fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Review — ‘august’ by Taylor Swift
By: Raunaq Nambiar
Tags: Taylor Swift, Culture, Pop Music, Music Review, Music

On august, Taylor Swift sparkles in the coastal sun like broken glass. The space between the lines is just wide enough for you to feel the salinity of the air. Having been in the business for over a decade, Swift had perfected the art of recollecting a relationship. This time, however, she was neither the love-consumed poet nor the grief-strucken songwriter. Instead, she dissolves effortlessly into the role of the other woman.

Taking place right after a certain illicit affair falls apart, august serves as a scrapbook by which to recollect a summer that burnt as quickly as it blossomed. A fever dream soaked in fatalism. Swift documents the fateful interaction between a boy and girl seeking to fill a void in themselves. Yet, for events that seem so personal, we never hear this woman’s name. Coupled with the resignation in Swift’s airy vocal performance, august tells the story of a faceless woman.

A woman who, at the end of the day, knew that her legacy in the big picture was destined to be a silhouette of her body in the background, stripped of her identity. Because that’s what it means to be the other woman. To be the stained toy that’s only every played with under the cover of nightfall. To know that, despite wanting to write her name on this man’s back, despite wanting to change for the better, the writing was on the wall. He was never hers, and you can’t lose something that was never yours to begin with.
[ML UTD 22] Machine Learning Up-To-Date — Life With Data
By: Anthony Agnone
Tags: Programming, Software Development, Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Machine Learning

As an industry, we’ve gotten exceptionally good at building large, complex software systems. We’re now starting to see the rise of massive, complex systems built around data — where the primary business value of the system comes from the analysis of data, rather than the software directly. We’re seeing quick-moving impacts of this trend across the industry, including the emergence of new roles, shifts in customer spending, and the emergence of new startups providing infrastructure and tooling around data.

In fact, many of today’s fastest growing infrastructure startups build products to manage data. These systems enable data-driven decision making ( analytic systems) and drive data-powered products, including with machine learning ( operational systems). They range from the pipes that carry data, to storage solutions that house data, to SQL engines that analyze data, to dashboards that make data easy to understand — from data science and machine learning libraries, to automated data pipelines, to data catalogs, and beyond.

And yet, despite all of this energy and momentum, we’ve found that there is still a tremendous amount of confusion around what technologies are on the leading end of this trend and how they are used in practice. In the last two years, we talked to hundreds of founders, corporate data leaders, and other experts — including interviewing 20+ practitioners on their current data stacks — in an attempt to codify emerging best practices and draw up a common vocabulary around data infrastructure. This post will begin to share the results of that work and showcase technologists pushing the industry forward.

… keep reading
Paraguayan Cowboys and Deforestation
By: Richard Bailey
Tags: Environmental Issues, Paraguay, Climate Change, Environment, Photography

Can the Chaco region survive

Paraguayan gaucho, northern Chaco ©Richard Bailey

I love Paraguay and I love its people, but it has a problem.

We tend to look at Brazil and the terrible decimation of the Amazon rainforest, especially under the current President Jair Bolsonaro, but its neighbour Paraguay can also lay claim to one of the highest rates of forest loss in the world.

The Gran Chaco is a semi-arid region in the North West of the country, which was once dry forest and savanna, but since 1985 satellite imagery shows that roughly 55 thousand square miles of forest has been converted into farmland and grazing by the cattle ranches. That is an area about the size of New York state.

Paraguay ranks among the top ten beef exporting countries in the world, so cattle farming is very important to the countries economy and its politics…….which means that cattle expansion in the Chaco, with government approval, shows no sign of slowing.

Paraguay also has the highest inequality of land ownership in the world –about 85% of agricultural land is held by just 2.5% of owners.

The Chaco region is home to more than two dozen indigenous peoples as well as over 3,400 plant and 900 animal species, and at the current rate of expansion into the Chaco, the forest and other native vegetation is likely to disappear within decades.

Paraguayan gaucho, northern Chaco ©Richard Bailey

Something needs to be done and of course with the right political and corporate will, something could be done.

A new report by the Supply Change Initiative (SCI) has set out a way for the Paraguayan government and private industry to reduce land degradation in the chaco through better deforestation monitoring.

Paraguayan gaucho, northern Chaco ©Richard Bailey

And yet, I fear the ever growing demand for beef around the world will continue to be the largest cause of forest loss worldwide, adversely impacting the climate, biodiversity and people. So although Paraguay has every opportunity to shift toward large scale sustainable cattle production, which would greatly reduce deforestation….whether or not the government and the farmers can see the benefits of implementing these changes we will have to see…..

Paraguayan gaucho, northern Chaco ©Richard Bailey

Paraguayan gaucho, northern Chaco ©Richard Bailey

I spent a few months travelling around Paraguay in 1994. including on a ranch in the northern most part of the Chaco by the Bolivian border. It was a harsh area to work in, but the Gauchos who worked on the ranches were hardworking and incredibly skilled horsemen.

The portraits we made of the men who worked there could have been taken at anytime during the twentieth century and hark back to a time of the ‘wild west’ and last frontiers, whilst also showing their stoicism, true grit and coolness
Ford’s Marketing Disaster in India
By: Aaron Schnoor
Tags: Advertising, Business, Marketing, Money, Social Media

Ford’s Marketing Disaster in India

Poor timing and cultural insensitivity landed the automative company in hot water

Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash

Even large, successful companies can make marketing errors.

In 2013, as movements against sexual harassment were gaining traction and spreading around the globe, Ford found themselves in hot water. The automative company — well-known for their advertisements involving trucks, sedans, and sports cars — committed an unforgivable breach.

To celebrate the release of the Ford Figo in India, a creative advertising team released a cartoon advertisement on Ford’s behalf.

The content was as bizarre as it is terrible: a drawing of three bound and gagged women in the trunk of the car.

It seems hard to believe that such an advertisement would be released, right?

But it was released, and it’s as bad as it sounds. One of the images depicted the Italian politician Silvio Berlusconi, who was then facing charges (and later convicted) of paying for sex with a minor.

The women pictured in the ad included two women who had made sexual assault claims against Berlusconi.

The advertisement, which I won’t show here, can be found in this article from USA Today.

If the image makes you shudder, the Ford Figo’s motto makes the advertisement even worse: “Leave your worries behind.”

And it doesn’t stop there. The marketing team released another cartoon advertisement, similarly drawn and with equally-poor taste. There is no need to show another crude image, as you likely understand now how bad the advertisements were.

These images aren’t meant to attract page views, and I don’t post the image sheerly for shock value. It’s important to understand, however, just how important safeguards are when running a marketing agency.
When Students Leverage Social Media to Plan Events
By: Julie Daniel Davis
Tags: Snapchat, Instagram, Digital Citizenship, Facebook, Social Media

When Students Leverage Social Media to Plan Events

April 4, 2017

The ISTE Standards for Students are goals that have been vetted through thousands of educators to set measurable outcomes that have been decided would best prepare today’s k-12 student for the use of technology in their future lives. There are 7 different broad concepts that are then broken down into subcategories. Standard #6 is listed below:

6. Creative Communicator

Students communicate clearly and express themselves creatively for a variety of purposes using the platforms, tools, styles, formats and digital media appropriate to their goals. Students:

choose the appropriate platforms and tools for meeting the desired objectives of their creation or communication.

create original works or responsibly repurpose or remix digital resources into new creations.

communicate complex ideas clearly and effectively by creating or using a variety of digital objects such as visualizations, models or simulations.

publish or present content that customizes the message and medium for their intended audiences.

This week I had the privilege of seeing this standard in action. The AP and Advanced Art students in our high school were tasked by their instructors with advertising the opening reception for their Spring Art Collection at a local art gallery in Chattanooga. Early in the week I started seeing this graphic show up on Facebook. Then I was asked to join a page with more information. Later in the week I saw Snapchat stories about the event, I saw Instagram stories and posts about it. There was Twitter talk about it as well.

These students creatively used the medium of social media to communicate with the people in their lives. They shared, reshared, and creatively talked about the evening using the Internet. Creating the graphic of actual work in the collection was a teaser. The objective was to get people to come to opening night and boy did it work! When I walked into AVA Art Gallery it was packed. It wasn’t just the family members of these students present but the room was full of schoolmates of all interest groups. Athletes, scholars, teachers, grandparents, siblings, cousins, boyfriends, strangers, dramatic artists were all there to support this night and these students. Goal achieved. It was a great way to see students using social media as good digital citizens to share their learning in productive ways.
Come With Me If You Want to Like and Share
By: The Nib
Tags: Russian Hacking, Privacy, Cambridge Analytica, Donald Trump, Facebook

Sign up for Taking Stock of COVID: New comics from The Nib

By The Nib

New comics from Matt Lubchansky, Keith Knight, and Niccolo Pizarro. Plus How Seniors Are Living With COVID-19. Take a look
Ezinne Ukoha
By: Medium Staff
Tags: Noteworthy, Activism, Writers, Medium, Creativity

Fast-forward two soul-draining corporate jobs, and Ezinne now lives in Los Angeles. She pours her opinions into her phone, laptop, or whatever device is within tapping distance. Ezinne notes, “I never wanted to be the race writer,” but she often found herself speaking up for her community. Writing about being a dark-skinned black woman, she waxes lyrical: “When the lights are out — and the white sheets soak our sweat, we shimmer just for the ones who see us glowing in competition with the moon.” Her words hit that rare bubble on the Venn diagram of internet expression — the one where personal, political, and poetic overlap.

Her stories travel quickly, igniting conversation and prompting digital head-nods. After unpacking Post-Obama Stress Disorder — and reflecting on her Nigerian-American Dream — readers reacted with a combination of recognition and gratitude. A story about lost girls of color triggered some much-needed wake-up calls. Ezinne’s words sometimes burn — or indict, or expose, or reveal — and people listen.

What keeps the ideas coming? It all goes back to 1980s Nigeria: “I’m more empowered to say what I have to say because I know what can happen when you live in a country where you can’t do that.” These stories are visceral, without pre-planned angles or hooks. Fueled by memories of censorship, Ezinne avoids anything that looks like a filter: editors, gatekeepers, even her own inner critic. “When it comes to the tone, my voice, what I’m trying to convey,” she admits, “I want it to be as naked as possible.”

Watch our short film for more on what keeps Ezinne hitting publish.

In a world where so many stories feel overproduced or pre-packaged, these words are raw, immediate, and undeniably real. And they’re having an impact. “I am definitely optimistic about the future,” Ezinne reflects. “I think all of it — artists, writers, singers, whatever it is — all of us are banding together and using our skills to enlighten, and it’s making a dent. A good dent. It’s definitely encouraging young voices, and it’s waking people up.”

Check out some of Ezinne’s most Noteworthy stories and series:
For Developers, Ego Is the Enemy
By: Fatos Morina
Tags: Life Lessons, Programming, Software Development, Education, Productivity

To Whatever You Aspire to, Ego Is Your Enemy

You may have a really good GPA, or many of your family members and close friends may have called you a prodigy.

In these cases, your ego tends to make you feel that the world owes you the success you want. That you must get employed and climb up the corporate ladder in record time. That you are supposed to be employed without needing to go through the formal recruiting stages.

You may think that you don’t need to have any repository on GitHub, as you have already surpassed your peers with your GPA. Your ego leads you to think that you don’t need to work hard.

If we look back in history, people who amaze us with the work that they have done are really hard workers.

WordPress is one of the most famous content management systems in the world: it powers-up more than 27% of the web. Its founder, Matt Mullenweg, slept only fours a day and worked really hard while developing WordPress.

The co-founder of Microsoft and the richest man in the world, Bill Gates, used to work every day. “I worked weekends, I didn’t really believe in vacations,” he recalls during an interview.

Img source: time.com

Back in the days when Mark Zuckerberg was a developer at Facebook, he had to work hard. “The last six years have been a lot of coding and focus and hard work. But maybe it would be fun to remember it as partying and all this crazy drama.”

During the time he used to be a software developer, the co-founder of PayPal, Elon Musk, worked from early morning until late evening, despite being considered as a prodigy. He now works up to 100 hours per week.

Img source: flickr.com

You should not overestimate your abilities and get trapped into thinking that you are a lot better than you actually are. You should be very committed and dedicate a lot of time and effort to programming if you really want to excel at it.

Your ego may even prevent you from collaborating with other people. It can make you feel that you are smart enough and sufficient in your own skills so that you don’t need to collaborate with other colleagues in your project. In reality, big projects that have made breakthroughs and have helped millions of users are usually developed as a result of collaborative work.

Larry Page and Sergey Brin started Google together after meeting each other at the computer science department at Stanford. Bill Gates started Microsoft with Paul Allen, who came up with the name Micro-Soft. With his brother Kimbal, Elon Musk created his first IT company Zip2, which was acquired by AltaVista for $307 million in cash and $34 million in securities. Brian Acton collaborated with Jan Koum and founded WhatsApp.

Img source: Wikimedia

You should work really hard, be humble, and collaborate with others. You should not even think about starting and finishing something of a large scale on your own. You should be part of a team that you work with.
報道でデータビジュアリゼーションは必要なのか[最終回-2] — データジャーナリズムとは？
By: Marika Katanuma
Tags: Journalism, Data Journalism, Data Visualization

in In Fitness And In Health
So You Want to Try Anal Play
By: Sexedplus Dan
Tags: Sex, Sexuality, Health, Comics, Lifestyle

Anal sex is something that nearly anyone can enjoy, and there are lot of reasons people like it. So if you want to try anal play, here’s some places to start.

Read next: 9 Ways to Pleasure an Anus
Productivity Stinks: Get Ahead By Doing Nothing
By: Erik Brown
Tags: Life Lessons, Business, History, Self Improvement, Productivity

The Delayer

Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus — Picture By Schurl50 [Public domain] Via Wikipedia Creative Commons

It’s the year 217 BC and Rome has a major problem. The living version of the terminator has killed a Consul (president), crushing two Roman armies and is running loose on Italian soil. Hannibal Barca from Carthage had been raised from a child to lead a military and hate Romans. He managed to take an army with elephants across the mountains. It seems there was nothing he couldn’t do.

In a panic, Rome elects a dictator to harness their resources and respond to the threat. They chose Quintus Fabius. His choice of actions is to sit and do nothing. He knows that Hannibal is far from home and his supplies lines. If the Romans sit back and wait, the mountain climbing menace might burn himself out.

Fabius would avoid engaging in direct battles. He’d use his soldiers to harass Hannibal’s forces whenever they were sent out to look for supplies. This not only aggravated the enemy forces, but it also drove the citizens of Rome into an uproar. Fabius was put in charge to do ‘something’, not hide and let an enemy army destroy the countryside.

He’d have challenges to his power, both of which would result in disaster. An underling would lead an army against Hannibal and have to be saved by Fabius. After his term as dictator was up, two Roman consuls would be elected and attack Hannibal again.

In the Battle of Cannae, the Romans would lose between 55,000 to 70,000 men in one of the biggest disasters in their history. Only after this massive slaughter would the Romans adopt Fabius’ strategy again. He was no longer looked at as a coward. He’d be given a title that would stick with him through history — Cunctator or “the delayer”. Eventually, the strategy would work, saving the Romans.
Learning From Your Mistakes: What Works For Leadership Developer & LMFT Rebecca Ching
By: Tara Mcmullin
Tags: Small Business, Resilience, Podcast, Entrepreneurship, Business

The Nitty-Gritty:

How Potentia Therapy founder Rebecca Ching learned from key mistakes she made bringing her vision to life

What she does differently today when she’s finding the right people for her team

Why learning to lead has made her less lonely as a business owner

The process of self-reflection that allowed her to stop debating her own worthiness despite her setbacks

If there’s one constant in business and entrepreneurship, it’s that stuff happens.

Things go wrong.

We make bad choices.

The market shifts.

An employee leaves.

The big client gives notice that they’re terminating your contract.

We can’t always prepare for what’s going to go wrong — but we can work on becoming more resilient when bad things do inevitably happen.

This month, we’ve been sharing conversations all around the topic of resilience.

We’ve looked at why we don’t push through to our goals and finish the projects we start. We’ve explored the natural and not-so-natural pivots that happen over time. We’ve examined how expectations can get out of hand and what it looks like to coach yourself through 2 decades of business ownership.

Today, as we close things out, we’re going to take a good, long look at actually learning from our mistakes.

I spoke with one of my oldest business friends, Rebecca Ching, about some of the mistakes she made when she took a huge leap forward in her therapy business and opened a multidisciplinary brick & mortar practice. Today, Rebecca is both the founder of Potentia Therapy and an Integrated Leadership Coach helping entrepreneurs and leaders navigate the complexities of leadership today.

Rebecca shares both the errors in her execution and the errors in her thinking that led to some difficult years.

She also gets into some deep reflection around her personal identity and sense of worthiness that really resonated with me. For many of us self-described “achievers,” making a mistake or failing at a venture isn’t just a setback — it rocks us to our core.

If that’s you too, I think you’ll especially appreciate this conversation.

And if you’ve appreciated this deep dive we’ve spent on resilience this month, I’d love for you to leave What Works a rating & review on Apple Podcasts. Your kind words mean the world to me.

Now, let’s find out what works for Rebecca Ching!
Burlington County Health Department offers free lead testing
By: Melissa Riker
Tags: New Jersey, Children, Health

Burlington County Health Department offers free lead testing

The first screening will be held Jan. 8 starting at 12:30 p.m.

To address the low rates of childhood lead screenings in Burlington County, the Burlington County Health Department and Virtua Community Nursing Services will be conducting lead screening for children ages 13 months to less than 72 months each week during the month of January at the Burlington County Health Department.

“We are encouraging parents to bring their children to come out and get tested, and learn more about what you can do to protect your family against lead,” said Burlington County Health Department Director and Health Officer Holly Funkhouser Cucuzzella. “According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, childhood lead poisoning is considered the most preventable environmental disease among young children. That is why are working with our partner Virtua to offer additional dates and times for lead screenings in an effort to screen more children.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that there are approximately 500,000 children with high levels of lead in their bodies. The primary exposure to lead in children in the United States is through lead-based paint, but unknown to many, lead is also in many products, such as makeup, toys, jewelry, zippers and imported ceramics (plates, bowls, mugs).

Lead exposure in a child’s body can cause learning and behavior problems. It can slow down growth and development; damage hearing and speech and make it hard to pay attention and learn.

The child lead screenings will take place at the Burlington County Health Department, 15 Pioneer Blvd. in Westampton. The remaining dates and times for the walk-in January 2019 screenings are as follows:

· Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2019 from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.

· Monday, Jan. 14, 2019 from 9:00 a.m. to noon.

· Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019 from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.

· Monday, Jan. 28, 2019 from 9:00 a.m. to noon.

· Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2019 from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.

For questions about lead in the home, call the national hotline 1–800–424-LEAD (5323).

Other resources include the Southern Regional Lead and Healthy Homes Coalition at (856) 665–6000, the Burlington County Health Department Lead Program at (609)265–5515, and the state of New Jersey Lead Safe program at https://www.nj.gov/dca/divisions/dhcr/offices/leadsafe.html.
My New Piano
By: Molly Cassity
Tags: Piano, Molly Cassity, Music, Comics

Spiralbound

Comics for life, brought to life by Edith Zimmerman.
Financing Round: Dilution, Timing, & Terms
By: Nicolas Carteron
Tags: Business, Startup, Fundraising Advice, Fundraising, Venture Capital

🌿 Series-A

💧 Expected dilution? 20–30%

⌚ How long to raise? 3–6 months.

🏃🏽 Runway? 18–36 months

💵 Who invests? VC funds, your previous investors, HNWIs

📆 When? Product-market fit has been found, 1M+ ARR (or on track to), growth phase.

📜 Paperwork? Contracts get more complicated, more warranties & representations, more control given to the Board.

📜 Paperwork? Probably done through a Capital Increase (straight equity) but can also be a convertible note.

🔎 Due Diligence? Deeper, business model, financials, tech, HR

🤼 Team Compensation? If no ESOP has been implemented from the start, investors will ask for one to incentivise managers and key employees (long-run ESOP target size: ~20%)

🎯 Founders’ objective? Find investors who are willing to take you to the next step (B, C,…) and, eventually, to the end.

🎯 Founders’ objective? Find investors who will be ready to follow-on and support through your next financing rounds.

💺 Board of Directors? At this stage, you will have to give up Board Seats. However, don’t see it as negative.

💺 Board of Directors? When smart, professional investors come in, their presence at the Board table will help your company tremendously.

🌳 Series-B and beyond

💧 Expected dilution? 20–30% per round (less if you achieve amazing growth and can command a high valuation)

⌚ How long to raise? 3–9 months.

🏃🏽 Runway? 24–36 months

💵 Who invests? VC funds, PE funds, Banks, Large corporations

📆 When? Expanding internationally, on track to go from a few M+ ARR to 10M+ ARR in 2 years (if you follow the T2D3 model)

📜Paperwork? Contracts get more complicated. Probably done through a Capital Increase, may include warrants, options, anti-dilution clauses,…

🔎 Due Diligence? Full-on. Business model, financials, tech, HR, legal, health & safety, policy, regulation, corporate governance,…

🤼 Team Compensation? ESOP will be topped up to plan for a large expansion of the workforce.

🎯 Founders’ objective? Investors are coming in to set you (and them) upon the path for a profitable exit or IPO. Find people who will help you reach these goals.

💺 Board of Directors? In the future, your Board will look totally different.

💺 Board of Directors? There will be a strong expectation of professional corporate governance which means more non-executive board members and more oversight.
How Music Changed My Life in a Year!
By: Rajat Dangi
Tags: Stories, Music, Hobbies, Singing, Storyofmylife

Originally written by Pratiti Jain.

Music! This last one year of musical experience has changed me for better. Now, music has become an inseparable part of my life. It is like an escape from reality, from this otherwise boring life, where you do what you love. Yes, it makes me happy. Well, I am still a newbie and there is a lot to learn.

This is a story of finding my love for music in the midst of a regular life.

A still from my recent music video.

The introduction

It all started when I was in school. My mother and school teachers always told me that I can sing well and asked me to join vocal classes. As a result, I completed my first year in classical music (vocal). Just like any other maths student, went to Kota for JEE preparation. I discontinued the classes after one year for no solid reason.

Realization:

Right before the board exams, I realized, sitting in a single room with FM radio that singing is the one thing that I loved the most. Then, I started recording my own voice after listening to the songs. At that point, I decided that I want to take this further.

The later and the better part

I joined the college with a hope. I wished for more like-minded people who could help me to learn and grow together. I was amazed to meet many talented people in the college, this small group gave me the opportunity to be heard.

In the very first event, I got that stage which I was in search of. I sang for the first time in college and got a little recognition. There onwards I participated in every college event. This year our club secured the first position in an inter-college competition at DAIICT (Gandhinagar). As a reward, our club got a chance to record a song in a recording studio!

What I’ve learned?

Practice; this is all it takes to stick to your interest. People with the similar interest, a stage, and opportunities act as a catalyst in the process.

I have learned and experienced a lot of new things and I am looking forward to more such interesting events to come and eventually keeping growing as music is something that makes me smile.

Cheers!

Our our first music video by the Music Club of IIITV —
Week 10: My Keto Story
By: Mary Lucus-Flannery
Tags: Weight Loss, Diet Fail, Ketosis, Health, Ketogenic

How do you know this story is super real? Because I am a real flake.

I have not posted for five weeks. The not posting for five weeks also coincides with me not being consistent at adhering to the Keto diet.

Guess what that means? I’ll give you the sequence.

Not eating Keto regularly (lots of cheat days). Mostly not being in Ketosis. Also, I was sometimes eating lots of crap because once you are “off the wagon” you tend to get extra crazy just because you know sometime soon you will go back on the wagon and you just want to eat all the shit while you can. Stop losing weight during weekly weigh in. Start gaining a pound or two during weekly weigh ins. Stop doing weekly weigh ins. I did add going to the gym to my project about 8 weeks ago and it is POSSIBLE that also contributed to the weigh loss slow down. BUT it is possible that the problem was my own sloppiness. Just sayin’. The weigh gain is due to eating shit. Regularly. For about a month.

So, to recap: there has been no posts in My Keto Journey, because there has been no KETO JOURNEY.

And now it’s time for a reboot.

For comparison’s sake — STATS at start.

STATS TODAY:

AGE: 44

HEIGHT: 5'4"

WEIGHT: 155 lbs (!)

Yep. Right back where I started 10 weeks ago. Wheeee! (That was sarcasm.)
Why Sex?
By: Martin Vetterli
Tags: Biology, Algorithms, Science, Evolution

Where we learn between sexual and asexual reproduction, and why there could be such as things as sex at all

Photo by Ousa Chea on Unsplash

I don’t remember exactly when we did it for the first time, but it was probably over one billion years ago and we were still very small organisms made out of single cells, a bit like bacteria still are. We felt that asexual reproduction was coming to its limits, and that sexual reproduction would be the right way to go. But why? What urged us to do it over and over again for the million years to come?

To get a glimpse of why sex arose one has to imagine how the world was before sex started. It was a world mainly populated by small organisms, such as bacteria and single-celled precursors of plants, and they all multiplied simply by cloning each other. They thus created more or less identical scores of twins from generation to generation. In fact, today these small organisms still do it the same way, while most modern animals do it sexually (with very few exceptions in the realms of insects, fish, reptiles or birds).

Then, nearly one thousand million years ago, it suddenly all changed. We decided to reproduce sexually from then on, meaning that we made a big difference between male and female, that we decided to mix up our genes each time we made new babies and that we wanted each offspring to have different traits. In short, it was the beginning of individualism.

But why did that happen? Well, the reason was most probably that the mixing of genes between each new generation allowed us to compose new traits quicker, traits that would fit better those highly changing environments in which we were living. Evolution could thus act quicker and more easily on each of us individual offspring. Now, you need to know here that animals don’t reproduce so often as bacteria do (humans for example have a generation time of approximately 25 years, while bacteria reproduce every half of an hour!). So one of the main advantages for sexual reproduction might have been that it allowed slowly reproducing organisms to give rise to many different individuals each time they reproduced, by mixing their gene pools.

However, this reason for the existence of modern sex is just a hypothesis and the definitive argument for why we do it is still a major scientific mystery. But science is made out of good hypotheses. This one would imply that sex evolved as an alternative to a short life. So, even if we don’t really know why we’re doing it, it is quite sure that when it comes to evolution, sexual reproduction has given us some very practical results, “even if that is not why we do it”, to paraphrase the Nobel Laureate Richard Feynman.

By the way, it is interesting to note that today, after having been sexual human for hundreds of thousands of years, we seem to slowly be rediscovering our asexual origins in the last decades. In fact, genetic technologies and the discovery of stem cells are making cloning just a bit more practical than ever. So we might soon go back to asexual reproduction.
Java Abstract Class What Is It Good For?
By: Tom Henricksen
Tags: Java, Software Development, Learning To Code, Programming

The Java abstract class eludes many Java developers. Let’s learn what it does for us and how to use it.

Abstract art: a product of the untalented sold by the unprincipled to the utterly bewildered. Al Capp

I am guessing you have heard of the malady called ADD or Attention Deficit Disorder. On a recent trip to Paris, my son and I discovered we are suffering from another malady with similar initials. Art Deficit Disorder.

We can look at paintings and sculptures and find it uninspiring. Where my daughter enjoyed the d’Orsay we looked for the food court. Where we enjoyed some espresso and fresh-squeezed orange juice.

Java Abstract Class

Java has abstract classes that are incomplete. They cannot be implemented like a regular class. Abstract classes must be subclassed to be used. In these classes, we can declare abstract methods. Abstract classes are similar to interfaces in Java. Let’s dive deeper into this comparison.

Compare

Like interfaces, abstract classes cannot be instantiated. Where the interface just will contain method signatures an abstract class can contain a method body. Abstract classes can declare fields that are not static and final.

Where interfaces have all fields automatically become public, static, and final. We can implement as many interfaces as we want. Abstract classes are like regular classes and we can only extend one.

The Java tutorial has some good guidance when to use abstract classes. When we “want to share code among several closely related classes” or “expect that classes that extend your abstract class have many common methods or fields”. Interfaces should be used when “expect that unrelated classes would implement your interface” or “want to specify the behavior of a particular data type”.

Java Abstract Class Example

Like all good coders let’s get our hands dirty with some code. First, we can look at an example abstract class to get us started.

This Battery abstract class has one implemented method and two abstract methods. There are also two fields defined as well.

ComputerBattery is a concrete Java class. Therefore, it needs to implement both of the abstract methods that Battery defined.

Abstract and Interface?

An abstract class can even implement an interface. This seems like mixing spaghetti and mashed potatoes but, hey it is legal!

Let’s take our Student interface and mix it in an abstract class.

In our ProbationaryStudent class, we don’t implement all the methods defined in the Student interface. This is possible since the class is marked as abstract.

Main?

Would you think if you had the main method in an abstract class that it would run?

I didn’t think it would either but in fact, it does run. I suggest you try it out for yourself. As you can see abstract classes have their place in Java. Similar to interfaces but used in a different way.

Where have you used Java interfaces?

Check out more great content and subscribe at MyITCareerCoach.com
3 to read: Answering political threats | The economic case for investigations | ‘Data diaries’ for learning
By: Matt Carroll
Tags: Hillary Clinton, Media, Journalism, Data, Trump

By Matt Carroll <@MattatMIT>

Cool stuff about journalism, once a week. Get notified via email? Subscribe: 3toread (at) gmail.

“How do we respond to threats after our Hillary endorsement? This is how”: With grace, dignity and steely resolve. The Arizona Republicpublishes in a Republican stronghold — and it had never endorsed a Democrat for president in its history, until this election. Their endorsement of Hillary Clinton ignited a wave of threatening responses. To those who sent in “vile threats,” the Republic’s Mi-Ai Parrish delivers a measured response that touches on forgiveness, the First Amendment, and fierce determination to be fair. A brilliant response. An economist makes the case for saving investigative journalism:Investigative reporting is expensive and time consuming. For that reason, many newsrooms have reluctantly dismantled or cut back on investigations to deploy scarce resources in other spots. Yet Stanford Prof Jay Hamilton argues in his book, “Democracy’s Detectives,” that investigative teams actually make economic sense. They help newsrooms differentiate and strengthen their brand against competitors, and hugely benefit society. For those worried about the state of investigative journalism (ie: me), it’s a refreshing read. Book review by Rick Edmondsfor Poynter. Creating a ‘data diary’ to understand your news consumption: How many of us give active thought to how we consume data? Where we go and how we use it? Miguel Paz instructed his students to track their data consumption over a week. They learned fascinating lessons about themselves and the media. (Transparency alert: Miguel and I attended a similar class together.)

Get notified via email: Send note to 3toread (at) gmail.com

Matt Carroll runs the Future of News initiative at the MIT Media Lab.
Flipping a Coin With a Quantum Computer
By: Steven Heidel
Tags: Quantum Computing, Programming, Software Development, Python, Technology

Amazon offers three different quantum computing devices to choose from:

Gate-based superconducting qubits from Rigetti Computing Gate-based ion traps from IonQ Quantum annealing from D-Wave

The third option, quantum annealing from D-Wave, is a different paradigm of quantum computing that won’t work with the above code. So our choice is between using superconducting qubits or ion traps.

I’m going to choose the superconducting qubits from Rigetti since they have a cheaper per-shot rate than IonQ… and because I used to work at Rigetti.

In a new cell, copy the following. Here is where you’ll need the S3 folder from earlier because, unlike the free simulator, you don’t want to lose any results from real hardware. If you forgot the name of the S3 folder, you can look it up back in the AWS console under the S3 header.

We’re reusing the coin_flip_circuit we created in the last step.

If all goes well it should respond with:

'CREATED'

Now in a new cell (do not rerun the previous cell since that will enqueue another task!) keep running task.state() to see the status change to 'QUEUED' .

What’s happened? Your task hasn’t run on the quantum computer yet because it is waiting in line. Also, some of the quantum computers are only accessible during certain times of the day. It takes a lot of work to maintain properly calibrated quantum computing hardware, so it will only be available sparingly. Check the Devices tab on the Amazon Braket AWS console page to see the schedule for each device.

In my case, I was scheduled to wait several hours for the next available slot. If you don’t want to keep my notebook server running for that amount of time, then you can run task.id and make a note of the returned value.

Later, you can run the following in a new cell (or even a new notebook) to recover the task:

Once task.state() returns 'COMPLETED' then you can access the results just like in the local simulator:

Again if all goes well, you’ll see a result like this:

Counter({'0': 593, '1': 407})

If you have the patience to repeat this a few times, you’ll likely notice that the ‘0’s seem to dominate the results. This is not a mistake, but more a reflection that today’s quantum computers aren’t perfectly accurate. In our example circuit, this results in more ‘0’s than ‘1’s.
Interview with Castro Antwi-Danso of Esoko
By: Andrew Young
Tags: Interviews, Data Stewards, Big Data, Data Stewardship, Data

Castro Antwi-Danso, Esoko

“What I’d like to get out of a Network of Data Stewards is to see the best practices from other places that could inform what we do, especially in Africa where data use and management isn’t very enhanced.”

In this intervew recorded at the Data Stewards Network Camp in Cape Town, South Africa, Castro Antwi-Danso, the director of sales and marketing at Esoko shares insights on the opportunities, risks, and best practices of stewarding private-sector data in the public interest. Drawing from his experience helping Esoko to leverage its agricultural data to create positive impacts in rural communities across Africa, Castro reflects on the potential for data collaboration to help minimize duplicative data collection, and the important role of data stewards in establishing and maintaining trust with data subjects and users.
Read the anti-agile manifesto
By: A Product Owner With A Pen
Tags: Product Owner, Agile Manifesto, Software Development, Agile, Productivity

I read lots of books and saw countless speeches where the agile manifesto has been lifted into the heights of sacred texts, where the agile manifesto is considered to be the foundation and cornerstone of a new religion. The manifesto shows us that we were not meant to live in suffering and develop software like animals, and achieving a brighter and better way of software development is possible when you work hard, study hard and believe hard enough.

I also believe in the principles of the manifesto, but I always thought that it does not help too much to solve my actual problems, it’s just mostly (or at least should be) common sense. It sets the goals right but it does not actually help you to understand where are you now and how can you get there. Once I was a bit bored so I picked the agile manifesto and reversed it for fun. When I looked at what have I done with this poor text, I realized that the anti-agile manifesto perfectly describes how most companies and customers in the IT industry still work. Let’s have a look:

We are uncovering better ways of developing

software by doing it and helping others do it.

Through this work we have come to value: Processes and tools over individuals and interactions

Comprehensive documentation over working software

Contract negotiation over customer collaboration

Following a plan over responding to change That is, while there is value in the items on

the right, we value the items on the left more.

Do you recognize your own company or customer? I guess you do. It perfectly describes large companies, where you have to follow the dedicated company processes, use the dedicated tools, where you have to carve everything into stone in order to protect your butt. It describes a company where numbers and deadlines are defined by a contract, and where the planning is based on what’s in the contract and not based on what creates value and what makes sense.

It may seem that I’m angry at large companies and I’m disappointed about how they work. I am. But instead of just complaining my goal is to figure out if there is a way to change this without acquisition, outsourcing, insourcing, creating subsidiaries. Can you make an anti-agile organization into agile organization without total destruction? There are several “experiments” out there, for example the SAFe framework, which will be the subject of many of my future articles.

If you enjoyed reading this article, please support me with a few claps. Thank you!
Why Gen Z Trusts Pornhub More than Other Brands
By: Michael Beausoleil
Tags: Marketing, Generation Z, Branding, Data, Branding Strategy

When it comes to advertising an adult industry, it’s going to take more than just money. Pornhub has the money, and they’ve proven this. In 2014 they purchased prime marketing real estate in New York City’s Time Square. The ad didn't have anything more explicit than a silly pun, but the fact that an adult entertainment site could afford to put up an ad earned the site some attention. Its home on Time Square was quickly replaced by another advertisement, but it demonstrated how Pornhub would have to promote itself. It would need to gather attention, generate buzz, and use controversy to its benefit. While this isn’t a formula success in traditional advertising, it translates well to the digital world; a world inhabited by Gen Z.

Digital marketing is a necessity for most brands, but the brands who engage correctly are the ones who receive praise from Gen Z. Having a sense of humor is critical to Pornhub’s branding. How else could the address their content in public settings? It’s not like they’re able to post X-rated images on social media without getting censored. Rather, they try to connect with potential customers by appealing to other emotions. Whether it’s through humor or shock value, perhaps a mix of both, this type of marketing gets attention.

The efforts to gain attention also requires Pornhub to destigmatize its product. I’m not going to argue over the moral implications of Pornhub’s service, rather I’ll state some facts. There will always be people who reject the site, there will be some people who admit to using the site, but most people who use the site use it in silence. Meanwhile, many people will conjure a mental image of a specific type of person when they think of a Pornhub user. Despite this image, data will support the idea that usership is not limited to specific audiences. Their marketing efforts may appeal to an older audience of a female audience who are stereotypically ignored, but Pornhub knows their efforts are worthwhile.

So, what does Pornhub do when they’re forced to adapt to a new marketing climate? They use their data to paint a picture. This picture reveals many truths about society, and the data isn’t sugarcoated.
Handy Python Snippets To Handle Random Things
By: Craig Godden-Payne
Tags: Software Development, Python

Photo by Raul Cacho Oses on Unsplash

I like to keep a few python scripts handy, this is more of a cheatsheet, to search for a particular thing! Most of these are one liners, so really helpful to add into other scripts! You should be able to run them in the following way:

python -c "{script}"

e.g.

python -c "import uuid; print(uuid.uuid1())"

Generate a UUID

import uuid; print(uuid.uuid1())

Create a Fernet Key
Javier Colon
By: Arin Segal
Tags: Javier, Colon, Music

Giving back and doing the right thing has always been a special part of my life. When given the chance to ask Javier one question in the flurry of events after his win on The Voice I decided to ask what charity projects he is working on. Here is his answer:

Q: I was just wondering if there are any charities that you plan to support now or that you want to support in the future?

A: Absolutely. My mother and father are actually both cancer survivors. So with that we have done a lot of charities in the past. We do some golf tournaments and things like that that support a lot of charities all over the country and some all over the world. And I plan on definitely supporting charities like the Susan G. Komen Foundation as well as Jimmy Lee that is based out of North Carolina that gives millions of dollars to research through their events that they hold every year. As you know, I’m a huge family guy and we might try to do some charities that are also very family based as well.