fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Simplicity — Next frontier?
By: Alok Tyagi
Tags: Erp, Blogging, Usability, Enterprise

Recently, a blog post on Sandhill suggested how Simplicity is the next frontier for Enterprise Software.

This topic usually gets its share of debate — particularly what it means in the enterprise space. I tend to agree that Simplicity need to be on the cross-hair of an enterprise development organization. I will venture and suggest Simplicity to augement the definition of “Quality” and make it measurable while product is in development. To continue to differentiate in the market place, enterprise software simply need to go beyond functional and be usable as well.

There are various studies/surveys that suggest enterprise software functionality usage (or lack of usage) due to the end users challenges working with the applications. Functionality already in the product that gets overlooked and don’t get to see the light of the day…

Good news is much of the enterprise industry is investing in usability and developing best practices for wider adoption. The real gains though start to happen as Simplicity becomes part of the culture; grooming champions within the organization; including it as part of the software development process; encouraging indivduals to address Usability issues with the same sense of urgency as it would to the Quality/functional issues. Of course, sooner in the release cycle the better.
Main concepts behind Machine Learning
By: Bruno Eidi Nishimoto
Tags: Machine Learning, Supervised Learning

Loss function

Also known as cost function, it measures the unhappiness with the job being done, that is, if the algorithm is very bad, its value will be high.

Basically, it compares the correct category score with the other ones to say how satisfied it is. The two most common loss function are hinge-loss and cross-entropy.

The first one is used in SVM (Supported Vector Machines) classifiers and it concerns in getting the correct class score greater than the other scores by a margin Δ.

Formula for hinge-loss. sᵢ is the correct score category

The second one is used in Softmax classifiers which interprets the scores as probabilities, always trying to get the correct class close to 1.

Formula for cross-entropy. sᵢ the correct category score

Example of hinge-loss and cross-entropy

It is important to note that the above formulas are for one data. In order to compute over the whole train dataset, we average all losses:

Total loss over the whole train dataset

Overfitting

We must be careful to avoid overfitting the training dataset. It happens when the algorithm tries to perfectly fit the whole train dataset, creating a complex model with some "noise". Noise, in this context, means the features that are not general, but a particularity of that example. And this is bad because, even if it has a good result on train dataset, it may not have the desired result on new data.

The red point is correctly classified without overfitting, but not with overfitting

There are two techniques to avoid overfitting: the first one is to increase the train dataset, and the second one is what we call regularization.

Regularization

“If you have two equally likely solutions to a problem, choose the simplest” Occam's Razor.

This technique adds a penalty for those models that are too complex or that add too much explanation on a specific feature. It prefers for simpler models since they are better to generalize.

The total loss with regularization is:

Total loss with regularization R(W)

Where λ is the regularization strength, and it is a hyperparameter that we must define.

Done! We saw how the machine knows if it is doing a good job or not. But what it does with this information, in other words, how it learns by itself?
The Forgotten Civil Rights Heroes: The Moore Couple
By: Alexander Yung
Tags: BlackLivesMatter, Race, Racism, History, American History

The Moores’ Early Activism: The NAACP

Thurgood Marshall. 1976. Source: Wikimedia Commons

Starting in the 1930s, the Moore couple would begin their civil rights activism. By 1934, Harry T. Moore had organized the Brevard County Branch of the NAACP, becoming its first president.

The organization would soon become Moore’s obsession. He would write letters protesting against the unequal salaries, segregated schools, and the lack of voting rights for blacks.

In 1935, Moore and NAACP attorney Thurgood Marshall filed the first lawsuit in the Deep South to equalize black and white teacher salaries. Even though the team lost the court case, they would become the inspiration for numerous federal lawsuits across the state, eventually leading to equalized salaries.

Harry T. Moore. 1950. Source: Wikimedia Commons

Though Moore would continue to fight for freedom, in the early 1930s, it was becoming apparent Moore was growing impatient with civil rights reform, writing that blacks:

Complain bitterly about the injustices that we suffer in this country…but so few of us are willing to take positive action for the alleviation of those conditions. Mere talk will not suffice. If we are to receive proper respect from those who govern us, we must exercise some voice their election.

Regardless, Moore’s ambition would lead him to be the state’s NAACP executive director in 1946.

The Supreme Court. 1935. Source: Wikimedia Commons

With the return of WWII black veterans, social and political demands began to accelerate. As a result, the Supreme Court wrote a landmark decision in Smith v. Allwright: states may not conduct race based on primary elections, allowing blacks to vote.

With the Smith decision, the Moores organized the Progressive Voters League of Florida, mobilizing African-Americans in Brevard County. Moore encouraged African-Americans to vote, using the slogan,

A Voteless Citizen Is a Voiceless Citizen

By 1950, over 50% of the adult African-American population were registered to vote. But even though Moore achieved great success in increasing voter rates, he experienced violence and terror from the KKK. A few days before the July primary, five blacks were murdered in Georgia.

Despite this, Moore continued to openly fight against police brutality and KKK violence, which would lead his fight against the injustices in the Groveland rape case.
The Invention of Fire
By: Bill Adler
Tags: Short Story, SciFi, Science Fiction, Centina, Fiction

The Invention of Fire

A story about humanity’s most important discovery

Photo by Courtnie Tosana on Unsplash

“You look exhausted.” She massaged his shoulders with her claws.

“I am. I must have rubbed those sticks together five hundred times before they sparked.” He sighed. “I made a mess of our landing, didn’t I?”

“It’s okay. Where did you learn to make a fire?”

“Camping with my parents.” His forked tail flicked from side to side as childhood memories surfaced. “I hope this works.”

“Even if our crew can’t spot us before leaving orbit, you gave it your best.”

Her antenna wriggled to the left. “Did you hear that? There’s an Earthling nearby. I think it saw us.”
The Second Season Finale of “The Mandalorian” is the Sequel to “Return of the Jedi” We’ve Always Wanted
By: Joel Eisenberg
Tags: Movies, Science Fiction, The Mandalorian, Television, Star Wars

So where are we now?

Some social media prognosticators correctly guessed Luke would return, but I sincerely did not believe they would risk a new actor or unproven CGI.

They did the thing. They made it work. It looked better than ever.

And they had some help …

It seems the technology is close — not entirely there yet but closer than ever before, especially in the eyes which for the first time to my memory did not transport me to the uncanny valley — to create a legitimate post-”Return of the Jedi” series. As in, picking up precisely where that one left off with the original cast of characters.

Disney would certainly have to jump through hoops to attain certain contracts for the matter, including dealing with the Carrie Fisher estate, and though there is no word on any such plans the fact remains this dream can now be realized.

Never say never.

“Star Wars,” it can be safely said at this point, is truly back.

For those who remain highly negative on Disney “Star Wars” product and will refuse to give this one a chance, it’s your loss.

I for one cannot wait to partake in the brand’s future.

Thank you for reading.
Lunar New Year — Piggy Raid. TL;DR
Tags: Etheremon, Blockchain, Releases, Ethereum, Games

TL;DR

As mentioned in our previous blog , Pigperus and Piggicius are going to visit Etheremon world. This blog is to introduce how to get them.

Pigperus and Piggicius are going to visit Etheremon world. This blog is to introduce how to get them. Event time: 01:00 PM UTC Jan 28 — 01:00 PM UTC Feb 11

As usual, there will be about 30 mins maintenance right before the event.

Pigperus — Symbol of flourish and success

During the event, Pigperus will appear in Egg:

New egg price: 0.09 ETH / 150 EMONT.

Other Mons in Egg will remain the same.

As a deep thank-you for buyers who warmly welcome this lucky Mon, we will give a special offer: 88 EMONT tokens will be rewarded to the first 888 egg purchases (Maximum 8 first purchases per account are entitled to this EMONT reward). Rewards will be distributed to your in-game EMONT wallet right after 888 eggs are bought, automatically. Grab this opportunity while it lasts!

Piggicius — Symbol of luck

Younger twin sister of Pigperus, Piggicius belongs to the lucky ones, and will also bring back the luck to her owners. She can only be found somewhere in Adventure Mode and from the Lucky Wheel.

In Adventure Mode, as the 3 legendaries have just gone, Piggicius will replace them during the Lunar New Year.

The Lucky Wheel

Collect Red Envelopes — Win big treasure

In the East, traditionally speaking, the red envelope containing lucky money is a traditional gift for people during Lunar New Year, expected to bestow more happiness and blessings on the receivers for the new year ahead.

In Etheremon’s world, this is also a time for our player to receive these lucky envelopes by joining special event — Lunar New year Lucky wheel. This is a gesture of our goodwill and blessings sharing, expressing through the red envelopes called HongBao along with many special gifts. In this article, we will briefly introduce this event.

Special gifts

At each turn of the spin, players have the opportunity to receive one of the following specific rewards:

10 EMONT

666 EMONT

3 Hongbao

66 Hongbao

10 energy

30 energy

Level Stone

Mystery Box

Piggicius: a Holiday Special Mon.

While EMONT and Hongbao will be credited immediately upon winning, Piggicius, Level Stone and on-chain items will be sent to the lucky winner’s account after the event. Kindly note that Piggicius will be sent in no particular order of catch number.

Hongbao — Lucky Red Envelopes

Hongbao is what you need to spin the lucky wheel, though you can also use your in-game EMONT as well (which can be acquired via Quests, Ranked battle and Adventures). Hongbao can be found from Piggy Raid’s quests or in Adventure map (yes, they drop randomly in the map).

Every 5 Hongbaos gives you one turn to spin the lucky wheel. Keep it spinning!

Good luck,

Etheremon.

— — —

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Warframe’s Newest Warframe “Protea” Looks Totally Awesome!
By: Alex Rowe
Tags: Gaming, Game Design, Nintendo Switch, Warframe, Technology

This morning, Digital Extremes released a trailer for Protea you can check out right above this text. She’s the 43rd Warframe added to their game of the same name, and she’s coming out later this week on the PC and at some point in the future for consoles.

She’s part of the new Deadlock Protocol update, and her power list seems almost unassailable, combined with a fun svelte character design and a bunch of new animations. Her grenade fan, turret, and dispensary abilities all seem fun and possibly on the verge of overpowered depending on how they’re balanced in the game…but the one I’m most looking forward to is Temporal Anchor.

I’ve been a big fan of time mechanics in video games since the original Max Payne. I’m that one guy you know who loved Raven’s Singularity. I’m happy whenever time travel or time-based gameplay makes an appearance, and I think that Protea’s Temporal Anchor looks excellent. Essentially, you’ll activate it, run into a combat encounter, do as much damage as possible, then get sucked backwards through time to your starting point. All of the damage you did remains, but all of the resources you used are returned to you.

It comes along complete with some cool new sound work that was first teased back in Devstream 138.

Waframe screenshot captured on the Nintendo Switch by the author.

This goes beyond the scope of the powers introduced with some previous frames and borders on being an entirely new play mechanic, which is great to see. Implementing this sort of time-based power in an online multiplayer game is always tough, and I think this solution is elegant because it has a fun twist to it but won’t mess up player synchronization. It’s neat to see a time mechanic that can still run in real time alongside other players, unlike the “time bubble” approach used by so many games in the past that confines time-based effects to one small area that shows up for all players.

Hopefully, Protea will be fun to use and will make her way unscathed to consoles in the near future, since I do most of my Warframe playing on the Switch these days.
Be The Locust Tree
By: Edie Tuck
Tags: Strength, Pride, Protection, Poetry, Roots

Grow big, grow tall. Provide loving shelter, but protect yourself as well. We all need a few thorns.

Be beautiful and magnificent in your own unique way. Bloom proudly, showing the world your diversity.

Spread your roots far and wide. So that nobody may ever destroy you. And they will try because they envy you.

But you are powerful, and your roots will allow you to grow again. To sprout and thrive in places you never expected to.
My Husband Had an Emotional Affair
By: Kelsey Jane
Tags: Women, Infidelity, Sex, Relationships, Marriage

They do exist. I know because it happened to me.

Photo by Rémi Walle on Unsplash

It all started when my husband started suddenly receiving late night and early morning text messages. A lot of them. We’d be lying in bed together at night, and the phone on his nightstand would incessantly light up with notifications.

Bing! Bing! Bing!

“Who is that?” I asked.

“No one,” he answered.

It turned out to be the new wife of a friend of ours. A woman who had moved across the country away from all she knew and her entire support system to be with her new husband.

Only the newly blessed union didn’t seem to be working out as planned. He traveled for work and was away much of the time, leaving her isolated and lonely in an unfamiliar town.

In her own husband’s absence, she was now leaning on my husband for emotional support and comradery, sometimes venting to him about her marriage and sharing intimate details of her life and feelings, which always seemed to be caught up in a flux of one crisis or another.

My husband was all too happy for the opportunity to don his Superman cape. He easily slipped into the role of knight in shining armor for his newfound damsel in distress.

The abundant attention, praise, and adoration she lavished upon him quickly became a drug for his broken psyche.
Self-Driving Cars? Really?
By: Kaila Colbin
Tags: Self Driving Cars, Singularity University, Impact, Community, Comics

This November, the SingularityU New Zealand chapter is hosting a SingularityU New Zealand Summit in Christchurch, focused on exponentially accelerating technologies and their impact on humanity. Lots of people ask me what the heck we mean by “exponentially accelerating technologies.” So we made a comic. Here you go.

If you’ve read this far, you should really come to our Summit. :) Click here.
“No, take them on” — The Story of Alfonso Steele, the Longest Surviving San Jacinto Combatant
By: Texas General Land Office
Tags: San Jacinto, History, Battlefield, Texas

Once independence was declared on March 2, Steele rejoined the military under Captain Joe Bennett. The volunteers marched toward San Antonio with the intention of providing aid to William B. Travis but received news that the Alamo had already fallen when they reached the Colorado River. This prompted a change in course to join General Sam Houston’s men and a reorganization of leadership that found Steele under the command of Captain James Gillespie, First Lieutenant Mat Finch, and Colonel Sidney Sherman.[4]

Alphonse Steel [sic] is listed as “severely” wounded in the Republic of Texas Muster Roll. “Return of Killed and wounded in the actions of the 20 & 21st April 1836,” The Republic of Texas Muster Roll, p. 50, Archives and Records Program, Texas General Land Office, Austin, TX.

At Houston’s orders, Steele marched with the Texas Army to Harrisburg only to find that General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna had recently passed through and burned the town. A force of approximately 248 men, many of whom were ill or “ineffective,” remained at Harrisburg to protect the remaining citizens and property as the rest of the soldiers moved forward.[5] On April 20, a Mexican boat with provisions was captured, and Houston’s men “feasted” on the first bread they had come across in quite some time, then rested until the next day.[6]

At around 3:30 P.M. on April 21, 1836, General Houston ordered his largely outnumbered and poorly equipped troops to prepare for battle.[7] The decisive Battle of San Jacinto lasted a mere 18 minutes with the Texans emerging as unlikely victors. Houston’s official report reflected that 630 Mexican soldiers were killed and another 730 taken prisoner, while of the 910 Texans participating in the battle, only nine were killed or mortally wounded, and another 30 suffered non-fatal injuries.[8] Unfortunately, Steele was one of those wounded, having been shot in the first few minutes of combat. When some of his fellow soldiers were told to stay with him as the attack pressed on, he responded, “No, take them on.”[9]

He described his situation in detail:
New Forums!
By: Team Nirvana
Tags: Developer, Community, News, Feedback, Work In Progress

We’re happy to announce that we’ve created a new forum for hanging out and discussing all things nirvana, gtd, life/work balance and more.

Think of the new forums as the local pub/cafe where Nirvana fans and the Nirvana team come to hang out and chat, exchange ideas, ponder the state of the world, discuss both deep and frivolous topics, and occasionally blow off some steam. A lot of product ideas get hatched here. Sound like fun? Come join us!
Burned Clean
By: Sarene B. Arias
Tags: Awakening, Covid-19, Passover, Poetry, Coronation

Fire is the portal.

False things now burned away.

May we this night taste freedom.

A side of salty tears.

Faces shining, super moon.

Now that time is new.
No Gender November №8: Pretty Strong
Tags: Genderqueer, Gender Identity, Gender Fluid, Gender Roles, Transgender

No Gender November №8: Pretty Strong

Meet the world record setting powerlifter who always wanted to be strong and to be a woman.

When I asked Max what he thought about this picture of Janae Marie Kroc, he said “Why is she lifting weights?” I explained she wants to be strong. Then I asked a more sexist question “Max, do you think she’s pretty?” His answer “Pretty strong.” 💜

Meet Janae Kroc. Marine, world record setting power lifter, father of three and the subject of the documentary Transformer (available on iTunes ). It’s an unbelievable and yet sadly familiar story to the queer folks I know. Janae always wanted two things, to be strong and to be a woman. She’s fought something she didn’t understand and the shame that came with it her whole life. Being a multidimensional person in a binary world drove both her hyper masculinity and thoughts of suicide. It also gave her the strength to be herself as displayed in this beautiful film.

She’s fortunate because attempted suicides are dramatically higher among transgenders vs. the general population. 41% of trans Americans attempt suicide at least once in their lives. Among both the greatest risk and protective factors are discrimination and the social support of family. The more representation and language we develop societally to create supportive communities, the less statistics we need. Janae has put a new personification into the lingua franca of our times. Pretty strong indeed. 💜
Development Update — May 17, 2018
By: Thiago Régis
Tags: Crypto Trading, Cryptocurrency, Blockchain

Although sometimes we seem a bit quiet, our awesome team is working hard to build and improve our products looking to make a solid release.

Take a look at the latest updates:

We finished the new design of our website, which now focuses on the company and the products we are building. The current one focus on the token sale. The implementation will start next week.

We redesigned the whole exchange credentials setup in the app. We also made some experiments trying to find out the best approach. Finally, we ended with a solution that will make the setup even easier and safer.

We are making slight changes to the mobile app design (typography, alignments, etc.) to make it more readable and accessible on all devices.

Since we are not a company of a single app, we decided to design a brand new logo for our Trading Assistant app. It’s really cool! You can check it on the linked post.

We hired two new developers to work full-time on our core products in addition to 1 part-time freelancer to help us in some adjacent systems. We are still interviewing a couple of candidates to fill the last position, which we expect to happen in a few days.

We built a new library/package which will help us connect with many exchanges in a standardized way. It’s now easier to integrate new exchanges into our product suite; Bittrex, Poloniex, and Binance integrations are already incorporated into this package, and more exchanges are coming. This will also be our first open source contribution. We are very excited to contribute with new stuff!

We started the refactoring of our candlestick constructor, which is an essential tool to generate signals.

We did some refactoring on our internal backtest tool. Now it’s easier to backtest the new strategies we are building.

Speaking of which, we now have a dedicated Technical Analyst working with us! His job is to create and validate new strategies to be implemented on our platform. We will soon introduce him to our community.

We are also refactoring some parts of the mobile app in order to improve the overall performance and error reporting. We’ve achieved good results so far.

We started the discussion about some improvements on our order monitor bot to better communicate with exchanges’ API limits. The new approach will drastically reduce the number of requests, which will also make our system work smoother.

We are also evolving with some other cool stuff that we expect to announce in a couple of weeks.
Chicken Pox Parties? Ummm…
By: Robert Merrill
Tags: Life, Chicken Pox, Illness

The New York Post reports that some parents are encouraging their children to get sick (Chicken Pox, specifically) in order to avoid the requirement to have their children vaccinated (recently linked to autism), which is a requirement before entering Kindergarden in New York State:

Since 1999, kindergartners entering school in New York state must have had either the virus or the varicella vaccine, which protects against both chicken pox and shingles. But with recent public controversy concerning a possible link between vaccines and autism, some parents are turning to pox parties to protect their kids — by making them sick. “Measles, mumps, whooping cough…I’m worried about those diseases, so my daughter has had those vaccines. Chicken pox is a joke,” says Angie of why she refuses to get Samantha vaccinated.

But not everyone is partying over this. Trom the article, pediatricians don’t think this is such a great idea:

“Chicken pox parties are a terrible mistake,” says Dr. Anne Gershon, professor of pediatrics at Columbia University and president of the Infectious Disease Society of America. “Imagine how you would feel if you took your kid to one and they came down with encephalitis or group A strep. Most of the time chicken pox is a mild disease, but you can die from the complications.”

Is this a smart idea?

[hat tip: lilsugar]
BSV trading is now live
By: The Voltaire Team
Tags: Bitcoin Sv, Trading, Bitcoin, Fintech, Crytocurrency

We’re excited to announce the launch of Bitcoin SV trading on Voltaire. This is the first of several new market launches coming over the next weeks. BSV has been introduced due to high demand from our users. As with all our pairs, currently are avaliable:

Single (1) confirmation deposits

Free withdrawals

No fee trading

What if I had BCH held in Voltaire during the November Bitcoin Cash hard fork?

We took a snapshot of balances at the time of the November hard fork, and all users that had BCH will receive the equivalent of BSV.

The introduction of BSV to Voltaire is extra exciting because this brings back to life our integration with HandCash. You can now withdraw BSV from your Voltaire wallet to a designated HandCash $handle. Next on the roadmap will be allowing deposits to your Voltaire BSV wallet using HandCash.

We are pleased to also mention we quietly released a refreshed look to the Voltaire UI and trading experience, we hope you like it.

Have any other ideas what can be done with Voltaire or BSV? Let us know on Twitter (@hellovoltaire).

Happy trading.

— The Voltaire Team
Guide — APIS Masternode Earlybird phase 9
By: Sophie Ha
Tags: Cryptocurrency, Eng, Blockchain, Notice, Finance

Please note!

1. Before Earlybird starts, deposit/withdrawal and other Masternodes join will be temporarily suspended.

Due to platform stability issues, deposit/withdrawal and other Masternodes join will be temporarily suspended.

- APIS platform deposit/withdrawal and other Masternodes join suspension

Dec 18th 11:00 — Dec 19th 15:00 (UTC+8)

* Deposit/withdrawal and other Masternodes join/cancelation can be normalized sooner or later than expected and there will be a further announcement in such case.

2. Users can join Earlybird phase 9 with the APIS they allocated on Earlybird phase 8.

The amount you allocated on Earlybird phase 8 will be lifted before the phase 9 starts on Dec 18th and you can review the allocation.

You can find your cancelation record on [My asset — History — joined products] and the reward for the last period will be distributed normally on the due date.

* Other Masternodes cancelation will be unavailable from Dec 18th 11:00 to Dec 19th 15:00 (UTC+8). So we recommend you to cancel before phase 9 starts if you’d like to join with the amount allocated to other Masternodes.

3. You can’t cancel APIS Masternode for 24 hours after Earlybird starts.
Gentle Reminders on How to Live a Simpler and More Fulfilling Life
By: Leah Njoki
Tags: Life Lessons, Self Improvement, Personal Development, Personal Growth, Advice

Admit it. Life can be a bit overwhelming at times. Trying to strike a balance between family, work and friends can feel like a bad game of chess. As you devote yourself to a certain aspect of your life, another one suffers. Sounds familiar? It’s hard to keep up. When you’re bound to the grind of mere survival, it can leave you emotionally depleted.

Honestly, I’ve felt a mix of these emotions more often than I’d like. But in the weirdest of ways, during the COVID lock down, a stream of clarity has penetrated my mind and life isn’t as draining as it once was. And no, I didn’t change my life in any way. I just went back to basics.

I allowed myself to remember some deep-seated truths that I once knew, but, for some reason, swept under the carpet. Unearthing them has shifted my perspective. I no longer live under the shadow of an overwhelming lifestyle. They’ve transformed my existence from bland, empty and draining to simple, meaningful and delightful.

If you, too, would like to take back the controls of your life, these gentle reminders will help you do just that.
Where to buy DomRaider Tokens, how to check the price of the DRT, and where to find the latest announcements?
By: Domraider Team
Tags: Cryptocurrency, Domraider, Bitcoin, Domraider Token, Exchange

Some of our participants in DomRaider’s ICO — or some of those who want to get involved now — might be very new to the cryptoasset ecosystem (due to the recent rise of interest in blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies). Indeed, we have been receiving a steady stream of practical questions from them. So let’s have a look at the three most common ones, and answer them. If you ever need further clarification or elaboration, please do not hesitate to ask the DomRaider community or the admins on our Telegram group.

I missed out on your token sale, how can I buy DRT now?

First of all if you don’t own any crypto currencies yet you will need to start by buying some like Bitcoin and Ethereum from exchanges. The account and identity verification on these exchanges might sometimes seem a bit long and daunting, but it’s relatively straightforward:
Love Filled the Night
By: John Ross
Tags: Christmas, Hope, Love, Faith, Poetry

Love Filled the Night

A poem

Photo by Casey Horner on Unsplash

No room at the Inn, they slept beneath the trees

The snow melted, it was nature’s breeze

There was a warmth that couldn’t be seen

As a baby cried, we fell down on our knees

A Savior is born said the wise beyond

As they came praising and singing their songs

A sky so red with a shining light

No one could see it but love-filled the night
OST Community Heroes: From ICO Purchasers to Alpha Development
By: Jason Goldberg
Tags: Blockchain, Technology, Cryptocurrency, Ethereum, Bitcoin

Daan van Tongeren, The Netherlands

Alpha Project: Quote Corporate Insurance Market / CIIS Coin

Daan, what made you participate in the OST ICO?

I honestly didn’t know that much about blockchain technology until somewhere in October 2017. Listening to Jason Calacanis’ podcast interview with Jason Goldberg, I learned about OST / Simple Token and the project’s ambitions. It got me excited and it made me dive into the rabbit hole of crypto. I found out later about 2000 other projects in crypto land, but I still think this is one of the best use cases for utility tokens to date.”

You’ve been with the Alpha program from the very beginning: Tell us about your project?

Before I dive in, here’s a question I like to ask: What is the best way to appreciate the added value of new technology? Try — Use — Iterate. This was my approach for the three Alpha challenges, coming from a market I know so well as a product owner: Corporate Business Insurance.

I created a sidechain powered by OST for different actors in this market, like brokers, insurers and policyholders. I came up with the idea to give incentives between the different actors and use these earned incentives (tokens) to either get a discount (Policyholder) or give an incentive to others so they deliver data in their format of choice (Broker to Insurer).

Circulating value between different actors would be impossible without tokens: The transaction costs would be too high, and we’d need a third-party payment processor.

OST recently published a four-year roadmap for the project: What are you most looking forward to?

By far the future iterations of the Wallet features and the many ways to exchange tokens into USD, cryptocurrencies or other Branded Tokens. I think most companies aren’t looking for complex explanations about private keys: We need understandable ways to use, change and transfer tokens. I think that will be the key to success on top of all the great things OST is working on. OST already proved that their technology is easy to integrate: that box is checked.

About Quote Corporate Insurance Market (CIIS Coin)

The CIIS application will enable organizations in the corporate Insurance market (insurers, policyholders, agency/brokers) to improve efficiency, loyalty and reduced premium for organizations and policyholders providing data quality and timely response by donating the branded token CIIS Read more >

Watch Daan’s Alpha III Video for CIIS Coin:
A Postcard from Gay Hell
By: Jess Darnell
Tags: Creative Non Fiction, LGBTQ, Memoir, This Happened To Me, Parenting

It was the weekend that the Obama Administration legalized same-sex marriage.

I was in a musical at the time and one of the cast members had offered to host a cast and crew bonfire, as we’d just started rehearsals and wanted a chance to get to know one another. I got ready to go — a tie-dye shirt and jeans.

This tie-dye shirt, as it happened, had a rainbow color scheme. My socks had a few colored stripes on them as well.

As I leave, my mom stops me —

“What are you wearing?”

“What’s it look like?” I say, perplexed.

“Well, you’re wearing a rainbow,” my sister says from the next room. She pokes her head around the corner saying, “You look…you know.”

One? That hurt.

Two? What the fuck?

Three? Ain’t nothing wrong with tie-dye!

And four, this party isn’t even —

“This party isn’t,” Mom says, “…to celebrate what happened today…is it?”

I have owned the tie-dye shirt in question for over three years. I’m fuming.

“Oh, my god, no. It’s a cast party bonfire.”

I go back to my room and cry a little bit.

Also? They had to have been hyper-aware of me that day.

They had to have already known that I was gay. UGH.

I leave the house in a rainbow shirt and suddenly they’re worried I’m headed to a secret Pride party?

Being in the closet is complete and total garbage-shit-biscuit-no-fun-fuckery that nobody deserves to go through, and anyone who has the guts to speak their truth and speak their mind amid emotional manipulation and scare tactics implemented by old systems and old relatives and old ways of doing things should honestly be awarded the highest honor for bravery.
Different Types of Rice and Their Uses
By: Alice Toneatto
Tags: Recipe, Food, Knowledge, Cooking, Rice

A few days ago, I read a very helpful article by Lucy The Eggcademic (she/her) on how to make fried rice. I love fried rice, but I’ve noticed that the rice I get from the Chinese restaurant is different from the one I use at home, so I asked Lucy which one she uses. After a couple of messages, I was more confused than before since new types of rice popped-up, creating thousands of possible fried rice variations in my head.

How many types of rice that I still don’t know are out there? Well, I challenge you to try them all since there are over 40,000 varieties of rice! Crazy right?

Types of Rice

Rice can be classified according to different characteristics such as length, shape, texture, color, and flavor.

Length and shape

Rice can be divided into long-grain, medium-grain, and short-grain. Long-grain rice has a long and cylindrical shape; it’s three to four times as long as wide and, when cooked, remain separate due to starch’s high presence. Medium-grain rice it’s a little shorter and wider than the long one. Once cooked, it’s soft and moist, and the grains easily stick together. Last, the short-grain rice is twice as long as it’s wide and very gluey.

Color

We are all probably used to see white rice, which is also called milled rice, and looks cleaner since it has had its husk, bran, and germ removed. With the outer layer of bran, the rice would look brown. Red, black, purple, and brown rice are still with husk, bran, germ, which means they have higher nutritional values, vitamins, and minerals.

Flavour and texture

Some rice varieties have a very peculiar aroma, such as the Basmati rice, commonly used in Indian cuisine, or the Thailandese long-grain Jasmine rice. The after the cooking texture of the rice also changes according to the type; glutinous rice, also called sticky rice, is sweet and soft, while red or brown rice keeps its defined shape and consistency better.

Hungry? Try the Vegetable Fried Brown Rice by Anju Sebastian
2003 NBA Re-Draft: LeBron James, Melo, Wade, & Bosh
By: Jeffrey Genao
Tags: Sports, History, NBA, Data, Data Science

Another NBA Re-Draft. The Series continues here on The Sports Scientist. Today we look back at the 2003 NBA Draft.

LeBron, Wade, Bosh & Melo were top players at their respective positions for over a Decade.

The 2003 NBA Draft is one of the best, if not the best, and deepest Drafts in NBA History. It featured 4 Franchise changing players and future Hall of Famers, as well as a litter of future All-Stars and solid Starters. This Class ranks right up there with the historic 1984 and 1996 NBA Draft Classes. Today we’ll take a look back at the 2003 NBA Draft and re-pick every Lottery selection. Team needs and best player’s available will be taken into account for this Re-Draft.

Be sure to check out my other NBA Re-Drafts:

2000

2001

2002

Please be sure to Follow The Sport Scientist Publication for more Articles where we breakdown Previous NBA Drafts. The Series will continue here:

Now, Let get into this 2003 NBA Re-Draft!
How to claim your Free Bitcoin Private (BTCP) with Carbon Wallet
By: John Fenton
Tags: Zcl, Btcp, Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin

How to claim your Free Bitcoin Private (BTCP) with Carbon Wallet

I wrote my take as a trader/Investor about the Bitcoin Private BTCP fork POSSIBLY being a very good opportunity.

If you missed it follow me at https://medium.com/@john.l.fenton and you will find it there.

Now here is my take as CEO of Carbon Wallet

After the fork, holders of BTC or Zclassic will be entitled to 1 BTCP for every Zclassic or BTC held on supporting wallet or exchange (as far as I know no exchange has come out and confirmed this yet)

We at Carbon wallet will support the fork and distribute the BTCP after to those holdings present in a Carbon wallet.

We aim to make reaping the rewards of this fork simple for our account holders

Simply Sign up free at https://carbonwallet.com/ and complete the registration process.

You will have a BTC wallet but will need to create a Z classic wallet in the dashboard (click add new currency and select Z classic and that is it)

Deposit your coins to the corresponding wallet using the receive address options on each

After the fork is complete we will add your equivalent BTCP to the new supported BTCP wallet, this will take a few days after the fork but we will update the blog as to when to expect them in your wallets

It’s that simple!

Don’t miss out Sign up free at https://carbonwallet.com/
Academia vs Industry (or both?)
By: Roy Klaasse Bos
Tags: Data Science, Research, Students, Academia, University

Speaking, Writing, Business and Research

Besides his academic career, Maurits is active in many other areas. Among others he is a professional public speaker for The Next Speaker. I asked him how he ended up there. “My golden tip for becoming a speaker is writing a book (Persuasion Profiling) and also media attention (Wired and FrankWatching) certainly contributed to exposure.”

“My golden tip for becoming a speaker is writing a book.”

In the latter article there is a reference to a start-up (Science Rockstars — later acquired by Webpower) he co-founded in 2012. This company sold a product called the “Persuasion API”. Maurits explains: “The technology is based on an algorithm which determines the optimal follow-up message on a website based on previous clickstreams. In hindsight, I believe it was a rather hacky approach to the problem with a couple of charming ideas which made the algorithm run very fast. But it was definitely a better solution than simply A/B testing, that for sure! You can prove that analytically for elementary examples, or by running simulations.” He continues: “I truly wanted to improve the algorithm. I thought it would be fantastic if we had multiple clients so that we could experiment and establish whether our algorithm actually improved over time. Moreover, I had a long-term vision in mind in which our product would become a platform for website personalisation algorithms. That would be the coolest place to be as a company I think. Also from a commercial point of view it would be a more attractive proposition since we would be a party which offered multiple solutions, rather than just a single one.”

Slides 12 to 18 outline the main principles behind the ‘Persuasion API’ (by Bart Clement of Science Rockstars at ProductTank AMS)

During this entrepreneurial endeavour Maurits encountered many obstacles. “Our clients wanted us to improve what we already had: for example an easier and faster JavaScript implementation process or a nice-looking logo. This is common in business, but I didn’t find these problems that interesting because they have already been solved by thousands of others. As an entrepreneur you should always listen to the voice of the customer and thus deal with requests like these. For me that was the main reason I changed my career path to eventually become a scientist, despite previous concerns about doing a PhD.”

Apparently, Maurits’ opinions about science drastically changed over time. So what are his most recent thoughts about the topic academia vs industry? “To a great extent I believe science allows you to come up with relevant problems yourself. You can twist it any way you want, but in business there is almost always an end customer who determines the matter at issue. Of course you can start out in business first and continue in academia afterwards. After all, as a researcher you can earn a decent living, but if you strive for financial independence I would not recommend it.”
Is your website Pinterest-ready?
By: Yuliang Yin
Tags: Pinterest Marketing, Blogging Tips, Pinterest, Blogging, Blogging For Business

As you’re getting ready to dive into Pinterest, make sure you’re making the most out of the tools that we have for your site!

A great first step is to claim your website, so that we can give you attribution for your content.

Why claim my website?

Claiming your website will unlock these handy features:

Website analytics : get access to website analytics so you can see what people are saving from your website. Make sure you also upgrade to the (free!) business account to enable this feature.

: get access to website analytics so you can see what people are saving from your website. Make sure you also upgrade to the (free!) business account to enable this feature. Featured logo : any Pins that come from your site will have your profile picture added next to them

: any Pins that come from your site will have your profile picture added next to them Early access to tools: Be the first to try out new tools and features

How do I do this?

In your account settings, you will see a Claim Website section. Type in your website, and click claim to get the code.

To claim your website, you need to be able to add a meta tag in <head> section of your site’s homepage, or upload a verification file under your site’s root directory. This means that you can claim your website for domains like www.example.com, or blog.example.com, but note that you cannot claim a subfolder like www.example.com/blog.

For more details on how to claim your website depending on which platform it’s hosted on, see this article.

Yuliang Yin, Software Engineer, currently saving ideas to Less is more.
Fear is Your Teacher, Not the Truth
By: Jessica Joines
Tags: Self Improvement, Spiritual Growth, Purpose, Fear, Wisdom

So many of us go through life, believing everything fear has to say. And aligning our lives to it. We engage with it as truth and construct much of our lives based upon it. When it fact, the energy of fear simply exists to show us what needs to be healed within us.

So I ask you, how does fear show up in your life? Are you worried about not having enough money? Never finding love? Or do you just have a general low-grade anxiety most of the time; and you don’t know why?

Know this: Underneath your fear is always a clue. And, ultimately an answer about something, within you that’s ready to be released. In fact, the reason a repetitive fear keeps rearing it’s ugly head is because you aren’t listening to what the energy of fear is truly trying to say. So instead of believing what fear is voicing to you on the surface, look beneath. And ask, “What is this really teaching me?” Curiosity is key.

Let’s take fears about money. Whether it’s never having enough or losing what you have. When this shows up, which is common for so many of us, pause. Then ask, “What’s missing in me that’s driving this fear?” Perhaps it’s a sense of security. Or just a general belief that you are unlucky and that nothing ever works in your favor.

Take it a layer deeper. What’s really underneath this? Were you taught that nothing and no one is ever safe? Were you taught that you’re unworthy of abundance? Take note of whatever you find.

And as you do, be willing to look at this fear-based illusion head on. Question it and all the underlying fears that construct it. Be honest with yourself as you dig into the ACTUAL truth behind these false evidences that seemingly appear real.

Using our example, ask if it’s true that you’re not worthy of abundance. Is it really? Or, ask whether it’s true that security is really something that’s absent from your life. Is it really? Do you not have everything you need right now, in this moment? These are just some simple examples for you to consider.

The point is: When you take fear at face value and don’t look beneath…you create your own form of imprisonment. You allow fear to control you.

In fact, many of us become ruled by it. But you can step out of it. And it starts with a conscious intention; and a simple pause. Instead of immediately engaging with fear as truth, question it. Bravely look at what lies beneath and stop assuming that your doubts and worries are real.

Instead, look to fear as your greatest opportunity for healing. For as you do, you lift into greater light, fulfillment and joy. Your true destiny.

Originally published on JessicaJoines.com 4/8/19
Khalifa of Islam
By: Virtual Mosque
Tags: Islam, Khalifa, Jamaat

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The word khalifa is an Arabic word meaning successor. That is why Hazrat Abu Bakr (r) was called khalifa because he succeeded the Holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). When he passed on and Hazrat Umar (r) became the head of Muslim state, a new title had to be found for him and the term ‘Amir ul Maumineen” was coined.

Earlier Kalifa’s of the Qadiani jamaat called themselves “khalifa tul Massih” or successors of the Promised Messiah. More recently however they have started calling themselves Khalifa tul Islam — meaning head of the Muslim community. This is laughable because only a tiny percentage of Muslims are members of their jamaat. But it is also sinister in that it implies that only those who are members of their jamaat are Muslims. Earlier Qadianis used to openly say that those not in their jamaat are heretics. They have now abandoned that but are now using more subtle methods to call others heretics.
Blessed Mabon
By: Edie Tuck
Tags: September, Goddess, Poetry, Mabon, Writing Prompt Response

September is a time for change

As seasons turn another page

At Mabon’s table, we gather to feast

On the alter lays the horned beast

A harvest moon floods the dark of night

A beacon of hope, shining bright

In the sacred circle, drums are sounding

The witches’ goddess chant resounding

September blows the winds of time

Listen now for the night bell’s chime

We bid farewell to Summer’s light

And welcome Autumn in her delight

The Sun prepares for a long night’s sleep

The Great Oak slumbers and the Maples weep

They cover the Earth in her blanket of leaves

Preparing her for Winter’s eve