traceable

to a retiring originator most comfortable

cloaked amid shadow?

We are brazen; the darkness is not for us.

So we comb, quest, and seek without surcease,

just in case.

After all, who among us could forgo the chance

to goad the inexcusably withdrawn and demand

just what the big idea is, anyway?